I received a digital ARC through NetGalley from Oni Press. This middle grade graphic novel follows 11-year-old Willow to an island summer camp known for its tales of mythic creatures and mystery. Is the cook a vampire, is Bigfoot in the woods, and why do those stone garden gnomes look so real? Willow and her new friends think the new camp director is up to no good. After a camper is “sent” home, the kids adventure at night to see what information they can find. This is really cute, easy to read, and fun. The computer generated art is ok. Willow is a deaf character with hearing aids. She is bullied, but Willow stands up for herself and is quite the leader throughout the story.

This was my first ever graphic novel and I really enjoyed it. It was refreshing to read and easy to follow. I e jkpyed the characters and their traits, just a generally really enjoyable read!

Loved the representation of a deaf girl in this graphic novel. Hated the camp leader with a passion. The story was okay, but nothing groundbreaking for me.

The illustration in this book was very well done. The colors, lineart, everything was wonderful. That said, the writing fell short. I enjoyed reading it cursorily and was very interested in the plot but i think the writer over-committed and added more than what they could actually deliver. The dialogue is dull, i couldn't be bothered to care about any character (except maybe Elric and Bigfoot) and the storyworld is never delved into or explained. Everyone just accepts that there are strange things in this world and I get it but it could've been made out to be more of a fun experience. There was a lack of consistency and coherence in this but the art was enjoyable enough for me to finish this. Also, there's this heavy, dense tone to the writing style and then you get random "poopie" jokes? The likable characters don't get enough 'screen-time', the stakes don't really feel high, too much space is given to random scenes that don't affect the central conflict at all.

tldr: loved the art but wouldn't recommend the storytelling, still a good one time read

(arc provided by netgalley in return for an honest review)

I got a e-copy from Netgalley's "Read Now"

Oh wow this comic/GN grabbed my attention right from the cover design itself. I love anything creepy in summer cabin :)

I loved that the story started out very quickly, right from the second page we already have creepy vibes and eccentric town people already building up mystery and suspense. I like that we didn't have to wait for the mystery to start halfway through the story line.

Oh gosh a creepy clown is standing by the viking boat waiting to take children to a creepy island camp ......NOPE NOPE NOOPPY NOPE!! I mean, even Willow's parents started to have doubts it but they still insisted Willow to go on this creepy Camp Whatever. When did adults become so in denial of their own instinct ? Camp Whatever in Nowhere Town...wow just wow

The story follows our main protagonist, Willow. She is a deaf and she is my favorite character so far. I find her personality and character to be totally intriguing. She is very brave, curious and driven in everything she does. I like that she didn't take any bullying from anyone and I find that extremely refreshing to read. She quickly make friends with Violet, Emma and Molly, who also ended up in the same cabin bunk with her. Each of them are unique in their own way.

I really like this island and it's peculiar town and of course their equally mysterious people. I'm not going to review the entire plot as it will totally give away the mystery and plot twists. The story pace was timely and didn't lag around. It was quite straight forward with unexpected discoveries. Once you figure out a creature existence, you'll start wondering just how many people the girls met are truly human. The story concluded with enough questions answer but opens more questions for reader to discover in the next issue.

This is only the first volume and I can't wait to follow up on their next adventure !! Now, I'm starting to wonder about Emma's bite and Willow's new home. Willow's new scar? Is her grandma somehow related to secretive Mr. Farat ? Is anyone else in that island/town people another mystical creature ? This is so riveting!!.

To be honest this camp is wayyyy cool!! I mean, all those creepy elements and weirdos counselor. With the right group of friends this place can be epic summer camp adventure!

The artwork for this comic is phenomenal.
The design may be simple but the artwork itself was very colorful and very appealing to readers.
The dialogue box and comic panels are neatly presented for easy reading flow.
Even though, this comic might side to the creepy and dark elements, the ambiance of this comic is not dark and gloomy, rather the elements used is quite sprightly except when there is a need to empathize enigma!
Character designs, colors and lighting concept used is also very eye catching and could also appeal to non horror/supernatural readers.

I really enjoyed reading this issue and would like to continue to read more.

Thanks to NetGallery for the ARC copy!

Secrets of Camp Whatever follows Willow getting dragged to a camp and making new friends while uncovering mysteries that lie underneath the island....

So, this was a fun romp, it reminded me a lot of Gravity Falls so this would be great for those who love the series!

My favorite part was how Willow had hearing aides but it wasn't a big deal! Woo, representation! The obnoxious camp dude screaming at her instead of talking at a normal volume was too relatable...only part I didn't like was how dismissive her friends were when she said she had to go out into the woods to find her stolen hearing aid batteries. Like, y'all, she can't HEAR ANYTHING without them! It's really really really really important that she gets them back ASAP! I always have a mini panic attack when I can't find my spare battery in a pocket but turns out it's just in a different pocket, can't imagine having friends that would be fine with you not being able to communicate with them for an extended amount of time.

My main issue with this was the obscene amount of exposition. It felt like this story was meant to be an animated mini-series rather than a graphic novel. There wasn't enough...visual exploration with the backgrounds, though the character designs were great and all unique. I feel like the whole "we just moved into town!" bit could've been cut out to include more scenery of the locations.

Best part of the story was definitely the mysterious creatures that Willow and her new friends uncover!

Secrets of Camp Whatever (Volume 1) was such a fun treat to read!

Willow and her family have moved to a new town and she is less than thrilled about having to go away to camp. Even though the camp only runs for a week, you get an action-packed ride filled with supernatural occurrences. The supernatural elements of the book keep you guessing too! You have to figure out what's real and what's just folklore. Can you even believe certain folklore?

The art really brought the story around full circle.

Willow and her new summer camp friends pleasantly reminded me of what it means to be a kid. I can't wait for the next volume.

Solid start to a spooky fantasy middlegrade graphic novel series. Would be perfect to pick up around Halloween, has a good creepy vibe that's not scary, so good for younger/frightened readers.

Willow is new to town, and her parents are forcing her to go to summer camp on this mysterious island that might be more dangerous than she signed up for. They wouldnt really have a summer camp on an island full of vampires, witches and bigfoots would they?? But when the rumors and legends about this island turn out to be more than just a myth, willow and her new group of friends find themselves stuck in the middle of things, trying their hardest to get to the bottom of whats going really on.

This was a very solid start to a series. The story laied ground work for future volumes extremely well. While this installment felt slightly rushed and a little all over the place it worked and was needed in order to progress the story. That being said there were many things going for this story. I very much enjoyed the representation we saw in this story with willow being a deaf main character!! Very well done! The art was beautifully done and perfectly lent to the creepy atmosphere for the island.

Overall I enjoyed my time reading this cute graphic novel and will be interested to see where the next volume goes.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to enjoy this graphic novel as I’m just dipping my toes very lightly into the supernatural world as typically it’s not something I reach for, however, THIS. BOOK. IS. SUCH. A. GEM!!!

We follow Willow— a Deaf/ hard of hearing character as she and her family move to the strange small town of Nowhere. To get Willow more comfortable with the move, and give her the chance to make friends, her parents send her to a week-long summer camp.
Willow quickly makes friends with 3 girls, but something isn’t quite right on the small island on which the summer camp takes place on. With some curious events taking place and her suspicions deepening, Willow begins to uncover the island’s secrets.
—
The twists and secrets uncovered in this adorable and super fun graphic novel are just delicious and so satisfying! The illustration style is very soft and beautifully done. I loved a majority of the characters, especially Willow— I loved that the author chose to have a Deaf/HOH main character. I don’t think disability is represented enough in books, I was very shocked to see it and enjoyed the (from what I could tell) accurate way it was depicted in the story. I loved that Willow seems accepting of who she is as a Deaf/HOH person, while just living her life and having fun with her friends, she seems to be coping well. And the diversity of supernatural characters (although I would love to see a mermaid in the future) was a surprise, I thought there would only be maybe one or two, but there are quite a few different supernatural characters, all unique and fun. I also loved learning about the history of the island, and of course, seeing Willow and her friends be so brave to protect the magical creatures from dangerous people wanting to exploit them, added a heart-pounding action-packed ending.


Overall, I’m delighted to have found such a wonderfully enjoyable book with such a fun storyline and a great cast of characters.
4.5 stars.
I just loved this so much!!
I will be keeping an eye out for the next volume!

**ARC provided by Oni Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this supernatural graphic novel about Willow, a deaf girl, who does not want to go to camp in Nowhere. It reminded me of Weirn Books by Svetlana Chmakova. Very cute and spooky for upper elementary, lower middle school students. Thanks Netgalley for an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. 3.5 stars

I received a copy of this book on netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Secrets of Camp Whatever centers around 11 year old Willow, a deaf, Latinx girl who is being sent to Camp Whatever for the summer against her wishes. Once there however, she finds herself on an island shrouded by mystery and legends.

This was a very fun and enjoyable read! The pace is fast and the twists and turns are engaging, especially for the young audience this is written for. In some parts I found the characters annoying (most likely due to their age) however there were things Willow said or certain things she picked up on that made me laugh. Another character I found quite funny was Toast, in particular a comment he makes about dragons.

While there was disability rep as Willow is hard of hearing, I can't comment on it as I'm not ownvoices, but the fact that it was included at all was a very nice surprise as I rarely see deaf/hoh characters in books.

The art style, while not very detailed, was attractive to me so that massively increased my enjoyment of this book, and added to the spooky atmosphere present in the book as a whole.

There were some points in this comic where I struggled to fully follow the plot which threw me off a bit but didn't impact my enjoyment too much, and I found it quite predictable (some of the 'twists' and 'reveals' were unsurprising) but I expect that that is because it's a middle grade.

Overall I thought that it was a very fun and spooky read, with definite similarities to Gravity Falls. I would recommend this book primarily to younger readers but I believe it can be enjoyed by people of any age, and anyone who is looking for a fun, spooky comic.

This week I’m catching up with some reads from NetGalley and today’s pick is Secrets of Whatever Camp Vol 1 by Chris Grine.

I received an ARC copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The story opens up with Willow, an eleven year-old complaining to her family to spend a summer at a summer camp, her father went to as a young boy. The fun part is her family is also moving to the town, where the camp is located. Soon after Willow arrives to Camp Whatever, she finds herself in the middle of legendary tales about creatures.

The story evolved on its own and was brilliant in every way, I am sure as a reader that some will find something to relate to in this story even though it is filed with magical creatures. It felt extremely realistic with how each character have developed themselves in a few pages, which is hard to achieve in a short amount of time. We learn early on that Willow is in need of hearing aids to hear as part of the deaf community. It might be even the first time I am reading about a deaf character in a children and young audience targeted book.

Perhaps, the talk about being deaf was what I really appreciated due to not being seen in a lot of books. Willow does not like being treated as if she is a special case and just wants to be a normal child living her adventurous summer.

The character choices were very diverse to include a bit of everything and the character development was the bit I enjoyed the most. Willow and her friends Violet, Emma, and Molly show a strong bond regardless of their differences. What bonds them is the strangeness of this seemingly normal camp but the more they search, the weirder it gets.

The Camp director, Mr Tooter, has a lot of stories about “dangerous monsters” but soon they’ll all discover these monsters are not the monsters they think. The illustrations are beautiful and fits this vibrant story and perfect for the readers of adventure stories like Luberjanes. There is a child in all of us wanting to read monsters and adventure stories.

For the most part, I thought it was fun and loved the supernatural element. I thought the graphic was fantastic. The camp is most definitely strange and creepy.
I liked it has a representation of characters from different races and disabilities; deaf, Latinx, and Black.
There were times the dialogue left me confused because I could follow the order.

I really enjoyed this graphic novel, it had everything! Drama, love, friendship, adventure and a bit of a spooky vibe. I also really loved the supernatural part of this book.

Willow, Emma, Molly & Violet are the four characters that we get to follow the most and I seriously love their little friend group. They’re not very much alike personality vise which I enjoyed, it really shows that people doesn’t have to be the same or enjoy the exact same things to be good friend.

I also really liked the fact that the main character Willow or Wil, was hard of hearing. I’ve only read one book before where one of the main characters had hearing loss and I think it’s so important that everyone gets to see themselves in the book they read. More diversity the better. Therefor I found it really great that the author choose to make Wil have hearing loss. She uses a hearing aid and hears with it but also uses sign language.

The art was really great! The colors were beautiful & the characters were pretty diverse which I enjoyed. I also liked the fact that this graphic novel could be read by both an younger audience (even kids?) and adults! Books that work for all ages always got that little special something.

I can’t wait to follow Willow and her friends in the upcoming books!

⭐️ “Secrete of Camp Whatever Vol 1” by Chris Grine get 5/5 stars from me.


ARC sent from NetGalley but my opinions are still my own! Thanks for the awesome review copy 😊

I got this on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!

Okay, so can we talk about how great the deaf rep in this is??? Willow, the main character, is deaf, uses a hearing aid and knows and uses sign language. I love this rep because, as it should be, it isn't about Willow's deafness, but it is instead a red thread throughout the story. Also loved how we see signing in the story, and how several of the other characters either know sign language fluently or just a little bit.

The worldbuilding itself is okay and a little silly, which is perfect for kids. It has just the right level of spooky, while also keeping this graphic novel light and fun! Loved the speculations the gang has about the different people and the island, and hope we get to see more of it later! My only critique is that I wish it held onto moments a bit longer to build the suspense and that we got to see more actual camp activities, but otherwise this was really good!

I can't wait to read more about the gang, and learn more about the city of nowhere!

This book was incredible and I can't wait to re-read it with my daughter.

Eleven-year-old Willow and her family are moving to a new town and while her parents unpack she is off to the local summer camp that is on a private island. This isn't just any summer camp however it has a lot of peculiar rules, a sinister never ending fog and then there is the case of the missing snacks, big foot and vampires. This is going to be a week of summer camp like you have never seen before and it was so much fun.

This graphic novel was wonderful hands down. The graphics are fantastic, the storyline is a super fun, fantastic mystery and I just loved the main character Willow.

SO COOL!
I've never liked gravity falls that much, but if you're a fan or like mysterious summer camps on mysterious islands with a lot of weird creatures and a cool gang of kids, this one's perfect for you!
Totally want to see what's coming in the future in Camp Whatever!

3,8/5
Quality of writing: 4
Plot development: 4
Pace: 4
Characters: 3
Enjoyability: 4
Ease of reading: 4

I love stories that are set in camps. Especially if they have horror or paranormal themes. So Secrets of Camp Whatever Vol. 1 is spot on. Not only is it a fun camp story that's a bit creepy, the main character is disabled and in this household we stan an inclusive story.
The art is cute, the story is fun, the characters are a bit annoying (but then again - I'm not the target audience) and I really want to see where the story will go in the next volume.

I received an eARC copy in exchange for an honest review from Oni Press via NetGalley.

Welcome to the town of Nowhere with its Camp Whatever, where strange things happen, where nothing is what it seems to be, and where mythical creatures live in the dense fog.

Our lovely main character here is Willow and is moving with her family to a big ol' house in Nowhere. She would spend some quality time (or not?) in a nearby summer camp her father used to have fun in, called Whatever. From the moment she arrives in the camp, along with the other kids, strange things start happening - the candies disappear; one of the campers gets sent back home, but he never reaches it; the camp's chef is gone missing too.

Strange things enveloped in fog are taking place with every step Willow makes, as she and her friends decide to investigate the camp and see how real the stories they heard about it and the island are. Determined, brave, and quick-witted, and with a dash of help from Mr Elric and Miss Mim, Willow and her friends manage to find out the truth about this place.

The mythical and mystical creatures, the secluded island where mysteries happen, and all the spooky stories and legends are what I liked the most while reading this graphic novel. And if you are a little bit like me, you will most certainly enjoy reading this volume too!

I would also like to say a few things about the artwork. The illustrations are perfect; I think its style portrays the characters, the plot, and the overall action very well. I loved Molly's face of betrayal and guilt, but also her facial expression when she decided she needs to help her friends.

A Side Note: I am super excited about this "Volume 1" in the title. Waiting for Volume 2 to see what new mysteries and adventures the town of Nowhere has for Willow and her friends!

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Willow and her family are moving back to her father's hometown of Nowhere to live in the family home, that the locals say is haunted. She doesn't get to help renovate, however, because she is off to Camp...Whatever. To get there, campers have to get on a creepy boat manned by new director Mr. Tooter. Willow, who wears hearing aids and who knows sign language but usually can hear well with her devices, doesn't care for Mr. Tooter, who yells at her whenever he speaks. She meets Violet and Emma, who are in her cabin, and they join forces when odd things start happening around the camp. Mrs. Nim, the nurse, has hidden depth, as does Mr. Elric, and he introduces the group to some of the odder inhabitants of the area. Mr. Tooter becomes a problem, but is eventually subdued and improved by Mr. Elric, and Willow is ready to go back to her new town armed with the hidden information about the inhabitants.
Strengths: There are a growing number of creepy fantasy graphic novels, and this is a good addition to ones like Escabasse's Witches of Brooklyn, Siegel's The Sand Warrior, Costa and Parks' Rickety Stitch, Stevenson's Lumberjanes, Steinkeller's The Okay Witch, and Blas and Aguirre's Hotel Dare. This also really reminded me of another graphic novel set in a community nears cliffs where there was a mysterious fog, the title of which I cannot for the life of me remember. (Also had three children on the cover.) Willow's hearing is addressed really well, and I wish there were more characters in middle grade literature shown with realistically depicted hearing loss. I had a cousin who wore a hearing aid much like Cece Bell's in El Deafo when I was growing up.
Weaknesses: My students aren't as fond of the creepy graphic novels as they are of the realistic fiction ones.
What I really think: Just put in my last order of the year, and will keep this one in mind if there is money in the budget for it.