Secrets of Camp Whatever Vol. 1 by Chris Grine

 
Secrets of Camp Whatever Vol. 1 by Chris Grine
My Rating: ★★★★★

I received a copy from Oni Press through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

When Willow’s family moves to Nowhere, her dad insists on dropping her off at his old summer camp. The last thing Willow wants to do is attend camp Whatever, which is plagued with rumors of supernatural creatures on top of being surrounded by an eerie fog. Once Willow arrives, she discovers that camp Whatever isn’t so bad. In fact, she’s determined to get to the bottom of its secrets, especially mysterious supernatural creature that broke in and stole everyone’s snacks along with the batteries to her hearing aids.

This is such a fun graphic novel following Willow and her new group of friends at camp Whatever. I was excited to see Willow as the main character because representation matters, and it’s not often that I see deaf or hard of hearing characters represented in books. Willow goes back and forth between speaking and using sign language, and other characters show interest in learning sign language as they get to know her. Of course, there’s also some prejudiced characters who yell as loud as they can when talking to her and ignore what she has to say. I’m not deaf or hard of hearing myself, but this rings true based on what I know one of my friends often experiences.

I initially thought that Willow was a bit pushy and abrasive, but I grew to love her as the story continued. Once she gets comfortable at the camp, she and her group of new friends really shine. Each of her friends are wonderful on top of the supernatural characters we meet and learn about, which was pretty exciting.

I love how the supernatural world and its risk of being exposed to those who are not friendly is slowly revealed to Willow and company. It reveals a whole new world of interesting and funny characters that I quickly grew to love. I’m really interested in seeing how this aspect continues to expand as well as who they have to go up against to protect everyone in future volumes.