Charlie is going to summer camp- one run by a religious group. She’s uncomfortable right from the start, being the only person of color in the entire group, and also non-binary – or something. It was never clear what. Her given name was Charlotte but now using the name Charlie, and wearing decidedly non-feminine clothing, so I assumed Charlie was trans- but much later in the story we find out another character is trans (has a very straightforward, aggressive attitude but likes wearing skirts) and assumed Charlie was too- who affirms that no, she’s not– but doesn’t clarify what she is. Oh well. I suppose the point is that it doesn’t really matter how a person identifies, if they don’t want to talk about it, and that nobody fits into assumed stereotypes- but I was kind of annoyed that this conversation between the two characters was a big opening for them to discuss how they felt about things, and they avoided it entirely.
Well, Charlie feels discomfited mostly because a lot of the religious language keeps emphasizing how whiteness is equaled with purity, and it gets under her skin. She kind of seethes about it for most of the book, then finally brings it up to one of the leaders, who makes a point of being more careful with their language from then on. Most of it is about the kids taking a very long hike to the top of a peak where there’s some special place and ceremony to celebrate them all being women. There’s stories told around the campfire about how some women who were ancestors of those leading the hike, felt oppressed by their husbands and men in the community, and took themselves off on a women’s retreat into the mountains for several days, leaving the men a) worried about their safety and b) upset at having to do all the housework themselves. Ha. So a lot of it is about the hiking, with pages and pages of just scenery around the trail- I rather liked that. It reminded me of how a hike can seem to just go on forever! About the different jobs the girls had to do around camp, and how Charlie and her friend did or didn’t get along with the others, and did or didn’t comply with their assigned chores (turns out the friend is something of a pyro), and speculating the whole time what’s the secret ceremony at the end of the hike.
But when they finally got there- the story stopped. It didn’t show the ceremony! They went swimming in a lake (though some characters sat it out) and heard another story about the ancestral women around a campfire- and that’s about it. Getting to the lake part, I kept thinking: there’s not enough pages left for this book to wrap it all up. And then I felt really let down. All that talk about what was this secret and what would it be like and would Charlie and her friend disrupt it all – or end up appreciating it- and then the reader gets no explanation or closure at all. Ugh. Well, apparently there’s a sequel. I had no idea until I looked for other reviews.
Borrowed from the public library. Completed on 5/13.
