Camp Utopia and the Forgiveness Diet by Jenny Ruden

Pages: 300
Intended Audience: Mature Teens
Genre: Real life
Notes for Parents: Some coarse language, drug use, underage drinking, and other mature subject matter.
 
The Back Cover
Sixteen-year-old Baltimore teen Bethany Stern knows the only way out of spending her summer at Camp Utopia, a fat camp in Northern California, is weight-loss. Desperate, she tries The Forgiveness Diet, the latest fad whose infomercial promises that all she has to do is forgive her deadbeat dad, her scandalous sister, and the teenage magician next door and (unrequited) love of her life. But when the diet fails and her camp nemesis delivers the ultimate blow, Bee bids sayonara to Camp-not-Utopian-at-all to begin what she believes will be her “real” summer adventure, only to learn that running away isn’t as easy—or as healing—as it seems.

What the cover doesn’t tell you:

This is the author’s first novel.

What’s good?

Short chapters and great characters made this a fast and funny read. Bethany’s self-deprecating humor, her dad’s insightful emails, and Gabe’s beautiful optimism are few of my favorite things about this story of a girl who “finds herself” at fat camp. The author addresses emotional eating with honesty and wit, and gets to the heart of the matter without skipping the hard parts.
Best Part: Bethany’s dad.

What isn’t good?

I didn’t like the amount of cruelty Bethany is faced with at the beginning of the story, especially since the wrongness of it is never really addressed. The initial premise of Camp Utopia is pretty ridiculous, especially the public weigh-ins and calling campers by their city name. There’s some awkward dialogue and a few unlikely scenarios, but nothing that seriously ruins the story.
Worst part: The beach party was weird.

Recommendation þþþoo

I struggled deciding whether I should give this three or four checkmarks. I really enjoyed most of the characters, and I loved the end, but the middle part of the books dragged enough that I could only muster three checks. However, this was a fun book to read, insightful and charming. Definitely recommended.

Ruden, Jenny. Camp Utopia and the Forgiveness Diet. Virginia Beach, VA: Koehler Books, 2014.