Julie Murphy hits it out of the park again with this necessary book that presents a fun and spooky summer camp with a diverse cast of fat characters that tackle anti-fat bias for middle grade audiences.

I mean. A kids’ fat camp secretly run by vampires who get campers to donate blood by making the bloodmobile the only place with air conditioning, sugary snacks, and screen time? 💯

Does the book also cause one to reflect on how maybe ALL fatphobic health-ist institutions and programs aren’t run by people with their customers’ health—as opposed to their gullets/wallets—in mind? Maybe, if one majored in lit or has been listening to a lot of Maintenance Phase. Otherwise, you’re probably just thinking about these particular vampires. But that’s ok. It’s there. And while the book isn’t a *brilliant* read, the pitch alone would get 4 stars from me.

(Also posted to Goodreads)

Any book with vampires grabs my attention! Plus a spooky camp to boot! What is supposed to be the best summer camp experience of her life, turns upside down when Maggie’s parents decide to send her to fat camp…run by an old friend of her mother’s..but this camp isn’t just any fat camp…there’s evil and nefarious happenings at this camp…Maggie is a great protagonist, fighting for what she believes in and fighting against the expectations of society. The “fat” positivity theme was the best…thank you Julie Murphy! Where was this book when I was 12! I cannot wait for the sequel!

This book was such a cute story and a quick read!! A little cheesy but I loved it! Definitely recommend!! Look forward to reading the 2nd book in the series when it comes out later this year!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book, as this book has already been published, I will not share my review on Netgalley at this time.

This was easily my most anticipated book of the year and Julie Murphy did not disappoint. It's about Maggie, a girl who gets sent to a "wellness" camp, aka fat camp, by her parents, and quickly finds out that there is something very sinister going on. Maggie is a great character, and I think she will be super relatable to younger readers. She doesn't really have problems with her own body, but every so often she has negative thoughts, and these thoughts only get louder when she finds out what her parents are doing. Interestingly, her mother also went to a camp like this and had a good time. At the camps, Maggie makes some great friends at camp, which is one of the best parts of this book. Julie Murphy creates a cast of fun, likable characters, and genuinely sinister villains. The tone is very creepy at times, and the build-up to the big vampire reveal is done well. I do wonder if it's a little too slow for young readers. For much of the first half, the real terror is the way the children at this camp are treated, and the way their bodies are talked about. As an adult reader, I get this, but once again, it might not be as compelling for kids.

I ultimately think this book does a lot well. It's very fun and empowering, and I think young, plus-sized readers will gain so much from it. I'm glad it exists for them. However, I wish that all of the non-vampire adults were actually held accountable. Young readers should know that they don't have to accept any negative comments about their bodies, from anyone, and I wish that this more of a plot point. Usually, Julie Murphy is so good at this, so this was a letdown. Still, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this, and I think its another win from Julie Murphy.

I loved this book! Excellent, plot driven spooky middle grade, with so many interesting and beautiful moments about weight and bodies. I thought the friendships were well developed and realistic. The mystery was well done and kept the pace moving perfectly. Would also recommend this to adults because I think it does a great job of showing grown ups how their negative body talk effects younger generations, especially their kids.

Welcome Back!

Recently in between reads, I noticed that my audiobook hold on Libby for Camp Sylvania had come up. I had just finished a book and decided this would be a great time to give this book a try. It’s a middle-grade spooky book written by Julie Murphy (who I absolutely adore, I have reviews for several of her other works still live here and on Goodreads). So without further ado, let’s jump into Camp Sylvania.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Maggie has waited for a long time but this summer is her summer! Maggie and her best friend are going to go to the same summer camp, the one they have been dreaming about for at least a year now. But when Maggie gets home, her parents have other news for her. They want Maggie to go to a different camp centered on weight loss and go to her dream camp next year. Maggie very very reluctantly but she goes to the other camp. She is not really having any fun but she has made some friends. The camp is a little weird overall with activities such as donating blood. Maggie and her friends think nothing of it at first but what if something much weirder is happening at camp?

I really enjoyed the audiobook for this story. It was a short audiobook (less than 8 hours, I believe) and helped to get me in the spooky mood. As far as the characters go, I loved everyone but Maggie’s mother. I think Maggie’s new camp friends were amazing (and the creepy director was very interesting as well). I can not wait to read whatever else Julie writes (I think I still have one book from her on my backlog currently). In the meantime, let me know in the comments what spooky reads you have picked up so far!

Goodreads Rating: 4 Stars

It was super cute and I've waited too late to send this review, but I did mention it on my TikTok for anyone who is looking for a spooky book to pick up this month. I'll have to make another post about it. It was great.

Equal parts ridiculous and offensive. Maggie Hagen has waited for years to attend a performance camp she finally got into (with her best friend!) only to discover at the last minute that her mother has decided to instead send her to fat camp. Only this fat camp isn't all that it seems...it's secretly run by a once-obese vampire who is obsessed with both helping children achieve thinness and....harvesting the blood of fat children because it is apparently tastier to the undead? Also there's a ghost. Oh, and somehow the vampire is going to use magic to make the parents all forget they have children (so they will leave them to be harvested/die/it isn't clear) and just assumes, I guess, that no one in their community or extended family will ask where their children have gone? I get it's supposed to be wacky fun and the message is ultimately body positive, but it felt both too flip and ridiculous for me to enjoy.

Magnolia “Maggie” Hagen is excited when she hears that she and her best friend will be attending a famous performing arts summer camp. They have waited years to attend and it seems as though nothing can stop them from attending; that is, until Maggie gets home and finds out that her parents are sending her to a fat-camp instead. Maggie spends the rest of her summer finding out the meaning of friendship, self-acceptance, and tries to uncover why so many weird disappearances are happening at the camp.

Camp Sylvania is a fun middle grade book that includes just a tinge of mystery with heartwarming instances sprinkled throughout. In true Julie Murphy fashion, Camp Sylvania covers self-acceptance topics and shows how to talk to family members when they try to make you someone you are not. As much as this book is cute, it is best geared for younger chapter book readers due to the small mystery that older students would figure out right away,

I had a little trouble deciding how to rate this book; couldn't decide between 3 and 4 stars. I finally settled on rounding up to 4 stars, because any (generally minor) issues/flaws I found with the book are far less likely to bother readers in the book's target demographic. There's a good mix of adventure, spooky stuff, body positivity, and friendship that should make Camp Sylvania a good fit for lots of young readers.

Had this been written by almost anyone other than Julie Murphy I would have been apprehensive going into a book set at a fat camp. But I knew that she was not going to do is dirty and she didn't. This book is a fun weird paranormal camp story where all the kids are fat. The kids know they're fat and understand that they don't need to lose weight. The only people who are saying that they do need to lose weight are the adults and they all lose in the end obviously. I don't even consider that a spoiler because of course the mean bad adults do not win.

This was a good book. Such a good book. I ate this book up.

Camp Sylvania follows Maggie Hagen at the start of summer break. Her and her best friend are planning to go to Camp Rising Star, a performing arts summer camp. Sadly, she’s got pretty awful stage fright. She’s determined to be a big star and it all comes crashing down.

Maggie’s mom sends her to fat camp instead. And it’s the same fat camp she went to as a child and is now run by one of the girls who went there years ago.

To say Maggie is devastated? So was I. I was so invested in seeing her and her friend learn to walk a tightrope, they were very excited about it. And the way the author conveys Maggie’s emotions. See, her mom drinks these shakes, nutritional shakes. Meal replacement shakes.

My heart hurt for her and every kid that’s had this happen to them. It even reminded me of that old Disney movie Heavyweights for the way the children felt. I was a skinny kid and I think every kid, especially thin ones, should read this book. I think especially the parents of fat kids should read this book.

Maggie goes to the camp and makes two fast friends. We’ve got some diversity among the campers which I was relieved at. It was also done well. So I don’t have any complaints.

The camp is run by a woman who has a cameraman following her and as they do orientation things start to seem weird. The kids are put on this special all red diet. The kids can’t use the word fat and they’re told the rules to the camp can be modified by the woman in charge and that they are to follow a very specific rule that won’t ever be changed. Oh, and there’s a camp ghost!

The characters had great agency, the mystery of what was going on was fun and even though it’s a middle grade book, I couldn’t put it down. It was well written, well plotted. It didn’t drag at any point. It was just good. And the way Maggie talked about her mom sending her to camp, that hurt and it’ll stick with me.

Maggie’s mom used to be a fat kid. Now she’s thin and Maggie isn’t. And there’s a point where Maggie is thinking to herself about how her mom sees her and that she sees her as the imperfect version of herself and it broke my heart. There were so many moments like this where Maggie was very blunt about the way her mother’s actions made her feel and each one was painful to read. I can only imagine what it’s like to live through something like that.

I highly recommend this book. I’m giving it 5 stars.

I received this eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to them and the publisher.

This was so good! It was just a little on the nose for me. But I absolutely adored the campy (pun intended) feel of this twist on a classic camp slasher movie.

What is worse than being forced to spend your summer at fat camp? Strange rules, staff, oh and the odd student disappearing into the night.

A funny, heartwarming tale about how what you see on a screen isn't always true offline. I enjoyed this quirky read and cannot wait to share it with young readers who are craving a bite of something in the night.

I’m not the biggest fan of spooky middle grade books as they’re not my cup of tea; however, I really enjoyed this one! The story was funny and a unique take on the spooky summer camp trope. I appreciated the discussions on friendship and body positivity too.

I absolutely adored this book! It had such a fun mystery element where Maggie had to save the camp that was being overrun by vampires and solve the mystery of where the missing campers were ending up. I loved the body positivity messaging where it was so subtle and Maggie was so accepting of her body and who she was and that no camp or person could change who she was inside despite what her body was like.

For older millennials, it's Heavyweights but instead of the villain being Tony Perkins, she's a vampire.. which tbh, Tony Perkins may have also been a vampire but we'll never know.

Camp Sylvania is the perfect campy book to read this summer!

Maggie has just finished fifth-grade and is looking forward to going to Camp Rising Star with her best friend after being on the waitlist for years, but her parents throw a wrench in her highly anticipated summer plans by sending her to fat camp. Maggie is devastated, but nothing— not even reading her dad’s underground zombie and vampire novels — can prepare her for what the incredibly weird camp experience has in store for her.

Camp Sylvania, previously known as Camp New Beginnings is run by the famous influencer known as Sylvia Sylvania who is working on a patent for her new diet, the Scarlet Diet. The campers are given mandatory weigh-ins, exhausting workouts under the awful heat of summer, trips to the blood bank for a minimum for four blood donations, and all the food is RED!

Though weird, as Maggie begins making friends and even getting a role in the camp musical, she realized that she’s actually having some fun. That is until campers mysteriously go missing and she finds that out some news that changes everything.

It's got camp, like literally and figuratively. Murphy mixes a little serious with a lot of fun and this one is no different. I picked this one up to start reading it on the last day of classes with kids and that's where the book starts off-- Magnolia's summer time fun which involves going to an awesome camp with her best friend, until she isn't, because her parents think it's best to go to a fat camp because her mom doesn't want Maggie to be like she was-- her mom worked hard to be thin and one of her friends from years ago has opened this camp.

When plans are dashed, Maggie is trying to make the most of it and meets a couple amazing people there, but it's also suspiciously awkward when she meets the woman, her mom's old friend who runs the camp because there are endless snacks and juice for these young kids to donate their blood- often. A reader will know exactly where this is going and it's up to Maggie and crew to take the woman down and take back their voices- for Maggie with her mother too.

A summer camp story with tons of campiness. It's like Lumberjanes in novelization.