This was a tough read, but absolutely an important one. The author alternates between more journalistic chapters and deeply personal ones to paint a picture of a deeply troubled organization. He recounts his own experience of being sexually abused at Scout camp, and shares the ways that trauma continues to affect his life decades later. He also delves deep into scouting history and interviews other survivors to expand the story beyond his personal experience. I was completely gripped by this book and I highly recommend it.

A powerful book about the author’s personal experiences in 1995 at the Seven Ranges Boy Scout Reservation in rural Ohio where he was a counselor. In 1995, the author’s summer, the matter involved both rape and death. Renner shows us life for young people his age in 1995. Their life should have been fun and carefree. While working at a summer camp, the camp's infrastructure contained rituals that normalized improper views of sexual activity. All this is traced back to the founding of the Boy Scouts.

From the very first page to the last page it was a roller coaster of emotions. Sometimes all those feeling of anger, sadness, sorrow and compassion. The Boy Scouts is a society which is suppose to bring pride to young men but in actuality it has brought confusion, fear, and made some feel ashamed. This summer had come to shape the lives of so many boys. Finally, Renner could no longer hold in his story and how a trustworthy society as the Boy Scouts hides some of our worst fears for our children.

-NetGallery

I have been trying to process my feelings about this book for a couple of weeks. I approached this read very cautiously as both a mother and a long time scout leader. Knowing some of Renner's other works, and being aware of many of the details of the controversy leading to the bankruptcy of Scouts BSA, I was nearly terrified for what I may read.

Immediately I transported back to BSA Summer Camps as Renner describes his experiences at Seven Ranges as a camper and staff member. Was this book about creepy pedos? Sure. But it was also about systematic failure and grief and PTSD. But mostly, it is an example of how traumatic incidents can lead to lifetimes of questions and self-sabotage and one man's journey to reconcile the events that he witnessed and experienced. Renner speaks candidly about the summer of '95 and conducts raw interviews with other staffers from that summer.

This book was an enjoyable quick read, filled with nostalgia, true crime, organizational history of the Boy Scouts/Scouts BSA/Scouting America and it's founder, and how legislation effects some of the survivors.

Thank you #NetGalley for the ARC.

James Renner’s Scout Camp defies expectations, delivering a memoir that unfolds with the intensity of a psychological thriller. From the first page, Renner’s masterful storytelling grips the reader, weaving suspense and intrigue into his personal narrative. The pacing is sharp, making for an unexpectedly quick and compelling read. Rather than a conventional memoir, Scout Camp feels like a mystery unraveling in real time, keeping readers on edge until the very last page. Fans of true crime and thrillers will find this book particularly captivating. Renner has crafted a unique and immersive reading experience that lingers long after the final chapter.

I'm a member of the 1st Gilwell Park Scout Group (aka I completed my scout/guide leader training) and this read was heartbreaking.
A memory trip and a memoir about what can happen.
Heartbreaking and thought provoking
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Thank you James Renner ( @manfromprimroselane ), Kensington Publishing( @kensingtonbooks ), and NetGalley ( @netgalley ) for allowing me to read Scout Camp (out now).

First let me say that I did not read the description to this book, I went in blind. And for me, that was a good thing. I had heard there was abuse that had been reported in the Boy Scouts, but hadn’t really, honestly, paid a lot of attention to how much. And now I know, and am heartbroken for those boys, including the author.

This is James Renner’s personal account of abuse at Boy Scout Camp, physical abuse the hand of his stepmother, and the death of a counselor that led him to leave Scouts and confront his past to have a future.

#ScoutCamp #NetGalley#JamesRenner #KensingtonPublishing

I read this due to interest in the Boy Scouts as an organization, having been a long time Girl Scouts member and volunteer. Holy hell, I knew the Boy Scouts were different, but I did not realize the negligence and corruption pervasive in the organization. The stories of the summer of 1995 at Seven Ranges were even more horrific to me, as I compared my experiences that summer at a (thankfully safe) Girl Scout camp in the midwest. A compelling read.

This book is a hard one to review. I have a lot of sympathy for what James Renner went through at his Scout Camp, and I think this must have been a very painful book to write. I found it to be a compelling read, and I think he’s trying to raise some awareness about some real issues. However, I felt like the author was almost trying to do too much with this book. He is trying to write an expose about abuse in the Boy Scouts, which involves disclosing his own experiences, while also trying to explore his trauma and treat it with psychedelics, which he explores in great detail. I think if the scope of the book had been narrower, it would have worked better. With that being said, it is still a fascinating and tragic book, and I learned a lot from it

This was a riveting account and also a cautionary tale about Boy Scout summer camps!! Thanks for the ARC.

James Renner’s book about the Boy Scouts is an eye-opening and deeply unsettling read. He exposes the institution’s history of homophobia and abuse, sharing both his own experiences and those of countless other boys. What they endured is heartbreaking, and it’s infuriating to see how long these issues were ignored. I hope the organization truly reckons with its past and moves forward in a meaningful way. This was a tough but important read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing/Citadel for gifting me a digital ARC of the latest true crime story by James Renner, this time, one that is deeply personal. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 5 stars!

In the summer of 1995, James Renner was a youth counselor at the largest Boy Scout camp in Ohio. One night there, sexual violence ended with one counselor dead and another hospitalized. What exactly happened at that camp?

This book hit home for me, because my boys were also part of the Great Trails Council and just a couple years behind Renner's experiences with the Boy Scouts, although mine quit the organization before getting involved with the summer camps. In fact, my grandkids (boy and girl) are now part of the Scouts organization. I would have been appalled to know that these secret societies were happening at camp, encouraged by adults who should have had no dealings with young men. This book is brutally honest as Renner explores how his violent upbringing and his camp experiences left scars on his soul, leaving him to battle his demons to this day. I've been a fan of Renner's books, but appreciated his honesty and openness in sharing his personal experiences.

Boy Scouts or scouting boys…..

For parents, the local Boy Scout troop is a safe place to send the kids. For child molesters, it’s an ideal place to meet them.

Boy Scouts of America now known as Scouting America is the largest scouting organisation and one of the largest youth organisations in the United States, with over 1 million youth, including 176,000 female participants.

Founded in 1910, about 130 million Americans have participated in its programs, which are served by 477,000 adult volunteers.

Scout Camp by James Renner gives the reader a glimpse behind the scenes of his 1995 summer scout camp, where he spent eight weeks as one of the staff. A story of brotherhood, friendship, sexual assault, death, the inner workings of a secret society and the aftermath.

I really enjoyed James Renner’s writing style. I liked the layout of the book, each chapter telling the story from then and now. How moments in his life affected his mental health as an adult. At times he did go a little off at a tangent, but overall I enjoyed this book.

I'm appalled at what actually went on within the boy scouts of America. It must have taken an incredible amount of courage for the author to come forward with his story. I hope he has found happiness and peace. I also didn't realize that there were 82,000 people that have been harmed by the bsa. Those victims deserve every red cent the bsa has.
Thank you to netgalley for the copy of this book. Opinions are my own.

When I requested this book on NetGalley I wasn’t really sure if I honestly wanted to read it. I was a scout in my teenage years and have nothing bad to say about the institution/group/society. I have the fondest of memories and I met one of my best friends through it, but unfortunately this hasn’t been the case for many.
The abuses in Boy Scouts of America have been compared to the abuses in the Catholic Church, with a shocking 82,000 scouts filing abuse claims against Boy Scouts of America. “For parents, the local Boy Scout troop is a safe place to send the kids. For child molesters it’s an ideal place to meet them”. It brought a whole new meaning to the Scout’s Testament - Scouting for Boys. In Feb 2020, they filed bankruptcy in order to save themselves. This book, is one survivors story of his recollections of what happened in the summer of 1995 in Seven Ranges Scout Camp, Ohio, in the hope that all survivors do come forward, know they’re not alone and get the help they need.

⛔️This book is a trigger warning upon trigger warning. So please don’t read if it will. Triggers include child abuse; physical, sexual. Alcohol abuse, suicide ideation, death by suicide etc. Unfortunately I’ve read too much about the Catholic Church so I wasn’t shocked. Before reading this I would have never likened the two institutions so much to each other and definitely not for this.

I want to thank James Renner, NetGalley and Citadel Press for this early release copy. It’s out on 25th February.

𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐂𝐚𝐦𝐩 𝐛𝐲 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰

A powerful, sobering work.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐/5 stars

Scout Camp is a true crime memoir that reveals the crimes pervading the Boys Scouts of America from the incredibly personal lens of Renner’s own experiences as a scout and counselor.
Renner’s work hit me hard.

As a victim of SA myself, I find a kind of comfort in the telling or writing of these situations but that makes it an even harder read. When I was younger, I was told to “not give power” to such things, to not think about past abuse, and to pretend it never happened…but writing and processing it brings these things to light. Doing so might not give you the answers to why or how something happened, but here? In this work? Renner has expertly woven the explosive disaster that is the American Boy Scouts with his own traumas in the group. This is a poignantly painful and important story. It is at once a warning but also a reminder. Don’t let these stories disappear in the dark of a campfire lit night. They need to be recognized to help the victims affected by these events and to hopefully bring light to these crimes and in a perfect world, stop them from ever happening again.

Renner, I hope you don’t get those “angry Google reviews who didn’t know what to expect” and that many other readers can either glean the history of this event from your pages or find some level of solidarity in your own raw journey of processing, exposing, and rediscovering what happened in the summer of 1995.

Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC copy of Scout Camp. This is my honest review.

Scout Camp by James Renner is a powerful memoir and crime narrative due to be published on February 25, 2025.

This book details the author's life in the context of his participation with the Boy Scouts. The experiences described in here were very brutal and harrowing, making it very difficult to read at times, but it is also a story that is important because it is a first hand account. The author is a true crime writer so he is well-equipped to write a compelling narrative. However, the courage and vulnerability it took to write this book cannot be overstated.

This is a very important book and trigger warnings should definitely be heeded. The depth and scale of the brutality that was described is almost hard to believe, but I'm glad that I was able to read this.

Thank you to Kensington Publishing via NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book. All opinions are my own.

Great deep dive into a world I have only been exposed to through all the media attention. So much more and better information into the secrets than what the news had ever portrayed. Many Thanks to James Renner for allowing me the opportunity to read this ARC!!

Scout Camp is about the author's personal experince in 1995 at the Seven Ranges Boy Scout Reservation and also about the dark side of an American institution. This had me captivated from the beginning and was a page turner until the end. This was such an eye opener of a book. The author did a great job writing this one. I was glad to learn the truth about this organization. This book is one that any true crime fans should read. I highly enjoyed it and would recommend to any reader who likes true crime or memoirs. Thank you to Kensington Publishing for the book and thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing/Citadel for the ebook in exchange of my honest review of Scout Camp by James Renner.

I had read of things happening within the Boy Scouts of America, but wow. This was eye opening.
Who better to tell one of the stories than James Renner, already a great true crime author? Except this time it is his story…literally. Mr. Renner was at camp in 1995 in when he experienced first hand what was happening in this organization. It’s also a deeper dive into the author’s subsequent addiction and recovery.
Well done, and heartbreaking.

A powerful indictment of the corruption of one of America's most wholesome-seeming institutions. Renner bravely shares his trauma while giving a detailed history of the Scouting organization, laying the groundwork for how it got to the damaged state it currently holds.