Review

Juliette feels like she’s not seen: not by her workaholic doctor parents, not by her competitive wunderkind siblings, and definitely not by her school friends who are more focused on their mutual friend, dazzling Instagram influencer Priya Pendley. Gorgeous, impeccable, talented Priya and prickly, intense Juliette are rivals & frenemies: they avoid each other, but they’re respectful about it.

The place Juliette feels seen, and the place she can’t wait to get back to, is summer camp. She’s been going to Camp Fogridge since she was little, and this year is her last year. It’s the one place that she feels valued for herself; everywhere else she feels too intense, too much. At camp she knows everyone and everything: all the inside jokes, all the counsellors, all the traditions. And this year she’s been selected as ‘North Star’, meaning she gets a special treehouse cabin to share with just one other camper, a newbie for her to mentor.

Unfortunately, this year, her special last year, that newbie is… Priya, whose mother was convinced by Juliette’s hastily improvised spin about how camp was great because wilderness skills would give her an edge for her college applications.

Her safe place is going wrong, invaded by Priya-ness. Her friends like her. Priya’s better at all the wilderness skills. Juliette has a new camp counsellor who’s a real hard-arse. All her final year camp experiences are threatened. Or… are they? Juliette begins to peek behind Priya’s Insta-perfect veil and begins to see her strengths and vulnerabilities for what they really are. And she begins to realise her own strengths and value as well.

*

This was a fun read: lots of wit and verve in the narration, the dialogue is a delight and I also found Juliette’s situation very poignant and relatable. When you have one thing in your life that you love and that’s special to you, the last thing you want is that specialness to be spoilt. Baldwin has a great chameleon analogy that Juliette writes in a letter (Chapter 11, if you want to check it out), which really explains the difference between invisibility and being seen. While this is a romance, I’d say there’s more emphasis on Juliette’s coming of age and search for identity… although the romance is part of that.

It’s also interesting as an Australian non-camping person to get a window into a US summer camp experience. I can see why Juliette loves it; I loved reading about it, but please never send me to one of them. 24/7 high energy, high volume hijinks and outdoorsy stuff with no aircon? Not for me. (To be fair, there is also theatre kid stuff and a well respected music program.)

Witty & energetic coming of age fun.

Age: 12+

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YA depictions of: Instagram influencer lifestyle, inc. consumerism; absent parents; terminal illness and voluntary euthanasia (backstory); mild, non-serious injury; mildly low self-esteem; one passionate kissing scene; wlw romance; warm & supportive platonic friendships; main characters are racially diverse: Filipino-American & Indian-American (author is Filipino-American). One (I think) f-word; a few s-words.

*

Baldwin, E. (2024). Wish you weren’t here. Viking.

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