This Camp is Doomed: A Dennith Grange Misadventure by Anna Zobel

Title: This Camp is Doomed: A Dennith Grange Misadventure

Author: Anna Zobel

Genre: Mystery

Publisher: Puffin

Published: 29^th August 2023

Format: Paperback

Pages: 320

Price: $16.99

Synopsis: A run-down camp in the woods.

No phone reception.

Ten students with untested powers . . .

Céline is seeing conspiracies everywhere. Fionn has a bad premonition about the colour blue. Mr Berg is horrified at the camp’s questionable safety standards. Something is definitely not right at Camp Buttress.

This hilarious and quirky new novel by Anna Zobel will keep you guessing as the students and their teachers try to solve the mystery – and survive.

~*~

Céline and Fionn are two of ten year seven students off on a camp at a place called Camp Buttress. Céline and Fionn are joined by April, who is non-binary, Halima, Luca, Brandon, Yvette, Charity, Jignesh, and Teddy and their two teachers, Mr Michael Berg, and Ms Magdalena Malatesta. All the students have untested powers, and some are still emerging. The camp is designed for them to get to know each other, and maybe find out what their powers are. With all the fun camps taken, these students are off to the dreary camp where nothing happens – or does it? When they arrive, they are met by Aleesia Klock, who is taking care of the camp in her parents’ absence. Yet the kids, especially Céline and Fionn, feel like there is more going on. Fionn has premonitions and Céline just has an uneasy feeling and determination to solve a mystery. And the teachers, particularly Mr Berg, are horrified with the safety standards.

As odd things keep happening, and a possible ghost starts appearing. The kids start investigating, forming theories about the camp and the Klocks, and working out what is really going on as they look for a ghost and form friendships they thought were unlikely at the beginning of the book.

Céline is the driving force behind the investigation, driven by her favourite fictional character, Clarabella Clutterbuck from her favourite series Big City Witch. But Céline is often alone in her investigations, as not everyone believes her or Fionn. They’re all too busy fighting and wanting to know what their powers are – but when things keep going missing, and a ghost appears in a photo, Céline starts to think they’re dealing with a murder and murderers at Camp Buttress – can she solve the mystery before it’s too late?

This new book from Anna Zobel featuring a diverse cast of characters who live in a world where everyone has a power, and being a Paired Power is rare. The lore in the story indicates that people in the world Dennith Grange is part of all have a power that manifests when they’re about thirteen, which is part of the reasons the students go on the camps – to find out more about these powers and the classes they’ll attend to help control them. It felt like this could be part of a series as the mystery unfolded, and the kids got to know each other. There were a few perspectives in this novel, yet each person had their own symbol that appeared before a paragraph that switched to that perspective. This meant it worked well, and even though it chopped and changed quite often, it was because everyone was, at times, in different places. I liked that we got to know some of the kids and Mr Berg, particularly Céline, Fionn, and Yvette. These central characters drove the narrative, along with April and Halima, and Teddy. It is also has positive representation for race, gender, and disability and allergies – everyone has something unique about themselves that makes them shine in a way that makes them who they are. And everyone accepts the diversity as well.

Everything comes together well in this book, as clues are dropped throughout, and things just go wrong. It has a spooky feel to it, but not too scary. Just enough to have you wanting to know what happens next and who is behind all the odd goings on at Camp Buttress. It combines mystery, magic, and mayhem with friendship and school in a unique way. Instead of the adventure taking place at a school, it takes place on a school camp. We’ve all been to disastrous school camps, and there were things in this that were relatable – the trip, the food that might not be so good, the cabins or tents, and the activities, as well as being forced into a scenario and situation where you’re not sure about the people you are with at first. I think this is going to be a book that younger readers will enjoy, and I hope it finds its audience.