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Summary
Summary
Shaun of the Dead meets Dumplin' in this bitingly funny YA thriller about a kickass group of teens battling a ravenous group of zombies.
In the next few hours, one of three things will happen.
1--We'll be rescued (unlikely)
2--We'll freeze to death (maybe)
3--We'll be eaten by thin and athletic zombies (odds- excellent)
Vivian Ellenshaw is fat, but she knows she doesn't need to lose weight, so she's none too happy to find herself forced into a weight-loss camp's van with her ex-best friend, Allie, a meathead jock who can barely drive, and the camp owner's snobby son. And when they arrive at Camp Featherlite at the start of the worst blizzard in the history of Flagstaff, Arizona, it's clear that something isn't right.
Vee barely has a chance to meet the other members of her pod, all who seem as unhappy to be at Featherlite as she does, when a camper goes missing down by the lake. Then she spots something horrifying outside in the snow. Something...that isn't human. Plus, the camp's supposed "miracle cure" for obesity just seems fishy, and Vee and her fellow campers know they don't need to be cured. Of anything.
Even worse, it's not long before Camp Featherlite's luxurious bungalows are totally overrun with zombies. What starts out as a mission to unravel the camp's secrets turns into a desperate fight for survival--and not all of the Featherlite campers will make it out alive.
A satirical blend of horror, body positivity, and humor, Kelly deVos's witty, biting novel proves that everyone deserves to feel validated, and taking down the evil enterprise determined to dehumanize you is a good place to start.
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 8 Up--When six teens arrive at Camp Featherlite, touted as a fat camp where campers lose weight unusually quickly, in the middle of a fierce Arizona blizzard, they know right away that something isn't right. Allison, who wants to be an actress like her famous--and thin--sister, is quick to assign everyone a horror movie type. Vivian, "the action girl," knows that she doesn't need to lose weight, yet her mother sent her off to fat camp anyway. Paul's ("the jerk") father runs the pharmaceutical company behind the camp and is there to get an inside look. Sheldon ("the nerd") is trying to prove he has real-life skills, and Rachel ("the outcast") just needs time away from home to think. Allison calls herself "the basket case," and pod facilitator Steve is "the jock." The six teens soon find themselves in the midst of a zombie apocalypse and may be humanity's only hope of exposing the camp's secrets--if they can survive the thin zombies trying to eat them. This book successfully combines a zombie story with humor and social commentary on fatphobia without feeling didactic. Chapters alternate from each main character's point of view, giving it a cinematic feel. VERDICT A perfect blend of government conspiracies, relatable characters who develop beyond their initial stereotypes, and zombie-kicking action, this is recommended for all YA collections.--Marissa Lieberman, East Orange P.L., NJ
Publisher's Weekly Review
After high school junior and soccer captain Vivian Ellenshaw's mother marries the teen's fatphobic soccer coach, Vivian gets packed off to Camp Featherlite in Arizona--"the world's fanciest fat camp." Boarding the camp van, Vivian encounters the driver, a jock named Steve who disagrees with the camp's ethos but needs the job; preppy Paul, the director's son, who has his own reasons for attending; and finds that she'll also be trapped at camp with her ex--best friend Allison. When a raging blizzard overtakes the van, the group encounters strange gray shapes and soon plunges into two nightmarish truths: they can't trust the camp directors, whose " 'miracle cure' for obesity" sets off warning bells, and zombies have overrun Featherlite. Tonal similarities between the four first-person voices, as well as the rapidly shifting perspectives, make it difficult to distinguish between speakers. DeVos (Fat Girl on a Plane) nevertheless moves the plot forward at breakneck speed, twining strong currents of body affirmation, satirical humor, and horror movie mainstays throughout as the protagonists fight back against corporate fatphobia. Ages 12--up. Agent: Alice Sutherland-Hawes, Madeleine Milburn Ltd. (June)
Kirkus Review
Shaun of the Dead meets The Breakfast Club in this teen horror/comedy. Soccer star Vivian Ellenshaw likes herself just as she is--too bad her coach, who is also her stepfather and who loves reminding her of calorie counts, doesn't feel the same. When Vivian begrudgingly boards the van to spend her Christmas break at Camp Featherlite for Overweight Teens, she's faced with her ex--best friend Allie DuMonde, who's hoping to rise above the stigma she feels from living in a trailer park by secretly making a movie exposing Featherlite. Things get progressively worse as college jock and farmers' son Steve Miller proves to be a less-than-skilled van driver (too bad Vivian finds him so cute), and the girls are joined by Paul Fannon, obnoxious son of a CEO; computer geek Sheldon Smentkowski; and Rachel Benedict, a sweet Christian who's hiding a major secret. Amid a catastrophic snowstorm that is completely unexpected for Flagstaff, Arizona, it's clear that Featherlite's new-and-improved nutrition bars are changing their fellow campers into skinny, hungry zombies. Soon it's the six narrators against the world. DeVos spends a bit too much time inside the heads of her various narrators but gives Vivian and Allie a lot of heart and successfully debunks several obesity epidemic myths. All main characters are assumed White, but there is heroic fat representation throughout. A fun romp with edge-of-your-seat twists and turns. (Fiction. 12-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Vivian Ellenshaw is popular, beautiful, and athletic. She's also fat, but while that's something that seems to bother her soccer coach--who's also, ugh, her new stepfather--it hasn't affected her health, stopped her from being elected soccer captain, or kept her from being the life of every party, and Vivian has no intention of trying to lose weight. So she's pretty pissed when she finds out that her stepfather's sending her off to Camp Featherlite in Flagstaff, Arizona---a weight-loss camp--for winter break. Making matters worse is the fact that she's headed there with Allie, her ex-best-friend and a wannabe filmmaker, who actually does seem interested in the "miracle fix" that Camp Featherlite is peddling. But their drive to Flagstaff is almost derailed by a freak blizzard, and it turns out to only be the start of the weird: the camp is quickly becoming overrun by thin, fast, hungry zombies, and Vivian, Allie, and four other teenagers may be the only survivors. If they don't figure out a way to escape the elements and the monsters and find help, they won't be survivors for long. The author of Fat Girl on a Plane (2018), deVos superbly blends humor and horror in this sharp-witted, high-stakes adventure that unpicks genre conventions and wades fearlessly into the dialogue surrounding fatphobia. A gory, no-holds-barred zombie story that manages to both celebrate and terrify.
