Rating: 4 stars
CBR13 Bingo: The Wilds
Official book description:
FRIENDSHIP TO THE MAX!
At Miss Qiunzilla Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s camp for hard-core lady-types, things are not what they seem. Three-eyed foxes. Secret caves. Anagrams. Luckily, Jo, April, Mal, Molly, and Ripley are five rad, butt-kicking best pals determined to have an awesome summer together… And they’re not gonna let a magical quest or an array of supernatural critters get in their way! The mystery keeps getting bigger, and it all begins here.
I’m not outdoorsy in the slightest. Like even a little bit. I pretty much resent having to go outside into the woods, which makes me a very atypical Norwegian. So I was never in any form of Scouts. I know my husband was in the Scouts growing up in the north of England and it sounds like there was a lot of hiking and sleeping outdoors in all sorts of horrible conditions, not to mention extremely ruthless games of Capture the Flag where people may or may not have gotten limbs broken. So I can’t really relate to the five hard-core young lady types that we meet in this book, because spending a summer at a camp in the woods sounds like some sort of special hell for me.
Nevertheless, this book, which has been on my TBR list since at least 2016 and on my physical bookshelf since mid-2018 was a wonderful portrayal of why some types of outdoorsy adventuresome persuasion (as well as the Lumberjanes, there's a camp of suspiciously friendly guys who may or may not be possessed by something) might enjoy camp life. Each issue is introduced by an excerpt from the Lumberjanes Field Guide, explaining the skills that they are meant to achieve, all at least tangentially relevant to the adventure they go on in the issue.
I wish there were more than four issues collected in this first trade. Thankfully, I have the next two in my collection and can get more volumes at my local library. It's taken me a very long time to start this comic, but I'm looking forward to reading more and getting to know the five young protagonists better.
Judging a Book by its Cover: The cover image is done by Noelle Stevenson herself, and at the back of the trade, there are a number of variant covers that were also really interesting. I like Stevenson's art and the slightly off-beat looks of all the various Lumberjanes.
Crossposted on Cannonball Read.
