Camp Utopia And The Forgiveness Diet

Camp Utopia And The Forgiveness Diet by Jenny Ruden

About The Book:

Sixteen year old Bethany Mitzi Stern knows infomercials are for suckers. They’re nothing but empty promises - and if Bethany has had her fill of anything, it’s definitely promises. Yet there’s something about The Forgiveness Diet infomercial that holds her like a spell: that magnetic voice and its rapid weight loss guarantee. Or maybe (let’s be honest) it’s TJ, the teenaged magician next door, that is for-never revealing his feelings. Maybe it’s him leaning in close, close enough to kiss, and saying, Hey, Bethany. Why not give that diet a shot? No time like the present either. After all, Bethany is scheduled to leave for Utopia, an exclusive California Fat Camp, the next day. If she ever needed to call in a miracle, then now is the time. Only days later, the diet’s promise remains to be seen. Sure, Bethany’s not exactly adhering to all of Utopia’s draconian calorie-counting, but who cares. She forgave everyone first. Doesn’t that count for something? At her second Utopian public weigh-in, when Bethany actually gains weight, it’s clear the diet, like everything else before it, has failed her. Fed up with the whole enterprise, Bethany and her Fat Camp roommate flee Utopia. For seventy-two hours they hide in the university’s library, party at a midnight kegger, and, most importantly, eat whatever they want. Meanwhile Bethany tries to claw her desperate way back to Baltimore, to beloved TJ, convinced he’s the one true thing in a world she’s now discovered is bloated with phony claims and busted promises Yet as authorities close in, threatening to bust up their Odyssean journey, the corpulent duo run smack into something unexpected. Could it be that friendship, adventure and true love were here whole time? Is it possible that Utopia wasn’t the place she’d imagined - that nothing is.

My Thoughts:

This is the perfect summer read for young adults! It gives you all you are craving for - friendship, romance, adventure, and self-discovery! A great coming of age story as well!

About The Author:

Jenny Ruden has published short stories and essays in Nerve, Salon, Eclectica Magazine, Literary Mama, and High Desert Journal. She won an Orlando award for creative nonfiction, was named a finalist in Glimmertrain’s short fiction contest, and has been nominated for the Pushcart prize two years in a row. She has an MFA in Fiction from the University of Oregon and has worked with teenagers for many years as a teacher of Reading, Writing, and GED. She lives with her husband, two daughters, two basset hounds and a cat in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

You can buy this book at Camp Utopia on Amazon.com.