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Dead Weight: Murder at Camp Bloom Paperback – April 24, 2018
Molly Muldoon (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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A hilarious story of a diverse group of young sleuths who ban together to solve a murder mystery while at a weight-loss camp.
Deep in the Oregon wilderness sits Camp Bloom, a weight-loss camp where "overweight" teens can "get in shape." Jesse would rather be anywhere else, but her parents are forcing her to go. Noah isn't sure if he wants to be there, but it's too late to turn back. Tony is heartbroken at the thought of giving up his phone and internet. And Kate... well, she likes the hikes, at least. As far as these four teens are concerned, it's just another boring summer.
Until one night, when Jesse and Noah witness a beloved counselor's murder. The body's gone by the next morning, but a blurry photo leads to one clue—the murderer is one of the camp's staff members!
But which one? As Jesse, Noah, Kate, and Tony investigate, they quickly discover that everyone's got their secrets... and one of them would kill to keep theirs hidden.
- Print length176 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherOni Press
- Publication dateApril 24, 2018
- Reading age13 - 17 years
- Dimensions6 x 0.5 x 9 inches
- ISBN-101620104814
- ISBN-13978-1620104811
- Lexile measureGN380L
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About the Author
Matthew Seely is an animator, illustrator, and comic artist from Portland, Oregon. He’s worked with ShadowMachine as Segment Director on Dancing in the Dark for season two of MTV's Greatest Party Story Ever, and has created multiple independent animated shorts. He’s also written, drawn and self-published comics including Robo-Boy vs. Boybot and Oswald the Orange. In his free time, Seely enjoys playing music, listening to podcasts, and eating peanut butter and banana sandwiches.
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Product details
- Publisher : Oni Press (April 24, 2018)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 176 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1620104814
- ISBN-13 : 978-1620104811
- Reading age : 13 - 17 years
- Lexile measure : GN380L
- Item Weight : 12.8 ounces
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.5 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,427,070 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Molly Muldoon is a former scholar and bookseller, current librarian and writer, and always demisexual fan fiction enthusiast. Her works include The Cardboard Kingdom, Dead Weight: Murder at Camp Bloom, and the forthcoming A Quick and Easy Guide to Asexuality. Although she’s spent the past ten years globetrotting, she currently lives in Portland, Oregon, with her ridiculous cat, Jamie McKitten.
Follow her on Twitter at @passingfair.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2019
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I'm so grateful for when I come across a mystery that actually requires me to think and wonder instead of being painfully obvious. But more than that, it had great heart and wit. I felt empathy for most of the characters and laughed out loud several times.
It's not a novel, so don't expect characters to be filled out with tons of backstory. But it definitely gave me enough nuggets to be satisfied!
SO GOOD.
The main appeal here is that the emphasis is on the forming of a friendship among four new campers who have to, (and want to), work together to solve a murder they witnessed at their fat camp. They just are who they are and none of that figures in the plot or even much as a matter of background. The four kids have distinct personalities, and they have to make an effort to mesh to form a functioning team, but none of the kids are used as symbols or signifiers for any particular agenda. They are just a mixed bag of regular kids.
So, as it should be, the question becomes - are these kids worth following and is the mystery decent? I thought the answers to both questions are "yes". The setup is that the kids are at a summer fat camp. There are about a hundred campers and about nine staff members. Our four future heroes don't really know each other until circumstances force them together. Two of the kids happen to witness a murder in the camp woods. They get some grainy phone camera photos. The next day a counselor is missing, but there's no body and no one suspects anything is out of place. The two kids turn to a third kid who's sort of techy geek to check out the photos and a fourth kid who is woodsy enough to try to find clues at the forest crime scene. There's our team. For various reasons each wants to solve the crime and so they start to work together. The rest is clue following, lurking, spying, and investigating. There's a socko and satisfying action finish that wraps everything up.
The bottom line is that all four kids ended up being engaging, and each took a step closer to finding his or her hero within. The mystery was fair enough for this sort of book, with decent suspects, motives, and clues. The drawings were crisp, if a bit on the cartoony side, and well colored and rendered. Of importance to me, it was always clear which character was which, and the drawings were expressive and crisp so the action was always clear. I thought this was a fine and entertaining middle grade mystery with good pacing and energy and a gungho sort of vibe. A nice find.
(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)
Four teenagers are dropped off at Camp Bloom, a weight-loss camp, and are hesitant for different reasons. One kid is torn up about being separated from technology while another is irritated that her family is sending her there to lose weight. It's just another boring summer when Jesse, one of the teenagers, sneaks off to eat candy and play games on her phone. She's followed by one of her peers because she dropped something and they both witness the murder of everyone's favorite counselor. Thanks to some blurry pictures taken on Jesse's phone, they learn that the killer is a member of the staff. With no adults to trust, they enlist two of their peers and begin to look for clues together.
This is such a fun murder mystery set at a weight loss camp. I wasn't sure what to expect when I read the synopsis and saw that the setting was a weight loss camp, but it was handled really well. The counselors seem supportive. One of the staff members is running a side business selling junk food. The campers are encourage to share their thoughts and such as well as join activities. It was realistic to see a character who wasn't overweight but was there because they viewed themselves as such and see the others reactions. I loved seeing the four main characters bond and become friends as they worked to solve the mystery.
It's such a heartwarming graphic novel that I wish it was around when I was a teenager. It's good to have stories like this around, especially for kids who can relate to the characters and need to see positive messages like this. It's fun, positive, and shows a variety of characters and how there's always something beyond the surface. I also love the art style, and I enjoyed seeing the concept art and how the panels were brought to life at the end. I look forward to check more work out like this in the future.