As a former military spouse, I am always intrigued by stories that center these unique experiences rather than focusing solely on the service member. This collection of stories attempted to do this, but also included stories about young women in military academies, children of service members, and more. This didn't bother me, but my engagement in the stories may have been affected by the fact that this was the Canadian forces. Without a lot of knowledge around their structure/culture/etc., I may have missed out on key nuances. As such, I found the stories unremarkable.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy reading Art of Camouflage as much as I thought I would. Life in and around the military is far outside my realm of experience, and I am highly critical of the institution, particularly its treatment of women; I was interested in reading this story collection in order to gain some insight into this unknown sphere and listen to criticism that comes from inside it.

However, I was unable to become invested in any story or character, and felt like I was going through the motions of reading for the sole purpose of writing this review. The opening story, "About Face," set the tone for me: The prose struck me as rather weak, relying largely on telling instead of showing, which, being in first-person POV, read as "I did this, I did that." The dialogue, too, seemed stilted and unrealistic, especially when a teenage boy was speaking. The stories written in third person were significantly more readable, though still not very engaging or memorable.

A few stories did have intriguing premises--for example, "Kijiji BFF," which highlights the prevalence of MLM-based "friendships" in a military wife's limited social sphere--but these stories didn't quite go as deep as they could have. There were several points at which I thought Powers was about to call out the misogyny and toxic masculinity on military bases, but then these offenses were largely glossed over. When it came to stories featuring young women at military academies, I had many questions and wanted more information about them: Why would these young women desire military life? What were their motivations, their visions for the future?

It's possible that I came to Art of Camouflage expecting something other than what Powers intended to write, which could have colored my reading of the collection. Overall, I think my issues with the book are based in execution rather than premise. Stories of women affected by military life are absolutely stories worth telling and reading--that said, Powers' particular telling of these stories was not the telling for me.

The writing style is good, the first story really hooked me and I was ready for a wild literary ride … but after the second story, and feeling a bit triggered, I just couldn’t enjoy the rest of the collection.
Having served in the Marine Corps in the United States, I felt I might relate to these stories and appreciate them. I understand every persons journey might be different… I didn’t like what felt like acceptance to bad behavior or comparison to the males bad behavior to the victim because they’re both suffering under the same military umbrella …

This wasn’t for me.