This was a fun reading competition! I managed to get a few more books read and reviewed. I hope Netgalley does this again next summer!

Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata was an interesting read, but it ultimately did not impress me a lot. For the most part, I found the stories to be too short, making it hard to develop a real attachment to the narrative and the characters. With that being said, the first story, "A First-Rate Material", and the titular story, "Life Ceremony", were good, and I think that they go hand in hand. I almost would have preferred seeing a short story collection from Murata that exclusively explores unconventional ways of upcycling human bodies post-mortem. The first story was, again, a bit too short for my taste, and I found that it ended abruptly -- like many other stories in this book. Had the tension between the engaged party been drawn out a big longer and the stakes raised, I don't doubt that it would have been a 5-star read. "Life Ceremony", on the other hand, was really really good. I enjoyed learning about the relationship between the characters and the lore behind life ceremonies, and I thought that the story arc was well-executed with a satisfying ending. In my head, these two stories would work wonderfully as Black Mirror episodes.

Thanks to NetGalley and Grove Press for providing me with an ARC of this book! All opinions are my own.

I did read this at the time it was sent out. Unfortunately due to prolonged health problems and a death in the family I was unable to review or participate. My sincere apologies. I can say that I was looking forward to the event and had played close attention to the information on how to attain the badge. Such is life. I hope another opportunity will come along.

I won't be making this feedback public as I can see no useful purpose to NetGalley in me doing so.

Very helpful!! Enjoyed the packet! A great resource for NetGalley! I look forward to receiving the next packet from NetGalley!

A great resource for those new to netgalley! I’ve been enjoying my work on netgalley and the camp netgalley welcome packet really gave me more insight into what I could do on this site.

Really interesting and easy to follow :)
Had lots of funny going along.

Cannot wait for camp next year !!!

The handbook did not provide adequate instructions on how to submit the bingo board and when Netgalley members submitted requests regarding this matter we received no answer.

Grateful for this welcome pack and excited to get started with NetGalley! It would be great for future editions to have examples of good and less helpful reviews with explanations of what was helpful or less helpful about those reviews.

What a fun experience! I loved the graphics and really enjoyed this weekly Camp Netgalley experience.

*thank you Netgalley for the gifted copy

I wasn’t able to participate in Camp NetGalley this year, but I’m hopeful to join next time. Thank you for all the effort you put into making it such a wonderful event!

I was unable to participate in the Camp NetGalley in which i so wanted to. The timing was off for me after I started to join. Its a lovely idea and would love to see me in hopes the next one i could participate in. Thank you so very much for everything you all did.

I was unable to participate this year, but I am hoping to be able to participate next year. Can’t wait!

The concept of this was exciting, but I didn't end up participating. I'm looking forward to being able to participate if it happens again.

Although I was unable to participate, I appreciate the option. I am hoping that this will be offered in the future, so that maybe I can participate next time.

I didn't find this helpful at all. Since every publisher is different, it wasn't really helpful in making sure I would get approved for the books that I wanted.

I completely forgot to submit my review for Camp Netgalley. The idea was great but it was hard to follow along. My suggestion for next year is to make it a little more interactive with reminders.

This was. fun way for me to get back into reading and hold me accountable. At times I was confused but I think I would participate again if it was offered next summer.

I wanted to try some of the camp activities. I thought it might be fun to participate. I struggled to figure out how to work some of the technical pieces. I didn’t finish many of them because of timing issues

Fun activities! Will do this again if offered! I love that NetGalley finds additional ways to promote reading.

This was fun - I hope y'all do even more in the future. I especially liked the badges because I can print them and use them in my journal.