I love this idea and I'm so happy to be a part of camp NetGalley this summer 2024! I can't wait to dive in and find even more motivation to read my ARCs and leave wonderful and thoughtful reviews. Thank you NetGalley and We Are Bookish for putting this together!

A cute and fun summer activity! It reminds me of the activities my local library would host as a kid. I like that the booklet includes links to resources that we can review! I was wondering how I could improve my reviews. I'm most excited for the book bingo, but my biggest struggle is to remember to check in every week

This is such a fun, creative idea to get readers more involved in NetGalley! I still found myself confused about how to participate.. so I thjnk some of the activities need to be simplified for next time.

This is a book where I enjoyed the first book enough to be looking forward to the second. Upon reading, it was fine but mostly the fact people review bomb and write really mean reviews especially when it’s a memoir got to me. I wrote this review with a two star but I felt like it came from a place of empathy and was still proud of the authour for putting their life on display the way Stephanie Land did.

I’m proud of this review and it seems others enjoyed it as well.


Review for Class by Stephanie Land
I did read some of the negative reviews prior and went in thinking people were overdramatic and frankly, quite rude about this second book from Stephanie Land. I wasn’t as enamored with Maid as other people but thought it was still quite a beautiful and necessary story to tell. It was a solid 3 stars and I thought the show was well done and was excited to read more of her story about moving to Montana. After getting about 30% through this book, I started understanding the negative reviews about this and by 60%, I was agreeing with them all.

I’d like to preface this with my take before and after I read the book. I have never experienced some of the things Land has gone through but I have been through the DV and abusive situations and I think people severely underestimate how abuse changes a person in every way. Hearing her perspective is very important to her entire story but people also aren’t seeing the other side effects. How it quite literally changes the way your brain views the world. A lot of people were commenting on how it’s exhausting to read about her going in a cycle constantly and making the same poor decisions over and over again especially at 35. While I don’t disagree with this, it’s a very clear effect from the abuse she went through and her upbringing that this behaviour is a direct consequence of that. People seem to be missing this perspective and trying to identify it from their own point of view. I wonder what examples she had growing up? How did the abuse lead her to constantly choosing horrible men? How did that affect the actual chemistry of her brain and skew the way she makes everyday decisions let alone struggling with all she does on top of that?

I think it’s important to have that information (or empathy) going in. This can be an incredibly frustrating read where Land seems to be settling into her ways as an adult but never having learned anything from her experiences. She even mentions multiple times that she gets along better with people a decade younger than her, mentally and maturity wise and not just for the financial congruities. And it’s clear she can’t afford the therapy to break these cycles, as was mentioned in the book, which kind of begs the reason of the entire book. How poverty affects people in every aspect of life. How do you know you need to break a cycle when you can’t even see it needs to be broken? Yes, she repeatedly makes the same terrible decisions and then is shocked by the outcome. She treats people like trash and as disposable and then complains about not having any support. She ends friendships with supportive friends who want to help her break these toxic cycles because she views them as superior and that they are “concern trolling” her. The hypocrisy of every choice is horrifyingly apparent and can be incredibly frustrating to read about, I get that. And I also don’t disagree but it seems the lack of empathy is missing from people reading that wasn’t there the last time and I wonder if it’s due to her age. As a society we make a lot of allowances for young people, but what happens when you’re 35 and are still living mentally as a 20 year old?

With all of that being said, people do have points in rating this book low and I don’t disagree with all of them. The writing felt a lot less poignant and more just angry circles of antagonizing stories. Land writes from a “better than” perspective here that loses a lot of what she captured in her first memoir. There were a lot of things about Maid that felt like someone who possibly can see the light at the end of the tunnel, someone who may make it out. Not necessarily out of poverty, but for the life that she was forced down due to circumstances beyond her control. Class is more like a door closing and that light being erased. Yes, she’s an authour now and I root for her but I really have trouble getting on the same page again if this is the kind of person she inevitably becomes.

I really enjoyed this adventure.
The bingo card was really cute and fun to work out.
I have attached a previous review that I am especially proud of.

I loved the bingo board and learning about the netgalley toolkit! I didn't know about that. This will be great for giving advice to people who are interested in starting arc reviews. I like making those kind of posts on instagram as well as reviews! The talent show is also fun! I have attached a review I am particularly proud of.

Such a great summer activity plan! Linked to one of my favorite books of the year, and the audiobook courtesy of NETGALLEY!

Super excited to participate! It’ll be a fun away to find some other bookish friends! Hopefully I’ll keep up with all the prompts in week 3.

I love this idea - what a fun, engaging way to come together! I look forward to participating in Camp NetGalley! (:

This is a lovely idea, and a good way to encourage keeping up with reviews and posting! Having a BINGO board is also a consistent win.

This sounds like a really fun thing to do for summer reading! All i have to do is remember to do it!

I like this and am following along this month to do Camp NetGalley! I am participating this year for my first time and I love this step by step packet to help navigate this month.

Camp NetGalley is a great way for readers to boost their participation! All of the activities are fun and easy to access.
I'm excited to be participating in it!

Camp NetGalley is a great way for new and returning NetGalley readers to increase their reading participation. I like the idea of belonging to a larger community by completing these tasks alongside other readers. The instructions were easy to understand and as a new community member, I especially liked the linked content with further tips and tricks for me.

Camp Netgalley is very cute. I like the idea of a scavenger hunt, though I have to remember to check for the hints. I think it would be helpful to have the hints via email also! I am excited to get the camp netgalley badge, though I’m not clear who can see it. It would be helpful to understand if publishers look for it or if it means something like preferred access or something like that!

I’ve already picked out the review for the talent show. I like that this option includes reviews outside of NetGalley, even though I will be using one that is on NetGalley!

I love that this is such a fun way to get involved with Netgalley and other bookish friends! I just downloaded my camp templates and stickers and I’m going to make friends with other campers! There is a lot of information so I have to make sure I don’t miss anything! This is the fun version of summer reading assignments.

Es la primera vez que hago algo así y estoy emocionada. Las actividades me parecen interesantes y los sticker son lindos.

Espero poder lograr completar el bingo.

Camp NetGalley is a really fun idea! The welcome packet does a great job outlining how to participate and the events for the month. The bingo card is great and will encourage reviewers to be more active on NetGalley. I love the resources that are provided and the super cute stickers. I am excited to earn the final camp badge at the end of the month. There are a couple of things I would love to see implemented next time -- it would be fun for the bingo game to be for the entire month instead of just one week, especially since a few of the spaces require reading books, reviewing, and raising our NetGalley ratio. A week may not be enough time for everyone to accomplish those tasks. It would also be fun to have more interactive activities for each week. Bingo and the scavenger hunt are perfect, but they are only for two of the weeks. The last two weeks are tasks that can be done in a couple of hours and don't require a week. I love the idea of interacting via a hashtag. I would also love to see the NetGalley Instagram account share posts by members in their stories. Lastly, having different images for members to create original content about the camp and post it on their Instagram feeds and stories would be cool.

New to camp and a bit overwhelmed currently, but very excited!
So many activities I don't even know where to start :)

This packet is fantastic! I would love to implement parts of this in my high school and college curriculum! I especially like the bingo card and the Talent Show. What a fun way to add spark to summer reading!