I LOVE YOU S'MORE

A lesbian teen hopes that a summer of being a camp counselor will mend her broken heart.

Getting dumped is always bad, but Ivy’s breakup is happening in public, dissected and analyzed by an entire fandom. Ivy’s high school sweetheart, Ally, now the teen star of a science fiction drama, has broken things off, and the internet is exploding with shipping hopes for Ally and her co-star. Perhaps if Ivy returns to her beloved childhood musical theater camp as a counselor it will give her the break she needs? It’s not to be, of course. The tween campers recognize Ivy from Ally’s social media. Worse, one of the other counselors is yet another source of trauma: Rynn, Ivy’s former best friend who abruptly cut her off back in sixth grade. Bouncing rapid-fire from angst to romantic hope to anger, Ivy can scarcely manage her campers’ dramas or the production of Peter Pan she’s co-directing with Rynn. The mostly white campers and counselors are affectionately portrayed, though they’re all exceptionally lightly drawn, primarily serving as mirrors for Ivy and Rynn to explore their own relationship. Still, the characterizations that are barely sketched out don’t keep this from being an enjoyable story of growth amid a romantic summer interlude.

A cathartic tale of a shy girl gaining self-love and learning to forgive.