Dad Camp

A Novel

By: Evan S. Porter

Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins

A heartwarming novel about a loving dad who drags his eleven-year-old daughter to “father-daughter week” at a remote summer camp—their last chance to bond before he loses her to teenage girlhood entirely.

After his daughter, Avery, was born, John gave it all up—hobbies, friends, a dream job—to be something more: a super dad. Since then, he’s spent nearly every waking second with Avery, who’s his absolute best bud. Or, at least, she was.

When now eleven-year-old Avery begins transforming into an eye-rolling zombie of a preteen who dreads spending time with him, a desperate John whisks her away for a weeklong father-daughter retreat to get their relationship back on track before she starts middle school.

But John’s attempts to bond only seem to drive his daughter further away, and his instincts tell him Avery’s hiding something more than just preteen angst. Even worse, the camp is far from the idyllic getaway he had in mind. John finds himself navigating a group of toxic dads that can’t seem to get along, cringe-worthy forced bonding activities, and a camp director that has it out for him. With camp and summer break slipping away fast, John’s determined to conquer it all for a chance to become Avery’s hero again.

This brilliant and deeply funny father-daughter story is perfect for fans of poignant and hilarious books like The Guncle by Steven Rowley, Steve Martin’s family classic Cheaper by the Dozen, and Judd Apatow’s bighearted comedies.

It's okay

I wanted to like this. As a girl dad I thought this would be right up my alley. However, the author wrote this from the point of view of an extremely insecure and sheltered individual. More research I did on the author confirmed my suspicion. In the book, the other fathers who were bigger than him tried to "crush" his hand with handshakes, food at the camp was inedible because it was...camp food? Has this guy never been to a summer camp as a child? And of course...he even managed to throw in a dig at Chik Fil A being homophobic. (Aren't we tired of this nonsense yet?) The end of the story was predictable, and heartwarming so I guess there is something positive about it. The author is a weak individual who wrote a story about a weak man struggling to connect with his daughter. Along the way, he peppered the story with his own life's insecurities.