Camp is finally in session once again in the Goosebumps rereads. And, with it being a book I liked last time, it means we're finally free from the slog. But does that mean we're due for another great visit to Camp Spirit Moon? Let's find out with Ghost Camp.
GHOST CAMP
RELEASE MONTH: July, 1996
FRONT TAGLINE: Be all that you can't see!
COVER STORY
This cover doesn't get mentioned enough, which is a shame as I think it's one of Tim's more underrated covers. The ghost campers being invisible, save for their clothes, is such a striking visual. And speaking of striking, the giant lightning bolt, which will be one of Tim's staples on a few upcoming covers. Add in the foggy background, the pretty foliage and the general eeriness all around, it's an amazing piece. Though, why is the one visible kid a girl when our protagonists are two boys? Also, hey, did you know Tim Jacobus really love drawing Converse Hi-Tops?
THE JOKE'S ON THEM!
Harry and his brother, Alex, are dying to fit in at Camp Spirit Moon. But the camp has so many weird traditions. Like the goofy camp salute. The odd camp greeting. And the way the old campers love to play jokes on the new campers.
Then the jokes start to get really serious. Really creepy. Really scary.
First a girl sticks her arm in the campfire. Then a boy jams a pole through his foot.
Still, they're just jokes... right?
STORY
Harry and Alex Altman have had a boring summer so far. Due to circumstances, they were unable to get to any camp. But they lucked out with one more camp, Camp Spirit Moon. We open with the brothers heading to the camp. We learn that Alex is a really good singer, which will be important later on. The bus stops and the brothers make their way out. They go into the woods and eventually find Camp Spirit Moon. But there's nobody there. They're about to bail until a counselor named Chris shows up. He says that they're the only three at this camp. But that's just a joke. See, Camp Spirit Moon really likes their jokes. They love to scare the new campers.
The head of the camp, a large man named Uncle Marv (again, is Uncle a thing with camps?), greets the brothers and introduces them to the camp greeting "Yohhhhhhhh Spirits". Alex is more enthusiastic, while Harry isn't as much into all this so far. He mentions that there's a talent show, then tells them of a campfire later that night before sending them to their bunks. Harry heads there, but notices some strange blue slime on the ground. Alex thinks it's just another attempt to scare them. Which, I guess would make sense, but if my camp bunk looked like Boo Berry had a spunk fest, then I'd probably high tail it.
The brothers make it to the campfire as the campers are all their in their matching attire, roasting hot dogs. Harry introduces himself to a girl camper named Lucy when his hot dog falls into the fire. Lucy then just shoves her hand into the open flame and retrieves it. After Harry reacts, she reacts as if on a delay. Meanwhile Alex meets another camper named Elvis McGraw, who in the mother of all ironies can't sing a lick. As the campers sing the official camp song, Lucy tells Harry that he needs to help her, before Uncle Marv catches them and begins his ghost stories.
The first one involves a group of campers that walk deeper and deeper into the dark forest until things start getting weird. It's colder, and the ground feels like it's thumping. Suddenly the ground moves under them and they see that they're really camping on a giant monster who eats them whole. Harry thinks it's a funny story, but Elvis says that it's true. Uncle Marv moves on to our next story. The campers of Camp Spirit moon many years ago were going through camp as normal when suddenly a strange fog fills the camp while they sleep. The fog killed all of the campers and their spirits were trapped on the campgrounds forever. As he tells the tale, suddenly a black fog fills the camp and all of the other campers disappear. Harry and Alex panic, but then the campers reveal it was just smoke machines. Just another Camp Spirit Moon joke.
Harry and Alex head to their bunks. That night, in the middle of darkness, Harry thinks he sees one of his bunkmates Joey floating above his mattress. But when he checks with the light, Joey is on his bed like normal. The next day, as Harry helps set up a tent, he sees one of the campers get their foot impaled with a tentpole, but says it missed his toes. Later at lunch, he sees another camper stick a fork in his neck. Harry's nerves are starting to get to him, but he still believes that these are all just silly camp jokes. At swimming, one of the girl campers seems to sink into the water, but after minutes under, comes up okay. And later, Harry believes he saw a girl's head being kicked off her body and into a soccer net.
Alex tells Harry that he saw the head go into the net as well, but despite everything, Harry still thinks that this is all still pranks. They then hear monstrous howling, but it's just bunkmates Elvis, Joey and Sam getting one over them again. The next night, the campers are out for an overnight deep into the woods when Lucy talks to Harry again and tells him that she's a ghost. All of the campers of Camp Spirit Moon are ghosts. Uncle Marv's story about the fog and the ghost campers was true. It's been so long that she doesn't remember when the incident happened, only that they've been trapped forever. She also mentions that the ghosts only have a finite amount of energy a day, and use protoplasm to keep their disguise, but the slime drains from them.
Lucy then tells Harry that she wants out of this camp and that she needs Harry's body. She tells him that the only way a camper can leave Camp Spirit Moon is by possessing the body of living beings. If they try to leave any other way, they end up trapped in the fog forever. Harry makes a run for it before passing out. He's awakened by Alex and the others, but he grabs Alex and the two start running for it, only to run into the monster from the other story. It's about to eat them until Harry starts saying he doesn't believe in it, which... gets rid of it. Wait what?
But before they can relax, Uncle Marv and the other ghosts surround them. Elvis grabs Alex while Lucy tries to take over Harry's mind. Suddenly, the other ghosts start fighting with Lucy and they begin to swirl faster and faster until they all just disappear.
TWIST ENDING
Harry and Alex continue to run away and eventually make it out of Camp Spirit Moon. As they begin to walk the road, Harry notices that Alex is humming off key. He then realizes that it's Elvis in Alex's body, who promises to stop singing badly if Harry won't narc on him.
CONCLUSION
After a slog of books that I dislike, some for more concerning reasons than others, we get to one of my all time favorites and one I still enjoy to this point. Which given I've enjoyed almost every camp book, I can't see how that's a stretch. I think Ghost Camp works because it sets the story up very well. Not perfectly, but everything that should work does quite well. What works is how the story is built in that the campers' "jokes" escalate throughout the story. And it all works to build up Harry's paranoia. How he goes from skeptic to thinking something is very wrong with Camp Spirit Moon. Though I think some things could have been put in different places. The hand in the fire for example could have been something later on instead of so early. Maybe start with Harry seeing Joey float first, then the tentpole, then the hand in the campfire. It's not as glaringly bad as Say Cheese and Die's escalation, but it's noticeable.
I said before in the old review that I felt the campers were dumb for how easily they were making it too obvious that they're ghosts with their pranks. And I think my feelings have changed on that by considering the context. They want Harry and Alex to be scared, so they can eventually scare them so bad that they'll be easier to possess. And it works at least in part with Elvis managing to escape. Though will he be true to his word? And if so, how? I assume that means someone else will be possessed if Elvis chose to. So when I think about it, if the campers want out so badly, and IF they can possess after escaping the fog, why not strike a deal with a camper to use their body as a "taxi" of sorts to take them to a fresh body on the outside. Or at least be able to exit in an ethereal state to find their next body. It's a dark, twisted ending, but it's not the worst idea. Problem is of course that these ghost campers are so desperate that they can't decide who gets to leave and we end with only one actually succeeding.
So, I've always had the theory on the fog. I don't know if it's just a supernatural creation that just exists where the camp is, or if it might be man-made. A similar kind of chemical leak to the plastics factory from Welcome to Dead House. That fog turned the town of Dark Falls into the undead, while a similar kind of fog did the same to Camp Spirit Moon. It might lean on supernatural more because of the fog's other effects of trapping the ghosts in the camp, almost like some sort of protection spell to keep their forms stuck in the camp forever. But either theory could work.
So, what don't I like? Well, ultimately that's the whole addition of the monster. I think that felt like filler for an otherwise packed book. Like Stine couldn't get to the 118 page count without adding something near the end. And that's the monster, which feels so tonally off from everything else that its addition is confusing. All to be defeated by Harry not believing it's real, which you think is going to beat the ghosts, but that doesn't work, obviously. But that's really my only gripe on an otherwise strong book, especially so close to late game in the original series. It's a definite recommend. You won't find many other Goosebumps books as spirited as this.
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