NNtG: Shivers #23: Night of the Goat Boy

It's Shivers time again. These are always a fun mixed bag. Sometimes you get something unique and crazy, sometimes to a disturbing degree, sometimes you get something more basic and easygoing. So, not quite sure what to expect with the one we're covering today. Will it work, or will it get my goat? Let's see with Night of the Goat Boy.

COVER STORY

Oh man does this cover rock. Our titular goat boy looks legitimately frightening. Be it the glowing red eyes, its menacing stare or, you know, the blood dripping from its horns and fangs. We've had some surprisingly dark Shivers covers and this might be among the best of them. At least of the ones I've covered for this blog. Sadly no skulls this time, but I can't complain when this cover is so good. Oh no. I like the cover. This might not bode well.

STORY

Nathaniel is super stoked. He's headed to Camp Spotlight for the summer. It's an acting camp. Nathaniel loves plays, be it acting in them or even writing them. Sure he's an eleven year old boy who doesn't mind sports and stuff, but he really has the acting bug in him. His mom is a kindergarten teacher, while his dad is a comic book writer. But he notes that both seemed weird about letting Nathaniel go to a drama camp. Trust me, after reading Curtains, I'm ready for anything an acting camp can throw at us. Just, be careful for dead swans in your bunk. 

Turns out that his parents also went to Camp Spotlight thirty years ago but for some reason seem to not want him to go. And despite him trying to get an answer, we're way too early for that. But, regardless, Nathanial gets to go. One night, while waking up and getting some water, he overhears his parents talking about how they survived the camp and worrying that something may have gotten worse. They arrive at the camp and Nathaniel and his family enter the camp and get him set up. They say their goodbyes for the next two weeks. Nathaniel tries to mention that he overheard them, but doesn't get the chance before he's told to head to his tent. 

There, Nathaniel meets Jacques, Brian and Chris. All of them going for the first time as well and all have had issues where their friends thought that going to an acting camp was a sissy thing. I mean, they probably said it was gay, but this is 1996 and we can't assume that. Best keep that under your hat for now. Nathaniel mentions his parents acting weird about the camp, but the other kids are confused and just think that his parents must be really weird. They enter their tent and talk about rehearsing a play for the camp, with Jacques particularly being catty as he thinks he's due to be the star while the others make fun of him for his ego. 

They then meet the camp director, Mr. Dingle. Huh, was expecting an "Uncle", but I guess that's more of a Stine thing. Nathaniel notes that Mr. Dingle kind of looks like a caveman with his large brow and such. So he's Von Wagner then. There's my one per blog. Either way, the foursome consider him a Dweeb Man, which, yeah, that clicks for what an 11 year old would think. The kids mock him behind his back and then head to roll call. While there, Nathaniel spots a red haired girl with long eyelashes that he soon learns is Jillian. 

Mr. Dingle then tells the kids what play they'll be rehearsing for the two weeks is, and it's "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown". Oh boy, I get to dust off some Peanuts quips! Later, the kids have the camp food which is awful, before later heading to the campfire for the traditional camp ghost stories. Mr. Dingle is too busy with paperwork, so two teenage counselors named Andrew and Austin tell the kids the story of the Goat Boy which takes place, conveniently in Nathaniel's case, thirty years ago. So now Nathaniel worries if this was what his parents were talking about, or if this is all just fiction. Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landsli...

The story goes that thirty years ago, deep in the woods of this very camp lived an old man and his son Kenny. Kenny tended to the goats, which the pair call ugly, nasty and mean. The meanest creatures on Earth. As a fan of goats this offends me deeply, let me assure you. Well, Kenny hated tending goats. He wanted to go Hollywood. He wanted to join Camp Spotlight, even going to the camp to watch the others perform. His dad wanted none of that and would rather he spend the rest of his life tending to the goats. 

So if he hated goats, why is he called the Goat Boy? Well, because it turns out his dad also didn't believe in taking baths either as Kenny stunk of goats. And whenever the campers spotted him, or smelled him in this case, they'd mock him and call him the Goat Boy. After a long enough time of people making goat noises at him, Kenny got sick of that and was ready for some revenge. By which, of course, I mean taking the embers of a recently lit campfire and burning campers in their tents. The campers managed to escape the flames in time and the cops were called, but there was no sign of Kenny, or any proof that he set the tents on fire. Guessing he wasn't that stinky that night.

And then things go to wacky town as the parents arrived to pick their kids up after the fire. Including one of the parents, a magician named Muldaur the Magnificent. So he headed to Kenny's house and snuck up on a sleeping Kenny. Oh, he didn't break his neck or anything. Just cast a spell on him that literally turned him half-goat, half-human. The Goat Boy. Despite, again, no proof at all that Kenny did this, just hearsay. They say the Goat Boy, or in this case now the Goat Man, still roams the woods and will eat anything, including humans. Andrew then scares the campers with some bleating noises. Mr. Dingle returns to calm things down and send the kids to bed to get ready for the next day and the beginning of setting up for the play.

The next day comes and the campers head to the performance hall as Mr. Dingle gives out the roles for the performers. Nathaniel tries to sing, but barely gets to do much of it due to him being off-key, so he ends up getting the role of Snoopy, which he isn't happy about. Dude, It's SNOOPY. Like, sure, you don't get lines, but Snoopy is the lynchpin of the entire Charles Schulz Peanuts universe. Without Snoopy, you're just dealing with a depressed bald kid who the whole world takes a dump on. It's like Jon without Garfield. You know, with how bad Nathaniel takes the news of playing a dog, maybe he should have been cast as Charlie Brown. Good grief indeed.

In fact, the role of Charlie Brown didn't even go to the other three kids, but some other kid named Reeves, so they're all sour about it. Jillian got Lucy though. That night, no ghost stories, but a sing-a-long instead. Nathaniel asks Andrew and Austin about the Goat Boy story and they say that it's been told every year, even when they were campers. But they don't rule out that maybe there is a Goat Boy out there. Nathaniel tries to sleep, but hears something outside making goat noises, but it doesn't sound like Andrew. The next morning, he asks the other three if they heard the noises, but they didn't, so Nathaniel's just more confused than he already is.

The first rehearsal for the play begins and it goes fine. That is until a lighting fixture begins to fall right above Nathaniel. Thanks to Jillian, he escapes in time. Other than, you know, the shock of nearly dying, Nathaniel is okay. After that incident, the next few days go fine, with no more near-death experiences. That is, until Nathaniel finds a note in his tent from "Kenny" saying that Nathaniel will be his supper. The other three kids show up and they begin to suspect that either there really is a Goat Boy, or Andrew and Austin are really ramping up their jokes. That night, Nathaniel and the other three wake up to find themselves fully zipped up in their sleeping bags and hearing someone run off. 

Mr. Dingle and the others show up to help them out. When they mention Andrew and Austin, everyone checks on the two teens, only to find them asleep in their cabin. When Mr. Dingle interrogates the two, they claim they were innocent. That they went to sleep early due to a hard day at the camp. As the rest leave, Nathaniel thinks he hears laughter. Mr. Dingle then tells the boys that the Goat Boy thing has been a story passed around from counselors over the years to scare the new campers. He's tried to quell that tradition, but clearly that didn't work. But he assures them that they'll be fine, unless there is a Goat Boy to which, well, later dudes.

So, now with everyone being so secretive about this, Nathaniel decides that he'll find out himself what's going on. He's headed to the woods to find him a Goat Boy. The other boys go with him and they begin their trek where sure enough they soon find an old farmhouse in the woods. They look inside and see food on the kitchen table. Chris screams and the kids start to run, only for Nathaniel to be grabbed. It's an old man who lives on the farm. He's not too thrilled about being spied on, and then realizes that this has to do with the Goat Boy story. He leads Nathaniel through the farm and shows him that there's no Goat Boy before sending him back to the camp.

It's the last night of camp before the big performance day and everyone tries to relax, only for Jillian to scream and say she saw the Goat Boy. As Mr. Dingle leaves to his office in a panic, Nathaniel sneaks by and notices that the director's sandals have been weirdly chewed up. He heads back to the tent as it starts to rain, and on cue with a lightning strike, he sees the Goat Boy at last. He tries to run past it, but ends up bumping into the Goat Boy, whose head falls off. Sure enough it's Andrew underneath. See, Andrew's dad is a taxidermist and had a stuffed Goat head, which Andrew took to use in the Goat Boy prank. Mr. Dingle's not too happy, especially when he sees his chewed up Sandals. But neither Austin nor Andrew know what he's talking about. They didn't do that part.

TWIST ENDING

The last day comes and everything goes fine. Nathaniel's parents then take him home and mention that they first met at Camp Spotlight on the year that Kenny was supposedly cursed by Muldur. But that was all just a story. One that, sure enough, the counselors kept telling year after year. So, they tell Nathaniel that it was all just a story which finally calms him down. Though why was Mr. Dingle's sandal chewed up? After everyone leaves, we go back to the farm house where sure enough, he finds scraps of Mr. Dingle's sandal. The Goat Boy is on the loose! But sadly the book is over so he sure took his sweet time.

CONCLUSION

Night of the Goat Boy isn't too bad. Of the Shivers books I've covered, it feels like the one with its head on straight for the majority. It always stayed focused on the legend of the Goat Boy and rarely spins its wheels on other things. And while we don't get the real Kenny until the end, the book does a good enough job building the scares and the ramping threats. Though it also feels too obvious that it's Andrew or Austin. However, that stage light scene seems really out of place, since that was likely neither of them. Unless that was also Kenny? Or maybe having children as stage hands isn't the best idea.  As a camp book, it's also really good. Building up the camp setting very well. It being a drama camp feels random, but still works enough, even if it barely feels like it matters aside from two notable reasons. One for the stage light falling and the other for being the rich kids camp that Kenny was unable to join. Other than those, it could have been any kind of camp and likely got the same results.

Nathaniel is pretty basic, nothing too outgoing. And his love for the dramatics and theater barely gets a chance to do anything in the book. And the most that it feels like it matters is when he's angry about being Snoopy. The other three boys are fine enough supporting characters, while Jillian just exists. Like, the book does nothing with her at all, she barely even interacts much with Nathaniel. Andrew and Austin work as solid villains, though they make it too obvious that they're the ones screwing with the boys throughout the story. And Mr. Dingle is an okay foil for the two teens. He also seems the most reasonable when it comes to this whole thing. He's not going to do what Bax did in Curtains and pretend to hang himself to scare the kids into acting better.

So, overall, a solid book. Nothing out and out incredible, but for a camp book and a decent enough slice of life story involving a scary urban legend and a real monster, it certainly works far better than You Can't Scare Me! did at the very least. It's a definite recommend. It still feels like it's missing something to make it a top tier book, but still offers enough to be a decent read. Hey, a cover I liked and a book I liked. Shivers you continue to surprise meh-eh-eh-eh-eh in the best ways. Night of the Goat Boy gets an A-.