Frustrated, Lizzy runs home from school as a convenient storm begins to hit. As she gets home, she seems to spot some one in black staring behind a tree. At first Lizzy thinks it's a boy, but it's actually a girl named Amy. Amy and her family just conveniently-err, recently moved to Shadyside. She just goes to different classes than Lizzy. She overheard the ruckus over Lizzy not getting into the Waynesbridge scouts and offers her a chance to join her troop, the Camp Fear Girls which is named after, where else, Fear Street. But Lizzy's heard the stories about Fear Street. But Amy says that it's named after Fear Street because they do a whole bunch of scary, but fun things. Lizzy ultimately agrees to join and gets her envelope not long after, with the address having a 333 listed, but the street name is secret, there's no signature, and there's the note ending with "BE THERE... OR BEWARE!" which, you know, should be straight up red flags, but we're way too early for those.
Lizzy's drive soon arrives to head to camp. It's a large black van. The woman driving takes Lizzy inside, but doesn't say anything else before dropping her off at Fear Street. She walks down the street, freaked out about everything and spots the cemetery. She's about to leave when she then sees the address of 333 Fear Street. She then hears some wicked sounding laughter coming from inside the house. This is more than enough for Lizzy who is ready to bolt before being caught by Amy. She gets brought inside and everything seems pretty normal. There's eleven other girls in the house which has a VCR a CD player a Sega (Genesis I think) and a Super Nintendo. Okay, now this book's speaking my language.
The other scouts include Trudy, Priscilla, Violet, Lorraine and Pearl. It's Pearl's mother who runs the troop, but she's conveniently out on errands. The girls get out candles and start the scares, including Amy freaking out Lizzy with a monster mask, which, if she's already clawing at the door to escape on scare one, this is going to be a long night for Lizzy. This was initiation #1. The second initiation will come at an overnight with the troop. Lizzy will have to get her first three badges including a rock collecting badge, an arts and crafts badge and a swimming badge. Which seem tame compared to Amy's badges, a coffin, a knife and a noose. This is starting to sound like a game of Clue. But they say that they're way cooler than Wanyesbridge badges.
It's also prank night in the scouts, which again should be concerning but Lizzy sees no concerns just yet. Lizzy suggests they prank Caroline given, you know, the knife in the back she received. Though given this troop, they might actually do that for real. They make a bucket of green slime that smells horrendous and fill three buckets full. Oh god, I walked into a Monster Blood book, didn't I? Fortunately, no. Of course Lizzy just thinks they're going to slime the house, despite the fact that anyone could have seen their true intentions from a mile away. They ring the doorbell of Caroline's house. Once she exits, they throw the buckets of slime on her. After that, the girls return to Pearl's and end the night on with a pretty on the nose sounding chant:
Thirteen girls off to camp.
The woods were dark, the ground was damp.
Thirteen families dressed in black.
Thirteen girls who never came back.
So if you camp in Fear Street woods,
Thirteen girls will get you good!
Lizzy heads home to find out that Caroline wants to talk with her on the phone. However, when Lizzy calls her, Caroline is laughing because some girls ended up sliming her brother Chip, not her. But, after everything that went down, the two girls reconcile their issues, with Carolyne saying night one was pretty boring with its tea and introductions. Not much else to really report. In fact, she thinks that Camp Fear Girls sounds much better, so Lizzy tries to get her in. However, as she searches for Pearl's house, they search all of Fear Street, but can't find a 333 Fear Street. After a street light goes out, the girls then get caught by Amy. Lizzy tries to get Caroline in, but Amy freaks out about it, saying that there can only be thirteen members of the troop.
Caroline leaves, but Lizzy is steadfast on this. If Caroline can't join, neither will Lizzy. Suddenly Lizzy hears a scream, but can't find the source. As she surveys the scouts, she notices that Pearl is missing, but again, none of the other scouts even flinch at the news. Lizzy then finds what appears to be Pearl's sash, just as the Camp Fear Girls suddenly vanish. So that's concerning. Just as much as the news Lizzy gets that Caroline got her invitation to the Camp Fear Girls. Of course, after all of this, Lizzy is concerned about her joining, but Caroline already quit Waynesbridge and regardless of Lizzy's opinion, she's going to be joining the Camp Fear Girls on their upcoming overnight.
The two get picked up in the van by the quiet driver who drops them off at Fear Street Woods with a map. Despite Lizzy's worries, Caroline says that they should just go in the woods already. What could possibly go wrong? They get lost and scared for a bit until they finally run into the Camp Fear Girls. Everything seems fine. Nothing to really be worried about. The girls even made S'mores. When Lizzy asks about Pearl, the girls say they don't know anyone named Pearl. They then move on to a story about how 100 years ago, a troop of scouts went into Fear Street Woods and never returned. Though the rumor is they turned into hideous monsters and have haunted the woods ever since. Trudy scares Caroline with a monster mask which makes Lizzy laugh and try to pull off the mask... which doesn't come off. Oh god this IS a Haunted Mask book.
All of the other Camp Fear Girls except for Amy now look like hideous monsters too with bulging eyes and rotting flesh. Caroline and Lizzy are freaked out, but Amy seems nonplussed. That's because, and I guess I should preface this one with a GROSS-OUT WARNING!!!!: Amy's skin turns green and her cheeks begin to grow and grow until a giant purple worm bursts out. Her eyes bulge and her nose sinks in. Pretty damn disturbing, isn't it folks? That's more than enough for Lizzy and Caroline who make a run for it. But it turns out the Camp Fear Girls can turn invisible too, so the girls end up easily caught.
So, what exactly happened to cause all of this? One hundred years ago, the thirteen scouts entered Fear Street woods and made a campfire. Unfortunately given how dark it was they didn't know they were using the bones of a skeleton. The skeleton of an evil man who died in the woods. The fumes from the bony bonfire put the girls in a state of sleep. When they woke up, they became ghouls. For the longest time it was just the thirteen of them in the woods until one of the ghouls, Rose, tried to escape, so the other ghouls killed her and set the trap to get Lizzy to join. And when Lizzy suggested Caroline, they killed Pearl to make it the perfect thirteen. So yeah, way to go there Liz.
Now it's time for those three badges to come into play. See, they're an initiation test to see if Lizzy and Caroline can survive. Ones of courage, wits and strength. If the girls fail any of the tests, they'll become part of the ghouls. The choices again are swimming, arts and crafts, and swimming, so the girls choose rock collecting. As Lizzy and Caroline collect the rocks, they're too hot to touch, yet if they get tossed or kicked first, they cool down, which allows them to get their first badge. Arts can crafts is next, and thus the girls have to make lanyards... out of giant worms. They succeed, but the worm lanyard tightens around Lizzy's neck, almost choking her. Amy says that this means the end, but Caroline just tears it off. Well that happened.
That just leaves swimming. And that means swimming all the way across Fear Lake. Which is ice cold by the way. As they swim across however, they get caught by some sort of tentacle monster which, it's 1997 but eww the connotations. The girls however manage to escape and make it to the end of Fear Lake. They succeeded. However, the Camp Fear Girls never said anything about letting them leave even if they won. They begin to chant again, this time adding some new verses:
Thirteen girls off to camp.
The woods were dark, the ground was damp.
Thirteen families dressed in black.
Thirteen girls who never came back.
Thirteen bodies in the ground.
Thirteen heads that never were found.
Thirteen girls that want revenge.
Just as Lizzy and Caroline start to get hypnotized by the song, the ghost of Pearl shows up, now in a ethereal skeletal form. She says that the scouts failed in trying to kill her. Her body's gone, but her spirit remains. She then tells the troop to count off. Once they get to fourteen a bolt of lightning hits and the ghouls disappear with Pearl saying they can only have thirteen to a troop before she disappears as well. Lizzy's parents soon find her in the woods. They then give Lizzy an envelope for the Shadyside Drama Club, which after all of this, Lizzy is done with clubs. As they leave, they see the woman in the black van saying that she'll see them tomorrow night. Reader beware, move the hell out of town now!
So, this is another Jahnna N. Malcolm book, with my previous read from them being Don't Ever Get Sick at Granny's. And I hated that one. So, I'll say that I'm assuming that one stinking was an isolated incident as I really liked Camp Fear Ghouls. I think what makes it work is that you can tell there was a single coordinated plot that the book follows through until the end. Where Granny's failed because it felt like it had no idea what it wanted to be, then literally "went to the dogs" with that twist. This one does enough right in making the Camp Fear Girls feel like creepy threats, especially by the end of the book. Complete with gruesome descriptions of how they look. I will say their origin is a bit goofy, but then again Slappy was made by the coffin wood of an evil sorcerer so I guess it's far from the most out there either.
Lizzy is a solid protagonist, though nothing ultimately out of the ordinary. Caroline also works as a side character and despite the whole inciting incident, they do feel like best friends, which yeah, even best friends make poor lapses in judgment and do sometimes screw each other over when it comes to fleeting popularity. And, without that, we wouldn't get our plot rolling. I do wish the troop, aside from Amy and (briefly) Pearl, had more character to them. Hell, we don't even get all their names. Just a handful. Which makes me think the only obvious reason it's a troop of thirteen is to add to the horror element. It could have been lower and still got the job done. But I guess I'll take it over a whole bunch of characters who wouldn't get more than a line of dialogue. And I already get confused with established names at times. I'll call that a saving throw.
Overall, another Ghosts book that I ended up really liking. And to come from the ghostwriters of the book I hated the most is a very surprising outcome. Camp books rarely fail and I've yet to read one that has really disappointed me. Even the worst ones are more mediocre by comparison of most books with other tropes. So, this one wins out with me as a solid recommend. A few minor tweaks would make it higher, but for what we got, it's a book that I s'more than enjoyed. Camp Fear Ghouls gets an A-.
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