It's July, which means that it's Summertime, which also means that it's the perfect time to go back into some Summer themed reading. Welcome to the third annual "Woo! Party Summer" month. A month where we cover multiple books based around the Summer season. And what better way to start than with yet another trip into our old pal Shadow Zone? Last time we visited was last summer interestingly enough. And that one ended up being a book I was ultimately mixed on by the end. But this is a book based around camp so, maybe I'll have better luck? I usually do. Don't let me down on the camp book, please. It's time to Scream Around the Campfire.
Gina Giardelli's summer isn't going too great. Mainly due to the fact that she and her twin brother Frank have been shipped off to Camp Slumbering Pines by their parents. Gina notes that she and Frank are totally different. Genders aside, Frank is athletic and studious and seems to get along great with everyone. Gina would rather just watch TV. She comes off as an underachiever. Whether she's proud of it is up for debate. The two arrive at camp where Gina is already hating the experience. Be it the chattery girls, or the very strict counselor, a teen girl named Heidi. Gina meets a skinny girl named Stacey and they get along fine enough, but that's not enough for us to be reminded constantly that Gina hates this with a passion. Reader beware, you're in for the complaints department.
The other girls in the bunk, Rebecca and Linda, introduce themselves to Gina, show her the outdoor showers and then give her the ol' "snake in the bag" prank, which freaks out Gina because obviously. But it's all fun and games because this is normal initiation stuff for new campers. But, of course, Gina hates it. Imagine that. Gina hating something. Story of this book so far. The other campers get dressed up in their uniforms and head to the campfire, which Gina finds dorky. She's also annoyed that Frank's already making friends. They get introduced to Henry Creeley, a rather overweight balding man in Hawaiian shorts and a polo shirt. His parents founded the camp, but when they retired, the camp became Henry's by winning a court battle against his sister, in case you needed further reasoning to hate this dude.
Creeley tells the campers that he has big new plans for Camp Slumbering Pines. Namely that he's building a brand new camp, complete with an Olympic size swimming pool, and it'll also be a family camp, which doesn't sit well with the likes of Linda and Rebecca who think the camp was fine as it was. Gina actually doesn't see an issue with it, since she hates the idea of nature and all that junk. He then hands the campfire over to one of the counselors, Tom Bowman who tells us the story of the camp. It wasn't always called Camp Slumbering Pines, but rather Camp Sasquatch. Yep. We got bigfoots in our book. In 1924, a group of loggers were camping down at a ravine when suddenly a group of bigfoots (bigfeet? Would that be correct? Anyway) came out from the woods. A man shot one of the creatures, sending it into the ravine where it vanished. Thinking they won, the loggers celebrated, only for the bigfoots to attack them with giant rocks before vanishing into the night. The men all went insane from the experience. So, you know, perfect place for a summer camp.
After the campfire, Gina heads with the other girls back to the bunk, but gets lost. She bumps into something in the woods with glowing red eyes and huge teeth. A possible bigfoot. She rushes to the bunk and tells the other girls, who don't believe her because... I mean there are multiple reasons. #1. Everyone believes the bigfoot story is just that. A story. #2. Gina's so out of her element that she'll think anything could be a bigfoot. And #3 and kind of the most damning of them being that the girls note that they have no reason to trust her given she's been awful to them since she showed up. Gotta admit, those are three fair points for once. But eventually Frank does believe her, but assures her that since there's been no stories of kids being lost or eaten by the bigfoots, maybe they'll just leave Gina alone.
Some time passes and things start to cool over between Gina and the other girls. I mean, they mostly still treat her like crap, but some progress is still progress. She's even kind of befriended Stacey in a way that seems more pitying her than anything. That night, Gina heads out to try to find the bigfoot again and does so. By which I mean she gets caught by it and taken to its cave. The bigfoot then speaks perfect English, stating that his people speak so thanks to years of spying on campfires. He introduces himself as Oak, the youngest (at age 50 Oprahs... I mean 50) as the other bigfoots appear, much taller than seven foot Oak. He then shows Gina the cave paintings on the wall before telling the story of the Sasquatch, the name given to them by Native Americans who lived in peace with the Sasquatch before white people did what white people do and fucked that up. Oak then notes the loggers who had shot one of the Sasquatch, the now elder of the group, Mica, who still has the scar to prove it. When the other bigfoots came back, they didn't actually throw rocks, that was an exaggeration. But the bigfoots stayed away from humans, never attacking them. But they may have to now because, oh yeah, the forest is getting paved for Henry Creeley's new camp. And now it's Gina's job to stop it, lest the bigfoots invade the old camp and cause havoc.
Gina, obviously, has no idea what she's even supposed to do to stop this, to which Mica tries to eat her, only for Oak to save her in time. After getting Gina away from the other angry bigfoots, Oak mentions that he and the others actually came from the Shadow Zone (ah, there it is) where they were part of a great battle until the recent destruction of the forest broke the barrier. And it was foretold that Gina would be the one to stop the logging. Essentially the Shadow Zone is a parallel universe, one where there are no humans. Where they could live free in their version of the world and the humans lived in theirs. I mean this is one of the better explanations of the Shadow Zone so far, I'll give it that. But if Gina doesn't stop the destruction, things are going to get bad for both sides.
The next day, Gina relays her story to Frank, who suddenly wants to protect her in case she gets kidnapped again. The boys and girls play softball against one another and the ball flies into the forest, only to be found half-chewed. I've heard of Big League Chew before but this is just silly. She goes to Mr. Creeley to relay her story about Big Foot, but he doesn't believe her, thinking she just wants to leave the camp, but given her parents paid, he's not giving that money back. He also shows her his plans for the new camp which will have everything from TVs to air conditioned bunks. He thinks this is sure to have families stay at the camp, even though you can get most of that stuff in the city and there's a YMCA where I've heard that it's fun to stay at. Gina then notices a piece of rock from the caves, complete with cave paintings made by the bigfoots, but Creeley thinks it was just someone painting them to screw with him. He also tells her that if she even thinks of ruining his big plans they won't work.
But Gina does have some people believing her as due to the whole chewed softball incident, the girls (save for Linda) believe that there must be some truth to what Gina said about bigfoots. They, of course, don't have any ideas how to stop Creeley, but note that they hate his plans to destroy the old camp. Mainly because some of them have been going to the camp for years, as have the rest of their families. Henry's parents were beloved as was the camp. People hoped that his sister Darlene would take over the camp as she seemed to at least want to keep the legacy going, but Henry had better lawyers and is now getting his big money camp. Frank shows up to mention that the flagpole's been bent, and later Heidi mentions a car was just stacked on top of another car which, you know, should at least make other people think there's a bigfoot or a big appendage creature of some sort out in the woods, but alas.
That night, Gina's visited by Oak who again tells her that she needs to get this sorted out and that the other bigfoots are the ones behind the destruction. Gina gets frustrated and says she really doesn't care what happens to the forest, which angers Oak who throws the concrete steps of the bunk into the forest. So, yeah. Good work pissing off the one bigfoot who doesn't want to murder you outright. The next day, Gina, Frank and Stacey notice that all of the food in the camp has been destroyed, meaning that the bigfoots are still meaning business. So Frank suggests that while the others go canoeing, he asks Mr. Creeley if he can use their phone to call their dad, who is a reporter. He'll tell their dad about the cave paintings, and that should be enough of an excuse to shut down Creeley's plans. That sounds like a way to settle this all easy like, except that when Gina and the others go Canoeing, she spots Frank getting yoink'd by a bigfoot into the woods.
As the counselors search for Frank, Gina decides that she can use this to her advantage to call her dad. She and Stacy head to Creeley's office, which has the only working phone in the camp. She manages to get a couple messages in before Creeley shows back up. He calls his demo man saying he has to hold off on blowing up the woods until Frank is found, though given he's as cartoonish a supervillain as you can get, he'd rather just blow up a kid if it means getting his pool done. Gina manages to escape into the woods and eventually finds Frank and the bigfoots who are tired of waiting. Mica is about to just tear Frank to shreds, but Oak stops him in time, allowing the kids to escape. They get found by the counselors, as well as Creeley, who blurts out about his plans to destroy everything, which is conveniently a bad time as Gina and Frank's dad shows up. They try to show them the bigfoots and the cave paintings, but there's none to be found. But, we don't get their dad just not believing them on any of this and rather believes Gina mentioned bigfoot and cave paintings to get their dad there to catch Creeley admitting that he'll just go on an endangered species murder spree for his new camp.
A little bit of time passes and things are now great. Gina undergoes an initiation to join the camp, is friends with everyone, and even has no problem staying at camp. Even Henry Creeley's sister is now the new owner of Camp Slumbering Pines. Gina returns to the cave and meets with Oak. The paintings and the bigfoots vanished because they chose not to show themselves as the shadow zone of the bigfoot as they only open it to humans they trust, I guess. He also notes they were never going to eat any of the campers since bigfoots are herbivores. They then hear a howl in the woods. Oak says it sounds like bigfoot from another clan, which already worries Gina.
Well Shadow Zone, you won me back. This one was pretty good. Granted, not the deepest story ever. Even with the bigfoot element the plot is your standard "save the camp/save the forest" story. But what I do like about it is that it does two things well. First in how it presents its protagonist, Gina. She starts as a whiny and unlikable protagonist, then becomes rather likeable and someone who ultimately realizes that things aren't as bad as she thought. It's what I like most about Shadow Zone's protagonists. They have strong character arcs where they ultimately come to the self realization that they're either being the problem, or that their situation isn't as bad as they make it out to be. The other thing the book does well is actually having a decent use for the Shadow Zone. In this case having it work as a parallel universe where the bigfoot live in their own world and the humans live in theirs. A world that can only stay in balance so long as it never gets disturbed. It's a solid way to use the idea of the bigfoot mythos as well.
Gina's a decent protagonist. Like I stated, she starts awful but grows and evolves as the story progresses. Frank is mostly just there in the story, but is important for some plot elements, as is Stacey, which I do like the little friendship she has with Gina. How Gina underestimates her but in the end they do feel like better friends. Linda and Rebecca mostly exist, though the book has Linda have feelings for Frank, so that's at least something. That gives Rebecca our Sup0erfluous Clay award. Heidi and Tom are also decent teen characters, even if she's mostly here for exposition.
Henry Creeley also works as a solid villain. Just the right amount of buffoonish over the top villainy that makes him easy to hate. Someone who sees no value in nature or camp in itself and would rather a camp more suited for those who don't really want nature, just a place to loaf around. It's not lost that his actions feel in line with Gina's mentality early in the story which again helps make Gina's growth matter. I like Oak and the bigfoot tribe as well. How Oak has to be the peacemaker while Mica and the others are just ready to tear everything apart. Only instead of killing anything, they're more willing to just make threats instead. So we never get a scene of pure horror like Attack of the Mutant Bugs for example. Though I do find it funny that the book has them do all these threats and the counselors are like "probably some prankster". A prankster who can throw a car atop another car but sure.
So, yeah. after last year let me down with One Slimy Summer, we're back in the zone with my enjoyment of this series. It's not a scary book in the slightest, but does use its atmosphere and plot very well to build to an enjoyable book and an easy recommend. Hey, would you look at that. I like the camp book. Who'da thunk? (Woo!) Party Summer is off to a good start. Scream Around the Campfire gets an A.
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