It's time for another trip to Shadyside. So, Fear Street's run with Archway Paperbacks ended in 1997. While he had planned to continue with them, Stine would instead move his series over to Gold Key. However, this would only last a mere four more books before the series would go into limbo. And yes, I'm lore dumping all of this on the second book in the run. Because while I did intend to cover The Stepbrother first, I was all stepped out after my last two Fear Street reviews. And given it's (Woo!) Party Summer month and the second book involves camping, well who am I to resist it? Very rarely has Stine let me down with camping books, so let's see what goes down when we Camp Out.
As the girls drive, they get clipped by Bret, because we need to really hammer it home that he's a piece of shit. They almost go over the side, but manage to make it in time. He tells the girls that he was just having fun and wasn't ACTUALLY trying to kill them. Shaken, the girls head to the nearest Mini-Mart to stock up on food when Maria runs into a handsome boy named Will and his friends, the brothers Daniel and Andrew. They've popped around Shadyside every now and then, but never ran into the girls before. They're also heading to Tyson's Trail and are also planning on climbing the Spur. What a coinkydink. Beth and Ellen are open to them joining them, but Maria still wants it to be girls only and not focused on boys given her breakup and all, so she declines the offer. They talk with the boys and as Daniel fumbles with his backpack, a gun falls out. Also Daniel carries a walking stick around. Oh, but it's not a real gun, just a flare gun. But it doesn't take long for the girls to encounter real guns. After parking the 4X4, they head up the trail only to hear gunshots coming their way. That's on account of hunters in the area.
After surviving near death for the third time at least, the girls continue their trek, just as a convenient storm falls on the area. They try to cross the creek, only to see it's pretty full after some recent storms. As they decide to just camp it out and wait for the creek to shallow, they hear the sound of a bear in the area that's about to attack them... only for it to be Will and his friends because I guess the moral of this book is that all men suck? I mean it's not totally wrong. The boys have some beers and talk about how the brothers plan to leave for Waynesbridge and not work for their father. As the storm passes, the boys use a rubber raft they have to get the girls across the creek. The others get over fine, but Will and Maria get knocked overboard. Will almost drowns, but makes it back to surface in time as the two make it back to shore, only now with no raft as that's lost downstream. After more arguing from the boys, the sextet continue their trip. More rain, which means a muddy hill for them to trudge. It goes well, except for Maria who slips and badly sprains her wrist. So now Maria feels like this whole experience must be cursed. I mean, she does live on Fear Street, being cursed kind of checks out.
Maria wants to go back, but since they're close enough to the campsite, they all decide to head there instead. They make it past the muddy slope, but with it still being stormy and Maria already pretty beaten up from the experience, Will offers to just stop for the night, but Daniel says it's wiser to be at the campsite and not in the middle of the woods. Maria, who already is paranoid that everyone, especially Ellen and Beth, thinks of her as a wimp, says they should just trudge onward. Which would have been a good idea for her... had she not then learned from Daniel that their campsite is atop a cliff. With Maria having one working hand, she has to be lifted up. The other five go up and start to pull her up with a rope, but have to stop her at a ledge so they can catch their breath. Because I guess five people lifting up one teenage girl is very demanding work. The rope almost gives way and Maria almost falls, but it was tightened up just fine so that means she manages to get up. Also I know this was an issue with most Fear Street books, but this is laden with chapter stingers. Methinks Stine took the worst traits of Goosebumps and carried them over to Fear Street.
They all make it to camp with the boys partaking in their beer while the girls opt out. Will and Daniel are still at odds with one another as we learn that Will is more a friend of Andrew's. He doesn't know Daniel that well and it's part of the reason for their current friction. Everyone goes to sleep, but Maria hears some sort of strange noise that doesn't sound human. But given the japes from earlier, she doesn't buy it as anything more than the boys being drunk nuisances. The next morning however, Will is nowhere to be found, with Daniel saying that he just left overnight after the boys had a bit of a row. So Andrew and Daniel are setting out to look for him. In the commotion, Beth spots a bunny rabbit and wants to take a picture of it. But as Ellen gets into position, she sees something on a ledge near the bottom of the cliff. It's Will, or that is to say Will's CORPSE! They all assume that Will must have fallen off the previous night. Surely he wasn't pushed off, heavens no. What is this, an R.L. Stine book? Ellen heads down and checks Will's body. He's dead alright, but it seems like he didn't just fall off. Because Ellen notices large bruises over his body, oh and Daniel's walking stick underneath him. Look, I know they're dumb drunk teens and all, but for fuck's sake hide your evidence better.
Daniel says that Will was in a mood the previous night and started fighting him and Andrew. Daniel defended himself with the walking stick. Also the brothers knew he fell already and were going to leave him for dead. Ellen says she's heading down to get help, but Daniel pulls out a knife and plans to cut her rope. Also Andrew pulls out the flare gun, which he'll totally use on the girls if they don't cooperate. They force Ellen to go back up, lest there be more 'accidents'. As Ellen gets up, the brothers decide that they have no choice but to kill the girls. They know too much. The girls try to convince them that they won't say anything but that doesn't work. And given it's daylight AKA there's still like 70+ pages left in this book, they can't exactly kill the girls right now, someone would probably see them. Daniel is ready to stab them and get it over with, but Maria suggests she be their hostage while they rent a getaway raft using Maria's mother's credit card and leave Beth and Ellen tied up. Of course, once they get the raft, the brothers plan to get out at the safe zone and let Maria fall to her death at Rocky Falls. So, you know, not the most ideal plan, but it's not instant death I guess.
Ultimately the brothers take all three girls and head to the rental shop, all while leaving Will's stuff behind to make it look more like an isolated accident. Not realizing that they left Ellen's tent there, which has her address listed, so maybe a ranger will save them, maybe they'll already be dead. It's more of a gamble. They arrive at the rental shop and Maria orders a raft. While being given the receipt, she writes on it that she's been kidnapped by a pair of killers, but the cashier never even reads it. So that was pointless... for now I'm guessing. The five go in the raft and ride through the rapids. Maria manages to punch Andrew in the face, but it doesn't faze him that much. Before he can do anything to her, the rapids get stronger and the group try to keep the raft afloat. Unfortunately Ellen ends up falling overboard. But Maria manages to save her in time before she drowns. Maria manages to knock the flare gun out of Andrew's hand and dives into the water. Unfortunately for her, Daniel jumps into the water and chases after her. She manages to make it to the road and is almost hit by Bret The Freak. She tells him about everything, and he says that it will be okay... Oh, and he's friends with Daniel and Andrew, so yeah. Okay for them, not her.
So yeah, these were the boys that Bret was camping with. Daniel tells him about Will's death and their plan to kill the girls at the falls and he's cool with doing that. Daniel then says that Beth and Ellen are already dead, but that was a chapter stinger joke. I miss the days when his chapter endings were just "Are there any more potatoes?" They're still with Andrew. Bret grabs his backpack and the three head back to the area. Beth and Ellen are still on the raft, which will head right out to the falls. As they get ready to throw Maria in, she continues to fight them off. But Bret then goes for his backpack and grabs the ax from earlier. He raises up the ax... and smashes Andrew over the head. Daniel then stabs Bret in the arm, causing him to drop the ax, which Maria grabs and bonks the bottom of over Andrew's head. She frees Ellen and Beth, but Daniel returns, ready to finish her off, having seemingly killed Bret. But as Daniel gets on the raft, Maria escapes in time and cuts the rope sending Daniel and the raft sailing over the falls.
As Maria tries to calm down, a ranger shows up, having been tipped off from the note earlier. She mentions that Daniel went over the falls and that Bret tried to help her. Bret's still alive, and says that when he saw her and learned what happened, he knew he had to stop them, but Maria managed to do it herself. She kisses him on the cheek and I guess we're cool after the whole attempted vehicular assault and, you know, ax to the face.
The girls return home after the experience. As Maria heads to her house, her mother greets her with some great news. The family are all going to go camping for two weeks! Irony like that, I tell ya, it cuts like an ice ax.
This might be one of the more well structured Fear Street books. It starts very quick and constantly builds its story well with action set piece after action set piece. Of course it takes a while for the plot to get into horror territory, but the first half is always putting Maria and the girls in one horrific situation after another. And the second half is just as action packed and thrilling. Although, I could tell from a mile away that Bret was actually going to be our good guy of the story. It makes sense that he'd follow along with them until he could try to help Maria, Beth and Ellen escape. So yeah, far from the most shocking twist. Does it mean he's fully changed and isn't the weirdo from the beginning of the book? Hard to really tell, but I'm guessing he never actually murdered anyone before, even with his history of shitty behavior, so that makes him better than Andrew and Daniel by default I guess.
Maria is a great protagonist. If you know these blogs well, you know I love when a character starts meek and afraid and becomes braver throughout the story. Granted, her shift to brave badass really comes from being in constant peril, which I could see some people looking at this as a case of Stine relying too heavily on "females in peril" tropes. But her being the one to try to control the situation, and fight back when she has a chance makes her character shift one worth reading through. Unfortunately I do feel Ellen and Beth fall too far into the background. Ellen less so, but Beth becomes the Superfluous Clay of the group. Only really being here because we need three girls to be three hostages for two/three boys. Will is likeable, but really just here to be our corpse of the book to really set the story in motion. I guess someone has to be, so the one boy less likely to commit a crime is our sacrificial lamb.
Daniel and Andrew work as a pair of villains. Two teens in over their head over a murder they caused and try as hard as they can to control their situation and inevitable death of the girls. Though, call it a bit morbid of me to say it, what really stopped them from sending Ellen and Beth over the falls first, then throwing Maria down after they caught her? I mean other than the need to fill pages, of course, and give us a happy ending. Though, again, I can chalk it up to dumb teens in over their head like I said prior. Ones who are trying to plan this whole thing in real time and not putting other options into consideration. Also Bret is fine as our herring, but given how these books often work I never thought for a second he'd end up being evil and could see the twist of him being good coming a mile away. It's a well worn out trope for Fear Street, especially almost a decade into the series as this book was. Again, doesn't excuse him from being kind of an asshole, but I chalk it up with him being with the wrong crowd and him being more of a guy who doesn't understand boundaries or the concept of taking jokes too far.
I love the setting of this book. Deep in a mountainous forest, lots of hazards to deal with, from muddy slopes to hazardous cliffs to a deadly river. It's probably the best use of this kind of setting in a Fear Street book since maybe The Overnight, which was a super early book in the series. I don't know if it's personal bias for some reason, which is odd because I have never camped out in my life, but I think any time a story is set in a wooded or camp area my interest in it heightens. Maybe deep down I just feel that they make for good stories. Here, the story is ultimately very straightforward, perhaps a bit too straightforward, but the setting really helps heighten the quality. Also thankfully it's just a kidnapping story and not worse. Though if this were Pike it would definitely go the worst possible routes. More importantly, does this really feel like a NEW Fear Street? I mean, not really. Though then again that name is really only there because of the move to Gold Key and not so much because this is a new more daring R.L. Stine. I still have to read the others to see if there's a feeling of newness, but it's not so much in here.
So, yeah, really liked this one. Not the most unique story ever, even for Fear Street, and the main twist of the plot you could see coming a mile away. And your taste will vary again if "females in constant peril" is a sticking point. But, I mean, this IS Fear Street after all. But its protagonist is great, it's full of action and suspense, and does enough with the setting to make it feel fresher than a lot of Fear Street books. Though I could have done without damn near every chapter being a Goosebumps-esque stinger. Stine really needed to calm down on those. An easy recommend regardless. Camp Out gets an A-.
IT WAS ACCEPTABLE IN THE 90S: The Dating Game, Snickers, The older way of using credit cards
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