Book Review of Welcome to Camp Nightmare (Goosebumps Book 9) by R. L. Stine
Welcome to Camp Nightmare by R. L. Stine is the story of a camp called Nightmoon. Billy, the teenage hero of Welcome to Camp Nightmare, realises that there’s something singularly odd about the Camp Nightmoon when one by one, his friends go missing. On reaching the camp Billy, along with three other boys - Mike, Jay and Collin – is allotted Bunk 4. Uncle Al, the camp director asks them to stay away from the Forbidden Camp. From the first night itself, accidents start happening. Mike gets bitten by a snake that was lying hidden under the sheets. To their shock, they discover that there is no nurse in the camp. Larry, one of the camp counsellors, asks Mike to wash and bandage the wound. Mike obeys him. Late at night, Jay takes Roger, another camper – and goes to the Forbidden Bunk for a little adventure. After they are gone, they hear a blood-curdling howl coming from the direction of the Forbidden Bunk. Soon Jay returns. He seems to be in a state of shock. There is no sign of Roger. He tells them about an animal – Sabre. The animal has killed Roger – says Jay. Later when they inquire about their missing friend, they are told that there has never been any boy named Roger in the camp.
Mike, because of the snakebite goes
to Uncle Al for help. He too doesn’t return. After this, the boys go missing
one by one, till one day, Billy’s the only one left out. Billy writes about the
horrors of Nightmoon camps in his letter to his parents. When he goes to
deliver it, he finds all his earlier letters in a mailbag – undelivered. He
tries to call his parents from a payphone he noticed somewhere in the camp. To
his utter horror he discovers the payphone that hung on the wall of the lodge, is
actually fake. They don’t want us to call
out – the chilling realisation suddenly came to him. Back in Bunk 4, the
bunks of Jay and Collin are now occupied by two strangers. Even those new boys
go missing on a canoe trip. Billy now seriously considers escaping from the
Nightmoon camp.
Welcome to Camp Nightmare by R. L. Stine is the 9th
book from the famous Goosebumps horror series. The plot was real thick,
suspense was high. I found this book quite entertaining. However, I didn’t like
how it ended. It was as if during the concluding chapters the author was in a
hurry to get over with it. Moreover, it was a happy ending. I hate it when
horror stories have happy endings. A story that was spiked with tension and
horror all along, should have ended in a different way. However, considering its
target readers - the children - the story of Welcome to Camp Nightmare by R. L.
Stine doesn’t look that bad at all.
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