In our travels through Goosebumps, there have been two constants. Stine's camp stories are usually great, and Stine's ghost stories, when he has an idea that he believes in, can usually be his finest works. But if you put the two together, can it be a Reese's cup of quality? Let's find out with Ghost Camp AKA Camp No-Skin.
COVER STORY
I really love this cover. It's one of Tim Jacobus' finest works honestly. In terms of scariness, it's mild. The concept of ghostly clothes moving can be a bit freaky, so it works on that end. But my god, the details. Tim gets to draw his great trees as usual, mixed in with the foggy background, the dark blue skies, and, something that Tim will incorporate a lot more in these later books, random bolts of lightning. Granted, there is one glaring error, that the one normal looking person is a girl, despite the protagonists both being boys, but her frightened expression is still a great sell. Top notch stuff. Also, I know Tim loves his Converse Hi-Tops, but Man...
STORY
Harry Altman and his younger brother Alex are our protagonists for this story. Both kids are on the bus headed to Camp Spirit Moon for the summer. Alex almost gets sick from the bobbing and bouncing of the bus, but it turns out that Alex has an amazing singing voice, which helps him get his mind off of potential chunk blowing. He whines about not going to music camp, but their lazy parents signed them up for camp late into the summer and Camp Spirit Moon was conveniently the only one with any openings left, so T.S.
They make it to Camp Spirit Moon, but despite having everything they need from canoes to baseball and archery, there seems to be one thing missing: other people. Soon, they get greeted by a 17-year old kid named Chris, a counselor for the camp. He tells them that the campers here like to hide and scare the new campers as a sign of initiation. They also meet a big, burly, booming voiced man named Uncle Marv, the head of the camp. Last time we dealt with an uncle in these camp books, we ended up with secret aliens. Not the case in this one though. He introduces the kids to their cabin and then hypes up the night's campfire ceremony, acting rather ominous about them being able to survive it. As the kids unpack, they suddenly notice strange blue slime puddles all over the place.
At the campfire ceremony, they're greeted by all of the other campers, who are all wearing similar white camp uniforms, save for Alex and Harry. They're all roasting hot dogs over the fire, and Harry seems to hit it off with one girl named Lucy. As they roast their wieners, Harry's falls into the fire. Lucy then sticks her hand right into the fire and grabs it for him, which totally isn't a red flag situation at all, no sir. After realizing there's flames on her hand, she then reacts with pain. Meanwhile, Alex is having a great time, he recently met up with a kid named Elvis McGraw. Yes, there really is a kid in Goosebumps named Elvis. I'd complain, but at least he's not named Bird or Hat. However, unlike that other Elvis, this Elvis has a terrible singing voice. Oh, the irony! During the campfire songs, Harry tries to sneak into the woods. Lucy catches up with him and is about to request something before Uncle Marv drags them back to the fire.
He tells them a ghost story of a group of campers going through the forest, when they hear a strange thumping noise that gets louder and louder. It turns out that they're actually on top of a giant monster which eats the campers whole. Harry laughs it off as just being a funny story, but Elvis says that it's all true. Lucy also seems a bit unnerved. But that's not Uncle Al's only story. He then tells another ghost story, about the Ghost Camp. On a camp, coincidentally like this one, a group of campers were minding their own business, when suddenly in the middle of the night a strange fog covered the camp. A fog so powerful and noxious that it wound up killing everyone on the camp. The campers were now ghosts trapped forever on the campgrounds, unable to leave. Oh my god... That means the camp was conveniently near Dark Falls from Welcome to Dead House! DAMN YOU, PLASTICS FACTORY! HOW MANY LIVES HAVE YOU CLAIMED!!!
Or it's some other act of god as a convenient fog begins to overwhelm the camp. They all sing to try to calm themselves down, but eventually the fog clears and all the campers have vanished. Harry, being the pessimist that he is, claims that this just has to be another joke. The fog's just a smoke machine or something. And sure enough, all the campers exit their cabins laughing. It was a joke, all right. Harry and Alex return to their cabin that night, but Harry sees even more puddles of blue slime all around. Harry thinks he sees one of his bunkmates Joey floating in the air, so he ends up taking a tumble off the top of the bunk bed in the process. But it was just Joey on his top bunk. When Harry turns on the light however, the other bunk mates panic.
The next day the brothers get their uniforms. Alex and Elvis practice for the camp talent show with another counselor named Veronica. Alex is, as earlier claimed, an amazing singer, but Elvis can't sing a lick. Not even the songs of his more famous namesake. Harry and the other kids are busy setting up a tent, when suddenly the tent pole goes through the foot of a bunk mate named Sam. And again, he doesn't really react from any pain. Sam claims that it must have missed his toes. Harry is starting to get concerned about everything that's happening so far, but is still trying to remain rational and calm. Too bad he didn't factor in Joey stabbing his own neck with a fork and claiming it to be just a trick. Nor does Alex's story about seeing a girl underwater seemingly drowned, but then just rises back to the surface like nothing happened. And it's compounded even worse during a soccer game when he thinks he sees a girl's head fly off after an arrant soccer ball smack. But it seems like it was just the ball, not her head.
Alex and Harry are both in a panic, and with the other campers still trying to scare them, it's not getting any better for the brothers. The next night, after letter writing, the camp engages in a night hike, and... it's a regular, scenic hike. In fact, it's enough to finally get Harry to relax. That is until he gets back to camp and Lucy confesses that she, and the rest of the camp, are ghosts. Uncle Marv's story about the fog was true, and it was this camp that died from the strange occurrence. Those blue slime puddles were protoplasm that was used from the ghosts to make them look alive and to keep up the facade. However, they are forever trapped in this campground. If they try to escape, they vanish forever, becoming part of the fog. Unless of course they can possess a mortal mind. Lucy begs for Harry to let her possess him, but he refuses. She promises to leave his body if they escape, but he still refuses to do so.
He starts to run, but she grabs him, trying to possess his mind. He manages to break free and finds Alex as the two kids try to find a way to escape the camp. They run deep into the woods, trying in vain to find the highway, when they hear a thumping noise. It turns out that Elvis wasn't lying. The monster was real too. The monster almost eats them, when Harry starts saying that he doesn't believe in monsters. And that, somehow, manages to make it disappear. Okay then. But that's the least of their problems as now the entire Spirit Moon camp circles them. Harry tries the "I don't believe in you" thing, but it somehow doesn't work on ghosts. As Elvis grabs at Alex, the others begin to fight with one another over who possesses Harry. Eventually they spin away into the night, giving the boys a chance to escape.
TWIST ENDING
Harry and Alex make their way to the highway, managing to finally escape Camp Spirit Moon. As they walk, Harry notices Alex singing terribly. It turns out that Elvis did possess Alex, and pleads with Harry not to tell.
CONCLUSION
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