The Curse of Camp Cold Lake (Goosebumps #56)

Yet another Goosebumps book about summer camp. Will it be like [b: Welcome to Camp Nightmare|125538|Welcome to Camp Nightmare (Goosebumps, #9)|R.L. Stine|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1390767495s/125538.jpg|2687577]? Will it be a rehash of [b: The Horror at Camp Jellyjam?] or will it be more like [b: Ghost Camp|411446|Ghost Camp (Goosebumps, #45)|R.L. Stine|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328867786s/411446.jpg|400708]? How about none of the above? [a: R.L. Stine|13730|R.L. Stine|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1194380070p2/13730.jpg] managed in [b: The Curse of Camp Cold Lake|125541|The Curse of Camp Cold Lake (Goosebumps, #56)|R.L. Stine|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328866841s/125541.jpg|120906] to write something show more that married [b: Ghost Camp|411446|Ghost Camp (Goosebumps, #45)|R.L. Stine|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328867786s/411446.jpg|400708] to [b: The Horror at Camp Jellyjam|125591|The Horror at Camp Jellyjam (Goosebumps, #33)|R.L. Stine|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328867788s/125591.jpg|120956] and birthed something a bit more original, while still holding the prosaic allure of the before mentioned two titles.

Sarah doesn't care for Camp Cold Lake. She doesn't really like swimming, nor nature, and would rather have spent her summer relaxing or playing with friends. Instead, she's stuck with her brother at a camp where she doesn't really get along with anyone. At first, the meanness of the other campers seems a bit justified. She exposes a girl's asthma when she wants to keep it secret, is a terror about bunking situations, and generally having a bad attitude towards life. When she starts trying to make amends, however, the meanness only doubles down. Finally, she resorts to a last ditch strategy to fake drowning to make the other campers feel bad for her. Only, while faking, she goes a bit too far and meets a ghost that wants to be her camp buddy... forever.

This book was interesting to me because it highlighted the very real issue of cliques and not belonging. The isolation that Sarah felt, while initially deserved, was continued long after it should have been and resulted in her resorting to equally terrible extremes to deal with it. The feelings she felt were ones a lot of people could resort to, and I felt that there was a lesson to be learned from this even though it was wrapped up in layers of typical Goosebumps silliness. show less

## Last one in is a rotten...ghost!

The Curse at Camp Cold Lake is among the creepiest, scariest, most successful and focused Goosebumps stories. It epitomizes the series in a way few entries do -- the cover's perfectly creepy, the title is chilling, and the story sticks to clever scares to get younger readers turning pages. Like so few other entries, it also tackles some significant social issues kids might be facing, too, which is really admirable.

[N.B. This review includes images, and was formatted for my site, dendrobibliography -- located here.]

Sarah and her brother, Aaron, are dropped off for a week of summer camp at Camp Cold Lake. Sarah's a shy, gawky youth who suffers crippling social anxieties that get her into trouble. She show more makes a few verbal blunders and makes quick enemies of her bunkmates, ensuring every moment of her 'vacation' will be miserable, defined by a cycle of bullying behavior by all her bunkmates -- and, of course, her enabling counselors. It can be pretty brutal, but I could easily identify with many of the social blunders.

## They'll feel so guilty. They'll never forgive themselves for the way they treated me.
## After my close call, they'll see how mean they were. And they'll want to be best friends with me.
## We'll all be best friends.

It's a slowburn, this story, and the first half builds up to a defining moment of Sarah getting even the only way she feels she can: She pretends to drown. Only -- and this is one of the best scenes of any Goosebumps novel -- she sort of...does. Briefly. And in that brief moment, she's in a deserted Camp Cold Lake in the midst of an oppressive winter storm. She meets Della, a past Camp Cold Lake camper who died years before, and who's desperate to find a friend. As desperate as Sarah is to make friends, too, she doesn't want to die. She's resuscitated by the counselor on duty, but Della has no plans of letting her new friend get away....

It's excellent for the series -- almost unbelievably so at times. Like just about every Goosebumps novel, however, it ends on a silly twist. It's not as nonsensical as other entries, but it does, I feel, betray some significant characterization and plot points, and detract quite a bit from the creepy buildup. Regardless, this is still one of the best entries for new readers or nostalgic adults who want to see if the series can do its name justice.

## Did things get better when I arrived at the lake for canoeing? Three guesses.
[...Kind of a binary question, isn't it?]

R.L. Stine's Goosebumps (1992–1997):
#55 The Blob That Ate Everyone | # 57 My Best Friend is Invisible show less

The last time I read Goosbumps was when I was in 7th and it feels so good to read it again after a long time.
I should admit, I felt that I might feel the book to be silly but it turned out that I actually enjoyed it!

The main character is a girl named Sarah Maas (one letter away from Sarah J Maas) who hates anything to do with camping, nature blah blah... I think I remember that Stine had characters very similar to Sarah before.....
So, Sarah's parents decide that she and her brother should go the Camp Cold Lake for summer. Sarah doesn't like it. She hopes that she makes some friends at the camp, but her habit of speaking out before thinking and embarrassing others makes it hard for her to make one, instead her cabinmates hate her and show more try to make life hard for her at the camp.
Typical.

Sarah makes terrible decisions but they all felt reasonable to me! As always Stine had me agreeing with the POV, I am not sure how he does it, he just does!

And at the end???

brag mode on:
ohh let me say, I saw the cliffhanger in We hunt the flame waaaay before the ending. I knew Darrell Rivers would be the head girl in the last book. I knew Harry wont stay dead and Percy wont die!! But I have read 21 goosebumps and I still didn't see that coming. The ending was sooooo RL Stinish that it didn't strike me earlier!!

(Miranda Meeks)
And I dont know why but I kept seeing this image in my head when I read the book until the cliffhanger XD.


This was actually, my little brother's library assignment. It's so unfair!! They get good books like this and we get boring books like Oliver Twist :( show less

For a Goodreads installment, and the age level, this is actually an excellent, creepy little thing. The trademark chapter cliffhangers are there as always, but they're not as annoying as usual, and they actually aren't false leads. The story doesn't skip around but follows a natural, quick progression that makes the story fly by and remain interesting all the while. The end is a dark, twisted thing that beats most of the endings of other Goosebumps. There is a surprise twist I really didn't see coming too. Kids, and adults, should enjoy this one.

Decent. Unfortunately the end twist makes no logical sense... but hey, it's Goosebumps, what do you expect?

Main character is whiny, but she sucks so bad you manage to feel sorry for her anyway.

I must admit, after I finished reading this story, I really was scared. I was always frighten I would drown in water.
The girl in the story is a bit braty though, but she really didn't deserve the treatment people were giving her. The tricks the girls in her cabin played on her were beyond a joke, she could have really gotten hurt.
In some ways, I don't blame her for trying to fool everyone into thinking she was dead. They really did treat her badly.

what I like about this book is it is that you cant stop in the middle of the book because you are so exited to find out what is going to happen. This book is an adventure book. It teach you how the people that you expect that they are nice it turn out that the are really no and the people that you didnt expect to be nice for you it turn out they are really nice. so this book really teach you to dont guged people by what they look.