The Curse Of Camp Cold Lake (2005) - Plot & Excerpts
Yeah, still thinking Goosebumps is better than Fear Street. Stine just has the dynamic between characters going better in these books, there’s more development (a feat considering they’re significantly shorter than the Fear Street books) and they’re creepier. Sure, you go into a Goosebumps book thinking it’s going to be a little silly but these really remind me of old Are You Afraid of the Dark? episodes where there’s a creepy build-up and sometimes there’s a resolution and sometimes there isn’t. Sometimes silly but usually always hitting the mark with fear. Seriously, I just like these better.Sarah isn’t really that great of a character. Super whiny and spastic but at least she’s self-aware. She’s not deluding herself when she forced her new bunk mate out of an already chosen bed because she just can’t sleep next to an open window and she doesn’t listen to people because she feels she knows better but immediately regrets it when she realizes she’s wrong. I really don’t feel bad for her when people start teasing her because she is difficult to like. She does start backsliding a bit when she attempts to drown herself in a bid to get people to feel bad for her and like her (an extreme stretch that even Sarah recognizes) because, really, she is where she is with people because she’s socially inept, she recognizes it, but doesn’t do anything to help herself at all.When her near-death drowning experience opens her world up to ghosts things start getting a little creepy. Like RETURN OF THE MUMMY, THE CURSE OF CAMP COLD LAKE has a slow build and then the supernatural is brought in in one large lump sum toward the end. It gets difficult to tell whether what’s happening with the ghost is inside or outside of Sarah’s head and I like that type of horror. It shakes things up a bit when the plot starts to make the main character a little unreliable but everything does eventually settle itself.The ending, I think, was the best part. This is one of those stories without a resolution and a solid twist ending that I certainly didn’t see coming. Looking back on it it actually doesn’t really fit and it’s kind of a standard Stine out of nowhere ending but considering I wasn’t rolling my eyes through the whole book I’m far more forgiving of it here than I am when it happens in a Fear Street book. I had far better characters to read, a much more developed setting and story, and something far creepier to work with. Instead of piling on to a bunch of negatives it’s only a lone negative in a bunch of positives. Far more palatable.I’ve never been to camp but this is what I imagined it would be in terms of dynamic between campers and councilors and the mandatory fun you’re supposed to have. Stine set a really good scene and then gave me a good creeper of a story on top of that. A haunted camp? How Jason Voorhees. Minus the body count and for a younger crowd.4.5
Didn't like this one at all. It sounded so great, but it turned out to be horrendously boring and annoying.This is mostly the fault of our main character. Dear Lord, that girl has an attitude and such a spoiled little brat. Constantly whining and wanting to get her way, not caring about anyone else until, of course, it is too late.I hated her plan. Oh hey, let's make everyone love me. Guess what, I am going to drown myself. Because that is sooooo super awesome. *rolls eyes* Yeah sure girl, that is a brilliant idea.I am not one to say this often: But she deserved all the stuff that came over her. I didn't feel anything of sadness for her.I also didn't like any of the people in the camp. The bunkmates, the counsellors. On the counsellors, I really disliked them, totally not checking the other side of a story, immediately believing the others and not listening to our main character. Sorry, but you as counsellor have a job to listen and to not pick one side immediately.There were also various parts in the story that just didn't match up. Like with Briana or with Della doing stuff, yet no one noticing. I was like: Wait? She is skiing on the lake, something happens, blababa and no one noticed? No one sees things go wrong? It was very strange, especially considering that they are so big on safety warnings and rules. The ending, meh, disappointed much, especially considering (view spoiler)[I am wondering how everyone still saw that girl, unless I missed something, but I just checked back, and there are various things like high fives, chats and other things happening, yet that girl is dead?? Um, plot hole much? Or is everyone suddenly psychic, though they couldn't be because they can't see Della. Super confusing and also a reason for a lot of minus points. (hide spoiler)]
What do You think about The Curse Of Camp Cold Lake (2005)?
Sarah has just arrived at Camp Cold Lake with nobody wanting to be her partner. Well, there is one person Della, whose been waiting forever for someone to be her partner for a long time. Things become more mysterious when Sarah hears of a girl mysteriously vanishing here. This becomes to spook her when mysterious death events nearly kill her. Until one day she sees someone that wants Sarah to be hers forever. Della saves her but it seems that there was more than 1 person who was waiting along time for this moment to come. This book really gave me some interest when there were 2 girls who wanted Sarah to be with her forever. I expected only 1 but who knew that Della was waiting in the perfect time to snatch her away.
—Wing Kit
I remember this one is my very first Goosebumps series I read and I was like stalking the other books ever since. I don’t know why, but on my childhood days I found horror stories are thrillingly inviting and I’ll be so eager to dig on stories about ghosts and such. And The Curse of Camp Cold Lake was really is succeed to bring the goose bumps out of me. When I was reading this back then, I was like hypnotized and got stuck until the very end of the page. Even when the story had finished, it took me awhile to come back to my real world (I’m not kidding). I was scare, I was imagining I’m the one haunted, I was overwhelmed. But still I find myself fall (by the thrill) almost for all works by R.L. Stine.But I found myself do not or don’t want to read horror novels quiet recently (or maybe it's already been too long, seriously). I was wondering if I should relive the ‘taste’…
—Prema
Goosebumps The Curse Of Camp Cold Lake is a story in the goosebumps series thatnis from a girl named Sarah's perspective. Sarah is sent to Camp Cold Lake for the summer. Sarah isn't having any fun at the camp and she believes that everyone hates her. So she pretends to drown in the lake so everyone would feel sorry for her. Instead she finds a spirit who begins watching her and driving her crazy. Sarah fights to break from the grip of the clingy spirit.I really enjoy reading the goosebumps series. I know they are not a book at my level and they are actually below what i should be reading. Sometimes I really enjoy reading an easy book just to get past a more complex book that i may have read. Though the story is not challenging it still sends chills down my back when I read the twisted events that happen throughout the story. Like how before she comes from her fake drowning a spirit begins to bother her and eventually she sees the spirit every where she goes.
—Kimmara
