Josiah's Reviews > The Horror at Camp Jellyjam

Though twelve-year-old Wendy and her eleven-year-old brother Elliot aren't hot on the idea of galavanting across the country with their parents all summer vacation, an accidentally detached trailer section of the family vehicle sends them barreling off into a summer camp experience they'll never forget. Separated from their parents when the trailer car they're riding in smashes into a wooded area by the interstate, Wendy and Elliot are lucky they weren't injured. And fortunately for them (or so they think), the trailer landed right next to a summer camp packed with hundreds of other kids. Buddy, the first camp counselor they meet, welcomes Wendy and her brother to Camp Jellyjam, promising to telephone their parents while the two kids have fun at the camp until their mother and father come get them. It's an opportunity for Wendy and Elliot to have some excitement this summer after all the mind-numbing hours spent staring out the car window with nothing to do. The kids of Camp Jellyjam are fanatically committed to winning every camp game they play, but Wendy makes fast friends with the other girls in her cabin anyway, and hyper-competitive Elliot fits in immediately with the boys. Maybe their scary encounter with the out-of-control trailer will turn out to be a positive thing.

But Wendy soon notices that the counselors at Camp Jellyjam are acting suspiciously. Why are they so dead-set on the kids playing to win, not just have fun? And why does every camper who earns six King Coins from winning the games quietly disappear the next day, after being celebrated in the nightly Winners Walk parade? As days pass and Wendy hears nothing from her parents, she decides to snoop around and see if she can unearth answers to her questions about Camp Jellyjam. The camp experience was a good time at first, but now she's worried and just wants to go home. Unfortunately for Wendy, leaving Camp Jellyjam isn't nearly as easy as joining it. There's a dark secret hidden in its bowels, an evil force that threatens to trap Wendy, Elliot, and hundreds of other kids at Camp Jellyjam permanently. Does Wendy have the courage and wits to win a contest with far higher stakes than a coveted King Coin? Can she solve the mystery of the camp and its oddball counselors before the deadly endgame is completed?

I'll admit, The Horror at Camp Jellyjam isn't R.L. Stine's finest work. The logic of the story's scenario, both on the surface and once we learn the plot's secrets, is somewhat tenuous, and the fantastic twists that come out of left field in most successful Goosebumps entries are missing in action here. But it's an entertaining read, with characters I liked spending time with, a few elements of surprise, and an ending that provides satisfactory closure. For these reasons, I recommend The Horror at Camp Jellyjam to Goosebumps fans. If you loved the rest of the series, you'll probably get a kick out of this book, too.