Official Review: Camp Hell by Allen Stanfill
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WickedKitty
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- Latest Review: "Camp Hell" by Allen Stanfill
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Official Review: Camp Hell by Allen Stanfill
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Camp Hell" by Allen Stanfill.]
4 out of 4 stars
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Are you ready to dive into a supernatural thriller of horror and mayhem? Can you handle reading about Bobby's summer of hell as you get closer to finding out the truth? I was ready to walk down that path, and I didn't want to stop reading. Camp Hell by Allen Stanfill creates a vivid picture of death, destruction and dismay. I felt like I was watching a horror movie in my mind.
Bobby Sikes spends his days in an insane asylum trying to forget that summer 15 years ago, until a stranger visits him and asks him to relive those awful days so long ago. Bobby tells his tale, thinking the stranger will run in horror, but is proven wrong each day. Who is this stranger, and how come he is the only one that believes Bobby's gruesome tale? Bobby hopes he will find the answers to his questions.
I traveled with Bobby as he retells his story of summer camp, 1983. Something didn't feel right to him. Bobby had been having vivid and lifelike nightmares even since his parents told him he was going. He felt that something awful was going to happen; but there was no choice, his parents wanted Bobby to enjoy his last summer at camp with his friends. Bobby meets up with two of his three camp friends, Tommy and Chubs. Bobby is curious where John Boy is, but no one seems to want to talk about it. So it begins, as Bobby and his friends head to camp one last time together. Things start out as normal, campers and counselors on buses, heading to another year of summer camp. The buses pull up to the middle of the woods and let everyone off. The counselors, Mark, Steve and Candice, announce they are hiking to a new camp this year. A newly rebuilt camp with some dark history. Halfway through the hike, night starts to approach and the counselors decide to set up camp.
The character Mark is written as a very confident person with quite a mean personality. He has his lackey, Steve, barking out orders and getting the campers to see things Mark's way. The only saving grace this year at camp is counselor Candice, the level headed character. The new kid this year, Nick, doesn't know how things are run at the camp and mouths off to Mark. Bobby (with no agreement from his friends) decides to help Nick out about the unspoken rules of camp. This doesn't stop Nick from mouthing off and lands all four of them in trouble. Mark sends them off to go collect firewood in the dark woods. As they head out into the unknown, they begin to hear footsteps and laughter of children. An evil presence is felt closing in on them. They rush back to the camping spot greeted with looks of confusion, no one else heard anything.
The major theme in the book is bullying and the repercussions it has. This is one of the main reasons Bobby doesn't want to go back to camp. Bobby and his friends are bullied by four other campers: Johnny, Spike, Big Tony, and Eddy. They always make camp days a living hell. Besides the bullying done at the camp, the campfire story told to the campers the night of the hike to camp reveals the real reason the camp had to be rebuilt. A boy named Albert was bullied in this camp, but no one ever helped him. He was bullied to the point that he finally stood up for himself, which turned out to be a bad idea. The bullies went crazy on Albert, beating him and leaving him for dead. Rage consumed Albert and he snapped, burning the camp to the ground. This is only the beginning of the book. Stanfill paints a grotesque image for you of the repercussions that bullying has on anyone.
I felt a bit sad reading this book. So many people are bullied every day and hardly anyone steps in to stop it or help the person out. People get pushed too far and snap. Maybe they finally stand up for themselves, maybe they take revenge on the bully or bullies, or worse. This book touches on all sides of the repercussions, I felt, and you're able to see the different results that could happen. Aside from the bullying and the repercussions on both ends, I still loved the book. It reminded me of a slasher movie in every sense. I screamed out a time or two: “Don't go in there!” and “What are you doing?!”. The writing was descriptive and engaging. There is a bit of foul language, though. I got an understanding of being a teenage boy while surviving a summer of hell. There were a couple of loose ends, but overall a winner for me. I feel that people who love the '80's slasher flicks, horror, and violently gruesome scenes would get a kick out of this book. The story swaps back and forth from 1983 and current time, which I'm not really a huge fan of that style. However, I felt this book had a smooth way of transitioning between the two. I know there are some that don't like stories like this, but I still encourage you to at least try this one. I rate this book a 4 out of 4.
******
Camp Hell
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4 out of 4 stars
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Are you ready to dive into a supernatural thriller of horror and mayhem? Can you handle reading about Bobby's summer of hell as you get closer to finding out the truth? I was ready to walk down that path, and I didn't want to stop reading. Camp Hell by Allen Stanfill creates a vivid picture of death, destruction and dismay. I felt like I was watching a horror movie in my mind.
Bobby Sikes spends his days in an insane asylum trying to forget that summer 15 years ago, until a stranger visits him and asks him to relive those awful days so long ago. Bobby tells his tale, thinking the stranger will run in horror, but is proven wrong each day. Who is this stranger, and how come he is the only one that believes Bobby's gruesome tale? Bobby hopes he will find the answers to his questions.
I traveled with Bobby as he retells his story of summer camp, 1983. Something didn't feel right to him. Bobby had been having vivid and lifelike nightmares even since his parents told him he was going. He felt that something awful was going to happen; but there was no choice, his parents wanted Bobby to enjoy his last summer at camp with his friends. Bobby meets up with two of his three camp friends, Tommy and Chubs. Bobby is curious where John Boy is, but no one seems to want to talk about it. So it begins, as Bobby and his friends head to camp one last time together. Things start out as normal, campers and counselors on buses, heading to another year of summer camp. The buses pull up to the middle of the woods and let everyone off. The counselors, Mark, Steve and Candice, announce they are hiking to a new camp this year. A newly rebuilt camp with some dark history. Halfway through the hike, night starts to approach and the counselors decide to set up camp.
The character Mark is written as a very confident person with quite a mean personality. He has his lackey, Steve, barking out orders and getting the campers to see things Mark's way. The only saving grace this year at camp is counselor Candice, the level headed character. The new kid this year, Nick, doesn't know how things are run at the camp and mouths off to Mark. Bobby (with no agreement from his friends) decides to help Nick out about the unspoken rules of camp. This doesn't stop Nick from mouthing off and lands all four of them in trouble. Mark sends them off to go collect firewood in the dark woods. As they head out into the unknown, they begin to hear footsteps and laughter of children. An evil presence is felt closing in on them. They rush back to the camping spot greeted with looks of confusion, no one else heard anything.
The major theme in the book is bullying and the repercussions it has. This is one of the main reasons Bobby doesn't want to go back to camp. Bobby and his friends are bullied by four other campers: Johnny, Spike, Big Tony, and Eddy. They always make camp days a living hell. Besides the bullying done at the camp, the campfire story told to the campers the night of the hike to camp reveals the real reason the camp had to be rebuilt. A boy named Albert was bullied in this camp, but no one ever helped him. He was bullied to the point that he finally stood up for himself, which turned out to be a bad idea. The bullies went crazy on Albert, beating him and leaving him for dead. Rage consumed Albert and he snapped, burning the camp to the ground. This is only the beginning of the book. Stanfill paints a grotesque image for you of the repercussions that bullying has on anyone.
I felt a bit sad reading this book. So many people are bullied every day and hardly anyone steps in to stop it or help the person out. People get pushed too far and snap. Maybe they finally stand up for themselves, maybe they take revenge on the bully or bullies, or worse. This book touches on all sides of the repercussions, I felt, and you're able to see the different results that could happen. Aside from the bullying and the repercussions on both ends, I still loved the book. It reminded me of a slasher movie in every sense. I screamed out a time or two: “Don't go in there!” and “What are you doing?!”. The writing was descriptive and engaging. There is a bit of foul language, though. I got an understanding of being a teenage boy while surviving a summer of hell. There were a couple of loose ends, but overall a winner for me. I feel that people who love the '80's slasher flicks, horror, and violently gruesome scenes would get a kick out of this book. The story swaps back and forth from 1983 and current time, which I'm not really a huge fan of that style. However, I felt this book had a smooth way of transitioning between the two. I know there are some that don't like stories like this, but I still encourage you to at least try this one. I rate this book a 4 out of 4.
******
Camp Hell
View: on Bookshelves | on Barnes and Noble
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Latest Review: "Camp Hell" by Allen Stanfill
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kimmyschemy06
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- Latest Review: Kazi Boku by M. Poyhonen
Sounds like a very interesting book. It seems, though, that it is not for the fainthearted. Good job on the review. Congratulations to Allen Stanfill.
Latest Review: Kazi Boku by M. Poyhonen
