Terror at Camp Silverside

REVIEW

Terror at Camp Silverside – Danielle Meuthing

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Summer has finally arrived! Three whole months without early morning alarm clocks, homework, and claustrophobic school bus rides is pretty much every kid’s dream, and Cammie Winters has been relishing the idea of doing exactly what she wants during this sacred time of year. Imagine her utter dismay when she learns her mother has kicked the summer off by signing her and her brother, Joey, up for a mandatory week of “fun in the sun” at Camp Silverside, bunking with most of the same kids she’d hoped to catch a break from while school was out of session. As it turns out, moms require an occasional break, too, and no amount of reasoning will interfere with her mother’s hard-earned respite. Resigned to a week that’s likely to feel like a month in H-E-double toothpicks, Cammie boards yet another bus, bound for a destination not of her own choosing and more than a little bitter that her brother seems to be taking it all in stride. Of course, she values her privacy more than he ever would, so it probably isn’t such a big deal to him.

They haven’t even arrived at camp when Cammie’s privacy is invaded by a strange girl named Alice, who has a penchant for silently staring while saying very little. It’s unnerving to say the least. It only gets worse once Cammie realizes they’ve been assigned to the same cabin, and Alice occupies the bunk directly above hers. Rounding out the occupancy of the Sunfish Cabin are the camp’s resident mean girls, Rachel, Sonja, and Laura, as well as Darci, their bubbly, red-headed counselor. When it rains, it absolutely pours. But after seeing how the snobbish trio of friends mock and belittle Alice, Cammie is compelled to take the girl under her wing. She’s never had much patience for bullying, and strange as Alice may seem, she doesn’t deserve to be the butt of some entitled girls’ endless jokes. To paraphrase Willie Shakespeare, misery most certainly DOES make for strange bedfellows.

And that’s when things start to get weird.

Just like a scene from an early Friday the 13th movie, a crazy man interrupts the introductory meeting warning the campers of imminent doom. There’s something in the lake that’s been abducting campers throughout the years. It’s the sort of local legend you’d expect to hear while huddled around a campfire in the dark, but this is bright and early, and the man is dead serious. The camp’s proprietor, Ms. Hines, obviously knows the man, and after a tense exchange, he scurries away, leaving the campers to wonder what all the hubbub is about. Ms. Hines certainly isn’t telling—it’s the family business at stake, after all.

When Alice nonchalantly reveals the man is her Uncle Gus, the former groundskeeper for Camp Silverside, Cammie can’t fight the compulsion to unlock whatever secrets Ms. Hines seems intent to bury, and she’ll enlist all the help she can get—even from the mean girls she barely tolerates.

Meuthing does a fantastic job capturing the essence of that dreaded summer camp experience most of us have experienced and none of us wanted, spinning her version of a cryptid tale that is a loving homage to those who inspired her as a child, R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike. Fans of those authors’ books will find much to love here, as will fans of fellow Ohio indie author, Scott Donnelly, who writes in a similar vein. Nicely paced page-turner is exactly the sort of book that can lure a non-reader into reading—and actually enjoying the experience!

I know I did.