Goosebumps – The Curse of Camp Cold Lake by R.L. Stine is Goosebumps book 56 in the original series order. The Curse of Camp Cold Lake is the fourth Goosebumps book to take place at a camp. The earlier camp books are Welcome to Camp Nightmare, The Horror at Camp JellyJam, and Ghost Camp. The Camp Series has been my favorite setting in the Goosebumps world. The Curse of Camp Cold Lake is a ghost story. Sarah pulls a prank to make the campers think she drowned herself. The prank goes too far when Sarah sees a glimpse of the ghost world. She meets a dead camper who wants to be her buddy when no living camper does. Sarah is haunted by a ghost who wants to be her buddy for all eternity. The scares are snakes, drowning, seeing ghosts, spiders, and alienation. The story is good at showing teenage awkwardness. It made me think of just how hard it was to make new friends at that age. The pace of the story is slow but once the ghost is introduced I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. I like the ending but Stine adds a final twist that ruins this story with logic that makes no sense. The haunting aspect is pretty terrifying and Stine writes great tension with a boat scene. The Curse of Camp Cold Lake was published on June 1, 1997.

Plot Summary: Sarah does not like camp. Sarah does not like swimming in a gross lake. Sarah is at Camp Cold Lake a water sports camp with no pool only a lake. When she arrives, she goes into a panic about being on a top bunk by the window. The camp consular makes them switch even though Sarah was the last one to arrive. She ends up outing a fellow camper for having asthma. Her bunkmates prank her with snakes and hate her. She needs a buddy to swim and only gets one because they have to. The buddy flips over a canoe in the middle of a lake and blames her. She tries a prank that sends other campers to medical. She cannot win. She decides to fake a drowning because she can hold her breath for a long time. She goes deep under the lake and waits three minutes. She goes too deep and struggles to reach the surface. When she breaks through, no one is there. It is cold. She does run into one girl, Della, who is very eager to be buddies for life. Sarah can tell something is not right as she returns to the real world and spits out lake water. After this incident, she keeps seeing Della the ghost who still wants to be buddies in death. Della has a plan and ends with Sarah being dead and them being buddies.

What I Liked: The boat scene is very tension-filled and written with a lot of suspense. I thought that it was the best scene of the series. I thought Stine captured just how hard it is for people to make new friends very well. I do like how the lead camp consular creatively denied that the camper died the way Sarah said. The devil is in the details. The pranks for the most part work, I did like it when Sarah’s prank involving spiders went bad. I liked the twist at the ending but hated the final twist. I enjoyed how sinister Della the ghost was and her plan. The ghost scenes are generally scary and written well. The book cover is one of the best.

What I Disliked: The final twist made no sense whatsoever. Della the ghost was created with care, ensuring her motives and origins were clear. Then, at the final twist, Stine added another element that altered all the rules of ghosts. I bet he had a different ending and tacked this one at the end. There was a good twist at the end. It ended up getting thwarted. I was satisfied without the final twist, but he had to do it because he is Stine. I wanted the brother to play a bigger role. He had love for his sister. I wanted to see more of that.

Recommendation: The Curse of Camp Cold Lake had so much potential, and the final twist ruined a lot. I do think this book is worth checking out just for the boat scene. It is fun and tension-filled. I don’t think a main character has been closer to death. This book nails teenage angst and how it feels to be an outsider. I will barely recommend The Curse of Camp Cold Lake to my followers.

Rating: I rated The Curse of Camp Cold Lake by R.L. Stine 3.4 out of 5.

Ranking: The full ranking of the 56 Goosebumps books that I have read in order from my favorite to least favorite: 1) A Night in Terror Tower, 2) Stay Out of the Basement, 3) The Headless Ghost, 4) Ghost Beach, 5) Piano Lessons Can Be Murder, 6) The Haunted Mask, 7) Ghost Camp, 8) The Horror at Camp Jellyjam, 9) One Day At Horrorland, 10) Night of the Living Dummy, 11) Welcome to Camp Nightmare, 12) A Shocker on Shock Street, 13) The Phantom of the Auditorium, 14) Beware, the Snowman, 15) It Came From Beneath the Sink, 16) Attack of the Jack-O’-Lanterns, 17) The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb, 18) Don’t Go to Sleep!, 19) Say Cheese and Die, 20) Let’s Get Invisible, 21) The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight, 22) Welcome to Dead House, 23) Monster Blood II, 24) The Beast From the East, 25) The Girl who Cried Monster, 26)Deep Trouble, 27) The Ghost Next Door, 28) Say Cheese and Die – Again! 29) Night of the Living Dummy 2, 30) Chicken, Chicken, 31) My Hairiest Adventure, 32) Be Careful What You Wish For…, 33) Return of the Mummy, 34) Why I’m Afraid of Bees, 35) The Haunted Mask II, 36) The Curse of Camp Cold Lake, 37) How I Got My Shrunken Head, 38) How to Kill a Monster, 39) Attack of the Mutant, 40) Go Eat Worms!, 41) Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes, 42) The Werewolf of Fever Swamp, 43) Bad Hare Day, 44) Cuckoo Clock of Doom, 45) Vampire Breath, 46) The Blob That Ate Everyone, 47) How I Learned to Fly, 48) Monster Blood, 49) Night of the Living Dummy III, 50) The Barking Ghost, 51) Egg Monsters from Mars, 52) The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena, 53) You Can’t Scare Me!, 54) Legend of the Lost Legend, 55) Calling All Creeps! and 56) Monster Blood III.