'When an American-style residential camp is set up in the grounds of an English stately home, the teenage camp counsellors are looking forward to a fun summer of activities. But right from the outset, things don’t feel quite right at Camp Miller. Rumours circulate of a tragedy that took place in the grounds and there are unexplained sightings of a ghostly presence. Then the incidents begin – a near-drowning out on the lake, a fatal fall from a cliff-face … Are these tragic accidents or is there something more sinister going on at Camp Killer?'
Welcome to Camp Killer is one of Barrington Stokes older age books, a short novel for teens that follows the events at an American-style summer in the UK that becomes the site of a series of brutal murders.
Our story begins the day before the children are due to arrive at Camp Miller, a summer camp built in the grounds of an old stately home with a tragic past and stories of ghostly sightings. Several teens have been employed to be camp counsellors for the summer, taking care of the younger kids and helping them on a series of activities including rock climbing, and canoeing. Gathered together for one last quiet night before the children arrive, they tell a story around the camp fire, a story about the old home they're stating at, and the tragic story of what happened to the family in the 1800's.
The counsellors learn about Dorothea, the wife to Lord Miller, who unable to have children, was horrified when her husband returned home from sea with a son, the woman who birthed him having come back too. Lord Miller intended for he and Dorothea to raise the child as their own, with the birth mother acting as a nanny. In the story, Dorothea went mad with the grief of the situation, and murdered her husband, his son, and the boys mother, before throwing herself off the roof. Her body was found the next day, laying dead in her beloved rose garden. Legend goes that the spirit of Dorothea now haunts the grounds.
The group are sufficiently creeped out and entertained, but head to bed for the evening. However, when one of the counsellors finds their bed filled with snakes and rose petals, they assume one of the group is trying to play a prank after the spooky story. The next day, once the children have arrived, things continue to happen, as one of the counsellors is almost drowned after being knocked out and tied in a canoe that was then rolled over into the water. Thanks to a daring rescue he survived, but an old dress is founding floating in the lake, covered in rose petals. The counsellors begin to think that perhaps the spirit of Dorothea is real, and out to get them. But when one of the group is killed in what looks like a tragic accident, it becomes clear that ghost or not, all of their lives are in danger.
I was very pleasantly surprised with Welcome to Camp Killer, as I was not expecting it to be the kind of book that it ended up being. For the first part of the book we're given every reason to think that the narrative will be a series of spooky events and close calls where the counsellors (the apparent targets) come close to getting hurt. There's the incident with snakes in a bed, the near drowning, and a flag pole that comes crashing down and just misses people. It all feels kind of safe and sanitary. Yes, there's danger, but at most it feels like the group of teens are going to get a broken bone or two before things come to a close.
However, there came a point in the narrative when it takes a sudden shift, and one of the group is killed. And I honestly found that my jaw dropped open because this was the twist in the tale that I didn't see coming. I honestly thought that the book wouldn't actually go that far, and as soon as it did I found myself unable to predict what was going to come next. Essentially, Welcome to Camp Killer is a slightly sanitised slasher horror book. And I say slightly sanitised, because there are some bloody and shocking deaths that happen in the book that wouldn't be too out of place in something like Friday the 13th.
Whilst the book is short, it manages to pack a decent amount into its pages, and the story moves at a decently brisk pace too. There's a chance to get to know several of the main characters, and readers will have fun trying to work out which, if any, might be behind the killings. There are a couple of people who seem like prime suspects, who are doing things that in the wrong light could be looked at as very suspicious; but like with all good slasher stories with a twist, I think a lot of people will struggle to see the end coming.
The book is aimed for teens, and features a decent cross section of different teen characters for the reader to follow. We get a good variety in personalities and backgrounds to the teen counsellors, and it feels like its set up so that readers will be able to identify with at least one of the characters. Hopefully they end up being one of the ones who get to survive. There's also a non-binary teen who uses they/them pronouns, and it's never once made a thing of, with their inclusion in the story being treated no differently to any other character; which I absolutely adored.
Welcome to Camp Killer is a super fun horror book that I think a lot of younger readers are going to like. If you've got a teen reader who loves horror and wants to move on from children's horror to something more mature, but might not be ready for adult horror yet, this is a perfect read for them. That being said, I also think that it's the kind of book that adult fans of the genre will get a decent kick out of too.
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