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The Horror At Camp Jellyjam (1995) ⭐⭐⭐ by R. L. Stine
I read the e-book version of The Horror at Camp Jellyjam for a book club. This is one of the books that I most definitely owned, though I did not remember anything at all about it.
Wendy and Elliot are in the car on their way to a vacation, and this brother and sister duo are definitely not looking forward to the trip. Immediately we get the sense that the parents are just as annoying as their twelve and eleven year old offspring, as the mother keeps pointing out the livestock that they pass. The kids are so bored and being so annoying to their parents that the mother suggests that they play in the trailer for some entertainment. The trailer is hooked to the back of the vehicle, and is set up just like a little house. This seemed to me like a recipe for disaster, but the kids are totally up for it and are all excited about the idea.
Wendy and Elliot are finally having an amazing time in the trailer, and suddenly they hit a bump and they bounce around “like a soccer ball”. I thought that was a bit of a strange comparison, but whatever you say, Mr. Stine. Quickly they realize that this was no ordinary bump in the road, as they have somehow come unhooked from the car, and the trailer is rolling down the mountain.
They come to a crashing stop, and when they get out of the trailer, they meet Buddy, a camp counselor. He suggests that the kids not stay there (which would be the more sensible thing to do) but to come to their camp to wait for their parents to collect them.
Buddy brings them to the camp, which is the biggest sports camp that has ever been beheld. It is called Camp Jellyjam, and its mascot is a purple blob with a crown on its head named King Jellyjam. His image is on all of the banners, which also say ONLY THE BEST in bold (the bold was dropped in the reprint, and I’m unsure why). There is every sport you can possibly imagine, and TWO SWIMMING POOLS! (in the reprint, it has been changed to “The swimming pool is huge!”)
Elliot is super competitive by nature, and Wendy is much more laid back. Elliot is extremely pumped to be at the camp, and in just two days he already has almost the full amount of King Coins to be allowed to walk in the Winners Walk, which is held every day for those who have collected enough coins. Wendy has zero, and Buddy seems pretty concerned, and sets her up with a schedule of games, because it’s imperative that every person who attends the camp is trying their hardest to win. After all, ONLY THE BEST!
Something very strange is going on in this camp, Wendy soon realizes, as there are random, violent earthquakes and those who participate in the Winners Walk seem to be disappearing!
Wendy follows her counselors to their secret den where she sees them being hypnotized in an auditorium. She stumbles into a disgusting smelling room where she finds all the winners of the Winners Walk cleaning this huge, nasty blob that sweats snails. It is King Jellyjam! They must constantly be cleaning him, because he can’t stand the stench of his own body. If they stop cleaning him, he eats them! This is the true horror of Camp Jellyjam. He keeps burping, and this is the explanation of the violent earthquakes that happen on the surface!
But then, Wendy gets an idea! Lie flat on the floor! she says. He can’t pick them up if they are flat on the floor, because his hands are too bulky. Without the children constantly cleaning him, King Jellyjam suffocates on his own stench. This is how he dies.
The hypnotized camp counselors run after Wendy when she flees. How are they saved?
The cops are outside. They’re here because they are investigating a horrific stench that has been coming from the camp.
A couple weeks later, the kids answer a knock on the door of their home, and Buddy is standing there. He is delivering Elliot’s final King Coin. The kids smell a nasty stench, and are terrified until their mother comes out to inform them that the smell is just the brussels sprouts that she is cooking.
This book was pretty good, though there are definitely some problems with the children’s line of thinking. They are way old enough to know that they should stay in one place if they are lost, and trusting some rando who comes up to them to bring them to their ‘camp’ should not be an immediate ‘yes!’. Honestly, they should have asked to be taken to the nearest police station.
Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t the best Goosebumps book by a long-shot. But it’s a classic and interestingly paced. There are elements of an actual scary story in here, and if someone wanted to pick out all the good stuff from all the original Goosebumps books, they could have a really interesting, nostalgic novel of sorts.
I always enjoy this series, and really, anything written by R. L. Stine for various reasons, but my biggest complaint is how many of them end in a joke. Really? A brussels sprouts joke? I’m sure his intent was to just be silly, and he wasn’t trying to write high-class comedy (or high-class horror, for that matter!) but the “Oh, you! *cue belly laugh*” jokes at the end are just weird! I guess it might not bother a kid, though, because I totally did not remember the goofiness.
I was going to give this four stars, but I bumped it down one in hopes that the Slappy books are as good as I remember them.
There is no television adaptation of this book, which is a cryin’ shame. I would have loved to see how they’d attempt to commit this to film.
Our next book-club read is Phantom of the Auditorium. Stay tuned!
