Reviews

Camp Murderface by Saundra Mitchell, Josh Berk

purple676's review against another edition

3.0

Fun and creepy.
Loved Tez.

book_wizard13's review against another edition

funny mysterious medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

droar's review against another edition

2.0

Meh. This just did not work for me, from the generic & blank camp spooks to the blatant sequel grab (why will you give us absolutely no answers. This book is Not Short, you Chose to leave everything till the last 20 pages & not resolve anything). Basically this felt like the first of one of those early chapter book reader series (think Magic Tree House) drug out 5x longer than it needed to be with some vague gore. There is basically no suspense. Murder level creepy experiences occur in the first quarter of the book so there's not a lot of ratcheting up the creepiness can do. There's also something going on with the way things are described. Lots of the events should be legit creepy, but they just lack any punch. I think the root of this issue is that Camp Murderface doesn't know who it wants it's audience to be. It's set in the 80's & is clearly angling for a Stranger Things vibe, but it's writing is for middle schoolers & not appealing to adults (or at least This adult). I generally try to give YA books a pass on this kind of thing (I am not the intended audience, my opinions are valid but should overly color a books appeal for teens) but I legit can't think of a situation where I would pitch this books to teens of any age. The 80's are just a weird time to set your camp novel in. It's too recent to really be historical & different from now, but too old to be appealing. I dunno, maybe that's just me but it felt like a real weird choice (it also feels like a sequel gimmick thing. each chapter starts with the year date & the evil at camp happens every 20 years so the authors have built in a way to add to their prospective series. This Miiiight not be what's going on but it feels very calculated & forced instead of a quirk of the setting).

Ok. Sorry. That's a lot of grumping. The books is really not Aaaaaaaall bad, the two main characters are interesting enough & murder summer camp is always a good thing. If you are 80's bad summer camp nostalgic & like vague undefined horrors with terrible names (vampire devils? Really?) this could be the book for you! If so I implore you to read it & tell me what I'm missing, otherwise I'm quite pleased to be done with this one.

graamcracker's review against another edition

3.0

This was a fun, spooky read to kickoff summer. Set at a summer camp in the 80's (so basically written for me), it had a good mix of creepy and silly with great characters. Leaves off on a big cliffhanger, but not sure if I'll read the sequel. e

magnetgrrl's review against another edition

4.0

I didn't realize this was a children's/YA novel when I bought it - I thought it was a graphic novel from the cover. But it hit the same great spots I typically find more in graphic novels these days; funny, smarter than the age group it was written for, easy and fast read, and sort of adorable. I loved it and will 100% read the next one - for once actually I'm glad that the book didn't solve everything and set itself up for a sequel!

ina_s's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

embe94's review against another edition

4.0

3.5/4 stars. I thought this was just the right amount of fun and creepy, although I wasn’t wild about the cliff-hanger it ended on (a whole book for, what, three days?) and I did think that despite being advertised for middle schoolers, this better fit upper elementary in terms of how the characters were written.

kyljk's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

ki4eva's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

2.25

mochimustreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5