Book Review: Nightmare At Camp Forrestwood by Kelli Sue Landon

Nightmare at Camp Forrestwood
(A Young Adult Whodunit)
Author:  Kelli Sue Landon
Publisher:  Outskirts Press, Inc.
Copyright:  2011
Pages 129
ISBN 978-1-4327-7086-0
Source:  A complimentary copy was provided by the author, Bostick Communications and Outskirts Press, Inc. in exchange for my review.

From the back cover:  Adjusting to a new school isn't easy...especially when the senior class camping trip includes murder. 

Holly Jenson is the new student at Madison High and she's never felt so uncomfortable in her life. She can't figure out how to get her new classmates to like her.  The senior class camping trip is coming up and she knows that Matt Ifft will be there.  That would be awesome since she has a crush on him.  She promises herself she'll make the trip fun.  But when the phones stop working and Tricia disappears, Holly knows something is terribly wrong.  then Rhonda disappears.  There's a killer among Holly's classmates.  But who is it?  If Holly can find someone she can really trust, maybe they can escape together...if they live long enough.

Review (with a little bit of a spoiler):  Nightmare at Camp Forrestwood is Kelli Sue Landon's second book, both of which I have had the privilege of reviewing; the first being Sudden Moves, a young adult mystery fiction novel.  In Nightmare at Camp Forrestwood, Ms. Landon aims for an older audience and the content is indicative of this as the plot centres around a high school  senior class and corresponding themes.  

As is tradition at Madison High, the senior class plans a weekend together but this camping trip is like none other.  It is wrought with jealousies, contention and outright physical altercations and...  murder.  Being new to the school, Holly has no idea whom she can trust as the plot heats up with the disappearance of a teacher and a student.   Another student disappears, then another.....and the missing count rises.....  

Who do you trust when you don't know anyone well enough to trust them?

Nightmare at Camp Forrestwood is a fast, suspense filled read. I was reminded of the Goosebump novels, with their fast-paced thriller themes, that some of my kids enjoyed during their pre-teen and early teen years. Nightmare at Camp Forrestwood is an engrossing young adult thriller that will hold you fast, page by page, a prisoner to the writer as are the students in the camp.  Though Nightmare at Camp Forrestwood is written for the young adult audience; adults and teens alike will recognize common themes from their schooling years, which expands the age appropriateness.  I wouldn't, though, recommend it for young teens due to some language, violence and sexual references.

Rated 4/5 

About the author:

Kelli Sue Landon has had her short stories and her first novel, Sudden Moves (see review here) published.  She lives in Peoria, Illinois, and works for the United States Postal Service there.