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Choose Your Own Nightmare #10
IT HAPPENED AT CAMP PINE TREE (Choose Your Own Nightmare) by R.A. Montgomery
After hanging out at the museum all afternoon, you, Josh and Kate are ready to go. You saw the new mummy and checked out some exhibits. Everything was really neat--especially the mummy's amulet, which the Egyptians believed had magical powers. But after you leave, Josh finds the amulet in his pocket! The three of you have to return it--the mummy is waiting!
Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
1 person is currently reading
56 people want to read
About the author
R.A. Montgomery
156 books119 followersRaymond A. Montgomery (born 1936 in Connecticut) was an author and progenitor of the classic Choose Your Own Adventure interactive children's book series, which ran from 1979 to 2003. Montgomery graduated from Williams College and went to graduate school at Yale University and New York University (NYU). He devoted his life to teaching and education.
In 2004, he co-founded the Chooseco publishing company alongside his wife, fellow author/publisher Shannon Gilligan, with the goal of reviving the CYOA series with new novels and reissued editions of the classics.
He continued to write and publish until his death in 2014.
In 2004, he co-founded the Chooseco publishing company alongside his wife, fellow author/publisher Shannon Gilligan, with the goal of reviving the CYOA series with new novels and reissued editions of the classics.
He continued to write and publish until his death in 2014.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 3, 2023
I'm not sure why R.A. Montgomery had a co-author for this book. Janet Hubbard-Brown's career consisted of a couple dozen basic nonfiction titles for kids, as well as adult mystery novels under the name Janet Hubbard, but what was her contribution to It Happened at Camp Pine Tree? We can only guess. You are looking forward to a second consecutive summer at camp. Last year with your friend Allie was fun, and you both were fond of a charismatic camp counselor named Joel. You're less enthused to see Lennie again, an obnoxious counselor whose uncle, Mr. Fosgood, is the camp director. You and Allie will be special helpers this summer, and you're glad to be assigned to Joel's team rather than Lennie's. But then reports trickle in that Joel disappeared from Camp Pine Tree several days ago. Lennie is pleased to have him gone, but you and Allie are worried. Did Joel simply quit and go home without bothering to notify Mr. Fosgood, or has a sinister fate befallen him? Could you and Allie investigate and solve the mystery?
Based on your choices, the backstory changes significantly. Lennie might tell you he was the last one to see Joel, when they sailed their small boats to Mystery Island for a day trip. He claims Joel didn't meet back with him at camp afterward, and no one has heard from him. Lennie's flippant attitude makes you uneasy; you wonder if his jealousy of Joel's popularity could have prompted him to do something violent. When you question Mr. Fosgood, he says the police are on the case, and you need to focus on your responsibilities as a camp helper. Eerie tension fills the air around Camp Pine Tree, and Lennie's demeanor doesn't help. You're about to run out of investigation options when Allie discovers an envelope addressed from Joel in Mr. Fosgood's office. Is it a break in the case, or is the camp director suppressing the truth of Joel's whereabouts?
Depending on whom you decide to trust, you'll embark on a variety of story paths. Getting caught for stealing the envelope brings your investigation to an abrupt end, but if you avoid being found out, you still won't have a chance to see the envelope's contents before it's destroyed. Sneaking off with Allie to Mystery Island may be your best bet to find Joel, but beware: if Lennie has seriously harmed him, he'll do anything to stop you from proving it. Mystery Island has become a desolate place with toxic sludge swirling in the water, and a reunion with Joel won't be lighthearted. Your favorite counselor may be on the verge of excruciating, grotesque death; can you and Allie do anything to save your own lives, let alone Joel's? Going hiking with the younger campers and steering clear of Mystery Island might be a wiser course of action, but spending that much time with Lennie is bound to be tedious. It's worse, however, when he disappears from your remote campsite and you must corral the kids with Allie, all while sensing a menacing presence following you. Most any encounter with Joel in these wilds is profoundly disturbing, given his shocking physical deterioration. Even if you don't run into a decomposing version of your old friend, you might wind up eating poisonous brownies or tumbling into Lennie's snake pit. Good endings are rare, so don't count on your story ending well.
What does It Happened at Camp Pine Tree have going for it? Atmosphere. It offers some of the best pure horror scenes in the Choose Your Own Nightmare series, all of them coming once Joel is past the point of being helped. These endings are chilling, but the potential is wasted because we never find out what's going on. Is Lennie responsible for Joel's suffering? Is Mr. Fosgood? Maybe someone else? There's also no consistency to the mystery. Joel might be wasting away on an island, infected by radioactive slime, or be pulling a weird, elaborate prank on you in cahoots with Lennie. Or maybe he never disappeared at all; he's just late for camp because Lennie gave him bad information. This lack of story discipline turns what could have been a moody, suspenseful, wonderful gamebook into a narrative mess good only for a few disturbing endings, and even then only if you ignore their context in the book. I'll rate It Happened at Camp Pine Tree one and a half stars, but I'm disappointed by what could have been the best entry in the series had more thought been invested. To use a fishing metaphor, this book is R.A. Montgomery's "one that got away."
Based on your choices, the backstory changes significantly. Lennie might tell you he was the last one to see Joel, when they sailed their small boats to Mystery Island for a day trip. He claims Joel didn't meet back with him at camp afterward, and no one has heard from him. Lennie's flippant attitude makes you uneasy; you wonder if his jealousy of Joel's popularity could have prompted him to do something violent. When you question Mr. Fosgood, he says the police are on the case, and you need to focus on your responsibilities as a camp helper. Eerie tension fills the air around Camp Pine Tree, and Lennie's demeanor doesn't help. You're about to run out of investigation options when Allie discovers an envelope addressed from Joel in Mr. Fosgood's office. Is it a break in the case, or is the camp director suppressing the truth of Joel's whereabouts?
Depending on whom you decide to trust, you'll embark on a variety of story paths. Getting caught for stealing the envelope brings your investigation to an abrupt end, but if you avoid being found out, you still won't have a chance to see the envelope's contents before it's destroyed. Sneaking off with Allie to Mystery Island may be your best bet to find Joel, but beware: if Lennie has seriously harmed him, he'll do anything to stop you from proving it. Mystery Island has become a desolate place with toxic sludge swirling in the water, and a reunion with Joel won't be lighthearted. Your favorite counselor may be on the verge of excruciating, grotesque death; can you and Allie do anything to save your own lives, let alone Joel's? Going hiking with the younger campers and steering clear of Mystery Island might be a wiser course of action, but spending that much time with Lennie is bound to be tedious. It's worse, however, when he disappears from your remote campsite and you must corral the kids with Allie, all while sensing a menacing presence following you. Most any encounter with Joel in these wilds is profoundly disturbing, given his shocking physical deterioration. Even if you don't run into a decomposing version of your old friend, you might wind up eating poisonous brownies or tumbling into Lennie's snake pit. Good endings are rare, so don't count on your story ending well.
What does It Happened at Camp Pine Tree have going for it? Atmosphere. It offers some of the best pure horror scenes in the Choose Your Own Nightmare series, all of them coming once Joel is past the point of being helped. These endings are chilling, but the potential is wasted because we never find out what's going on. Is Lennie responsible for Joel's suffering? Is Mr. Fosgood? Maybe someone else? There's also no consistency to the mystery. Joel might be wasting away on an island, infected by radioactive slime, or be pulling a weird, elaborate prank on you in cahoots with Lennie. Or maybe he never disappeared at all; he's just late for camp because Lennie gave him bad information. This lack of story discipline turns what could have been a moody, suspenseful, wonderful gamebook into a narrative mess good only for a few disturbing endings, and even then only if you ignore their context in the book. I'll rate It Happened at Camp Pine Tree one and a half stars, but I'm disappointed by what could have been the best entry in the series had more thought been invested. To use a fishing metaphor, this book is R.A. Montgomery's "one that got away."
November 13, 2015
This one was good. I was always a fan of camp-oriented stories like this one and the cover just screams all kinds of coolness. A glowing green skeleton paddling a canoe? Well, I think it looks pretty cool, anyway. The story goes that your character has arrived at summer camp again, but your favorite counselor Joel has mysteriously gone missing and no one seems to care. When you set out to find him, you encounter strange happenings in the woods. There are less random events in this book in favor of a more coherent story. There are actually a few descriptive scenes that made me squirm, as they are quite graphic for this series. The writing is pretty decent, and the characters are surprisingly well-developed. You actually get a feel for your friend Allie and your nemesis Lennie and the unfortunate Joel. This one is well worth seeking out and is a nice addition to the series.
July 6, 2023
Welcome to our summer camp marathon 2: Unhappy Campers. We got something different here with a gamrbook. This is part of Choose Your Own Nightmare. It's in the Goosebumps ripoff type bucket but this time it targets Give Yourself Goosebumps. This is actually tied to the Choose Your Own Adventure series that started it all, with some people from that series being involved here like RA Montgomery. It being tied to CYOA means when that series made a comeback, so did this. That makes it the only one of these to come back, and there's even recent graphic novels of them. Graphic novel gamebooks, that's new.
There were some PC games too, and they are something else. Anyway, I wouldn't usually do gamebooks for these due to their nature but these are short so I may as well fit this camp one in. There's one in the Halloween randomizer too, Attack of the Living Mask. This is 84 pages so it was easy to just go through it all like a normal book.
Anyway, the setup: You are off to year 2 at Camp Pine tree, and you're hyped as the camp is actually good. However, you're favorite counselor Joel is not here and instead you mostly get saddled with an asshole one named Lennie. You and your friend Allie hear he went missing at a place called Mystery Island and figure out this...well mystery.
So as a story in general, this is mostly fun but as a gamebook, it's kind of a mess. For one, there are sometimes big gaps between choices. After the first one, it takes long enough that I think they forgot this is a gamebook. It feels more story focused than gameplay focused and when it picks up with choices and branches later on, it tries a bit too hard to make up for lost time.
There is only one good ending and there are times where you have two choices and both lead to bad endings, forcing you to go back even further. It takes you a bit to hit that bad ending which makes going back more of a bitch. I like a good challenge, they must a bit BS-y at times.
The weird part is that the Good ending is the least satisfying with the reveal and final note, just tainting the story more than the endings meant to be bad for you. The bad endings are mostly good here actually, with what happens. It's oddly consistent in what happens to Joel, you just find it outi n different ways although of course a couple endings go off course but I expect that and it's not as egregious as usual for these.
Story wise, there is a mild emotional moment with it showing us how you care about Joel and want to find him. It's nice and there's one bad ending that is that in a more downbeat way. There's some wilderness survival stuff which is fun, starting to see how much I like that kind of thing. Joel's fate leads to some cool body horror and dark bits that were pretty rad.
Only one had full totally confirmed death for you and it's so dumb how it happens that I love it. It's a shame the one good ending is weak as it robs the book of at least one solid payoff to the story. I could guessed you pretend a couple of the best bad endings are the true ending and this is just one with a downer ending.
it's a hard book to rank for me. On its own, it is fairly enjoyable with a solid start to motivation the plot and some decent horror. But as a gamebook, it's messy with gaps between choices, weird ways you get screwed over and the only good ending is weak. It just needed that one solid payoff.
As it is, there's a fair bit to enjoy as long as you can forgive some of the more BS aspects. It's another that goes in the more mild camp (pun not intended) for these. Use of camp is a bit low as it's more about the exploring stuff which happens a lot.
We'll see how others in the series but for now, this was flawed by fun at least. ...That's about it. Next time, we finally step outside of a series for a stand alone random one that is more recent. See ya then.
There were some PC games too, and they are something else. Anyway, I wouldn't usually do gamebooks for these due to their nature but these are short so I may as well fit this camp one in. There's one in the Halloween randomizer too, Attack of the Living Mask. This is 84 pages so it was easy to just go through it all like a normal book.
Anyway, the setup: You are off to year 2 at Camp Pine tree, and you're hyped as the camp is actually good. However, you're favorite counselor Joel is not here and instead you mostly get saddled with an asshole one named Lennie. You and your friend Allie hear he went missing at a place called Mystery Island and figure out this...well mystery.
So as a story in general, this is mostly fun but as a gamebook, it's kind of a mess. For one, there are sometimes big gaps between choices. After the first one, it takes long enough that I think they forgot this is a gamebook. It feels more story focused than gameplay focused and when it picks up with choices and branches later on, it tries a bit too hard to make up for lost time.
There is only one good ending and there are times where you have two choices and both lead to bad endings, forcing you to go back even further. It takes you a bit to hit that bad ending which makes going back more of a bitch. I like a good challenge, they must a bit BS-y at times.
The weird part is that the Good ending is the least satisfying with the reveal and final note, just tainting the story more than the endings meant to be bad for you. The bad endings are mostly good here actually, with what happens. It's oddly consistent in what happens to Joel, you just find it outi n different ways although of course a couple endings go off course but I expect that and it's not as egregious as usual for these.
Story wise, there is a mild emotional moment with it showing us how you care about Joel and want to find him. It's nice and there's one bad ending that is that in a more downbeat way. There's some wilderness survival stuff which is fun, starting to see how much I like that kind of thing. Joel's fate leads to some cool body horror and dark bits that were pretty rad.
Only one had full totally confirmed death for you and it's so dumb how it happens that I love it. It's a shame the one good ending is weak as it robs the book of at least one solid payoff to the story. I could guessed you pretend a couple of the best bad endings are the true ending and this is just one with a downer ending.
it's a hard book to rank for me. On its own, it is fairly enjoyable with a solid start to motivation the plot and some decent horror. But as a gamebook, it's messy with gaps between choices, weird ways you get screwed over and the only good ending is weak. It just needed that one solid payoff.
As it is, there's a fair bit to enjoy as long as you can forgive some of the more BS aspects. It's another that goes in the more mild camp (pun not intended) for these. Use of camp is a bit low as it's more about the exploring stuff which happens a lot.
We'll see how others in the series but for now, this was flawed by fun at least. ...That's about it. Next time, we finally step outside of a series for a stand alone random one that is more recent. See ya then.
October 19, 2025
There's actually not much camping at Camp Pine Tree (or much happening generally) and a better title would've been Where's Joel?, as the search for "your" favorite counselor who is missing when "you" arrive is the only thing going on. Engaging in one of the worst sins a CYOA-style book can make, the answer to Joel's disappearance is different based on what path you choose.
Amongst the diverse fates of Joel are:
* He paddled a boat out to an island that was infected with HP Lovecraft's The Color Out of Space and became a glowing, decaying ghoul
* He was deliberately given the wrong start date by another counselor and shows up late
* He fell in a pit full of snakes and was eaten
* He wanted to skip registration day so he showed up late of his own accord
* He quit his job at camp without notice to go on a vision quest
* It's unclear why, but he turned into a spooky scary skeleton man in a canoe
Needless to say, where there is no actual single solution to a mystery it's impossible to make intelligent choices or solve what's happening through deduction. A bad experience as a reader and a bad message to send the intended audience.
Amongst the diverse fates of Joel are:
* He paddled a boat out to an island that was infected with HP Lovecraft's The Color Out of Space and became a glowing, decaying ghoul
* He was deliberately given the wrong start date by another counselor and shows up late
* He fell in a pit full of snakes and was eaten
* He wanted to skip registration day so he showed up late of his own accord
* He quit his job at camp without notice to go on a vision quest
* It's unclear why, but he turned into a spooky scary skeleton man in a canoe
Needless to say, where there is no actual single solution to a mystery it's impossible to make intelligent choices or solve what's happening through deduction. A bad experience as a reader and a bad message to send the intended audience.
January 21, 2022
My daughter and I have been playing a Choose You own Adventure Board Game and my childrens church curriculum called for the kids to exercise Choice by reading some of those books as an Early Arriver activity. So I thought it would be neat to read one for myself. I didn’t mind the flipping back and forth and the story was not bad. But the ending (that I found) was abrupt and unsatisfactory, as was the second ending that I traced from the last decision point. Both ended in a scary place, which might be the ending for every decision considering the Title. At least it was short, probably 20-30 minutes.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews