The Goosebumps book where two brothers attend a camp occupied by ghosts.
Harry and Alex Altman are spending the summer at Camp Spirit Moon. Harry expects to enjoy it. Alex is less thrilled. But as soon as they get there, they find the camp has some weird traditions. And the other campers themselves are pretty strange. Soon enough, the brothers realize the truth about Camp Spirit Moon... and that the ghostly legends about the place are true!
It is one of the nineteen original series books that was not adapted into the 1995 TV series.
The book provides examples of:
- Agony of the Feet: Sam, one of the campers, ends up getting his foot impaled by a long tent pole at one point. He brushes it off as saying that it missed his toes, but Harry does not buy that at all, and he turns out to be right.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Harry and Alex are scared by what sounds like wolves howling, only it turns out to be Elvis and other campers playing a prank on him. Harry angrily says that they were babyish. Elvis then asks him that if it was "babyish", then how come him and Alex were so fooled. Harry has no reply for that.
- Blatant Lies: When Lucy explains to Harry how she and the other campers are ghosts, he at first automatically tells her that he believes her. She is not convinced.
- Born in the Wrong Century: Because Alex is more into songs from the 60's, Harry thinks he was born in the wrong time or something.
- Chekhov's Gun: It turns out that the strange blue goo that Harry sees around the cabins is the coating material that the ghost campers use to make themselves visible and normal.
- Covers Always Lie:
- The sole living person on the cover is a girl, while the protagonists of the book are two boys.
- Also, the campers are shown wearing orange uniform t-shirts, even though the t-shirts in the book are white.
- Covered in Gunge: The floors in the cabins are found to have strange blue, sticky puddles on them. It's later revealed to be protoplasm, left behind when the ghosts materialize.
- Crushing Handshake: Uncle Marv greets Alex with one. Harry can tell because he heard a crack as Alex gets it and he gasps in pain.
- Dreadful Musician: Elvis, one of the ghost campers, wants to sing like his namesake, but is completely tone-deaf. Inverted by Alex, who has perfect pitch and is a very good singer. When Elvis possesses Alex, he's still tone-deaf.
- Fate Worse than Death: Alex ends up possessed by one of the ghostly campers.
- Foodfight!: At one point, this occurs involving flying mashed potatoes. Uncle Marv had to intervene and put a stop to it.
- Foreshadowing: Campers are affectionately called Spirits. Because they're ghosts.
- Green Around the Gills: While on the bus to camp, Alex starts to get bus sick until, according to Harry, his face is as yellow as a banana peel. It takes Harry to tell him to sing in order to get better is when his skin starts turning normal.
- Impromptu Tracheotomy: As part of a joke on Harry and Alex, Joey sticks a fork in his neck. During dinner. Within full view of Harry and Alex. He takes it out afterwards with no marks on his neck, but it sickens both of the boys, making Harry do a Dramatic Drop of his fork and Alex do a Jaw Drop.
- I See Them, Too: Harry is horrified to see what appears to be a soccer player getting decapitated by the ball. When he voices this out loud, the others just ridicule him, much to his embarrassment. But after the game, Alex approaches him to notify him that he saw that as well. This causes more anguish for Harry.
- Lost My Appetite: After a day of sports, Harry goes to the dinner table feeling very starved and wanting to eat anything. But right after he sees Joey put a fork through his neck, he doesn't feel hungry anymore.
- No Indoor Voice: Uncle Marv always speaks in a loud, booming tone.
- Nothing Is Scarier: We're told the entirety of Camp Spirit Moon except for the Altmans are ghosts, killed untold years ago by a black fog. But it's never explained how the fog actually killed them nor why it happened in the first place. At least with Welcome To Dead House we know where the gas leak came from, but with Ghost Camp there were so many unanswered questions about what really happened to Camp Spirit Moon. Even worse, it's implied the fog contains trapped spirits that tried to leave the camp on their own, and we're never told how the other campers discovered this.
- Ominous Fog: According to the "Ghost Camp" campfire story, this is what sweeps into the camp and kills all the campers.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot: When Harry seemingly sees a girl's head get knocked off by a ball during a soccer match, he runs towards her causing everyone to gather around them. He then blurts out to her that he saw her head get knocked off in front of a crowd. He instantly regrets saying it, as now it increases the teasing he and Alex get for being the new campers there. And then Alex whispers to Harry he saw it too.
- Puff of Logic: Harry and Alex manage to get rid of the giant monster by refusing to believe in it, which makes it disappear. They try to do the same with the ghosts, but it doesn't work. They then reveal that the monster was actually an illusion of their own making.
- Puppy Love: Harry and Lucy, particularly with the revelation that she intends to possess his body in order to be able to leave the camp.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: When the campers are surrounding Harry and Alex, they have these to indicate that they mean Serious Business in taking over their bodies.
- Secret Test of Character: After Lucy tells Alex that she is a ghost, he wants to see if she is telling the truth. So he puts his hand around hers, partly because of this trope or because he actually likes her. His hand passes through hers, much to his shock and confirming her claim.
- Strange Salute: The official salute of Camp Spirit Moon. After saying "Yohhhhhhhh, Spirits!", a camper then give one another a left-handed salute, placing the hand on the nose, and swinging it straight out in the air. Harry finds this embarrassing, specifically noting that he doesn't like funny greetings like this, but does it anyway to fit in with the camp.
- Summer Campy: Harry and Alex end up at a camp full of ghosts.
- Surfer Dude: The bus driver at the start of the book is the type to say "dude" at every possible opportunity.
- Talking in Your Sleep: Harry claims that Alex sings in his sleep.
- That's No Moon: The forest is occupied by a giant monster, which is so big they mistake it for the ground. Cue its cry of "WHY ARE YOU STANDING ON MY HEART?" But there is no monster, just an illusion created by the ghosts.
- You Need a Breath Mint: Lucy wants to talk to Harry at one point, but decides to stop herself after she tries approaching him, and runs away. Elvis sees this nearby, and jokes that perhaps this was because she was terrified of his bad breath.
