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How to Survive Camping (brought to you by Reddit)
Over the last couple of weeks, I've been on-again, off-again reading this creepypasta-style series of short horror stories on Reddit about a haunted campground. I finally finished it tonight and ... I dunno, it's a strange feeling not having any more of it to read! I enjoyed the whole thing, including the ending.
How to Survive Camping:
• Post index
• First post
There are also a lot of internal links so you can get back to the beginning at any time.
Told in the form of a couple of years' worth of "realtime" narration that the narrator is typing up and posting on Reddit, it starts out as a series of explanatory anecdotes about the various rules on the campground's rule list and why they exist (don't follow the lights, lie very still if you believe something is inside your tent with you, etc) and eventually develops several overall narrative arcs. It's harrowing, creepy, funny, and occasionally gross; includes animal harm and a lot of murder and gore, but it's not really "don't read it with the lights off" spine-tingling horror, it's more like dark folkloric fantasy with some splashy gore.
I absolutely love the narrator, Kate, the campground manager, who is funny and cynical and angry, kills monsters with axes and flamethrowers, and basically is a violent hot mess. As the series goes along, it delves into a fascinatingly complicated web of the campground's unique mythos, pulling in a bunch of different strands of folklore and horror. What really fascinated me is how unpredictable it is, for a story that was written over a couple of years as a kind of street theater with ongoing interaction with the regular commenters. It's twisty and creative, and I rarely had any idea where it was going next.
I think if you enjoy the narrative voice of the first few posts, you'll probably enjoy the whole thing. It's also relatively easy to put down and pick up again, since it's in bite-sized posts, even though there is a lot of it. It's more funny and episodic in the early posts, and more long-arc oriented and cliffhangery (and emotionally draining) in later posts.
And if you've read it, come chat in the comments! Spoilers are fine; just label them in the comment header if they're major ones.
How to Survive Camping:
• Post index
• First post
There are also a lot of internal links so you can get back to the beginning at any time.
Told in the form of a couple of years' worth of "realtime" narration that the narrator is typing up and posting on Reddit, it starts out as a series of explanatory anecdotes about the various rules on the campground's rule list and why they exist (don't follow the lights, lie very still if you believe something is inside your tent with you, etc) and eventually develops several overall narrative arcs. It's harrowing, creepy, funny, and occasionally gross; includes animal harm and a lot of murder and gore, but it's not really "don't read it with the lights off" spine-tingling horror, it's more like dark folkloric fantasy with some splashy gore.
I absolutely love the narrator, Kate, the campground manager, who is funny and cynical and angry, kills monsters with axes and flamethrowers, and basically is a violent hot mess. As the series goes along, it delves into a fascinatingly complicated web of the campground's unique mythos, pulling in a bunch of different strands of folklore and horror. What really fascinated me is how unpredictable it is, for a story that was written over a couple of years as a kind of street theater with ongoing interaction with the regular commenters. It's twisty and creative, and I rarely had any idea where it was going next.
I think if you enjoy the narrative voice of the first few posts, you'll probably enjoy the whole thing. It's also relatively easy to put down and pick up again, since it's in bite-sized posts, even though there is a lot of it. It's more funny and episodic in the early posts, and more long-arc oriented and cliffhangery (and emotionally draining) in later posts.
And if you've read it, come chat in the comments! Spoilers are fine; just label them in the comment header if they're major ones.