This horror book was fantastic. It gave me the same vibes as Welcome to Night Vale—both the podcasts and the novels—as well as the eerie, unpredictable feel of the TV show Yellowjackets. It’s quirky, it keeps you guessing, and you’re never really sure who’s good and who’s bad. Honestly, it’s the nightmare version of summer camp, the kind that would haunt anyone who’s ever gone camping. If you like darkly strange stories, camp settings, or any of the above comparisons, this book is absolutely worth picking up.

It's impossible to put down Bonnie Quinn's "How to Survive Camping: The Man With No Shadow," a masterful blend of creeping dread and dark comedy. For fans of the creepypod dramatizations and the unsettlingly mundane horror of “Tales from the Gas Station”, this book feels like a must-read. It expertly builds a sense of unease by blending the monstrous with the ordinary, creating a world where every shadow and strange sound in the woods feels like a genuine threat.

While the plot is thrilling and keeps you on the edge of your seat, what truly sets this story apart is the cast of characters. The campground is inhabited by a truly diverse and memorable group of entities, and their quirky, often bizarre interactions are just as central to the narrative as the suspenseful events themselves. Quinn knows how to use humor to punctuate the horror, providing just enough relief to make the next moment of terror hit even harder.

This is a fresh, clever take on the horror genre that will satisfy both those who love a good scare and those who appreciate a dark laugh.

Thank you to Saga Press for providing me with a copy of this book for review consideration via NetGalley.

All opinions are my own.

Cozy paranormal for fans of the Nightvale podcast franchise. Apparently this began as a serial in Reddit, which some readers may find engaging.

This is the fondest of 3 stars. I enjoyed reading this - it was quick, light, and undemanding, with the perfect balance of camp and punchier horror elements. I was afraid it would be too “cozy,” but it definitely wasn’t. I really enjoyed the humor and the folkloric horror, which blends real-world traditions with some entirely original lore and creatures in a really fun way.

The problem is I am familiar with all the relevant texts (Supernatural, Welcome to Night Vale, the no sleep subreddit) and this is just simply not doing anything new. Reading it felt nostalgic and pleasant, but never blew me away. (Although I admittedly immediately began searching for the next one when I finished, and I will read it ASAP when I can.)

I see a ton of potential in this world and these characters - it’s a fun sandbox to play in, and I want to see it pushed and explored more.

And yes, I hallucinated a romance subplot that wasn’t really there. I love them. Let me be delusional.

For my 80s-90s horror loving kids, the kids who fell in love with reading because of R. L. Stine, Christopher Pile and Alvin Schwartz; for horror movie lovers of Goosebumps, Sleepaway Camp (setting only - no slasher running amuck), Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark, Twin Peaks, Tales From The Darkside and Creepshow; and for the younger crew folklore & creepy pasta lovers….this one is for you.

This one is campy, cozy & creative. It’s honestly a perfect book for long car rides with the family (although there are some curse words) if your family loves creepy stuff, inclined creepy wagon toting kids selling ice and monsters.

I just thought it was so much fun. I’m glad it’s a series. With these cooler temps rolling in it’s got me in the mood for all things Fall….most importantly HALLOWEEN!!!!

I hope you give it a try and love it as much as I did.

I loved this story about the man with no shadow. It is spooky and has some gore. It's a perfect book to read at the end of summer or around Halloween. The ending was so good, I will be thinking about this book for a while.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

This was such a fun book! This book was originally on the no sleep subreddit and I can see why it became a published book! I loved that this book was told in short story form, it made it really quick to get through. Such a great book to read on a summer night!

Thank you so much to @sagapressbooks for the eARC of HOW TO SURVIVE CAMPING: THE MAN WITH NO SHADOW by Bonnie Quinn! #SagaSaysCrew

THE MAN WITH NO SHADOW is a hard one to review, because I loved a lot of things about it? But in the end I didn’t care much about it? But also I didn’t hate anything? A solid 3⭐️ star read where I have very little opinion 😅.

This book is basically a survival guide to camping at the Ghost Valley Campground, but still reads like a normal novel. It’s pitched as Night Vale meets The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook.

I adored the creatures/horrors of the campground — the folklore-ish aspects of this book were definitely my favorite part.

I can’t pinpoint the exact thing that made this not a full winner for me — I suppose it just fell flat. But if THE MAN WITH NO SHADOW has already landed on your radar & you’re interested in it, I would say it’s worth the read!

Thank you to Saga Press for this ARC!

This was a fun, creepy time. If you are a fan of those creepypasta stories on Reddit or Facebook or wherever, you'll probably really enjoy these stories. Think horror but with a dash of Welcome to Nightvale weirdness. Don't take it too seriously and I think you'll really like this.

3.5/5

This was so much fun!

If you like Gravity Falls or Goosebumps, I think you'd really like this.

This follows a worker/manager/overseer/I-don't-know-what-it's-called of a campground. But this is no ordinary campground, there are mysterious things happening here. There are stranger creatures and characters that come about to interact with the campers and hikers. And you have to interact with them in a very specific way if you don't want anything bad to happen. There are rules. And not everybody always follows them.

I think this was the perfect time of year to read this book: summer into fall. Camping season into spooky season.

And I really like the cover too!

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review! My Goodreads review is up and my TikTok (Zoe_Lipman) review will be up at the end of the month with my monthly reading wrap-up.

I listened to this on audio, and I have to say, the narrator was incredible. They nailed the tone perfectly, balancing creepy, campy, and heartfelt in a way that made the whole story come alive. I felt totally immersed in Goat Valley Campground, like I was right there with Kate, trying to follow the rules and avoid whatever nightmare was lurking behind the next tree. Narrators can definitely make or break an audiobook, and this narrator nailed it. I loved how weird and specific the folklore was. I found myself genuinely tense every time someone broke a rule, and I kept thinking, Please don’t follow the lights. It was a lot of fun. I felt for Kate, her exhaustion, her loyalty to the land, and the weight of the curse chasing her family. There were moments that made me laugh out loud and others that gave me chills. I didn’t expect to care so much about a campground manager fighting off supernatural threats, but I did. This story was strange in the best way, and it reminded me how horror can be cozy, clever, and full of heart. I didn’t want it to end.

Kate is the manager of a haunted campground that has been in her family for generations. She protects campers from the sinister folklore creatures who lurk in the forest by enforcing rules that seem a bit bizarre.

“𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘶𝘱. 𝘔𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘩𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘥.”

This originated as a series of posts on Reddit that I haven’t seen, so I didn’t know what to expect. I ended up having so much fun reading it! The humor and sarcasm mixed with the gruesome was everything I didn’t know I needed.

Think creatures with human bodies and animal legs, black hollow eyes. They can kill you, enslave you, or maybe turn you into a scarecrow. There’s humor throughout even the most shockingly scary parts. Each chapter reads like its own little ghost story while still connecting to the rest of the book.
If you like campfire tales, creepypasta, or strange creatures, definitely check this out 👻

Campy horror • Dark humor
Supernatural creatures • Gruesome

📖 Thank you NetGalley and Saga Press Books for my eARC

This is great. For fans of Welcome to Nightvale these weird tales of camping will mysterious dancers, children selling ice with no wagon and the mysterious man with no shadow is a great quick read with all the camping information you could need. I’m on pins and needles for more information/rules and future installments. I will also be careful with who I buy ice from. Thank you Saga press. Five stars I will not be camping anytime soon.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bonnie Quinn for the opportunity to read the ebook ARC of this title.

How to Survive Camping: The Man With No Shadow is the perfect low stakes (at first), unassuming (but not to be underestimated), quaint (and quite spooky) summer read. Kate really does own a stretch of land that is an enigmatic mess of some gentle, though alarming, and some truly alarming and horrific entities. Her job is to run this stretch of land as the campsite her family opened it as decades ago, maintaining peace between the entities and the campers through very clear rules to avoid as many incidents as possible (this works sometimes). When activity and fears start to bubble over, Kate is going to have to put in quite a bit of overtime to keep her wits about her, and to keep the human people in her campground alive at the very least. With many internal (however paranormal) threats, and many external (mundane but annoying) threats to her, her job, and the very land she herself haunts, Kate's really got to prove that she is the best fit for the job. This reminded me so much of the Worst-Case-Scenario Handbooks I read when I was little, mixed with a healthy dose of horror that I prefer now. How to Survive Camping felt as familiar to me as a Not-Brother (read the book to get the joke). The best word I can use to describe this is "camp" horror, which in this case can mean both setting and style. Wonderfully spooky, comedic at times, and incredibly unique storytelling, this is the perfect book to curl up with at the end of summer bonfire. And this is just the beginning of the Goat Valley universe! I cannot wait for more!

Right out of the gate, How to Survive Camping has great Welcome to Night Vale/Jason Pargin vibes with a list of camp rules that include putting enough space between your tents for safety, and not buying ice from the mysterious children with no cooler. This sense of humor doesn't really last throughout the book, which was disappointing, but the general cleverness is still there. I didn't realize when I requested this that this was part of a series, nor was I aware that the series is so long. I'll definitely continue it at least for a little bit, because this is pretty unique. It didn't blow me away though and that makes me nervous for a 9 or so volume series.

As a girl with adhd, speaking for myself, I was fully immersed into this world. I have never seen or heard of the reddit stories so I had nothing to based this off of. I was genuinely surprised by how much I enjoyed this book! Very much cozy horror and somewhat violent graphic parts. There are many characters that you will meet, so beware! All this to say it definitely a book I would recommend and suggest to all of you to give a try. I hope you enjoy Kate's adventure as much as I did.

This is so much fun. Very glad that another Reddit Horror story has found its way to novel form. Don't expect anything serious at all this reminds me a lot of Tales From the Gas Station, both are just silly good times. The only problem I have is how long I have to wait until the next one.

A campy, cozy horror novel about a haunted campground and the manager just trying to keep everyone alive—this one is perfect for fans of Grady Hendrix and Rachel Harrison.

Kate manages Goat Valley Campground, a place where the land itself is cursed and the rules aren’t about spoiling fun—they’re about surviving. Don’t take ice from the children with no wagon, don’t follow the lights, and if the man with the skull cup offers you a drink… just take it, or else. Of course, not every camper follows the rules, and not everyone makes it out alive.

My thoughts? This was the perfect Summerween/cozy horror read. It gave me those old-school horror movie vibes—think Camp Crystal Lake but with a clever twist. The creepy atmosphere, the supernatural lore, and especially the rules made the story so much fun. The characters and ghosts were memorable, and I loved how the tension built without ever losing that campy charm.

Now listen… this book officially has me side-eyeing all creepy children, especially the ones who might want to sell me ice. 😭 The mix of eerie, unsettling moments with humor and heart made this such an enjoyable read.

If you’re a fan of Grady Hendrix or just want a spooky-but-fun horror novel to curl up with, add How to Survive Camping: The Man with No Shadow to your TBR ASAP.

✨ Thanks to NetGalley and Saga Press for the eARC!

This was so much fun! I love the recent r/nosleep books coming out, and this one will sure to be a hit with that crowd. I absolutely loved Kate and the sense of humor that ran throughout the book. Kate is just trying to do her job as camp manager, making sure everyone is having fun and rules are being followed. Unfortunately, not make are actually following the rules. I loved all the different creatures and would dive back into this world in a heartbeat!

Thank you to Netgalley, Saga Press and Bonnie Quinn for an ARC!

This was a fun story! I had no clue cozy horror was a genre but that is the best way to describe How to Survive Camping lol. I enjoyed how it opened up this fun new world and set up future stories without leaving us on a cliffhanger. Excited to read more of this series.