Cozy horror is apparently a thing. I was happy to dig into something unique and fun, and Bonnie Quinn delivers with the first book in her How to Survive Camping series. The book, and the series, started out as a collection of posts on the No Sleep forum on Reddit.

The story centers around Kate, the camp manager. The campground has been passed down through her family, and every season she hands out a collection of rules to keep the visiting campers safe.

It seems that there are things besides humans on the campground. It is a place where myths, legends, divinities and monsters reside. And if you don’t follow the rules, you could end up in real trouble.

Some of the rules are easy to follow, for instance, never follow the lights. Then there are rules like, don’t buy ice from the kids if they don’t have a wagon. There are very specific rules to follow, and if you live by them while on the campground, things will be fine., Cross one, and it will probably be the last thing you do.

Over the course of one year, Kate finds herself confronting faeries, a woman with too many eyes, a disappearing cabin, the thing in the dark, a not-brother, and the very troubling Man with No Shadow, who is determined to get rid of Kate’s leadership over the park.

Quinn rolls the story along through the seasons, with strange and troubling encounters. And behind it, the machinations of the Man with No Shadow.

The narrative moves along like a collected series of vignettes, which makes sense, considering they are an amalgamation of individual posts from Reddit. They come together and form a complete story while helping fill out the day-to-day life and encounters at the camp.

As the narrative progresses, we get hints at the larger mythology and history behind the camp, and while the book is definitely standalone, it also lays the foundation, I’m sure, for what is to come.

I like Quinn’s style; there’s humour married with moments of truly troubling imagery. I also like how the fact that these beings exist is just an accepted point of fact for the camp, the town, and those who camp there.

This was a quick, delightful read, and I love how Quinn laid things out. I love the rules, both the standard camping guidelines and the more cryptic ones. Those ones hint at strange and unnerving stories that I hope will be detailed in future volumes.

I quite liked this one. Fun, charming, and yes, some really spooky stuff, but delivered in such a… well, cozy way.