Adirondack Campfire Stories by James Appleton
Short Story Collection
132 Pages
Published by North Country Books (19th March 2024)
Purchase from | Amazon AU | Amazon US | Amazon UK |
My rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Actual rating of 3.5
A collection of stories all based in the Adirondack Park that are perfect for to tell around the campfire. Everyone who’s visited the area knows that there’s something different about it, and in these stories, we can definitely see why. Featuring both fiction and non-fiction stories, it’s the perfect companion to a roaring fire, a blanket and some marshmallows.
I have developed a massive fascination with the Appalachia area. The personal accounts and stories that I’ve heard and read, the lore, the rules, the creatures, everything. It has a mystical quality surrounding it, in both a good and bad way, so I’m devouring every possible thing I can find that has the area even remotely mentioned. When I was approved for this, I was over the moon about it, and it was an enjoyable read, definitely had me feeling the spookies!
Being a collection of short stories, I’m not going to break down each one, but I’ll try and give a cohesive explanation of my thoughts as a whole.
The stories covered a variety of different stories that include a mix of cryptids and ghosts. I found I enjoyed the ghost stories a bit more, and I also enjoyed the ones with the “seeing a weird thing in the trees” vibe. Though the bigfoot ones I found fun as well, straight off the bat I was yelling at the book, telling the person in the story “IT’S A BIGFOOT!” Especially when they decided to, you know, just hang around for the rest of the night, or another night. I did like that there were a couple of stories towards the end where they were more of an informational kinda vibe. It was interesting in one of them as it had a timeline of documented bigfoot sightings, and I enjoyed the story about the two friends who were in a fishing competition with each other, that one put a smile on my face and gave me a giggle.
I will admit, I was hoping for a bit more of an adult feel with the stories, they did feel like they were suitable for probably ages 11+ and I think I would have enjoyed darker stories geared more towards an adult audience, but that didn’t detract too much from my overall enjoyment of the collection. I did like that the stories were written in a way that would translate well into a verbal retelling around a campfire. Another thing that I thought was awesome was that in the beginning of the book, it tells you how to set the mood for a night of spooky stories, whether that’s around a campfire or sitting at home with a candle. And in the end of the book, it actually tells you how to make your own scary campfire story. I thought that was a brilliant addition and would appeal to people of all ages.
All in all, I thought this was a really cool collection of campfire stories. The were short enough that you didn’t get bogged down in too many details, but long enough to give the stories a completed feel. This is a read that would translate well being retold verbally and I’m glad that I picked it up. I feel like I have a little bit more knowledge of the area in a geographical sense too which I loved. It was a fun little spooky read that I enjoyed but didn’t quite hit the super spooky feels that I’m always looking for. A fun, creepy read that can be enjoyed by people of all ages and that was quite a quick little palette cleanser for me.
Read Book. Repeat 