Frenzy

14-year-old Heath Lambert is spending his summer at Camp Harmony in the picturesque Cascade Mountain Valley. It's the perfect place to enjoy the soothing calm of nature as he weighs a heavy decision. The camp offers distractions: his friends, Cricket and Dunbar, always up for trouble; his reluctant crush on Emily, one half of the beautiful Em & Em Twins; and hulking bullies Thumper and Floaties, who are determined to make him their punching bag for the summer. But no one rattles Heath like his creepy cabin mate, Will Stringer. Brilliant, cold and calculating, Will views the world as one big chess game, and he's always three moves ahead of everyone else.Heath soon learns there's a much bigger threat to contend with. Something's wrong with the animals in the surrounding forest. A darkness is spreading, driving them mad with rage. Wolves, bears, mountain lions-even the chipmunks are infected, spurred on in droves by one horrific goal: hunt and kill every human they find. Heath and a ragtag band of campers are faced with a choice: follow Will's lead and possibly survive, or follow the camp staff and die. But how do you trust a leader when you suspect he's more dangerous than the animals you're running from?Heath came to Camp Harmony to be surrounded by nature. He's about to get his wish.

From School Library Journal

Gr 6–9—What's not to love about Camp Harmony? Fourteen-year-old Heath likes the setting and activities, and he's even made friends. But the wolves are howling, the horses are skittish, and by the time the rabid porcupine goes on the attack, camp isn't so much fun anymore. Suddenly every single animal for miles around is frothing at the mouth and gunning for humans. Heath and the last remaining survivors attempt to make their way back to civilization, fighting not only the wildlife but their own demons. Among the gang are the fat kid, the bug-obsessed kid, horse-mad twins Em(ma) and Em(ily), the former bully, the little girl, and Machiavellian chess player Will Stringer, whom Heath describes as "operating on a whole different level than the rest of them, like Einstein or Batman." The pace is breathless (with a brief time-out for a swimming lesson) and the scenario plenty gory and horrifying. Heath is almost too good to be true—smart, compassionate, genuinely nice, and a natural leader—but his secret explains a lot of that, and he's not annoying about it. Readers who like their horror strewn with corpses, leavened with compassion, and rooted in reality will find this one entertaining indeed.—Mara Alpert, Los Angeles Public Library

From Booklist

Good old Camp Harmony. Horseback riding, archery, and water-skiing on the crystal-­clear Dray River. But the summertime fun screeches to a halt when campers are attacked by an apparently rabid porcupine, followed by a pack of wolves, the camp horses, and, soon, every mammal in the vicinity. As the horde of animals ravages the camp, infecting bite victims with a disease that kills them almost instantly, Heath and a small group of resourceful campers take to the safety of the river to escape the deadly critters, and each character’s strengths and weaknesses are revealed as the group struggles to survive. Though Lettrick’s debut suffers from some clumsy language and some contrived B-movie stereotypes—cliché characters (including an African American boy who dies early on in the attack); convenient plot twists; a relentless, three-digit body count; and a tidy, sunny, everything’s-right-in-the-world epilogue—readers who have chewed through Goosebumps or similar titles will appreciate the gruesome terror of this Night of the Living Dead meets The Island of Dr. Moreau story in a classic summer-camp setting. Grades 6-9. --Paula Willey

About the Author

Robert Lettrick (robertlettrick.com) has worked as a freelance artist for Marvel Comics, Marvel Films, and Harris Publications. He earned his BA in fine art at Atlantic Union College and was one of the first students enrolled in the Sequential Art MA program at Savannah College of Art and Design where he learned from many of comic's top writers and artists.Frenzy is his first middle grade novel.

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