My least favorite thing in story-telling is the trope when people aren't open and honest because of some sort of hesitation. It's usually bad news or revealing something about them that they feel betrays a weakness or vulnerability.
I just think the world would be a better place if we were more open with that kind of stuff. If I know I'm a fragile being, why would that sooner mean I'm the ONLY fragile being rather than mean that EVERYONE'S fragile? And, if the latter is the case, why wouldn't acknowledging that make us progress as a society?
My second least-favorite trope is the love triangle.
Third least-favorite is the hunky curmudgeon.
Fourth-place? Set of steak knives.
Anyway, it's an unfortunate pet peeve because I'll admit that the benefits of being open and honest would also take the wind of the sails of thrillers and horrors because there wouldn't be any secrets to keep.
And that's what's tying this book together - the idea that the kids basically snuck away for an overnight alone without adult supervision. There, a completely reasonable series of events happened that ended with a bad guy getting killed and yet none of the kids wanted to go to the authorities because their parents would be, like, SO made at them!
Stine leans hard into a knack for writing super annoying characters to really hammer home the agony of waiting for the reveal, the final act, and the end of the book.
This one wasn't my favorite.
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Talk about a red herring - this book flat-out exposes the killer in the past few pages. If you like the idea of sudden surprises, this is up your alley.
That said, there were a couple of things that were interesting in this book:
1) The weird idea that longevity in your relationship is more important than it really is in high school. Like, if you can just make it longer together than any other couple, you’ll find real happiness. In reality, splitting up and finding someone else would probably make you more happy. But I did see it in high school - hell, I participated in it in high school - and it’s always struck out to me as one of the weirder things we did. Like we were really giving it our best to be grown-ups as children.
2) Abusive relationships. In this book, the abuser was portrayed more as a “wild card,” than anything else, but the words were there. He cracked a pool cue over a friend’s head and said his hand must have slipped. The next paragraph said sometimes the guy would be fun and the life of the party and sometimes… his hand would slip.
But the guy who got his head cracked open never faltered in his dedication to his friend. He WAS going behind the guy’s back with his girlfriend, but he wouldn’t let anyone talk shit about his bud and wouldn’t hear that maybe he was dangerous.
It was clear to everyone else, though.
This one’s a whole lot of drama, but it still works. It was a fun time.
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That said, there were a couple of things that were interesting in this book:
1) The weird idea that longevity in your relationship is more important than it really is in high school. Like, if you can just make it longer together than any other couple, you’ll find real happiness. In reality, splitting up and finding someone else would probably make you more happy. But I did see it in high school - hell, I participated in it in high school - and it’s always struck out to me as one of the weirder things we did. Like we were really giving it our best to be grown-ups as children.
2) Abusive relationships. In this book, the abuser was portrayed more as a “wild card,” than anything else, but the words were there. He cracked a pool cue over a friend’s head and said his hand must have slipped. The next paragraph said sometimes the guy would be fun and the life of the party and sometimes… his hand would slip.
But the guy who got his head cracked open never faltered in his dedication to his friend. He WAS going behind the guy’s back with his girlfriend, but he wouldn’t let anyone talk shit about his bud and wouldn’t hear that maybe he was dangerous.
It was clear to everyone else, though.
This one’s a whole lot of drama, but it still works. It was a fun time.
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Ooh, a Fear Street enters the reading log, eh? I wonder where this could lead!
You just don’t see covers like this anymore. Now it’s all stark lines and cartoony stuff - where did all the paintings go?!
I promise I’m not one of those guys who insist that the past was better just because it was THEIR past, but just look at this cover! This one’s insane with the amount of things to look at but Fear Street books featured covers that, while definitely not timeless, did such a good job of capturing a mood that you really have to wonder why they stopped. Or why Fear Street specifically shifted to easier covers that said nothing about the book inside.
*sigh*
Anyway, this book was okay. I’m not generally a historical fiction kind of guy (especially when it comes to colonial times as the real history is almost always more interesting), and I feel like explaining lore - especially for a subject like Fear Street - will only bog stuff down later on with continuity and logical problems, but this does scratch a real itch for RL Stine for me. Here was violence. Here were stakes! Here was a twist that was pretty decent!
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You just don’t see covers like this anymore. Now it’s all stark lines and cartoony stuff - where did all the paintings go?!
I promise I’m not one of those guys who insist that the past was better just because it was THEIR past, but just look at this cover! This one’s insane with the amount of things to look at but Fear Street books featured covers that, while definitely not timeless, did such a good job of capturing a mood that you really have to wonder why they stopped. Or why Fear Street specifically shifted to easier covers that said nothing about the book inside.
*sigh*
Anyway, this book was okay. I’m not generally a historical fiction kind of guy (especially when it comes to colonial times as the real history is almost always more interesting), and I feel like explaining lore - especially for a subject like Fear Street - will only bog stuff down later on with continuity and logical problems, but this does scratch a real itch for RL Stine for me. Here was violence. Here were stakes! Here was a twist that was pretty decent!
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To be honest, I never really expected body horror in the Goosebumps series, but here we are.
And this is one of the better ones in the series that is also more intense than usual.
Part of me wants to think Stine is trying to graduate the horror with an aging audience to keep them and hopefully bridge the gap between Goosebumps to something harder in Fear Street. I know that it could be said that there’s an overlapping age range for the series (there sure was for me), but it’s jarring as a kid to jump from something like Monster Blood to dealing with murderous cults and kidnapped parents (which we’ll get to later).
But the thing I want to believe a little more than Stine wanting bridge books is that he had a case of senioritis. He knew his time with Scholastic was up, they were giving him a rash of shit about ghostwriters and taking him to court, Parachute wasn’t pulling in NEARLY as much money as they should have, and the end of it all was in sight. With this in mind, he just kind of took his foot off the brakes a bit more and let more unfiltered horror into the Goosebumps series.
I don’t know. I don’t know the guy so at this point it’s just wild speculation. But I’ve worked jobs - even jobs I liked - where I felt more free to be more of myself (not a jerk or anything) when my notice had been given.
We’re almost done with the series, folks. Just one book to go and, I hate to spoil it, but it’s one of the biggest wet farts in the series and a HUGE disappointment as a closer.
*sigh*
Oh well. We’ll get through it.
Together.
———
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And this is one of the better ones in the series that is also more intense than usual.
Part of me wants to think Stine is trying to graduate the horror with an aging audience to keep them and hopefully bridge the gap between Goosebumps to something harder in Fear Street. I know that it could be said that there’s an overlapping age range for the series (there sure was for me), but it’s jarring as a kid to jump from something like Monster Blood to dealing with murderous cults and kidnapped parents (which we’ll get to later).
But the thing I want to believe a little more than Stine wanting bridge books is that he had a case of senioritis. He knew his time with Scholastic was up, they were giving him a rash of shit about ghostwriters and taking him to court, Parachute wasn’t pulling in NEARLY as much money as they should have, and the end of it all was in sight. With this in mind, he just kind of took his foot off the brakes a bit more and let more unfiltered horror into the Goosebumps series.
I don’t know. I don’t know the guy so at this point it’s just wild speculation. But I’ve worked jobs - even jobs I liked - where I felt more free to be more of myself (not a jerk or anything) when my notice had been given.
We’re almost done with the series, folks. Just one book to go and, I hate to spoil it, but it’s one of the biggest wet farts in the series and a HUGE disappointment as a closer.
*sigh*
Oh well. We’ll get through it.
Together.
———
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Continuing the trend from the last book that felt more intense than your average Goosebumps book, we have this gem.
Do you remember how I said Scholastic accused Stine of having ghostwriters? This book might be the strongest case for it.
1) It’s WAY more violent than other GB books. Deer and rabbits are torn apart with graphic detail about the corpses.
2) It ends with the protagonist getting attacked and bitten by a werewolf.
There was a misconception that nothing bad ever really happened to the protagonists, but there have been plenty of instances where the sting ending was the kid losing. One turned into a chipmunk, supposedly for the rest of their life. One was attacked by a venomous (called poisonous which is amusing because that’s what we used to say) snake as a ghost watched and waited for the kid to die. And this one ended with a werewolf diving in and biting a kid’s chest.
Maybe to death? Probably more likely to infect him with the curse.
Regardless, this book felt way more hardcore than other GB books. That’s definitely not a bad thing. At this point I feel so saturated with soft fake-outs and sting endings that I’m ready for more violence and actual repercussions.
Anyway, I’m not saying Stine actually used ghostwriters (beyond his own statements of using freelance authors’ detailed outlines for books in this specific series). Maybe he too was bored with the low stakes of most of the books.
But if I were Scholastic and I really want to point to a different tone as an indicator that there was another cook in the kitchen, this would probably be the book. Honestly, besides the last Monster Blood, I’d probably point toward the last FEW books in this series!
———
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Do you remember how I said Scholastic accused Stine of having ghostwriters? This book might be the strongest case for it.
1) It’s WAY more violent than other GB books. Deer and rabbits are torn apart with graphic detail about the corpses.
2) It ends with the protagonist getting attacked and bitten by a werewolf.
There was a misconception that nothing bad ever really happened to the protagonists, but there have been plenty of instances where the sting ending was the kid losing. One turned into a chipmunk, supposedly for the rest of their life. One was attacked by a venomous (called poisonous which is amusing because that’s what we used to say) snake as a ghost watched and waited for the kid to die. And this one ended with a werewolf diving in and biting a kid’s chest.
Maybe to death? Probably more likely to infect him with the curse.
Regardless, this book felt way more hardcore than other GB books. That’s definitely not a bad thing. At this point I feel so saturated with soft fake-outs and sting endings that I’m ready for more violence and actual repercussions.
Anyway, I’m not saying Stine actually used ghostwriters (beyond his own statements of using freelance authors’ detailed outlines for books in this specific series). Maybe he too was bored with the low stakes of most of the books.
But if I were Scholastic and I really want to point to a different tone as an indicator that there was another cook in the kitchen, this would probably be the book. Honestly, besides the last Monster Blood, I’d probably point toward the last FEW books in this series!
———
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When I started re-reading this series, a friend of mine was renting a house and found this book on one of the shelves. He sent me a picture and said something like he couldn’t believe I was going to read this book.
But I am so excited to tell you folks how good this book actually is!
It isn’t my favorite (that honor goes to the Blob), but it is SOLIDLY in my top 5. It’s got a genuinely creepy skeleton of a story to it where an entire class of kids disappear one year only to have a new kid to the school stumble onto an old elevator that brings him and a new friend to… basically an alternate dimension.
The kids who had disappeared were transported to this black-and-white mirror world of their own en masse and, realizing they are never going to leave, decided to reenact Lord of the Flies. They’re ruthless, violent, and insane. Beyond that, there’s a distinct lack of humanity because almost everyone has given up and become nihilistic. There’s a vibe of “we’re screwed, so we’re going to hurt you as well so you’re just as bad-off as us.”
Personally, the idea of being trapped in a world that is basically empty except for its insane and violent inhabitants with no hope of leaving is pretty creepy. It would be impending doom and a ticking clock as there is no escape, no hope, and the only guarantee is that the others will find you one day and, until then, it’s just survival in a shitty world.
I think it might be one of the more unsettling books in the series.
After I read it, I told my friend he should give it a go. There’s a lot of characters getting whipped into hysteria by everyone around them and this felt poignant in modern America, but he declined saying it’s still a children’s book.
But he should have read it. It’s one of the best!
———
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But I am so excited to tell you folks how good this book actually is!
It isn’t my favorite (that honor goes to the Blob), but it is SOLIDLY in my top 5. It’s got a genuinely creepy skeleton of a story to it where an entire class of kids disappear one year only to have a new kid to the school stumble onto an old elevator that brings him and a new friend to… basically an alternate dimension.
The kids who had disappeared were transported to this black-and-white mirror world of their own en masse and, realizing they are never going to leave, decided to reenact Lord of the Flies. They’re ruthless, violent, and insane. Beyond that, there’s a distinct lack of humanity because almost everyone has given up and become nihilistic. There’s a vibe of “we’re screwed, so we’re going to hurt you as well so you’re just as bad-off as us.”
Personally, the idea of being trapped in a world that is basically empty except for its insane and violent inhabitants with no hope of leaving is pretty creepy. It would be impending doom and a ticking clock as there is no escape, no hope, and the only guarantee is that the others will find you one day and, until then, it’s just survival in a shitty world.
I think it might be one of the more unsettling books in the series.
After I read it, I told my friend he should give it a go. There’s a lot of characters getting whipped into hysteria by everyone around them and this felt poignant in modern America, but he declined saying it’s still a children’s book.
But he should have read it. It’s one of the best!
———
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The first Deep Trouble was a bit of a miss for me because it wasn’t Jaws. It WAS a very interesting book that tackled (albeit in a simplified junior way) the ethical dilemma of capturing endangered species for study.
So, while I didn’t get a maniacal hammerhead shark stalking kids, I did get a thinker of a book and I ended up really liking it.
When it came time to read this one, I went in with zero expectations and it was also pretty good. It didn’t have the same depth (see what I did there?) as the first one, but a genuinely interesting thing happened in it:
A family gets stranded on an island.
Oh man, THIS is my jam. I love books about people stranded on islands. The need for survival, the inventing of solutions to problems unique to that island, time, and person (or people) so the characters(s) can get what they need to stay alive, and the struggle to not only live but to maintain the WILL to live… That’s some awesome stuff. Having societal obligations stripped away leaving only humanity always makes for an intriguing story.
Unfortunately, it didn’t last long in this book before they were off the island, the problem was solved, and the book was done.
It was still a good book. As a matter of fact, I’d say out of all the stories that have sequels, this is probably my favorite.
———
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So, while I didn’t get a maniacal hammerhead shark stalking kids, I did get a thinker of a book and I ended up really liking it.
When it came time to read this one, I went in with zero expectations and it was also pretty good. It didn’t have the same depth (see what I did there?) as the first one, but a genuinely interesting thing happened in it:
A family gets stranded on an island.
Oh man, THIS is my jam. I love books about people stranded on islands. The need for survival, the inventing of solutions to problems unique to that island, time, and person (or people) so the characters(s) can get what they need to stay alive, and the struggle to not only live but to maintain the WILL to live… That’s some awesome stuff. Having societal obligations stripped away leaving only humanity always makes for an intriguing story.
Unfortunately, it didn’t last long in this book before they were off the island, the problem was solved, and the book was done.
It was still a good book. As a matter of fact, I’d say out of all the stories that have sequels, this is probably my favorite.
———
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Last camp book in the original Goosebumps series!
This is definitely my favorite camp book in the Goosebumps series. It has everything: gaslighting, ghosts, attempted murder, snakes, and betrayal.
It was also scarier than a LOT of other Goosebumps books and it made me start thinking about JK Rowling.
The genius of (the morally questionable) Rowling was that her books graduated in difficulty, subject matter, and characterization as they went on. Kids who were eleven when the first Harry Potter book came out got to grow up WITH Harry and deal with more and more mature things right next to him as they had to deal with more mature things in their own lives.
It was brilliant.
And I’m not saying Stine is Rowling or anything (Stine is OBVIOUSLY better than Rowling even if he never read the story I sent him as a kid. At least he’s not a TERF. That I know of. Please don’t correct me), but the books have been getting scarier and it would be WILD if the last one served as a bridge to the scarier and far more violent Fear Street books.
Imagine: A kid goes through a scarier than average Goosebumps story and the family moves in the end like Welcome to Dead
House only pull up to a new house in a new town and the kid gets out to survey the scene. It’s quiet and he realizes that there aren’t any birds singing. And it’s chilly even though it’s summer. And what does that street sign say?
“Fear Street? What kind of town names a street like that?”
And then nothing. That’s the end.
I think that would have been the coolest thing Stine could have done but, alas, it didn’t work out like that. But we’ll talk about all that later.
———
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This is definitely my favorite camp book in the Goosebumps series. It has everything: gaslighting, ghosts, attempted murder, snakes, and betrayal.
It was also scarier than a LOT of other Goosebumps books and it made me start thinking about JK Rowling.
The genius of (the morally questionable) Rowling was that her books graduated in difficulty, subject matter, and characterization as they went on. Kids who were eleven when the first Harry Potter book came out got to grow up WITH Harry and deal with more and more mature things right next to him as they had to deal with more mature things in their own lives.
It was brilliant.
And I’m not saying Stine is Rowling or anything (Stine is OBVIOUSLY better than Rowling even if he never read the story I sent him as a kid. At least he’s not a TERF. That I know of. Please don’t correct me), but the books have been getting scarier and it would be WILD if the last one served as a bridge to the scarier and far more violent Fear Street books.
Imagine: A kid goes through a scarier than average Goosebumps story and the family moves in the end like Welcome to Dead
House only pull up to a new house in a new town and the kid gets out to survey the scene. It’s quiet and he realizes that there aren’t any birds singing. And it’s chilly even though it’s summer. And what does that street sign say?
“Fear Street? What kind of town names a street like that?”
And then nothing. That’s the end.
I think that would have been the coolest thing Stine could have done but, alas, it didn’t work out like that. But we’ll talk about all that later.
———
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When I originally read this, I was impressed that the kid could basically fall asleep on command. I’m pretty quick to fall asleep and my wife gets pretty jealous of it, but I can’t just zonk out when I’m super stressed about things - like I can only imagine this kid was.
And I really enjoyed the fever dream state of this book. Absolutely dreadful episode of the show, but the book was good.
Except for one thing: You know how in movies they sometimes try to be cute and slip in names as an homage to the movie-maker’s influences? Like how in Friday the 13th, Tommy was at Karloff’s Garage? Or how in Scream, Rose McGowan said “Wes Carpenter?”
And you know how it NEVER feels natural? These names are critical to the point where they seem almost unique to that individual. Are there other people named Wes? Sure! But in the context of horror movies, is there really any other Wes? Or a Karloff?
It takes me right out of the story.
It’s even harder in books because I can’t exactly read when my eyes are rolling in my head.
That said, Stine has avoided it almost entirely until this book. He fell HARD in this book.
Two characters. One named Bruce. One named Wayne. They’re always together so it’s “Bruce said,” “Wayne added.”
Ugh.
———
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And I really enjoyed the fever dream state of this book. Absolutely dreadful episode of the show, but the book was good.
Except for one thing: You know how in movies they sometimes try to be cute and slip in names as an homage to the movie-maker’s influences? Like how in Friday the 13th, Tommy was at Karloff’s Garage? Or how in Scream, Rose McGowan said “Wes Carpenter?”
And you know how it NEVER feels natural? These names are critical to the point where they seem almost unique to that individual. Are there other people named Wes? Sure! But in the context of horror movies, is there really any other Wes? Or a Karloff?
It takes me right out of the story.
It’s even harder in books because I can’t exactly read when my eyes are rolling in my head.
That said, Stine has avoided it almost entirely until this book. He fell HARD in this book.
Two characters. One named Bruce. One named Wayne. They’re always together so it’s “Bruce said,” “Wayne added.”
Ugh.
———
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This was a frustrating read. And it wasn’t frustrating because the story was weak or anything - it was frustrating because this kid needed real parents and the Stine trope of absentee parents hit hard. I’ve never wanted to grab a kid in a book and give him the mentorship he DEFINITELY needs more in my life.
But, if I could, I would have told him that:
1) Girls (or anyone, really) aren’t prizes and it’s weird that he’s competing against someone for a girl as if the girl has no say in this.
2) MOST girls are into people who are genuine rather than people putting up facades.
3) It has to suck to live your whole life in competition with a neighbor and this will never stop unless YOU stop it.
4) Be content with yourself. You’re good enough and you don’t need the external validation of your neighbors to feel good about yourself.
This was a sad book for me because Stine wrote a sad kid so well I felt bummed I couldn’t help him out. That’s pretty good on Stine’s part. ;-)
It was also way better than the cover or title would have led me to believe. It felt like there were more fleshed-out problems and characters in this one.
———
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But, if I could, I would have told him that:
1) Girls (or anyone, really) aren’t prizes and it’s weird that he’s competing against someone for a girl as if the girl has no say in this.
2) MOST girls are into people who are genuine rather than people putting up facades.
3) It has to suck to live your whole life in competition with a neighbor and this will never stop unless YOU stop it.
4) Be content with yourself. You’re good enough and you don’t need the external validation of your neighbors to feel good about yourself.
This was a sad book for me because Stine wrote a sad kid so well I felt bummed I couldn’t help him out. That’s pretty good on Stine’s part. ;-)
It was also way better than the cover or title would have led me to believe. It felt like there were more fleshed-out problems and characters in this one.
———
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Full warning: I’m a sucker for all things Halloween. I find the holiday to be endlessly interesting and genuinely enjoy dragging out a spooky version of a Christmas village to stare at for a month or so before I need to put it away, take a breath for Thanksgiving, and then put the Christmas stuff up.
Halloween feels like the gateway to the celebration that is the last quarter of the year.
I love it.
Because of this, I’m super keen on Halloween-related stuff and get really excited when I see books like this.
The problem with this is that it sucks to be disappointed if things aren’t awesome.
Fortunately, this book was fine. I’m generally not keen on pranks or practical jokes, but I get it - it had to be done. And I keep telling myself that Stine’s goal with Goosebumps was never to terrify kids so he couldn’t lean way into horror.
It was fine. Definitely one of the coolest covers and I like the core of the story.
———
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Halloween feels like the gateway to the celebration that is the last quarter of the year.
I love it.
Because of this, I’m super keen on Halloween-related stuff and get really excited when I see books like this.
The problem with this is that it sucks to be disappointed if things aren’t awesome.
Fortunately, this book was fine. I’m generally not keen on pranks or practical jokes, but I get it - it had to be done. And I keep telling myself that Stine’s goal with Goosebumps was never to terrify kids so he couldn’t lean way into horror.
It was fine. Definitely one of the coolest covers and I like the core of the story.
———
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I read a thing in the internet that talked about hyper-fixation and neurodivergent people and, honestly, it sounded a lot like me. I’ve never been tested for it, but my oldest popped up out of the blue and said they think this might be a thing and sent me the information.
It was super interesting to me because I was raised being called “fickle,” and tough to buy presents for because nobody would know what I would be obsessed with come Christmas.
And make no mistake: I get obsessed with things.
I don’t think that Stine is in the same boat or anything, but I do think it’s entertaining to see him slide into something he obviously enjoys and work it out of his system through a few books. It’s like he accidentally stumbles onto something and goes “oh, YEAH!” and then builds the next few books around that thing until he gets bored or finds something new to focus on.
This is assuming he wrote them in the same order they were published.
You could see this start with Beast From the East (admittedly with a break for Say Cheese and Die Again) where Stine was really leaning into quick stories that focused on excitement rather than trying to build a creepy story.
This is just fun stuff.
Also, I realize it sounds like I’m throwing shade, but I’m not. While *I* am the type of guy that could easily look forward to a creepy monthly novella, I imagine that there are WAY more people who would appreciate the variety in this series. It’s almost a service to kids to remind them that there are more worlds out there that are fun to read than just horror.
Even if it is a little goofy.
———
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It was super interesting to me because I was raised being called “fickle,” and tough to buy presents for because nobody would know what I would be obsessed with come Christmas.
And make no mistake: I get obsessed with things.
I don’t think that Stine is in the same boat or anything, but I do think it’s entertaining to see him slide into something he obviously enjoys and work it out of his system through a few books. It’s like he accidentally stumbles onto something and goes “oh, YEAH!” and then builds the next few books around that thing until he gets bored or finds something new to focus on.
This is assuming he wrote them in the same order they were published.
You could see this start with Beast From the East (admittedly with a break for Say Cheese and Die Again) where Stine was really leaning into quick stories that focused on excitement rather than trying to build a creepy story.
This is just fun stuff.
Also, I realize it sounds like I’m throwing shade, but I’m not. While *I* am the type of guy that could easily look forward to a creepy monthly novella, I imagine that there are WAY more people who would appreciate the variety in this series. It’s almost a service to kids to remind them that there are more worlds out there that are fun to read than just horror.
Even if it is a little goofy.
———
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A camp of ghosts are luring live kids to camp in order to possess them and escape this purgatory!
Okay. Say you were part of a camp that had a mysterious fog roll over it and now you and all the other campers are dead.
The whole camp is dead.
With me so far?
Who did the parents book a camping trip with? Why did the parents not accompany the two kids to camp in the first place and how did nobody catch that two kids (and only two kids) were going to that old camp where everyone died?
We’ll say magic just to put it all aside for now.
Why did the campers not FILL the camp with kids to possess and ride out? Why only two? This is horrible planning on the ghosts’ part because it was inevitable that only two ghosts would be able to leave. This is like driving a Miata to pick up your brother and his family from the airport.
AND, say you’re a ghost looking to possess and ride a kid out of this camp you’re stuck in. Why would you mess around with the kids? Why would you play pranks and erode trust in the kids YOU NEED TO POSSESS LATER?
Also, why wait? Why not say “hey kids, welcome to camp, if you can just look over that way, you’ll see our awesome cabins…” and then sneak in through their ear or whatever?
It just… it didn’t make any sense. I had so many questions and there was so much gaslighting that when it finally wrapped up I thought “finally. Maybe the next one will be better.”
And I’m not trying to hate these books or anything. I think it’s super easy to shit on kid’s books and I genuinely want to enjoy them but I can’t help it that I can’t turn off my brain and that shouldn’t be a requirement in the first place!
In the series this IS pretty intense and not silly, though, so at least there’s that.
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Okay. Say you were part of a camp that had a mysterious fog roll over it and now you and all the other campers are dead.
The whole camp is dead.
With me so far?
Who did the parents book a camping trip with? Why did the parents not accompany the two kids to camp in the first place and how did nobody catch that two kids (and only two kids) were going to that old camp where everyone died?
We’ll say magic just to put it all aside for now.
Why did the campers not FILL the camp with kids to possess and ride out? Why only two? This is horrible planning on the ghosts’ part because it was inevitable that only two ghosts would be able to leave. This is like driving a Miata to pick up your brother and his family from the airport.
AND, say you’re a ghost looking to possess and ride a kid out of this camp you’re stuck in. Why would you mess around with the kids? Why would you play pranks and erode trust in the kids YOU NEED TO POSSESS LATER?
Also, why wait? Why not say “hey kids, welcome to camp, if you can just look over that way, you’ll see our awesome cabins…” and then sneak in through their ear or whatever?
It just… it didn’t make any sense. I had so many questions and there was so much gaslighting that when it finally wrapped up I thought “finally. Maybe the next one will be better.”
And I’m not trying to hate these books or anything. I think it’s super easy to shit on kid’s books and I genuinely want to enjoy them but I can’t help it that I can’t turn off my brain and that shouldn’t be a requirement in the first place!
In the series this IS pretty intense and not silly, though, so at least there’s that.
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Okay, I know I have ripped on a lot of these books and will continue to do so when they’re written poorly but this…
This might be my least favorite Goosebumps book of all time.
The story centers on two kids and one is getting skinny and the other is getting fat.
That’s the king and short of it. The protagonist is the one getting fat and the book is all about the horror of obesity.
And it’s about as sensitive as you would expect a Goosebumps book to be.
Now, I will admit that I’ve always been a sensitive guy but I think even the most “shit rolls off my back,” kind of kid who is overweight could read this book and be crushed that being like them is the scary part of this book.
The HORROR of this story is just getting fat.
I can’t fuckin’ believe it. The agent should have put a stop to this, the editor should have put a stop to this, Scholastic, a children’s publishing house with enough brains that you would THINK they might realize that putting out a book about how being fat is scary might not be the best thing to release into the world specifically targeted at CHILDREN.
Also, it feels like a riff on Stephen King’s “Thinner,” but not in a good way (and not the last time, either).
This one was tough to get through.
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This might be my least favorite Goosebumps book of all time.
The story centers on two kids and one is getting skinny and the other is getting fat.
That’s the king and short of it. The protagonist is the one getting fat and the book is all about the horror of obesity.
And it’s about as sensitive as you would expect a Goosebumps book to be.
Now, I will admit that I’ve always been a sensitive guy but I think even the most “shit rolls off my back,” kind of kid who is overweight could read this book and be crushed that being like them is the scary part of this book.
The HORROR of this story is just getting fat.
I can’t fuckin’ believe it. The agent should have put a stop to this, the editor should have put a stop to this, Scholastic, a children’s publishing house with enough brains that you would THINK they might realize that putting out a book about how being fat is scary might not be the best thing to release into the world specifically targeted at CHILDREN.
Also, it feels like a riff on Stephen King’s “Thinner,” but not in a good way (and not the last time, either).
This one was tough to get through.
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I get the feeling that the cover artist was given the briefest of descriptions for these books. Snowman of Pasadena didn’t have a rampaging beast and this book didn’t have an evil rabbit.
Or, at least not a traditionally evil rabbit. The rabbit is the protagonist’s little sister who was turned into a rabbit and the rest of the book is him trying to find a cure.
But I really liked this book for nostalgia’s sake. I used to be really into magic tricks. I watched every televised special, read every library book (and they get weird. One made sure to emphasize that magic tricks are just TRICKS and I am never EVER to say I’m a wizard, warlock, or witch, because those are real and real servants of Satan. What a weird book to be in an elementary school library), and hassled my folks to take me to magic shops.
I bought linking rings. I got a magic set for my birthday. I learned card tricks. There was this really easy trick that I would do for folks that would blow their minds (making a coin disappear from under a cloth in my hand) and nobody could figure out how I did it. Only a friend’s mom and I knew in our groups of friends and family.
I was never super good at magic or anything, though. My tricks were basic and all sorts of people say they don’t like magic. It fell away as I got older. I still like watching some specials, though there was something special about the 90s where the whole country would stop what they were doing to see if David Copperfield could really make the Statue of Liberty disappear.
Now, I think we’ve become too jaded as a society. Too many people who don’t want to feel had and unwilling to be awed by anything.
It’s a bummer.
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Or, at least not a traditionally evil rabbit. The rabbit is the protagonist’s little sister who was turned into a rabbit and the rest of the book is him trying to find a cure.
But I really liked this book for nostalgia’s sake. I used to be really into magic tricks. I watched every televised special, read every library book (and they get weird. One made sure to emphasize that magic tricks are just TRICKS and I am never EVER to say I’m a wizard, warlock, or witch, because those are real and real servants of Satan. What a weird book to be in an elementary school library), and hassled my folks to take me to magic shops.
I bought linking rings. I got a magic set for my birthday. I learned card tricks. There was this really easy trick that I would do for folks that would blow their minds (making a coin disappear from under a cloth in my hand) and nobody could figure out how I did it. Only a friend’s mom and I knew in our groups of friends and family.
I was never super good at magic or anything, though. My tricks were basic and all sorts of people say they don’t like magic. It fell away as I got older. I still like watching some specials, though there was something special about the 90s where the whole country would stop what they were doing to see if David Copperfield could really make the Statue of Liberty disappear.
Now, I think we’ve become too jaded as a society. Too many people who don’t want to feel had and unwilling to be awed by anything.
It’s a bummer.
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This was a decent one about a boy getting a shrunken head as a gift that turns out to be magic. It helps him in a jungle adventure to save his aunt, yadda yadda yadda.
But, I thought, despite how interesting shrunken heads are, how are they made?
Well, it starts with a cut along the back of the head. Then the flesh is stripped slowly and carefully from the skull and boiled for a half-hour (any more and you risk the hair falling out). Then the skin is turned inside out and excess fat trimmed away.
Then it’s turned right-way out again and filled with hot stones to burn the remaining fat and then with sand to fill the cracks.
Then it’s boiled again and the process repeated. A big emphasis is on keeping the facial features and head shape.
Eventually (sometimes 6 DAYS later), it’s about 1/4 the size of a normal skull.
Then, fearing retribution, the warrior sews the head’s eyes shut to prevent the victim’s spirit from seeing out. Then it’s mouth is sewn shut (usually with wooden pins and thread, not just thread) to prevent the victim from asking for his death to be avenged.
And there you have it: one shrunken head.
Makes a cool gift for a 12-year-old boy, right?
As for the story, I’m not generally keen on magic as a plot device because it’s often too convenient and lacks rules.
That’s about the length of it in this book, too. If Stine wrote Shazam, it would be this book.
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But, I thought, despite how interesting shrunken heads are, how are they made?
Well, it starts with a cut along the back of the head. Then the flesh is stripped slowly and carefully from the skull and boiled for a half-hour (any more and you risk the hair falling out). Then the skin is turned inside out and excess fat trimmed away.
Then it’s turned right-way out again and filled with hot stones to burn the remaining fat and then with sand to fill the cracks.
Then it’s boiled again and the process repeated. A big emphasis is on keeping the facial features and head shape.
Eventually (sometimes 6 DAYS later), it’s about 1/4 the size of a normal skull.
Then, fearing retribution, the warrior sews the head’s eyes shut to prevent the victim’s spirit from seeing out. Then it’s mouth is sewn shut (usually with wooden pins and thread, not just thread) to prevent the victim from asking for his death to be avenged.
And there you have it: one shrunken head.
Makes a cool gift for a 12-year-old boy, right?
As for the story, I’m not generally keen on magic as a plot device because it’s often too convenient and lacks rules.
That’s about the length of it in this book, too. If Stine wrote Shazam, it would be this book.
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RL Stine just can’t resist the final sting.
This is a bananas book about a family that basically gets tricked into going to a horror theme park (when their car fucking EXPLODES). The rides are basically death traps and it turns out that the gates have been locked with only them and the staff inside.
The family freaks out and it’s revealed that the monster staff are real monsters and the family is on a reality show.
They are further tricked into thinking they can leave, except they’re really led to more monsters that are going to eat them all on TV.
The family escapes the eating monsters, space the staff monsters, escape the park, pile into the new car that appeared out of NOWHERE, and-
Wait, can we talk about the car? They parked in the parking lot and the car blew up. The staff member at the ticket counter told them not to worry and that… I guess the park would take care of it?
But if they were just going to murder the family, why replace the car at all?
This stuff makes my head hurt.
Anyway, they escape and drive home. All’s well that ends well.
EXCEPT a staff member clung to the back of the car and gave them free passes back to the park.
The park they almost died at. The one that shoots snuff films for reality TV.
*sigh*
I genuinely think that this is probably in the top 5 scariest entries in this series for kids but this joke ending takes all of the air out of it and makes the whole thing feel… well, like a joke.
It was pretty good right up until the end if you could turn your brain off for the duration because the decisions made in this are pretty dumb.
Ah, but it’s a Goosebumps book. Characters are going to be dumb.
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This is a bananas book about a family that basically gets tricked into going to a horror theme park (when their car fucking EXPLODES). The rides are basically death traps and it turns out that the gates have been locked with only them and the staff inside.
The family freaks out and it’s revealed that the monster staff are real monsters and the family is on a reality show.
They are further tricked into thinking they can leave, except they’re really led to more monsters that are going to eat them all on TV.
The family escapes the eating monsters, space the staff monsters, escape the park, pile into the new car that appeared out of NOWHERE, and-
Wait, can we talk about the car? They parked in the parking lot and the car blew up. The staff member at the ticket counter told them not to worry and that… I guess the park would take care of it?
But if they were just going to murder the family, why replace the car at all?
This stuff makes my head hurt.
Anyway, they escape and drive home. All’s well that ends well.
EXCEPT a staff member clung to the back of the car and gave them free passes back to the park.
The park they almost died at. The one that shoots snuff films for reality TV.
*sigh*
I genuinely think that this is probably in the top 5 scariest entries in this series for kids but this joke ending takes all of the air out of it and makes the whole thing feel… well, like a joke.
It was pretty good right up until the end if you could turn your brain off for the duration because the decisions made in this are pretty dumb.
Ah, but it’s a Goosebumps book. Characters are going to be dumb.
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I didn’t read this as a kid, but I wish I had if only to compare how I felt then to how I felt when I read this as an adult.
The kid in this - our protagonist - is a little shit of a bastard, especially to his parents and it was beyond frustrating to read as an adult.
I am convinced that the reason it was tough to read as an adult was because my kids had been around for a while by that point and I was well aware what kind of sacrifices are required for them and how much easier life was without children.
Now, I’m not saying I wish I hadn’t had kids or anything. Don’t get me wrong. But there is a high level of sacrifice, stress, financial requirements, and random restraints to your life that come solely from kids.
Take buying a house. With no kids, you could buy a small house anywhere you want. But with kids you need to buy a house that’s bigger, ideally in a good school zone so the price of the house will rise not only because of size and materials but because you’re being charged a premium solely because you like your kids enough to want them to succeed in life.
I love my kids, but kids in general are undeniably a weight to be carried for decades.
And it’s not for everyone. I completely understand when people say kids aren’t for them.
Anyway, because of all this, it always kills me when some awful kid character in a book is mean to their parents. Or demanding. Spoiled to the point of being Veruca Salt.
I hate it just knowing how tough it had to be to raise that fictional character to that point.
So in this, I was kind of okay with the idea of a mad scientist hacking this kid’s hands off. I was actually a pretty big fan of the idea.
Alas, this is one book where Stine’s promise of not hurting the kid actually comes through.
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The kid in this - our protagonist - is a little shit of a bastard, especially to his parents and it was beyond frustrating to read as an adult.
I am convinced that the reason it was tough to read as an adult was because my kids had been around for a while by that point and I was well aware what kind of sacrifices are required for them and how much easier life was without children.
Now, I’m not saying I wish I hadn’t had kids or anything. Don’t get me wrong. But there is a high level of sacrifice, stress, financial requirements, and random restraints to your life that come solely from kids.
Take buying a house. With no kids, you could buy a small house anywhere you want. But with kids you need to buy a house that’s bigger, ideally in a good school zone so the price of the house will rise not only because of size and materials but because you’re being charged a premium solely because you like your kids enough to want them to succeed in life.
I love my kids, but kids in general are undeniably a weight to be carried for decades.
And it’s not for everyone. I completely understand when people say kids aren’t for them.
Anyway, because of all this, it always kills me when some awful kid character in a book is mean to their parents. Or demanding. Spoiled to the point of being Veruca Salt.
I hate it just knowing how tough it had to be to raise that fictional character to that point.
So in this, I was kind of okay with the idea of a mad scientist hacking this kid’s hands off. I was actually a pretty big fan of the idea.
Alas, this is one book where Stine’s promise of not hurting the kid actually comes through.
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Fun fact: a study was done on children that came to the conclusion that, when kids wear masks, their aggressiveness and cruelty increase while their empathy decreases. Some of the folks who looked at the study posited that this might be why people are so okay with being trolls and jerks online where they are more anonymous and hidden by the mask of a screen and screen name.
I can’t recall if the study (that is cited in the Halloween entry of Devil’s Advocates in case you’d like to read more about it) had the same effects on adults.
But I’m willing to bet that it is. After all, the mask that is internet anonymity has led to, well, all of this bullshit, right?
Pretty crazy that Stine called it back in the 90s.
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I can’t recall if the study (that is cited in the Halloween entry of Devil’s Advocates in case you’d like to read more about it) had the same effects on adults.
But I’m willing to bet that it is. After all, the mask that is internet anonymity has led to, well, all of this bullshit, right?
Pretty crazy that Stine called it back in the 90s.
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This one really got me as a kid. “Jaw open, squealing at the twist“ kind of got me. I thought the twist was perfect.
RL Stine said in his defense that no kids ever succumb to any real danger in his books and I genuinely can’t tell you if that’s because he doesn’t remember what he wrote, doesn’t remember what his ghostwriters wrote, or was so positive that no parent was going to verify his claims.
Because we aren’t that deep into the series and a kid dies in a fire.
In chapter one.
The story centers on said dead kid as they think that THEIR new neighbor is a g-g-g-GHOST!
But it turns out no! THEY’RE the ghost. They’ve been the ghost this whole time!
I’m telling you, it blew my tiny little kid brain the first time I read it.
#horrorbooks #horrorbookstagram #readmore #readmorebooks #readmorehorror #wordywordsonwords #goosebumps #goosebumpsbooks #goosebumpsseries #bookstagram #book #books #bookrecommendations #booklover #bookaddict #bookaholic #constantreader #books #bookrecommendation #booktok #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #booksky #readersofpixelfed #read #readinglog
RL Stine said in his defense that no kids ever succumb to any real danger in his books and I genuinely can’t tell you if that’s because he doesn’t remember what he wrote, doesn’t remember what his ghostwriters wrote, or was so positive that no parent was going to verify his claims.
Because we aren’t that deep into the series and a kid dies in a fire.
In chapter one.
The story centers on said dead kid as they think that THEIR new neighbor is a g-g-g-GHOST!
But it turns out no! THEY’RE the ghost. They’ve been the ghost this whole time!
I’m telling you, it blew my tiny little kid brain the first time I read it.
#horrorbooks #horrorbookstagram #readmore #readmorebooks #readmorehorror #wordywordsonwords #goosebumps #goosebumpsbooks #goosebumpsseries #bookstagram #book #books #bookrecommendations #booklover #bookaddict #bookaholic #constantreader #books #bookrecommendation #booktok #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #booksky #readersofpixelfed #read #readinglog
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