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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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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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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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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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 think 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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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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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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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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Dickens is one of my favorites. I love this book! I also really like Little Dorrit and David Copperfield.


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