October 16, 2018

Suckers! - 30 Tales to Give You Goosebumps #15


Well October is about half over and this book is about half done. Hopefully you're still here with me getting those Goosebumps. Today's story is called "Suckers!" Presumably it's about someone who is foolish. It could also be about lollipops. Who knows. Let's find out.

Ashley is spending the summer with her cousin and younger brother. Unfortunately there are a pair of local bullies that don't like kids who are only there for the summer. They are constantly harassing them. Lame.

One afternoon on the beach Ashley discovers a chest that has washed ashore. What is inside? Pirate treasure? Ancient artifacts? A weird slimy green blob? That last one. That's what's in it.

The green blob attached to Ashley with weird suckers, and won't let go. Ahhhh, get it, suckers. Anyway attempts to get it off seem to fail, but then they notice it seems interested in cousin Greg's pocket. That is where he keeps his gummy worms. It gobbles up the gummies and then attaches to Greg. Then there is a problem. No more gummies. They can't get the blob off either.

Quickly they husle to Greg's house to find more of the candy he loves so much. There is none to be found there, all eaten, empty bags. They go to the store and make off with as many as they can carry. The owner lets them put it on their tab because Greg is his best customer.

Then they get hassled by the bullies. With a fresh stock of gummy worms they're prime targets, but they manage to hussle past the jerks.

Back at the beach Greg is entirely covered by the strange creature. They use the candy to lure it back into the chest where it can contently munch all the worms to its hearts content. Actually it probably doesn't have a heart. They shut the possibly heartless creature in the chest.

So anyway, bullies show up. They go to chase after Ashley and crew but then notice the chest. There are gummy worms sticking out of the chest. Well who doesn't want a chest full of gummies? Ashley and her relations scurry off to leave the bullies to deal with the ramifications of their actions.

My Thoughts


Great, now I want gummy worms. Is that a weird reaction to have for this story? Maybe...

Ok, once again it feels like this story plays with the format a little. This is good, I appreciate that. In fact, there really isn't even a twist ending. This doesn't necessarily make it a better story persay... but it does mitigate the fatigue you feel of reading a story with the same plot direction over and over again.

Some complaints though. The introduction was a little confusing. It is throwing the names of all these characters at you at once, and it actually took me a second look to figure out who was who and what was what. Maybe I was just tired because I took a shot of nyquil and it's almost midnight... but I feel like it shouldn't be that confusing for a 33 year old reading a book for kids.

Once it got going, it felt sort of like a fun summer romp. Like if they could have fleshed things out a bit and turned it into a longer story it could have amounted to something more. Honestly I could imagine a better (much better) version of this being a movie. Kids having summer adventures with bullies and a strange ocean creature that washed ashore. I'd watch it.

I would compare this relatively favorably to the rest of the stories I've read so far this month. It's not amazing, but it's probably in the better half of the stories I've read rather than the worse half.

Rating: 3 out of 5 gummy worms that I really am craving right now


Tomorrow I think we may be in for a treat. Not gummy worms though... unless I go to the store... Wait nevermind. The treating I am talking about is tomorrow's story "Dr. Horror's House of Video." I am guessing it's about a video rental store. What a thing to be reading about in 2018! I might even have to explain what a video rental store is to people! Hurray! Check back tomorrow.

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