The Haunted House Game - 30 Tales to Give You Goosebumps #25

"The Haunted House Game." Today we get to see how you turn a haunted house into a game, apparently. Is it a board game? Like Monopoly but the properties are spooky? Monopoly teaches us that the only horror in this life is capitalism. I am running out of ways to introduce stories. Let's just read the damn thing.

Jonathan is babysitting his 2 younger siblings with his best friend Nadine. The night is dark and stormy, which means it is a perfect time to play the board game called Haunted House. Each player rolls the dice, and the square they land on has a spooky direction. The thing is, what they read on the board happens in real life. One square may say they hear the windows rattle, and the real windows actually rattle. Another square may say you hear an eerie moan and one actually sounds out. Very creepy.

Of course every game must end. Jonathan lands on the square marked "Scared to Death." Basically every scary thing that could happen. There were lightning blasts, thunder booms, moaning, screaming, rattling windows. The kids screamed for what seemed like hours. Jonathan tried to escape the house but curiously stopped at the newspaper out front. The paper had an article about 4 kids who died mysteriously in a mansion. It appears like they were scared to death... in 1942. So that's how long they've been haunting this place.

Jonathan returns to the house, his siblings are still in there. For some reason he goes to the closet. There is a board game in there called Haunted House. Boy, it would be a great night to play it.

My Thoughts

This tale has a fun premise, albeit one that is not too far off from other stories out there. While it feels like other stories per say, it doesn't feel quite like other Goosebumps stories, so that is good. The idea is pretty simple but effective. I do think the frights have a lot more to offer the young than they do for me. Reading about thunder and moans and rattling just doesn't do it for me anymore.

The story kind of plays out like a spooky, simplistic version of the movie Jumanji (the original version.) I mean, both are about a board game that comes true. This story came out a year after the movie so it's entirely possibly it was inspired by it. That being said it is different enough to not feel like a complete rip off. I guess the end also kind of shows a bit of a Groundhogs Day but with ghosts vibe too...

Lots of these stories feel like they have a particular time that it would be good to read them to other people. Babysitting kids on a stormy night, this would be a great one to take out. You might not be invited back to babysit again... but oh well.

I guess basically this is a pretty fun story. The twist isn't a showstopper, and I probably should probably be complaining about how it's a "they were dead the whole time" one... but it works. The whole "stuck like this for eternity" has also been done before, but I think it is done here well for once. This is one of the better "Tales" I've read thus far.

Rating: 4 out of 5 dice that will lead to your death

Tomorrow I'll read "A Change for the Strange." Who knows if it will be scary, but at least it will be strange. See you then.

The House of No Return - 30 Tales to Give You Goosebumps #1

It's October 1st, and if you didn't see my post yesterday you might not know what is going on. Each day in October I'm reviewing a different short story in the Goosebumps collection 30 Tales to Give You Goosebumps. Today's story is "The House of No Return."

Meet Robbie, Nathan, and Lori. They are members of the prestigious Danger Club, for those who love the dangerous lifestyle. Of course a club of 3 people isn't really much of a club. That is why they are recruiting. So how do you join? Well, to prove you live the danger lifestyle you must spend the an hour at night in an old abandoned house alone. A house that is rumored to be HAUNTED. How scary is it? Well potential Danger Club member Doug could only last about 10 minutes before he ran screaming from the house!

On to the next victim potential member. Enter Chris Wakely. He's pretty new to school and hasn't made a lot of friends yet. Surely he would be eager to join the Danger Club. Just one problem, he is a huge coward. He even openly admits it.

This calls for a plan! A dastardly plan. The club conspires to take Chris trick or treating with them on Halloween. Unfortunately it is more trick than treat. They take him to the haunted house and shut him in there. Of course they are fully convinced he'll love the experience and be a happy member of their club at the end. I am not sure what about Chris's begging and pleading gave them that idea.

Here is the thing though, he actually lasts the hour... but then more time passes by and he still doesn't come out. The Danger Club try to go in and get him to congratulate him but the door won't budge.

Never fear, they can go in through the back door. Of course, none of the Danger Club has ever been inside. See since they were the founders they already know THEY were brave so what would be the point. Nerves tense, they finally open the back door.

They call out for Chris to no avail. The door slams behind them. Strange lights appear at the top of the stairs and come closer. This house IS haunted, and two ghosts greet them. Where is Chris? The ghosts have an answer. He left out the back door awhile ago. They didn't want to let him go, but he promised them that 3 more kids would come in and take his place. Now they have. The Danger Club will get to stay in the house... FOREVER!

My Thoughts

This is my first ever Tales to Give You Goosebumps story. I was not quite sure what his short stories would be like. How similar would they be compared to a full length story?

The fact is, naturally it is pretty similar. I mean I guess it would be silly for these books to be absolutely different. The tone is very much the same as your standard book. It's still got the tween kids who love pranks and stuff. R.L. Stine's narrative voice seems intact as always.

There are some differences though. A lot less fake out scares for one thing. Without chapters, there is no need for the "chapter cliffhanger" where some doom is impending only to turn out to be nothing. It also lets them keep the surprise terror for the very end, since there are only like a dozen pages to read through. It makes a "punchline" ending like this one work effectively.

The House of No Return starts off the book well. The Danger Club establishes a love for horror, and the Halloween antics make it an ideal story to read this month. Haunted House stories are classic and while this doesn't break a lot of fresh ground as a story it is pretty fun. The ending did actually make me chuckle. It might even be enough to make a young 9 year old think twice before ringing the doorbell and that creepy house in the neighborhood this October 31st.

Rating: 4 out of 5 ghosts

Now be sure to check back tomorrow for Tale to Give You Goosebumps #2 "Teacher's Pet"