#13 Piano Lessons Can be Murder

Judging a book by its cover:

If I was going to guess the plot of the book by looking at the cover I could only assume it was about Thing from The Addams Family finding his long lost brother and them becoming world renown pianists. Also assassins. Pianist assassins. Wait, no, that makes them sound like they kill pianists...

Regardless, on the cover we have disembodied hands tickling the ivories. The tagline reads "Play it again, hands!" I assume this is a reference to "Play it again, Sam" from the movie Casablanca. This is great for two reasons. 1) They never actually said it in Casablanca. It's one of the world's most popular misquotes. This makes it so you can't get sued, brilliant! 2) Kids just LOVE Casablanca. I'm sure all of them get the reference perfectly and chuckled heartily.

There is another cover to this book. While I'm not sure which edition it comes on, this cover came up with googling and all I can say is... What the eff? Pedophile cyborg man in a weird trippy background? I honestly have no idea what is going on. I think if I had come across this book with this cover as a kid I would have hesitated to buy it. I guess on the plus side it is genuinely creepy... It gives me the heeby jeebies.

Anyway lets move on. I am predicting either there will be a haunted piano or a scary piano teacher. Possibly both. Will that be what happens? Lets check it out!


Getting Goosebumps:

This book's star tween character is Jerry who is just moving into a new house with his parents. He starts things out by scaring them into believing some dust balls were really mice. It seems like every Goosebumps book has to have a character that loves scaring or playing tricks. I guess it's a really simple way to make sure people don't believe it when something genuinely scary happens... as if you need a reason not to believe super natural things are happening.

Anyway one thing that is set up that may be intricate to the plot is Jerry's cat Bonkers. He hates it, because it always lunges at him and claws him. I feel like maybe the Bonkers will end up clawing the bad guy or something. Maybe it's just a red herring. I bet cats love red herring.

More certainly intricate to the plot is the piano Jerry and his dad discover in the attic. It's a good quality piano which makes it a mystery as to why it got left behind. The first night in the new house Jerry hears sad piano music from the attic but when he goes upstairs no one is there. He plonks a few keys himself, waking up his dad who then suggests piano lessons. Jerry thinks it might be cool. He could get some synthesizers, and maybe compose music and make it big with a rock band. Jerry thinks big, and that is actually some pretty good character description that makes him feel slightly different than all the other generic Goosebumps stars. I'll take what I can get.

The potential villain of this book is Dr. Shreek, Jerry's piano teacher. He was the only one advertising piano lessons in the news paper which is as solid of credentials as anyone needs. Despite having a "spooky" name, his looks are likened to that of jolly old Santa Claus. At first they just have a short lesson so he can meet Jerry. He compliments his hands, which is slightly weird but hey, he's a pianist!

The next lesson doesn't go as well. Dr. Shreek keeps going on and on about Jerry's hands. They are alive! Each finger is alive! Move them faster! He keeps playing the same song faster and faster, his hands going out of control. It, of course, is a dream.

Nightmares aside, Jerry also has to deal with the spooky piano music at night. On night he goes down there to check it out and is tackled by Bonkers the cat which wakes up and pisses off his parents. The next time he investigates he sees the ghost of a woman who tells him to stay away from her piano. His parents think that perhaps instead he should stay near a psychiatrist.

Eventually Jerry has a real second lesson with Dr. Shreek, who keeps up his hand fetish. Apparently Jerry's hands are good enough to get into Shreek's piano school for lessons. When Jerry shows up for his lesson at the school he discovers its in a creepy old building at the end of town. Inside he comes across a creepy floor sweeping robot made by Mr. Toggle the janitor who shares Shreek's hand fetish. The lesson itself goes well but the hand comments continue. Also, when Jerry gets home his parents demand a demonstration of what he learned. Instead the ghost bangs the hell out of some piano keys and his parents thing its him. Isn't having a haunted piano the worst?

Back at school Mr. Toggle shows Jerry a bunch of his inventions. He has stuff like big robots, surveillance monitors, and interesting musical instruments powered by air compression. Also, there is a desk drawer murmuring help me. Never to worry though, he's got Toggle's assurance it's just some damaged equipment.

To further the schools reputation, later Jerry runs into a girl from school who shares lots of stories about Shreek's school. Apparently there are bizarre monsters in the basement. On top of that, there are kids who have gone there and never returned. You'd think someone would report them to the Better Business Bureau.

Another night of piano music has Jerry freaking out and needing to investigate one more time. The ghost reveals bloody arm stumps and tells him the stories about the school are true. His parents find him absolutely freaking out, screaming at the top of his lungs. He tells them he wants nothing to do with the piano. This is ok with them he just has to have his one very last lesson because ya know, they already paid for it. This is what we call good parenting. If your kid is freaking out about pianos to the extent that he screams bloody murder about them in the night and needs professional therapy about them, hey why not send him to one last lesson?

When Jerry lets Dr. Shreek know its his last lesson, the good doctor flips his shit. He asserts that he needs Jerry's hands, and chases him around the school. Eventually they end up in the auditorium where thunderous piano playing can be heard. Pianos are all over each with an instructor and a pair of disembodied hands playing. Finally Mr. Toggle comes in and saves the day by deactivating Dr. Shreek. Yes, Dr. Shreek is a robot, and the whole school is filled with Toggles creations. There is only 1 problem. Mr. Toggle can't make hands. He can however cut off kids' hands and use computers to control them. All this hand harvesting is for 1 purpose. Good music. The only thing wrong with piano music is human error. Why he doesn't just have a computer generate music instead going to the trouble of hand stealing? Who knows.

Anyway, guess who shows up to save the day. Go on, guess. THE GHOST. Ghost lady shows up stumps and all and summons all the other piano person ghosts. They take their hands back and carry Mr. Toggle off. He's never seen or heard from again. The end.

What I thought:

First thoughts, "well that's odd." I guess that's probably the reaction he was going for. These books are supposed to be odd, but still... It seems like a genius that can build a legion of intelligent robots would have loftier goals than harvesting human hands. Where does he get his funding anyway? It can't be from piano lessons because they only seem to have a couple before the harvest takes place. For that matter, why is no one investigating all the missing children? This novel is pretty dark when you think about it. Mr. Toggle has murdered dozens, perhaps hundreds of people and reanimated their hands. What is he doing with the corpses? Why is a children's book making me ask these questions?

So I always do this, I read til the end and then just want to talk about the end when it's over. Lets discuss some other things, like Jerry. There is some good characterization to Jerry. He always likes to think big. When they move into the house he imagines each room in the perfect state as he sees it. Big tvs, work out equipment, whatever it takes. When he started piano lessons he immediately starts imaging himself in a grander and grander state like starting a band, composing music, being a rock god. This trait is unlike Goosebump characters I remember so far and makes him unique. It is also a pretty accurate depiction of a kid. I think a lot of kids think this way. In fact one thing Stine does well is pander to kids. The plot of moving to a new house is something a whole lot of kids can relate to. Something spooky about the new place is something kids can probably relate to as well. A robot piano teacher that wants to cut off your hands is something kids can probably relate to too, right?

Of course there are a lot of things about Jerry that aren't unique. He is 12. Pretty much every character is 11, 12, or 13. I suppose that makes sense as it is kind of the age his readers are. Probably even slightly older which is wise. Kids like reading about people they can relate to but look up to. Also in the not unique column is Jerry's love of the practical joke. It seems like in every book there is one jokester who scares people for kicks. It's an over-used device that is used to conjure up false scares. It also makes it so there is a reason for people not to believe them. Ya know, because it's hard to find a reason not to believe in piano ghosts.

I was kind of surprised at how I remembered exactly 0% of this book. Usually as I'm reading things that happen later on in the book start coming back to me. Not in this book. I can predict what happens based on my knowledge of Goosebumps but actual memories are sparse. I suppose this isn't the most memorable book in the series though. Overall, it's an acceptable but forgettable Goosebumps book.

My rating: 2 1/2 hands out of 5

Up Next!

The Werewolf of Fever Swamp is next up on the list. I am actually pretty interested to see RL Stine's take on werewolves. I know there are at least a couple werewolf books and this is his first. Will there be full moons and silver bullets? Check back next time, same Goosebump's time, same Goosebumps channel.

#12 Be Careful What You Wish For...

Judging a Book by its Cover:

Be Careful What You Wish For... and if you wished for good cover art you probably didn't get your wish in the early 90's. We have a snow globe seeping fumes and a generic girl looking bored. Really makes me want to read this book. The tagline of "it might come true" is a bit boring and predictable but at least it fits and isn't a huge stretch.

Now here is something a little different than usual. Generally I take a picture of the actual copy of the book I own but my digital camera is broken. I had to google for the cover art to this book, and then found out there are not 1, not 2, but 3 different covers. The original books all had a second run in the early 2000's. Usually they had the exact same cover art, except for a moderately different ooze border. Apparently, this cover was so lame they got a different picture to plop on it. I have to admit this generic mystic lady surrounded by second hand smoke is slightly better but still not amazing. I prefer the original purple border to the bright orange as well.

The third version is much more recent I gather. My understanding is that Stine is currently releasing brand new Goosebumps books and with each one he is also re-releasing a repackaged edition of one of the originals. This cover looks much hipper, more colorful and in my opinion a far superior illustration. It's pretty eye catching and appealing to kids. It almost looks like a still from a cartoon or something.

Of course no matter the cover the same book is still inside. Lets take a look, shall we?

Getting Goosebumps

Samantha Byrd is the star of this book. She's a lanky 12 year old that has some coordination problems with her long limbs. Because she's tall the basketball coach convinced her to play for the team but she has almost no skill. Even off the court she has trouble with clumsiness, often tripping and making mistakes. Because of this the popular (bitchy) girls in school constantly make fun of her. Most often the taunts are "why don't you just fly away Byrd," from extra bitchy Judith and Anna who are of course stars of the basketball team. Samantha dislikes Judith so much, one time she even strangled her in school after being picked on long enough. Being as these were the days before zero tolerance policies, she got off by simply apologizing. Luckily not everyone dislikes Samantha. Her best friend is Cory who she eats lunch with. He always gets a cold grilled cheese sandwich made by his dad, much to his dismay. Unfortunately for Cory, he barely even factors into the story. I think he only exists to prove that Samantha has friends.

Anyway, after practice one rainy day Samantha came across a creepy old lady named Clarissa who couldn't find her way home. Samantha helped her, and instead of explaining it all, Clarissa pulled out a glass ball and assured her that she would grant her three wishes. Needless to say, Samantha was skeptical but to humor the weird lady she wishes to be the strongest player on her basketball team, because fuck world peace.

Well the next day they had a basketball game, so it was time to see if her wish came true. As she played, she realized she was just as terrible as ever. Unfortunately, everyone on the team started to play even worse than her. It seemed they were all coming down with an illness that made them slow and tired. Her wish HAD come true, and in pretty much just the way you'd expect in a book such as this. Bummer for Byrd! None of the rest of the basketball team show up for school the next day, and Samantha is overwhelmed by guilt. She even goes so far as to call, and visit her arch nemesis Judith. Instead of being thankful for the concern, Judith does the only rational thing she can. She accuses Byrd of witchcraft. Now of course it is true but honestly who jumps to that conclusion? The startlingly accurate accusation pisses off Samantha so much that she hastily wishes that Judith would just disappear. Clarissa pops by to let her know that the first wish is canceled, and her second wish is granted. 

Time for a "It's a Wonderful Life" type of plot? Nope, that would be too complicated. Instead of just Judith disappearing, everyone disappeared. Not quite what Samantha was aiming for, she became a bit worried. After searching around a bit trying to find any sign of life she eventually comes across Clarissa again. The weird old lady lets her know that she tried to fulfill her wish as best she could, and getting rid of everyone was the only way she knew how. Doesn't make much sense, but a little lazy story telling never hurt anyone I suppose. Now Samantha has one wish left to go, surely she has learned her lesson about wishes never turning out how you want and will fix everything... Or she will almost do that, but then add on the last part that Judith will think she is the greatest person ever. Great idea, wishes never backfire. She clearly realizes that by now!

So now Judith thinks Byrd is great. She goes so far as to dress like her, follow her around, and carry her backpack. During the basketball game she screws up like Samantha on purpose just to be more like her. She even sneaks into her house during the night. In a desperate attempt to get away from her the next morning, Samantha crashes her back into Clarissa. The old woman feels bad that the wishes didn't turn out how she wanted so she offers her 1 final irreversible wish. Samantha wishes that she had never met Clarissa. Sensible. And that Judith had met Clarissa instead. Oops.

The book concludes with Judith and Clarissa talking. Samantha thinks she overhears Judith saying, "Byrd, why don't you fly away!." Samantha Byrd proceeds to eat an earthworm and flap her wings. The end. Cue the song Free Bird over the credits.

What I Thought

This was a pretty average entry into the Goosebumps theory. I didn't remember much of it, and it's no wonder why. It's really not that memorable. Magic wish stories are pretty common and predictable. There were really only 2 ways that first wish could have gone. Either exactly the way it did, or instead that she would have actually become a stronger basketball player. Then she would have gotten popular, turning into a huge bitch like Judith and then come to regret her transformation. The first is easier and less preachy. 

Her second wish turned out pretty darn lazy. It didn't backfire in a way that made sense. It wasn't particularly clever or enlightening. If Stine wanted to put forth actual effort he would have tried to show that Judith actually contributes some good to the world, despite being a bitch. Or perhaps without Judith another bitch would take her place and make Samantha's life hell. Maybe she could have disappeared in a way that everyone knew she was missing and then was concerned. Then Samantha could feel genuine remorse. Making everyone disappear was just simplistic and unimaginative.

Wish three was perhaps the most interesting of all of them. I wish these books were a little longer though, so the wish could have seemed to be good at first. Then slowly Judith would have gotten more and more obsessed. Having these books be so short does give things limited time to play out. Still, I have to remind myself that they are for kids.

One thing that struck me as interesting in this book is that only 3 characters mattered. This was probably true in other books, but for some reason stuck out for me in this one. Samantha, Judith, and Clarissa are the only ones that mattered. Samantha had a brother that I didn't even mention because he had no purpose. The only things he did was 1) Disbelieve Samantha's assertion that a magic wish came true and 2) Disappear. Basically the same for Cory. Her parents existed only because they had to exist. They didn't do anything.

So there you go. Not one of the most interesting Goosebumps, but it wasn't terrible. The ending was a bit silly but at least the twist sort of made sense. It didn't turn out that Judith was a werewolf, or that Clarissa was a robot or something stupid. It worked, mostly.

Rating: 2 out of 5 Crystal Balls

 

Up Next!

Piano Lessons Can Be...MURDER! That was my choice of punctuation. Pretty good title for a Goosebumps book. I do not, however, remember anything about the book. That seems to be happening too often. I suppose with a series this long read so long ago there is bound to be a lot of stuff that just isn't that memorable. Check back in a while for my next read! And thanks for checking out my blog.

#11 The Haunted Mask

Judging a Book by Its Cover

Now we arrive at The Haunted Mask. I recall this being one of the "big ones" when it comes to Goosebumps. This is one that stands out as a favorite in a lot of people's mind. The cover has the titular mask, which reminds me a bit of the Green Goblin from Spiderman. Maybe if the Green Goblin mated with an Orc from Warcraft...

The front tag reads "If looks could kill," which is just the kind of popular turn of phrase I'd expect on one of these covers. The back line, "Face to face with nightmare" is a little less punchy, but it works. I still wonder who churns out these things. Did they hire a guy who writes for movie posters? Who knows. Regardless, lets see what kind of shenanigans this overall wearing girl gets into!

Getting Goosebumps

The generic preteen star of this story is Carly Beth who discusses with her best friend Sabrina their plans for Halloween costumes. It turns out ironically that Carly Beth, not Sabrina wants to be a witch. This causes a bit of disbelief, because witches are scary and Carly Beth extremely easily scared. Last week her friends Chuck and Steve scared her witless by convincing her there was a ghost in the attic. Why, during school lunch with Sabrina she shrieked in terror just because someone dropped their lunch trey.

Steve and Chuck have gone to further lengths to harass their friend however. For example, one of them gave Carly Beth a free turkey sandwich for lunch that had a real live worm in it. For one, that isn't so much scary as gross. For two, who remains friends with dicks like that? Have some self esteem and find yourself better pals Carly Beth!

Though her friends seem to lack much kindness towards her, her family is another story. Her mom seems to love her a great deal. She even made her a duck costume for Halloween. Of course, Carly Beth wants to be something frightening and unless you suffer from orinthophobia that's probably not going to cut it. A duck costume isn't the only product of her mother's love though, she also made her a strikingly realistic plaster of Paris sculpture of Carly Beth's head. Moderately creepy, but its the thought that counts, right?

So, you remember how I just mentioned that Carly Beth got a duck costume and that it's not very scarey? Well, her little bastard of a brother snuck off and dressed up in it so he could jump out and startle her. It even actually worked, thus proving exactly how easily frightened she can be. All this being scared is eating her up, and she desires nothing more than to be the scariest thing ever for Halloween. She'll be the one doing the scaring, and she vows to never be the frightened one again! The very next day at the science fair Chuck and Steve scare the crap out of her via an imaginary tarantula. At least spiders are scarier than duck costumes I suppose.

Halloween day rolls around and Carly Beth gathers up her life savings and sets off for the costume shop. Unfortunately it's closed despite being early in the evening on Halloween, which seems like an odd business decision. Lucky for her however, the owner is still inside and lets her inside to make a quick purchase. He had some sorta scary masks, like gorilla's and aliens, but they just didn't cut the mustard. Despite his insistence that she hurry up, she kept on looking around until she found a back room. It contained just the kind of masks she wanted! Realistic foul creations with fangs and green skin. Skin that feels more like actual flesh than any kind of rubber. The owner however is extremely apprehensive about letting her purchase one. He claims they are too real, and far too scary. Eventually after continuing to pester him, she finally just throws money at him and takes off with a mask. Remember, theft isn't theft if you throw an arbitrary amount of cash at the person you stole from.

Now armed with a terrifying mask, Carly Beth is ready to do some scaring. The first victim is little brother Noah. She pounces at him growling with a unnatural hoarse voice and scares the living daylights out of him. He thinks her voice was even scarier than the mask, but she is unsure how she even made the voice. After the attack, she removes the mask, noticing that it takes great a deal of effort. After getting ready to go out trick or treating with some friends, she puts the mask back on and it seems to oddly suck itself on to her face. She dismisses it, and before heading out decides that the plaster of Paris bust of her on a pole would make a great scary accessory.

Finally she is ready to truly scare the crap out of some people. First she creeps the bajeezes out of some kids she thought were Chuck and Steve. She doesn't even relent when she discovers they were not. Not only that but she attacks her best friend Sabrina, scares the crap out of random young children, and throws apples back at the house of the guy who gave them out. I suppose I can't blame her too much for that last one. Who the hell gives apples for Halloween? Sabrina's getting pretty worried about her friend doing all this stuff that is pretty out of character. They decide to split up to get more candy. I am not sure how that makes any sense. I mean people would give them both candy, so they could all go to the same houses at the same time... Regardless, it's their plan.

So who do you think Carly Beth stumbles upon next? Why yes, douchey Steve and Chuck. For all their love of scaring, they are wearing pretty crappy costumes. One seems to be vaguely dressed as a hobo. The other is merely wearing a bandana and a plain black mask. Creative. Anyway, she readies her head on a pole and pops out to terrify them. They are startled, but seem somewhat impressed at her costume, and perhaps even a bit uneasy. The most unsettling thing seems to be her unnatural voice. She informs them that she is not Carly Beth. Carly Beth is the head on the stick and they'll be next. They remain mostly uneasy until the head statue blinks, and mouths the words, "help me." This pushes them from the realm of "uneasy" to that of "fucking petrified." Victorious, Carly Beth dumps the head in a bush and heads off to Sabrina's while her friends scream off into the distance.

Back at Sabrina's house they begin to divvy up the candy. They decide to get out of their costumes, but Carly Beth is having a little trouble. Sabrina tries to help but discovers there is no space between her face and the mask. It's like it is fused to her face. Carly Beth checks herself out in the mirror and sees animal eyes staring at her instead of her own. Now it was her turn to be scared again. Immediately she dashed out of the house and headed back to the costume store. Though it was closed, the owner was still inside waiting for her. It seems he figured she would be back. He knew something about the mask she didn't. It's not really a mask, it's a real face that he created scientifically in a lab. Equally scientifically, it can only be removed by using "a symbol of love." Even more scientifically, the rest of the grotesque faces start flying toward Carly Beth and chase her. Science!

Well, Carly Beth does the only thing she really can do, which is run frantically away. In the midst of running she realizes that the statue of her head may be just the symbol of love she needs to get her face back. She runs back to where she discarded it and finds it blown a short distance from where she put it. She tries to fend off the hover-faces, and finally resorts to putting the statue of her head over her real head for some reason. This random ploy works however, and her face is back to normal, and the grotesque mask is in her hands. She returns home to her loving mother, and settles in to share with her the tale of the evening. She is interrupted however, as her brother Noah busts in wearing the hideous face! And he can't get it off! The end.

What I Thought

It was really a matter of time until there was a Goosebumps book centered around Halloween. It makes too much sense for it to not happen. Having a mask that takes control of you is a pretty fun concept, even when done by the likes of Jim Carey. It's a pretty solid foundation.

Setting up Carly Beth as being a scaredy cat was something that worked. It could be a concept that would be easy to overused in Goosebumps but so far I haven't noticed that trend. Her embarrassment at being startled by the jerks she associates with gives concrete motivation to her character. Rather than sort of arbitrarily falling into a creepy situation, she kind of makes it happen by seeking out a thoroughly horrifying costume and taking it against the advice of the salesman.

I felt like there were issues towards the end though, which seem to happen in Stine's books. Arriving at a plausible cause for these super natural things is something that plagues all artists in the genre I think. The salesman claims to have made the faces in a laboratory, which is a decent explanation I suppose. It lacks a reason though. For example, in Stay Out of the Basement, the scientist father accidentally creates these monster plant things by playing with DNA to create new types of plants. That has a somewhat plausible excuse for the result. What on earth could the salesmen have been doing to create living monster faces that fuse to peoples heads? I think if it had a concrete semi plausible reason it might have added a lot to the book. Another problem is suspension of disbelief. Even if you believe that this guy could fashion living monster masks that fuze with people's face having them start flying somehow just pushed it over the edge of belief for me. It seemed more silly than scary.

One thing that struck me as kind of funny is the title of the book. The Haunted Mask is neither haunted nor really a mask. I suppose "The Scary Ass Scientifically Engineered Horror Face" wasn't as catchy of a title. Oh well.

I must say I am now looking forward to the sequel. Will it involve the same characters? Will it be the exact same mask or one of the other ones? Will the twist ending at the end of this amount to anything, or will it be forgotten? Time will tell, and I have plenty of books to read between then and now.

Rating: 3 Halloween Masks out of 5

 Up Next

Be Careful What You Wish For. I have almost no idea what this is about. Presumably a kid will find something that grants wishes and it will go wrong. Will it be a genie, a leprechaun, or other type of mythical creature? We shall see I guess.

And do you know what I wish for? More Goosebumps. My birthday is next month, so if you feel like giving me the gift of more Goosebumps books to fill out my collection and keep this blog going longer, feel free to wander over to my amazon wishlist. http://amzn.com/w/6REQ148ZCYQI. Don't worry, I'm not going to start going over board into conning you guys into buying books for me, I just thought I'd let it be known that I'll accept some help.

#10 The Ghost Next Door

Judging a book by its cover:

You know, I haven't mentioned the color schemes of these book covers before but I think perhaps I should bring it up now. Each book has a 2 toned border thing-a-majig. Some of the color schemes work pretty well, like the gray and green of Lets Get Invisible. This book's color scheme can only be described as "salmon and diarrhea." It doesn't work at all. Unless of course you are into salmon diarrhea...

The actual illustration is pretty straight forward. There is a ghostly figure at the door of a house with someone opening it. Both are wearing pairs of chucks before the era of them being part of the hipster uniform. Also the perspective is kind of odd. Apparently being a ghost gives you fish-eye lens vision.

The front tagline reads, "There's a strange new kid on the block..." I guess it pertains to the book, but it's not very clever or punchy. I prefer ones that are plays on well known phrases and such. The back tagline is a little better, saying, "How come I've never seen you before?" Which is kind of clever because ya know... ghosts are invisible and such. Not bad.

Not much more to say about it. Now onto the actual contents! 

Getting Goosebumps!

This one stars Hannah Fairchild as your usual t(w)een main character. She is a pretty typical kid in the fairly nondescript town of Greenwood Falls. She lives with her parents and younger twin brothers who are always being nuisances.

The book opens with Hannah in a room being consumed by fire. When she comes to in her own bed and nothing is burnt she comes to the conclusion it was all a dream and goes on about her business. The summer has been pretty boring for her because most of her friends have gone to camp but her parents couldn't afford to send her. Her friends at camp wont even write back to any of the letters she sent them! Regardless she found ways to cope with the boredom, like having a campfire on their yard the night before telling ghost stories to her little brothers.

In the one interesting developing of the summer it turns out someone has moved in next door. It seemed odd to her because she never saw any moving trucks. Further adding to the oddness is the fact that they go to the same school but don't know any of the same people.

It turns out that Danny is some what of a hooligan. One day when Hannah goes into town to mail a letter to one of her camping friends she sees the local postmaster yelling at Danny and his rabble-rousing friends Alan and Fred. Seems they were loitering on government property and Postmaster Chesney doesn't take kindly to that. After she leaves the scene, she is pursued by a strange shadow-like apparition that calls her name. Peculiar!

Well Danny and his pals just keep raising more hell. Hannah goes to get an ice-cream cone and witnesses them all steal from the shop. She follows them and sees them vandalize the postmasters mailbox, though he comes out and threatens them. Danny gets the brunt of it because he is the one they conned into doing it, but he also seems rather apprehensive.

Meanwhile the shadow entity keeps harassing Hannah, especially when Danny is involved. Other odd things occur and she becomes convinced that he is a ghost. Well there is only one thing to do when you have found someone that is a ghost. Politely ask them if they are a ghost... And she does. And he isn't. But she is. Danny can put his arms through her, and it freaks him right the fuck out. Turns out that a couple years ago her house burned down and her whole family died. It was caused by that campfire she made to tell her little brothers scary stories. Hannah killed herself and her entire family... Woah Mr. Stine, that is pretty damn heavy for a kids book.

She tries to confront Danny again to explain herself, but he is still freaked out by the "she's a ghost thing," so he runs off. She follows him to Postmaster Chesney's house and sees his friends there. They finish their vandalism on his mailbox then head into his house with a lighter. Escalating their hooliganry, they proceed to start his house on fire. Danny however gets trapped. Then the Shadow-creature returns and Hannah unmasks it. Underneath it looks like Danny. Apparently it is Shadow Danny, that wants to kill the real Danny so he will go to the shadow world and then Shadow Danny can live.. Or something. Hannah realizes she can save him from dying horribly in a fire like she and her whole family did. She rescues him and Shadow Danny burns in the fire. The final scene has Danny explaining to his mom that the neighbor girl Hannah saved him, but his mom assures him that Hannah died in a fire. Hannah's spirit then fades away.

What I Thought:

With the last 2 books having horrible twist endings, I was on the look out for another twist. I wasn't positive Hannah was going to be a ghost and I sure as shit wasn't expecting it to be because she burned her house down killing her entire family. That is some heavy shit for kids to be reading. I can only wonder if M. Night Shyamalan read this book at some point.

Anyway, this book does a lot of things right that the last few haven't. Firstly, it actually hints at the twist. There are a lot of times when people don't seem to notice Hannah, though it is not so painfully obvious as to ruin everything. Also, the shadow-being while not my favorite element of the book did make it harder to conceive of Hannah being a ghost. Secondly, the the twist wasn't absolutely ridiculous. It fit with the story, and didn't come completely out of the blue. It also carried some weight with it. Perhaps even a little too much weight. I kind of wonder how kids responded to the revelation that Hannah burned her family to death. I kind of wonder how I responded to it when I was young.

I also wonder what the hell is going to happen to Danny now. The dude just burned down a mailman's house. Surely he is at least going to go to juvenile hall. There is some what of a moral tale at play here with him being driven to do bad things by his friends, which almost destroy him. He is saved from the destruction, but is he ultimately redeemed? Is he going to continue being a delinquent? Hannah may have saved him from dying, but we don't really know if she turned him away from a life of crime. The moral tale falls short.

Still, it is a cut above the previous couple books. It's coherent and intriguing for the reader level its aimed at. My faith in the series was waning after Camp Nightmare, but I think it has been restored with this book.

Rating: 3 out of 5 Ghosts

Up Next!

The Haunted Mask! I'm kind of excited. With a couple direct sequels, this is one of the more popular entries in the series. Plus I feel like I sort of remember it, which is seeming rare for these books. If I recall it involves a kid who gets picked on a lot buying a mask to scare the bejeezus out of the bullies, but it backfiring in a big way. Check back next time to see if I'm right about that.

#9 Welcome to Camp Nightmare

Judging a book by its cover

Welcome to Camp Nightmare, I'm creepy shadow monster with bright yellow eyes and I'll be the camp counselor for your stay. Don't mind the massive amount of dead trees they are just a byproduct of the deadly bright red gasses that seem to be infesting our sky. Enjoy yourself!

I don't remember much at all about this book and the cover is not helping. Unfortunately in a series of over 60 books there is bound to be filler. I'm afraid this may be one of those "filler" books, but we shall see, wont we?

The front tagline reads, "It's the little camp of horrors!" Obviously referencing The Little Shop of Horrors. I'm guessing Rick Moranis will not be appearing in this book. The back elaborates, "Those scary stories about camp are all coming true." The only scary camp story I really remember is the episode of Salute Your Shorts with Zeke the Plumber. If you know what I'm talking about, clearly you're at the right blog.

Now, in to the book!

Getting Goosebumps

Camp Nightmare is actually known as Camp Nightmoon, and Billy is heading there on a bus for the first time ever this summer. The bus driver is kind of an odd silent man, who scares the crap out of everyone with a mask before dropping them off in the middle of nowhere and ditching them without an explanation. Then the kids get attacked by wild animals, until they are chased off by Camp Leader "Uncle Al." It's pretty creepy to have an adult of authority force kids to call him "Uncle." But I digress.

They arrive in Camp Nightmoon in a different bus, driven by Uncle Al, who drops the few girls off at a separate camp. The boys all get split up into different cabins and Billy gets into one with a scaredy-cat named Mike. Almost immediately Mike gets bitten by snakes in his bed which proves maybe he has good reason to be a scaredy-cat. He runs off to find a nurse, but quickly discovers from cabin leader Larry that there is no nurse. Uncle Al doesn't believe in "coddling" the children. He also spits in the faces of Child Protective Services. Uncle Al rattles off some camp rules. One is that they absolutely must write home every day. Another and perhaps most notable is never go into the "Forbidden Bunk." Sounds reasonable.

After sleep they are ready to begin their first day of camp shenanigans. First off, Billy goes to play "Scratchball" with a group of boys. Scratchball is like baseball for people who can't afford bats... You just throw the ball into the outfield instead of being pitched to and hitting it. Also, if you are cabin leader Larry to bean kids in the back of the head with the ball because they piss you off, and then claim it was an accident. Then that night they learn camp songs and have dinner. A small food fight ensues and Billy gets grape juiced spilled on his pants, or as the clever kids at camp put it he "purpled himself." When he goes back to his bunk he finds that all of scaredy-cat mike's stuff is all gone. When he confronts Larry about it, Larry acts clueless.

Next on the chopping block are two campers who decide to investigate the Forbidden Bunk despite warnings that "Sabre" will get them. Shrieks in the night signified that perhaps these warnings were correct, and only one of the campers returns sputtering things about a creature. Once again, when Larry the counselor is consulted he acts unconcerned. Later, two campers go for a hike and end up not returning. Larry still doesn't give a shit. Billy however, is getting extremely worried and the addition of 2 new clueless campers to replace all the missing ones doesn't seem to help him.

One day during a swim Billy gets summoned into the woods by Dawn and Dori, two of the campers at the female camp. Turns out strange things are going on at the girl's camp too. This only strengthens Billy's resolve that something has got to be done. Unfortunately for him, the phone at camp is fake, all the letters they've written have been hoarded by the adults remaining unsent, and visitor's day has been canceled.

On the other hand, there is a canoe trip planned for the next day. Lucky for Billy nothing bad EVER happens on canoe trips in the woods. I'm sure his will be just fine... Except that counselor Larry fell off the boat and brave Billy decided he had to jump in after him leaving the two brand new campers drifting away down the rapids... I'm sure they'll be fine. Larry and Billy head back but don't get much time to rest because there is a special hike planned for the next day. Oh boy!

Well the whole camp goes on this hike lead by trustworthy Uncle Al himself. After they get out into the woods he informs everyone that two girls from the female camp have escaped. Then he hands out guns and informs the boys that they are going to hunt them down. For some reason the guys had a problem with that, and Uncle Al informs them they are just tranquilizer darts. Billy however STILL has a problem with it, and is at his breaking point for the whole camp experience. He pulls the gun on Uncle Al and shoots resulting in a tiny pop, and everyone yelling, "Congratulations!" Huh?

It turns out that this whooooole thing was a test. Billy's parents are important scientists and they want to take Billy on their next trip. Apparently to do so there are government tests he has to pass. He passed 1 by not entering the Forbidden Bunk. He passed another by saving Larry. The third test was passed by standing up to Uncle Al. Yes, this whole time the entire camp was in on it. Every single kid, and counselor was acting the whole time and for some reason there is no law against pulling this stuff on your child. Bullshit you say? Well before you call bullshit, it turns out that the expedition the parents are planning is to Earth. Because they are aliens. Yep.

What I Thought

I seem to keep addressing the end of the book first, but how can I not when the endings are this stupid? I guess RL Stine wanted to out-dumb the ending to the last book in the series, and he very well may have done it. It was a double-twist ending, and both of them were terrible. When the original twist of it being a government test was revealed I immediately thought it was dumb. Kids aren't good actors, how could all of them be in on it convincingly? Why would the government allow this to be done to a child? What about that kid that got beaned with the ball? How can you fake that? But then all those stupid questions went away when the alien thing was revealed and a new batch of stupid questions popped up. Why are they on a world where the people look like humans, have exactly human level technology like phones and buses, and all the plants and animals are apparently like ones on earth? Bears, fish, wolves and birds? They even eat Earth food. Billy has french toast. How the hell can you have french toast if there is no France?

My guess would be RL really just pulled this out of his ass at the last minute. I can see him sneaking it in at the very end of the writing process with a shit eating grin on his face. How clever I am! The kids will eat this shit up! Then he rolled around on his bed of money cackling the whole time. Bastard.

It's kind of a shame. Up until the end the book was fairly solid for Goosebumps. Being alone at camp with everything going wrong around you and no adults you can trust is kind of a scary thought. If Uncle Al had some sort of nefarious plan, it could have wound up being genuinely entertaining. Instead we have bullshit about aliens. Disappointing. I'm hoping the Goosebumps series shapes up from here on out.

Rating 1 Spooky Cabin out of 5

Up Next

Next up is The Ghost Next Door. Let me guess, the ghost really isn't a ghost, it's a robot. Also it doesn't live next door it is actually sending a hologram of itself up from the center of the earth. Why did I decide to reread these books again?

#8 The Girl Who Cried Monster

Judging a Book by its Cover

The Girl Who Cried Monster. The name obviously is a play on The Boy Who Cried Wolf, and it leads me to wonder if it will follow that tale at all, or if it just happened to be a clever title. Conspicuously absent from the cover is any monster. All we have is a chubby bald guy who seems to be interested in bugs. Specifically, in eating them. The guy bears a bit of a resemblance to R.L. Stine himself. Coincidence? Probably! But it is still marginally interesting.

The front tagline reads, "She's got the monster of all problems." Get it? Because her problem is literally a monster. Presumably. Not a winner of a tagline. The back one is worse, "She's telling the truth... but no one believes her!" Come on Stine, these are supposed to be clever! Actually, I wonder if he wrote these things himself, or if some marketer slapped em on after the book was done. Something to consider... Ok, enough considering, lets get to the part where I actually read the book.


Getting Goosebumps

Eeek! A toe-biter!

This book stars the usual 12-13 year old protagonist, this time named Lucy Dark. She has a 6 year old brother named Randy and lives with her family in a place called Genericville. Wait, no, it was actually Timberland Falls where there are no falls and little timber. Lucy is generally an average kid but she has one peculiar obsession: monsters. She loves everything about monsters, especially scaring the pants off young Randy by telling him tales of beasts like the "Toe-Biter."

It's summer time in Timberland Falls, so instead of  going to school she has weekly meetings of the "Reading Rangers." Not nearly as cool as the Rescue, Power, or even Texas Rangers, but it's a way to kill time I suppose. Each week she gets assigned a book and if she reads it at the end of the summer she gets a prize. The one in charge of this is the pudgy librarian Mr. Mortman who is a bit of an odd fellow. He's always sweaty and has a pot with pet turtles on his desk. You'd think he could afford an aquarium of some sort.

After one meeting of the Reading Rangers Lucy forgets her rollerblades and has to come back for them. She feels as though something ominous is going to happen. Guess what? It does! She spots Mr. Mortman at his desk with a jar of flies telling his "Timid Little Friends" that it is feeding time. Then he eats the flies and transforms into a bug-eyed, snake-tongued monster! You'd think on a diet of flies he wouldn't be so fat... Anyway, naturally Lucy's response is to run the hell away. Correct response. Unfortunately she realizes she left her rollerblades there again decides to go back again to get the. Wrong response. Her efforts are thwarted however, because the doors are locked.

Finally she makes it home, and is shocked to find that her parents don't believe her just because she is always telling monsters stories. I don't know why he had to turn this into a "Boy Who Cried Wolf" thing because even if she didn't lie about monsters all the time, what parent would believe their kid that the librarian's a monster?

Anyway, now Lucy has a mission. She has to prove that Mr. Mortman is actually a monster. She met the next week for the Reading Rangers, to discuss the book she read which was of course, Frankenstein and afterwards hid out to see him change again. Just when she thought that she'd gotten it all wrong the first time, he indeed changed into a monster again this time dining on one of his turtles. After escaping this time she tries to convince her friend Aaron of Mr. Mortman's monsterdom instead of trying to convince her parents. This tactic doesn't seem to work though. Also to her surprise when she gets home Mr. Mortman shows up. Fortunately for her it just seems to be to return a book bag she left there. Of course her parents remain ever skeptical.

Indisputable proof of monsters.

Her next course of action was to get her friend Aaron to tag along with her and witness Mr. Mortman's change. He agrees only after being bribed with 5 bucks. What a true friend! Not only that, but the bastard doesn't even show up because he's got an orthodontist appointment. Lucky for Lucy, she owns a camera. Unlucky for her she is too fucking stupid to turn the flash off. Thankfully apparently monster eyes are extremely sensitive to light... for some convenient reason, so she is able to escape yet again. And back to the unlucky part... Apparently monsters don't show up on film. Her picture of an empty library does nothing to convince her parents of monsters despite Lucy's assertion that the picture absolutely proves he's a monster, because he doesn't show up. How can you argue with that logic?

Ready for another bout with the beast, Lucy finally persuades Aaron to come with her. This time they follow him home and peep in his window, which happens to be behind a fish tank. For some reason Lucy looks first, and sees him change, then he spots her and she falls on her ass off the wheelbarrow she was standing on. Aaron of course saw none of this because he was looking for a ladder and he ran away as Mr. Mortman came out of his house. Being back in human form he confronts her about what she is doing there. She, as a kid, is a natural born liar and says she was just there to tell him she'd be late to Reading Rangers tomorrow and she takes off.

Since Aaron saw nothing and her parents remain unconvinced her parents force her to go to her book meeting. There Mr. Mortman locks the doors and lets Lucy know that he is on to her and he can't let her go. He turns into a monster and gets ready to devour her, but she puts up a fight and in the scuffle she knocks over the drawer of the card catalog sending cards everywhere. He may be a monster, but he's a librarian dammit so he's gotta organize those cards. Seriously. That's how she gets away. I'm not making this shit up.

It turns out that Aaron sneaked into the library and witnessed the whole thing. One extra child's belief that this man was a monster was enough to sway Lucy's skeptical parents and they only had 1 option. Invite him to dinner. Mr. Mortman showed up skeptical and confused. Eventually he settled in to conversation and asked them what was for dinner. The parents responded, "you are." And then ate him. Because they are monsters. Seriously. That's how it ends. Seriously.


What I Thought

WHAT THE FUCK WAS WITH THAT ENDING? It was terrible! I get the urge to have a clever twist at the end, but that wasn't clever and just leads to so many flaws with the book. It's implied that even the kids know they are monsters. Why would Lucy be so obsessed with monsters then? Why would her patents be so skeptical? Why would her brother be so frightened? Why wouldn't their parents wait to get first hand proof before cannibalizing the bastard? Up until the end it was a pretty run of the mill Goosebumps book but the end just fucking ruins everything. I don't think I can even discuss other aspects of the book because the all I can focus on is the stupid fucking end. Ugh.

I guess I have to dicuss the only other aspect of this book worth talking about. That would be how this is a take off on The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Wouldn't it have been awesomely clever if it turned out that the boy was really a wolf himself? Wait no, that would have been fucking stupid. Ending aside the injection of this fable doesn't really work, because a wolf eating sheep from your flock is a very legitimate threat people would genuinely believe and be angry if you lied about. Your librarian being a monster however is something almost no one would believe, except maybe the fine folks at the History Channel.

In summation. Wow. That ending. That fucking ending. Terrible.

Rating 1 out of 5 flies

Up Next!

Welcome to Camp Nightmare! I think there were a few books about camp and I don't remember any of them particularly well. Camp however makes for an excellent setting for scary books and telling scary tales at camp is a time honored tradition. Check back next time for my thoughts on this and as always, thanks for reading!

#7 Night of the Living Dummy

Judging a book by its cover:

Yikes! This is the first Goosebumps cover that actually disturbs me a bit. Something about ventriloquist dummies is always a bit unsettling and this really captures that and then-some. I'd be pretty terrified if this guy came alive. Plus the tagline is "He Walks. He stalks..." I'll bet he does! Creepy Bastard...

Let's check out the back the back tagline? "He's no dummy!" Ok, that's not very scary or clever, but I'm still giving the cover art an "A" for being genuinely creepy. Those green eyes may haunt me tonight. In fact the back picture where it is all cropped to be just his face may be even more creepy. Bah! Lets get on with it so I can stop looking at this cover and get into the book.

I don't remember a lot of specifics about this book besides the obvious dummy coming to life aspect. I know this spawned several direct sequels so it is probably one of the better books in the series, at least I hope so.

Onward!

Getting Goosebumps:

The creepy side of ventriloquism, it's not that hard to see, but Stine does a pretty good job of bringing it out regardless. This one stars twin sisters named Lindy and Kris. The fact that they are twins brings a different dimension to the book. Their sibling rivalry is more intense and more believable as well. It fuels the story.

So one day Lindy and Kris go checking out the house that was being built next door. Perhaps not how I'd spend my weekend, but what do I know? I'm not a young teenage twin girl! Wandering around the empty shell of a house creeps them out. Even little things like squirrels walking around seem freaky under those circumstances... apparently. Lindy finds a garbage can and what do you think is inside? A BABY! Wait no, that's what Kris thought she pulled out. What she really found, however, was a ventriloquist dummy! Almost as odd really. Personally I'd probably be more likely to throw out a baby than a dummy, but that's purely because I have actually held a baby and never even touched a real ventriloquist puppet.

Well, immediately Lindy thought her find was pretty rad. Kris on the other hand wasn't so impressed, she thinks ventriloquism is dumb. Her tune changed pretty quickly however. Lindy named the dummy Slappy and worked up a routine which neighbors gave her 20 bucks to preform. Suddenly Kris realizes the awesome side of puppetry and wants in so she throws a hissy fit to their parents. The ingenious solution was that they should share the doll, which of course pisses Lindy off. It would piss me off too! Here was a perfectly good dummy she stole from her neighbors garbage fair and square and now she has to share? Lame! Dad however breaks down and buys Kris her very own dummy from a pawn shop that was eager to get rid of it. This dolls name you ask? Mr. Wood. We had a puppet in sex-ed class named Mr. Wood, but he was for demonstrating how to put on a c... eh, nevermind.

So... Twins. Early in the book they competed over stuff like who could blow the biggest gum bubble, and who or who did not in fact "stink." Now they had worked up to competing ventriloquist acts. Lindy took to it easily and was rather annoyed her sister had to copy her and get a gig performing with her dummy at the spring concert. Kris was a bit jealous that Lindy was making fat stacks of cash off all the neighbors. This seemed to manifest itself in the dummies doing strange things to each other at night. When they'd wake up they'd find them in odd poses, like one strangling the other. One night they woke up to discover that Mr. Wood had taken everything out of the fridge and scattered it over the floor. Mom woke up too, and was pretty darn pissed. Kris on the other hand was scared, what if her dummy really was coming alive? I mean, she had noticed it saying evil things she would swear didn't come from the user. Maybe it was really an evil possessed puppet! Oh no! We've got to do something? Wait, mom is pissed and wants to throw him out? Absolutely not, that's no fair! I want to keep my evil deranged puppet! He's mine and you can't do that! I'll never understand the logic of kids I swear...

After she finally convinces her mom to let them keep the dummies, Kris tosses Mr. Wood in the closet and has a breakdown. She believes she hears it saying, "let me out, let me out." Tears roll down her face. Thank goodness she convinced mom to let her keep him! Unfortunately this puppet may not be possessed after all, Lindy spills the beans that it has been her messing around the whole time. The best way to get revenge on your copycat sister is definitely to assure her years of therapy.


Well this incident wouldn't deter her from working with her dummy. One day while practicing Kris found a note in. Mr. Woods pocket that said, "Karru marri odonna loma molonu karrano." I ran it through google translate but it didn't seem to think it meant anything. Probably best to just say things like that out loud for no reason instead. It's not like it makes a dummy come to life or anything ominous like that! Elderly neighbors came over and were hoping for a show. Lindy preformed wonderfully with Slappy but for some reason Kris's performance with Mr. Wood was all just angry insults. Peculiar... Actually I thought the insult comedy was the funniest bit of the entire book. I guess elderly neighbors don't have a very good sense of humor.

Then comes the big day. The day Kris has to preform for the school concert. She is nervous as you'd expect from anyone who has to preform a comedy routine with an evil puppet. Of course Mr. Blue decides again it is time for insults and heaves them at a heavyset woman who is helping backstage. For a grand finale he pukes green sludge on her. Now that's a showstopper! This girl could have a great act after all. He even showered people in the front row like it was a Gallager routine.

Despite her awesome showing at the concert, mom and dad made her put her dummy away in the closet and they swore they'd bring it back to the pawn shop the next day. Now that they know it can spew bile it's probably worth twice as much I'd say! Kris however awakes in the middle of the night to find Mr. Wood has gotten up out of the closet on his own and is walking around. Running a muck really. He tumbles down the stairs in a fight with Kris and lets her know he is in control now. Of course when mom and dad appear the dummy is asleepy. Tricky bastard. It turns out of course, that all that "Karru marri" stuff from the note in his pocket were in fact the words to bring him to life. They think if they repeat them he'll die, but that's a bust. They are the life bringing words, not the death bringing ones? Oh phooey..

Next came attempts to kill him. Ripping his head off didn't work, nor cutting him with scissors. Instead they locked him in a closet, which prompted him to promise he'd kill one of their family. They burred him in the ground, but he dug himself back out. Haven't these kids ever heard of gasoline and matches? They wrestle with him, and he tries to kill their dog which may be the ultimate dick move. They bring him outside to try and throw him under a steamroller, but he gets free only to flee and get smashed under a different steam roller. Finally, they are rid of him in a puff of rotten green smoke. Rejoicing they go inside to discover that now the other dummy Slappy is alive, and thankfully to be rid of the other dummy. Now this book is over until the sequel!

What I thought

This is probably the best Goosebumps book so far. It was written in 3rd person, which I prefer. Plus we get to know more of who the characters are in this book. The fact that they are twins makes the reader understand the rivalry which is present the whole time. When the twist in the middle comes that Lindy had been fooling her sister the whole time, we aren't surprised that it did happen and yet weren't necessarily expecting it either. The frustration from the parents throughout was really believable.

Also, there weren't a whole lot of "RL Stine-isms." I don't think he did any "tried to scream but no sound came out" moments. He also didn't overdo the prank scare. Granted there was the big one, but as that was a major plot point it wasn't an issue. I mean little pranks, jumping out from a dark corner of the room or something like that is something he tends to overdo but it wasn't in this book much. The only thing that seemed very Stine-y was their dog. Last book they had a black terrier named Whitey. This time they have a black terrier with an even more clever name... Barky. Terrible. All the dogs in the books before this I'm pretty sure were spaniels which means I am pretty sure he only knows 2 kinds of dogs. Or maybe they are just the only kinds of dogs he's ever owned. Anyway, it's a small point but stuff like that amuses me. Oh, also he name dropped Stephen King in this book, the mom was reading a novel of his at one point and that kind of amused me as well.

Anyway, I thought this book was well written for Goosebumps, it had a decent plot that moved along and characters that didn't seem completely flat. I am actually eager to get to the sequel and see if it picks up right where this one left off or if it starts from a different point in time. We shall see, eventually!

Rating 4 ventriloquist dummies out of 5

Up Next!

I literally could not remember less about this book if I tried. I knew it existed, the title... That is it. Will it be a boy who cried wolf type story? Probably, there is generally an element to that in all the goosebumps but I think that was just his attempt at a clever title more than anything. I kind of look forward to this book, will I recollect anything about it? We shall see, next time!