If you’re curious about the upcoming Goosebumps movie that’s finally coming out, the sheer number of books in the series (multiple!) can be a bit daunting to sift through.
Wouldn’t it be lovely if there was some sort of primer so that you had some idea of what would actually be worth reading? That’s where I, and this feature, come in.
First things first, R.L. Stine is a prolific author of several different YA novel series, the most popular by far of which is the Goosebumps series. This is followed closely by the Fear Street series, but they’re traditionally skewed to a little bit of an older audience.
Both are meant for young adults, but the Fear Street crowd inevitably trends towards sexy danger. But both series have been genuinely spooky on occasion, though a great many of the Goosebumps books are more goofy than scary.
It seems like as good a time as any to revisit the books from the original series–the first 62–that were actually creepy. After all, readers beware, you’re in for a scare!
Welcome to Dead House (1992)
Overall, the earlier the book in the series, the scarier it tends to be, and Welcome to Dead House is the very first. As with a great many of the Goosebumps books, #1 begins with a family moving to a new town under suspicious circumstances. That town’s name? Dark Falls. Yes.
Essentially, the house is full of zombie children that need blood. Every year, they lure a new family into the abode by tricking them into thinking that some distant relative left it to them or otherwise fooling them. There’s loads of creepy imagery, and Stine really does well with “things are not what they seem” settings.
The Haunted School (1997)
Of all the various plots scattered throughout Stines’ series, The Haunted School just might be my favorite. See, there’s a whole class of students from 1947 that just up and vanished – 25 kids, gone. As it turns out, all their color was sucked out and they’ve been stranded in a monochromatic dimension ever since. And that’s when two kids from 1997 (present day) get sucked in somehow.
It’s this weird dystopic black-and-white school dimension that really sets The Haunted School apart from the rest. It’s a pretty late entry at #59, but it uses all the lessons Stine had learned from the previous 58 to tell an interesting little tale that’s somehow very off-putting in a good way. The Haunted School is definitely recommended.
The Headless Ghost (1995)
Of all the Goosebumps books I’ve owned over the years, The Headless Ghost is probably the one I’ve read the most. None of them are difficult to get through, but The Headless Ghost ties a series of different little ghost stories into a larger narrative about a creepy haunted house.
The basic premise is that Duane and Stephanie, both in sixth grade, love to scare kids, which is an obvious set up for they themselves getting scared. There’s also a nearby haunted house, called Hill House, that’s supposedly got a headless ghost of a 13-year-old boy in it. Despite the duo visiting loads of times, they’ve never seen the ghost, until they search for his head! It’s pretty straightforward, but holds up surprisingly well considering it was released in 1995.
The Ghost Next Door (1993)
Though I’ve not read it nearly as many times as The Headless Ghost, The Ghost Next Door is perhaps my favorite of the bunch included here. Other books have a better premise or art or hook or other odds and ends, but The Ghost Next Door is the full package. It has all of these and more, pushed to the top by the sum of its parts.
The book’s about Hannah and her weird neighbor. The boy next door keeps disappearing for whatever reason, and his house seems deserted. Also, nobody lived there when she went to sleep the night before. And what’s with her weird, nightmarish dreams? The Ghost Next Door delivers on all this in a way that not all Goosebumps books do.
The Haunted Mask (1993)
There is possibly no Goosebumps book that more perfectly encapsulates the series’ love of haunted junk than The Haunted Mask. At #11, it came relatively early in the original run, which makes sense given the subject matter: it’s a haunted Halloween mask. Of course Stine would write a book about a haunted Halloween mask. Even better is that it comes from a suspicious Halloween store that only recently opened.
The twist here is that the mask is evil (shock!) and anyone who wears it slowly becomes the hideous monster presented on the outside (double shock!), but there’s a way out! A symbol of love can get rid of it, and protagonist Carly Beth has a good idea what that symbol is …. If she can get to it in time. The majority of the book is a quick look at what it means to become something you don’t like, and it can be genuinely creepy at times. Plus, the cover art for the original printing is just sublime.
Be sure to follow T-Lounge on Twitter and visit our Facebook page.
