I stared up into his hideous face - and gasped.His eyes were deep, dark pools - with tiny worms swimming in them!Ew, nasty....Okay, this is a little different from regular Goosebumps books - the monster shows up early, about 55% of the way through the novel.Gretchen and her stepbrother Clark (I think this is the second Goosebumps books where there are divorced parents), are being unceremoniously dropped off at their grandma and grandpa's house in Georgia.They are shocked to find that their grandparents live in an honest to God mansion. A huge, stone mansion in the swamps of rural Georgia. There's no phone. No television. And no car. Grandpa's deaf. And Grandma loves to cook. A lot. So much that it's as if she's cooking for 50 people instead of just 4. Why does she cook so much food?...Honestly, the grandparents in here are HORRIBLE people. Horrible people. For one thing, they are hoarders. They tell the kids - you can explore the house. Anywhere in the house is fair game except for that one locked room. Okay. The kids find rooms packed with 50 years worth of newspapers. In another room they find stacks and stacks of old magazines, and the house appears to be infested with some serious cockroaches. Another room is filled with tons of rusty and broken toys.So. Already not good. Then the kids decide to play hide-and-seek. And while looking for Clark, Gretchen nearly plunges to her death on a staircase that has rotted through. Great - stellar child-care there. Just let your grandchildren run around your junk-filled, rotting-floor house. Brilliant.Then the kids open the locked room (of course they do!) only to find a huge kind of gorilla-alligator monster inside. Now the monster's loose and the kids (and dog - Golden Retriever named Charley) are running through the house for their lives.The grandparents are nowhere to be found. The kids see the grandparents pulling out of the driveway, leaving their grandchildren to their fates. Not to mention, the grandparents have nailed all the windows and doors shut, trapping the children inside the house.Wow. That is really cold.The kids then find two letters taped to the fridge, basically saying "Bye! Off to get help!" Wow, thanks, Grandma....The rest of the book is the kids battling the monster, which is pretty exciting. My favorite part is when they doctor grandma's pie with turpentine, drain cleaner, rat poison and ammonia.Tl;dr - The twist ending is a bit lame, but overall this book was pretty exciting and fast-paced. Definitely these grandparents win the "worst grandparents in history" award. Jeez Louise!
Gretchen and Clark don't want to be at their grandparents' house while their parents take care of business elsewhere. Why? Well, it's in the middle of a swamp, for one thing. For another thing, there's not much to do, and the only company (besides each other) is old people. Also, the monster.This is one that I remember reading quite a few times - and I remember that hot pink cover with the green monster hands more than anything, so when I saw this one in the thrift store, I needed it. Okay, no, I needed it because it was the only Goosebumps book there that was a little beaten up, and pristine Goosebumps books freak me out. But also because I had fond memories.And it's a fun one! It's definitely not even close to being my favorite, but it's a fun one. Though, my love for this one doesn't even touch my love of Mons-
What do You think about How To Kill A Monster (2003)?
If I didn't have to review books for my website I'd just skip straight to the final 10 chapters.The title of the book is boring which made the development of the plot drag on and on and on. The title doesn't start to make since until around page 82. Two children are left alone in a house with a monster....talk about child neglect sheesh. Anyways I'm glad the book only has 112 pages. Any more pages and I would have thrown myself out the window. A real borefest, not one of R.L.'s best work. I'd suggest skipping this book altogether unless you're an idiot like me that reviews books.
—David Santos
I really liked the book because it was a book that I understood and enjoyed.Also if I had a chance to keep reading goosebumps I would cause I love those books.I would recommend this book to other people because I think they would like it cause I did.Once I started reading most of it i just wanted to keep reading it cause it was a good book.This book had me laugh a couple time cause the way they said things but on the other had I thought some of the parts weird. There are the two kids, one Gretchen and the other Clark.We also had the grandma Rose and grandpa Eddie.The setting takes place in grandma Rose and grandpa Eddie's house.They live out in the middle of nowhere by a swamp.The main point of this story is when it all came a mystery.The climax of this story is when they tried to figure out the mystery such as when the grandma lock the monster in a room and never let it out.Then the kids came over a snooped around when they were not allowed to.Then when they accidentally let the monster out and then they tried to kill the monster.
—Aliya
IT FELT REALLY GOOD TO SLOW DOWN AND READ BELOW READING LEVEL BOOK LIKE THIS ONE. THIS BOOK IS OKAY IF YOU WANT TO TAKE A BREAK FROM HARDCORE BOOKS. THIS BOOK IS ABOUT TWO CHILDREN NAMED GRETCHEN AND CLARK AND THEY SPOILER ALERT;THEY GO TO THEIR GRANDPARENTS HOUSE AND END UP HAVING TO KILL A MONSTER.THE PROBLEM IS THEY HAVE A HARD TIME DOING SO. I THINK THIS IS A BOOK FOR PEOPLE WHO LIKE A LITTLE SUSPENSE , NOT A WHOLE LOT OF SUSPENSE.THIS IS AN OKAY BOOK BY MY STANDARDS I REALLY NEEDED A BREAK FROM READING ALL THAT NON FICTION.
—Alijah
