Books From My Youth: GoosebumpsHorror is my favourite genre in everything, books, movies and television. I don’t know what it is but there is something about being scared that just appeals to me. My mom is also a horror fan, we even bonded over the genre when I came to live with her. The first movie I remember watching with her was 1986′s Maximum Overdrive, a film that was loosely based on the short story ‘Trucks’ by Horror icon Stephen King.My love for the horror genre started with a simple book series that became so popular that they were adapted into a television series on Fox Kids (Now called Disney XD). It was called Goosebumps and it was awesome! Written by the Kids Spook King R.L. Stine, the series had its run from 1992 – 1997 with a few spin offs and were published by Scholastic Publishings. Filled with a mix of horror, humor and the supernatural, the books each had their own story line, including those that were meant to be sequels to others, and were published in chronological order. As I look back on them now (i.e. reading through the book plots on Wikipedia) the book were relatively tamed in their scares. Some were cautionary tales (much like another horrifying horror book series that my nieces now enjoy but I’ll get back to those later) and others often showed kids being resourceful, getting out of sticky situations, and defeating evil. Although in the Goosebumps universe adults did suffer a bit from, ‘Stupid Adults Who Don’t Listen To Their Kids’ Syndrome.I read the original series but never got into the spin offs mostly because I could never find them in my local or school library. I only remember a few stories out of the series and they were my favourites:The Night Of The Living Dummy 1, 2 & 3 and The Haunted Mask 1 & 2The Night of the Living Dummy was basically Chucky for kids, except no one was killed. The first book follows a little girl named Lindy Powell and her bratty Twin sister after she finds a ventriloquist’s Dummy in the trash. Lindy bring it home, fixes it up and names it Woody. When cruel pranks starts to happen in their house Lindy and her sister are left wondering who is doing it. The second book revolves around Amy Krammer, a girl who is interested in ventriloquism when her old dummy breaks, she gets a replacement called Slappy and accidently brings him to life after reading a piece of paper with weird words that she finds in his chest. The final book follows Trina O’Dell whose father was a famous ventriloquist, but now collects the dummies. One day he brings home Slappy and after reading the words from the last book brings Slappy to life along with the rest of his collection.Slappy the dummy was the scary icon of my Goosebumps years, if you ask any one who read the books or watches the TV show (especially the TV Show) what their favourite episodes were more than half of them would answer “The one with Slappy in it.” He was seemingly made to be a “kid-friendly” equivalent to Chucky the killer doll. They did have similarities such as orange hair, were both wise cracking talkers and were connected to “magic words” that brought them into existence. Slappy truly scared me as a kid.The Haunted Mask 1 & 2 I remember being cautionary tales. The first book was about a girl named Carly Beth who became tired of being the butt of her friends jokes due to her trusting and naïve nature. This doesn’t help when her mother makes her dress up as a duck for Halloween. She decides to get revenge on her tormentors by getting a scary mask from the local Halloween store, unfortunately the store is closed and the Store manager gives her a mask, once Carly Beth puts it on she finds that she can’t take it off.The second book is a direct sequel and follows one of Carly Beth’s tormentors Steve Boswell who finds himself in the same Mask store from the previous book, he buys a mask to pull pranks, unfortunately the mask he buys isn’t what it seems.R.L.Stine said he came up with the idea for the Haunted Mask stories when he saw his son having trouble taking off a Mask he had on. There is a clear moral message in these stories, for Carly Beth it was that she should be herself no matter what others did to her or saw her. While Steve’s story was a taking a walk another’s shoes kind of thing and was forced to change his ways. There was another book that was sequel called ‘The Scream of the Haunted Mask’ but as I said before I never read the spin offs and it was part of a spin-off series.I loved the Goosebumps Series growing up and even though others books have been published that are a lot more terrifying (once again I’ll get to Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids another time), it had some genuine scares. And although I don’t remember a lot of the books that I read it does hold a lot of Nostalgia for me. I think some of the Show is on Youtube and the books are on Amazon, so check them out!Also honorable mention: there was another series books and a TV series around at the same as a Goosebumps, it was horror based and was called Are you Afraid of the Dark. I never got into those books or the show because I had Goosebumps and it filled my horror needs, but I’m going to mention here. Are You Afraid of The Dark, revolved around a bunch of kids that were a part of a secret society called the Midnight Society that came together to tell scary stories. It was pretty popular when it was around and if you or your children like Goosebumps it would be one to look out for too.
Had this been a Stephen King book, then I would have been very upset. But as it was only Goosebumps - The Stephen King equivalent for smart kids and stupid teens - I really can't complain too much. I knew that this was never gonna scare me. Even back when I was a child, when my mind had already been warped by films like The Changeling and Salem's Lot, I had always found R.L. Stine's series to be way too predictable; always following the same tired formula of ... false alarm ... false alarm ... false alarm ... oh, fuck, it's a monster!!!But having found this in the book-tray at the local Co-Op, I just couldn't resist flicking through it ... for the sake of nostalgia. Unsurprisingly, I was not very impressed. Just imagine every single haunted house film you've seen. Keep all the overused clichés, like how the dog is the only one that knows the house has ghosts in it; not to mention that annoying formula in which the parents stubbornly refuse to acknowledge the possibility of ghosts. "Oh, pish-posh, there's no such thing as ghosts". "BUT MUUU-UUUM?!?!" The book is little more than 100 pages, and so it sacrifices the development of any build-up in the tension. Even the most terrible ghost stories still generally understand the importance of this formula. But again, this is Goosebumps. Kids don't care for that kind of stuff. They want results in the first three pages. And this is where I'm gonna shut up and admit that it's stupid to criticize these books. For most of its intended audience, this book probably was kind of scary. Seeing as I read it with the preconception that it was for children, I actually found the few scenes where something scary happens unexpectedly gruesome: children's faces melting off, and the dog getting killed and all that. I just don't think anyone older than fifteen could find that much to like in these books, apart from their nostalgic value.
What do You think about Welcome To Dead House (2003)?
Readers beware…Similar to many young boys, library visits in my youth consisted of hunting down and searching for the Goosebumps series! I was already familiar with the TV show, but was particularly drawn to the horror and built up tension entailed within each book. R.L Stine’s Goosebumps series made me willingly read for the first time; and this appetite for horror has continued with particular interest in Stephen King novels.Welcome to Dead House is the first title of the Goosebumps series. Amanda and Josh move into a new neighborhood called Dark Falls with their parents. Their house is old, creepy and possibly haunted after Amanda encounters a ghostly figure of a young boy in her bedroom soon after arriving. Josh and Amanda go out to make some new friends, but the friends they make all seem a little different. Their parents don’t care for Amanda’s concerns when she repeatedly hears strange sounds and encounters other children in their home. However, the ghostly secrets of Dark Falls and its residents are soon uncovered…This book was very gripping as a young reader and genuinely scary! With a solid conclusion and great twists along the way; it’s a great introduction to horror for children. I would strongly recommend the Goosebumps series to any young fan of fictional horror and mystery, they are definite classics!
—James Finn
Το σπίτι των νεκρών,το πρώτο βιβλίο της παιδικής σειράς τρόμου “Ανατριχίλες”,είναι κατάλληλο για παιδιά που αγαπούν τα μικρά,ευκολοδιάβαστα βιβλία περιπέτειας και μυστηρίου. Θα τους κρατήσουν σε εγρήγορση αλλά δε νομίζω να τους φέρουν εφιάλτες τα βράδια,καθώς οι ανατριχιαστικές περιγραφές είναι δοσμένες μέσα στα πλαίσια του φυσιολογικού. Το σπίτι των νεκρών κατορθώνει,δίχως να κουράζει και να δυσκολεύει τα παιδιά, να ισορροπήσει τις σκηνές τρόμου με πιο χαλαρές εικόνες καθημερινότητας,όπως η σχέση μεταξύ των αδερφών που άλλοτε καταλήγει σε διαμάχες κι άλλοτε σε αμοιβαία υποστήριξη και συνεργασία.Είναι ένα εξαιρετικό βιβλίο για παιδιά,και κατά τη γνώμη μου,μια ευχάριστη ανάγνωση για ενήλικες,που σίγουρα δε θα τρομάξουν το ίδιο,αλλά θα αναζωογονηθούν μέσα από τη ζωντάνια και την αυθεντικότητα της παιδικής περιέργειας.
—Evelina
As part of my attempt to relive my childhood, my son and I embarked on tackling the Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine. Unlike the Fear Street series, I know I read the first forty or so books when they first came out and I remember enjoying them and somewhat the television version. As we started Welcome to Dead House, I found myself struggling to recall what the punchline was. In fact, by reading one or two chapters a night, we both found ourselves wishing the book would get to a more interesting part.Amanda and Josh Benson have recently moved to Dark Falls after their father inherited a house from a great-uncle. Even from their first walk through, Amanda has a funny feeling about the house. Especially when she sees a boy in her bedroom. Despite how many times she sees other kids in her house or hears whispering in her bedroom, Amanda constantly pushes it aside as just her overactive imagination. Besides the few sightings and mentions of whispers, nothing really happens in the book until the children go looking for their dog in the cemetery. First, they find themselves being followed by one of the neighborhood boys, Ray. Despite his protests, they continue on to the cemetery, where they find more than their missing dog. As her brother chases after the dog, Amanda discovers Ray's tombstone and the tombstones for the other kids in the neighborhood. It takes everything she and Josh can do to not only save their family from joining the rest of the residents in Dark Falls as one of the living dead.Obviously, since I couldn't recall the story as vividly as some of the others, this wasn't one of my favorite Goosebumps books as a child. At one point, my son even stated how boring it was and it literally did not get interesting until the last five or six chapters. It's not a great book and I was really disappointed. Hopefully some of my favorites will prove to at least be better than this one.
—Kristine
