The Stinal Countdown: New Fear Street #02: Camp Out

It's time for another trip to Shadyside. So, Fear Street's run with Archway Paperbacks ended in 1997. While he had planned to continue with them, Stine would instead move his series over to Gold Key. However, this would only last a mere four more books before the series would go into limbo. And yes, I'm lore dumping all of this on the second book in the run. Because while I did intend to cover The Stepbrother first, I was all stepped out after my last two Fear Street reviews. And given it's (Woo!) Party Summer month and the second book involves camping, well who am I to resist it? Very rarely has Stine let me down with camping books, so let's see what goes down when we Camp Out.

This is an okay cover, if not a bit odd looking. I like the almost alien silhouette which makes our possible villain of the book look like sort of a threat. But I will say our panicked girl face is a bit silly looking. More caught off guard by something more than a look of pure terror. We're definitely out of the days of the far more intriguing Fear Street covers of the Archway era, but this is far from the worst cover ever.

A Case of the Bumps: Go Jump in a Lake!

I think if there's a book I've often undersold, it's probably The Curse of Camp Cold Lake. It's a decent book, almost all the camp books in Goosebumps have been at least okay to amazing. The only real straggler to me being Return to Ghost Camp, which was a lie by the way. But I've always had less fun with this book over most of the others, and I think it's why I've always ranked it so low. But I do think there is value to this one, aside from it's admittedly badass cover, which I maintain might be Tim's scariest cover. The eyelashes though kind of hurt it but imagine if the cover went eyeless? A-tier childhood trauma generator. But some of the book's concept might be up there for one of Stine's most interesting books, which fits going into the latter end of Goosebumps which, save for a few stragglers, is rife with some of the best latter end stories. So let's dive on into this book one more time and see what works and why I do think it does ultimately not work for me like other camp books do. 

Back to Ghoul: The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids #03: Santa Claus Doesn't Mop Floors

Okay so technically this is a Christmas book, but, you know, Christmas in July and all that. Yes, I did promise I wouldn't wait until Christmas to finally cover this one, so why not smack dab in the middle of (WOO!) Party Summer month? Let's see what's really up with this sanitation Santa as Santa Claus Doesn't Mop Floors. What, does he get Mrs. Claus or the elves to do it, the jackass?

So this book predates The Santa Clause, but I swear somehow John Steven Gurney travelled into the future, saw the movie, returned to his present time and decided to draw a very Tim Allen-faced Santa. That should have been a book. Time Travelers Don't Illustrate Kids Books. Debbie Dadey, Marcia Thornton Jones, you ever want to revive the brand, there's a freebie for ya. As for the cover itself, it's decent. You have a decent gamut of faces with Melody's being more shocked, Howie's being more quizzical and Eddie being a chucklehead as usual. Our janitor Santa is a great design. Something about him wearing shorts and sneakers, casual as all hell, really sells the question of is this the real deal or are the Bailey School Kids about to bother another normal adult?

NNtG: Graveyard School #07: Slime Lake

It's July, which means it's time once again for our annual (WOO!) Party Summer month. A month full of books set around the summertime. And to kick things off we're going deep into the ooey gooey underbelly of Graveyard School with a book that promises us slime. Well given the last time we did a summer book with Slime on the cover it wasn't actually that slimy, hopefully Graveyard School can deliver. Let's find out with a visit to Slime Lake.

This might legitimately be one of the best covers I've seen for this blog. Because it's genuinely disturbing in ways that a lot of these kids horror books aren't. This level of detail on the green slime and how it oozes over the kid, the freaked out reaction from the small bit of the kid you can see. Also this  freakish image juxtaposed with rather calm scenery adds to the creep factor. I've yet to see a Graveyard School cover I didn't like and this may be our top contender for best one out of the covers I've... well... covered.

State of the Blog: Five Years Later

It's another year over so it's once again time to assess how the blog did throughout it. Another year of book blogs over and done with. And it now officially being five full years of doing this blog, there's definitely a lot to talk about this time around. Was this a good year? Do I feel accomplished? And how am I currently feeling about the blog's future? Let's not waste too much time and see how year five truly treated me. 

Retromorphs: Animorphs #15: The Escape

So far Marco's 2 for 2 when it comes to Animorphs books. Aside from Tobias he's been the character written the best so far, especially with everything we know so far about him, as well as learning that his mother is the controller for one of the most powerful Yeerks. Will we score a hat trick? This one is an underwater book though and they're always a mixed bag. It's time for The Escape.

The Stinal Countdown: Fear Street: The Stepsister 2

Previously, we covered The Stepsister, a 1990 book in the Fear Street series which featured a girl having to deal with incidents that may involve her new Stepsister, only to find out it was her actual sister. So Stine, never the one to not milk something for all its worth, would bring about a sequel in 1995. Which has me worried because, especially in Fear Street, Stine's sequels are usually pretty bad. Could this one buck that trend? Stranger things have happened. Let's find out with The Stepsister 2.

I like this cover a bit better than the first one. I think what makes it work better is that it feels more unassuming. Emily brushing her hair, not really paying attention to Nancy staring at her with an intent to kill. Having it be more sinister and dark compared to the weird glow of Jessie in the last book makes for a better piece of art overall. More memorable at least, as of the two Stepsister covers, this is the one I remember more often. Good stuff.