NNtG: Shadow Zone: The Witches Next Door

It's been a while since we took a trip to the Shadow Zone. About a year, actually. It's still a series that hasn't given me any extremely awful books to read, but a couple that were still pretty disappointing. We have witches to deal with this time and usually witch stories are pretty good, so I can only hope that's the case with Shadow Zone. Though knowing my recent luck this will be a case of bubble bubble toil and DEFINITELY trouble. Let's hope not as we learn about The Witches Next Door.

This cover's great. Both in actually being kind of creepy and being wonderfully silly. We have our protagonist Jennifer with a great shocked reaction, backing away from what is definitely a screwed up looking scene. Our hooded witch over a cauldron really works for added mystery. Then there's our half-girl half snake which is actually a pretty cool design. How her body starts to blend into the snake body feels creepy in a way most covers rarely manage to convey, while not actually being super scary. If anything, it's a super intriguing cover. And pretty cool in its own right. That's usually a death sentence for these books.

The Ten Worst Books I've Read in 2025

Boy oh boy what a decade this year was. Such a wonderful year, huh? For the blog this was actually not too bad a year when it came to the books I covered, but that doesn't mean I didn't run into a few stinkers. That includes a book that got the oh-so rare F, so I guess it was destined to make it to the bottom ten for this year. Let's cast these books off one final time before we move on with 2025 forever. Again, not in any particular order. 

#01: SAY MY NAME! SAY MY NAME!

Goosebumps was a mixed bag this year all told. No real winner book of the two House of Shivers offerings. I know people like The Last Sleepover, but it didn't land with me like I had hoped. But it was still better than whatever the hell Stine was smoking with Say My Name! Say My Name! This book feels like a book that was put in a randomizer. Throw in the strangest ideas possible and hope it makes for at least a passable book. And the end result is a book that is too chaotic for its own good. That being said, I don't hate the idea on paper. That the world we're in is inside a video game that a kid is making and it can be changed on the fly by the whims of said kid. And it could work if so much of the stuff in the book mattered, but the book goes out of its way to make sure that nothing in the book matters at all. The talking fish on the cover? Doesn't matter. That weird chapter about the ventriloquist dummy? Doesn't matter. Shifting the narration to different characters for a couple chapters? Doesn't matter. It all lumps into an idea salad that unfortunately isn't all that edible or enjoyable. It's less the wonderful chaos of, say, Homer's moon waffle and more like Homer's breakfast of cloves, Tom Collins Mix and frozen pie crust. It is the book that finally had me set in the realization that we might not ever get the really good days of Goosebumps anymore, and for every decent book, he's still going to give us a clunker that lacks in logic. And oh did this book ever clunk. 

#02: FEAR HALL: THE BEGINNING & THE CONCLUSION

You know, if this was just one book, this probably wouldn't be on the list. It's still a very done-to-death plot about a teen with poor mental health, but it wouldn't have bothered me so much. But nope. For some reason this needed to be two parts. And there are some decent horror moments in both parts, some genuinely gruesome kills. The problem is that the first book ends with the big twist. That Hope has multiple personalities that she's formed to be her three best friends and her murderous boyfriend. It's really no shocker that Stine uses split personalities and Dissociative Identity Disorder as way too much of a horror crutch (I literally read this shortly after reading his book Twisted, which also does a similar concept) but that's not really my problem. My problem is that there's a part two to this story and we're just supposed to go through it like Stine didn't just reveal everything last book. More murders, more Hope not fully realizing what's going on. And all for a rather sour ending of her killing herself and her friends. Which, I get it. It's horror, you shouldn't expect a happy ending, but it does scream to me a sense of Stine believing people with poor mental health or disorders like DID are beyond saving, or only exist to be vilified. It didn't work for me and as I got through the second book I just never gelled like I did with the first book. A two-parter that's only a two-parter to be a gimmick when in any other case it would have just been a super chiller. 

#03: HELLO, MALLORY

If there's any book I wish I didn't have to put in this list, it's probably this one. Because there are things to like about this book. Mallory is a solid lead, it introduces Jessi, Mallory and Jessi's dynamic is fun and I really like it. But what sinks this book for me is the girls testing to see if Mallory has what it takes to join the Baby-Sitters Club. And it's putting Mallory to standards that she could never hope to achieve, not out of their own opinions on the matter but rather because they read a bunch of books and thought that an eleven year old needs to have the highest education possible for the job, which I'm more than certain the girls never did themselves, nor did they do for Dawn, Logan, Shannon or even those two Babysitting Agency double agents. So it becomes annoying and not fun to sit through. And honestly had the book just had Mallory and Jessi be babysitters without the need for the club, you wouldn't blame them. It's way too much of a mega happy ending for my tastes. It's the unfortunate case of a book that should be better, has things that are good about it, but feels the least enjoyable to read. 

#04: GNOME CAVE

I'm not a James Rolfe hater. I don't care too much for the Nerd stuff as I used to, but I still have fond nostalgia of classic AVGN. And I at least respect that he wanted to give writing a novel a try. The problem is the execution was not great. The idea is solid. How nostalgia and FOMO can affect someone. How they can obsess over that one moment being the rare bright spot in their otherwise unfulfilled life. But where the book could build on that horror and give us a solid horror story, James instead rushes to the finish line with the big horror moment and necessary kills happening so fast that they leave no impact. It also feels like a book that needed a few more drafts to improve upon, or to improve on the attempt at faux-pithy paragraphs and sentences in the book. The length of the book doesn't help, feeling like it's as long as a Goosebumps book, but for adults, but lacking the depth of story to really land with adults. Like I said in the review, I hope James tries again if this is something he wishes to pursue. And maybe he should try less for the adult crowd and maybe try a Goosebumps-like. This wasn't good, but if a positive can be spun, it can serve as an example of what not to do and how to improve.

#05: THE SUBSTITUTE CREATURE

Spinetinglers doesn't start off strong. In fact, it might be the weakest first book in any horror series I've covered for the blog. Which sucks because on paper this could have been a neat idea, albeit not the most original. A kid discovers that an adult is actually a monster, only instead of it being a librarian, it's a substitute teacher. And you could have a solid horror story built around that, and the book to its credit does provide a few solid horror scenes. The problem is that's not what the book goes for at all, and as the book progresses, it makes it clear to everyone but the protagonists that none of this situation contains anything the least bit supernatural. Which isn't always a bad thing. You can do slice of life style stories without any real supernatural elements and they can still be good books. But alternatively it can also make for a book that feels like a slog to get through because you want supernatural. You want monsters. You want effective horror. And when the book blue balls pretty much at the midway point then you're just waiting for it to get to the fireworks factory and reach the ending. As a full fledged novel this just didn't work. Maybe a short story would have fit it better. 

#06: LET'S SCARE THE TEACHER TO DEATH

Like Kermit the Frog trying to find the rainbow connection, someday I'll find it. The Graveyard School book I really liked. Unfortunately, this one wasn't it. And a lot of that comes from the pacing and build of the book. That we take forever to get to scaring the teacher to death in a book that really isn't that interesting. A prankster and a super genius who gets hooked on pranks pranking their math teacher because she's actually pretty bad at math. The twist is also a bit contentious, that Miss Cheevy was a man all along and was only pretending to be a female math teacher because he was a spy. And the book sort of builds to that idea with mentioning an Adams Apple and ill-fitting shoes. I don't look at it as transphobic, but it still doesn't exactly scream the most ideal way to end this story. It's also a book that lacks in scares of really any kind which doesn't help this book, especially once we get to the "death". I'm sure this series will have at least one book I really like, but the search looks to continue into the next year. 

#07: THRILL RIDE

We covered our second Cliffhangers book this year and it was ultimately a pretty bland experience. The main problem feeling like the book spends way too much time on the build of Annie and Stu making it to Dave's house then going to Playland. And when we get there, it's over pretty quick, though the bit of Annie and Stu being stuck on the roller coaster is harrowing enough to work. What does annoy me is the extra beat. That we tack on a criminal for Annie to capture at the end. An escaped convict who has been hiding at this old place called the Model House. And the security guard was working with him. It's not a bad idea in theory, but in execution it feels like padding. Doesn't help that this is the exact same plot to Don't Look Down, of a criminal in plain sight with an accomplice. We still have a couple of these left so hopefully they're more interesting, but while this was far from the absolute worst book, it was still a bit of a letdown. Not quite the rollercoaster ride I was expecting.

#08: LITTLE MISS STONEYBROOK ...AND DAWN

I get that this is one Ann M. Martin liked, but it did not work for me at all. I think there's bias as I just hate the idea of child pageants entirely We're still coming off the Toddlers and Tiaras shit that really put to light how shit this all is to kids. And while the stuff with the kids preparing for the pageant is fun and fine, it's the pageant itself that sticks with me as not fun. Again, it's the hypocrisy of the girls. How they go into this saying how sexist and terrible it is, only to then in turn become sexist when they call a girl not pretty and fake. I get the intent, but this is also coming off Hello, Mallory where the girls were probably at their worst to this point in the series, so them calling kids ugly doesn't exactly make them look any better. Also, it's a book with Dawn as the lead, but she feels the least important to the story than she ever has to this point, with the main conflict being about her brother moving to California. So it does feel like the books haven't found a way to make Dawn as interesting as she could be. Dawn on the Coast finally gets the ball rolling, but it's a slog to get there.

#09: IN THE TIME OF DINOSAURS

I don't think there's any book that, on paper, should have been more of a home run more than Megamorphs #02. A story about the Animorphs sent to prehistoric times and morphing into dinosaurs? That sounds like a surefire winner. And then you get the book and holy hell is it bad. There is some good to the book as the Animorphs surviving the dinosaurs and their current conditions makes for good reading. I even like that it continues on things we were building on in previous books like Cassie losing more of her innocence and having to grapple with her concerns about going too far and losing herself. It becomes moot when she's fully compliant with the big issue of the book, but hey, character work is always appreciated. And if the book was just that, dinosaur adventure, then it would have been an okay book. Then the book adds the Nesk and the Mercora conflict and decides to take perhaps its most sympathetic character and turn him into an asshole. Because Tobias fucks over the Mercora which in turn fucks any character growth he had.

See, the plot hinges on what appears to be a meteor heading to Earth, sent in that direction by the fleeing Nesk. The Animorphs manage to supply the Mercora with the bomb necessary to destroy said meteor, only for Tobias to have Ax deactivate the bomb and not tell the Mercora so that they essentially are led to their deaths. And because they're the last of their species after their own planet blew up, it means that the Mercora species is completely wiped out. All because the dumb bird boy who really liked dinosaurs as a kid decided on a whim that this was all part of the plan, the greater good. Pardon my French but fuck that noise. And the Animorphs are just cool with that, thereby negating Cassie's whole concern about losing herself to violence when she's just cool with genocide. Add in we get a whole two dinosaur morphs, a far cry from what the promotional art promised, and there's no Yeerk involvement, and you get a book that feels like a bait and switch that was made solely to sell copies of books and not actually offer a satisfying experience. It sucked to read when I was a kid and now that I'm older and was able to factor the implications of the ending, it sucks even more. The true bottom of the Animorphs barrel.

#10: CALL WAITING

And we make it to the book that got an easy F from me. I hated this one so much. I don't know what it is about Stine and Point but so many of those book are his worst offerings. And I'd say this one might be his worst, but then I remember Halloween Night II exists, so not the worst but very, very close. The protagonist, Karen, is extremely hard to like. So obsessed with her love of Ethan that she'd kill to keep him. She may have almost done that by pushing Wendy down the stairs. But then the book handwaves that by making it that Wendy fell instead. But in her act of desperation, Karen lies to Ethan, claiming someone is calling and threatening her. And when she gets caught, it's then that she starts getting threatening calls, claiming to be in her head. And you'd think this could be a good twist. Her mental state falling apart and her conscience getting to her. But nope, it's her best friend Micah who was messing with her because she wanted to be with Ethan.

 It all feels like so many interesting ideas fell to the wayside for one reason or the other. Like the book could have had an interesting Yandere lead but chose against it to give Karen a win she doesn't truly deserve. It could have built to solid self realization, but instead takes the lazy route of "Oh the best friend was evil actually". It's also just an annoying book filled to the brim with some of his worst stingers ever. I don't give that many books F's. They have to be books that didn't work at all on me and lacked any redeeming values. This one is a strong example of that. When the plot is lame and the horror is nonexistent and you really couldn't give a fuck about if the characters win or lose, then yeah, easy F territory for me. Thankfully I'm almost done with Stine and Point and I can't imagine anything else being this bad... I hope. If The Dead Girlfriend ends up here next year then that's the answer. 

And that's the blog's worst for 2025. I hope for a better year next year but honestly 2025 feels like the shot to 2026's chaser. Hope to be wrong. And I hope to keep blogging throughout the next year, which will no doubt give me ten more books to inevitably give me that long-awaited aneurysm. Hope to see you all next year. 

The Ten Best Books I've Read in 2025

2025 blew chunks. It's not exactly a shocking claim to make given that this year was just a nonstop ride of one shitty incident after another. But hey, at least I read some good books that helped get my mind off the rapidly gaining collapse of society as a whole. But what were my favorites of this year? The ones that made things more bearable than other books did? Well, let's find out. We covered some books that earned high marks this year, including two that made it to the rarified A+ territory. So let's look back at the best of the blog for 2025. 

Club-Read: The Baby-Sitters Club #24: Kristy and the Mother's Day Surprise

It feels frankly weird to get a Kristy book already. Especially given the wide berth between her third and fourth book during the tens. So to go right back to her four books later feels super quick. But this one is a bit more important in terms of what goes down, so I guess not having to wait for this one is a bonus? This book is a Mother's Day story, and if you paid attention to a previous blog where I mentioned Kristy's mom considering another kid, well, you might be able to guess what's going down here. Or do you? Let's discover Kristy's Mothers Day Surprise. 

Technically there's only two covers to talk about, but the original reprints and the ebook edition did edit the cover art of the original enough to bring it up. Mainly changing Kristy's hairstyle and giving her her signature ballcap, which she is known to wear a lot. Other than that, the colors are a bit more vibrant and the art is fine, selling Kristy with a bunch of the kids (notably Becca) at some sort of carnival. Same with the reprint with with far less kids. Both covers are fine though they don't quite sell the idea of a mother's day surprise. Original is my preferred in this batch.

Kristy opens the book as Karen tells her knock knock jokes for a bit. It seems Kristy's been thinking about her family a lot lately, which brings us to preamble #1 for the characters. She then holds the club meeting for preamble #2 for how the club works. 24 books deep now and we're still doing this. At the meeting the girls bring up that April is almost over and Mother's Day is around the corner. They think of presents (save for Mary Anne given her mother passed away when she was born) until the club meeting ends. At dinner, Mrs. Thomas-Brewer not so subtly brings up the idea of another kid in the family and how everyone would feel about it. She's not pregnant, but just throwing that around like a medicine ball to the gut of everyone on the spot. So now with the realization that her mother is considering another baby, Kristy realizes that she's going to have to up her game when it comes to a Mother's Day present this year.

At the next meeting Kristy unveils her idea. To celebrate Mother's Day, they should reward the mothers they sit for by giving them the day off on the Saturday, and the club will watch the kids for the day instead. Take them out somewhere fun. They decide to use their club money on the trip, but have no idea what said trip should be. Claudia sits for the Newtons where Jamie is performing as different circus people. He's really interested in Sudsy's Carnival coming up Mother's Day weekend, but his parents can't take him as they're too busy. He really wants a balloon though, whether it has advertising or not is beyond me. But it gives Claudia an idea. At the next meeting, Claudia suggests taking the kids to the carnival. Most of the kids they've sat for in the series so far. However that's about 20+ kids. So they need help. The associate baby-sitters are busy, but luckily for everyone Stacey can show up to help, so hey, good to see her again at least.

Kristy talks with her mother about the big Mother's Day surprise of taking the kids to the carnival, which she's on board with. On the subject of a new brother or sister, she isn't pregnant, but isn't exactly revealing what she's planning just yet. Kristy seems enthusiastic about this, until she sees David Michael, Karen and Andrew arguing about how their birth parent loves them more. Kristy immediately realizes that this baby plan might be a ticking time bomb. The final list is 23. Several of the Pike kids, Charlotte Johannsen, the Perkins kids, the Barrett kids, the Braddocks, Becca, the Rodowskys, Kristy's younger siblings, Jenny Prezzioso, Nina Marshall, Jamie Newton and Marilyn and Carolyn Arnold.  Betsy Sobak, the Delaneys and Papadakises decided against. Given the last time they were around Betsy Sobak Claudia got a broken leg this might be a blessing in disguise. They set up a list of what girl gets what kid as Stacey calls, mentioning that her parents have been arguing a lot lately. But it's just a phase. Certainly nothing to be concerned about. Yep, that's a pin on the board. 

Stacey arrives and finally meets Jessi and is fully up to date with everything going on. They plan for the big carnival day. They also see Mimi, who is messing her words more and trailing off. We're getting real close, gang. Oh I'm dreading that book. The day arrives and the kids show up, with Jamie and Charlotte in particular being super happy to see Stacey. The kids all then start crying, and Jenny is bothered that Matt Braddock is coming too, to which Haley super quickly shuts her up. They arrive at the carnival and have fun. Karen goes in the haunted mansion, but gets scared by everything, so a worker in a mask tells her the secrets of the effects, which given this is the agent of chaos, means she's going to spill the beans. Lunch is later provided by Mr. Kishi and Mimi, who is still talking about random stuff and seems really confused. It goes mostly well until Andrew injures his knees and the kids start crying and fighting again. The kids make their mother's day gifts then leave. The girls prepared their own gifts, even Mary Anne for her father because I guess Mary Anne finds gender-specifics lame, which rock right on sister. 

Kristy returns home and gets the answer from her mother about what's going on. She isn't pregnant, but instead she and Watson adopted a two year old Vietnamese girl named Emily Michelle. Kristy's side takes it great, though Karen and Andrew are particularly bothered by the news. The day arrives and Kristy gets more elaboration. Elizabeth and Watson had wanted to have a kid, but didn't think that they should go through another pregnancy, so they searched for a child to adopt and ended up with Emily. Watson and Elizabeth leave to get Emily as the kids and the club all wait and hold a welcoming party for her. Emily Michelle arrives, everyone is happy, and Kristy finds it to be the best Mother's Day ever. So this isn't just a mega happy ending, this is like a super mega happy ending. 

This book, as it is, is fine, but far from the strongest book in terms of being super interesting. It suffers the same way Kristy's Big Day does in that we get a lot of focus on watching a group of kids and less on the more interesting stuff going on in the background. This is a book that could be looked at as filler if not for the fact it sets up a lot of stuff that's going to be important later on. First off, Mimi's declining health which we're very close to reaching the unfortunate conclusion of. There's also the blink and you'll miss it bit of Stacey's parents fighting, and Stacey mentioning her mom misses Stoneybrook. Probably easy to put 2 and 2 together as to what's going on and what the end result will be. But the biggest piece of development involves Elizabeth and Watson wanting another baby. Emily Michelle debuts in this book and while we don't get much with her, it's still an interesting piece of new continuity. I would have liked more build to her arrival, but this book is about Mother's Day surprises so yeah, don't spoil the big surprise entirely.

If you want baby-sitting in the books, you get one normal one, and the rest is focused on the carnival trip, which is fun and cute, but definitely not very meaty either. Just a quick series of events and we move on. A definite feeling of these books' lengths really weighing the books down on doing many exciting things. Even with Stacey who we build up her big return, but she ends up really lost in the shuffle by the end. I still think the concept of all the kids being sat at once is handled better here than in Kristy's Big Day and doesn't detract from a plot that would be more interesting like that book did with Elizabeth and Watson's wedding. Here, the book puts just enough focus on the incoming new baby to make readers intrigued as to what the final result is going to be. And the book does something important about that. Making Karen and Andrew not so happy about this new kid. Which makes sense since they're young, are still reeling from their parents' divorce and have a fear of being replaced. So add all that as an added pin, namely for the Karen books, but still.

Overall, this one isn't the deepest BSC book out there and the plot is very straightforward, again even for BSC. But it's still an important book in terms of that oh-so-important worldbuilding. Setting up a lot of things that will be more important down the line. So it makes it an easy recommend. Not the meatiest book, but not a filler either. So that's good news. Mary Anne is up next and we've got a missing cat to find. Thank god this isn't an R.L. Stine book. Kristy and the Mother's Day Surprise gets a B+. 

Cheese Doodles

Cracker Jacks

M&Ms

Looney Tunes

Titanic

Sesame Street
Pampers

Love Story

Brian's Song

V8

Beaver Cleaver

P.T. Barnum

Disney World

NBC

Wheel of Fortune

Popeye

Coke

The Addams Family

Uncle Fester

Band-Aid

The Ants Go Marching

I've got Sixpence

Side by Side

Bill Bailey Won't You Please Come Home

Heigh-Ho

99 Bottles of Beer

Where the Wild Things Are

One Morning in Maine

The Cat in the Hat

If I Ran the Circus

Paddington

VCR

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

Club-Read: The Karen Tax: Baby-Sitters Little Sister #03: Karen's Worst Day

Well we've covered several books, so it means we once again have to catch up on the agent of chaos. We'll be reaching the point where these will soon become bundle blogs instead of one at a time. But since these are going to be covered aside the mainline books, I've officially referred to them as the Karen Tax. Because, you know, death, taxes and Karen books. So last time we dealt with Karen, she broke her wrist trying to pull a sweet roller skate leap. Now bad luck seems to be following her. Does a good book follow? Let's find out with Karen's Worst Day. 

All three covers do something different, which I always appreciate. But each stick to the important factor of the book which is Karen still has her broken wrist, still can't really do much on account of said broken wrist, and it's making for a particularly bad day. Of the three, I think I prefer the original this time. A great frustrated reaction form Karen really sells it. The reprint's is decent too, with Karen's breakfast woes also doing a good job in selling the conflict. The graphic novel however does feel like the weakest of the three. More just Karen bored and annoyed than anything the would make for her having her worst day. All in all three solid works.

Club-Read: The Baby-Sitters Club #23: Dawn on the Coast

This is the one, right? This has to be the Dawn book that I come out really liking, right? I mean, 23 books in, her fourth leading role, and it's a book that focuses on her in California. Like, this has got to be the one. But then I see that this is the first book in the series with a ghostwriter, which yep, of course a series with over 100 books and a metric ton of spinoff books was going to need ghostwriters. So that makes my concerns raise just a bit higher. This blog truly is no fun in the sun sometimes, so hopefully we can warm up to this book. Let's get California dreamin' with Dawn on the Coast. 

With this batch of covers, we officially reach the end of the road. Because as of this writing, Dawn on the Coast is currently the last Graphic Novel with an available cover to talk about (Not counting the Karen books, we have a few left for them), so following this book we'll be sticking to the reprints and the originals. And these covers are all fine. The first and second hit on the same idea of Jeff splashing Dawn with a bucket of water. Very fun and silly setup. Good stuff. But I do really like the graphic novel's a bit more. It's a little more simplified, but I like the colors and the focus on Dawn, It does a good job in focusing on this being in California and this being a Dawn book. All three work for what the book is trying to offer, so good works.

Point by Numbers: Call Waiting

It's time for another trip into the world of Point Horror. We are reaching the end of the Stine era of the series. And this is one I can already predict. I can almost smell the tropes here. This book involves phone calls, so we're definitely in line for some ominous phone calls from someone creepy. Part of me just expects there to also be some sort of mental health issue be the culprit, because this is an R.L. Stine book after all. Let's see what's on the other line with Call Waiting.

This cover is good. Not amazing, but still does what it sets out to do. Give us lipstick, a phone and a note with the names of Karen and Ethan on it. That this even caller is likely out for love-focused revenge. I also like the little drop of blood on the phone which is actually dripping from the title. That's actually a fresh use of the title as well, I like it a lot. It's a cover I like. That usually bodes very bad for me.