It's time to take another look at Bone Chillers. They're usually a great place to go if you want some crazy stuff. I mean, Frankenturkey II and Little Pet Shop of Horrors are great examples to what I mean. But now we're waist-deep in the ghostwriter era, where Betsy takes the back seat and new writers take over. This time our author is David Bergantino, who didn't do much kids horror outside of Bone Chillers, but did do the Freddy's Tales of Terror books, so we've got somebody at least well-versed in horror given he's written for Freddy Krueger. This time we have ugly mugs to look at, or in this case, mugs about to be made ugly. Will this be a picture-perfect book, or a flash in the pan? Let's get A Terminal Case of the Uglies and find out.
Sunday, March 24, 2024
NNtG: Bone Chillers #14: A Terminal Case of the Uglies
Sunday, March 17, 2024
NNtG: Deadtime Stories #15: Cyber Scare
It's time to take another trip down the series of tubes that is Deadtime Stories. It is the year 1997 and the internet is still a bizarre wild west, rife for new ideas when it comes to horror given that most people still didn't know much about the internet or computers to really get what they can do. But the pandora's box that is the internet can still give us some imaginative ideas. Is this edition one of them, or worth putting in a spam folder? Reader beware, it's a Cyber Scare!
This cover is decent. Not exactly one I'd call incredible, but it does what it needs to to sell you on this book involving computers and monsters. We get our fair share of mummies on these covers and this one is fine. Though I really do like how wrapping looks all stringy, like it's barely holding together. Adds that right amount of realism needed, I guess. Another solid effort from Broeck Steadman.
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
A Case of the Bumps: Hair Apparent
My Hairiest Adventure was the 26th book in the original Goosebumps series. Released in 1994, the book seems to have a mixed reception to it. Fitting giving it's in one of the more interesting eras of the books where the quality was starting to roller coaster a bit. They can't all be Phantom of the Auditorium or A Night in Terror Tower. Even before I actually read the book myself, I bought into the idea that this was one of the worst books. Now? I think it's kind of a hidden gem, which holds both a strong set of twists and the right level of gross horror. So for this edition of A Case of the Bumps, we're giving a deeper look into My Hairiest Adventure and giving more love to ol' Hairy Larry.
Monday, March 4, 2024
The Stinal Countdown: Goosebumps House of Shivers #02: Goblin Monday
Twice more into the breach with Goosebumps House of Shivers. Our first outing, Scariest. Book. Ever. did do a lot of fresh things that do feel like a newer take on Goosebumps, even if the first book wasn't entirely perfect. Which, for Stine, that's still high praise. We got goblins in this book, which isn't something Stine's done before. We've had lawn gnomes, and even a troll or two, but not specifically goblins, so it should give us something fresh. Hopefully. Is this worth goblin' down, or is it just another manic Monday? Let's see with Goblin Monday.
Sunday, March 3, 2024
The Stinal Countdown: 99 Fear Street: The Third Horror
We're into the final stretch of 99 Fear Street: The House of Evil. And it's sure been something alright. A solid first part with plenty of horror. A second part which took some weird turns and felt like the most unnecessary book ever, rife with the most awkward questionably racist content that we've seen from Stine. Maybe it's a good thing he doesn't do mysticism that much. But with one part left I can at least hope that Stine can turn this back around and give us a satisfying conclusion. I really gotta stop giving Stine the benefit of the doubt. Let's see what goes down with The Third Horror.
Saturday, March 2, 2024
The Stinal Countdown: 99 Fear Street: The Second Horror
It's time to open the door and get on the floor with the second chapter of 99 Fear Street: The House of Evil. And, surprisingly, it's not going to take two years to continue this. Mainly because it would be pretty screwed up to take forever to finish the next part of a story (Stares at my copy of My Teacher Flunked the Planet. It'll come eventually). The first part offered enough dark and gory elements to make it more memorable than most Fear Street books, so can the second part keep that momentum? It's Stine, so probably not, but let's see for ourselves as we experience The Second Horror.
Sunday, February 25, 2024
The Stinal Countdown: 99 Fear Street: The First Horror
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Okay, it's finally time. Time to do the craziest blog I may have ever done, but lord help me, I feel given we're now caught up on th...
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It's interesting. Fear Street and Ghosts of Fear Street feel so much more different than I expected. The main Fear Street, at least to t...
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CONTENT WARNING: TALKS OF RACISM, GENOCIDE, THE HOLOCAUST AND MORE. YEP. IT'S A SHIVERS BOOK ALRIGHT. It's Shivers time again. And o...