NNtG: Shivers #33: The Forgotten Farmhouse

 
It's time to finally cover some creepy content outside of the world of R.L. Stine. As Goosebumps blew up in popularity, there was always going to be clones attempting to take a piece of the scary pie. Perhaps the most well known of these clones were M.D. Spenser's Shivers. 

M.D. Spenser is an author/radio host who now resides in London. In 1996, as Goosebumps was in its height of popularity, Spenser began writing Shivers for Paradise press. The series lasted until 1998 with 36 books released in total. He would later try to do an Animorphs take called Humano Morphs, where the kids could morph into other people, but that only lasted six books. Despite the obvious Goosebumps knockoff feel, the books still sold over a million copies. 

So, with the preamble out of the way, let's cover Shivers proper. There are a bunch of books to choose from, but I went with the one with honestly the most interesting cover. Let's see what all the E-I-E-I-O is about when we cover The Forgotten Farmhouse.

COVER STORY

The one thing that is common with Shivers covers is that they love their skulls and skeletons. It's like someone saw the cover for Say Cheese and Die! and thought "we need skeletons. More skeletons!" I love this cover. Eddie Roseboom gives us a really intense scene with the fire and the red sky. But what sells this as awesome is cowboy skeleton on the skeleton horse in full yee-haw mode. It's definitely strong enough to entice you into finding out whatever is up with this book. Worked for me, so points to Mr. Roseboom.

COVER STORY

Our protagonist is Nico. He and his sister Ana are Colombian born and have lived in America for quite some time now. So, a protagonist of color not born in the US, that's still more regular than Stine. We get a lot of short chapters that tell us how you won't believe how Ana and Nico were on this horse ride that went into this fog and that their lives changed forever. This practically is how we end every chapter. This is already becoming the "when are they going to get to the fireworks factory" of books. Also, the chapters are tiny with far less wording in these, so I may have to forgive Jovial Bob. 

The story begins proper when Ana and Nico's mom tells them that if they have good grades they can go horse-trekking in the Catskills. They do just that and their mom drops them off. Nico tells the reader how to ride a horse so that you get that, yes, this kid really likes horses. After a while, they start riding their horses Champion and Daisy along with the group. The group go ahead of them, leaving the kids on their own until they finally start to go into the strange fog that's building around them. 

Nico and Ana head through the fog on their horses until things get so bad that the horses begin to lose control for a bit. But when Nico and Ana get their bearings, they notice that somehow they're horses are different than before. They get off their new horses and try to find somewhere to go. In fact, it's almost like the horses are leading them somewhere. Sure enough, the kids soon find an old farmhouse. The kids head to the front door to see if anyone is inside, and as soon as Nico touches the door, there's an explosion that sends the kids on the ground, nearly blinded and deafened by the sound. Nico gets up, only for it to happen again. When the kids recover slightly they see that it was from a shotgun. 

The holder of the gun is a man named Bob. His wife, Mary tries to tell him to at least find out who the kids are, but Bob says they'll just kill them like the others have. Sure enough, Bob has a twisted mouth, a missing eye, blood on his shirt, and what appears to be the after effects of a gunshot. The kids are freaked out, obviously, made no better by Eddie, the farm couple's cat, attacking them. Bob tells the kids to move, and not wanting to be killed right now, they comply. They notice Mary, the wife, has no back of her head, with blood all over her dress. Reader beware, WHAT THE HELL AM I READING? Like, this went from 0 to 450 in a span of a few pages.

Bob sits them down and is ready to kill them, believing Nico and Ana to be the two that murdered his family. He decides instead to have his son and daughter, Daniel and Sara, to have fun with them. Sara has the top of her head blown off, while Daniel's face is rearranged. Nico manages to escape, but upon running free, he notices that Ana isn't with him. He heads back, sneaking to the outside and looking in as Ana is still caught with Bob with a shotgun at her head ready to BLOW HER BRAINS OUT, WHAT IN THE HELL AM I READING???

Nico enters the stable with the horses and notices that, yup, they were shot dead too, as was Eddie the cat. They're all ghosts... or zombies... or ghouls, I don't know. He's trying to get the horses, while also checking that, so far, Ana's still alive and not shot. Before he can do anything else, he gets caught by Daniel and Bob. He gets brought back into the house, but notices that Ana managed to escape this time. He hopes she has some sort of plan, so he stalls the farm family, saying that this isn't an isolated incident. That they think every person who comes here were the ones who killed them, and maybe he was the one that killed them. Or maybe he's already dead. The diversion seems to work, but not for long as Bob grabs the gun and points it at Nico's head, ready to fire. Suddenly, Ana bursts in on a white horse and saves Nico in time as the two run from the farmhouse to freedom.

TWIST ENDING

The kids escape the fog and are back on the horses they came in on. They make it to the farmhouse of the Ryans, who bring them in and make sure their mom is contacted. They also tell the kids about an abandoned farmhouse that belonged to the Booth family, who were murdered by crooks a hundred years ago. The kids reunite with their mom and head home, glad that this is over. But they promise that some day, they'll make sure the trail guide who lost them will get what's coming to him. 

CONCLUSION

So, um... I thought that Shivers was just going to be some silly Goosebumps stuff, but what in the absolute hell did I just read? This book takes a while to get going, but when we get to the farmhouse, I... I still have no clue what I just read. I can tell that M.D. Spenser's focus differs from Stine in that he's not as bothered in really going full bore into the gore, with details on the Booth family's grisly remains. Particularly Sara, who Nico mentions never moves an inch due to her brain being gone because of the giant hole where most of her head should be. This gives off the sense that Spenser didn't mind focusing on actual nightmare-inducing scenarios. And I can actually see this one giving kids nightmares. If not from the gory details, then from the story taking a turn and being about two kids having a shotgun pointed at them. 

In terms of being a Goosebumps clone, it definitely feels like that in structure, but in tone it couldn't be any more night and day. Say what you will about Goosebumps, but they feel suitable for the young audience they cater to. Offering safe stories that don't put the kids in serious danger for the most part. Here, it's definitely more of a case of "take off the training wheels, because we're going all in". I think we went way too all in for my liking, but I can't say it wasn't effective. In the end, I can't say I fully recommend this one due to how grisly it gets, and it takes a while to get to the point, but it's definitely worth the read. E-I-E-I-OH GOD! The Forgotten Farmhouse gets a B+.