The Stinal Countdown: Goosebumps Hall of Horrors #1: Claws!

 
It's time to talk about yet another series in the second era of Goosebumps. It's indeed time to enter the Hall of Horrors. Initially one that was planned to be part of HorrorLand and labelled Goosebumps HorrorLand: Hall of Horrors, the series dropped the previous series title and just became its own thing. It's also the quickest main line of Goosebumps books at only six books, later to be replaced by Most Wanted. So does this brief excursion lead to some decent work, or some good old Stine lameness? Let's dig in to the first book, Claws!

COVER STORY

This cover is fine. It feels a lot like the later Brandon Dorman trend of the monster of the book just making a wacky reaction, but it is still effective. The cover reminds me of Cry of the Cat, only far less close up. I like some of the touches on Bella the Cat, the focus on the sharp claws and her frayed tail missing some fur. It's just a shame her face seems a bit too cartoony to take seriously. I also like the use of greens which does give enough of an otherworldly feel. In the end, it's not amazing, but it'll do.

STORY

Hall of Horrors, much like HorrorLand, starts with a prologue of sorts, but thankfully it doesn't actually lead to any long arching storyline. It's instead a couple pages introducing us to the Hall of Horrors, a spot found in the back of HorrorLand, run by the narrator of these wraparounds, the Story-Keeper. The Hall of Horrors is a place where the protagonist of the book comes in to tell the Story-Keeper about their frightening experience. In this case, it's a boy named Mickey Coe and his experience with a black cat.

Mickey Coe and his best friend Amanda Underwood have taken the job of pet-sitting Bella, the cat that belongs to Mr. and Mrs. Caplan. Mr. Caplan was their former teacher the year before and their neighbor, which Mickey finds awkward. But with the Caplans sailing for a week, they need someone to watch Bella. They also give Amanda and Mickey the number of Mr. Caplan's brother should they need it. But they think that this shouldn't be too hard of a job. Particularly Amanda, who acts like a total know-it-all, to the point that Mickey can't even argue with her when she's on to something. She also calls him weird names like Tomato Brain and Clam Head. I dunno, maybe Stine was hungry writing this.

And for the first couple days, it goes fine, until Amanda gets get gum on Bella's tail and they have to rip it off (hence the cover). The next day, Amanda chides Mickey for overfeeding his "there to be killed later" goldfish, while also looking at his pet mouse Zorro. Okay Stine, giving Mickey a mouse. That's not as clever as you'd think, but I'll allow it. The two head to the Caplan house to feed Bella. However,  they forget to shut the door. Bella rushes out the door. The kids try to catch the cat, but Bella ends up being run over by a truck. Some good old R.L. Stine animal cruelty, how I've not missed it. 

The truck driver apologizes, but the kids are still freaked out over Bella being flattened. The driver leaves. Mickey and Amanda then decide to get Bella's corpse off the road, but it's disappeared. They chalk it up to maybe the truck driver took the cat corpse for them. Of course, now they're freaked out that the Caplans are going to kill them for killing their cat, but Amanda has an idea. What if they just replace Bella? Just get another black cat and bring it to the Caplan house. What could possibly go wrong? Mickey's not for it, and is the only one who sees the major flaws in this plan, but Amanda has her mind set that this'll be all fine.

The kids head to a giant cat store called Cat Heaven, hoping to find the cat they need. They meet one of the clerks, Lucy, who hands them a red cat toy that can call her when needed. They also run into another clerk who tries to sell them on a different cat, but no avail. They find some black cats, but none match Bella. Mickey's had enough and tells off Amanda for this stupid idea. She responds by shoving Mickey, causing him to fall backwards through a door to a room labeled "Keep Out". The room is filled with cats, but it's oddly much colder. But, they do manage to find a black cat that looks exactly like Bella. They use the buzzer, but the man from earlier shows up. The man, named Lou freaks out and tells the kids that they can't take that cat. Amanda's next brilliant idea is to just steal the cat and after some trial and error and nearly being caught, they do just that, with Mickey knocking open other cat cages in the process.

Escaping with cat in tow, Mickey and Amanda make it back to the Caplan residence with the cat. The cat reacts to the house in almost the same way as Bella did. The kids breathe a sigh of relief and almost fist bump, but suddenly the cat begins to react violently, leaping at Mickey and slashing his shirt. Despite nearly murdering Mickey, Amanda chalks it up to nerves and thinks that the cat should settle in a few days. That night, Mickey hears cat sounds inside his house, but can't find anything. He sees a cat silhouette for a moment like some strange cat signal, then hears splashing noises. He sees that his goldfish have all been mutilated and eaten. 

Mickey tries to tell Amanda the next day, but she's more interested in talking about a Wii game. They head back to feed the cat, but once again it begins to freak out, destroying a couch. Amanda, dumb as a brick at this point, thinks it must be nerves and the two leave, only to see Lou and some people from Cat Heaven outside. They hide and overhear Lou saying that the kids are in trouble. Mickey says they should just give them the cats, but Amanda ignores him again. The kids head to school and once again Mickey hears meowing, as if some cat-related Telltale Heart. He panics, which only gets him laughed ay by his class. At lunch he sees an orange cat with red eyes in his backpack and freaks out again. He tries to get Amanda to see, but she doesn't see anything. 

Amanda leaves nd Mickey opens his lunch bag, only to find a dead mouse. He heads to his locker and finds a dead bird inside. He then hears hisses and suddenly gets attacked by a bunch of cats, but they vanish when the gym teacher arrives. He tries to get Amanda to talk to him, but she ignores him to head into flute lessons. I wonder if they can be murder. Mickey makes his leave, only to be stopped by Lou and the others from Cat Heaven. Mickey runs back into the school and hides in a locker. It manages to work, but then Mickey discovers that he can't get the locker door to open. Thankfully another kid gets him out, so we don't spend the rest of the book there.

Mickey returns to the Caplan house to find the cat. But when he finds it, he's shocked to see that the cat has the exact same patch of lost fur that was ripped out when Amanda put gum on it. Mickey soon realizes that this isn't a different cat. It is Bella. He tries to call Amanda, but she's too busy being god awful, so he takes Bella in a cat carrier and brings her back to Cat Heaven. However, he gets caught by Lou. He tells Mickey that he can't bring that dead cat back to Cat Heaven. Mickey is sent off. He runs into Amanda and tells her about the whole situation. She's skeptical, of course, and is more focused on going into the Caplan house to explain this. But when they enter, they see that the house is filled with cats.

The kids begin to make a run for it, but the Caplans are at the front door. Mickey and Amanda tell them about Bella being run over and everything that's gone down, to which the Caplans decide to tell him the truth. Bella's been dead the whole time. She died four years ago. Hit by a truck like before. They were then told that they could take the cat somewhere to be brought back to life, a place called Cat Heaven. The cats in the front of the store are live cats, but the ones in back are dead cats that come back to life. However, the cycle repeats itself and the cat will always die again in the same way. Bella's been run over multiple times. 

The Caplans are confused about the other cats, but when Mickey mentions that he knocked over the cages in the back area and freed a bunch of cats, they realize he's ruined his life. Because only the owner of the dead cat can take it back from Cat Heaven. If anyone else does, the cat becomes feral and violent. Mickey now has to live with the rest of these cats for the rest of his life. Mickey runs out of the house and back to his home where he grabs his pet mouse Zorro and returns to the Caplan house. He throws the mouse outside and the cats, including Bella, run off. They hear silence, then the sound of Bella being run over yet again. This does the trick, since the cats can't be returned by hand, they can still be returned by death.

TWIST ENDING

Mickey and his mother are driving to his tennis lessons when he sees a store called Mouse Heaven. He goes inside and finds Zorro. Mickey then contemplates if he should bring him back.

The Story-Keeper thanks Mickey for his story and leads him to his room in the Hall of Horrors for the night. He tells Mickey that he'll be bringing home an animal in a carrier named Shredder. He then turns his attention to the next guest, a boy named Steven Sweeney, who has a story called Night of the Giant Everything to tell.

CONCLUSION

Claws! is an okay book. Although, I can definitely tell that Stine was trying to channel some Pet Semetary with this plot. The story does a good enough job not taking too long to get going which is a relief. The middle is a bit lagging, but there are some decent moments of tension, giving off that Telltale Heart feeling I mentioned earlier. Only instead of it being guilt for cat homicide, it's literal ghost cats trying to kill Mickey. Speaking of, Mickey is an okay protagonist. Very bland in character, but does the trick. Amanda however is really unlikable, feeling more like an antagonist at times than any actual friend. Much of the stuff in the book is her fault, but she doesn't suffer at all, which is frustrating, but maybe that's the point. 

I do like the concept of Cat Heaven, a store that sells the living and preserves the dead. It feels like a fresh concept. I even like that it leads to a sort of constant loop where the cat will always die in the same way, making it feel more tragic. Of course that makes the end twist obvious as hell when Mickey kills his mouse, but it's far from the worst twist. In the end, this book is good. When I saw another book about a dead cat, I feared this would just retread Cry of the Cat. Thankfully, this one doesn't and feels fresh in its own way. But Cry of the Cat had a cat tornado, so it wins out there. In the end, this one is a definite recommend. Not perfect, but better than some other books that the cat dragged in. Claws! gets a B+.