The first Goosebumps reviews I ever read came from a blog called Blogger Beware. In his writings, blogger Troy Steele made an interesting statement regarding One Day at HorrorLand. That this was the book that ruined the series. That the beginning of the decline in quality began there. That it was the book that truly began to insult its kid audience. Well, for the second time I've covered books #11-20. Do I share those sentiments? Find out with yet another edition of Horrific Hindsight.
We're still very much in the golden age of Goosebumps. The series isn't quite at peak franchise, that's still to come. But for where we are, this is still a memorable lot. Books that if you asked someone who hasn't thought of the books for the near 30 years, they'd probably mention The Haunted Mask, The Werewolf of Fever Swamp, One Day at HorrorLand or The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight. Aside from two books (technically), the other eight books from this run were adapted into episodes when the series came to air. The Haunted Mask in itself has become regarded as a Halloween classic, often rewatched by fans old and new. The covers remain some of Tim's finest works, finding his groove in creating dynamic and imaginative imagery that would entice young readers. From the outside looking in, it's a land of milk and honey age. Hell, we had a book about a kid who becomes a bee who has to make honey. It's all coming together.
But has time been kind to these books narratively? I'd say yes to a degree. We started red hot with The Haunted Mask, one of the best books in the series that still holds up as one of Stine's best works and as a memorable Halloween tale. We stumbled with the messy and somewhat illogical Be Careful What You Wish For... before regaining some momentum with the underrated Piano Lessons Can Be Murder and the solid The Werewolf of Fever Swamp. And then the ride started to get bumpy. You Can't Scare Me! offered a gaggle of unlikable kid characters, with even the sympathetic character not given enough to latch on to. And then we enter HorrorLand; a book that would inspire Stine to build on the idea, only for it to really not land as well as he'd hoped. And I like One Day at HorrorLand. Whether that speaks to my intelligence being insulted is up for debate, but I feel as a ride themed book, it's okay enough, though really lacks that oomph you'd hope for such a tentpole book.
And we enter the final four. It started okay with Why I'm Afraid of Bees; a bizarre book that feels so different to anything the series has to offer, even now. And then, Stine discovered that all he has to do with these books is write a weaker version of a book he already wrote and kids will buy it. I don't believe the dip is with HorrorLand, it's easily with Monster Blood II. A book that delivers on the cardinal sins of a sequel, namely in not making the events of the original matter. It's fitting this book came out in April of 1994. Know what came out a month later? Return of Jafar, the first direct-to-video Disney sequel. I can't think of a better analogy for Goosebumps sequels than to call them the Disney Cheapquels of the literary world.
Deep Trouble was ultimately a better book than my previous experience made it out to be. Not amazing, but still worked. And The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight is messy, but doesn't feel like the worst way to end this era. So, I'd say my opinions changed a bit in some books, but not in others. I don't think any really fared worse in the end, but the ones I wasn't a fan of for the most part stayed that way.
Stine has found the tropes he loves and he uses them way too much already. The nightmare sequences. Almost every book has at least one. In the case of Monster Blood II there were three, two in the first two chapters. The only one I feel worked at all was with Scarecrow when Jodie dreams that her grandfather is now a scarecrow trying to strangle her. Others feel like padding, meant to fill out those 120+ pages. Fake out scares are everywhere and they're mostly pretty bad. Annoying siblings are present, but not as bad as they're going to get. Goosebumps parents aren't super bad either. I dread when we get to THAT book in the next batch. I wonder if I'll feel the same I did before.
Protagonists this time ran the gamut from great to mediocre to Evan. Carly Beth, Billy Deep, Gary Lutz, Grady Tucker, Lizzy Morris and Jodie are the strongest, while we get some clunkers in Eddie, Sam Byrd and Evan Ross. So majority of kids I don't have an issue reading about. Enemies this time range from great in The Unloved, frightening in a too human way in Mr. Toggle, and fun enemies with little real character in the horrors. And then we get a lot of villains that feel like villains for no real reason like Mr. Murphy and Conan, Dirk Davis, Stanley, or Alexander DuBrow and his crew. Some memorable, but most just feeling just there.
Twists this time around felt really lacking. Best probably going to Be Careful What You Wish For. Others just end with a "one more thing" effect like the horror on the back of the bus, or Gary eating pollen, or Stanley STILL HAVING THE SPELL BOOK. I mean, Stine was never going to top Camp Nightmare, but it also felt like he never really tried that hard.
In the end, books #11-20 are just okay at best. Some classics, a few mediocre books and only one I'd flat out avoid. Still a sense that Stine's getting his mojo with Goosebumps, though given some of the stuff we're about to get, that's not exactly a compliment.
AWARDS
Books #11-20 spanned September of 1993 to May of 1994. They premiered in the same time as the likes of Animaniacs, Rocko's Modern Life, the announcement of The WB, the birth of TCM, Power Rangers, that time Madonna cussed like a sailor on Letterman, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Johnny Carson's final TV appearance. What of these books worked and what flopped? Let's hand them Stine Awards.
GOLD STINE AWARDS
Books #21-30 are next in line. Cuckoo clocks, comic book villains, phantoms, Sadlers, hair and for the love of god, more monster blood. We're in for quite the batch. Until then.
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