Our last encounter with R.L. Stine left us with one of his more ambitious works in One Day at HorrorLand. Now, just one whole book later, we enter his most bizarre. Or, is it bee-zarre? Will there be a lot of bee puns in this? Let's get buzzing with Why I'm Afraid of Bees.
WHY I'M AFRAID OF BEES
COVER STORY
This is a great cover. Definitely works in being freaky. One of the things I'll admit I've never been fond of with Tim's covers is the use of goofy expressions on kids. This one's the least goofy and given the situation, it does work well as we see Gary's plight in full. Although it's also a lie as Gary doesn't retain his head in the swap. He's full bee. But I can see why the cover would need to cheat like that. Tim nails it on the bee body design, giving it that very alien look. But what I love most about this cover is how the color of the sky is such a bright orange, as well the use of the trees with that glow radiating from them. It feels very warm. And given the book is set in the summer, I like that. Interesting tidbit, the front tagline is written in black instead of the normal white. This was rectified in the collector's tin reprint of the book. So, if that somehow "bugged" you, then there's that.
RIGHT BRAIN. WRONG BODY.
Gary Lutz needs a vacation... from himself. Bullies are constantly beating him up. His only friend is his computer. Even his little sister doesn't like him.
But now Gary's dream is about to come true. He's going to exchange bodies with another kid for a whole week.
Gary can't wait to get a new body. Until something horrible happens. And Gary finds out his new body isn't exactly human....
STORY
If you were worried this book wouldn't contain bees, you're in luck, as the very first sentence of this book tells us that there will be a lot of bees. Our protagonist is a boy named Gary Lutz. The better name for him though is "Klutz" as he just seems to have all the bad luck in the world. He's also afraid of bees, as the title suggests. We're never told as to why, so the title misleads, but safest bet would be that his neighbor, Mr. Andretti, is a beekeeper who enjoys picking on Gary whenever the opportunity strikes. Gary has a rough life in general. His younger sister Krissy doesn't like him, her cat constantly claws him, he has no friends as his klutz nature makes him a laughing stock, even his mother mocks him for being unable to open a peanut butter jar. I just imagine the instrumental of "Christmastime is here" playing constantly over Gary's head.
Gary usually just spends his free time on his computer playing a video game called Planet Monstro. When he gets stuck, he decides to check online boards for help. First mention of the internet in a Goosebumps book, hooray? However, he soon sees an ad for "Person-to-Person Vacations", a service that claims to allow you to swap lives with another person for a period of time. Gary decides to check it out. He meets the woman in charge named Ms. Karmen, who elaborates further. Person-to-Person allows you to literally switch your body with another person for a week. Gary is skeptical, but decides to fill the form and wait for whenever a slot opens. But after being beaten up not long after leaving the building, that's enough to change his mind. He needs to swap now.
A few days pass and Gary gets a call from Ms. Karmen telling him of a boy named Dirk Davis who accepted the switch. Dirk is a more toned, tanned blonde kid, the complete opposite of scrawny Gary, who wants the swap so that Gary can help improve his grades. Gary accepts to take Dirk's body and soon Ms. Karmen sets everything up. Gary is set in the machine to do the switch when suddenly a bee comes into his room. Ms. Karmen flips the switch and Gary fades into blackness. He awakens and things seem off. He finds a reflection, but sees a monster staring back at him. He's quick to see the face staring back at him is a bee head. It doesn't take long for him to realize what's happened. He's not in his body. He's not in Dirk's body. He's in a bee's body. As in a complete bee's body without a human head, so just keep that in mind for later.
Doesn't take long for Gary to learn how to use his new body, which he uses to try to get a hold of Ms. Karmen before she leaves, but he's unlucky, almost being run over in the process. Gary heads back to his home, but sees his body interacting with his mother. It must be Dirk. We get a few incidents where Gary faces near death. He gets swatted by his father, then attacked by their cat. He thinks to sting the cat, but he remembers that if a bee stings someone, the bee dies as well. Gary escapes the cat, but then gets caught in the net of Mr. Andretti, who places Gary in one of his hives.
And this is the segment of the book where we go from weird horror story to R.L. Stine playing "Mr. Educator" as we see how the beehive works, from making honey to scout bees. All while Gary doesn't do a very good job at being a convincing bee. But regardless, he manages to survive despite being a bee bother. Eventually he manages to escape and makes it back home where he's almost swatted by his sister. He sees Dirk entering his room, so Gary has the idea to type a message on the computer. But that doesn't pan out too well. He then sees Dirk leave and then start to skateboard in Gary's body, turning out to be a pro at it. Gary tries some more to get Dirk's attention, and then a giant dragonfly eats him. The end.
Of course that's not what happened as Gary only imagined that happened as he's getting weak. He decides to head to Person-to-Person to find Ms. Karmen and hope she can fix this. He manages to get in and uses a microphone to communicate with her. And that's why I said to hold that earlier bit for later. This book has a bunch of plot holes and the most damning is that Gary's body is a bee's body. All that should have swapped was his brain, not human vocal chords. But this is a book for children, so I can't fully be angry about this. It does manage to work and he gets Ms. Karmen's attention. He tells her to fix this, but she tells him there's kind of a snag. Dirk doesn't want to go back to his old body. And while not stated, I'm guessing that she's also saving her own behind because if news leaked about a boy being trapped in a bee body by mistake, the legal ramifications would be a nightmare. And then she just leaves and locks Gary in her office. Okay.
Gary manages to escape and soon finds the address of Dirk Davis. He sees what's become of Dirk's body. The bee brain is definitely in there, and it is not having a good time, simply unable to do what it used to. Gary leaves as the fates continue to take a dump on him. He sees Dirk again, only now he's beating up the bullies who always picked on Gary. Gary tries to communicate with Dirk again, only now Dirk can hear him. Something to do with the swap somehow allowing him to hear bugs talking, like I said this book turns itself inside out with the ass-pulls. Gary pleads with Dirk to give him back his body, but again Dirk turns down the offer. Gary leaves, now realizing that in this body he's only got a month or so of life. He heads to a flower, only to get caught again by some other bees. This gives him an idea. He flies back into his room with the other bees following. Dirk is eating crackers and honey at the time, so this is conveniently a good chance for the swarm to attack him. Gary then stings Dirk, only to realize that means he's death. Gary finds himself falling back into a black void once more.
TWIST ENDING
Gary wakes up, back in his own body again. He's not dead. He figures that somehow the sting was enough to snap everything back into place. Gary back in his body, Dirk back in his body, and the bee most definitely dead but dead in his body. Some time passes and Gary is actually friends with everyone now and no longer a loser. He even becomes friends with Dirk who apologizes for the whole "usurping your body and leaving you for dead as a bee" thing. Yes, Gary ends up winning in the end. Though he does still have a thing for licking pollen out of flowers.
CONCLUSION
Why I'm Afraid of Bees is one of, if not the weirdest book in Goosebumps. And that's saying something given a lot of the books I've covered. It's The Fly. It's not hard to see where Stine lifted this idea from. He's rarely subtle about where his inspirations come from and this is no exception. Gary is an interesting protagonist. One of the biggest losers ever, but oddly endearing regardless. A victim of circumstance, a kid who just can't get it together. A kid who feels like the fates just hate with how much he goes through in the book. In a way it makes him one of the better protagonists to follow. Dirk also works as a decent enough antagonist. Though the book really never mentions why Dirk chose to keep Gary's body, but the most likely situation is an escape from an abusive family. The ability to be in a better family and have a better life, even if it requires improving Gary's life in the process.
Person-to-Person is an interesting idea. A business that specializes in body swapping. It's been brought up before, but while the book really doesn't bring it up, there is a positive to this concept in that it would be a benefit for trans people, especially trans kids as even Ms. Karmen says that kids are usually the ones who are most interested in swapping lives. In many ways, that's actually a benefit.
As for the story itself, it's actually not bad. We get just enough chapters to set up how lame Gary is, enough chapters setting up the swap and when we get to Bee Gary, we get a rather fun adventure. The book has plot holes that feel like plot craters, like the aforementioned bee vocal chords, Dirk having bug communication powers and the magic sting that reverts everything. But if you can allow yourself the ability to ignore that, you get a kind of fun story that Stine at least felt invested in. The twist is mediocre, but the concept works enough to be considered a scary scenario. Yeah, this one has overtime become one of my favorites. A book that feels so bizarre, but once you give it a chance, you'll see that it's actually quite buzz-worthy.
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