Horrific Hindsight: Goosebumps #21-30

1995. The year of Goosebumps. I say that because it's the year the franchise really begins. Beyond just more books in the original run, Stine would dabble with spinoffs. The book sales and general interest become hard to ignore and in the works is a live action television series due to air at the end of 1995. And we're still in that era that I feel is best remembered when it comes to nostalgia for the book series. But does all of that matter in hindsight? Were the 20s-30s another solid era or the beginning of the downfall? Let's see with our third Horrific Hindsight.

I'll start with the male to female protagonist ratio. I neglected this with the last two as both were a near-even split. Five a piece in the original ten (Male: Evan, Greg, Gabe, Max and Billy, Female: Amanda, Margaret, Kris, Lucy and Hanna), six male (Jerry, Grady, Eddie, Gary, Evan (again) and Billy) to four female (Carly Beth, Sam, Lizzy and Jodie)  with the tens to twenties. This is the widest berth yet with only three books featuring female protagonists (Brooke, Sue and Kat) and seven books starring males (Todd, Jerry, Gabe (again), Skipper, Larry, Michael and Evan (AGAIN!)). Which I find funny knowing that Goosebumps was intended to be a series that was catered to young girls. With that in mind, Stine definitely skewed male for the majority of the series, and that trend will continue as we go along.

I'd also say this is the first batch where the quality definitely feels all over the place. A few really good books, some decent books, some flawed albeit intriguing books, and a couple bad ones. Not the biggest drop in quality yet, but you can definitely see the glory days fading. We started bad with Go Eat Worms! giving us our worst protagonist yet in Todd Barstow, then hit middling with Ghost Beach and the better than the original Return of the Mummy. But that malaise faded once we got the surprisingly strong Phantom of the Auditorium, then hit that level of bland again with Attack of the Mutant and the bizarre yet interesting My Hairiest Adventure. A Night in Terror Tower and The Cuckoo Clock of Doom fared much stronger, though the latter is still to blame for inspiring one of Stine's worst character traits, the bratty younger sibling who never gets punished.

I thought I'd go into Monster Blood III and leave far angrier, but I feel time has softened the blow on that, despite still being of poor quality, especially for a sequel. And we end on a book I enjoyed in It Came From Beneath the Sink!, if only for how shockingly violent the book was. So overall, I'd still call this a more solid run of books, despite the funk starting to settle in with the books. A funk that just will grow to get far more rotten in the books to come, but for now, it's at a tolerable level.

As previously stated, Stine finds a new trope to latch to, and compared to things like the nightmares and fake out scares, it's one of the more damaging tropes of the series and that's the bratty and cruel younger sibling who never gets in trouble for their actions. Further bringing in the point that Goosebumps parents are some of the worst written characters in fiction. Be it because they play favorites, or feel cruel in a near abusive way to the older sibling, it turns any potentially good book into a slog to read through. And while Cuckoo Clock is far from the worst in doing this, it's still the one that started it all and thus was the main factor that would lead that book into losing value in my eyes. 

Protagonists are a mixed bag this time around. None that really stand out above the pack. We got some terrible ones in Todd and Skipper, we got Gabe and Evan again feeling about the same as their other outings, and the rest just feel there. Not bad kids, but just not very dynamic or interesting. We're definitely past the Billys and Carly Beths of the series. The villain side also felt just okay in places. Some with potential like the Masked Mutant felt poorly handled, Monster Blood really felt unimportant this time around, and other villains like the Sadler trio or Nila Rahmad were decent at best. It says something when the most interesting villain of the past ten books is an evil sponge creature, but I'd say the Grool wins out this time. 

Twists this time range from the unique to the absurd, a better batch than most of the previous ten. You have kids who were dogs all along, a child's existence being erased, a potato with fangs, a shrinking boy, another boy possibly being killed by a scarab beetle, ghost cousins and ghost students. They're definitely more memorable this time around and do at least feel better thought out. 

#21-30 are the rockiest road we've gone through so far. Not the worst, but definitely a lot of peaks and valleys. It's still in that classic era of the series, even as we're one book away from the halfway point of the series. 

AWARDS

Books #21-30 spanned from June 1994 to April of 1995. It existed in the same era as the birth of the WB, the premiere of Friends, ReBoot, the Magic School Bus, ER, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, the birth of the Sony PlayStation, Donkey Kong Country, Earthbound (in Japan), the theatrical releases of The Lion King, Forrest Gump, A Goofy Movie and Billy Madison. It was a fun year all around and Goosebumps still existed within it. But what worked in these ten and what flopped? Let's find out by handing out those awards.

GOLD STINE AWARDS

TWIST: My Hairiest Adventure

PROTAGONIST: Sue and Eddie (A night in Terror Tower)

COVER ART: Ghost Beach

VILLAIN: The Grool (It Came From Beneath the Sink!)

STORY: Phantom of the Auditorium

SILVER STINE AWARDS

TWIST: The Cuckoo Clock of Doom

PROTAGONIST: Kat Merton (It Came From Beneath the Sink!)

COVER ART: A Night in Terror Tower

VILLAIN: Nila Rahmad (Return of the Mummy)

STORY: A Night in Terror Tower

BRONZE STINE AWARDS

TWIST: Monster Blood III

PROTAGONIST: Michael Webster (The Cuckoo Clock of Doom)

COVER ART: Monster Blood III

VILLAIN: Emile & the Phantom (Phantom of the Auditorium)

STORY: Return of the Mummy

BOTTOM OF THE BARREL

TWIST: Go Eat Worms!

PROTAGONIST: Todd Barstow (Go Eat Worms)

COVER ART: Go Eat Worms!

VILLAIN: Kermit (Monster Blood III)

STORY: Go Eat Worms!

Books #31-40 are next. Plenty of sequels coming our way, and the true debut of Slappy, a character who just won't go away. Oh what fun we have in store.