It's time for the yet another edition of the Horrific Hindsight. 1996 was the peak of Goosebumps' popularity. The show was a massive success for Fox Kids, every piece of merchandise you could think of was being made, and the books continued through books 39-50. Goosebumps had been gaining momentum years prior, but this was the era where it was the mainstream. An unexpected mega success, even more shocking given its origins as a book series, and pre-boy wizard, that was far less of an expectation. Scholastic was making money, the Stines were making money. Everything seemed to be great. But the cracks in the foundation were beginning to show, and in 1997, the beginning of bad blood would surface. But for now, let's see how well the previous ten books fared.
Well... this was certainly a set of books, huh? Ones that unfortunately required disclaimers on two of them due to how the subject matter presented itself. My feelings on Egg Monsters From Mars remain complicated, but I still feel strongly on my beliefs regarding Say Cheese and Die - Again's awful message. Neither are books I want to come back to, but I'll at least say that Egg Monsters is still a competent book regardless of however you take the twist into consideration. Unfortunately, Egg Monsters also hit in the midst of one of the worst slogs in the book series. The first four books being either dull, bizarre or ones that put my mind into hyperdrive due to context.
Protagonists once again skewed mainly male. Seven male protagonists (Tim Swanson, Dana Johnson, Greg Banks, Harry Altman, Justin Clarke, Freddy Martinez and Ricky Beamer) and only three female (Ginger Wald, Gretchen Allen and Drew Brockman). Some protagonists in this batch weren't too bad, particularly the likes of Harry, Drew and Ricky. The others once again fall into blandness, or in the case of Greg, being written even stupider than in his first book. So, slightly better than the previous ten at least.
Quality took a nosedive for most of the forties with really only a couple books I consider passable. I mentioned the slog with Bad Hare Day being forgettable, Egg Monsters From Mars being reprehensible, The Beast From the East being incomprehensible, and Say Cheese and Die - Again! being deplorable. All seemed lost, then the light led us out of the tunnel. Ghost Camp is one of the best books in a long while, while How to Kill a Monster is clunky, but fun. And then there's R.L. Stine on autopilot not hitting the mark with Legend of the Lost Legend. Thankfully, the final three books ended us on a better note with the "slow to take off" Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns, the boilerplate Vampire Breath, and the underrated Calling All Creeps! So that would be about five books I disliked to five I found good to great. As much as I complain, that's a fair meet in the middle.
That lacking feeling I had with the previous ten books still resonates here, but definitely with more of a feeling of the slow build towards mental burnout that Stine seems to be undergoing. It would explain a lot of the mediocre works. But we at least see when he does have some faith in his work, he can still provide a solid enough Goosebumps book. But Stine's biggest sin was again his handling of weight issues in Say Cheese and Die - Again! The first book was nothing special aside from the cover, but to go from that to the sequel's heavy ignorance of the horror of the camera to just give us Stine making enough fat references that you're surprised there was no "when he sits around the house he really sits around the house" jokes, which given the whole bit with Saur is surprising. Definitely an ill-advised tome.
Twists this time are better than the last batch. Not all are great, but the ones that shine really shine. From the creep cookies, to the reveal of Shane and Shana, to the concerning but also just bizarre enough to be amazing twist of Dana laying an egg. There's finally that feel of the twists mattering again that doesn't feel there in the thirties for the most part. Though we still get duds like another open ending with a picture, human-allergic monsters, and Werewolf Sweat. Definitely a feeling of "could be worse".
The forties feel complicated. They feel like the shark's been jumped already with Goosebumps, but it's hard to pinpoint where. Now that the show is everywhere things don't feel as special as they did and it shows in much of the writing. But I at least end the forties with some optimism going into the fifties and to the contentious year of 1997.
AWARDS
March to December 1996. That's the length for the forties. We saw the NWO form, the N64 arrive, Independence Day, Twister, Scream and Space Jam hit theaters, Blues Clues, Hey Arnold, Arthur and the Power Rangers going Zeo. Not to mention more Goosebumps on TV. It was a great year. So what was great and not-so-great with the books? Let's give those awards.
GOLD STINE AWARDS
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