As I write this, we're in the middle of July, which means we're for a hot couple months. And given the record setting numbers, a really hot time. So let us cool ourselves down with another Goosebumps reread. And for one I wasn't super crazy over the first time. Let's see if it redeems itself with Beware, the Snowman.
BEWARE, THE SNOWMAN
RELEASE MONTH: January, 1997
FRONT TAGLINE: He's got a heart of cold.
COVER STORY
This is a very simple cover, but still top notch. I like the attempt at making the snowman look scary with its scar face, scowl and very threatening pose. But, it's still a snowman, so this was not a cover that scared me. But I still like elements. Particularly the dark skies, the trees in the background and the real feel of it being a cold day out. So it leaves us with a mediocre cover, but not the worst.
NO MELTING ALLOWED!
Jaclyn used to lived (yes, it's actually written like that in the original release.) with her aunt Greta in Chicago. But not anymore. They've moved to a place called Sherpia. It's a tiny village on the edge of the Arctic Circle.
Jaclyn can't believe she's stuck out in Nowheresville. No movie theaters. No malls. No nothing. Plus, there's something really odd about the village.
At night there are strange howling noises. And in front of every house there's a snowman. A creepy snowman with a red scarf. A deep scar on his face. and a really evil smile...
STORY
Jaclyn DeForest has moved from Chicago to the arctic village of Sherpia with her Aunt Greta. So, definitely one of the more extreme fish out of water stories in a while. She has very little memories of her mother and father, only really remembering a poem her mother told her all the time before she died. Well, the first verse at least.
When the snows blow wild
And the day grows old
Beware, the snowman, my child.
Beware, the snowman
He brings the cold.
As Jaclyn and Greta begin to bring in their stuff, Jaclyn notices something odd. A snowman on the yard with a scar on the side of its face. She thinks she sees it moving, but just believes it's her imagination. As Greta works on the house, Jaclyn looks around her new home and meets Rolonda and Eli, two kids from the village. Jaclyn asks about the snowman, but they both act confused. Jaclyn is also interested in the large mountain by the village, but the kids warn her that nobody is allowed to scale the mountain. Eli and Rolonda panic, trying to find a worthwhile excuse. Maybe the lift's broken, or it's too cold, or it's a tradition, or, you know, the monster of the book might be up there.
After parting ways, Jaclyn sees another snowman with the same red scarf, scowl and scarred face. And despite the warnings from Eli and Rolonda, she still wants to scale the mountain. As she heads up, she starts to get cold, so she tries to enter a nearby shack to get warm. This proves a bad idea as she gets attacked by a wolf. The owner of the wolf, a large man named Conrad, calms the wolf down, who we learn is named Wolfsbane. Conrad asks what Jaclyn is doing, and when she says she intends to scale the mountain, he warns her of a snowman in an ice cave above the mountain. He may be guarding a giant ice key that you can't get, at least initially, because the Stop and Swop function turned out to- oh wait.
Regardless of yet another warning, Jaclyn heads up again, only to be chased back to the road by Wolfsbane. She again asks Eli and Rolonda about everything, but they once again refuse to elaborate. Same issue with Aunt Greta who chalks things up to village superstition. But when Jaclyn mentions the rhyme, Greta also seems to be hiding something. Jaclyn sneaks out in the middle of the night and notices that there are now even more snowmen that look identical. As she makes it back home, she starts to wonder if this is connected to the rhyme. If these are the snowmen to beware. And as it seems that Aunt Greta is especially acting strange, she isn't going to get her answers to the rhyme any time soon.
But some answers do come from Rolonda, who brings up the story of how Sherpia was home to a pair of sorcerers. Predating Frozen by about a couple decades, they built a snowman, then gave it sentience. Turned out that was a bad idea as the snowman turned into a real menace to snowciety. Eventually, it ended up atop the mountain in an ice cave. The man, Conrad, is up there watching for it, but no one knows why. Is it for a good or evil reason? The villagers also decided that to appease the snowman and keep it from returning, they sculpt the same snowman design on their yards.
Jaclyn reacts to this news by laughing and thinking it must be some sort of joke. A rib on the new kid. Which, sure that's less obnoxious in other situations, and you could argue there hasn't been enough things happening for Jaclyn to fully buy it, but when it's literally crapping on a cultural tradition, it makes Jaclyn look pretty bad here. I've also never gotten that motivation for a character who is already suspicious as it is to suddenly react like it's all a joke on them. Sometimes it's fine, but here it really bugs me. Regardless, that's where we are right now, Jaclyn thinking all of this must be some big joke.
After crapping on that story, it's time for Jaclyn to crap on Eli's. Turns out Eli and his friends did go to the ice cave and angered the snowman. Now he fears that the snowman will head to the village and cause trouble. Jaclyn again thinks this is all a joke. She returns home and sees no sign of Aunt Greta. When Greta does arrive, she tells Jaclyn to not go up to the mountains. But, of course, Jaclyn heads up to the mountains because she's even more curious about just what is going on.
Jaclyn manages to get Eli and Rolonda to distract Conrad and Wolfsbane long enough for Jaclyn to make the climb to the top. And when she arrives, sure enough there's a giant living snowman in the ice cave. She almost slips off the icy cliff, but saves herself in time. She tells the snowman about herself and the snowman drops a bombshell. He's actually her father who's been stuck in a snowman form for years thanks to her mom and aunt. That Greta came here to put the spell back on him. Gullible enough to fall for this, Jaclyn leaves and finds Aunt Greta is on the mountain with a spell book. Greta tries to tell her that the snowman is actually a monster, but Jaclyn doesn't believe her because Goosebumps Kids. Hey, they can be just as bad. Jaclyn then reads aloud the remainder of the rhyme.
When the snows melt
And the warm sun is with thee
Beware the snowman -
For the snowman shall go free!
And, sure enough, the snow melts off the snowman, revealing a red demon underneath. The demon grabs Jaclyn and Greta and is about to throw them off the mountain, when suddenly all the snowmen in the village arrive and attack the monster, freezing it solid.
TWIST ENDING
Suddenly Conrad emerges, telling Jaclyn that he was the one who brought the snowmen to the cave. Turns out he's not just one of the sorcerers, but also Jaclyn's real father. The two embrace as Rolonda and Eli also show up. Everyone has a happy ending, but the snowmen ask if they can all go back to the village now. It's cold up in the mountains.
CONCLUSION
I was mixed on Beware, the Snowman before, and I still am, but I do think it's not as bad as it seems. It doesn't do much with its plot that a lot of these books do, keeping everyone secretive until the monster reveal by the book's end. Hell, Stine still does that in the modern era. But I think the mystery is built up well. Though it feels too obvious that the snowman is lying about being Jaclyn's father. But Jaclyn is written to be gullible enough to fall for that. Yet not willing to believe about the village traditions, which again, I've never understood the motivation for that if these characters are usually trying to get answers to the mystery. Jaclyn is a mixed bag of a character. Decent in some places, kind of unlikable in others. Though I can at least forgive her screwing up in the end being desperation to know who her parents were.
Scares are minor in this one up until the monster reveal, but I think there's enough that works in its favor. The snowmen, the secrets, the perils of scaling the mountain. Enough to at least be satisfactory. And it flows well enough too, never spinning on its wheels for too long. And the twist is fine, but feels lacking. While I praise it however, it still feels like something's missing to make this a more memorable book. Something more epic than what we got. It's a shame, but that's just the case when the series is already 50 books deep. So, it's still a recommend. It's nothing amazing, but you won't be left with a cold reception either.
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