Horrific Hindsight: The Original Goosebumps Books

One of the main reasons behind this entire blog was an interest in rereading the original 62 Goosebumps books. I had covered them once prior, but I was curious about how a couple years since the initial reads would change my opinion on them. And thus birthed Raiders of the Bookmark. And as time has passed by the blog has since started to fulfill its mission goals of covering more than just Goosebumps and more than just R.L. Stine. Goosebumps will always have a home here, but as the amount of books dwindle, there's less to cover. And with the original 62 finished, never has that been more evident. After almost 14 months, the original series was covered from cover to cover. How have my feelings changed? What books improved? what books weakened? And how did this change my feel for the originals? Let's see as we finish this horrific hindsight.

I'll start with the books that ultimately changed for the positive before going full negative. Several books got a better look this time around. The most notable cases being Deep Trouble, which I appreciated more for its concept, The Blob That Ate Everyone which I felt I was fairer to this time around, and, surprisingly, Monster Blood III which I felt was the least offensive of the Monster Blood sequels. As for the books I already liked, a few slid higher while others slid lower. Best case example being The Headless Ghost which I praised higher before but felt a more mediocre tale the second time around.

The books I didn't like remained mostly the same. The obvious offenders. Monster Blood II, Monster Blood IV, Say Cheese and Die–Again!, Chicken Chicken. My opinions on them didn't change much at all, though with Say Cheese, I came out more annoyed by how poorly thought out the book was for its subject matter, feeling like a topic Stine had no right to cover. Same with the just horrific in the wrong way implications that came out of Egg Monsters From Mars and its twist. Those forties were not a good time for the most part.

Reading the books again wasn't too hard. Just as quick a read as most. I feel as time has gone on with this book series, my reading speed has improved greatly, making this whole thing much easier. But I managed to fix errors and mistakes I made from the first reviews far easier this time around and felt I was more concise than the previous take. Though, admittedly, a lot felt like just retreading the old blogs on account of not much new to really report. These books are super dense after all, especially in the middle area. And that's how I think I look at the 62 books overall. Dense. But not in a bad way. That simplicity works for children. You know, the target audience. Not some schmuck online covering them for their own amusement.

Let's get to protagonists. Best and worst overall. There aren't as many protagonists I look at that are in the upper echelon. But there are some good eggs. The top two are no surprise. Billy from Welcome to Camp Nightmare and Carly Beth Caldwell from The Haunted Mask. The two characters with the most dimension and character. Billy's character is the straight arrow good kid. No bratty behavior. A loyalty to his friends and fellow campers. One willing to do whatever it takes to save them too, even shooting Uncle Al with a tranquilizer dart. Carly Beth is a character who starts afraid of everything, but after her encounter with the Haunted Mask, she becomes more brave, having learned to find her assertiveness and seeing just what it could be to be the monster made manifest. Both characters are worthy of the best, but my ultimate choice goes to Carly Beth who just edges out Billy for the best arc by a hair.

Worst protagonist is tricky as so many blur into one homunculus of bratty, annoying kids. Evan could take that spot, but as I reread these, Evan is the least of the problems. If this was worst character overall, I'd give that to Andy. But for worst protagonist, I'd go with Eddie from You Can't Scare Me! A boy who is obsessed with scaring Courtney so much that he at one point dreams of siccing a dog on her. A need to break her perfection, his preconceived belief of her being "too perfect". His "Mary Sue" complex that makes him rough to get behind. 

Twists in Goosebumps are what everyone remembers. It's become the staple of the series. Stine channeling his inner Serling by trying to land a big end stinger. And some are amazing, with I Live in Your Basement's weird yet clever shift of perspective and Welcome to Camp Nightmare's it was Earth all along twist being my two favorites. But, when I look through them again, so many of them are really mediocre. Some just feel like a "here we go again" twist that makes everything we went through feel trivial in hindsight. Some work, Slappy being alive the whole time for example, but both Say Cheese and Die's twists being seeing what fate befell who the camera took a picture of at the end being an example of a lamer end. And I won't get back into the egg twists and those implications.

Monsters and villains in Goosebumps are great, but imperfect. So many classic ideas, mostly thanks to the amazing Tim Jacobus covers, but only few feel like they get to do much with their concepts. Slappy and Mr. Wood work. Dr. Brewer's clone works. The Dark Falls residents work as well. There are a lot of really good ones that work. But then there's disappointments like The Masked Mutant, The Abominable Snowman or the Monster Blood. And some, like Will Blake, who don't get enough time to feel as effective as they could be. And I've stated before, the best villain in the story, the one who feels the most horrific is Mr. Toggle from Piano Lessons Can Be Murder. A literal serial killer who crafts instruments with the hands of his victims. The closest thing to Ed Gein in a book crafted for ten year olds. Now that's scary.

But, that being said. I still enjoyed my time rereading these. Not all 62, but the majority were still overly positive, trying to find strengths in the work. Maybe that's just my softer side over time. I'm never going to call R.L. Stine the greatest creative genius of our time, but sometimes he's not so bad. You can tell the books he really enjoyed writing and the ones that felt like the pump out for the month. And when he was good, I praise that strength. When his work was god awful, I also don't really rip him, but look at why he failed in his effort. He's only human... I think.

The original 62 Goosebumps books are classic. The staple of what made Goosebumps a household name. Not amazing. Not the deepest in kids horror. But what made them work is being a stepping stone in the imagination of children. Helping them see the fun in being scared and the power that imagination can bring. It got kids reading. Especially in a time where nothing like it had that hype machine to get kids reading. And if that's the lasting legacy for R.L. Stine, then when comes time for the man to bring his weird scary world into the next dimension, his legacy will be an ultimately positive one. And this is coming from someone who was scared of the cover with the skeleton family. But even without reading them, I was always fascinated by them. Maybe they didn't live up to the wild imagination I had for them, but, at least for the most part, they weren't too bad.

And thus ends the Horrific Hindsight of the original 62... or so I thought. Because there's still one more look at the original series left. How well did these books get translated to the small screen? Let's see for ourselves.