The Stinal Countdown: The Nightmare Room #02: Locker 13

Hope you're feeling lucky. Because we have another R.L. Stine story involving luck and the number 13. And that can be a gamble in itself. And it's our second book in the Nightmare Room series, so I still haven't read enough of them to judge the quality. I'm at least intrigued to open this book and see what we have in store. It's Locker 13.

COVER STORY

I like this cover, but I don't think I love this cover. Not entirely sure why that is though as what we get still works well enough. We have a creepy looking locker with the number 13 and some flying notebooks and pencils to make it clear it's in a school setting. I think it's the skull that oversells it for me. It's a cool skull, but also a bit too exaggerated to really feel scary. Which, coming from the person scared of skeleton picnic, is saying something. Still solid regardless.

STORY

Luke Greene believes in luck. So much so that he starts his first day at Shawnee Junior High with his lucky green shirt and a lucky rabbit's foot keychain. As in an actual rabbit's foot because this is R.L. Stine. He's super positive about how this year will go, especially when he checks out the computer lab, the gym and hopes to make the swim team. Seriously, what is it with R.L. Stine and the swim team? It's weirdly a part of more books than I would have ever thought. He talks with his friends Hannah Marcum and Daniel Cross before learning that his locker is [[Title of the book]]. This bothers Luke who feels that his luck has already run out before the school year's even properly started.

We cut to two months later. Despite Luke's concerns, things have been okay. He even made the basketball team. During practice, he mentions one of the players named Shawn, but everyone calls him Stretch on account of him being super tall and lanky. Luke thinks his nickname should be ostrich, and as bad as that one is, it's still better than Hat. Luke tries to make some baskets, but misses constantly with Stretch mocking him. However, Luke lucks out on the fourth attempt. In his excitement however, he throws the ball over to Stretch who was tying his shoes at the moment, causing Stretch to get not only beaned in the head, but knocking out a contact lens which Luke accidentally steps on. Well, at least he had two decent months.

Stretch, nose bloodied and now with one contact, is ready to legitimately dunk Luke through the hoop, but the coach tells them to take it outside, as in the two should practice outside. Of course, Stretch decides to beat down on Luke and says he'll pay for the contacts before throwing the basketball at Luke so hard, the kid thinks he died. Hannah shows up and, being she's center for the girls basketball team, manages to best Stretch in a contest, getting rid of him for now. In fact, Hannah is just always lucky. Be it finding five dollars on the ground or winning five hundred dollars for photos she sent of her dog. She must be related to Gladstone Gander.

After his near-death experience, Luke heads to his locker, Locker 13. It seems to have a history in this school, as while all the other lockers are nice and clean and repainted, Locker 13 is old and worn out, like nobody wants to go near it. Luke writes the word "Lucky" next to the number 13 and is about to open it, but hears a strange breathing sound coming from inside. He opens it up and somehow there's a black cat in there that runs off. How a cat got in school, let alone in a locker is worth asking questions about, but we're way too early into this book for actual concerns like that. But Luke tries to keep it positive for the time being. 

A few weeks later, Hannah is still bragging about her luck, while Luke goes to the computer lab to install modems and talk with the teacher, Mrs. Coffey, about his computer animation work and how it could really be something big when it's fully finished, excited to show her some time later. He then heads to the swim team and Stretch is in the team too because of course he is. Luke places seventh in the race and is upset about it. When he's in the locker room however, he sees a broken mirror and soon sees not just his reflection, but a strange, demonic reflection with glowing red eyes. He screams, but everyone else is confused as they don't see anything in the mirror but Luke's mug.

That night, Luke gets a call from Hannah who won a freaking SUV at the mall. Like, okay Stine, we get it by now. She's got luck powers. The next day will be Friday the 13th, which Hannah thinks will bother Luke given his inane superstitions, but Luke says he'll still be at school, but he'll still have his lucky clover and chopped off foot of a rabbit, so don't worry. That night he gets a nightmare about the locker, which he can hear a weak voice calling for help inside. When he opens it, he finds himself huddled on the floor. Which, okay. Creepy enough. Then his doppleganger's eyes begin to glow red and hair starts to pour out of his nose which wraps up all over Luke. Thankfully he wakes up before this somehow gets worse.

The next day, Luke decides not to open the locker, just in case... THAT happens. At lunch he talks with Hannah, who upon opening her lunch bag finds her banana has rotted and her apple is filled with worms. Eventually Luke opens his locker, but doesn't find any weird nose hair kid with hyper-realistic eyes. But a weird tiny yellow skull with glowing red eyes. Thankfully it's not covered in rhinestones, so we're not dealing with a cult... I hope. But it seems to turn Luke's luck around as he's far better at basketball practice, even managing to avoid punishment from Stretch. Later, he finds a lost kitten and saves it, much to the owner's relief. However, when Luke calls Hannah that night, he learns that she injured her ankle and is in a bad way. She tries to tell him something, but doesn't get the chance to. I mean we're only on page 59.

The next day, after some more good luck, Luke checks out Hannah's basketball game and sees she's doing horribly. Afterwards, they talk, to which Hannah asks if Luke found her skull, which I guess was the source of her good luck. Luke at first thinks to give it back to her, but then decides not to, given that it would mean he's back to having horrible luck. He thinks that maybe he'll give it back after he starts to succeed at everything else. So, while Hannah keeps flopping, Luke keeps winning. Mrs. Coffey offers him a job at a computer shop, while also giving him a chance to win some money for his computer animation project. His family even won twelve free dinners. His mom suggests calling him Lucky Luke, there's certainly no comic or cartoon, possibly of Belgian origin with that copyrighted name, right?

That night, Luke gets another nightmare of sorts as he sees a larger version of the skull with glowing eyes. His parents check on him, but when he mentions that the skull is evil, they don't believe him because... you know, maybe the concern should be about where he got the tiny skull before straight up questioning his sanity. Oh, and because Nightmare Room parents. The next day, atop the high Miller Hill, or Killer Hill as the kids call it. And yes, this hill also exists in Fear Street so Lazy Bob is Lazy. Luke decides to roller race down the hill against Stretch, and being a fair sport (and an idiot), Luke will even do it blindfolded. Hannah shows up, now even more bandaged and beaten up, which makes Luke more guilty. But not guilty enough to not successfully go down blindfolded and survive, winning him the race. 

At an overnight camp out, more luck for Luke as he manages to get rid of a pair of poisonous snakes without ever being bitten. Everyone's impressed, except for Hannah. Luke feels bad... no, wait. FELT bad. But now that he's so lucky and so successful, he doesn't really care. Our protagonist... yay? Well at least we don't have to feel bad when his hubris comes crashing down. Luke then competes with his basketball team the Squires against Deaver Mill's team the... sigh... Lions. Stine, I'm begging you. There are other team names. However, he starts to do quite poorly, which is odd for him. He soon learns just why as the skull is gone. As he frantically searches for it, he ends up smashing his head into the head of a Deaver Mill player and gets knocked out.

Despite, you know, a possible concussion, Luke rushes out of the gym and to his locker where he finds the skull. Only now the skull's eyes are no longer glowing. But soon the skull's eyes glow an intense fiery glow. Suddenly the black cat shows back up and then turns into a strange hooded figure who tells Luke that the luck has run out. Luke pulls the hood down to reveal a skull with glowing eyes and maggots all over it. As that happens, Hannah shows up and confesses to Luke that this was the plan all along. Hannah had once had the skull and it was the source of her good luck, but that luck soon ran out. The hooded figure then emerged and told Hannah to pass the luck over to Luke. To make Luke his next victim.

The hooded figure introduces himself as the Fate Master, who is essentially a reality bender? He controls all fates and can weave them however he sees fit. That includes both the good and bad luck that Luke and Hannah have had. He tells the two that sooner or later the luck would run out for both of them, so now they both have to pay. Luke doesn't wish to have that luck go away, but then the Fate Master has Luke bleed from his ears which, holy crap Stine. Luke gives in and the Fate Master tells them that they must pass the skull over to someone else. To continue the curse. And the person he's chosen is Stretch. Luke's not for that, but Hannah is like "Dude, Stretch sucks, so why not?" which, good point really. 

Luke wakes back up on the gym floor and believes it was all just a weird dream. But as he heads home, his tire gets two flats, there's a gigantic storm brewing, and when he tries to get in his house, he learns the doors were locked because his parents went to the hospital because his dad fell down the stairs. This is finally enough for Luke to realize "Oh crap. It wasn't a dream. Oh crap. I have pissed off literal fate. Oh crap. I definitely have to pass this skull to Stretch now."  He does so the next day, but immediately feels bad for it because suddenly Stretch has been much nicer to him, actually impressed by his improvement at basketball. So now realizing he just roped Stretch into this mess makes him pretty awful. But then again, he was ultimately fine with screwing Hannah over before the whole Fate Master reveal, so he can GFH. 

As bad luck piles on, Luke finds Hannah in a freaking wheelchair. Realizing that the Fate Master never fixed their problems, the two confront him, to which the Fate Master pretty much admits it. He never promised to remove their bad luck, only to keep this whole thing going. I mean, Hannah's in a wheelchair at this point and at this rate she'll have her foot amputated in days so what did you really expect? As the Fate Master leaves, Luke reveals that he took the skull back before Stretch left, so he still has it on him. But he also has one last plan. To win the upcoming basketball game without any luck, with actual skill. He practices the entire night before, hoping it'll make him good enough at the game itself. This would be the perfect time for a montage song. A royalty-free Eye of the Tiger style song to really hype up this grand conclusion. But given his concussion, he doesn't get to actually play. So that was all for nothing.

So, things escalate some more to the point that honestly, Stine should have cut about 20 or so pages from this book as we've gotten the message. More bad luck. Luke's teeth loosen, his computer animation plans go south, his dad needs surgery and there's a power outage. So we finally get to the big climax. A swim race at the pool. And despite everything from jellyfish, electric eels and boiling water, somehow Luke still wins. Managing to finally outwit the Fate master. A large explosion hits the pool, and the skull rolls out and finally dies. The kids are happy to have beaten fate, and then Luke finds a penny. Which is a twist... maybe?

CONCLUSION

In April of 2012 (holy crap, ten years ago?) R.L. Stine released The Birthday Party of No Return! for Goosebumps Hall of Horrors. And it was a bad book. Unlikable characters, rather mean spirited twist and just not the way to end a book series. So to read a book with a similar concept a decade prior that does this idea so much better really speaks to the problems that befall Goosebumps. But, even with that said, there are a lot of problems with Locker 13. Namely in that the locker itself matters far less to the story than the skull charm. You don't even need the locker at all for the plot. If it was just about the charm, then you'd lose nothing. It's the Superfluous Clay of lockers. 

Luke is frustrating. Not the worst protagonist ever, and you at least feel his plight at first. His bad luck, his superstitious nature. There's reasons to find him admirable. That gets thrown out the window not long after getting the skull. But I think that's also the point. Power corrupts, especially when you feel like you're literally bulletproof like Luke does. So his sudden change of heart isn't so much surprising as it is annoying. But he does bounce back by the end and does do the right thing by not passing the curse on to Stretch. Hannah is also a solid side-character, and seeing her go from super lucky to on death's door works to make her more sympathetic. That even when she was ultra lucky, and maybe rubbing it too much in Luke's face, you at least feel bad for her by the end. 

I also like the idea of the Fate Master, but I don't feel he was executed all that well. Essentially an all powerful entity that controls all fate, yet can still be beaten by actual effort? Weird flex, but sure. Honestly, if it were more the Devil, it would have worked more, just saying. The scares are interesting. Some work like some of the gross scenes and some of the surprisingly violent moments. Though by the time we get to the last few chapters it just becomes a frigging cartoon. And that's mostly due to how padded this book is. Stine must have had to put in a 140+ page quota for the book, but lost so much steam by the time we introduce the Fate Master, that everything that follows feels rushed, especially the conclusion. And that's what keeps this from being a book I really liked. But it wouldn't be Stine if he doesn't hit a wall by the end, huh?

So, ultimately, Locker 13 is a book with a lot of good moments and decent horror, but overstays its welcome and goes from interesting horror to full on silly. If better edited and put together, and maybe with an actual twist ending, you could have gotten one of Stine's better works. But it's still just fine enough for a super light recommend. Once again, Lady Luck didn't come Stine's way. Them's the breaks. Locker 13 gets a B-.