It's time for yet another deeper dive into a Goosebumps classic. And it's the book I've called perhaps the most overlooked gem in the series. Yes, the one with the weird looking hands and the warped as hell piano on the cover. But while not Tim's strongest work, it's a case where we get perhaps one of Stine's scariest works when you really get down and think about it. Back on the old blog, I referred to the villain of this book as the scariest villain on a realistic level, even if his motivations and actions still come off as silly given the subject matter. But it's also a book that really could only exist before the Post-HorrorLand era. So let's get to tickling the ivories once more to talk about the hidden brilliance of Piano Lessons Can Be Murder.
#1. THE PLOT
Jerry Hawkins and his family move into a new house where Jerry discovers a piano in the attic. A piano and a ghost, actually. But his parents don't believe him on the latter. Despite the haunting issue, Jerry takes up interest in the piano and soon gets lessons from the Shreek Music School under the eccentric Dr. Shreek. Things get stranger, the warnings from the ghost get more intense, and Dr. Shreek seems to have taken an interest in Jerry's hands. An interest to a disturbing level. What is really going on here? What is going on with Dr. Shreek? Why does it seem like there's nobody else in the school and what does the mysterious custodian Mr. Toggle have to do with everything?
What's interesting about Piano Lessons Can Be Murder is how its plot works. By all accounts, it's one of Stine's more "throw it at the wall" type stories with how much gets added in the overall. Starting with the ghost, then Dr. Shreek being weird, the mystery surrounding Mr. Toggle (and one particular scene we'll talk about when we get there) and then it turns into evil robots and the even more evil man who made the evil robot. It feels a lot like a lot of things Stine thought would work and added haphazardly. Thankfully, they all work quite well and it all actually makes sense when you piece it all together. It's the rare Stine mystery where he doesn't blow everything immediately. And even when you meet Mr. Toggle you don't really clue in on what Dr. Shreek really is or how it's all connected. Stine fumbles a lot with building a story to a satisfying degree and this is a case where he actually does. A broken watch is right twice in a day.
#2. TALKIN' ABOUT HAWKINS
Jerry Hawkins is our first human protagonist to really feel like what the stock requirements for a Goosebumps protagonist will be, especially once the outline era begins shortly after this book. A somewhat annoying prankster who nobody believes because he's a prankster. Yes, Lucy Dark came first, but that's why I said "human". He also really hates the family cat, Bonkers and wants the cat to die. So, maybe there's a reason his parents send him to therapy and it's not just because he keeps seeing a ghost. He also feels like a character thrust into situations constantly beyond his control, more so than most Goosebumps protagonists. Though given he willingly chose to take piano lessons after the ghost warning, it's not like most of those situations aren't his own fault.
Despite that prankster nature and a cat hatred that seems like a case of Stine projecting, Jerry is otherwise a good kid. One you want to see overcome the odds at the end and a kid who might REALLY need that therapy after this. I mean, you deal with a melty face ghost who won't stop giving cryptic warnings only to then deal with a hand-crazed pervert-bot and his serial killer creator, I can't imagine just shaking all that off. Though he does at least come off better in the end, finding success in Baseball where everyone says he has great hands. Baseball Lessons Can Be Murder would be one hell of a sequel, if Stine knew how to make satisfying sequels.
So what you get is an okay protagonist overall. One that doesn't stand out like a Carly Beth or a Gary Lutz, but isn't as easy to forget about like a Justin Clarke or a Jaclyn DeForest. The perfect avatar character for this journey, which is what a Goosebumps protagonist should be at the end of the day, the eyes the reader sees through as they experience the adventure. Jerry is the most "I'm here too" protagonist in Goosebumps.
#3. GHOST FLUSTERS
I like how the ghost woman is implemented in the story, but I will say she might be the least effective ghost ever. She scares Jerry and tries to warn him not to go to the music school, only for Jerry to end up at the music school anyway. It does feel like she's wasting a good face melting scare for nothing if the kid's not going to follow her advice. But, like I said, she's well implemented. She needs to be the catalyst in terms of building the horror in warning Jerry about the Shreek school, because she's one of Toggle's victims. Why she doesn't say that until the end is anyone's guess, but the obvious answer is that Stine's not a good mystery writer. So you do end up just waiting for the inevitable to happen by the end of the book. But at least she doesn't feel like the red herring for once, rather a part of the story's progression.
I think the episode does it better. She's still way too vague in her warnings, but I like that she's not so much a victim of Toggle's but rather his piano teacher who always chided him for being lazy. It adds some character to the ghost and some logic. She also might be more evil in this one, which might also be the reason why she's so vague. So ultimately it becomes a battle between which version of this you like. A random victim of Toggle's or someone from Toggle's past who is ready to get revenge from beyond the grave and will only do so if Toggle decides to cross the line again.
#4. THE INCREDIBLE SHREEK-ING MAN
Dr. Shreek is interesting. From his introduction to the story, there's really not much to go by that would make you suspect what he ultimately is. By the time he's introduced and his obsession over Jerry's hands is first shown, you really think he's the main villain of the story. Well, him or the ghost. But once we meet Mr. Toggle and start to put the pieces together, the reveal that Shreek was one of Toggle's robots isn't as hard to buy as you'd think. It all fits quite well. Toggle is described as a brilliant inventor, with the exception of hands. Hands are his flaw. He can never get them right. R.L. Stine predicted AI "artists".
Shreek also feels like the most "stranger danger" villain ever as well. His obsession with Jerry's hands genuinely comes off as disturbing in a way Goosebumps rarely ever comes off as. Well, with the exception of Revenge R Us. No amount of strange pleasure Shreek's robot gets at Jerry's hands will ever top the shit in THAT book. Shreek is the perfect secondary antagonist. One that feels right at home in a Goosebumps story. The right amount of a supernatural force that the young protagonist of the story has to overcome. And Jerry does overcome Dr. Shreek. Though that's when we finally realize who the real villain of the story is...
#5. R.L. GEIN
Before I made the book blog, I did a version of A Case of the Bumps where I talked about who I think by logic is the scariest Goosebumps villain in the series. Now, it's bold to say that my pick would be scary considering the many monsters and evil objects and stuff like that. But when I looked at everything, the villain I feel was the scariest on a cerebral level was Mr. Toggle. Yes, the janitor with the creepy hand robot. That guy. But I think it's the sum of the parts of the story and everything we come to learn about Toggle that turns him into perhaps the one thing that Goosebumps books often are unable to do, and that's make a villain that could be real. The closest thing to a serial killer the books have ever seen.
Andrew Toggle was an inventor. A rather brilliant one at that. He could create technology that could play music perfectly. He could invent robots to serve as music instructors. He could do it all... except make working hands. Hands were always Toggle's sticking point. So he would find victims. Young, impressionable people who were interested in learning how to play piano. And he would cut their hands off to use for his inventions. To play pianos on their own. Lord knows what he does with the rest of the body. And that's not just speculation. We get a form of confirmation in the story which we'll talk about shortly. It gives us the first real human threat in the book series and really no other book ever comes close.
Toggle reminds me of Ed Gein, which is bonkers since I'm AGAIN talking about Goosebumps. Gein was a sadistic serial killer who would then use the parts of his victim in horrific ways. He used their flesh as coverings for his furniture, used skulls as bowls, among other depraved and carnal acts. I don't know if this was always Stine's intention to give a villain that gives off that vibe, but this was definitely the case. Granted, the episode still seems to imply all this but no body in the cabinet to be found. His motivations are also tweaked. He wants the hands to play piano music because he was lazy, with the ghost from the book now being the ghost of his piano teacher who forces Toggle to play the piano forever instead of the ghosts of his victims reclaiming their hands to drag him off into the night. Suffice is to say, while the episode version is fine, it's the book that wins in terms of giving us a real threat.
#6. NO REALLY, LET'S TALK ABOUT THAT BODY IN THE CABINET
"As I jogged across the enormous workroom, I nearly ran into a row of dark, metal cabinets, shut and padlocked. Turning away from them, I suddenly heard a voice.
"Help!" a weak cry.
I stopped by the side of the cabinet and listened hard.
And heard it again. A little voice, very faint, "Help me, please!"
"Mr. Toggle -- What's that?" I cried. He had begun fiddling with the wires on his brown leather cap. He slowly looked up. "What's what?"
"That cry," I told him, pointing to the cabinet. "I heard a voice."
He frowned, "It's just damaged equipment," he muttered, returning his attention to the wires.
"Huh? Damaged equipment?" I wasn't sure I heard him correctly.
"Yeah. Just some damaged equipment," he muttered impatiently. "You'd better hurry, Jerry. Dr. Shreek must be wondering where you are."
I heard a second cry. A voice, very weak and tiny. "Help me -- please!"
I hesitated. Mr. Toggle was staring at me impatiently. I had no choice. I turned and ran from the room, the weak cries still in my ears."
That was a scene in the book. Jerry hears a voice in the cabinet, only to be dismissed by Mr. Toggle. We never go back to this by the way. We never find out what happened to the person in the cabinet. Did Mr. Toggle do his deed to whoever's in there after Jerry left? Are they still in there after Toggle was defeated? Not sure I like leaving this question unanswered but it also works as the rare case of effective horror in Goosebumps. It's unfortunately so minor that you could skip by it, but when you read this moment you don't forget it.
It goes to what I said about Mr. Toggle being the scariest human villain. This confirms that he has been kidnapping and likely killing people, and he's still doing it while Jerry is at the school. It's such a dark moment for a kids book. I guess since we don't see Toggle's acts, it was easier to put in, but, like, Stine couldn't add a scene of Mr. Mortman eating a kid. A possible kid about to be murdered? Oh that's fine as long as it's not focused on. Early Goosebumps is such a trip.
#7. HANDS ACROSS AMERICAAAAA, YEAH
In a book already filled with robots, ghosts and murderers, the scene with the disembodied hands playing the pianos still manages to work in terms of horror. Of course, the cover presents them as just the hands themselves. As gore-free as Thing from The Addams Family. Same with the episode which has the hands in gloves. So did Toggle put gloves on all of them before making them play piano? Guy's a killer, but he has some style. But my interpretation is that they're bloody stumps fixed with whatever mechanisms Toggle put in them to make them play piano forever. The metaphorical trophy room of all of Toggle's crimes. I just wish it came across so much better in the cover. Like, I get it. You weren't getting bloody severed hands on a kids book cover, but man would it have been more effective. I've always said that I think one of the reasons why the book is so overlooked is because the cover is among the least effective ever. And it ends up being another case of "don't judge a book by its cover."
#8. FINAL THOUGHTS
Goosebumps is rife with hidden gem books. Ones I feel are either overlooked or are often given harsher criticism than they deserve. Piano Lessons Can Be Murder fits the bill perfectly when it comes to a hidden gem book. A concept that looks blander on paper than what you actually get. A book so chaotic in scope but uses all of those chaotic parts well to build the horror. It's the rare Stine horror book that actually works in its escalation and doesn't just tell you everything up front. Sure the mystery becomes more obvious as you progress, but what you get is some of the darkest implications that Goosebumps has ever had. Did you know Stine at first wanted to make this about guitar lessons? I think it wouldn't be as effective as piano lessons to tell you the truth, and that's kind of exemplified when there was a haunted guitar short story in one of the Tales books.
There's no real twist to this book's ending. Just ends on a pun, which I also think works. This book was crazy enough that it didn't need a final beat to end on. What we get is perfectly done in a solid book. Of course, that's how I look at it. It might be too much of a sensory overload to some or feel like Stine throwing too much at the wall to make a book out of, and even others might just pass given its mediocre cover. But to do so might be overlooking one of Stine's better efforts. Hell, an extremely rare case of Stine putting in effort at that. It remains one of my favorite Goosebumps books and one of the reasons I'm happy to have continued collecting and making a project out of. I just wish that in terms of effort and execution it was more the case and not the exception, but, you know. Stine gonna Stine.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.