The books follow on the concepts that Stine was already starting with Hall of Horrors and Most Wanted and creating a sort of "host" formula to the stories to serve as an intro and wraparound. Only this time it's Slappy and this time he'd be interrupting stories with some minor commentary. And by that I mean a bunch of really, really bad jokes. The kind that were probably in one of Stine's old joke books. Mostly puns and any chance he gets to insult the reader. It works I guess if you're super young demo, but it does feel like a drag. Especially when you have to do it for NINETEEN books. It's why I barely mentioned them in the blogs because they add nothing. They are the written version of Superfluous Clay.
Thankfully the smartest decision made was to not make every book in this series about Slappy as even by the time we reached the end of this series you could tell the idea well was running dry. Out of the twenty books in this series (Slappy, Beware! just barely counting) he stars in eight of them. And just when you think he'd clearly be the final book in the series, he's not. Part of me has a theory on that. I think Slappy, Beware! was intended to be the finale. It makes the most sense narratively. Too bad there was a 30th anniversary for the brand in 2022 so that meant we needed a special edition to get on shelves before the year ended. Again, it's only a theory, but it would make some sense why we don't end on a Slappy book.
As for the series itself, it really is a whole bunch of new stories. Though "new" being the operative term as many do feel like they go down similar avenues of older stories. We get two books that feel like puberty allegories, a superhero story, the return of Monster Blood, and all the bait and switch monster covers you can ask for. Want a book vastly different than the original synopsis? Fifth-Grade Zombies has you covered. Want a book about robotics gone wild? It's Alive! It's Alive! You want an alternative to Ambien? Haunting with the Stars... actually avoid that book. It's bad and boring.
In terms of cover art, Brandon Dorman went above and beyond for this series with some of my favorite covers ever. Due to Slappy's design in the movies, his design on covers was changed up to look similar. And I think that Dorman found a way to make this version of Slappy actually creepy. Slappy in Dreamland and Slappy, Beware especially worked. It's not as nightmarish as Tim's Slappy, but still works in evoking this feeling of him feeling like a scary threat. And then you have amazing works like Fifth-Grade Zombies, Monster Blood is Back, Night of the Squawker, The Ghost of Slappy and many more. Now that we know House of Shivers is going forward without him, then it goes to show just how much he added to this era of Goosebumps and how, honestly, he was the best choice for Tim's replacement.
With Most Wanted, I felt there was an odd almost nihilistic vibe to Stine's work. Kids who are just meant to suffer in one way or another. This is their lot in life now. I don't feel that as much here. You still get your dark twist, or your twist that keeps the kid in peril, but they don't feel as mean spirited here. And come Friiight Night, Stine was actually succeeding for once with dark humor. Constantly having Kelly feel like he's doomed because everyone is just cool with him being lunch of a monster. It's the kind of vibe I wish Goosebumps did more. Clever gallows humor. If House of Shivers is going to be a departure from the norm, I hope that trend from Friiight Night continues.
Let's talk about all twenty recognized books and see what worked and what didn't. Despite my demeanor with SlappyWorld, this was far less of a miserable list as Most Wanted. I at least like a few of these books. But here's how I'd rank them at least.
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#20. Haunting with the Stars (#17): Goosebumps books can be weird, odd and at times a case of Stine throwing everything in to try to make a book work. Sometimes that can work, and sometimes, like with Haunting with the Stars, it's a case of throwing everything in the pot and not knowing how to make a tasty stew. You have this cool idea of kids being transported to an alien planet of strange two-headed dancing aliens, taken to their bizarre leader and... NOTHING happens. Literally nothing. Hoofer the Horrible makes a bunch of threats that never happen and we just keep spinning in infinity, never reaching anything remotely worth the time to read through. Which is such a shame because Stine normally does really well with alien stories. It felt like he loved the title, but couldn't for the life of him make it work as a book.
#19. Monster Blood is Back (#13): Oh my god this book came so close to being a good Monster Blood book. I've said before that the further we've gotten away from Evan and the clown squad the better the books became. Monster Blood For Breakfast being a glowing example. The Monster Blood feeling like both a revenge tool AND a threat helped, as did the concept of it being tied around a cooking competition that goes out of control. And then Stine goes and spoils it all by doing something stupid like "It was all a dream". Sascha's messed up visions after almost being hit by an SUV. Dream endings can work, but this just felt like pure Stine desperation and it hurt this book big time.
#18. Slappy Birthday To You (#01): SlappyWorld did not put its best foot forward with Slappy Birthday. Not that it's a total disaster. I don't mind the ramping up of Slappy, giving him these superpowers. But it does feel like it suffers too much from the dummy formula in places. Though, hey, a Goosebumps parent is actually pivotal to the plot for once and not just here to scold their kid for having concerns and stuff. Some cool ideas, but a bog standard affair. That's Slappy for you!
#17. Night of the Squawker (#18): I think this is the book that broke me. I mean, SlappyWorld was shaky in its latter end but holy crap this just felt like a chore to read. The concept was cool. Anna seemingly turning into a bird while her brother Cooper tries to deal with it, but god damn is this book clunky. Multiple pages of "Why are you acting like a bird Anna?" "No, I'm not." "Why are you acting like a bird Anna?" "No, I'm not." "Why are you acting like a bird Anna?" "No, I'm not." "Why are you acting like a bird Anna?" "No, I'm not." "Why are you acting like a bird Anna?" "No, I'm not." to the point it gets lame as hell. Then the book makes Cooper into an awful character by exploiting his sister for personal gain. All for a variation of the same twist we've gotten time and time again. So much potential with that cover gone to crap so quickly.
#16. Attack of the Jack (#02): Every book series has that one book you just forget about until you have to remember it for some reason. That's Attack of the Jack in a nutshell. Neat concept with Jack in the Box Pirates, talking cats, banana plantations, two headed sailors and more. It's just tied together in a very bland package. Though by comparison to Haunting with the Stars, at least the things that happen and ramp up the story ACTUALLY happen and ACTUALLY matter. So I wasn't bored with this one at least. That's the feintest praise it's getting.
#15. Revenge of the Invisible Boy (#09): This book mostly hovers lower for being kind of forgettable in its own right. A book about invisibility that feels invisible. The irony. Not that it's a bad book mind, but we've seen these types of invisibility stories before. So Frankie's misadventures as the invisible boy aren't as engaging as they could be. At least for me. But everything still works enough if that's the book you're looking for. Sadly, if you were hoping this would be the payoff of the twist ending to the first Goosebumps movie, hoo boy you're gonna be let down.
#14. Please Do Not Feed The Weirdo! (#04): There's pieces of a good book here. Robby's chameleon powers, the level of crazy that this book can get in terms of action. It's just that the twist doesn't work in context to the story. I get what Stine was going for, with everyone thinking the real Jordan is Robby and we're just going to leave Jordan caged and starving to death. It's a dark scenario. HOWEVER, nobody thought to test to see which is the real Jordan? Is Robby just never going to eat again? By making Robby's powers come from eating, the mask is going to slip sooner or later. Although, given Jordan's family screwed him over, maybe they deserve what's coming to them when Robby shifts back. Also the twist is obvious because Stine telegraphed the hell out of it early in the book which never helps his cause. Pieces of a good book but ultimately flawed in final execution. It's a Goosebumps book alright.
#13. Escape From Shudder Mansion (#05): Another SlappyWorld book with a really cool concept that's not perfectly executed. That Riley and company are in a video game world. A horror video game which has limitless possibilities and Stine does very little with what he does give us. Like the Beast for example. Added so late game that he doesn't leave that much of an impact despite being such a cool concept. I do think the twist is fine. Confusing, but fine. I guess it's all a video game that exists within another video game and it can all just be reset at a moment's notice, the events starting over and over again in perpetuity. A cool concept if it was in a better book.
#12. My Friend Slappy (#12): I really hoped for more from this one. Note that this was after a solid run of Slappy books, all which ranked higher on this list BTW. But it falls victim to still being formulaic despite the concept. What I do like is that there is a questionable shade of gray to Slappy here. Was he actually Barton's friend, or was he using Barton to cause more chaos? The latter answer definitely seems the most likely one. I really wish we got more of a spin with Barton being the one who wanted to be Slappy's friend and, I don't know, turned out to be more evil than even Slappy. Would have been a solid reversal of the formula. But alas. Also that talking dog twist. No, seriously, the hell was up with that?
#11. Fifth-Grade Zombies (#14): The book that we know had a complete overhaul, Fifth-Grade Zombies is an interesting book for what we did get. Though in the back of my mind, I really wonder what Stine had in mind for the Granny Z version of this book. But the version we do get is still solid with some really decent horror, including the scene on the bus. Its only problem is a lack of much explanation. Why are the kids zombies? Was it the cornfield? What about the cornfield precisely caused the kids to become zombies? Its definitely got that feeling of Stine hitting a wall with the original concept, going full bore with this one, and then somehow hitting another wall, likely while wandering in a cornfield. Twist is okay enough, probably the most fun way to end this story.
#10. It's Alive! It's Alive! (#07): Stine loves his evils of science stories and this one is one of his better ones. Though to be honest, it did feel like it was aping Stay Out of the Basement only with robot parents instead of plant dads. But hey, if you're going to take from any book, that's not the worst choice in the world. As such you get one of the better mysteries that Stine doesn't just beat you over the head with the obvious too early, even if the obvious villain should be obvious. The only thing holding it back is just a feeling of something missing. Something to really make this evil robot book work better. It's definitely a book that, while fully functional, could have benefited from a little longer in the lab.
#09. I Am Slappy's Evil Twin (#03): This book has it all. An origin story. Mr. Wood being mentioned. Crazy Hollywood action. And two Slappies for the price of one. Well, Slappy and Snappy that is. If it was a stronger book overall it would be higher. But it suffers from a formulaic plot, and the most obvious twist ever. I mean, it's the title of the book after all. Of course Snappy, the one who tries to keep Slappy in line, is the more evil of the two. Even if it weren't the title anyone could see that's where we were going. Ah well, it's a decent read regardless.
#08. Slappy in Dreamland (#16): Oh god this book had potential. Slappy taking over the dreams of kids? Going full Freddy? In anyone else's hands this could have been awesome. Possibly with Richard and Willow working with other kids to battle the dummy in the dream world. Go all Dream Warriors on this book. But alas, aside from a couple cool dream scenarios, it's the dummy formula all over again. Feeling almost like another Son of Slappy with Richard under a hypnotic spell by Slappy. Though really dude? Slappy has all of the dream world at his wooden fingertips and all can come up with is smashing a cake? At least the twist is effective for once.
#07. Judy and the Beast (#15): Oh yes I've heard this story over and over again. The monster of the story is actually a kid who has some sort of disease that turns them monstrous when they get older. The puberty allegory. Stine's ultimate crutch nowadays. Though this one at least does it a bit better, albeit with a clunky mystery that becomes too obvious too soon because Stine's a bad mystery writer. But the total package is still solid enough for SlappyWorld.
#06. Friiight Night (#19): The grand finale of SlappyWorld doesn't feel too grand unfortunately. But what we get is far from the worst book either. And the reason why is that the book sticks for a very dark humor feel to everything. How everyone brushes off Kelly's plight as not being a big deal even if Skwerm eats him. Like, oh the new kid's dead, but hey, the monster seems happy. It's the kind of dark humor that Stine rarely lands with. It just gets bogged down by noticeable pacing issues, a lack of oomph for the titular event and a wet fart of a twist ending. "I expect nothing and I'm still let down" is the perfect epitaph for SlappyWorld.
#05. Diary of a Dummy (#10): This book is chaotic in all the right ways. We get none of the formula and instead Slappy causes mayhem in front of the McGee family. And that even when he's seemingly defeated, the addition of a diary and a possible treasure entices Billy and Maggie despite the fact that they should know better than to trust what's in a diary of a dummy. It also gives us Goldie, Slappy's sister who is this broken character with some of the most deadly powers of all. The twist is also decent in an obvious but still excellently done "you're screwed" ending, giving us another glimpse at what "servants" to a dummy really are. It's far from perfect, but one of Slappy's better outings.
#04. The Ghost of Slappy (#06): Granted, of all the books in this list, I think I grossly oversold this one. That even with ghost shenanigans it's still for the most part the Dummy formula. But I don't know, I just found that all the sum of its parts worked better. Slappy causing early chaos helped, as does some of the finale when Shep has to deal with Slappy possessing him. And the twist even slightly works. Its only real sticking point for me is that the ghost Slappy stuff comes way too late in the book and we don't get as much fun with the idea as it could. But I like this idea that Slappy has a spirit I guess that can still haunt his victims if he gets destroyed. That of course opens up why he never used it against the Kramers or other families that destroyed his body, but I chalk it up to the "multiple Slappy" theory I posit often. It also gets high marks for a freaking awesome cover, not gonna lie. Also, it's the final book where Slappy calls his victims "slaves" and for that, I thank it.
#03. Slappy Beware! (Special Edition): So, like I said. This book feels like the strongest Slappy book in a long time. It also feels like it wasn't always going to be a special edition, let alone the third-to-last book in SlappyWorld (even if it's not listed as one, let's be honest). I want to believe Stine wanted to do a new Mr. Wood story as well as the story of Slappy constantly failing at scaring a family. But neither had enough momentum to make a full book out of. Which is for the best with the former as it was already our Slappy formula story. There's also the mess of once again changing around the origins of the dummies, even if you want to go with Darkwell creating THIS version of Slappy while Mahar created Mr. Wood and possibly other Slappies. My multiple Slappy theory holds water. Only thing that killed this one was the flat twist, but for the 30th anniversary book and for the last Slappy book at this juncture, it's aight.
#02. They Call Me the Night Howler! (#11): He did it. Somehow the old coot finally made a fun superhero story. Not only that, but a good Dr. Maniac story! Sadly no Purple Rage, my boy's gone missing. But I like the concept this book brings. How Mason tries to take the role of the Night Howler, but all his efforts keep being in vain by the mysterious Blue Strawberry. I like the powers of the Night Howler, the ability to stalk in the shadows and freeze your foe in place. Granted, this all comes with the easiest caveat of all time in that revealing your identity ends your powers. But it works for the solid enough twist of Mason saying "Screw the good guys. Let's go bad." becoming the new Dr. Maniac. After the trash that was Dr. Maniac Will See You Now, Stine redeemed himself and the Dr. Maniac character all in one go. He can be a miracle worker!
#01. The Dummy Meets the Mummy! (#08): R.L. Stine turned his brain off for this book and the results came out magical. I love this book. It perhaps doesn't fully deserve that praise, but in my heart, it gives me what I wish more Goosebumps would give, and that's pure chaos. Even a little heavy violence with the gruesome face ripping of Dr. Klopfer by Arragotus. Then we have Slappy and Arragotus and a crazy battle that delivers in the bizarre. Stine took his hands off the wheel here and let chaos reign. Eye lasers. SLAPPY HAS EYE LASERS. HE HAS HEAT VISION. He can bring dinosaur skeletons to life. It allows itself to just be in the moment and throw everything regardless of how much sense it makes and I love this book for it. It is my crown jewel of the SlappyWorld books. Twist is stinky but ah well.
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I think that, for as much as I want to believe Stine had a big idea in mind for SlappyWorld (Even if it was more a Scholastic mandate than anything), it ultimately showed the truth about the character. And that's that Slappy isn't really that interesting. He's a one dimensional character who usually does the same things over and over again. The same tricks, the same slave talk. So doing a book series about Slappy was always going to expose that more and more. And also expose that Stine isn't good at writing characters. Lacking the ability to add dimensions to characters, especially the villains of the stories. And, for as much as Slappy is touted as his greatest creation, Slappy ends up exposing Stine the most.
That being said, I'd be lying if I didn't say there were some Slappy books that do work here. Dummy Meets the Mummy and Diary of a Dummy in particular try to be more interesting in how they use Slappy, then it sort of goes back to status quo for the most part, which is frustrating. Even the return of "Mr. Wood" doesn't change that formula, especially once it's revealed that it's just Slappy anyway, even if that is a fun play on the original book cover. The two prior mentioned books should have been the norm and not the exception. You have this character with lots of potential but sidled with an author who can rarely find unique ways to use him and thus he's nothing more than an obnoxious jokester. And it doesn't matter how popular that character is and how many sequels you pump, he's not strong enough a character to carry a whole series.
And to drag this out for almost seven years just exposes that even further. It would have been much better to just make this a new series mostly divorced from Slappy with maybe a sequel here and there. To call a book series SlappyWorld and yet most of the world doesn't involve Slappy right down to the final book of the series not being about him, it shows that this was a neat idea on paper that went too long and lacked the fire to make it something special. Just more books to keep quota. I know I'm negative, I liked these more than Most Wanted for the most part, but I can't help but feel that constantly when looking back at this series in particular. The fact that SlappyWorld ran longer than the original 62 is baffling and bothersome at the same time.
I'm cautiously optimistic for House of Shivers. By the scant preview pages alone it does look like a fresh look. New font for the chapters, chapter titles, a lot of the hype machine promising NEW NEW NEW. I just get this feeling it'll be lipstick on a pig and the problems Stine has had before are going to still be there. But I am cautiously optimistic. I am willing to give Stine a chance here and that hopefully he has a renewed vigor that he hasn't had in a while. That even he realized the rut he was in and wanted to course correct. Wouldn't be the first time he's done that. But this is the most exciting time to be a Goosebumps fan in a long time. I just hope we're in for something special.
In conclusion, Goosebumps SlappyWorld isn't the worst series ever, just way too long and its gimmick was left feeling bland by the end. It ultimately exposed its most popular character in how little there is to him and it featured too many books that go down similar avenues or leave you feeling let down. But it has its gems and I think when Stine tried, certain books did work. Slappy will be back. He'll have books in House of Shivers because of course he will. But I do hope it's a long break from him for a while. If Stine's dedicated to this "new" format, then it's a much needed mercy kill to remove his crutch at least for the time being. But for now, we can move forward without the knot-headed nightmare. The SlappyWorld has stopped and we can finally get off.
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