The Stinal Countdown: Goosebumps House of Shivers #05: The Last Sleepover

It is book five time for House of Shivers. And after the last book was a mess, one can only hope that Stine has a great idea in mind for this one. We have a haunted house situation with a ghost girl and a haunted security system. I mean, after the last book even if this winds up being mediocre it's still a step in the right direction. Let's experience The Last Sleepover.

I really like this cover. Probably the best of the House of Shivers covers so far. And it mainly comes from the use of color. The blues in particular which range from bright to dark, giving off this cold, otherworldly feel. Add in the glowing pink and red from the doors which pop thanks to the color. And then we have our ghost girl of the story, Emma-Lee, pointing at someone. So we know this ghost is not polite. The shadowy face and glowing red eyes feel actually creepy and intense, which is something Goosebumps really hasn't conveyed in a cover for a while now, so it's all great stuff. Please don't be another "Great cover, awful story" situation, I'm begging you.

We open on a prologue with Emma-Lee, our ghost girl of the story. She's behind the walls of her house, and begging for her parents to find her and let her out. Her parents can hear her, but can't actually see her. We only really learn that Emma-Lee died at a sleepover, but it's way to early to know what happened. Her father breaks down the wall with an axe, but there's no sign of her. Emma-Lee continues to live (well, not exactly "live" per-se) in their house, as if trapped in a limbo where time is sort of nebulous. Ten years at the very least pass, and a new family, the Barger family, move into her home. Not only that, but they completely renovate the building from top to bottom, which of course annoys Emma-Lee, who doesn't want the Bargers, especially the two teen kids, to live in her home. And she's going to get rid of them, permanently. So we could be in for some fun Beetlejuice-esque shenanigans minus the crotch honking, but then I remember, this is an R.L. Stine book after all. Keep those expectations way low.

We then move focus to Lily Barger, our main protagonist of the story, showing off her new house to her best friend Megan. The Barger family moved four blocks down from their old place to this building, which they had completely renovated from top to bottom. As she shows Megan around, Lily's older brother Rory shows up with old video games for his custom arcade machine. Stuff like Pac-Man and Tetris. I get it, eighty year old man writing a book and all, but let's be real. A real gamer would have Marvel Vs Capcom 2 and like The Simpsons on it. Rory is good with technology, and installed the Mastermind, a home security system, for the house. The kids note how hot the house is, to which Rory leads them up to the third floor and a closet, which he notes is freezing cold inside. Which is odd considering the rest of the house is so hot and all. Megan then says that there's a reason she wondered why Lily's family moved into this old house, since there's stories of it being haunted. Rory and Lily don't believe this, but since their parents got the house on the cheap, they could buy that they got it on murder discount.

So ten years ago, Emma-Lee held a sleepover with a bunch of girls in hopes to get them to like her. The girls, Kristina, Patti, Marta and Alecia, were part of the same soccer team as Emma-Lee, and despite them constantly treating her like shit, mocking her clothes and hair and financial status, Emma-Lee wanted in the group. So she invited the four to a sleepover in hopes that this will be the ice breaker to get them to like her. This, as you'd expect, goes bad as later that night Emma-Lee wakes up with her bangs cut off, a mustache drawn on her face and the words I'M UG on her forehead. In a rage, she goes after the girls, but they overpower her and throw her into the nearest closet where Emma-Lee... dies? Or seems to be sucked inside the closet which I guess traps her. It spins us around to the beginning as her parents can hear her, but can't see her, and eventually move out. Lily doesn't buy the story, but Rory is very intrigued because he coincidentally is part of a ghost finders club at school, so he intends to find Emma-Lee's ghost.

Rory also shows of the Mastermind, which he calls Alyssa, because I guess we need to drop any subtlety that this isn't an Alexa parody. A girl's voice comes out of the machine, saying she's still here, which bothers the kids, but they shake it off and Rory shows off what Alyssa can do. It can open the doors and windows to the house. Alyssa tells Megan to look out one of the windows, to which it then slams down on her head. But it just hits her braid instead. The window won't budge so Lily, in what is admittedly a dumb idea, grabs a pair of scissors and cuts her braid, which understandably pisses off Megan who leaves the house. Lily blames Rory for this, but he claims he's innocent. They hear what sounds like laughter, to which Rory claims that it must be Emma-Lee. The next day at school, Lily manages to apologize to Megan for the impromptu haircut and she's invited to Megan's upcoming sleepover. Another girl, Veronica Hines, says that she also thinks that Lily's house is haunted, because she saw it on YouTube. And you know YouTube must be legit.

At dinner, Lily and Rory ask if their parents really bought a haunted house. They knew about the stories, and that it was a motivating reason for the seller to give it to them at a cheap price, but they don't believe in ghosts. Lily goes to check on their food, only to see all the burners on the stove on and the curtains about to burn. We get a letter from Emma-Lee to her parents, which I guess is a way to kill time as a ghost but how the hell are they going to read them? She says that when she went into the closet that night it sort of transported her to the land of ghosts and left her body there. However her spirit remained in the house. So it's a killer closet? Could be worse, I guess. Could be a time travel closet. Emma-Lee knows the Bargers live in her house, so she's trying to do everything she can to get rid of them permanently. 

The next day, Rory's ghost-finders club friends, Hunter, Shari and Ralph, arrive at the house with their equipment. Stuff like night vision cameras, electromagnetic field stuff. Would-be ghostbuster stuff without the proton packs. Rory's dad constantly chimes in with bad jokes, since, as established, believes this ghost stuff to be bunk. The group head to the basement to begin their search. They get readings, but it's just a mouse. They then hear voices telling them to leave, which is of course just Lily screwing with them. They check the upstairs closet where hey honestly should have checked in the first place, when Rory gets the sensation of icy fingers clasping his neck. Shari tries to run for it, but gets grabbed, her arms freezing as well. Some time passes and the sensation stops as the other three run out of the house like they're Dan Aykroyd from Casper. But now Rory's convinced that Emma-Lee is definitely haunting their house. He tells his family about the incident, but they don't believe him because Goosebumps family. Well that and there is an air duct above the closet, so that would totally explain away any hauntings.

The next day at school, Lily eats with Veronica and Megan when she suddenly bites into her sandwich, which has a dead mouse in it. She thinks it must have been Rory playing a prank on her for not believing him. Yes, because he must be so mad that he wants to give her disease. Shari tells the girls that they all quit the club on Rory after the events of the previous night and are going to join a robotics club instead. That should be way less haunted. But Lily, now convinced that Rory is screwing with her, promises to get back at him. However, when she talks with him later, she realizes that Rory wouldn't be the one to give her the Mickey sandwich, but Emma-Lee could have. That night, Lily wakes up and hears what sounds like a girl talking to Alyssa, telling the device to close the windows and set the couch on fire. So the ghost is actually Bobcat Goldthwait? Of course, Alyssa's just a security system, so it can't actually immolate anything. It can drop a window on someone, but that's really the extent. Lily tries to find out what's going on, only for the ghostly voice to reveal herself as Emma-Lee who grabs her and throws her down the stairs. 

Lily tells Rory about Emma-Lee's attack and that she now fully believes him. Rory says that they'll need help to get rid of Emma-Lee, a man named Morgan Strange. He's the guy who gave them the ghost hunting equipment and is an expert ghost catcher. He heads to people's houses and captures ghosts. He never asks for money, he just wants to collect ghosts. Which is kind of screwed up when you think about it. These are already spirits who can't rest, now they're just stuck with some guy who is really into collecting ghosts. Can't think of a worser purgatory. They meet with Morgan, who is described as a very wide man. He leads them down into his underground cave, which yes, does sound concerning, to meet with his ghosts. They see one ghost, Tonio, who is a chameleon ghost that can take on other forms, including Rory's for a quick cheap chapter stinger. Strange's plan is to bring Tonio to their home, find Emma-Lee and capture her in a strange little box. Lily, who already doesn't trust Strange, thinks it a bad idea to bring a second ghost into their house. 

Morgan Strange visits their house, and Rory's ghost-finders club are here as well, mostly forced into it by Rory. This makes Lily worried since now that there's a second ghost here, what if Tonio turns on Strange and aligns himself with Emma-Lee? But that's all moot when Mr. Strange sees a mouse and runs off, because he's scared of them. B-but he has a cave, wouldn't there be mice? Ah, there's that convoluted Stine. At school the next day, Lily opens her bag and screams... to scare Megan. Megan then asks Lily if she could move her sleepover to Lily's house. Because what could possibly go wrong? Especially given, you know, a sleepover at their house is what led to Emma-Lee's demise? The sleepover arrives. It's Megan, Veronica and two other girls, Monique and Devra. It goes well until the lights flicker, the door locks and the music from Alyssa plays super loud. As the girls try to escape, they see Emma-Lee, who promises to get rid of them. To which Lily confronts Emma-Lee and...

Hugs her. Lily realizes that since Emma-Lee has been alone for ten years, that she needs a friend. So she invites Emma-Lee to the sleepover. Rory arrives, thinking the ghost must be there, but Lily says there's no ghost. He asks Alyssa, who says she'll never tell.

So, I feel like I'm going to be the outlier here, as I've seen a few people praise this one, but I thought this book was just average. It's a better structured book than the last few, especially the previous House of Shivers book. But there's just this feeling of a lot of stuff just coming and going without much of a satisfying payoff. The Morgan Strange stuff for example. We build up on it, you'd think it would matter, you'd even think the twist is that Tonio is haunting the house as well, given even Lily brings up the possibility. But it just ends, Morgan runs off, and we never get any confirmation on that. There is also this definite feeling of the book having to hold back on how Emma-Lee died. I'm guessing because it's a kids book, but given we've had a kid who died in a fire in The Ghost Next Door, the tenth Goosebumps book ever, that doesn't really help its favors. So Stine goes back to an old well, evil closet. Not a time travelling one like Beach House, but still evil closet. Which is something we really don't get any time to explain or to do much with. Which honestly sucks because I think the book would have been more interesting if we got a glimpse into the ghost world. Or even how this closet works in general other than it just warped Emma-Lee there, took her body and I guess spat out her ghost. 

The book feels like it takes from a few books of Stine, but the one I think it takes from the most isn't from Goosebumps. Rather, it feels like a more kid friendly rehash of 99 Fear Street: The House of Evil. Both feature a haunted house that a girl dies in via a strange and confusing occurrence. Both have the ghost turning evil and wanting to get rid of the people who moved inside. Though, in this book's favor it doesn't drag into three books, with the middle involving a boy who was brought back to life by voodoo. Instead we have the book give us this world's version of Alexa in Alyssa. Which I really wish the book tried with. When I read the book's premise involving a haunted Mastermind, I thought it could have led to some really good horror. A sort of HAL-9000 situation. But aside from dropping a window on Megan and that one time the burners are turned on, it's all very basic stuff. Right down to the point that we have the scene where Emma-Lee can't get Alyssa to really do anything interesting like set the house on fire or smash windows. It feels like the rare occasion where Stine intentionally tells his readers to set their expectations on this book way low. You aren't going to get the super scary smart house story you were hoping for.

Lily is a good protagonist. Not the most dynamic, but her arc of not believing in ghosts and ultimately realizing they're real is decent and works for the payoff of the plot. Rory is also fine as our secondary who sort of lacks importance by the end, not even being there to witness Emma-Lee. As for Emma-Lee, I wish we got more with her. Because she's a very interesting character. A kid who wanted friends, but was bullied by them, which lead to her strange death. Spending ten years as this frozen ghost who wants to be seen. So her at least getting a happy ending is a great payoff to all this. I just wish the book had more of a chance to do much with her in the book, because any time she's there, she's the highlight. Megan and Veronica work as the best friend role. Morgan Strange is interesting. It feels like Stine wrote himself into a corner with this character, didn't really know how to implement the ghost catching all that well, and he just leaves, as does his ghost Tonio, who you'd think would be factored into the twist like I previously stated. Devra and Monique may be the most Superfluous of Clays I've ever seen in a Goosebumps book and that's saying something. It could have been Megan and Veronica and literally nothing would be lost. 

This book's pace is also pretty good. Granted, we get a lot of nothing and the haunts that we do get, aside from the window and Rory's friends at the closet, are okay at best. But nothing ever makes the book feel too sluggish. We get enough time to build on Lily and Rory and just enough on Emma-Lee that she never feels like too little of a factor to the book's momentum. I just feel there's still a sense of Stine hitting a wall. Because this book just feels like ends so abruptly that it doesn't satisfy. So much build to Emma-Lee, only for her to really get two appearances and the latter is so easily resolved that it feels like a case of "that's it?" Especially with the twist. I really think we should have had more time with the sleepover itself and focus on stuff like the closet, the world of the dead, Emma-Lee, and letting things go wild with Alyssa. Which could have all probably been added if the Morgan Strange stuff was cut. I guess he too feels like Superfluous Clay. I also think Stine wanted to do something more with the mice, but maybe he remembered he already did that in 99 Fear Street. But what's stopped him before from being redundant?

And of course, given it's House of Shivers and all, does this feel like NEW Goosebumps? If by being a book that doesn't take too many risks in its plot, then not really. In fact it feels like the most "Post-2008 safe Goosebumps" we've gotten in a while. In that it's a book that doesn't try to be too dark, or too scary. The antithesis of what makes the books work, mind you. Which again goes down to how Emma-Lee's death should feel more impactful, but it doesn't. She's just thrown in a closet and dies in an off-screen dimension. I get it, he can't off kids like he could in Fear Street, but it feels like a case of Stine and Scholastic intentionally pulling punches. Intentionally making these books feel less scary. And that's kind of sad when you think about it. I think Scholastic woefully underestimates what kids can handle with horror. No, I'm not calling for them to be gore fests or anything, but I also just wish that there was more of an edge to them to make for more exciting adventures and more memorable horror. 

So overall, this one didn't win me like I think it did others. It has a lot of great pieces to it that make for a really good ghost book, and has some fun stuff in it, but it feels too safe, too unwilling to really go in for a dark story, that it took me out of it a bit. but even with that said, I think it's still one of the better House of Shivers books. Especially after the mess that was Say My Name! Say My Name! So I can give it a recommend. Maybe you'll find it more interesting than I did, I just really was left wanting so much more out of this. And that also concludes the new Goosebumps books of 2025 to cover. Next book looks to be cryptid city as the focus is on Bigfoot. Plus it's a camp book and Stine so rarely gets the camp book wrong. Please don't get the camp book wrong, Bob. I ask so little of you.