Choice Words: Give Yourself Goosebumps #22: Return to the Carnival of Horrors

Of course Give Yourself Goosebumps wouldn't be averse to the ultimate sin that is Goosebumps sequels. Both in terms of books in the GYG series and sequels to other mainline books. Fortunately there's only one sequel to a GYG book and it's fittingly the first book. Escape from the Carnival of Horrors is a solid first start to the series and one I remember liking. And the carnival setting is at least one that can make for more fun returns. So was this crazy carnival worth the revisit or is it one ride we'd rather forget? Let's see as we Return to the Carnival of Horrors.

Before I talk about the book proper, I think it's best to bring up that this is the final book in the Give Yourself Goosebumps series to feature the holofoil cover. I think this was likely a decision made both because with the main books moving to Series 2000, the choice was made to alter the GYG covers to match that style. That, and the more likely reason, it's likely much cheaper to produce the book covers without the holographic cardboard needed. Which does suck as the holographic covers are cool to look at. Granted, I find the covers chip more easily than the normal covers overtime, but that's the price to pay for neat gimmickry. 

Now for the cover itself. I love this cover. It might honestly be my favorite of at least the holofoil covers. The large full moon and the roller coaster filled with ghostly skeletons, all having a great time. I don't know if I saw this cover much when I was younger, so I don't know if this one freaked me out or not. I say that because it weirdly gives me a Say Cheese and Die vibe and you know my reaction to the old skeleton picnic. It also makes me think of the tramcar full of laughing skeletons from A Shocker on Shock Street. I love the color of the sky, the warping actually works for this one given it is a roller coaster, and there's even what looks to be a nod to Trapped in Bat Wing Hall on the front of the coaster. It also does something the first cover didn't do well and that's feel like a book about a scary carnival. Nagata nailed that feeling with this art while Tim just gave us a purple gator in one of his blander outings. A great cover to sendoff this era of the books.

As is the case with these books, given that the protagonist is often presented as the reader and no specific gender is given, I'll be using They/Them and "The Player" when I talk about our protagonist. Cool? Let's ride. 

The player opens the book waking up from a bad dream. They've still been having nightmares about the Carnival of Horrors. But now they're with their friend Patty at their Aunt El, Uncle Steve and younger cousin Floyd's farm, far away from any possible carnival. But that turns out to not be the case as the next morning, the player learns a carnival is coming to town. They panic, thinking it's Big Al's carnival, but everyone else is jazzed and the player's coming with them, crippling paranoia be damned. The group arrive at the carnival and Patty realizes that this is indeed the Carnival of Horrors and decides it's best to leave before things get bad. But Floyd isn't convinced and isn't so willing to leave. So with no real choice in the matter, the kids head into the park, and it gives us our split path. Do we check out the midway or the rides?

PATH #01: MADNESS ON THE MIDWAY

The kids choose the midway, but notice a large crowd of people, all wearing clothing from different times. They're the ghostly inhabitants of the carnival, which doesn't bode well for the kids making it out alive. They then run into Big Al, who welcomes the kids back to the carnival and promises that he'll get his revenge. The kids have to play the carnival games on the midway and win three before the strike of midnight. If they succeed, they escape, if they don't, they'll be trapped in the carnival forever. After Big Al vanishes, the kids have to make a choice to start playing immediately, or ask for advice. Asking for advice can act as a game skip in a way, but it will also cause you to not have a specific object later, which will take you down this path, so consider this the quicker way to get through. The kids find a computer that has a maze to solve. This is one of the several activities the player can actually do in the book. This one being a maze of words called Letter-Go in which you need to find which path is the quickest. 

The shortest path is the second, so the kids pick that one and win. However, they briefly ponder on the message in the maze path "Every year is a number". But they decide to leave, but then realize they never grabbed a prize from the booth. When they come back, they see the booth with the computer has been replaced with a man selling hot dogs. He tells the kids that they can claim their prize in that ominous dark tent where Charlie, the Letter-Go operator, has their prize. Go in or not? The call is to not go in the ominous tent of evil and mystery. The player gets a Ghoulie-Cola which is made of eye of newt and toe of frog, which is gross, but I mean can't be more dangerous than actual pop. The kids find the next game, a racing video game. They watch as an old woman plays the game and loses, which causes a blue tornado to form over her and make her disappear. Now it's the player's turn. Patty says to play it, while Floyd says to avoid. Floyd's the right call. The next game is a guessing game. Is 1997 money worth more than 1902 money? Floyd says it is, since he collects old bills. The player opts not to listen to Floyd, which is right. The game was about amount of money, not inflation.

The player manages to win the game, to which the operator, a man named Big Buck, gives the kids the prize of a camera. Which means yep, this is our Goosebumps reference of the book, this time being Say Cheese and Die! The kids take their picture, but the image shows them running away from the monsters of the carnival. The kids then ponder if they should ask for help, if they have enough games won to talk to Big Al, or do we just skip the rest of this path and go straight to the rides. Well, if you've paid attention, the player has only won two games, not three. The kids then find a cowboy who has been trapped in time since August 3rd, 1872. They then run into a man named Ernie who has only been trapped for about 50 years. He mentions that should someone manage to leave the carnival twice, the spell will be broken once and for all. But can you trust these creepy carnival folk? The call is to trust them. Ernie says the carnival folk can help steer the kids in the right direction when it comes to what games to play. This leads to the kids finding a path leading to a game called LUCKY DAY! LUCKY DAY! LUCKY DAY! or the Hand-Eye Challenge. Ernie seems to be calling for the Hand-Eye game, but is that correct? 

Since the player still doesn't trust Ernie, we go with Lucky Day as the game of choice. Big Al shows up and introduces the player to the one running the game, Horrible Hairy Harry. A cross between a troll and a gorilla. The game is simple, it's entirely based on your birth date. If it ends in an odd number or an even number. Thankfully I was born on the 15th, so that's the right path. Has to suck for an even number kid to have played this and abided by the rules though. The player wins the game and gets a prize, a robot named Igor that can tell time, specifically that there's only an hour left before midnight. With three games won do we confront Big Al now, or try rewiring the robot to find an alternate way to exit the carnival? Well tampering with machinery could prove disastrous, so it's off to find Big Al. They find an old timey kid in knickers who asks for them to take a picture with the camera. When they do, they see a picture of the kid shaking hands with Big Al, while only Patty can be seen, having lost big time to Big Al. The score being Big Al: 53507 and Patty 34.

The kids then run into Big Al, who prepares the final game with large cardboard tickets. But when the player and Floyd grab them, it turns out they're giant razor blades that cut their hands, so only Patty is able to play. The player then crumples up the photo, which causes it to turn upside down for some reason. The player could argue with Big Al, or hope for a Deus ex Machina. That comes from the image in the picture. Everything is upside down, including the score that now reads upside down to look like HE LOSES. Since Patty's female and Big Al isn't, that means Big Al loses the game. Big Al screams and the carnival of horrors disappears, turning into a normal carnival. So it's all a big happy ending. So what if we went on the rides instead?

PATH #02: UNEASY RIDER

The kids head to the rides just as they hear Big Al say that the kids will soon be caught and if they can't escape by midnight, they'll be trapped forever in the carnival. The trio find the Right Way Train, which was used in the first book to escape the park. They hop on, only to realize it's the Right AWAY train instead. But the kids could jump off, or stay on? The answer is to stay on board. The kids end up crashing into a T-Rex ride. They escape in time and still have to find the ride that will help them time travel and escape. Either the Roller Ghoster or the Log Ride. The call is the Roller Ghoster which means hey, we actually get to experience the cover event. Or you could back out. We don't back out, so the kids board the coaster, which has different paths to take. The kids say to go left, but the other passengers, a bunch of ghosts, choose right. So which path is it? 

The player takes the ghosts' advice and heads left to the big Hall of the Mountain King castle. There's a large gap in the ride called Dead Man's Curve, which would spell the end for the kids, but they manage to jump off and land on the castle. So what's next? Do some castle exporation or try more rides? We're searching the castle. They climb the tower, only to be attacked by imps. However, they soon arrive at the top of the tower which just conveniently ends up being Big Al's office. There's a door inside that controls space and time. Floyd starts to work on it as the kids hear footsteps. Do we rush things or is waiting wiser? If we rush it starts the game back to pretty much the beginning so that's not as wise. Floyd fixes the dials and the kids head inside. The time door takes them back a month before the carnival opens. Floyd then sets things so that the carnival ends up in Antarctica instead. The player wakes up from another bad dream about the carnival, but realizes that what happened was real, but more importantly, they don't have to worry about any carnivals for a long time.

Nineteen bad endings in this book. What ones land the hardest, and which ones feel super weak? Step right up!

#01: The player chooses the wrong path and gets sucked into the computer where giant letters fall on them.

RATING: 2.5. Silly, but a good payoff. Stine having fun with the misspelled "THE END" is a nice touch.

#02: The player is eaten alive by sentient hot dogs.

RATING: 3. This is the right kind of goofy end that perfectly fits a carnival setting. Is it perhaps a bit too dumb even for Goosebumps? Maybe, but it's memorable so points in its favor.

#03: The player loses the racing game and a tornado forms, sucking away their arm. The player says that the man at the booth said there wouldn't be a blue tornado, and he was right, this one's purple.

RATING: 3. I love me a good screw-over ending like this where technically the villain wasn't lying. Also something just really brutal about someone's arm being torn off. Good gore for a kids book.

#04: The player bets that 1902 money is worth more than 1997 money, but the operator didn't mean in years, he meant in total. He pays the player back in 95 years, which causes the player to rapidly age to over 100 years old.

RATING: 3. Another fun twist. Good use of mind games as well as I'd imagine a lot of readers would fall for the ruse of what the game really is. The detail of the player withering away in rapid speed is great imagery.

#05: The player loses the game and Horrible Hairy Harry escorts the kids out of the carnival . He then gives the kids free passes to the carnival of horrors. 

RATING: 2. Elevated for how sad Horrible Hairy Harry is to give the kids the passes, but otherwise eh. It's listed as a happy ending, and I guess the kids don't have to use the tickets, but I'm counting it as a bad ending.

#06: Floyd rewires the robot, only for the robot to count down and explode, blowing the kids up.

RATING: 2.5. Predictable, but still a fun end. 

#07: The player loses the game and the kids are shrunk and turned into tools to repair Igor.

RATING: 2. Not a bad ending, just weirdly executed. Why are they shrunk? Why are their hands tools? Couldn't they use those tool hands to attack someone? 

#08: The kids take the slug subway. However, the slug slime burns their shoes off. They try to escape, but the slugs cover them, burning them to death with their slime.

RATING: 4. Now we're talking dark. The slug subway in general is a freaky scenario, but it lands with a very disturbing death for our protagonists. Good stuff. 

#09: The player is struck by lightning if the reader is unable to take two pencils at arms length and make them touch. 

RATING: 2. Silly enough way to screw over the reader. That'll learn you for having bad hand-eye coordination.

#10: Not getting the weight of Jupiter right causes the player to be crushed by its gravity. 

RATING: 2.5. Reminds me of a similar ending from the first book, which could feel cheap, but it's done fine enough here. 

#11: Landing on the skull platform causes the player to be turned into a skeleton decoration.

RATING: 3. I mean it's no flesh rug, but the concept is still super dark.

#12: The crane game sucks the kids inside and turns them into tiny human figures to be collected.

RATING: 4.5. I'll give this one big points for actually being a creepy scenario. One that I don't really recall ever being done, at least like this. Good stuff.

#13: The kids survive a giant squid, but see that the audience are giant octopuses. The kids slip back into the water and are attacked by the squid.

RATING: 3. Good surreal imagery on this one elevates it. 

#14: The kids end up going back in time and get eaten by a T-Rex. 

RATING: 2.5. I like it, but we've had similar concepts when it comes to time travel.

#15: The car ends up falling into a pit. The kids are then strangled by a snake.

RATING: 2.5. Again, we've done the snake stuff a whole lot in these. 

#16: The player uses a life preserver, but it's made of lead and it plunges them into the water below.

RATING: 3. I like this one just for how silly it is. 

#17: The kids find a door which they think is an exit, but instead it sends them trapped in between time and space.

RATING: 2.5. Another one that Stine definitely uses a lot, but this one works fine.

#18: The kids try to tie the squids together to escape, but just get attacked by more squid.

RATING: 2. Not as good as the hot dog one. 

#19: The kids run into tiny elves that use a sharp axe to decapitate them.

RATING: 3. Comes really out of nowhere, but still a very dark way to go.

BEST ALTERNATE ENDING: FIGURE IT OUT

WORST ALTERNATE ENDING: SQUIDS A POPPIN'

This one was just okay. I do think it's a more fun book than Carnival of Horrors, as it does do more activity challenges. But it also does just feel like a retread. Like it's a book that's just more carnival of horrors rather than being a unique idea. And that's probably why this was the only sequel to a GYG book to ever exist. Because it does all really fall into redundancy, even more so than when Stine does sequels for normal Goosebumps books. And these books don't really have much of a chance to do much with their narrative to expand on stuff like the history of the carnival or why it's the way it is. So it becomes a book less about making the carnival interesting and more about surviving the many strange challenges. And both paths are well handled and get enough time to feel memorable. It's definitely a less lopsided book compared to a few others in GYG to this point, which makes the book work much better.

Of the two paths, I think Stine definitely had more interest in the midway, as that contains more fun activities to do, more challenges, more paths based entirely on either luck or if you were born on a specific day. I still think the even number ending is more of a bad ending than a good one, but your mileage will vary. The rides path is fun, but also super rushed, as is the case with a lot of these stories. But the cover art actually gets to pay off in this one, which earns points. The endings are all fine. Nothing super disturbing, though a couple do come really close. Though my favorite was the crane game twist as I do think a crane game full of shrunken people is a super surreal and dark ending that you really don't see too often. We get a couple gory twists, but we've definitely seen gorier.

So overall, this book is just fine. I think the first Carnival of Horrors is much better and this one suffers from feeling in many ways as too much of a retread. But there's some fun ideas in this book and a few really good endings that still keep it from being a complete waste of time. But it's also a good sign as to why Give Yourself Goosebumps wasn't really a series that could work with sequels. Sequels to other books outside of GYG do get books so we'll have to see how they fare in the future. But for now, Return to the Carnival of Horrors gets a B+.