R. L. Stine

## This blood is bad to the bone!

Monster Blood IV is what you get when you take the plot of Monster Blood III -- which wasn't good -- and mix it with Star Trek's "the Trouble with Tribbles," and Joe Dante's Gremlins. It's a sour note for the series to go out on, after a total of 62 books. Like many of the series' low points (including other Monster Blood stories), Monster Blood IV is just uninspired and bland.

[N.B. This review includes images, and was formatted for my site, show more dendrobibliography -- located here.]

Evan, Kermit, Andy, and even Conan the Barbarian all return from Monster Blood III to take part in more of Kermit's obnoxious science experiments. By chance, Andy finds a container identical to the green Monster Blood containers of the past books, with the only differences being it's not labeled as Monster Blood, and it's blue instead of green.

This isn't creative or interesting so far, but just seems like an excuse to take Monster Blood in a slightly-different-but-also-quite-similar direction. As our heroes lose control of the Monster Blood, it takes the shape of a blobby chipmunk. Unlike the green Monster Blood of past books, the blue goo is cute and playful, and loves to bounce around chirping at our heroes. The second the blue cutie gets a taste of water, however, it changes: It starts multiplying at an alarming rate, and each generation of blue blood critters is increasingly more hostile and threatening than the last, growing teeth and eventually (slimy) hair.

The population of Monster Blood tribbles quickly spirals out of control, and, as in Monster Blood III, our heroes are unable to keep it a secret for long before the monsters threaten the entire town.

And like the immediate prequel, most of the plot takes place in a single, boring location, and most of the dialogue revolves around the characters' traits (Kermit's obnoxious; Evan's boring; Conan's a jerk). Andy's barely there this time, which is kind of a bummer as she's the only genuine personality in the group. The story ends with a deus ex machina similar to the first two Monster Blood stories, as well as an unnecessary explanation for the story's Monster Blood being blue instead of green. (No surprise: It's because of evil scientists wearing space suits.)

Monster Blood IV is a boring, by-the-numbers entry -- doubly hurt by being a retread of the first three Monster Blood books -- and a bummer ending to the Goosebumps series. It's not the worst Goosebumps story, but it's pretty close.

R.L. Stine's Goosebumps (1992–1997):
#61 I Live in Your Basement! | Special: It Came From Ohio!: My Life as a Writer show less

Occasionally, I like to dip back into easier-to-read books from my childhood as a way to ease my brain a little bit after a particularly tough book. After having finished Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms", and dipping my toes into Antoine Augustin Calmet's "Phantom World" essays, I've realized that I needed something slower, simpler and easily readable to just sort of relax the ol' grey muscle.

Plus, I've been watching YouTube videos by John Wolfe where he goes back to read Goosebump books and show more rates them, and I thought, why not? I've already read and reviewed two of them from the perspective of an adult (of which you can see in my profile), and I still have around ~60 of the things to get through. Feeling in a Werewolf mood since I love werewolves, I picked up "The Werewolf of Fever Swamp" because it has a werewolf and John Wolfe reviewed it.

That was a mouthful. What did I think of it?

Honestly, I liked it! The other two Goosebump books that I reviewed at this point "Vampire Breath" and "Attack of the Jack-o-Lanterns" weren't very well written and were clearly written by Ghostwriters at that point, seeing as they're later additions to the Goosebump franchise. The earlier ones, such as this book, still have a polish to them where it's clear R.L Stine had a clear goal in mind for the story, and personally wanted to make sure they were well written enough to still be entertaining for both adults and kids.

While the Goosebump books aren't terrifying as an adult, I still like to imagine myself as a 10-year-old boy again reading these in the dead of night, and remembering what it felt like to be scared by them. Unfortunately, this book isn't exactly frightening, but I still enjoyed how there's really not much filler aside from some obvious padding here and there to hit the novella page length.

If you're a child looking for a decent children's horror book, an adult who either knows a child getting into horror or want to start horror yourself with something that won't keep you up at night, then I recommend this book. Goosebumps can be pretty hit or miss, and this one is a decent hit. show less

## He's no picky eater!

The Blob That Ate Everyone isn't the most original Goosebumps entry, but it is a lot of fun. The plot takes most of its creativity from old 1950s B-movies and Twilight Zone reruns, so it reaches more for comedy than horror.

[N.B. This review includes images, and was formatted for my site, dendrobibliography -- located here.]

Zackie, a budding horror novelist and absolute scaredy-cat, is gifted an antique typewriter by the owner of a burned-out shop. As he sets down with show more his best friend Alex to write his latest horror story ("It was a dark and stormy night..."), the words he writes immediately come true. Zackie and Alex go nuts exploring the immediate possibilities of this typewriter: The power goes out; weather is controlled; their 'friend' -- a rude boy named Adam who bullies Zackie a bit much -- is placed in unusual circumstances; parents vanish; blob monsters heave hungrily from basements, waiting for fresh meat....

The power of the typewriter is nebulous, and Zackie starts believing all the odd occurrences were just coincidences. After an awful day of teasing from Adam, Zackie launches into writing his newest revenge story about the blob monster terrorizing the town. Zackie makes it to town just in time to see the blob monster at work, eating Adam and the other citizens of town.

The blob monster itself is a gross-out monster, with lots of pulsing and slime and slurping, sucking sounds. In some respects, characters and concepts are run-of-the-mill for Goosebumps. What propels this entry forward is the sense of humor characters are given. The dad is especially great, showing up just to mope about his need for ice cream and, please, don't Zackie and Alex want ice cream so he'd have an excuse to go get some?

I wasn't too big on the twist ending. The last chapter is a self-contained reversal in the story's direction that was just too silly. With the endless possibilities such a typewriter would give, Zackie and Alex's explorations of that power were hard to believe. They barely did anything, and argued too much about how to convince everyone of its power. It's a bit obvious to say you could simply write people to believe, but, personally, I'd give everyone poopy pants.

R.L. Stine's Goosebumps (1992–1997):
#54 Don't Go to Sleep! | # 56 The Curse at Camp Cold Lake show less

This is maybe the Goosebumpiest Goosebumps book so far. The concept is easily digestible, the cast is annoying and like twice as big as it needs to be… really the main thing holding this back from being the model example of a Goosebumps book is that quite a few of the chapters don’t end with ridiculous fakeout scares!

The overall idea of the camera that shows the future is one I’ve encountered in creepy scifi movies before, and it’s a decent concept and I actually think it’s show more executed super well here. The entire framing is very pulpy and Goosebumpsy, which makes it a lot more interesting to me than it would be otherwise.

Oh, one more thing. This family gets way too excited about their dad buying a Ford Taurus I think it was? Like, they’re acting like he got a sports car or something. It’s so weird, especially since R.L. Stein goes to the trouble of telling you exactly what kind of car it is like it’s a big deal. Just bizarre. show less