R. L. Stine

## Who's afraid of the big, bad wolf?

Fever Swamp invokes a layered mythos atypical of the Goosebumps series. The swamp harbors old, sick memories of a fever that drives inhabitants insane, ultimately killing them. Given the title, there are obvious parallels to lycanthropy.

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

For Grady Tucker and his family, the swamp is full of mysteries worth investigating. His parents -- both scientists -- show more research the local fauna, namely swamp deer and their ability to survive in Fever Swamp*, while Grady quickly gets wrapped up in the werewolf mythology. He makes friends with two competing locals, Will and Cassie, and a giant dog named Wolf. The four spend their days exploring the swamp, hiding from a mad hermit, and stumbling upon mauled corpses of animals. Every night, the backwoods echo with wild howls, and the animals' corpses show up closer and closer to home, and a wild beast starts clawing to be let in....

Even though R.L. Stine writes the swamp as a basket of swamp cliches, the plot's so focused within the neighborhood that the swamp cliches never get out of hand. (See How I Got My Shrunken Head or the Abominable Snowman of Pasadena for how ignorant R.L. Stine could be of the world beyond a white, safe suburbia.) The Werewolf of Fever Swamp continues the trend started in Piano Lessons Can Be Murder, portraying scientists and science very negatively -- Grady's parents are belittling, and their 'research' is introducing invasive species just to see what happens. It was a bad habit on Stine's part that always bewildered me, but also seemed to be a trend among '90s YA and TV.

The Werewolf of Fever Swamp does a lot right despite its problems: The mystery is effective, the setting oppressive, and the cover art among Tim Jacobus' best work (it was my favorite when I was a kid!). The plot's rife with red herrings, pointing the finger every which way -- the hermit, Will, Cassie, the dog, the parents -- for the werewolf's identity, and no one's trustworthy. Like many of the best Gooseboops yarns, the twist ending fits perfectly within the rules of the story (not to mention how dark it is!), making the Werewolf of Fever Swamp one of the best original Goosebumps novels.

R.L. Stine's Goosebumps (1992–1997):
#13 Piano Lessons Can Be Murder | #15 You Can't Scare Me! show less

## Just Dial 5-5-5-C-R-E-E-P!

Poor Ricky! The hero of Calling All Creeps! is easily the biggest loser in the Goosebumps series. The poor kid has no friends and is bullied by literally his entire school -- even his teachers! 'Sicky Ricky' and 'Ricky Rat' are heard day to day, chanted by every student he runs into. It's hard to get into those shoes without feeling terrible.

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

A new student, Iris, show more moves to town and offers an out from Ricky's loserdom -- he's finally finding a friend, but that friendship is put to the test by one of Ricky's bullies. The bully, Tara, cruelly barrages Ricky with insults in front of Iris, then fires him from the school's newspaper and guaranteeing him a place in summer school. Ricky gets back at Tara by breaking into the newspaper's office and inserting a mean message with her phone number attached. Unfortunately for Ricky, Tara is observant, catches his insult and turns it on him:

## Calling All Creeps! Calling All Creeps! If you're a real Creep, call Ricky after midnight at 867-5309

Ricky's awake all night, getting call after call from self-described 'Creeps.' The trouble continues the next day, with Creeps leaving him message throughout the school about their next meeting, about when they can start planting seeds and taking over....

Despite sporting one of the series' lamest covers, it's a solid, fun yarn. I remember having a lot of fun trying to decide what I'd do in Ricky's shoes when I was a kid -- whether the conspiracies taking place were real or imaginary (of course they're real!), and how I'd deal with the pressures of a possible invasion.

R.L. Stine's Goosebumps (1992–1997):
#49 Vampire Breath | #51 Beware, the Snowman show less

## New face. Old nightmare.

A good, old-fashioned Halloween yarn is what this series does best. The Haunted Mask II is a direct sequel to Carly Beth's early Goosebumps adventure, which also continues to be a favorite of mine. It's the following Halloween, and Carly Beth, having lived through the nightmare of bonding to that devilish mask, is no longer the scaredy-cat she once was.

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

She's also show more no longer the narrator -- instead, this sequel follows one of Carly Beth's old bullies, Steve, as he deals with coaching a team of rabid animals (i.e., first-graders). The kids treat him like dirt, and with Halloween approaching, he hopes to out-do Carly Beth's horrific adventure and really scare the pants off those obnoxious kids.

The Unloved, as the haunted masks are known, are some of R.L. Stine's most creative monsters. Partially, it's because of the suggested mythology behind them; with a slew of masks desperate to tell their tale, we're limited to only experiencing a small handful of these ghastly monsters. The masks are ugly, warm, pulsing, fleshy Halloween masks that look utterly real, and throb with a desire to be worn. Once a mischievous soul dons the mask, it physically, painfully merges with that person, and the mask's personality merges with the wearer's.

Last year, Carly Beth wore the mask of what's best described as a demon; Steve, on the other hand, grabbed the mask of a dying old man covered in necrotic tissue, spiders, and a single rotting tooth. The old man is also emotionally haunted by loneliness, weakness, depression, and self-loathing anger.

Having a kid, especially a joker like Steven, take on the characteristics and feelings of someone so worn-out and unhappy is pretty rough, and the looming danger of simply running out of time feels very real. It's darker than the first, and I greatly appreciate the villain not being black-and-white, but uncomfortably grey and sympathetic.

The Haunted Mask books are a series highlight, and still hold up exceptionally well as creepy Halloween tales.

R.L. Stine's Goosebumps (1992–1997):
#35 A Shocker on Shock Street | #37 The Headless Ghost show less

## It's a finger lickin' nightmare!

Chicken Chicken is another entry I actively avoided as a kid. The name and the cover gave no suggestion of quality. The farm setting is exactly the place no city bumpkin like myself wanted to visit. The plot -- transforming into a chicken -- sounds awful. It is awful. It's also disgusting and silly and really, really fun.

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

Like How I Learned to Fly, this one show more was a complete surprise, particularly given its reputation as a series lowpoint. One thing it has going for it is how focused the plot and characterization are: Siblings Crystal and Cole cause accidental mischief against a young goth woman who lives alone with only her cat for company. Vanessa -- a witch -- casts a spell on them for their poor manners, leaving the two heroes with the words 'chicken chicken.'

Pretty soon -- and this is where it gets disgusting and uncomfortable and fantastic -- both Crystal and Cole find themselves transforming into chickens. The process takes days, dragging out the grotesqueness of the situation. Crystal's lips slowly harden to a bone-like consistency, pushing forward on her face (and making for an alarming amount of clicking whenever she tries to speak); Cole's having trouble talking without a cascade of clucking interrupting his sentences; they're both having to slowly and painfully remove feathers that are sprouting by the hour. And, of course, no one believes them despite the physicality of it all.

The entire story is focused around the horrors of their transformations, and the attempts to overcome it. In some ways, it's a rehash of the earlier My Hairiest Adventure in exploring the horrible changes of puberty and how that can wreck kids' social lives -- just in a much more interesting way. Many of the lesser series entries have trouble staying so focused before inserting unrelated happenstance and random events, so this one sticking so close to the two heroes and their woes is a 'pleasant' surprise.

Also, it's incredibly, disgustingly gross. Blegh.

R.L. Stine's Goosebumps (1992–1997):
#52 How I Learned to Fly | # 54 Don't Go to Sleep! show less