M. D. Spenser

Oh sweet nostalgia. I loved this kind of stuff when I was a boy. It started with Goosebumps in elementary school. They were popular with the boys of that age, but I was a bit obsessive. I just had to have them all! It didn't take long, however, for the 'horror' in the books to become less scary and even at times a little silly. At that point, I turned to the Shivers series.

Shivers is a lot like Goosebumps, just by a different author, and intended for a slightly hardier audience. The books, show more while still intended for the elementary crowd, were much scarier and I have fond memories of being absolutely terrified while reading them. So maybe I was a bit morbid as a child...

Terror on Troll Mountain is about a boy from Chicago who is visiting his family in Italy. He is told of a folktale involving a giant troll called the Orco who eats children. It's only natural for him to explore the forest in mountains in search for it!

I won't say these books are fine YA/Children's literature, but I have fond memories of them and I enjoyed revisiting this childhood favorite. show less

I never would have come across this series (or the author) had I not wandered into a dollar store in the UP when I was vacationing with my family years ago. I saw several titles of this series and this one looked the most interesting to me, so I thought, if this book is only a dollar, it can't hurt. I knew it was a rip from Animorphs - the title says it all. Humanomorphs? Really? But again, it was only a DOLLAR.

Anyway, this is about some poor white trash girl who lives in a trailer and her show more parents work hard and her grandmother (who even has a stupid hick grandma name) Grandma talks about diamonds and it seems crazy talk, and the granddaughter stumbles across this old book about magic from the library. Only it's not a building, it's one of these library vans. Yep, redneck country. So she uses the magic in the book to not only assume a new form (her grandmother's younger form) she also TRAVELS BACK IN TIME. Now, this makes the cover of this book contradictory, as she's shown changing into a old woman/grandma, where she never takes a old form, just Grandma's preteen form. And then she goes to save her grandmother and the family from these people who try to swindle them out of the diamonds that they didn't know they had. So the future is saved, everyone's happy, her family is now rich instead of being stuck in a trailer, yada yada.

The writing itself is pretty lackluster. R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series was written far better than this. If you're looking for a cheap laugh, you might be able to find this from used bookstores and stuff, but seriously, don't waste your money. Go to the library, and if they don't have them, you're not missing much. show less

I can't quite believe someone wrote, let alone published, this book. The only reason I even own it was because I couldn't resist the sheer badness of it. The plot is so unbelievable that my mind boggles, the premise is even worse, but hey, it's a good laugh. I can't help but think this is just thinly veiled propaganda.

The Shivers Series was some of the very first books I read by myself as a child, excellent read if your child likes goosebumps but maybe is alittle to young for such a long read.