The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (Goosebumps #5)

## What will wake the dead?

It's Christmas vacation, and Gabe Sabry is offered the adventure of a lifetime: To accompany his uncle Ben into unknown archaeological territory. A new series of secret chambers have been found deep underneath the Great Pyramids of Egypt, and Ben's research crew is given exclusive access -- along with Gabe and Ben's daughter, Sari. As they uncover the hidden rooms, however, the work crew starts coming down with a mysterious illness. There's talk of a centuries-old curse to any who attempt invading the tomb's confines (explaining why it's yet to be pillaged). Relenting against superstition, Uncle Ben and his family push onward, discovering yet more tombs full of past explorers -- a plethora of corpses denoting show more the curse's long record of victims. Unfortunately for Gabe and his family, it looks like the curse has its rotted, eye-less pits focused directly on them next.

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

Cultural appropriation is always tacky, and it's tacky here. Any story about Egyptian mummies and cursed corpses is inherently going to have that against it. Being an ode to classic pulp adventures, however, with its story carved out of classic horror movies like Karl Freund and Boris Karloff's the Mummy (1932) may alleviate these issues, depending on the reader. (I can't say the same for the sequel, Return of the Mummy, which belittles modern-day Egypt a bit too frequently to otherwise tell the exact same story.)

Still, readers get a romantic story of exotic adventure, full of traps, international museums, deadly scorpions, secret passages -- all the pulpy cliches a mummy tale should provide. There's just something about ancient Egypt that I found (and still find) enthralling when I originally read this in the '90s. Sure, it's silly to think anyone could find new, untouched tombs in the Great Pyramids today, or that all of Egypt can be condensed to a few obnoxious, belittling stereotypes, but Gabe and Sari's adventures are perfectly pulpy and exciting, nonetheless. I wish mummies were more mythologized to remove these issues, because I love the concept and atmosphere they offer, even when the result is ridiculous Brendan Fraser movies.

R.L. Stine's Goosebumps (1992–1997):
#4 Say Cheese and Die! | #6 Let's Get Invisible! show less

Another excellent Goosebumps for the kids. I'm surprised at the layers for this one - it was in different discoveries, mysteries, and interesting characters, although I loathed his cousin Sari, what a brat. The ending pulled out a trick I had forgotten about from earlier in the book and it was a suitable ending for this kind of book. Kids who like stories like this should love this one. You can't go wrong with mummies. Well, unless it's a cheesy movie.

So, this was actually one of the better Goosebumps books so far. I'm actually kind of sad that I didn't read this when I was at a far more appropriate age to be reading Goosebumps books. While Gabe is an insufferable little brat in the beginning of the book (and let's face it, Sari isn't much better) and his Uncle proves criminally negligent when they're actually in the pyramid, the scares in this book are more potent than might be thought.

The descriptions of the pyramid itself, thousands of winding tunnels, dead ends, unexplored chambers - the fear of being lost there in the oppressive dark with thousands of years of accumulated dust and grime, scorpions of mummies. It's good stuff, and to the child's imagination likely incredibly show more potent. Add some old cults into the picture, burning tar, the descriptions of how mummies were made, etc.

Very fun children's horror. show less

Well, hmm.

I’m actually tempted to say this is the most well-written book of the series so far, but on the other hand mummy stories are pretty much always inherently racist and this one in particular was clearly extremely poorly-researched and made me roll my eyes several times… but like, it’s still just fantastically well-written for a Goosebumps book? So, yeah. That’s kind of where I’m at with this one.

Gabe carrying around a “lucky mummy hand” is just goofy, though, and I don’t mean that as a compliment like I often do with this series. Truly bizarre.

In The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb, Gabe and his sister Jess explore ancient Egyptian pyramids during a vacation in Egypt—only to become trapped inside endless tunnels filled with mysterious warnings. They soon suspect they are not alone and that something sinister may be stalking them. R. L. Stine expertly combines archaeological intrigue, claustrophobic suspense, and supernatural scares to deliver a captivating Goosebumps classic with a chilling twist.

I think writing a review for this harmless and silly and yep mediocre book is undeserved and purposeless. Having said that, I enjoyed it for a simple story, one which contain the surprise of brevity. I think there's the smallest iota of sorcery in the book than in its predecessors. The details from the people and the culture and other paraphernalia of Cairo must have been obtained first hand - pun intended! The author did cheat at one point ,giving us the impression that the ending would not be happy. Maybe it's because of this gross misdirection that I'm fond of this story.

Most of the thrill in this was from a human monster rather than a supernatural one, which made it a little different. However, I cannot believe that an archaeologist would say "mummy case" instead of "sarcophagus", a word that many middle schoolers should have come across at some point in history.