Night of the Living Dummy III (Goosebumps #40)

Reader Beware, You're In For A Scare!

The Night of the Living Dummy series, like Slappy, just won't die and stay dead. Nevermind that his head split in two in the last book and some strange worm creature crawled out from it. Nevermind any of that, Slappy is back and he will make your life a living Hell all the while shouting his cruel taunts and comebacks. Only Slappy takes a bit of a backseat this book until the third Act, there are more interesting forces at work here.

The plot of this book was far more interesting to me than the plot of the previous two installments. In this one, as in the bulk of the best Goosebumps titles, the main danger and conflict is human. In this case, it is the question of whether or not their fearful cousin show more Zeke is purposefully engineering the events that make him dissolve into panic to get the protagonists in trouble or not. This plot was more interesting to me than the dummies, it was the sort of ingenious sadistic plot that seems like a great idea when either a) you're a kid, or b) a psychopath. Then again, is there really much difference between the two?

The Museum of Dummies was as frightening an idea as ever, and the actual supernatural action in the book was entertaining and adequately creepy. I can see why this miniseries within the larger Goosebumps series is lauded by many and remembered as being terrifying by even more. It was a solid little entry, complete with an utterly creepy final image of sorts there in the attic surrounded by dummies.

Good stuff. show less

## Every dummy has his day...and night!

Even though Slappy is the face of the Goosebumps series, I've found his stories (and his horror) generally on the weaker side. Night of the Living Dummy III is weird. It's weird in that it's nearly identical to the second book in the sub-series.

In some respects, it feels like a rewrite, and corrects a lot of the beats that just didn't work with the last one.

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

R.L. Stine's characterization also really shines with this entry. The siblings play off of one another with genuine sibling personalities, and their reluctance to accept (or, like, not accept) their doofy cousin feels very real. The dad is show more awkward, and often fails at being a stern parent -- but he tries! he tries really, really hard.

It's a creepy entry: Trina and Dan O'Dell's dad brings home a 13th dummy to add to his collection during a visit from some relatives. Soon after, horrible pranks start occurring in the night, with cousin Zane usually at the butt-end of them. Most of the yarn is about unraveling the mystery of who's behind the pranks, and what the motivation is. It could be Slappy, or it might be a bit more...real. The real scares don't crop up until the very end.

With mild spoilers, I still don't understand Slappy's goal to make children his slaves by...being a jerk. Like with the last entry, he isn't threatening -- just annoying. Even rude. And like the last entry, our heroes simply overpower him when he plays his cards and starts making threats. It makes Slappy's nefarious goals confusing, and his threats weak.

But this entry was all about the characterization, and the feeling of an ominous mystery! It's easily the best of the sub-series, and can be read entirely on its own without reference to the prior entries.

R.L. Stine's Goosebumps (1992–1997):
#39 How I Got My Shrunken Head | #41 Bad Hare Day show less

Trina O’Dell and her brother Dan discover their father’s home-based “Dummy Museum,” loaded with ventriloquist dolls—and soon, the creepy figures begin to taunt and terrorize the family. As Slappy's successors emerge, the siblings must uncover how to stop the haunting before the dolls take over entirely. This installment delivers classic Goosebumps fun mixed with eerie thrills and relentless suspense—especially for fans of mischievous, evil toys.

Twin sisters Lindy and Kris Powell find a ventriloquist dummy in the house next door that is under construction. Lindy takes the dummy and calls him Slappy. The two twins are very competitive and always trying to outdo the other. Kris becomes jealous of her sister and Slappy, and tries to top them to no avail by getting a dummy named Mr. Wood. After Mr. Wood comes around, several accidents occur that are not normal. These strange happenings eventually turn to Mr. Wood becoming lifelike and very threatening to both girls. When the girls finally get rid of Mr. Wood after he is hit by a steamroller, Slappy comes to life and starts to create new problems that Mr. Wood left behind. I have a few Goosebumps books in my classroom library that show more are very popular with students in my class. After getting some of my hours in for my internship in the school library, there are no Goosebumps books in the school library collection. Goosebumps was a childhood favorite of mine growing up and I enjoyed reading this book and having this blast from the past reading experience. This story is a typical RL Stine style of book. It has many twists and turns and keeps the reader engaged at the turn of every page. This would be a good book to help students reach their AR goal. Also, a good book to hook students on the Goosebumps series. show less

The book was really good because of the scarey parts. I felt there was a lot of good descriptions in this book. My favorite character was Dan because he's always playing jokes on his cousin. I thought the dummies were funny because they kept popping out and scaring Zane and Trina. -J.G

I didn't like the first two books, so why write a third with basically the same plot? At least during this book we discover the cause of the evil dummy's abilities- a giant worm. I did appreciate the two kids getting their nasty cousin into trouble by giving him the evil Slappy- good call on their part.

#40 "Every dummy has his day- and his night!"
They're baaaaaack!!!! That's right there back with yet another adventure. But this time Trina is the object of their affection. Her dad had a ventriloquist act years ago and keeps his old dummies up in the attic. There are lots of different ones and they're all pretty cool. But when strange things start to happen and the dummies start popping up in strange places things get a little, well... strange!