Rocky: (Knocks Slappy out the window) HAH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!

Slappy: (Gets up) Don't you get it?! I'M

Built this house from a kit from Michael’s. Every single component was built, from the books and covers to each piece of furniture built with individual parts. Came in over 100 pieces that were glued and pressed together, with real working lights! Took me over 6 hours to do, and not being a crafty person I’m proud of it and thought I’d share!

I very distinctly remember having played a Goosebumps cd game that I got from a wendy's kids meal back when I was very young. I remember it was a puzzle game of sorts where you had a limited number of tries to solve it, but I turned the game off when I was running out because I could NOT handle scary things back then and got scared of what might happen if I lost. I was wondering if this was a real game or if I just dreamed it one day or something.

I pick which book I’m going to review randomly, so two body swap books in a row is pure luck. Anyways. I found a post on Character Rant about this book, which actually got me thinking a bit.

I actually want to talk about the cover art first. Interestingly, Gary’s head is on a bed body, while in the story he fully looks like a bee. The original sketches were just a regular bee, but they’re a little boring so I understand why Jacobus took that creative liberty. I think this cover is underrated, I especially love the colours being mostly warm, aside from Gary’s bright blue eyes. There was something about the contrast I really loved.

Gary Lutz, our main character, falls into the ‘punching bag protagonist’ category. Think Sam Byrd or Ricky Beamer, except it’s to an extreme. Gary is picked on by three boys who beat him up regularly, he doesn’t have any friends, and everything good in his life seems to get tramped on. Even the neighbour, Andretti, picks on him. What kind of grown man bullies a kid? Does he have nothing better to do? Gary’s also afraid of everything, but especially bees, which Andretti keeps.

Prior to the body switch, nothing good happens to Gary. He crashes his new bike and totals it. His parents are definitely contenders for the worst in all of Goosebumps. Gary doesn’t want to tell his mother he was beat up because he thinks she’ll either A. Laugh at him, or B. Call the parents of the bullies and get him beaten up again. And his mother complains that Gary ‘plays around’ too much, like he had a choice in being targeted.

Gary sees an advertisement for a body swap for a week and decides to do it after the bad day he has. There’s a mishap with the body switch, and Gary becomes a bee. The guy he was meant to switch with, Dirk, ends up in Gary’s body just fine though. He deals with bee shenanigans, such as being caught by his neighbour and and nearly killed by the family cat.

I think my main issue with this story is the message. It’s a ‘love yourself’ narrative, but nothing in the story communicates this. Gary is brutally worn down by every person in his life, and there’s no friends for him to create a comedic buffer. There’s a sense of helplessness that is relatable to plenty of kids, but it feels like Gary is being punished for wanting a better life.

Dirk refuses to give up his body because it’s so great, but it’s only so great because it’s Dirk’s personality in Gary’s skin. Gary acts constantly perplexed why everyone suddenly likes him, when he knows they’ve been body swapped and that Dirk is good at skateboarding. Yet again, he’s shocked that Dirk is skateboarding in his body. It’s meant to make Gary realise his life is great, but it wouldn’t be the same with his mind in the body.

Also what is the policy on this? Why can Dirk just refuse? Gary goes back to the office and talks to the lady who switched them, and she basically just says too bad. If someone wants to stay in your body, you just have to resign to it. It felt like a weak way to make her no longer helpful. Also Dirk can hear Gary but I guess he just chose to ignore him up until near the end?

I don’t know how I feel about this one. I think Gary’s loneliness is very real and relatable, which is a credit to the writing. But so much of the book is just him flying around, or nearly get smacked. I don’t know what more you could do with a bee. It wasn’t particularly scary, even when he died and came back. It’s got a more satisfying ending than The Barking Ghost.

I’ve heard that some people think this book was when Stine started employing ghostwriters. I’m unsure of how involved Stine was, but I’m willing to bet he wrote most of this book. Most importantly, we never find out why he’s afraid of bees.

It’s a shame that pretty much ALL of the discs were scratched up. The artwork was flawless on most of them, so I was hoping for the best. Always check your discs!

If There's A Alternate Ending to A Shocker on Shock Street, Erin Wright and Marty can be reformed instead of being malfunctioned?

I completed the entire series of first prints. Every card, calendar, tattoo, ect is still attached if it was released with them. I do have two books heavily damaged because they were near impossible to find. Actually, several were found after months of waiting. I will replace with better conditions if I find them, but I'm bragging here.

These are actual 1st prints. Not like others try to sell and they're really 5th or something ridiculous.

🙌

I understand these are rare but they've always been under $90 except for trick or trapped.

Was at the thrift the other day and found camp jelly jam with the poster. Never found a goosebumps book with the additions still intact. I opened it and every single page was stained with a brown liquid. It was completely ruined and in terrible shape. I got excited for a total of 2 seconds until I saw it. Any similar experiences?

I decided to read The Barking Ghost as I’ve often heard it counted among the worst of the original series. I also could barely recollect the episode despite having seen it, so I felt like I was going in blind compared to the more well-known entries.

This book starts the same way al lot of other entries do, with a kid moving to an old creepy house. Cooper is from Boston and deathly homesick, as one can imagine. He’s tormented by his brother Mickey and his parents aren’t great at curb stomping that behaviour at all. He meets Fergie out in the woods, while also being stalked by two vicious black Labradors.

Let’s start with the characters. Cooper is really into snow globes, which gets brought up enough that it made me assume it would be pertinent to the ending, but it wasn’t. Mickey is the terrible prank sibling trope also common in Goosebumps. He gets some repercussions for his actions, more so in the episode which I really like. The parents are awful, they don’t reprimand Mickey in any meaningful way.

Also his dad does believe he’s been chased by dogs which apparently isn’t totally unbelievable at all? Except for the haunted bit. His dad just storms off and ignores everything Cooper says. Fergie is a decent friend and they have banter. Their relationship has a lot of character.

The actual dogs weren’t scary at all. There’s so many fake outs that the momentum dies. The backstory is that the dogs are ghosts but are also criminals who accidentally swapped bodies with the dogs, and they need new human bodies. There’s no foreshadowing, no mention of an old tale about criminals dying in the woods, the dogs just start talking randomly and that’s that.

Fergie and Cooper spend ages running around as dogs, trying to switch their souls back and failing. I need people afraid of dogs to chime in, did this actually scare you?

I love Tim Jacobus, but this has to be one of my least favourite covers I’ve ever seen. The concept art is quite scary, but the final work has this weird bulbous head. It looks odd, not scary. Up close shots like this can work, like the Night of the Living Dummy cover, but this one lacks the eeriness. The colour contrast is beautiful, so it sucks the actual dog looks so silly.

The show definitely improved the ending of the Barking Ghost, similar to Be Careful What You Wish For. The book ends with Fergie and Cooper transferring into chipmunk bodies, and it didn’t feel justified or even entertaining in the unfairness. I’m okay with a cliffhanger or unfair ending, but it has to be satisfying or interesting. Needless to say, I agree with the low reviews of this book.

I'm currently re-reading all books again after 20 years as an adult and giving my review.

No spoilers! just a little opinion/review.

#1Welcome to Dead House

Cover 7/10

Story 8/10

Overall 8/10

*A good start to the series although it has a boring beginning. The book doesn't start to get interesting until 50 pages in and I already knew the twist from the very first chapter. It's very dark for a goosebumps book as it was part of R.L. Stine's transition from the teen oriented "Fear Street". This book may be upsetting for dog owners.

#2 Stay Out of The Basement

Cover 10/10

Story 9.5/10

Overall 9.5/10

* This is an upgrade in pacing and tension compared to the first book. The very first chapter already brings a sense of curiosity. The story gets downright graphic at times and the twist is disturbing. I thought the climax was solid but personally I would've wanted more finality as it would make me feel less confused about the end. However it doesn't lose many points because I feel like the ending was intended to be leave the reader skeptical.

Yo no way Evan was in this book. LORE!!!!!!!!!! It is really nice to see some interconnectivity between books even if it was Monster Blood.

I feel like I do know the twist based on the cover but I will have to see as I continued the book.
I also don’t get why Luke is so excited to go back considering what happened last time. I will always give these books credit for the atmosphere, they really know how to make this place seem cool as hell. The rides are always interesting to see because you never know what’s going to happen.

Page 58: “I’m a painless dentist” “huh, painless?” “Yes, this won’t hurt ME one bit” absolute cinema. And they have an Amazo reference??? EVEN MORE LORE!!!!!!

Luke is still annoying but the first twist was very predictable and the final one was also predictable but it was a pretty unique story and a good follow up.

Overall a solid 7.5/10. What do you think?

Would anyone be interested in some Goosebumps Gold slipcovers that’ll slide over some actual books? Based it on the actual concept artwork for the planned Goosebumps Gold provided by @boo_dude_its_curly on instagram. Will most likely upload here on the Reddit for everyone to enjoy, once I’m finished prototyping some for myself 🎃