This is the sixth book in the Living Dummy saga, and it's about two girls, called Britney Crosby and Molly Molloy. Britney Crosby receives the visit of her annoying cousin Ethan, who is going to spend a few days with Britney and her family. Ethan brings with him a wooden dummy that he has named Mr. Bad Boy, because he doesn't know that his real name is Slappy. The plot of this book is very basic, and I think that there are other Slappy books that are better than this one, for example Slappy's Nightmare. Britney spends all the book thinking that the dummy is alive when he is really not, and then she reads the words to put him to sleep, and she awakes him by accident, so she has to come up with a way to get rid of Slappy and prevent him from make her his slave forever, but Slappy warns Britney that she can't get rid of him for long and that he will be back. This is one of the shortest Goosebumps books that I have ever read, because the first part is only 93 pages long.

The second part of the story is about Molly going with Britney and her family to HorrorLand, known as "The Scariest Place on Earth". They arrive and the people working there, known as Horrors, try to scare them, but they think that they are joking. Finally, they lose their parents and have to find a way to survive on their own in HorrorLand. The HorrorLand storyline will continue in the next book.

Review Date: January 16, 2025

Grade: 5,5

This is the third book in the Deep Trouble saga, before Deep Trouble (1994) and Deep Trouble II (1997), and it stars the same two children from the two previous books, the brothers Billy and Sheena. These two are once again visiting their uncle, called Dr. Deep, who is a famous marine biologist who travels aboard a high-technology ship called Cassandra. This time, they are trying to find a lost pirate ship named The Scarlet Skull, who disappeared within a mysterious mist back in the decade of 1780, during the so called "Golden Age of Piracy", and was never seen again. The Cassandra goes through a storm and Dr. Deep falls from the ship, then Billy and Sheena arrive at a nearby island, where they find Long Ben One-Leg, the captain from The Scarlet Skull, accompanied by his crew of zombie pirates., who had captured Billy and Sheena's uncle Dr. Deep, and they tell the kids that if they want their uncle to be returned to them alive, they must give the captain Long Ben One-Leg back what is his. They dive into the ocean, find the treasure and return it to him, but they discover that what he really wabted was his lost leg. This book is not one of the best Goosebumps books, nor one of the worst, I don't really like the Goosebumps books that are related to piracy or adventures in the ocean, like some others that R.L. Stine has written, for example Attack of the Jack! (2017). In fact, the sea monster that is depicted in the cover isn't even the final enemy of the book, just part of an imaginary adventure of Billy. There are some plot twists in the book, for example when two mysterious characters appear and they are not what they seem, or the ending of the story, that was strange and also implied that the danger wasn't over for the protagonists, but they were mostly very predictable, and at the ending, they defeat the captain Long Ben One-Leg way too easily, so this was a decent book in the Deep Trouble saga but I think it's not neccesary for R.L. Stine to write more books within it ever again.

In the second part of the story, Billy and Sheena are invited to HorrorLand and there they find Briney and Molly, the protagonists of the last book. They go to an attraction called Quicksand Beach, and when the attraction ends, Britney and Molly have disappeared and Billy and Sheena are incapable to find them. In another attraction called The Play Pen, they find a boy called a boy called Matt Daniels, who will be the main character of the next book, Monster Blood for Breakfast!, being persecuted by the Monster Police of HorrorLand. When he gets rid of them, he reunites with Billy and Sheena and together they go to find Britney and Molly, but they end up in a strange cafeteria where Sheena becomes invisible without any reason. The HorrorLand storyline will continue in the next book.

Review Date: February 16, 2025

Grade: 6,1

This is the fifth book in the Monster Blood saga, following Monster Blood (1992), Monster Blood II (1994), Monster Blood III (1995) and Monster Blood IV (1997). The protagonist of all those book was a boy called Evan Ross, but this time the main character is a completely different boy called Matt Daniels, who has a friend called Bradley Wormser, although everyone calls him "Worm" because he is so skinny. He is supposed to be Matt's friend, but Matt really can't stand him because he is a "creep", according to Matt's words, and he is constantly playing pranks on him and his sister Livvy, besides, that same week, Matt has to win a swimming competition and he also has to win the first prize in a science contest. The interesting part of the plot begins when Bradley orders an egg that contains Monster Blood inside from a strange website, with which he plans to win the science contest, and Matt swallows it up by accident, which makes him to start growing uncontrollably, and he has to prevent anyone from notice that he has grown so much and also find a way to return to his normal size. That is basically the whole plot of the book, is very predictable sometimes and it doesn't have many twists, but it is interesting to see how Matt gets out of trouble or tries to stop Bradley from getting away with it. Monster Blood is one of the most famous monsters from the Goosebumps franchise, but it's not very interesting for me, in fact, I think that the first four books that were written during the decade of 1990 were better than this one. There is only one more Monster Blood book after this one, Monster Blood Is Back (2021), which I haven't read yet, but I think that the Monster Blood is not interesting enough to write more books about it and I think R.L. Stine shouldn't do it.

In the second part of the story, Matt Daniels arrives to HorrorLand and finds Billy and Sheena, who has turned invisible and her brother doesn't know how to return her back to normal. Then they see two Horror Cops from the Monster Police of HorrorLand and ask for help to them, but they don't know how to help them, what they really want is the HorrorLand business card that belongs to Matt, and then Billy, Sheena (Who is still invisible) and Matt try to run away from them. They arrive to another attraction where they find a jar of Monster Blood, and Matt starts wondering how is it possible that the Monster Blood is there in HorrorLand. They accidentally drop the jar and the Monster Blood starts growing and swallows up Billy and Sheena. Then two Horrors come to help them and bring up a magic mirror which absorbs the Monster Blood and saves Billy, but Sheena has completely disappeared, sucked into the magic mirror, which makes Billy very upset. Then Billy and Matt look closely to a fragment of the mirror and discover Britney and Molly aboard a carrousel covered in flames. The HorrorLand storyline will continue in the next book.

Review Date: February 24, 2025

Grade: 5,3

This is the third book in the Haunted Mask saga, following The Haunted Mask (1993) and The Haunted Mask II (1995). The protagonist of this book is a girl called Carly Beth, who was the main character in The Haunted Mask and also appeared as a secondary character in The Haunted Mask II. The events of this book take place almost a year after The Haunted Mask. Carly Beth still has the Haunted Mask kept in her basement, and one night she gets out of bed because she hears the Haunted Mask calling her and trying to convince her to put it on, but she doesn't succumb to the temptation and leaves it where it is, because she knows that if she puts on the mask, she will become evil and she will never be able to take it off again. The next day she goes to the Tumbledown Farms with her best friend Sabrina Mason to take care of a bunch of kids. There they meet another girl called Laura Henry, who tells them an old story about a boy who worked at the stable taking care of the horses, but one night he decided to scare them by putting an ugly mask, so the horses ran over him and killed him, and they ended up dying of sheer terror. The next day, Carly and Sabrina decide to investigate the abandoned stable; Carly even brings a bag of carrots, but they hear howls of terror from the dead horses, they get scared and run away from that place, but in the last moment, Carly sees the shadow of a boy in the distance. The next day, after finishing her work shift at the Tumbledown Farms, Carly finds the Shopkeeper who sold her the Haunted Mask last Halloween, and asks him how can she get rid of it, but the Shopkeeper says that he can't do anything for her, because the Haunted Mask never accepts defeat and she was the one and only person who was able to take it off, and he also says that a person that Carly knows wants to get the Haunted Mask back. Finally, Carly Beth discovers who is the person who scared the horses to death and died after being run over, and it's not who she thought at the beginning. She also finds a way to defeat the ghost who wanted to recuperate the Haunted Mask and saves all the kids in the Tumbledown Farms. But suddenly, when she thought that the danger was finally over, she hears the voice of the Haunted Mask telling her that she is its favorite and that it will see her again next Halloween. This book is not as good as the original The Haunted Mask book, and it also ignores some things that happened in that book. For example, at the end of The Haunted Mask, Carly Beth's brother puts on the Haunted Mask, and in this book he appears without it, when supposedly the Haunted Mask could only be removed once. I like that Carly Beth is braver in this book than she was in the last one, defying the Haunted Mask and not letting it control her.

In the second part of the story, Carly and Sabrina receive an invitation to HorrorLand, and first they attend the magic show of a magician called Mondo the Magical, where they casually find Matt Daniels and Billy Deep, who are still in search of Billy's sister Sheena, Britney Crosby, Molly Molloy and a Horror called Byron, who supposedly wanted to help them. After doing some magic tricks, Mondo the Magical makes Sheena appear onstage, completely visible again, and ever he looks surprised, because he doesn't know how he did it. Sabrina says that she and Carly should accompany them to find Britney and Molly, but Carly prefers to go to another attractions. They find a mask shop where Carly Beth thinks she see the Haunted Mask, but when they get closer they realize that it's just a normal mask. After entering the mask shop, they discover two masks with the faces of Britney and Molly, and they run away scared. They realize that, as they are Very Special Guests, they are also in danger, just as Matt, Billy Sheena, so they decide to search them and help them find Britney and Molly, but instead, they end up in Wolfsbane Forest, a village habitated by werewolfs, where they get lost and stalked by a dark figure. The HorrorLand storyline will continue in the next book.

Review Date: March 11, 2025

Grade: 6,5

This book marks the first appearace of Dr. Maniac, who also appeared later in Dr. Maniac Will See You Now (2013) and They Call Me the Night Howler! (2020). The story is about a boy called Robby Schwartz, who draws and writes comic strips, and his favorite creation is Dr. Maniac, also called The Totally Mental Maniac of Mayhem. One day, Robby goes on a hike in the woods with his family, and when night falls, he wanders alone through the woods and finds Dr. Maniac. But all this situation was really just a new comic he was working on, and he was showing it to his brother Sam and his friend Brooke. Later he hears a scream coming from his bedroom and discovers that Dr. Maniac has come to life and has kidnapped his brother. After a short search, he finds the Purple Rage, another character from his comics whose superpower is to be extremely angry all the time, and tries to convince him to help him find Sam and Brooke, but he refuses to do it and Robby has to escape from him. When Robby manages to return home, he discovers that Dr. Maniac's ultimate objective is to kidnap all the kids in town and use them to organize an ice skating rink business and be rich, so Robby has to find a way to stop him and rescue Sam and Brooke. There are two revelations at the end of the story that completely ruined it for me, they were unexpected but made me feel like the whole story was a waste of time, I believe this is the worst Goosebumps HorrorLand book until the moment. The way of ending the story was pretty absurd and R.L. Stine has written other superhero-like books that for me are better than this one, like Attack of the Mutant (1994). The story ends with Dr. Maniac appearing in Robby's computer screen and warning him that they will see each other again in HorrorLand.

In the second part of the story, Robby arrives at HorrorLand and the first place he goes in is Wolfsbane Forest, where he finds Carly Beth and Sabrina, and they finally mange to find a way to avoid the werewolves and escape. Sabrina and Carly tell Robby that they all are in danger and they have to escape HorrorLand to go to Panic Park. Suddenly, Robby gets distracted and can't help but enter into a building advertising a videogame based on his own character, Dr. Maniac. Dr. Maniac appears on the screen and forces him to put on a helmet and play an interactive game until he gets dizzy and passes out. When he wakes up, he finds Britney and Molly, the girls that Billy, Sheena and Matt are looking for. Molly shows Robby a gold coin and he feels like he's being hypnotized, so he throws it away. Then Slappy appears unexpectedly, surprising and terrorizing Britney and Molly, who thought they were rid of him. Slappy orders Britney to use the coin to hypnotize Robbby, but then Robby blacks out again and wakes up finding Carly Beth and Sabrina again; then deciding to leave that place with them at once and continue searching for Billy, Sheena and Matt. The HorrorLand storyline will continue in the next book.

Review Date: March 13, 2025

Grade: 5

This book is about two brothers, called Abby and Petter, who live with their Granny Vee, but one day she announces them that she will have to stay in the hospital for a while, because she is very old and her health is deteriorating, so she decides to sent them to the house of their Uncle Jonathan in Cranford, Vermont. After they arrive, they find in the a woman known as Crazy Annie, who tells them that everyone in the village is scared of their Uncle Jonathan and that loud moans can be heared coming from inside his house at night. When they arrive, they discover that Uncle Jonathan's house is decorated like a museum, because he owns all kinds of items related to Ancient Egypt. Also, he lives with a maid called Sonja and a cat called Cleopatra. That same night, Abby begins to hear those strange moans Crazy Annie warned her about, she hears the voice of someone repeating "I want to die" over and over again, then she gets up from the bed and discovers a man trying to get into the house and running away due to being attacked by the bats who live in the roof of the house. The next day, Abby and Peter enter a forbidden room of the house their Uncle Jonathan warned them not to enter, and they discover him eating a mummy's guts, so they get scared and decide to run off the house and escape from that village before something bad happens to them, but then they find Crazy Annie, who tricks them by offering them a ride and returns them to Uncle Jonathan's house, then they realize that Uncle Jonathan, Sonja and Crazy Annie work together, and they have a secret plan to keep all the mummies in the house alive in order to give them enough energy to live forever. This book was slightly better than the last one, I liked the final twist and the plan of the villains was very ingenious. Also, the protagonists of this book are more intelligent than the average protagonists of Goosebumps, because whem they sense danger, they try to leave immediately, also they find a way to restore their grandmother's health.

In the second part of the story, only Abby goes to HorrorLand, Peter decides not to because he is too scared already after their horrifying adventure with the mummies. The first night she wakes up scared after a nightmare and meets Michael Munroe, who will be the protagonist of the next book, My Friends Call Me Monster. The next day, they meet that mysterious horror named Byron, and then they receive and invitation to the Vampire Cafe, where they meet Carly Beth, Sabrina, Matt, Billy, Sheena and Robby. Later, a waitress craftily steals the Panic Park token that Robby picked up in the last book. When they get out of the Vampire cafe, they meet Byron again, who sends them into a trap in another attraction called Bat Barn, where all of them are brutally attacked by bats. I think that the HorrorLand plot is finally getting more interesting, because most of the characters are finally coming together and trying to figure out what to do to escape HorrorLand. The HorrorLand storyline will continue in the next book.

Review Date: March 29, 2025

Grade: 6,8