Goosebumps Revisited #1

Welcome to Goosebumps Revisited, the blog series looking back on the childhood favorite and gateway horror original series of books by R.L Stine. How do they hold up? Does nostalgia give more credit to some than they deserve? For my history with the series and an outline of how this blog series will proceed, check out Goosebumps Revisited #0. In addition to that, I will be giving every book a star rating out of 5. Everyone’s rating system varies, so here is a breakdown of how I rate books:

1 Star - I didn’t like it at all

2 Stars - It was okay

3 Stars - I liked it

4 Stars - This is really good

5 Stars - I LOVE THIS BOOK

Today, we’re looking at the first three books in the series; Welcome To Dead House, Stay Out of the Basement, and Monster Blood. I read all three of these multiple times (as is the case with a vast majority of the first half of the series). Going into this, my personal ranking from memory is as follows:

Monster Blood

Welcome To Dead House

Stay Out of the Basement

How did they fare some 30 years later? Let’s get into it!

Goosebumps #1 - Welcome To Dead House

The series opens with Welcome to Dead House, a story about a family moving into a mysterious new neighborhood where everything is overcast and gloomy, and the residents are a bit strange. It begins with the standard haunted house setup; bumps in the night, ghostly apparitions, and voices in the dark. It’s a solid setup that leads to the revelation that the entire town is populated with the dead, and our leads were lured here as the next group of victims to feed the town with new life and join the undead. 

The story culminates in a showdown in the cemetery (where else?) and features surprisingly graphic descriptions of gore for a kid’s book. I’m avoiding ending spoilers, but it delivers the first of what becomes the staple twist endings we frequently get from the series. 

It’s a fun book to start the series and sets the tone for what to expect. I give it 3 stars.

Goosebumps #2 - Stay Out of the Basement

Welcome to Dead House set a reasonably high bar for the series, so book two had its work cut out for it. In Stay Out of the Basement, we get a story about a pair of siblings whose father has recently lost his job at the university. He’s a botanist and has continued his research in his basement lab. Distraught about losing his job, he’s become a bit of a recluse, rarely coming upstairs to spend time with his family. Things get more intense when the mom has to go out of town on business, leaving the children under the care of their father who has been showing increasingly bizarre behavior. 

This book really delivers on the tension of these kids trying to understand what is happening with their father. What is more disturbing than feeling threatened by the one person who is supposed to be taking care of you? The mystery deepens as they explore the basement in some tense cat-and-mouse scenes, and there’s a hilarious reveal when their Dad takes a rare break to play frisbee with them in the backyard. 

There are some awesome reveals in this one, and it is strongly influenced by Invasion of the Body Snatchers (one of my favorites). I liked this one a lot more than I remembered from my youth and gave it a solid 4 stars.

Goosebumps #3 - Monster Blood

This is one that hits hard on nostalgia for me. Out of 62 books in the series, if you randomly asked me to name the first Goosebumps book that comes to my mind, it’s Monster Blood. It’s also the first cover that comes to mind as well; the classic staircase covered in green, oozing slime. In this one, our main character Evan is being left to stay with his aunt Katherine, whom he has never met before because of a family situation requiring his parents to go out of town. It’s a short notice option that no one is particularly pleased with, but they have no choice. Katherine is deaf, making it even more difficult since Evan can’t communicate with her very well. 

Evan makes a friend in town and together they visit an old toy store. It’s here they discover the titular Monster Blood; green goop in a can. They quickly learn something is unusual about the slime when it starts gaining size and outgrowing every container they put it in. Things get worse when Evan’s dog eats a piece of Monster Blood and also begins to grow. The suspense ramps up as the Monster Blood keeps on growing. As a dog owner, I relate to Evan’s concern for the safety of his dog as it becomes a monstrous cocker spaniel. The book also does a nice job setting up the mystery surrounding Aunt Katherine and her cat, both of whom can be very menacing. 

It’s hard for me to separate this one from the nostalgia, but I still liked it a lot. I give it 4 stars.

Upon revisiting…

With this first batch, I’m really pleased to see how well these hold up. Even though they were written for kids, they really don’t hold back on the horror. Stine does a nice job touching on relevant issues for children, as well; relationships with parents, bullying, and coping with emotions. 

I went into this round fully expecting Monster Blood to still be my favorite of the three, but I am surprised to find Stay Out of the Basement is my pick now. That association I felt with Invasion of the Body Snatchers really drove this one, and it does the best job of maintaining suspense. Overall, these three books are an excellent start to the series.

With that in mind, here is the first entry of the new rolling top 10:

Stay tuned and come back next time as we explore the next three books; Say Cheese and Die!, Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb, and Let’s Get Invisible!