Welcome back for episode 2 of Goosebumps Revisited! Apologies for the lengthy delay between entries. Life did its thing, but we're finally back. This time around we're diving into books 4-6 of the original series; Say Cheese And Die!, The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, and Let's Get Invisible!
If you need a refresher on how this works, you can go back and check out previous entries in the series by clicking here.
How I remember them...
We're still early in the series, and I'm old enough to have been reading these as they came out. When I started reading Goosebumps, Say Cheese and Die was the newest release. As such, I have read these early books many times. Through the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia, my ranking of these three mirrors their order of release:
Say Cheese and Die!
The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb
Let's Get Invisible!
Let's see how they fared...
Goosebumps #4 - Say Cheese and Die!
As I talked about back in issue #0 of this series, Say Cheese and Die was the first Goosebumps book I read. It was the new release in the Scholastic book order sheet at school and that cover hooked me. I clearly remember considering it to be my favorite of the series through the first several entries.
Say Cheese and Die is about a group of kids who sneak into their neighborhood's creepy, abandoned house to explore. While trespassing, one of them discovers an instant camera in the basement. When he takes a picture of one the group, he discovers the resulting photograph isn't the picture he took, but rather a picture of his friend after having an accident. The town recluse (a delightfully weird bum character called Spidey) chases them out of the house, and our lead character takes the camera with him.
What follows is more pictures revealing increasingly disturbing images of violence to the unfortunate pictured person. Is the camera showing the future, or is it causing the terrible things to happen? It's an interesting plot devise, and comes through with the Goosebumps twist we all expect.
I enjoyed revisiting the story, but I did find it not quite as good as I remembered. Still a good time, but I think nostalgia was seriously swaying my memory of it. I give it 3 stars.
Goosebumps #5 - The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb
This is one I was particularly looking forward to revisiting. It should come as no surprise that I am a big fan of the classic Universal monsters. I've discovered that as I've gotten older, my preference for those classics has shifted from Dracula and Frankenstein to the Creature From the Black Lagoon and The Mummy. I've always been fascinated with Egyptian history and culture. Sign me up for mummy curses.
This one is the story of a young boy on vacation in Egypt and left under the care of his archaeologist uncle who has just discovered a new chamber inside a pyramid. Along with his annoying cousin, they get to go inside and explore as history is revealed before their eyes. Of course, you can't disturb an ancient burial chamber without stirring up some curses, and things get scary.
Most of the tension revolves around the kids being pursued by the uncle's co-worker who believes wholeheartedly in curses and has made it his duty to deliver the punishment of disturbing the crypt. This one ends with some tense scenes in the pyramid. I won't spoil it, but the plan to kill the kids is pretty gnarly.
This is a good one. Again, I'm swayed by my interest in Egyptology, but this one really holds up. Like Welcome to Dead House, it features a few scenes of potential violence beyond what you might expect in a book for children. Good stuff, and I give it 4 stars.
Goosebumps #6 - Let's Get Invisible!
Opposite of Mummy's Tomb, I was not looking forward to revisiting this one. This was always my least favorite of the early books in the series when I was kid. I didn't find it scary. Being invisible sounds fun, not scary. Honestly, I didn't remember much of the plot at all beyond a magic mirror that makes you invisible.
Our lead character has friends over for his birthday party, and while exploring the attic, they find a secret room. Inside is a large mirror with a light attached to the top. Upon turning on the light, they discover the person standing in front of the mirror disappears. They can still be heard and felt, but they are invisible.
This turns into a party game, and slowly morphs into an addiction. What's more, the longer you stay invisible you start to feel strange, like you're fading away. The deeper they get in with the mirror, the weirder it gets. Things really ramp up when one of the kids stays invisible for over ten minutes and they temporarily loose communication with him. When he comes back, something is not quite right about him.
This one is way better than I remember. The addiction theme with the attraction of the kids to the mirror is something I didn't pick up on as a kid. There's also more body snatcher inspired twists here, and we've already discussed how much I like that (see episode #1 and Stay Out of the Basement). The tension is all there, and I was blown away by how much more I liked this book as an adult. I give it 4 stars.
Upon revisiting...
This second batch of books maintains the quality of the first three books. What I remembered as the weak link in Let's Get Invisible is actually one of the strongest entries for me now. Having experienced a shift like that, I'm excited to see if any other books I remember not caring much for will make a similar move up the leader board.
Now comes the hard part...the rolling top 10! After revisiting books one through six, my rolling top 10 is as follows:
Come on back for episode #3 where we'll revisit Night of the Living Dummy, The Girl Who Cried Monster, and Welcome to Camp Nightmare.
See you next time!
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