Young Adult Revisited

Robby, his brother Sam, and his annoying little sister Taylor are going on a camping trip with their parents. Since he writes his own online comic strip, he just wants to whine about how there's no Internet connection in the woods. He comes up with an idea of his main character Dr. Maniac forcing a boy to eat a poisoned squirrel, which turns him into an enormous chipmunk. Later that night, Robby sees Dr. Maniac in the woods and screams. Turns out he's actually just sitting in his parents SUV as they head off on their camping trip. Sam likes his new story idea, but Taylor thinks it's lame. They get to the woods, set up camp, and Robby then finds a piece of his character's cape hanging on a tree. Dr. Maniac suddenly appears, shows him a poisoned squirrel, and tries to make him eat it before announcing that he needs his help to fight his arch nemesis. This is also just another story. He's actually sitting around with his friend Brooke and Sam. The two ...

Part One: Sam and his best friend Lexi won a vacation to HorrorLand, so you know this will end badly. After riding some rides, they stop by the Spear It Cafe for lunch and meet Chef Belcher. He recommends tons of disgusting things, including rare sheep liver, before taking their order. After chowing down on friend shrimp and fries, Sam sees the shrimp come alive and climb all over him. Luckily, Belcher pops up and sprays them down with hot sauce, which kills them. As they run away, he tries to lure them back with promises of a free dessert, which just makes them run faster. They find their way to a joke shop. Sam goes crazy over a cell phone candy dispenser and over a grow your own pet kit. Jonathon Chiller, the owner of the store, acts really strange. When Sam goes to pay, Chiller tells him just to pay the next time he comes. Part Two: Sam and Lexi discover that a new pet store just opened in town, but when they go inside, all the store sells is hamsters. A ...

Carly Beth is chilling at home when she hears something calling her to the basement. When she gets there, she realizes that it's the mask from the regular Goosebumps book. It encourages her to wear it, and the next thing we know, it's the next day and she's riding the bus with her friend Sabrina. She tells her all about how it took all her willpower to not put the mask on. Just then, she looks down and sees a vicious snake wrapped around her neck. Nah, it's just a pet snake someone brought to school. She and Sabrina volunteer or work, not sure which, at this former farm that now functions as a petting zoo, a museum, and apparently a daycare center. They arrive and see this girl named Laura working. Even though she's only 12, she was left in charge of like six kids. The kids all run around outside and start racing towards this mysterious building on the edge of the property. Laura flips out and calls them all back. Laura then decides to tell them the ...

Jillian and Jackson are twin sister and brother. Their neighbors, Artie and Nina, are also twins and new to town, but they really don't like them. All four end up in the same movie theater. Artie spills buttery popcorn all over Jackson's new sweater, and Nina just acts really annoying. The manager comes over and tosses them all out, and Nina and Artie's parents accidentally spray the other twins with water while driving through a puddle. They find a fortune telling machine on the street and try their luck. All they get is a card that says Welcome to HorrorLand on the front. When they get up the next day, Jillian realizes that something changed. She can read the thoughts of everyone around her, and Jackson can move things with his mind. Things get even more intense at school. Jackson freezes the clock in class to make the teacher think she has more time and run out before giving them a quiz. Jillian can read the thoughts of others, and after reading Nina...

Bradley is, without a doubt, the most annoying character who ever appeared in one of these books. Our main character, Matt, is the star of the school swimming team and the biggest science nerd in school. Bradley is his next door neighbor. Though he doesn't like him and doesn't want him around, his mom keeps letting him in their house. The steals Matt's favorite clothes, eats his breakfast, and is just an asshat. When he tells him about his idea to build a computerized birdhouse, Bradley steals the plans and shows them to their teacher as his idea for the science fair. One day on the way to school, Bradley picks up a rock and throws it at the stop sign. It bounces off and smashes into the windshield of their principal. Bradley runs off and Matt takes the blame, with the principal warning him that he needs to act right with the big swim meet coming up. At school, Bradley cheats off him on a test. When their teacher catches them, he claims that Matt did it without...

Britney is less than thrilled that her cousin Ethan is coming to live with her family for a few months, probably because he is the most annoying person in the world. He shows up, carrying a wooden dummy with him, and her mom warns her to be nice to him. She assumes that he created an imaginary friend to help him deal with his parents' divorce, but we all know where this is going. When she goes to hang out with her friend Molly, he mom makes her take Ethan with her. Molly's dad wants to create the Museum of Weird, which totally sounds like a place I would visit. He travels all around the world, looking for unique items, which he stores in the attic. He keeps saying that the dummy, which Ethan calls Mr. Badboy, looks familiar but he can't place it. He really wants to show them his newest acquisition: a wood doll called the Mind Stealer because it steals minds, natch. Britney pretty much hates her cousin because she has to give up her room for him. When she tak...

The HorrorLand books have three different sections in each book, which is a little odd. The second section is part of a story that takes place at HorrorLand, but in a sneaky move by R.L. Stine, the story continues from book to book. So if you want the whole story, you have to buy every book. I only have a few, but we’ll see what happens. The first story in the book has absolutely nothing to do with HorrorLand; it’s just a shorter version of a Goosebumps book. Michael and his friends hate their teacher Mrs. Hardesty because she would rather have them learn about monsters than do any real schoolwork. He takes a dog whistle to school and somehow when he blows it, the shade rolls up. Hardesty gets pissed off and hauls him in after school. When she hears his friends Daisy and DeWayne laughing in the hallway, she drags them in too. As punishment she makes them do a community service project that Saturday near her house. Their principal Mr. Wong asks her to rethink her decision, but she is ...