Goosebumps book 2: Stay Out of the Basement - Something's waiting in the dark...

Brief summary and review: 

Margaret and Casey's dad has been acting pretty strange lately. He's a recently fired botanist who spends all day locked up in the basement working on his experiments and ABSOLUTELY FORBIDS anyone from going down there. When their mom goes out of town, Margaret and Casey break this rule many times and find evidence that their own father is turning into a plant. Why else would he be growing leaves from his head and eating plant food and sleeping in a pile of dirt? Before long, they know too much and have no choice but to stop whatever it is that's going on downstairs. 

I LOVED this one. I enjoyed it way more than the first one. First of all, I am still not over Margaret's stupid friend Diane who convinced them to go into the basement in the first place, but really they were all a bit stupid for continuing to go down there. But what fun is a scary story if the characters are smart enough to stay out of it? And even though they were all pretty dumb, Margaret really made up for it in the end with her GENIUS plan to STAB HER FATHER to find out if he was human. Seriously, I had no idea how they would ever tell which one was the real one, both sides of the story seemed plausible.  

Second of all, I thought from the beginning that I had it all figured out. I assumed that Dad was some sort of Frankenstein creating plant monsters in the basement, which was sort of true I suppose, but I definitely fell for the whole "Dad's turning into a plant" thing and I was SHOCKED to discover that he had actually been replaced by his plant clone! I definitely did not see that one coming. 

I give it a 10/10 for killing it with the plot twist. 

The Ranking:

So far I have only read two of them, but I definitely liked this one way more than the first one so as it stands:

1. Stay Out of the Basement
2. Welcome to Dead House

The Journey: 

Cover: A spooky green (leafy?) hand reaches out from behind a door. “Something’s waiting in the dark…” and I can’t wait to find out what it is.

Chapter 1: Off to a not-so-promising start, we’ve already met Casey and Margaret and their dad, a botanist, who has been spending a lot of time in the basement “with his plants and weird machines” lately and has no time to spend with his own children. It would seem that the family moved to California so Dad could work at a company called PolyTech but he has already been fired.

“Stay out of the basement!” 

I feel like I already have a basic handle on the entire plot of this one.

Chapter 2: Oh no, their mom is going out of town! This is a disaster.

Margaret’s friend Diane is over and is asking a lot of questions and wants to go into the basement, so they do? Definitely not a good move. 

Chapter 3: The three of them enter the basement together, which seems to be climate controlled to mimic rainforest conditions. “It’s so moist… Good for your hair and skin.” … Thanks, Diane, always looking on the bright side. 

“Ooh. Feel this one… just rub your hand on it,” says Diane. I’m beginning to think she’s not a great influence on Margaret, who clearly has a bad feeling about the whole situation. 

Casey thinks it’s too hot and takes off his shirt to which Diane replies, “What a bod!” Diane is the worst.

In the basement they’ve found a “tall, leafy tree” that seems to be breathing as well as some kind of crazy machine that they’ve never seen before. 

Chapter 4: The plants are now crying and moaning, they all agree that it’s weird, and they go back upstairs to talk about math homework. 

No one will ever know they were down there, they will just pretend it never happened, except… Casey forgot his shirt! 

Chapter 5: Dad is pulling into the driveway, Casey ran downstairs to grab his shirt while Margaret keeps watch, but now he’s not coming back up, so obviously Margaret goes after him. 

These kids are really dumb, way dumber than the ones in Welcome to Dead House. 

Chapter 6: We catch up with Casey’s perspective as he returns for his forgotten t-shirt. He didn’t come back upstairs right away because one of the plants grabbed him and wouldn’t let go. Margaret managed to free him but unfortunately their dad is waiting for them at the top of the stairs. 

Chapter 7: Dad surprisingly doesn’t yell at them, he just sort of stares at them with no emotion at all. Margaret and Casey note that it is not at all typical of their dad to respond this way. He claims that someday he will take them downstairs with him and explain everything. But for now he has installed a lock on the basement door. 

Dad wears a baseball cap now, there was no reason to bring that up if it wasn’t important. Maybe he’s dead and can’t be exposed to the light. 

Then Margaret finds her dad in the kitchen rapidly consuming plant food from a bag. I take it back, he’s not dead, he’s a plant. 

Chapter 8: Margaret and Casey contemplate the implications of their recent discoveries. 

Casey and Margaret go over to Diane’s house and she starts asking a lot of questions again. Who’s she spying on, am I right? Or maybe she’s just incredibly nosy and annoying. In the middle of the conversation, Casey randomly asks if the lemons on a nearby tree are ripe. They finish discussing their dad’s mad scientist tendencies and then run home, Casey declares that they should get a lemon tree, then accidentally knocks off Dad’s baseball cap with a frisbee and reveals the leaves growing out of his head. 

So far we’re 2/2 for using hats to hide secrets. I can’t wait to hear how he plans to explain away this one.

Chapter 9: He explains it with what we can only assume is the truth, which is that he’s trying to create a plant that is part animal. The leaves on his head are a temporary side effect. Why is he trying to make a plant/animal hybrid? That really is the question, but Margaret seems stuck on a different question, “What must it feel like? Green leaves pushing up from your pores, uncurling against your head.” 

In an attempt to find more answers, Margaret accidentally catches her dad tending to a wound that is oozing green blood. 

Chapter 10: It’s the middle of the night and there is moaning and crying coming from the basement. Human or plant? Probably both. 

In the morning, Margaret once again attempts to confront her father but instead finds his bed empty except for a layer of dirt crawling with insects and worms. 

This is definitely the grossest thing that has happened so far. Is this a new development just since their mom has been out of town? Or do they not share a bed, because I can’t imagine she knew her husband was turning into a plant and also allowed him to fill their bed with dirt. I’ve noticed that the adults in these books seem to leave me with a lot of unanswered questions but I guess that’s what happens in books for children. 

Chapter 11: Margaret reveals to Casey that she’s told Diane about some of the crazy things they’ve been discovering. I don’t trust Diane. 

Dad calls them in for “lunch” but really he’s just trying to trick them into eating some mysterious green substance. They don’t trust him because he’s never made them lunch before and they suspect he’s trying to turn them into plants, but he is yelling at them and they don’t seem to have another choice.

I can’t believe he wants to turn his kids into plants! That is incredibly rude and definitely illegal. 

Chapter 12: Saved by the bell. It’s Dad’s old boss, here to check on his progress. 

Chapter 13: They’ve decided to go back into the basement while Dad is away. Terrible idea.  

Margaret picks the lock with a paperclip just like her friend Kevin taught her. Seriously this girl needs some new friends. Kevin who picks locks and Diane who clearly cannot be trusted are not good influences on her. 

“[The plants] seemed to be reaching up, reaching out, quaking with energy as they grew.” 

Chapter 14: They spot an open window and a squirrel that has snuck in through it. They also find Dad’s boss’s coat, and realize no one ever saw him leave. Did he get eaten by a plant? Is that what I’m supposed to get from this? What is this, Little Shop of Horrors? 

Poll: Dad’s boss was eaten by a plant or Dad murdered his boss to protect his experiments? 

I think he was eaten by a plant, but the other option somehow seems like it’d be worse. 

Chapter 15: Dad tries to defend his plants and warns (threatens?) them once again about going into the basement.

Chapter 16: Mom’s coming home and Casey wants to fly his kite… which is on a shelf in the basement. He’s just going to run down and get it like it’s nothing and Margaret decides to go with him. Seriously? At this point I really think they should have learned their lesson. 

Now we’re definitely supposed to think that a plant ate Dad’s boss. 

Chapter 17: “Dad lied to us.” OBVIOUSLY HE LIED. 

Still in the basement, they are now trying to break open the closet doors because they think Dad’s boss is trapped (and naked? They found his jacket, shoes, and pants?) 

Chapter 18: What did they find behind the closet doors? Weird plants. Plants with human features. And human feet that belong to… their Dad? But Dad went to the airport to pick up Mom! 

OMG IT WAS A PLANT COPY OF HIM THIS WHOLE TIME. The plants turned on him and locked him up and tried to replace him and turn everyone into plants! 

Chapter 19: They free him and he grabs an axe and the other Dad gets home from the airport and now we don’t know which one is the real one! I can’t believe the tension, I’m on the edge of my seat. 

Chapter 20: Now Margaret has the axe, but she can’t figure out which Dad is the real Dad. So she comes up with a plan.

Chapter 21: Margaret takes a knife and straight up stabs the dad from the closet in the arm. A bold move, but it works! Closet-dad bleeds red blood instead of green goo like the plant imposter. Margaret is a genius and also sort of a badass. 

She passes off the axe to the real Dad and he slices the plant Dad right down the middle. What a relief. 

They also release Dad’s boss, who hires him back for some reason. 

It also turns out that real Dad also has some leaves growing out of his head because some of his blood mixed with the plant “blood”. But he destroys most of the plants, and claims some of them can be planted in the back garden because they’re just regular plants. (I for one think he should destroy them all just in case but maybe that’s just me.) 

Then, because we couldn’t just end on a happy note, a small yellow flower, a survivor from the basement, WHISPERS “Margaret… help me… I’m your real father.” 

YIKES. 

… I still don’t trust Diane. Also, what's up with the lemon tree? 

Up next: Monster Blood.