Goosebumps book 9: Welcome to Camp Nightmare - It's the little camp of horrors!

Brief Summary: 

It's Billy's first time at summer camp and it's pretty weird. His campmates keep disappearing and the counselors and camp director don't seem to care! None of their letters are being sent and the only phone doesn't work so there is no way for Billy to get help. What could be going on?

Spoilers and Review:

Let me start by saying this is the scariest one so far. Like the idea of being at summer camp and having your friends go missing and none of the adults believe you, in fact, having the adults actively deny that they were even there in the first place, would be horrifying for a child. I think the total is like five of Billy's friends who disappear and no one cares! And then the thing with the letters not being sent and the phone not being real, I mean it's honestly a real for real horror movie scenario.

And there's this crazy part where one kid gets bitten by a snake and it swells up a bunch and no one will treat it, and there's this other part where the counselor maliciously throws a baseball at the back of another kid's head and essentially knocks him out which is wild, I mean it gets pretty serious.

The twist ending also got me, I was trying to figure out the whole time how they would make it kid friendly in the end because all I could think was that the counselors were some sort of monster and they were feeding on the campers, like they trapped them there to eat them, but, well let me explain it first. 

So we get to the last few chapters, the entire camp is told they are going on an early morning hike through the woods, then they all stop and are handed GUNS and are told to SHOOT THE MISSING CAMPERS FROM THE GIRLS CAMP! They turn out to be tranquilizer guns but STILL! That is so freaking scary. 

Anyways, Billy is all defiant and says he won't do it and shoots the director instead and the director is like "yay congratulations you did it you passed!" And all of a sudden all the kids are back and Billy's parents are there and everyone is okay and the explanation is that Billy's parents are scientists and wanted to take him with them on an upcoming expedition and it was all set up by the government to test him. 

Which, I mean, I would've been satisfied with just that to be honest because it was not the ending I had anticipated, but then Billy finds out his parents want to take him to "the most dangerous place in the universe" and Billy is like, "where?" and his parents are like, "a very strange planet called Earth," and I was like "OMG AMAZING" because that little tidbit was just so unnecessary and I was thrilled. 

I will say that I then told my roommates about the story and the ending because I live for the twist endings and they were like, "yeah obviously that's what happened" so maybe no one else was surprised or impressed but I sure was. 

The Rating: 

This was a hard decision for me but I'm putting it at #2, because as much as I love Stay Out of the Basement, this one was honestly so scary the whole time and I felt like there was plenty happening throughout the story and the twist was like cool and then taken too far which is really all I could ever ask from Goosebumps I think. So here we are. 

1. Night of the Living Dummy (#7)
2. Welcome to Camp Nightmare (#9)
3. Stay Out of the Basement (#2)
4. The Girl Who Cried Monster (#8)
5. Say Cheese and Die! (#4)
6. Let's Get Invisible! (#6)
7. Monster Blood (#3)
8. Welcome to Dead House (#1)
9. The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (#5)

#10 is The Ghost Next Door which I'm pretty pumped for because I think I've heard about this one for some reason which probably means it'll be a fun one. 

Goosebumps book 8: The Girl Who Cried Monster - She's got the monster of all problems!

Brief Summary: 

Lucy LOVES monsters, and loves to make up monster stories and scare her brother and her friends any chance she gets. But when she finds out the local librarian is a real monster, no one will believe her! So she sets out to prove to her parents that this time she's really telling the truth.

Spoilers and Review:

Most of this book was not very interesting, I was kinda annoyed with Lucy because it was like she didn't understand why no one would believe her and her poor little brother was constantly horrified because of her. At one point Lucy, referencing her mom, said, "She was always giving me weather reports" which is an exact thought I've had about my mother so that was fun. 

I also didn't really understand what kind of monster Mr. Mortman was. The descriptions made me think of like a fly or a frog or something but giant and eats turtles and flies and fish. Eventually he gets suspicious that Lucy knows his secret and like chases her all over town, but like... was he going to eat her? It's very unclear.

BUT THEN

The twist ending on this one really got me. It literally made me scream. The whole time I was waiting for him to be like a good monster or something, to be like, "Lucy wait! I just eat flies but I don't hurt people!" But instead Lucy's friend Aaron finally sees the monster and her parents believe him IMMEDIATELY when he confirms Lucy's story and then for some reason they invite the librarian-monster over for dinner AND EAT HIM. Mr. Mortman is all, "what's for dinner?" and Lucy's parents are like, "YOU ARE!" and then R.L. Stine is like "They both pounced on him. Their fangs popped down And they gobbled the librarian up in less than a minute, bones and all." 

And I screamed.

And then Lucy is like, "My brother and I haven't gotten our fangs yet. That's why we couldn't join in." 

And I screamed again. 

The Rating: 

The twist ending was INCREDIBLE and I considered giving it 2nd or even 1st place so far, but the story really was so boring until the end of the last chapter but I still think I'm putting it in 3rd because it destroyed me.

1. Night of the Living Dummy (#7)
2. Stay Out of the Basement (#2)
3. The Girl Who Cried Monster (#8)
4. Say Cheese and Die! (#4)
5. Let's Get Invisible! (#6)
6. Monster Blood (#3)
7. Welcome to Dead House (#1)
8. The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (#5)

Next is Welcome to Camp Nightmare which I am very excited for because I love camp.

Goosebumps book 7: Night of the Living Dummy - He walks. He stalks...

Brief Summary: 

Lindy finds a ventriloquist dummy in a dumpster outside the new house next door. She names it Slappy and then somehow becomes a local celebrity who performs at birthday parties. Her twin sister Kris is jealous so their dad gets Kris her very own dummy from a local pawn shop and the sisters engage in an active ventriloquism rivalry. But then some strange things start happening, could the dummies be responsible? 

Spoilers and Review:

I'm obsessed with so many things about this book. Most of those things are just how CRAZY it is and how many questions it left me with but in a good way, I loved this book. Here is a list of a few of those things I love:

1. So these twins (Kris and Lindy - great names, off to a good start) are out exploring the new house being built next door and they find a ventriloquist dummy in the dumpster. That on its own is CRAZY and HORRIFYING. Never take a dummy, or doll of any kind, out of a dumpster and take it home! That's nonsense!

2. Maybe I missed something but it also seems wild to me that Lindy immediately lands jobs as a ventriloquist and Kris follows not that far behind. Is ventriloquism really that much of a novelty? Is it actually entertaining? Why does it warrant so much attention?

3. Also, how was it so easy to find TWO ventriloquist dummies in this town? Every time I think about how there are two dummies in this book I am immediately bewildered by this fact. Seriously, just the setup for this story is so wacky I cannot even believe it.

4. And then we find out that literally the entire first half of the book IS A LIE. Half of this book is just Lindy playing a stupid prank of Kris before any of it becomes real at all. What a crazy thing to do, R.L. Stine! (I actually hated this moment because it really ruined a lot of the craziness going down up until that moment, but in the end I think it added to the nonsensical nature of this book so I accept it.)

5. Mr. Wood the living ventriloquist dummy is honestly horrifying. He literally tries to enslave them and strangle their dog. A living dummy is an image that all media already wants haunt my nightmares so I feel like not that much really needed to be done to make him scary, but R.L. Stine got WILD with this one. He says mean things in a low, raspy voice and also vomits smelly green goop all over entire crowds of people somehow and threatens to kill their dog and hurt their family and he can dig himself out of a buried suitcase and then this crazy thing happens when a steamroller smashes him where he releases a green gas and makes a hissing sound as if he were full of air? There's just so much going on in this one! 

6. Speaking of the dog, I feel like we're really reaching with dog names. I mean I obviously loved Petey from Dead House and I could accept Trigger from Monster Blood I guess, but they lost me in Let's Get Invisible with Whitey the dog, and Barky the dog from this one I absolutely do not accept. 

7. Another horrifying thing about this book is the second-hand embarrassment for poor Kris when Mr. Wood is snarling insults at the elderly and also a large crowd of people and everyone thinks she's doing it and somehow sprayed stink goop all over the auditorium and it's not actually her fault at all but even her parents think she's being horrible. shudder

8. AND THE ENDING. They finally get rid of Mr. Wood because some construction guy who is just relieved he didn't run over a kid smashes the dummy with his steamroller and the twins are so relieved that he's gone and then Slappy comes alive and comes for them! I can't wait for the sequel. 

The Rating: 

No debate necessary, this is the best Goosebumps book I've read so far and also potentially of all time. 11/10 best book ever written.

1. Night of the Living Dummy (#7)
2. Stay Out of the Basement (#2)
3. Say Cheese and Die! (#4)
4. Let's Get Invisible! (#6)
5. Monster Blood (#3)
6. Welcome to Dead House (#1)
7. The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (#5)

Next is The Girl Who Cried Monster which I've never heard of and could really mean anything. See you there.

Goosebumps book 6: Let's Get Invisible! - Now you see him. Now you don't.

First of all, I have decided I'm too lazy to write such in-depth reviews of each book, so instead I will be doing a brief summary and review and obviously rating because I love to rate things.

Brief Summary: 

Max and three of his friends and also his brother find a mysterious mirror in the attic that can turn them invisible! But what starts as fun and games quickly becomes something darker. The longer they stay invisible, the longer it takes for them to turn back, and some of them are starting to act a bit weird...

Spoilers and Review:

I'll just jump right into this one, I'm a little bit conflicted because I LOVED the concept but felt that the content was lacking, even for a Goosebumps book. Basically the idea was that going invisible gave their reflections the opportunity to take their place in the human world, which is SO COOL, but instead of focusing on all the cool stuff like the mirror-world alternate dimension and like all the funny things they could've done while they were invisible, instead they just played a crazy game of chicken for the entire book to see who could stay invisible the longest without even leaving the attic. If they're not going to explore the mirror-world, the least they could do is play a few pranks on someone. 

Also these were my least favorite and the most boring characters so far in all six books I've read so far, probably followed by the Say Cheese and Die! ones. It's definitely either because both of those books have so many characters or because of the exclamation point in the title, who can say? 

10/10 because it's so cool.


The Rating: 

Like I said, I'm conflicted with this one because it's probably one of my top concepts so far but it did not reach it's full potential by any means. I think I'm going to put it at #3, it just feels right.

1. Stay Out of the Basement
2. Say Cheese and Die!
3. Let's Get Invisible!
4. Monster Blood
5. Welcome to Dead House
6. The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb

The next book is probably one of the ones I remember the best from childhood, Night of the Living Dummy. See you there.

Goosebumps book 5: The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb - What will wake the dead?

Brief Summary and Review:

Gabe is staying with his archaeologist Uncle Ben and his cousin Sari in Egypt, and is lucky enough to go inside the pyramids with them! Then they meet this crazy guy who tries to mummify them and lock them in coffins because he believes in mummy curses but luckily for them, some mummies come alive and scare away the crazy guy and everything is good again.

This one bored me. It was just a mummy curse story, the same as every mummy curse story you’ve ever heard, except worse because there was hardly any actual mummy action, there was mostly just a crazy guy trying to kill them. Except for that one cool moment at the end when the mummies came alive and one of them was on fire, the rest of it was mostly uninteresting. 

Also, it had a lot of information in it that I think was fake. I mean I don’t know a lot about mummies and pyramids and such, but I definitely don’t trust most of the facts that were referenced. I only took the time to Google one thing that was mentioned because like I said, I didn’t particularly care for this one, and the one fact I Googled did not immediately seem to be true based on just reading like the first six previews listed, so I’m going to have to give this one a 10/10 for unreliable facts. 

The Rating:

1. Stay Out of the Basement

2. Say Cheese and Die!

3. Monster Blood

4. Welcome to Dead House

5. The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb

The Journey: 

It’s got a mummy on the cover. I am down for a classic mummy caper for sure. I anticipate that it will not be my favorite because it doesn’t leave a lot of room for original content, I imagine some friends will wake a mummy and then also have to stop it which is fun, but it’s no plant dad or horrible death camera for sure. But we’ll see. 

Chapter 1: Gabe and his parents are visiting the Great Pyramid and he is thirsty. His dad quizzes him about pyramids. Both sets of his grandparents are from Egypt, his parents were born in Michigan. His Uncle Ben is a famous archeologist who is currently in Egypt and is part of the reason they came to visit and learn about their ancestors. 

“Little did I know that in a few days, Mom and Dad would be gone, and I would be deep inside the pyramid… trapped… probably forever.” 

A new approach, telling me what will happen on purpose. Fun, tell me more.

Chapter 2: They have a dog at home named Elvis, the 3rd cocker spaniel and at least the second family from Michigan. Mom and Dad have to run off to Alexandria for an important meeting regarding their refrigeration business and Gabe decides to stay with his Uncle Ben and cousin Sari who annoys him instead of going with his parents. 

Mom and Dad leave him alone in the hotel to wait for Uncle Ben and they rush off to the airport. Leaving your 12-year-old alone in a country where he doesn’t speak the language? Questionable but I suppose he would be safe in the hotel. 

Gabe carries around a small mummy hand that he got at a garage sale which has been referred to as a “summoner” which can’t be good. 

Chapter 3: Uncle Ben arrives dressed as a mummy just for fun. Gabe is excited to see his uncle and hopes he’ll take him into the pyramids. He is less excited to see his cousin. They get dinner and Uncle Ben says a lot of stuff about pyramids and how they’re hoping to find the burial chamber of Pharaoh Khufu. 

The next morning they go to the pyramid and Gabe’s left shoelace is always coming untied. Feels like one of those details that’ll come up again. 

The inside of the pyramid is like a maze and they follow Uncle Ben down a rope ladder. 

Chapter 4: “Why didn’t the mummy have any hobbies? …he was too wrapped up in his work!” I hope there are more mummy jokes to come. 

A man name Ahmed from the university is there to observe. He likes to talk about curses but otherwise remains quiet. I’m sure his curse knowledge will be key.

And Sari wants to go exploring, because of course she does, and it will obviously be a mistake. 

Chapter 5: They go exploring but Gabe can’t find Sari and he is pretty worried about it, and then he comes across a mummy case, and the lid starts to raise up on its own because of curses probably. 

Chapter 6: Just kidding, not curses, just Sari, in a classic Goosebumps “it’s just a prank” fake-out. Uncle Ben finds them and he is not happy. 

The next morning they find out that two of Uncle Ben’s workers became mysteriously ill the night before. He leaves the kids alone so he can go see his workers in the hospital, and, as per usual, Sari is like “we have to get out of here” and they head off to the museum with no adult supervision in EGYPT. 

Chapter 7: So they go to the museum to see some mummies and Gabe is in the middle of saying all the gross things they did to bodies to mummify them and then they run into Ahmed, the guy from the pyramid, and he looks sort of mad so they try to run away.

Chapter 8: Ahmed catches up to them and is like “I came with a message from your father… I will take you back to the hotel.” Then they get in a car with the guy and he does not take them back to the hotel as promised. 

See kids, this is why you don’t sneak out of the hotel in unfamiliar places and then get into cars with people you’ve just met. 

Chapter 9: So they jump out of the car the next time he stops and take off running through the streets and they lose track of Ahmed but also get lost. 

Chapter 10: They then find their way back to the hotel immediately somehow and Uncle Ben shows up incredibly worried about his sick workers who can’t talk because they’re so shocked and scared and then they tell him about how they almost got kidnapped and he is not pleased about that either, so it’s back to the pyramid for all of them. 

In the pyramid, Gabe stops to tie his shoe and then immediately is left behind by Sari and Uncle Ben and now he’s alone.

Chapter 11: He’s running through the tunnels trying not to panic but he can’t find them and he’s almost certainly lost and then the floor opens up and he falls through. 

Chapter 12: Now he’s in a room with a mummy because of course he is.

Chapter 13: Actually, he’s in a room with a bunch of mummies and a bunch of tools for mummifying people. Is it ancient stuff or is that guy Ahmed trying to mummify people? 

Chapter 14: Now he’s scared and he drops his flashlight and there are scorpions. 

Chapter 15: Sari shows up to save him, but she’s lost too. Good thing she has a beeper with her which she can use to summon her dad! Except Uncle Ben doesn’t show up, it’s Ahmed. Of course it’s Ahmed. Is he a good guy or a bad guy? It’s hard to say, maybe he was trying to keep them safe when he kidnapped them. 

Chapter 16: Ahmed is going on about a curse that he’s helping fulfill or some nonsense like that and Sari and Gabe are trying to keep him talking while they wait for Uncle Ben to show up. 

But yeah he’s definitely making new mummies for Priestess Khala and wants to make mummies of them too. 

Bad guy. Definitely bad guy.

Chapter 17: So wait. There is no curse, there is just Ahmed? Not a spooky story just a story about an evil man. 

Ahmed just hit Uncle Ben in the face with a lit torch! That is for sure the craziest thing that has happened in this book so far.

Chapter 18: Ahmed has now set a tarpit on fire and then shoves Uncle Ben’s unconscious body into a mummy case and commands Gabe and Sari to get inside another one. Gabe and Sari are obviously not about to do that, also the case is infected with insects. 

Chapter 19: Sari gives in and climbs into the mummy case and Gabe follows her in shortly after and Ahmed closes them in. 

Chapter 20: So they’re both inside this coffin that is big enough for them both to sit inside of it side by side and then all of a sudden Uncle Ben is also inside the coffin with him because he climbed through an escape hatch, which is apparently something Egyptians did for the corpse’s souls to use. 

…Is that real? (A brief Google search seems to point to no, but if anyone knows, let me know.)

Uncle Ben helps them escape the coffin and they are all on their way out of the pyramid but Ahmed catches them and is like, “You have made Khala mad… the three of you will die in the tar pit.” 

Now everyone is panicking and Gabe decides that maybe that random mummy hand “Summoner” thing that he carries around in his pocket might be useful so he holds it up in the air dramatically. 

Chapter 21: Apparently it’s Priestess Khala’s hand and then all the mummies in that chamber finally wake up and do something spooky. 

Ahmed throws his torch at one of them and then this crazy thing happens: “Flames burst from the mummy’s chest, immediately spreading over the arms and down the legs. But the mummy kept advancing… didn’t react at all to the fire that was quickly consuming it.” I take back what I said before, that’s the scariest thing that has happened. 

Then Ahmed runs away and Gabe lowers the mummy hand and all of sudden all the mummies are back how they had been before. 

They eat dinner and then Gabe’s parents come back. The End. 

… I hope Let’s Get Invisible! is more exciting. It should be, it has an exclamation point in the title. 

Goosebumps book 4: Say Cheese and Die! - One picture is worth a thousand screams.

Update: I found a podcast called Goosebuds where some guys talk in depth about each book pretty much like how I am but with their voices and for an hour. I haven't listened to it yet but I bet they have a lot more interesting things to say than I do because like I said, I am a terrible reviewer. 

Brief Summary and Review: 

Greg and his friends find an old camera in an abandoned house but the photos that develop show horrible things happening to the subjects, and then they come true! It’s bad news and a lot of bad things happen to Greg’s friends and family before they finally decide it would be best to return the camera.

This one had me WORKED. UP. It had me spooked and upset the entire time. My initial reaction was that I was enjoying it and that’s why I was so worked up but I maybe hated it, it’s impossible to say. 

I mean, first of all, Greg was the only one to react the right way at all, all of his friends were like, “nah man you’re crazy” but clearly he was not, a broken camera does not radically distort the context of a photo, not how it works. The worst of them was Shari treating it like a toy, I was furious. 

I think the worst moment when I was the most worked up was when they took the photo of Bird at his baseball game and he was like knocked unconscious in the outfield, that one really got me. In all of the Goosebumps books they do crazy and misleading chapter break cliff hangers where you think someone died but they were just messing with you, but in this one it was a false alarm followed by the real thing which was too much for me for sure. 

Also I’m curious about the ripping up of the photos. Greg ripped up the photo of Shari which reversed its effects but would it have worked with any of the other ones? I’m intrigued. 

I have mixed feelings about this one for sure but I give it a 10/10 for getting me so worked up.

Rating:

Did I like this one or did I hate it? Unclear. For now I’m giving it the #2 position I think.

1. Stay Out of the Basement (#2)

2. Say Cheese and Die! (#4)

3. Monster Blood (#3)

4. Welcome to Dead House (#1)

Subject to change for sure. I just think as far as cursed objects go, I prefer the camera to the can of slime. 

The Journey: 

A skeleton barbecue on the cover and a catchy, pun of a cover tagline. I’m in. 

Chapter 1: A lot of characters right off the bat. Michael Warner, Greg Banks, Doug “Bird” Arthur, and Shari Walker all bored with nothing to do in their small town, and discuss their options. They’re bored? I’m bored.

As they walk they pass an abandoned house called the Coffman house, featured in a variety of scary stories. What better thing to do when you’re bored than go explore a spooky old house? 

Chapter 2: There is some debate and several chicken sounds but they finally decide to go in. There is apparently a “weird-looking man of fifty or sixty they’d all seen lurking around town” who they call Spidey who they think might be staying in the Coffman house. Sure. 

They see some rats, some things go bump, and then Bird goes into the basement. 

Chapter 3: The classic tale of the boy who cried wolf is mentioned. Foreshadowing? Probably. But you never know, nothing ever came of Casey’s interest in lemon trees. 

More evidence that Spidey is living there, and some dusty old clothes which they obviously try on. Greg does some more exploring and finds a hidden cabinet that contains, you guessed it, a camera. 

Chapter 4: Greg is a camera-lover so he takes it and takes snaps a photo of Michael, but before they have a chance to see the photo it shot out, Michael falls down and hurts his ankle, and they hear footsteps upstairs.

Chapter 5: So they’re trying to sneak an injured Michael out of a hidden entrance behind the furnace and Spidey is calling down to them from upstairs but the door is stuck and they’re panicking…

Chapter 6: …but they finally get the doors open and take off running, camera still in Greg’s hand, and Spidey staring at them as they go. 

Chapter 7: Something is weird about Michael’s photo. They took the picture before he fell but the picture is of him as he’s falling… that can’t be right. 

Greg runs home and sees his dad’s new car and takes a photo before going inside to hide his camera from his parents. 

Chapter 8: The photo of the brand new car is a photo of a totaled car after a serious accident. Hmm.

Is the camera causing accidents or predicting them? As far as cursed objects go, a cursed camera is a pretty cool one. Let’s see where this goes. 

Then Greg’s dad is like “I’m taking you all for a drive in the new car!” Which… uh oh.

Chapter 9: His family is trying to make casual dinner conversation and meanwhile Greg is like “HOLY CRAP SOMETHING CRAZY IS HAPPENING WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE IN DAD’S CAR” (he doesn’t actually say that but it’s implied). 

Chapter 10: They go for a drive and they’re all excited about the new car. His dad is speeding a little bit and he’s so excited but meanwhile Greg is about to pass out from fear in the backseat and Dad starts trying to find the light switch and Greg’s like “Dad—look out for that truck!” 

Chapter 11: … but they’re okay, it’s okay. 

At home, Greg can’t stop looking at the photo of the “new” car and decides to try again with his brother Terry as his subject. This time the photo of Terry in his room develops into Terry, looking terrified, in front of the house across the street from the playground? 

I’m sure that’ll come up again later. 

Fast-forward to Tuesday, Greg brings the camera to Bird’s little league game. He and Shari take a picture of Bird and it turns out to be a picture of him “sprawled unconscious on his back, his mouth twisted open, his neck bent at a frightening angle, his eyes shut tight.” 

At this point they definitely get rid of the camera, right? 

Chapter 12: Greg and Shari are investigating the camera during the game, it has no name on it, no words of any kind, and doesn’t seem to have a way to open it, and then they look up and see in real life what the photo of Bird had already shown them. 

This one is really frightening, I’m legitimately frightened by this one.

Chapter 13: Classic, it was a prank, Bird was pranking them. R.L. Stine definitely knows his way around a chapter break cliff-hanger. Jesus Christ. 

OH MY GOD IT HAPPENED ANYWAYS THE FIRST TIME WAS A PRANK BUT THIS TIME IT REALLY HAPPENED I cannot. Is he dead? Did he die? Did Greg just accidentally murder his friend with a cursed camera? 

Chapter 14: AND NOW TERRY IS THERE BECAUSE THEIR DAD WAS IN A CAR ACCIDENT and fulfills two snapshots at once, Terry’s and the car! Did Greg just murder his friend and his dad? And what about Michael? Why was his ankle thing so much less severe? He essentially just walked it off. This one is causing me emotional turmoil. 

There is a dark figure watching, hiding. 

Chapter 15: They go to the hospital and Greg is freaking out (with good reason) and their dad is alive and awake but very injured. Greg wants to tell his parents the truth but figures they would never believe him anyways. 

Chapter 16: Bird is also okay, lucky even. But stupid Shari wants Greg to bring the murder camera to her birthday party for entertainment and he agrees even though he knows it’s stupid. Stupid. 

Chapter 17: It is apparently important that Michael is wearing an oversized Hawaiian shirt. 

Now Shari is all, “you can take my picture first since it’s my birthday,” because she’s a dummy. So Greg takes the photo and wants him to take one of Michael but Michael is smarter than Shari and is like “No way!” and then Shari is like “Truth or Dare!” and there are nine girls there and just the three boys and they are all temporarily distracted from the death camera because they are 12 years old and Truth or Dare is bound to be incredibly embarrassing. 

But then they look at the photo of Shari and she’s not in it for some reason so Greg takes another one but still she’s not in it so Shari loses interest and it’s back to Truth or Dare which is described to be “just as embarrassing as Greg imagined”. 

And then it’s time for cake but they can’t find Shari. 

Chapter 18: Shari is missing and Greg tries to tell the police but obviously they think he’s crazy.

Chapter 19: Greg goes home to find no one home and his room ransacked. Could it have been Spidey looking for his cursed camera?

Chapter 20: Greg contemplates the situation.

Chapter 21: Greg contemplates some more.

Chapter 22: Greg tries to convince Bird and Michael to help him return the camera to where he found it and in the process Bird accidentally takes Greg’s picture! 

Chapter 23: Now two older boys, Joey Ferris and Mickey Ward, show up, again with the pair of bullies that no one has time for because much worse things are going down, and they try to steal the camera but there is no way Greg is about to let them murder each other with that horrible thing so he steals it back and runs away and they all go home. 

Chapter 24: Greg looks at the photo Bird took of him and it’s he and Shari looking terrified at the playground. Weird. 

Then his mom finds him and takes him home. 

He’s freaking out and rips up the photos that was supposed to be of Shari and then two hours later the phone rings, and it’s Shari!

Could it be that easy? If he rips up the photos does it cancel the effects? That can’t be right, it’s too simple. So much stress for nothing.

Chapter 25: Shari doesn’t remember anything about what happened in between her birthday and her return (which was at the exact moment that Greg destroyed the photos) and Greg goes to see her at the playground, and Spidey shows up.

That must be the photo of Greg and Shari looking scared at the playground. 

Chapter 26: So they run, and some guy named Jerry Norman from across the street threatens to call the police on Spidey, so Spidey leaves and Shari agrees to help Greg return the camera.

Chapter 27: Shari and Greg are afraid of the Coffman house but go inside anyways.

Chapter 28: They put the camera back but then Spidey spots them! 

Chapter 29: Spidey is very angry at them for using the camera because “the camera is evil… I should know. I helped create it.” Oh no, it’s the Monster Blood all over again.

Apparently Spidey’s scientist partner or whatever invented the camera and then cursed it so no one else could profit from it if it was stolen because he was a master of the dark arts in addition to being a scientist so now it’s a camera that literally steals souls. Spidey’s like, “I lost everything because of it… I’m afraid you can’t go. You know too much.” 

Wow I’m glad he at least explained himself before trying to kill them.

Chapter 30: Spidey wants to use the camera against them but Shari tries to take it from him. As they struggle the camera flashes but… whose photo did it take? Camera in hand, Shari and Greg make a run for it. 

Chapter 31: It was a photo of Spidey, and he dies and they return the camera to where the found it.

And then Joey and Mickey find it and take it. Can’t wait for the sequel. 

Up next: The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb