Hello, Spongey here.

Oh yeah, this has been long overdue. Way back in 2012, I reviewed two short story collections from R.L. Stine that I actually quite liked. So we had a taste of what he can do with a shorter format and for the most part, he nailed it fairly decently. But you don’t get to doing collections that actually good without practice and that’s where this month’s review comes in.

Back in 1994, Goosebumps was really climbing in popularity so it was about time to cash in and start some spin offs. Thus, in October of that year, we got our first collection of 10 Goosebumps short stories. It did well enough so in the end we got 6 of these things. I had been meaning to cover these since I’ve had a hardback collection of the first 3 books for ages but I’m glad I waited this long since now I have access to the latter three.

I’ve got a real soft spot for these sort of short story collections, even they’re bad, so of course I’ve got a soft spot for these. I’ll go into my deeper thoughts on these as we review them but in general they’re…eh? Again, I’ll explain myself as we go on, but while it is nice to see ideas that couldn’t fit a full book, it can sometimes be clear why Stine couldn’t fit that idea in a full book.

Now, I say Stine but…let’s get this out of the way: At least two stories from these collections have been confirmed to be ghost-written. I’ll go more in tothose when we review them but given the nature of some of these stories, it’s very likely a majority of the others were also ghostwritten. Which makes sense but I wish we had more names, there are some stories I gotta know who to thank for.

Oh, and the TV show started adapting the stories once they ran out of enough books to spend their cheap budget on. I’ll quickly go over those too, why not.

So yeah, this will hopefully be fun. With all that said, how did these collections fare? How does this work as an introduction to Goosebumps short stories? Let’s take a look.

This, is Tales to Give You Goosebumps

Pretty good cover, mostly due to the lovely background, complete with full moon. But the main attraction is this ghostly figure. I brought this up in the Monsters at Midnight review, but Scholastic wanted a marketable mascot for the series and this was Tim Jacobus originally came up with. They didn’t like it so it was reworked to what we know today, leaving this weird person as black sheep. It’s still meant to be Curly though, although this looks more…feminine to me. …Curly is a trans man confirmed?

….Anyway…

The House of No Return

Robbie and his friends Lori and Nathan are outside of a creepy legendary haunted house in the neighborhood. Legend states that if you stay the night there, you will never leave. But if you just pop in for a quick visit, you’ll be fine.

These kids make up the “Danger Club”, and they force kids to stay for an hour in the house as a sort of imitation. Their latest victim, Doug, is inside the house but doesn’t last long as he comes out screaming, claiming he saw something in there.

By the way, they haven’t done those themselves since they started the club and thus don’t think they have to do it, and thus just force it on others.

“I guess we find another victim”

Normally I’d say “Our heroes” but spoilers, that’s the point of this one.

Later, they decide on Chris Wakley, a kid who has recently moved. Usually, he’d be our protagonist and honestly this story would be better if he was. Robbie tells Chris about the club stuff but he politely declines, admitting he’s a huge scardey cat. Huh, usually he’d be trying to deny it and would end up doing it to prove himself.

I’d say we already have our ghostwriting evidence if Chris didn’t also swallow hard just now. Anyway, he says no, so I guess they need a new victim. I really doubt they’d be so weirdly desperate to have this kid in their dumb club.

Pfft, of course they are because…clubs aren’t fun with only 3 people. Whatever.

So they meet up on Halloween, and they force Chris into the house. About a half hour later, they haven’t heard from him. Eventually, the hour ends and they are ready to congratulate him. But he still doesn’t come out, forcing them to go in to check.

It takes about a minute for a couple of ghosts to pop up. They reveal that Chris actually left an hour ago. See, Chris managed to make a deal, saying that if he is let go, three kids would come to take his place.

“You might as well make yourselves at home. You’re all going to be here-forever!’

Okay, Chris is the new Billy. Awesome.

Thoughts: It’s fine, I guess, as a start. It really relies on the ending to carry it and it is really satisfying. But not much happens before then, and it’s nothing too special. Well, aside from Chris, who is awesome. I kind of wish this was third person so we get both POV’s, instead of being stuck with Robbie. But yeah, the ending makes it.

Rating: Decent

TV Episode: I used to dislike it because it’s so stretched out, as this doesn’t have enough meat for a longer story but I like it more watching it again. The pros and cons are about the same but I like that, as I said, we actually see some of Chris on his own. We also get more backstory on the ghosts and the house is actually called The House of No Return. So while it stretches itself thin, I’d say I like it about the same.

Teacher’s Pet

“Do you like snakes?”

Eh, I have no strong feelings one way or the other.

Becka Thompson and her friend Benjy Connor are headed to their first day of 6th grade. Becka says most people would think its weird that a guy and a girl are best friends, even though that’s a dynamic in basically every Goosebumps story.

They’re hoping for a cool teacher named Mrs. Wegner but instead they get this weird skinny fellow named Mr. Blankenship. The room seems normal until they spot the snakes he keeps, and refers to as his “little pals”.

Well, I have no idea what his deal is. Oh and Becka is afraid of snakes, so I’m sure she’s taking this well.

He keeps adding more snakes to the room, and he ties every subject into snakes somehow. Eh, we all have our hobbies. He also has a tank of mice to feed to the snakes and he gets pissed when one girl accidentally lets a mouse free, so forces them to do extra work.

Becka has had it up to here with those, so she hatches a plan to sneak in that night and free all the mice. Ah yes, let’s piss off the already pissed off teacher even more, great plan. So with that, they sneak in to enact their plan.

They accidentally bump into some of the snake cases, letting them free. But then suddenly, a giant cobra appears! The cobra then starts to turn into a human–Mr. Blankenship. Yep, he’s a snake person. I’m quite surprised.

The kids run away but he holds them after class the next day to discuss what to do now that they know his secret. So thus, he agrees to let them live, as long as they don’t tell him his secret. Oh and they have to feed him mice every day.

“Here you go Mr. Blankenship, open wide”

The End. Yep, that’s it. Honestly, I’m just surprised all the snake talk didn’t lead to any dick jokes from me.

Thoughts: Big eeeeh. The concept is a decent one but nothing really happens here. It’s just teasing for an obvious reveal. There’s not much in terms of decent suspense and while I kinda like that Blankenship mostly isn’t that bad, he’s not very interesting as an antagonist either. It doesn’t do anything too terribly but overall, a pretty middle of the road one. I’d say this could have been a full book to flesh out the idea…but that’s what Welcome to Camp Slither was, so whatever.

Rating: Average

TV Episode: In contrast to House of No Return, which stuck fairly close, this one is totally different. Now it’s Becka and Benjy going on a field trip to some nature centre, where Blankenship is some instructor guy. (So, the title makes no sense now) He’s still a snake person but now he wants to create these animal hybrids to create the ultimate predator. The execution is not as awesome as the idea, as they don’t have the budget to really go all in with the animal combos. I do like it more just because it’s more interesting but it’s not better by too much. Also, the ending has one of the worst special effects I’ve ever seen, and I love it.

Strained Peas

Oh boy, this one.

Nicholas isn’t excited at the idea of having a baby sister but one is coming anyway. While he waits for his parents to get back from the hospital with the baby, he reads an Iron Man comic where he fights a villain that does not actually exist. In this made up story, Iron Man knows the bad guy is bad because he has “The Mark of Evil”.

Then when the baby, named Hannah comes in, he notices she has a mark exactly like it! Yes, a mark from a random comic turns out to be a real thing and this is the story’s idea of foreshadowing. It basically makes it so Nick comes across as even more of a dick and the parents won’t believe him about the stuff coming up, even moreso than they already wouldn’t.

Anyway, things seem okay as he starts to warm up to little Hannah. But then he swears he sees that birthmark darken as she throws up on him. Reader beware, you’re in for …vomit. More strange things happen, such as Hannah crying in a animalistic (screw you, that’s a word) way that doesn’t worry Mom for some reason

Then she eats his homework. Truly, this is the most terrifying Goosebumps story of all time. Next, Dad finds his office trashed and Nick is immediately blamed. I’d say I’m starting to get Slappy flashbacks with that kind of stuff but eh, wait til a later story. Oh and later he sees her spewing green slime but it’s just food.

“Hannah, you naughty girl! Strained peas all over the kitchen”

Oh that’s why it’s called that.

That evening, Hannah comes in with a pair of scissors, seemingly to stab him. Imagining this in my head is giving me the biggest laugh I’ve had in ages. Mom saves him but naturally scolds him for letting her get to them.

She then gets a phone call that reveals that whoops, they actually had the wrong baby the whole time. This is the weirdest episode of Switched at Birth I’ve ever seen. Hearing this makes Mom cry but Nick is happy because our hero.

They swap babies with Hannah’s real mom, who of course has that birthmark. They name their real baby Grace. With that, everything is back to normal. Except, twist, Grace tries to grab his arm when he tickles her because she’s a monster too.

“I’ll get rid of you creep, just wait til I can walk!”

If there’s any Goosebumps story that warrants the “they were all monsters, lol” twist, it’s this one so of course it doesn’t have it.

Thoughts: …I kind of liked it. Objectively, it’s mainly held down by the idea as it flows decently well for the most part with a standard but passable twist. The main problem for me was the dumb mark of evil thing that didn’t allow for suspense to build and Nick was kind of unlikable. But holy cow is this so stupid it’s amazing. The concept is so dumb but takes itself so “seriously” that is hilarious. But even taking that aside, at least things happened all through this one so yeah.

Rating: Decent

TV Episode: Yes, they actually made one. It’s exactly what you would expect and I love it. I of course only like it ironically but at least they got rid of the mark of evil stuff and made it so Nick is accepting of the baby so things build a bit better. Otherwise, just an enjoyably stupid one with amazing effects when the baby talks. (Also, Hannah is now Grace for some reason)

Strangers in the Woods

Lucy lastname is visiting her Great Aunt Abigail in the small boring town of Fairview, which she is not excited about. Naturally, things seem off as Lucy’s dog Muttser (what a name) starts barking like mad, even though he is normally well behaved. Well, anyone who knows their Goosebumps lore knows this means Abigail is a ghost.

Spoilers, that’s not the case, weirdly enough. Abigail warns her to stay out of the woods, which Lucy finds odd. Then that night she sees strange lights in the sky. Something something aurora localized entirely within these woods.

Lucy asks Abigail about this the next morning but she basically dodges the question. They go for a drive and she starts driving like a mad woman. Also, a bit before this her usually tasty cookies don’t quite taste the same. Much like the kids in Scarecrow Walks at Midnight, Lucy is about to learn about the ravages of age.

More strange lights appear that night and they remind Lucy of an alien movie so of course this means aliens. Sure, why not. She thinks aliens may have taken over Abigail. Who know aliens were such terrible drivers?

She overhears Abigail talking on the phone to someone, saying that Lucy “doesn’t know” and won’t know anything until it’s all over, dun dun dun. That night, Lucy heads out to the woods to see for herself if there are aliens afoot.

Suddenly, there’s a white light, and a voice saying “bring her here!”But the lights dim and it turns out that this is actually just a film set. Yep, they’ve been filming a movie in these woods in a very small town and somehow Lucy did not hear about it, nor were there any signs saying to stay away.

They’ve been using a dog whistle for the movie, hence the dog going wild. I feel like that this movie thing would be easy for Abigail to explain but sure. Lucy goes back to Abigail and she explains that she lost her glasses and that her driving and cooking has been off. Fine.

That night, Lucy finds Abigail’s glasses in the closet and goes to bring it to her. But Abigail waves at her with her four tentacles because she actually is an alien because whatever.

Thoughts: Eh. It’s functional I suppose, but it’s pretty bland as a story. This kinda thing has been done which is fine but it’s not fun or creative as far as these kinda stories go and both twists are kinda lame. It flows okay as a story, but otherwise it didn’t do much for me.

Rating: Average

Good Friends

Dylan and his friend Jordan have just come home from school and Dylan wants to do his homework right away but Jordan is kind of a jerk and just wants to goof off and have Dylan lie to his mom about doing it. But even if he does that, he has his asshole older brother, Richard to deal with.

If that paragraph didn’t totally thrill you…well, be glad this is the shortest one.

Speaking of siblings, Jordan’s annoying younger sister Ashley come in to play dolls with her imaginary friend Jaclyn, and Jordan mocks her having an imaginary friend. Even though she’s like 7, so this is fairly normal. Dylan and Jordan start playing basketball and at one point Jordan pretends to hit Jaclyn.

Those Danger Inc kids are looking pretty lovely right now.

“I’m Telling!”

Hey, that’s a story from a different collection!

Ashley leaves and Richard yells at them to quiet down and also Dylan should do his homework. Jordan thinks something should be done about that guy but Dylan is too beat-up-able to want to do anything about it,Jordan suggests a thing I only mention to give context to this:

“You always have the best ideas, Jordan”

“What are good friends for?”

I don’t feel like doing the thing this time, but nice.

Later, Jordan gets the idea to take Richard’s tarantulas and use them to prank Ashley. Their names are Axel and Foley. Yes, really. I kinda love that. Dylan is unsure about doing this since he’s not awful but Jordan is basically the devil on his shoulder here so he ends up going through with it.

They take the spiders and head out to start their plan but get caught right away by Richard. He makes fun of Dylan for always playing with Jordan and Ashley so much, as it’s so weird.

Why? Well..

“Dylan, you’re too old for imaginary friends! Forget about Jordan and Ashley. Okay? They don’t exist. They’re just in your mind. Imaginary friends are for babies!”

Oh, what a twist! And I kinda mean that, it makes sense and certain moments make more sense when you read it again but still work at the time and don’t give things away too much. And even if they did, it’s too short to matter too much. Oh and that’s the end.

Thoughts: This story definitely exists for the sake of the twist and that is the highlight. The idea is really good here. As I said before, Jordan is the devil on his shoulder, doing all these bad things and convincing Dylan to go along with it all. There is some deep stuff I’ve some people gleam from this one

….The problem is that the execution leaves a lot to be desired, personally. It doesn’t really push the idea far enough, and for some reason focuses slightly more on Jordan (this is a third person story, and his thoughts are shown more often) when Dylan is the real protagonist here. I don’t mind it being more slice of life-y, but it’s not that interesting until the twist hits. It works better when you know it and can read into stuff but eh, it still doesn’t really do it for me, I can’t exactly explain it.

And if some of this sounds familiar to my dear readers, that’s because My Imaginary Friend, from the Haunting Hour collection, basically did this, right down the exact same kind of twist. It did it way better since it pushed the ideas further, especially with the twist. This…eh.

Rating: Average

The shortest story got the longest wrapup, huh.

How I Won My Bat

This one opens with our protagonist Monty-I mean Micheal Burns, noting that we’re apparently admiring this swing and that we might wonder how he won his football. Wait..

“But now I wish I never touched a baseball. Things are diferent now. I’m different”

…Okay, for once the typo was not on me, I swear. Wow. The fact that it’s spelled right directly after makes it more noticeable, lol.

We flashback as we properly meet Mike, who is normally a solid player but he’s been in a real slump lately.

“I’d give anything to get out of this slump”

Before you can say “K, what horrible deal is he gonna make?”, a strange guy who overheard him appears. He tells Mike he just needs a lighter bat and he happens to have one on hand. His name is Mr. Smith and he works at the local sports museum.

He lets Mike have it, under the condition he return it right after the game. Eh, I’ve seen worse suspicious characters in these, go ahead and take it. So he uses it for a game the next day and like magic, it works and he’s great.

He wins the game and everyone loves him. They’re about to go out to celebrate when Mike remembers that he needs to return the bat. But of course he doesn’t want to give it back and plans to nicely ask if he can keep it longer. He considers just going home since Mr. Smith doesn’t know where he lives, but he knows that’s wrong.

That’s nice but makes what is about to happen a bit harsh, lol.

He goes down to the museum, where he admires the very realistic looking statues of players that are in there. He tells Mr. Smith that he wants the back and he actually agrees to let Mike keep it. But first, he has Mike a swing.

Then flash, we’re back at the start as Mike is now a frozen statute in the museum, who can apparently speak to us telepathically.

“I guess I have one other thing to be happy about. I get to keep the bat. Forever”

So…what do you think happened once his parents noticed he went missing?

Thoughts: This one I actually liked a fair bit. Yeah, not much happens but the format of it makes it work. The opening and ending is a nice touch and it’s a decent take on a story where someone pushes their luck just a bit too much. That said, Mike did need to be a more dick-ish for this to work better as the sort of deal with the devil kinda story it’s somewhat built as. Is wanting a bat a little longer that horrible? That aside, it didn’t drag and was a cute little story.

Rating: Good. Finally, right?

Mr. Teddy

Remember when I basically said to hold your thoughts about Strained Peas giving off slightly Night of the Living Dummy formula vibes for a later story? This is that later story.

Willa Stewart is a big collector, and is always begging mom for more things, much to the annoyance of her younger sister Gina. One day, they are at a department store when Willa sees a teddy bear she wants. I swear she’s the older one.

She already has one she sleeps with but she plans to just put “Old Bear” on the shelf and sleep with this one. Mom relents and says yes, and Willa names her new her friend, you guessed it, Click. …Wait..

I could skim through the rest of this, since you know exactly where this is going. First, Mr. Teddy appears in a different place than where Willa left him, then her some stuff of hers gets smashed. Well, this is exactly like Monster Blood.

She accuses Gina but don’t worry, we’re not repeating everything. A few accidents later, her room is totally trashed and Mr. Teddy reaches for Willa’s throat. She dodges him and…still blames Gina somehow? Thankfully, she was at a sleepover so now she has to believe it.

With that, she tears up Mr. Teddy and gets rid of evil. I’d criticize how easy that was…but, then comes the twist:With everything else destroyed, Old Bear is the only one left. As she hugs him, we peek into his mind to reveal that it was actually Old Bear who was alive and evil the whole time!

“You can’t put me away on a shelf. Not me. I’m your bear. And I’m going to be with you for the of your life”

The end. Huh, that twist was actually kinda clever and a creepy and sad when you think about it. Color me impressed on one aspect at least.

Thoughts: Yeah, it’s more of that Slappy formula but to be fair, this is back when there was only one of those so it wasn’t too stale yet. But I read this after we had quite a few, so that did cause this one to just be…there. It actually flows better than most of these, it’s just too predictable to be as effective as it could have been. However, that twist really does save it. I’d wish for a whole story exploring this idea, a doll not wanting to be put away, but…the Nightmare Room TV Show kind of did that, so never-mind. It’s bland, but functional.

Rating: Decent

Click

Let’s get this out of the way: Yes, there is an Adam Sandler with the same title and concept. I may have brought it up when I reviewed it. It’s quite amusing but let’s move on.

Seth Gold loves channel surfing due to the power it gives him. A show is boring? Click, onto the next. He sounds like the perfect person to get a universal remote control. Whoops, getting ahead of myself.

One day, his dad comes home with a universal remote that he got at a store he had never seen before. Also, he mentions laser disc, because 1994. Seth fools around with it until his little sister Megan tries to take it and accidentally sends it smashing into the radiator.

Thankfully, it seems to work after jiggling it a bit. Mom comes in to complain about how Seth hasn’t done chores and as a joke, he mutes her…and it works! He starts messing around with it, like when he uses it to relive desert a few times.

Then he brings it to school to see what else he can do and he goes straight to using it to cheat on a test, by pausing and then looking at a smart kid’s answers. At lunch, he takes two deserts (man, he’s a big desert guy) and mutes the lunch lady. He tries to unmute her a bit later but whoops, it’s not happening.

He shrugs it off since no one likes her but then the remote is taken by a redheaded (FINALLY, only took 8 stories!) kid named Danny. Seth takes it back and freezes him, starting a big frenzy as he freezes people and can’t get them unfrozen.

Everyone comes running towards him to get the thing away from him, while he starts pushing more buttons to no avail. Finally, he pushes the OFF button and everything turns black. He’s now in some empty void.

He looks back at the remote and sees that there are now words reading BATTERY DEAD. The end. …I hope it’s only him who was “turned off”, or else he just turned off the entire world just cuz he’s an asshole.

Thoughts: I quite liked this one. It’s a classic “power corrupts” story that is told fairly well. It is slightly rushed I suppose but we get enough remote action for it to work. Things escalate nicely and it’s just another solid story where too much power ends up in the wrong hands.

Rating: Good

TV Episode: Easily one of the better short story episodes. It does still stretch at times but it’s able to do more with the idea. Even if that means having someone call Seth to remind him that the remote isn’t a toy. He’s way more of an asshole here, to the point of being a straight up villain by the end, which the actor actually sells well. So yeah, I’d say I like it a bit more.

Broken Dolls

Tamara Baker’s little brother Neal is always breaking her dolls, much to her constant annoyance. She doesn’t have time to worry about that today though, as her parents are taking them to the local fairgrounds. Tamara and Neal break off from them once there so they can check things out for themselves.

Tamara spots a booth filled with dolls, with various face types. They look almost lifelike, even. To make things even more totally not suspicious, the maker of the dolls pops up and she looks and acts quite creepy. She offers Neal a cookie and then she touches his head, and after that he seems quieter.

Look, there’s only so many ways I can say that this lady is clearly evil and things are going to go south quickly.

His quiet-ness continues at home, where he also starts running a fever. He also starts mumbling “Dolly Jelly”. You read that right. The direction this is going in is somehow less silly than it sounds.

I like Tamara goes to check on him soon after, without needing to be provoked first or whatever. He keeps going on about dolly jelly and how he doesn’t to be a doll. Between this and his new face rash, she knows something is up. And she immediately remembers that there was a creepy doll lady and that she should check that out!

It’s cool that she’s smart but man that was fast, feel like we could have built up more creepy-ness with him becoming a doll and whatnot. She heads back to the fairgrounds and finds The Dollmaker’s trailer just in time for her to head out of it.

She finds a box of blank dolls, along with some of that dolly jelly goop. Eh, probably still better for you than Gwyneth Paltrow’s goop. She also finds a boll with Neal’s face on it, confirming her fears. Some of the dolls start coming to life than the Dollmaker comes back.

She doesn’t really explain much about why she’s doing all this, only that “your world has no idea of my ancient arts”, whatever that means.

“It’s time for you to go away, dearie. Young people disappear so often in this century. You’ll just be one more…”

….Damn.

She starts to put goop on Tamara but she is able to grab it from her and toss it into a conveniently placed wading pool nearby. This causes the pool to turn weird colors but it also makes The Dollmaker vanish…for some reason. Whatever, at least those dolls are happy, and Neal Doll is blank.

She goes home to find that Neal is his old bratty himself, which is fine with her. D’aww. One week later, a mysterious package appears on their doorstep. They open it to see that it’s a doll version of The Dollmaker!

I won’t even question. Welp, here we go ag-

“Bet you can’t break this one!”

Neal takes the bet and goes to work on it. Wow, she defied the typical twist ending. Sorry Chris, Tamara is the new Billy.

Thoughts: I really like this one, which is why I wish it was a bit better. It’s rushed as we don’t have to go too much into how this is affecting Neal about Tamara heads off. We don’t get much expatiation for The Dollmaker’s plan and the resolution is weird. This needed to be a full book and if it was, it could have been one of the best ones. But as it is, the story is still really good. Tamara is awesome, the idea is solid, and The Dollmaker is a really creepy version despite how silly Dolly Jolly sounds. So despite some rushed wonkyness, it still has plenty to appreciate.

Rating: Very Good

And finally…

A Vampire in the Neighborhood

Maddy Simon and her friends are suspicious of a new girl named Helga Nuegenstorm, which is an amazing name. She is quiet and dresses in gray and black, looking pretty old fashioned. Perhaps she just likes to be different, ever think of that?

I like that they make fun of Helga for being an old fashioned name when one of them is named Yvonne. The others are Carrie and Joey, btw. Helga also has pale skin, almost like she rarely sees the sun. Same here bitch, but I ain’t no vampire…I think.

During lunch, Maddy asks Helga if she wants to eat with them but she declines, saying she does not eat lunch. Okay, that’s a bit weird but not an evil trait. But this is enough for them to think she’s a vampire. Apparently they’re always looking for vampires, for some reason.

They sneak over to Helga’s house,and try to get a peek but don’t find much of interest in the small window of time they have. They keep this up for a few nights and find nothing, but there seems to be barely any light in there and no parents at all.

They keep asking her to various functions but she declines. Eventually Maddy grabs her and Helga feels super cold. Only vampires are cold, case closed! They go back to her house and this time they just break in.

They are quickly caught up Helga, who tells them to quit it. Maddy finally just asks if she’s a vampire, and she actually says yes. Maddy asks Helga to show her fangs, but she asks Maddy to show hers.

…And she does, as do the others. Yep, turns out they were vampires all around, hence that line about them looking for vampires. But whoops, Helga was joking and is not a vampire. They are disappointed, but it doesn’t matter as they form a circle around her, saying that Helga will be a vampire soon enough.

…So, why does Helga seemingly live alone then?

Thoughts: The definition of fine. The concept is fine, it flows fine, and the twist is fine. One of the better takes on that age old twist. I mostly like it for the added bit of Helga not being a vampire and them moving in on her. Otherwise, doesn’t excite me a lot and there’s stuff to mock, but nothing is bad here either. It’s fine.

Rating: Decent

Final Thoughts:

“Eh” is the word of the day here. Most of the stories aren’t exactly bad, but they’re not that good either. I’m not too picky given how short they are, but these mostly didn’t offer a whole lot. They mostly feel like the Goosebumps table scraps, stories not considered good enough to be full books.

The better stories took advantage of their short format to do things that may have felt stretched as a full book. But some of the better stories also felt a bit rushed and maybe could have better as full books. Stine doesn’t quite have a grasp on the art of the short story yet as the pacing can be all over the place.

There’s a fine variety of topics at least. Plus, it is the first time they tried this, so it’s not going to be great off the bat. But still, I wish these fared just a bit better. At least they’re not too bad. Although with how short these are, it’ll be hard to truly be bad.

Anyway, my favorite was easily Broken Dolls, and my least favorite was..hm…Teacher’s Pet, I guess. It just represents my issue with some of these and doesn’t do much with an okay setup. If you care about stats, we had 3 Average ones, 4 Decent ones, two Good ones and one Very Good one.

Giving all that and my actual thoughts, this seems about fair.

Rating: Average

I don’t plan to do these in order but it depends on how things work out. And since Retro did it too…screw it, story ranking.

Teacher’s Pet

Good Friends

Strangers in the Woods

Mr. Teddy

The House of No Return

Strained Peas

A Vampire in the Neighborhood

How I Won My Bat

Click

Broken Dolls

As for next time….I will only say that a certain April holiday is involved, and it will go beyond that.

See ya.