Reading Time: 2 minutes

Goosebumps: Download and Die! from IDW Publishing is a comic by Jen Vaughn with art by Michelle Wong, with colors by Tríona Tree Farrell and letters by Christa Mieser. It features traditional middle school hijinks including jealousy, crushes, and school projects but adds an element of horror traditionally found in Goosebump classics. The book is a modern goosebumps tale with the same spooky fun adventures as found in the original books but in graphic novel form.

Goosebumps: Download and Die! follows three young, female tech geniuses who become fast friends when tasked with creating an app for a school project. Things go awry from the start but once Mitra’s phone gets broken by a group of bullies. After receiving a mysterious package featuring a new phone with apps that have yet to be released, Mitra and her friends notice a lot of strange occurrences that begin to tear the friends apart.

Goosebumps: Download and Die! brings me back to fourth grade. That was the first year at the Scholastic Book Fair that we were allowed to look at and buy Goosebumps Books. Goosebumps always felt like a step up from Scooby-Doo; spooky enough to make my skin crawl but never give me outright nightmares. I wish I had been able to read this book as a child. The strong female characters and their love of STEM are very relatable to my childhood interests.

Reading it as an adult is still very fulfilling especially considering the season. This book reminds me of an Archie Horror comic but more kid-friendly. Wong’s art with Farrell’s coloring creates bright and vibrant panels that reiterate that at its heart this is still a children’s book. I particularly love the heavy neons colors used throughout the spookier events. Farrell also does colors on other books I greatly enjoy such as Runaways from Marvel and Mech cadet Yu from Boom! Studios.

I think it is important to note this entire creative team is female. Despite being 2018 it is rare to see an entire female comic creative team. In addition, after speaking with Vaughn, the comic’s writer, she informed me that her editor, Sarah Gaydos, allowed her to pick her own creative team for the series. I think that shows so much with the love that was obviously put into this book. While this book can obviously be read by anyone, I think its themes will ring true with young tween girls and probably why I could see myself reading it as a child and enjoying it so much. If you love Goosebumps or Halloween specific Disney Channel Original Movies this is definitely a book I would recommend picking up.

The book is out Wednesday, September 26th and in bookstores on Wednesday, October 23rd.

Goosebumps: Download and Die! 5 TL:DR While this book can obviously be read by anyone, I think its themes will ring true with young tween girls and probably why I could see myself reading it as a child and enjoying it so much. If you love Goosebumps or Halloween specific Disney Channel Original Movies this is definitely a book I would recommend picking up.