The Haunted Car

Goosebumps 2000 #21

by R.L. Stine

Mitchell's parents are delighted with their recent purchase of a sleek sportscar, yet when the car's ghost makes an appearance, the family realizes that they had gotten much more than they bargained for. Original.

Genres: Horror, Middle Grade, Fiction, Childrens, Paranormal, Young Adult, Fantasy

120 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1999

About the author

Robert Lawrence Stine known as R. L. Stine and Jovial Bob Stine, is an American novelist and writer, well known for targeting younger audiences. Stine, who is often called the Stephen King of children's literature, is the author of dozens of popular horror fiction novellas, including the books in the Goosebumps, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, The Nightmare Room and Fear Street series.

R. L. Stine began his writing career when he was nine years old, and today he has achieved the position of the bestselling children's author in history. In the early 1990s, Stine was catapulted to fame when he wrote the unprecedented, bestselling Goosebumps® series, which sold more than 250 million copies and became a worldwide multimedia phenomenon. His other major series, Fear Street, has over 80 million copies sold.

Stine has received numerous awards of recognition, including several Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards and Disney Adventures Kids' Choice Awards, and he has been selected by kids as one of their favorite authors in the NEA's Read Across America program. He lives in New York, NY.

http://us.macmillan.com/itsthefirstda...

Reviews

[Gavin Hetherington · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read all 25 Goosebumps Series 2000 books for a 2-hour YouTube video, where I reviewed and ranked them all, which you can check out here: https://youtu.be/VsNwNpeqgLo

[Amy Noelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 || pretty straight forward spooky car situation. The story was solid and I loved how it ended. Great audiobook!

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Where do I even begin? I guess I’ll start by saying this book subverted my expectations quite a bit. I knew this was a good one—but not that good! I liked the main character, and thankfully he wasn’t so pushy to the reader about car types because that’d been annoying since I couldn’t name a single car for the life of me. He was nice, and the family was exceptional here. The story was easily one of the most fun and intense, was well as mysterious and interesting, that I’ve read since Haunted School and Evil Twin (other gb books). In relation to those as well, this book had many genuinely frightening moments. The final 20 pages kick ass and have some creepy body horror, the reveal towards whether or not the car is truly haunted leads into an insanely frightening moment, and even in the opening when we get the set up for why the family needs a new vehicle is a tense moment. I’m surprised the kid didn’t get a concussion like I did when I was in a you-know-what (no spoilers!!). The ending was good, the mystery drove the story on (ba-dum tis), and the reveal at the end towards the possessor was neat. 10/10 rounded up slightly because I felt the reveal of thou possessor could’ve been better—ever so slightly.

[Dayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

THE HAUNTED CAR was one of those Goosebumps books that I can't quite put my finger on when it comes to how I feel about the story.

I think this is because of how interesting the family was. I liked how the MC and his brother got along, but also teased each other in a healthy way. The MC was actually worried at one point about saying things that might scare his brother, which was somewhat refreshing after reading others where the siblings absolutely loathed each other. And also, while the parents were still the stereotypical assholes who never believe their kids, something about them sat differently with them. I wish I could explain it.

The friends in this were random because they made an appearance and then exited right after. They were like a drive-by friend plotline that didn't even pause. It's one of those instances in books like this one that really showcase how short these stories are and how little development goes into writing them.

The car mystery was definitely interesting. It was definitely a show-stealer and very entertaining to see what would happen next when the MC got into it. It was also like a cautionary tale of "this is what happens when you don't listen to your parents". The villain's defeat was hilarious and unexpected, it was unexpectedly unique.

Anyway, another Goosebumps down!

Happy reading!

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a run and exciting read! I rate "The Haunted Car" 4.5 stars.

[Gage · Rating 5 out of 5]

R.L. Stine you are a amazing athour! I love your books! And enjoy theme! your books are great no matter whate pepole say! I realy liked this one!

[House of Goosebumps · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good book but there was lots of things unexplained and I think the book could have expanded a little bit more regarding the atmosphere. But other than that 9/10

[Laurie –Read Between The Skylines– · Rating 4 out of 5]

I basically read all the Goosebumps series 10 years ago, but this one is THE one I will always remember, THE one that scared me the most.
I can't forget how cold I felt when he described that girl in his car...

[Austin Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a decent enough Goosebumps book. The story being told here is very straight-forward, very simple, linear, and a just a little bit generic/unoriginal; however, it is told well. There's no off the wall stuff happening in this book (unlike some other S2K books), no nonsensical sub-plots, and it lacks the glaring plot holes found in many other Goosebumps books. Resulting from the linear plot and basic story we have... a good book, but nothing fantastic, either.

We have a kid obsessed with cars as our protagonist, which is a little different for the series, and I also enjoyed the details of the cars and what-not as I'm somewhat of a car guy myself. After the introduction of his model car collection, his family, including his younger brother who watches too much X-Files and believes in ghosts (nice little setup for a reveal later in the story, btw) - Our main character (Mitchell) gets into an accident with his dad in their old car, inherently wrecking it. They are both unharmed, and the accident is kind of played of like it's no big deal at all, and soon Mitchell is obsessing over a new car to buy.
Of course, the new car they buy ends up being "haunted".
From there, creepy and suspenseful moments ensue revolving around the new set of wheels.

I liked the first reveal, I feel like it was written well and tied together nicely; I liked how Mitchell's brother, Todd, kind of "helped out" a little...
I felt like the main story was done fairly well and really I have no complaints about any of the characters or any logical fallacies with the story.
What I didn't care for, was one of the extra twists at the end, involving a certain girl / sister... it felt a little unnatural and unnecessary to me. I didn't really understand why that was needed for the story. I could have done without it. Also, the resolution which saves Mitchell in the end was a bit silly, not unlike the resolutions for many of the other S2K books.

Despite my overall lack of issues with this book, it still didn't really grab me the way some of the other books in the series do. Yes, it's well written for the most part, yes, there's not a lot of plot holes and frustrating things with the story, but...
I still walked away not feeling too strongly about this one. I think it's a good book, but far from being one of my favorites.
3 / 5

[Raghav Bhatia]

Ha! I remember grabbing this back when I first started reading because the cover looked cool. Surprised by how much I actually remember even now.

I don't have ever have anything to say about the RL Stine books. They're cheap thrill for kids. This particular story is basically Stephen King's Christine (which I think is a great book, by the way) — only tamer, sillier, worse. Still much better than some of the other Goosebumps out there.

[The Gooseblock Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Haunted Car was entertaining and creepy, but had its issues. One of which being some lazy writing decisions from Stine (fake outs). They don’t bother me too much but do affect my overall rating a little. Another issue I had with the book was the repetitive scenes, and just stupid character decisions. Everything else was great though, and I really liked the backstory of the car too. I highly recommend this to anyone looking for something similar to The Haunted Mask.

[Atharva Palsule · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a good experience for me to read this book. It was a book with many twists.

[Zoey De Leon · Rating 3 out of 5]

An alright read I guess, I think it's a rather forgettable entry in the series unlike most of the other iconic books in the series. I just feel the book is a generic setup of plot and characters and I think it's boring at most times which is something I can't say a lot in most Goosebumps books. also lots of glaring convinient logic like it just happens just for the story to happen, the resolution of how the main character defeated the main villain and I thought it's clever and I like that it's sligtly hinted at in the beginning of how it's set up. but it kinda feels rushed. so it results in my thoughts on the ending being mixed of slightly impressed and having a meh thought.

In result, the book is not the best but not the worst. If I could ever rank the Series 2000 books (I am praying I will), then this would definetly be in the middle of the list.

[Sarabh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Retour à l enfance

[Jordan Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spooktober 2024 Book 2

After the huge success of the first couple of runs of Goosebumps it only made sense that Scholastic would further the series with Goosebumps 2000, yet another batch of books aimed at being “scary”…only this time, I have a sneaking suspicion that they purposely tried to make them a tiny bit more mature with storylines, characters, and overall spooks.

“The Haunted Car” still has all the Goosebumps themes, but does feel geared to slightly older readers (say 10 or 11 instead of 8 or 9) and is, overall, a better paced, and plotted story than previous Goosebumps books. Of course, it’s basically Carrie for kids, though it still has its moments, especially towards the end as Stine actually writes a pretty great climax that manages to be spooky (for the intended audience anyways) and uses the foreshadowing from earlier parts of the book to make everything make sense in the end.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love this book! It leaves you with nothing but a chill up your spine! This book is about a twelve year old car fanatic Mitchel that notices there is something that’s not right about his parent new sports car, and the seller of it. Was his brother right about the car? Was the car... haunted? I strongly recommend this great book for readers that are into horror/fiction.
I rate it 5/5!!!!!😃
I love R.L Stine Best author!

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is easily up there among the best of Goosebumps—I was NOT expecting to have so much fun with this. The note in the glove box that just said I’M EVIL was the funniest shit a Goosebumps book has ever done.

[Nada madhat · Rating 5 out of 5]

♥️

[Isabell Pettersen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Leste den i skule sammenheng

[meserozzz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’M EVIL… I’M SO EVIL

[Chandler Duke · Rating 5 out of 5]

goood

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Second-hand car wants revenge real bad.

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Goosebumps book surpassed my expectations! I mean it wasn’t Stephen King but it had some serious spooky vibes especially for a kids book. I’m glad I didn’t read these as a kid or I would have never slept. Overall a really good story!

[Wendell D'Costa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyone likes cars, right? Well so does 12 year old Mitchell Moinian, but little does he now that his love for cars will soon turn into a nightmare! When Mitchell moves to a new town, his younger brother Todd is convinced that their house is haunted, but they soon find out that its not the house that's haunted! Mitchell's dad decides to buy a new car, and when they get a V-8 Sedan for a really cheap price their happiness see's no end, but there's something strange about the car seller Mr. Douglas, why was he so eager to get rid of the car? He was surely hiding a big secret. Mitchell is overjoyed with this new car, but things start getting scary when he hears a voice of a girl in the car, she keeps telling him that: "She's so EVIL!". When the car automatically locks itself, start driving by itself and tries to freeze Mitchell and his friends by cranking up the A/C to max, Mitchell knows that there's something that's not quiet right, but will he be able to prove to his parents that the car really is haunted? or will he meet his end in a ride that he'll surely never forget!?

The Haunted car was a great book, I certainly enjoyed reading it. It is a story of a boy and how his dad purchases a car that's haunted! This story is surely one of R.L. Stine's classic Goosebumps tales and is a really creepy book with an even creepier twist at the end! But, what I loved the most about this book is how R.L. Stine made a simple car into such a terrifying menace! This is surely a must read for Goosebumps Fanatics. ;)

[Jenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I personally haven't read Stephen King's Christine, but I believe this is RL Stine's response to it. I imagine this was the Fisher Price version of a killer car. I'm sure there were plenty of cheeky references I missed by not being familiar with the original source material. I did like the story and how the author is very careful to make his books seem timeless and not appear outdated. A boy obsessed with cars can be found in any decade. I thought the protagonist was a dumb bunny who was rather disobedient to his parents, but we would never have any Goosebumps books with well-behaved children, would we? This was a great fast-paced installment of the series and I'm excited to continue with my readalong of this collection. I've been slowly adding to more to my book hoard through my various library book sales I've visited this year. I've already requested a new bookshelf as a birthday present next year because I'm running out of room in Fairy House. I've got no worry of my car Vampire Bill becoming haunted anytime soon because I hardly drive it anymore now that I work at home. Beep beep, Richie!

[Alysia · Rating 4 out of 5]

So cool

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

You all know that I got 10 Goosebumps books in boxed set that I bought at Ollie's earlier this month. When I looked up Goosebumps: The Haunted Car on Goodreads, I discovered that it was actually part of the Goosebumps 2000 series. The other 9 books, however, were from the original Goosebumps series. Now, I'm American. Ollie's is an American store chain. But I realized that this set was of the British editions. And I guess the books that were published under the Goosebumps 2000 banner in the US were lumped in with the main series in the UK.

R.L. Stine has long been called "The Stephen King of children's literature," in both affectionate and disparaging ways. One of Stephen King's most famous books is called Christine. It's about a possessed car that goes on a killing spree. Goosebumps: The Haunted Car is like a kid-friendly version of Christine. But it was an excellent book in its' own right. In fact, I think it's surpassed Goosebumps: Let's Get Invisible! as my favorite Goosebumps book that I've read so far.

Today is Christmas Eve. I know I said I would try to read all 10 books in my boxed set before Christmas. Now, though, what I've decided to do is put Goosebumps on hold, read all the books that I will be getting for Christmas tomorrow (2 of which just happen to be the Stinetinglers short story collections, also by R.L. Stine.) and return to the remaining books from this set ASAP. (In case you need reminding, the books I have left are called Goosebumps: Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes; Goosebumps: The Werewolf of Fever Swamp; Goosebumps: The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb and Goosebumps: The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight.)

[Earline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whoa! We all agreed (stepson and husband) that this Goosebumps book was actually pretty scary (probably didn't help that I read most of it while we were in the car). I loved the ending and overall it felt like a kids' version of Christine.

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic fiction book about two girls, two boys, a mother, a father, and another father. It was a little tiny bit scary and my favourite bit was the twist at the end. It will keep you coming back for more reading of it.

[Georgina Parkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Personally the writing style annoys me in the beginning which is why this isn't a 5 star, but once I got past it this was actually really great. It was a good amount of spooky and it really grew on me.