Diary of a Mad Mummy

Give Yourself Goosebumps #10

by R.L. Stine

Readers are placed in the character of a young person who discovers an ancient diary and is transformed into a mummy who must seek out a mysterious wrapped being through the pyramids of Egypt. Original.

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

136 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1996

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

[Jenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Choose Your Own Adventure books are always buckets of fun and I like notating all the possible routes while I read. This was a Goosebumps branded series and it followed the typical standard of a CYOA. There were plenty of different choices to make and I'm impressed how seamless it was to follow. I did find one small typo where they used the wrong version of "your" and I'm surprised it made it all the way to publishing. Perhaps they were too busy making sure all the proper numbers were aligned. This particular story focuses on a boy visiting a museum with his family and spying a mysterious mummy exhibit with a fallen diary in front of the case. As the reader, you decide whether to pick up the diary or come back to the museum later that night to explore the mysterious exhibit. I liked the references to previous Goosebumps books and the subtle joke about Indiana Jones by swapping it with "Illinois Smith". This was lots of fun and I hope to find more CYOA books in the future. It doesn't matter how many options there are, I'm not getting involved with a suspicious mummy in the wilds of San Francisco.

[Kish · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got to two right endings one after the other without dying even once since I started the book!! The second one was more the appropriate ending and the first one was just one of those goof endings where you don’t die but it’s just a silly ending. This is a first for me, making solely right choices. Come to think of it, Give Yourself Goosebumps books are like life. There is an epiphany here.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was obsessed with these as a little kid. I always went straight to that section in the library and grabbed them all. My library’s overdrive added a bunch of these and I just couldn’t stop myself from picking one up. To be honest, this wasn’t the best. I prefer the scarier and straight up creepy ‘Give Yourself Goosebumps’, but I know that my twelve year old self would still have been all over this book. I was actually trying to make smart choices and within the first two minutes I ended up in some creepy basement and burned to death in a tar pit. Granted, most of the endings you get are bad, but there are varying degrees of how horribly you can mess up. The majority of the choices led to storylines that were super cheesy and borderline dumb, especially what happens when you get on the elevator. However, I think it’s just a case of me no longer being the target demographic of these books. My favorite was the one where you sneak into the museum at night and turn into the mummy. I was surprised at how dark that part got with the whole being dumped in the pier and drowning thing. Also, I would seriously read a book based purely on that kid becoming the mummy and what happened once they went back to the hotel.

[Katsuro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the very first book I ever read in English. And I managed to track it down again, after I no longer had access to the school copy, in my teens. Objectively speaking, it's more of a 3-star read, but I do have a sentimental streak. :)

[fanboyriot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the adventure to this but some of the plot was a bit too sudden depending on the paths chosen.

[V · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quarantine Quick Read: Fun read! Re-read this book after last reading as a kid. My ending was p.136 it was all a publicity stunt for the new exhibit and I get to play with the robot mummy and be a part of the promotions LOL . So, I guess I got the good ending.

3.25/5

[Emma Minazza · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fun, enjoyable read, I enjoyed re-reading to find the different endings. Lots of fun!

[Sarah]

Fun to read after my son so we can talk about it 😁

[Billie Pritchett · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a Give Yourself Goosebumps book, that is, a choose-your-own adventure. In Diary of a Mad Mummy, you visit a hotel in San Francisco that is shaped like a pyramid. Why? Whatever. They have on display a mummy, and somehow you find a book next to the case somehow. Again, whatever. And another whatever for the fact that it's conveniently written in English.

You find out that this mummy has been writing nightly in his diary, since he is able to come back to life then (i.e. at night). But you've also found this underground passage to another world that looks like Egypt. What are you going to do? Come back at night to see the mummy or go to the passage now?

Depending on what you do, you can get a good story or bad. I tried them both out. The book is short enough you can see for yourself which storyline from there is pretty silly and which one isn't. This book was all right.

[Ryan Lum · Rating 3 out of 5]

THis is one out of the many stories by the great R.L stine. Its a story where you can pick the story line of the book. The perspective is based on you and made in first person. The books is about when you and your friends are suppose to go to an egyptian museum. When you find the mummy at the museum, you don't find the mummy but a bunch of wraps. The wraps will then cover you and you will become the mummy himself. With a magic book, you are then brought back to where you where once found. You go through a bunch of challenges and try to fix your self and then realize it was just a dream in the end.

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

These books are good. Odd and creepy enough for children who are into that kind of thing but not enough to give anyone nightmares. Great reading material

[Tiffany Spencer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Diary of a Mad Mummy (Updated)
(V1): The tour guide welcomes us to San Francisco. Then she shows us the famous Pyramid Building. Our sister (whose 5) asks when you’ll get to see the mummy. We don’t really wanna take her but what can we do? We’re always stuck with her. You decide not to let it ruin your trip. You’re in San Francisco. Your room has a great view and this month in the lobby there will be a display of ancient, Egyptian, artifacts. Your brother makes a joke and says “I want my mummy.” You tell your sister you’ll see the mummy when the tour guide is out of the way. The mummy is on display in the glass case and it just winked at you.

Then you see the mummy’s arm move. You tip toe to get a better look and see that the mummy is banged in a gold-painted wooden box. It’s a king from more than four thousand years ago and it’s giving you creepy vibes. When the crowd moves, you go for a closer look. Part of it’s face is wrapped. Part of it isn’t. It’s hideous! The skin you can see is dry and leathery and stretched too tight over his nose. You back away from the case. As you do your foot bumps into something.

None of your family is paying you any attention. You pick it up and it’s folded pages tied together with grass. The pages say. “This is the first day in my tomb. I am wrapped so tightly that I fear I may never breathe again. The bandages that preserve me are a prison. I am a king, yet they have brought me here, drained me of my blood, and bound me with bandages. Against my will! Stop! I beg them. Do not do this horrible thing! I am not dead! I am alive!”

“I am embalmed alive. Me. The pharaoh. The king! And why? For one reason only. Because, upon my neck, I bear a strange birthmark — a red stain in a strange shape that frightens my people. They think it is a sign of evil. Even I am not sure what it means. Does it really mean I am evil? Could I actually hurt people? Am I mad?”

“Each night my spirit walks the earth. For centuries. Each night my spirit writes this diary. But now, at last, my chance has come. Tonight, my body will walk the earth! Tonight, here in this strangest of all pyramids, I will escape my prison!” Realizing that he must be writing the diary with his mind, we then take the pages and stick them in our shirt.

Your mom calls you and tells you to get your sister, but you want to read more of the diary. You decide to sneak back tonight and see if the mummy escapes. (20, 43) So, you tell the mummy, I’ll see you later and see it’s arm move again. That night when everyone is sleep you slip out of the hotel, and walk into the lobby of the museum. The guard is sleep. When you look at display case it’s broken. The mummy is gone!

As you examine closer, you see a trail of bandages. You pick them up but then hear a noise. Someone is coming from the far side of the lobby. I pick up the bandages (51, 18) You start to daydream about the mummy, but then the footsteps break you out of the trance. When you try to drop the cloth is starts to wrap itself around your whole body. The mummy steps out of the shadows and comes right for you.

He’s now fact to face with you and he touches your face. A shock runs through you and he starts to transform … into YOU! He runs off. Then you realize somehow your skin is now leathery and dry. He’s swapped bodies with you. You decide to try to unwrap the bandages (47, 15) before the guard wakes up (and he’s starting too). You start to unravel the bandages as fast as you can. Then you look in the mirror and see… mummy flesh. YOUR STILL A MUMMY! You scream and wake the guard up.

He pulls something out of his pocket and you think it’s a gun at first but it’s a walkie talkie. He radio’s George to come quick because there’s trouble. We try to tell him we’re a kid but discover we can’t talk. You transform completely into a living mummy. You try to fight the guards but they over power you and stuff you into a sarcophagus.

They take me (clawing and scratching) to a car and put me in the trunk. George wants to try to make a fortune off us. The other man wants to take us back. George says they’ll flip a coin. Heads the other guy wins. Tails they’ll do what he says (67, 17) It’s heads but there is no “heads”. It’s a two-sided coin. Now in reverse. THE END!

(V2):
The tour guide welcomes us to San Francisco. Then she shows us the famous Pyramid Building. Our sister (whose 5) asks when you’ll get to see the mummy. We don’t really wanna take her but what can we do? We’re always stuck with her. You decide not to let it ruin your trip. You’re in San Francisco. Your room has a great view and this month in the lobby there will be a display of ancient, Egyptian, artifacts. Your brother makes a joke and says “I want my mummy.” You tell your sister you’ll see the mummy when the tour guide is out of the way. The mummy is on display in the glass case and it just winked at you.

Then you see the mummy’s arm move. You tip toe to get a better look and see that the mummy is banged in a gold-painted wooden box. It’s a king from more than four thousand years ago and it’s giving you creepy vibes. When the crowd moves, you go for a closer look. Part of it’s face is wrapped. Part of it isn’t. It’s hideous! The skin you can see is dry and leathery and stretched too tight over his nose. You back away from the case. As you do your foot bumps into something.

None of your family is paying you any attention. You pick it up and it’s folded pages tied together with grass. The pages say. “This is the first day in my tomb. I am wrapped so tightly that I fear I may never breathe again. The bandages that preserve me are a prison. I am a king, yet they have brought me here, drained me of my blood, and bound me with bandages. Against my will! Stop! I beg them. Do not do this horrible thing! I am not dead! I am alive!”

“I am embalmed alive. Me. The pharaoh. The king! And why? For one reason only. Because, upon my neck, I bear a strange birthmark — a red stain in a strange shape that frightens my people. They think it is a sign of evil. Even I am not sure what it means. Does it really mean I am evil? Could I actually hurt people? Am I mad?”

“Each night my spirit walks the earth. For centuries. Each night my spirit writes this diary. But now, at last, my chance has come. Tonight, my body will walk the earth! Tonight, here in this strangest of all pyramids, I will escape my prison!” Realizing that he must be writing the diary with his mind, we then take the pages and stick them in our shirt.

Your mom calls you and tells you to get your sister, but you want to read more of the diary. You duck into the elevator to get away to read the diary. You press UP but it starts going down and takes you to the basement. We decide the diary can wait and explore the basement a little. Weirdly there aren’t any furnaces or boilers. We take a tunnel that slopes to the right (70, 83). You feel a draft and then smell burning rubber but you keep going (93, 83). We keep walking and fall down a slope into a tar pit. THE END!

(V3)
The tour guide welcomes us to San Francisco. Then she shows us the famous Pyramid Building. Our sister (whose 5) asks when you’ll get to see the mummy. We don’t really wanna take her but what can we do? We’re always stuck with her. You decide not to let it ruin your trip. You’re in San Francisco. Your room has a great view and this month in the lobby there will be a display of ancient, Egyptian, artifacts. Your brother makes a joke and says “I want my mummy.” You tell your sister you’ll see the mummy when the tour guide is out of the way. The mummy is on display in the glass case and it just winked at you.

Then you see the mummy’s arm move. You tip toe to get a better look and see that the mummy is banged in a gold-painted wooden box. It’s a king from more than four thousand years ago and it’s giving you creepy vibes. When the crowd moves, you go for a closer look. Part of it’s face is wrapped. Part of it isn’t. It’s hideous! The skin you can see is dry and leathery and stretched too tight over his nose. You back away from the case. As you do your foot bumps into something.

None of your family is paying you any attention. You pick it up and it’s folded pages tied together with grass. The pages say. “This is the first day in my tomb. I am wrapped so tightly that I fear I may never breathe again. The bandages that preserve me are a prison. I am a king, yet they have brought me here, drained me of my blood, and bound me with bandages. Against my will! Stop! I beg them. Do not do this horrible thing! I am not dead! I am alive!”

“I am embalmed alive. Me. The pharaoh. The king! And why? For one reason only. Because, upon my neck, I bear a strange birthmark — a red stain in a strange shape that frightens my people. They think it is a sign of evil. Even I am not sure what it means. Does it really mean I am evil? Could I actually hurt people? Am I mad?”

“Each night my spirit walks the earth. For centuries. Each night my spirit writes this diary. But now, at last, my chance has come. Tonight, my body will walk the earth! Tonight, here in this strangest of all pyramids, I will escape my prison!” Realizing that he must be writing the diary with his mind, we then take the pages and stick them in our shirt.

Your mom calls you and tells you to get your sister, but you want to read more of the diary. You duck into the elevator to get away to read the diary. You press UP but it starts going down and takes you to the basement. We decide the diary can wait and explore the basement a little. Weirdly there aren’t any furnaces or boilers. We take the stone steps to the left. (70, 83 Eventually when you come outside you see sand, camels, the pyramids, and the desert. That’s right. You’re in Egypt. This has to have something to do with the diary. When you look at it now it’s not in English anymore and has hieroglyphics.

The people are in modern clothes so you still have a chance to get home. You turn back to the steps but a security guard is there and tells you “No entrance. The Great Pyramid is not opened.” Even tho you tell him you just came from there. You tell him you just came from the Pyramid Building and he scoffs and says that silly building in America. Then you show him the diary and tell him it changed from English to hieroglyphics but a man walks up and says he sees you found the famous diary of the Buthrama-Man and says give it to him. (5, 22, 106).

The American examines the diary. The Egyptian says don’t trust him. He’s a thief. The man says his name is Webster McArthur Wobbly the third and he’s not a thief. He’s a professor of ancient studies at Cairo University. He offers to buy you a lemondade and take you to Cairo to talk about buying the diary. The Egyptian warns not to go with him. (28. 22)

We decide to trust Web Woobly and he hails a camel driver. We start to have second doubts and say I think I’ll Walk, but he says too late. He takes us to Cairo, gets us the lemonade, and offers us two thousand dollars for the diary (63, 114). We accept the offer but he says he only has one-hundred on him. He says he’ll give you the rest in 2hrs and gives you a certain café to meet him at. You start to say you don’t think so but he snatches the diary and leaves.

You take a taxi to the Mouski. One hour goes by. Then two. You realize you’ve been had. You look around for a place to make a international call. A man rides up on a camel and tells you your life is in danger. The Arab man gives you a camel and tells you to go, but not where. So, you get on and just get as far away as you can but you have the feeling someone’s following you. You try to lose the men only you don’t. They catch up to you, knock you off the camel, and then take off with the camel. You’d been had twice in a day. THE END!

My Thoughts:
These endings… They all just kind of trail off. The first had potential with the mummy swap. Then after George wins it goes nowhere. The story doesn’t tell what he does with the mummy. The second one is just blah. The third was actually different than the one I originally picked. I wanted to see if I could get a better ending but no. You think with two men after me it would give me something a little more interesting than they just wanted to steal my camel.

Rating: 5

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably the most bizarre GYG I’ve read. I’ll start with the better of the sectors, and I’m not calling them storylines because they branch off a lot. The sector I started with was the come-back-later one, and it was pretty good. I liked the mechanic with the mummy bandages and I thought some of the endings, like the spa one, were pretty good and/or funny. The mummy action in that sector was nice and there was also a very metal ending involving your arm. The second sector where you go into the basement, however, was much weaker. I didn’t like the stuff involving that very shady American dude; he was really basic and had some bad endings attached to his probably phat ass. The stuff involving the security guard for the pyramid was really good though, and I liked the method of getting back home. Everything else there was whatever. I didn’t find much to like or dislike in the running-away-from-thou-mofos path. Overall, it’s an alright GYG. There were a decent amount of endings I liked or even really enjoyed—and disliked or really hated. 6/10, a little below average.

[Ninjakicalka · Rating 5 out of 5]

„Diary of a Mad Mummy” to kolejna lektura, w której to czytelnik swoimi wyborami prowadzi fabułę. Oczywiście moje zakończenie musiało być jakieś nędzne, ale wszystkich jest ponad 20, więc jest różnorodnie. Mimo że to horror to autor znalazł sposób na wprowadzenie, oprócz brutalnych, także śmiesznych i cudownych rozwiązań, że aż się ciepło na serduszku robi <3

W odróżnieniu od poprzedniej książki w tym stylu, którą czytałam tutaj mamy jedno uniwersum, więc nie wychodzimy z afrykańskich klimatów. A takie po prostu uwielbiam! Piramidy, grobowce, klaustrofobiczne tunele i dziennik samego władcy. Nie wymęczyłam się też ani trochę, może to przez to, że już wiedziałam czego się spodziewać, a może właśnie przez ten motyw przewodni. Było mi nawet trochę przykro, jak niepodziewanie wyskoczył mi ostatni koniec.

Miłym akcentem było nawiązanie do innej książki Stine’a. Mimo że jej nie czytałam to i tak fajnie natrafić na coś takiego.

[Orkhiroz · Rating 3 out of 5]

★3,5

➕
Aku memilih sekitar 6 kali. Aku membaca mengikuti jalan cerita berdasarkan spoiler di sinopsis dan lebih nekat. Jalan cerita yang kulewati terasa lebih panjang dan memuaskan. Ada bagian yang membuatku geli dan bagian yang deg-degan sampai-sampai aku bacanya cepat banget.

➖
Sepertinya aku dapat cliffhanger ending. Tanpa perlu memulai lagi seperti yang disuruh, aku menduga bahwa protagonis dan si mumi masih bisa bertukar. Soalnya, gara-gara sengatan listrik dua kali dan mumi bilang dia bakal segera balas dendam. Padahal, sebelumnya dia butuh waktu berabad-abad dan faktor tertentu untuk bisa bangkit, kan? By the way, faktor tertentunya itu apa, ya?

[2Galxy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first goosebumps books I’ve read, and I immensely enjoyed it! For the first 30 minutes I thought the writing is quite simple, however it becomes better when you have to read so many pages filled with different pathways to take and its so so fun. When there’s humour in this book, it genuinely made me laugh out loud and I loved it.

The writing is quick to the point, and it is nice to choose one of the paths after a long day and just immerse yourself in the book. I am giving this to my little brother to read, I know he’d love as much as I do.

[Iris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was expecting more chills...didn't like most of the endings. the storylines were scary and entertaining but when you came to the ending it was kind of disappointing...
I enjoyed the concept of the book a lot, it made me approach the book with high expectations that the book didn't stand them much.
overall I think its a nice book... a book that you can read when you want something simple and fun or quick to read.

[crescentys · Rating 4 out of 5]

the first book from the series that I recently bought(secondhand), I used to read this at the school library...such good memories. I was too scared to finish them all back then, now I'm reading this again for fun. I really loved egypt and greek myths so my unrealistic dream was to be an archaeologist back then (well I am nowhere close to an archaeologist now). But it's okay, I am currently doing a job as a part time tutor, which I pretty much enjoyed so far.

[Paige Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really fun one despite my horrific ending. I mean what good comes of being nosey, am I right? I knew I'd have ended up with a boring story otherwise though.

Diary of a Mad Mummy follows you with your parents to an Ancient Egyptian exhibit with mummies. How cool?! You find a diary with a mummy written in English and your curiosity gets the best of you so you decide to go exploring. However, you least expect to end up where you do but it's too late to turn back now...

[Randi Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I beat this book on the 4th try!

The first try I beat the mummy but with no gold. So I decided to try until I had the reward.

The second try I beat the mummy again and also with no gold. So I tried again.

The third try I didn't beat the mummy.

The fourth try I finally beat the mummy and won the gold!

[paige turner ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Page 21 was the end of me. The mummy took my arm, and I don't think I want to know what happens after that!

I'll try another attempt later, I just didn't want the mummy to take my little sister, maybe I shouldn't be so caring next time!

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this with My 8 year old son. It’s a fun book you can read over and over and make different choices that changes the story’s outcome .
A little bit spoooky but not too much . The goosebumps series are a good read .

[Angelika Silva · Rating 5 out of 5]

I forgot how good these were!

[kelly knaggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hi I like 👍this book it is so good! Is there a number 12 of Goosebumps?😃.

[Archer Aguilar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm 25 and you can't tell me I can't be reading R.L. Stine

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overall enjoyed. Probably my favorite GYGB book so far. I love the Egypt theme.

[A Menagerie of Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great, fun read. My kiddos want to read all the ending to this book.

[Alessandro Ricci · Rating 3 out of 5]

Non che mi aspettassi un'avventura indimenticabile, però è anche troppo semplicistico e breve

[Pierce · Rating 2 out of 5]

baby completist me didn’t like choose your own adventure books and neither does adult completist me :)

[Caterina Moretti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Molto carino e simpatico adatto a un pubblico piccolo che vuole provare un po’ di adrenalina in quello che legge