Zapped in Space

Give Yourself Goosebumps #23

by R.L. Stine

Highlighting a newly designed front-cover look for the Goosebumps series, the newest installment takes the reader on a visit to a virtual reality theme park where the scares are all too real. Original.

Genres: Horror, Gamebooks, Childrens, Middle Grade, Young Adult, Fiction, Choose Your Own Adventure

135 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1997

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.

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Reviews

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked Zapped In Space from the Give Yourself Goosebumps series,because of the video game aspect because of a family members birthday a last month and she does live her video games.I didn't get to finish it in time for that so I still decided to include it because I've heard it has an artic snowy type storyline.The story begins with you and two friends.You guys are going to this place that you heard about called Maddame Zapps arcade.It's a rundown building but you guys enter anyway and your greeted with a creepy woman with a veil over her face that introduces herself as Madame Zappe.She tells you this is a virtual reality game and only two work.You can chose one calledA Drift Off Vega or Abominable Snow Woman.I picked Vega because I do not like the cold.You get placed in front of the arcade and Madame Zapp explains that in order to escape the game all you do is take the helmet off.You put the helmet on and you and your friends are on a spaceship.The doors open and your greeted with an alien with four arms and two heads.The alien throws this black goo stuff at you and it burns one of your friends.She tries immediately  to escape,but when she takes her helmet off you are all alarmed to discover you're still in the game.You have a choice to fight the alien or escape through the emergency escape.I fought the alien and he gives up after you hit him with some stuff.He begins to talk and explains that he is a vegan and he and his alien friends are at war with these other species called the Arcturans.The vegans need your help to defeat the Arcturans through a level of games that they always lose at.There are three levels,red,yellow and blue.You can choose either the red or yellow first but you have to beat both to get to the blue level.I picked the yellow level first.This one you are on a planet with almost no gravity and this yellow blob monster chases you.It can possess you.You can eat it and that's about it for this level.I felt this one should've been longer.If you beat yellow you go to the red level,which is amazing.You end up in this red room that has pictures hanging on the wall of a lizard family.The lizard dad comes home.you or either your friends go to escape and discover that outside is super hot,so hot that when one of you open the door their skin got fried.You can choose to fight this lizard with a sword or a gun and one of these choices leads to one of my favorite endings involving hands getting cut off and growing back and stuff.You can try to run downstairs or up stairs.Downstairs leads you to an army of ants-like monsters.There is a way to defeat the lizard and if you do you finally get to choose the blue level.The blue level features the Arturicans,a race of aliens that are smartest in all of the galaxy.They are these blue headed people with no body floating inside a big jar.They first ask you a question about Trapped In Bat Wing Hall,a book I've already reviewed and read so I knew the answer.The next is a number game,which was super easy and last a word search,but you had to find the words that were actually there and count them.I found it funny that the final level was so easy.It was very funny.I enjoyed the final act of this storyline.I also thought the aliens were pretty cool.We also get other aliens that make appearances like roach people that want you to live in garbage and a random alien that abducts you.As for the snow woman storyline,you get brought to a artic level with plenty of snow and you have to find the snow woman.Your immediately almost attacked by a walrus you scare him away and then your introduced to a character named Andy that got trapped in the game.It turns out he's been in the game for a while and says the only way to escape is finding the snow woman.You run into a giant snow dogs giant pelicans.and caves.This storyline was honestly very lackluster.The snow woman was not intresting at all.We learn nothing really about her other then who she really is which contradicts the other storyline.I did enjoy the setting though.I felt like we haven't gotten enough snowy type of settings in the Give Yourself Goosebumps series so far.I give Zapped In Space a four out of five stars.

[M.K. Aneal · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an okay book but very strange. Not too creative, but was a quick read.

[Tiffany Spencer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Zapped in Space
My Story
A new virtual video game place opens but it’s hidden in a shabby old building. Your introduced to Madam Zapp-a weird looking lady in a veil and gloves-. She tells you the requirements. You have to wear a helmet because it will make it seem real. Too real! Already I know that it will be by this statement alone. There are only two games available “Abominable Snow Woman” and “Adrift off Vega” (that one has bugs). She recommends “Abominable Snow Woman”. She says to quit the game remove the helmet. Simple enough. My friends and I go in the booth. They pick “Adrift off Vega”. The book me think “Abominable” sounds morning interesting. But the RL me doesn’t so I go with my friend’s choice. She says basically we made the wrong choice but shrugs it off. Our funeral. The game starts and it feels like we’re in a space ship. Then everything around us disappears! A alien burst through the door and burns Katy. BUT the thing is... the burn is REAL! (as I knew this game would be). She reaches up to remove her helmet. I thought it was gonna be stuck but no it comes off and the alien is still there. It says it kidnapped you from the arcade. To prove how real, it is it starts to strangle you! Convinced now you ask how it took you and it says it disguised a transport booth as a arcade booth. The alien receives a message and is called away. We decide to use a hatch to escape. Down the hatch you see a red button that activates a life boat and you escape. Now your drifting aimlessly in space. You see another ship in the distance and attach yourself to it-hoping someone can direct you back to Earth-. As the hatch opens roaches pop out (had to be roaches. I HATE ROACHES) and fill the life boat. (Hope we have on Tims). No way in HELL am I gonna try to reason with a roach so I grab the fire extinguisher! You send them scrabbling (NICE THINKING) and they flee back to their own ship. However, our ship is spinning out of control! Your spinning toward the ship you escaped from. You see a button that says EMERGENCY only and push it. (Cause if this isn’t one NOTHING is). Pressing the button let all the air out of the cabin. And with no air guess what?

Rating: 6 It wasn’t AWFUL and there was a little adventure in this with the aliens and the roaches but it was just so-so. It wasn’t the space adventure I wanted to have with a fight out between me and the aliens and zap guns going off. Definitely was no Men in Black. Could have been better! Just not interested in the Snow-woman game to go back and try that story line.

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great alien and space storyline, but a very weak arctic storyline. The space storyline was great all throughout, having wacky moments and good endings, interesting alien figures, a very cool implementation of arcade games, and an awesome story. I liked going through the levels a lot, and they each had cool stuff. The red level has some really interesting aliens and a weird setting. The yellow level has a very creepy and cool setting with a moment that is unbelievably disturbing involving some of the most brutal body horror I’ve seen in all of goosebumps, as well as some interesting concepts. The blue level, the final one, was fun and closed the storyline on a neat note with its good ending. However, the arctic kinda sucked. It was really boring and I had little interest in it. There is little stuff that was cool and the choices weren’t all that great. It’s very bland in some ways and was a massive step down from the alien plot line, and it’s bringing the score down a shocking amount. No pun intended. 7/10, would’ve been nine or higher if that other storyline was cut out. Seven out of ten is also pretty generous I feel but whatever. Great and mediocre.

[Schen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Both storylines have a clear plot and an enjoyable sci-fi setting. Both include games, e.g. the Abominable Snowwoman's snow maze or the Arcturans' blue level. I particularly liked the choice between two items in the Abominable Snowwoman quest. It is a fun choice to think about, since both items could be useful. I also like that both are eventually used in different branches and that if you try to take both, you can't .
Not all the endings make sense, e.g. how would you know that using a leaf as a sun hat could fry you because the leaf acts like a magnifying glass? Or that fighting a giant lizard with a real sword will fail but throwing broken pieces of a fake rifle at it will work? Still, 4 stars for the fun settings and plots.

[Susana · Rating 1 out of 5]

La verdad que no me ha gustado nada. Yo creo que no son para mí estos tipos de libros. Son libros que tú mismo vas creando la historia es decir, estás leyendo una página y al final te Dan opciones de ir a una página u otra. No me ha gustado esto. Después creo que era muy juvenil para mi, aunque me leí uno de Tom Gates y me encantó. Tengo otro libro como este pero no lo voy ni a empezar. Lo recomiendo si te gusta este tipo de libros que uno mismo hace la historia. 22/10/2023.

[Griffin C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has two storylines, one where you play a sci-fi game called "Adrift Off Vega" and one where you play an Arctic survival game called "The Abominable Snow Woman". The alien route was okay, it wasn't terrible but I really didn't care all too much for it. Where I think this book really shines is the Arctic survival route which is incredibly fun. 8/10

[Tanishqa Trivedi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't like the concept of give yourself GOOSEBUMPS. It ended within 5 minutes (I got trapped on a cockroach planet,that was good). It should have been a bit longer . I re read it by chosing the other game but that too ended early.

[Past Zach]

A fun concept, but kind of lame execution here, with the grand finale to beat bodiless aliens being... a math problem? A word search? Eek, reader beware, indeed!

[fanboyriot · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hate the change of covers in this series. The book itself was okay but not a favorite.

[하영 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why are you sitting and wondering if you should go read this stop being a couch potato go pick it up!

[Benjamin Stahl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was one of those special kinds of Goosebumps books in which you got to certain points in the story, and R.L. Stine gave you a choice for what you, as the character, would do. Of course, I can't recollect the story of this so well, as it was many years since I last read it, and tried to get to the end without my character meeting his death.
But I remember finding the concept pretty mind-blowing at the time. It was basically like an imaginary role-playing video game. My brother and I used to entertain each other by making up stories in a similar vein, and providing certain options for how the story could continue. Pretty awesome stuff, really, as it got kids more excited about reading in a way I think, back then, was highly original.