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Goosebumps #15
You Can't Scare Me
Courtney is a total show-off, and she's always making Eddie and his friends look like wimps. But now Eddie's decided he's had enough. He's going to scare Courtney once and for all. And he's come up with the perfect plan to do it.
124 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
132 people are currently reading
3922 people want to read
About the author
R.L. Stine
1,679 books18.6k followersRobert 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...
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...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 384 reviews
April 29, 2015
LAME. So disappointing.
Eddie and his friends: Hat, Molly, and Charlene - decide to scare Courtney. Why?
She's really asking for it,...
*shivers Some of the scariest words in the English language. But I've got to shake it off and realize it's Stine and 12-year-old kids we're talking about here.
Anyway, it seems to personally annoy the kids, especially Eddie, that Courtney is so fearless and brave when he's such a scaredy-cat.
For example, when a green snake scares Eddie, Courtney comes along and picks it up, telling him not to be afraid because it's not venomous.
Once on a nature walk she holds two bees and lets them crawl up and down her arm. Then she "tosses" them at Eddie - I'm still unclear on how you can toss living bees - and laughs when he's scared.
One day, Eddie is walking through the neighborhood and an old lady next-door neighbor asks him to rescue her cat from a tree. Eddie refuses - he's got a real problem with heights. Courtney rides up on her bike and rescues the cat - no problem.
Stuff like this.
So Eddie and his friends vow "revenge" (again, not sure exactly what they're getting revenge for). They want to scare Courtney really bad so that they can laugh at her. Eddie also seems to be having these little fantasies about strolling up to a panicking Courtney, picking up the offending object, and being like: "Have no fear, little lady. It's just a rubber snake." Or whatever. My psychology side is classifying these as early sexual fantasies.
ANYWAY. There are absolutely NO scares until 98% into the book and then the ending is very dumb.
Not worth reading.
Eddie and his friends: Hat, Molly, and Charlene - decide to scare Courtney. Why?
She's really asking for it,...
*shivers Some of the scariest words in the English language. But I've got to shake it off and realize it's Stine and 12-year-old kids we're talking about here.
Anyway, it seems to personally annoy the kids, especially Eddie, that Courtney is so fearless and brave when he's such a scaredy-cat.
For example, when a green snake scares Eddie, Courtney comes along and picks it up, telling him not to be afraid because it's not venomous.
Once on a nature walk she holds two bees and lets them crawl up and down her arm. Then she "tosses" them at Eddie - I'm still unclear on how you can toss living bees - and laughs when he's scared.
One day, Eddie is walking through the neighborhood and an old lady next-door neighbor asks him to rescue her cat from a tree. Eddie refuses - he's got a real problem with heights. Courtney rides up on her bike and rescues the cat - no problem.
Stuff like this.
So Eddie and his friends vow "revenge" (again, not sure exactly what they're getting revenge for). They want to scare Courtney really bad so that they can laugh at her. Eddie also seems to be having these little fantasies about strolling up to a panicking Courtney, picking up the offending object, and being like: "Have no fear, little lady. It's just a rubber snake." Or whatever. My psychology side is classifying these as early sexual fantasies.
ANYWAY. There are absolutely NO scares until 98% into the book and then the ending is very dumb.
Not worth reading.
October 8, 2018
#15 "They're coming for you...."
Eddie is sick and tired of Courtney's cocky attitude and her always making him and the rest of their friends feel like wimps. But Eddie has a trick up his sleeve, he's concocted the perfect plan to scare Courtney so bad she won't scare her friends anymore. But when things get a little too real it's not just Courtney that gets scared. This was an okay read. It didn't really pick up until towards the end.
Eddie is sick and tired of Courtney's cocky attitude and her always making him and the rest of their friends feel like wimps. But Eddie has a trick up his sleeve, he's concocted the perfect plan to scare Courtney so bad she won't scare her friends anymore. But when things get a little too real it's not just Courtney that gets scared. This was an okay read. It didn't really pick up until towards the end.
June 3, 2025
De los títulos más insulsos de la colección de Pesadillas.
Todo el libro se basa en la pandilla de amigos intentando dar el susto de su vida a la valiente de la clase, Courtney.
Así durante unas 140 páginas 🙄
Una panda de cobardes acomplejados que al final toman de su propia medicina.
Olvidable y nada destacable.
La portada es lo mejor, sin duda.
Pronto reseña, aunque ni ganas tengo ⤵️🤣
https://www.facebook.com/LaLocadelosL... 📚🖤
Todo el libro se basa en la pandilla de amigos intentando dar el susto de su vida a la valiente de la clase, Courtney.
Así durante unas 140 páginas 🙄
Una panda de cobardes acomplejados que al final toman de su propia medicina.
Olvidable y nada destacable.
La portada es lo mejor, sin duda.
Pronto reseña, aunque ni ganas tengo ⤵️🤣
https://www.facebook.com/LaLocadelosL... 📚🖤
July 1, 2022
The one thing you can say about You Can't Scare Me! is that it has an accurate title; I wasn't remotely scared by this one. It follows a group of four schoolyard friends who try to scare another girl at school, Courtney, who never seems afraid of anything and comes across as a stuck-up know-it-all. This felt like any random episode of any teen drama TV series, like Degrassi, rather than a Goosebumps book. It wasn't scary and, though not terrible, was just a very average story about a bunch of kids trying to mess with another kid at school. On the plus side, I really liked Eddie's older brother Kevin. It was amusing when he went into Eddie's room in his mud monster costume, covered in fake mud, and casually got mud all over Eddie's floor and furniture. He was an endearing, well-written "mean older brother" character.
Overall, a middling entry. Not the worst I've encountered in my re-read of the original series, but far from the best. And the ending just plain didn't make sense. You can't scare me, indeed.
CAWPILE rating:
Characters: 6.5
Atmosphere / Setting: 2.5
Writing Style: 6.0
Plot: 2.5
Intrigue: 2.0
Logic / Relationships: 3.0
Enjoyment: 2.5
= 25 total
÷ 7 categories = 3.57 out of 10
= 2 stars
Overall, a middling entry. Not the worst I've encountered in my re-read of the original series, but far from the best. And the ending just plain didn't make sense. You can't scare me, indeed.
CAWPILE rating:
Characters: 6.5
Atmosphere / Setting: 2.5
Writing Style: 6.0
Plot: 2.5
Intrigue: 2.0
Logic / Relationships: 3.0
Enjoyment: 2.5
= 25 total
÷ 7 categories = 3.57 out of 10
= 2 stars
May 26, 2020
Was it just me or did the mud monsters not get their fair share in this book? It was like WHAM BAM THANK YOU MA’AM and the story was over. And they were scary! And actually had a backstory! You Can’t Scare Me reminded me a bit of the torment that Carly Beth received in The Haunted Mask and her attempt to exact revenge on those boys who wronged her. I related to the way she felt. I did not relate to the constant revenge-seeking quality of Eddie in You Can’t Scare Me. It was like “Enough already. We get it. Stop wasting your time on this girl.” To me, this story could’ve been split into two completely different books and I think I would’ve liked to read the one about mud monsters much more.
October 7, 2019
A fun and nostalgic return to childhood. I didn't expect to experience any chills or thrills whilst reading this, as I am not the target audience this is aimed at, but I did enjoy the concluding little twist it closed with.
December 2, 2010
Ahhh, the Goosebump days. I would borrow so many of these from the library they seriously considered extending my limit of books checked out at one time. R.L. Stine you were a reprieve from a harsh and dreary childhood in which my mind wandered far away from the troubles of the day. I stole books into my bed and read far into the night by the faintest of lights. I might have better eyesight were it not for you; however, I regret not one page or line.
December 11, 2025
3 - 3.5 stars
The Goosebumps series was a staple in our house. My kids absolutely loved them, and to say I read these books with them once is an understatement. We read them many times as each of my three kids became old enough to read them. They still have them and are getting to read them with their kids.
You Can't Scare Me! is the 15th book in the Goosebumps series. It is a little fun, a tad creepy, with a little mystery and action. Loved it.
I am re-reading this series for nostalgic reasons.
The Goosebumps series was a staple in our house. My kids absolutely loved them, and to say I read these books with them once is an understatement. We read them many times as each of my three kids became old enough to read them. They still have them and are getting to read them with their kids.
You Can't Scare Me! is the 15th book in the Goosebumps series. It is a little fun, a tad creepy, with a little mystery and action. Loved it.
I am re-reading this series for nostalgic reasons.
June 15, 2018
This book was not as scary as the last book that I read by him but it was a fast read.
December 31, 2021
I spent a month re-reading all 62 original Goosebumps books to see if they still hold up today, you can check out my 3.5 hour vlog here: https://youtu.be/2C73xc1FS5o
You can also check out my entire ranking of the original Goosebumps books from worst to best here: https://youtu.be/lBfaxCOwAnA
You can also check out my entire ranking of the original Goosebumps books from worst to best here: https://youtu.be/lBfaxCOwAnA
May 5, 2025
2.5
worst one I've read so far
worst one I've read so far
September 9, 2023
This was campy AF and I loved it. I thought the ending was brilliant.
The horror doesn’t really come into play until the end… so I get why this one was rated lower, but can we just take a minute to appreciate Stine’s commitment to Courtney’s character? She was great.
There was some odd writing at times, repeated use of the word “wetly” which I still don’t feel like is a word (and definitely not one that should be repeated multiple times) so I don’t think it’s his strongest book in that regard but the writing was fun.
The horror doesn’t really come into play until the end… so I get why this one was rated lower, but can we just take a minute to appreciate Stine’s commitment to Courtney’s character? She was great.
There was some odd writing at times, repeated use of the word “wetly” which I still don’t feel like is a word (and definitely not one that should be repeated multiple times) so I don’t think it’s his strongest book in that regard but the writing was fun.
April 16, 2024
This was a bit harder for me to rate. I so wanted to give it a 1 or 2 star, but I took a step back and thought of this more in the shoes of a middle schooler who would read this, as opposed to me as an adult. So, I settled for a 3, and this is why:
This is not spooky, this is more of a story to teach a lesson with something mildly spooky for the last two chapters (last 10% of the book). So, I was disappointed, even if the lesson is a good one to learn. Hell, a lot of adults still need to learn this lesson. What's the lesson? Don't let jealousy and envy of someone else blind you into obsession, instead focus that energy on bettering yourself.
The main kid, who is admittedly quite the scaredy cat to the point of fearing his own shadow, is jealous over a girl who seems obnoxiously brave in his eyes. Yes there are points where she and others laugh at his screaming at things, so I get the frustration, but most of the time it's just him witnessing this girl's brave acts and getting so jealous that she's so brave that he wants to scare her. And he drags his poor friends into helping him. Yet, every single attempt backfires on them in some way. That's it, that's the story.
I predicted that I would be more irritated with the brave girl, based on the synopsis making her out to be obnoxious, but I was more irritated with the scared boy's obsession.
This is not spooky, this is more of a story to teach a lesson with something mildly spooky for the last two chapters (last 10% of the book). So, I was disappointed, even if the lesson is a good one to learn. Hell, a lot of adults still need to learn this lesson. What's the lesson? Don't let jealousy and envy of someone else blind you into obsession, instead focus that energy on bettering yourself.
The main kid, who is admittedly quite the scaredy cat to the point of fearing his own shadow, is jealous over a girl who seems obnoxiously brave in his eyes. Yes there are points where she and others laugh at his screaming at things, so I get the frustration, but most of the time it's just him witnessing this girl's brave acts and getting so jealous that she's so brave that he wants to scare her. And he drags his poor friends into helping him. Yet, every single attempt backfires on them in some way. That's it, that's the story.
I predicted that I would be more irritated with the brave girl, based on the synopsis making her out to be obnoxious, but I was more irritated with the scared boy's obsession.
August 11, 2017
Talk about a muddy ending! Absolutely nothing happened in this book. The only good thing about it is I now get to read One Day at Horrorland
October 1, 2018
I was feeling this book SO HARD for the first 75% or so. I was sharing in the pain, frustrations, and fears of the main characters. I wanted them to succeed in scaring Courtney maybe even more than they did! But then the cover Mud Monsters are only even me toned like 5 times in the book. The ending of this one is just thrown at us in the last two pages. A little let down with this one as I can see all the potential it could have had! Still gets 3 stars because I still love a rollicking Goosebumps tale!
September 12, 2021
You Can't Scare Me is the 15th installment in the Goosebumps series written by R.L. Stine.
Courtney is not afraid of anything much to the chagrin of Eddie. Eddie is easily scared of everything and he is sick of becoming the laughing stock at school. He and his friends make it their mission to give Courtney the scare of her life.
This was a chore to get through. The protagonists in this volume are all just jealous jerks. The plans that they come up with to scare Courtney (Who is the "bad guy" because she is smart and isn't afraid of animals or heights?) are stupid at best and abusive to animals at worst. The twist ending in this volume could be seen a mile away. Unfortunately, it just felt like not much effort went in to this volume.
Courtney is not afraid of anything much to the chagrin of Eddie. Eddie is easily scared of everything and he is sick of becoming the laughing stock at school. He and his friends make it their mission to give Courtney the scare of her life.
This was a chore to get through. The protagonists in this volume are all just jealous jerks. The plans that they come up with to scare Courtney (Who is the "bad guy" because she is smart and isn't afraid of animals or heights?) are stupid at best and abusive to animals at worst. The twist ending in this volume could be seen a mile away. Unfortunately, it just felt like not much effort went in to this volume.
September 19, 2024
Αρκετά χλιαρό για τα δικά μου γούστα, παραπάνω προβλέψιμο απ' όσο θα το ήθελα, όχι ως προς το φινάλε του, αλλά ως προς την εξελικτική του πορεία. Καλό μεν το ψυχογράφημα των μικρών ηρώων που παίρνει ο καθένας το μαθήματά του, αλλά θα μπορούσα να έχει περισσότερο βάθος.
August 24, 2024
2.5 ⭐️ rounded up for goodreads because the ending was good
January 26, 2020
2 1/2 stars
Not one of my favourites, although I loved the creative thinking and talk of monsters and creatures this one follows a theme in the books that I'm not a fan of: singling someone out and picking on them. I loved the fact that it showcased a girl who wasn't really afraid of anything, but the insistence of wanting to scare her felt a bit odd.
That said, I loved the . That bumped it up from 2 to 2 1/2 stars. Fun!
Not one of my favourites, although I loved the creative thinking and talk of monsters and creatures this one follows a theme in the books that I'm not a fan of: singling someone out and picking on them. I loved the fact that it showcased a girl who wasn't really afraid of anything, but the insistence of wanting to scare her felt a bit odd.
That said, I loved the . That bumped it up from 2 to 2 1/2 stars. Fun!
September 19, 2024
Αρκετά χλιαρό για τα δικά μου γούστα, παραπάνω προβλέψιμο απ' όσο θα το ήθελα, όχι ως προς το φινάλε του, αλλά ως προς την εξελικτική του πορεία. Καλό μεν το ψυχογράφημα των μικρών ηρώων που παίρνει ο καθένας το μαθήματά του, αλλά θα μπορούσα να έχει περισσότερο βάθος.
December 30, 2016
Nothing new, this book was almost similar to the previous one. There's no paranormal activity and no monsters until the last 2℅ of the book. What'd the use of reading goosebumps then? The book title "You can't scare me" is really true in my case. This book didn't scar me one but but it was more like a view to the life of a twelve year old boot who is normal and gets scared usually when things go wrong and how he wants to scare his classmate Courtney aka Miss Perfect. Eddie has four friends each with a unique personality and sense of humour. If you expect to be in for a scare this book is not really for you. It tells about the desperate plea of young souls and how they want to get s mild revenge about people those who are really hard to scare. Eddie and his friends really try tin give a good scare to Courtney using tarantulas, snakes, horrifying dogs and a lot more things but to no avail. This book explores young mind and has a very funny side and about friendship and all that stuff. The mud monster thing was totally boring. The pranks were good and the opening scenes were nice too. But its bit got the scary touch and sometimes the plot is really slow and boring but in the end I warned you not to read the book if you are easily scared. Its an easy and an average read explaining humor and monsters and their intricate relations.
Plot
Eddie Campbell is on a class field trip out in a forest with many of his classmates. Among his friends are Hat, which is the nickname of a boy who never takes off his hat; Molly and Charlene, two girls who are described as interchangeable and indeed, they are. All four of these children loathe the class show-off, Courtney King. On the field trip, Eddie is embarrassed or one-upped by Courtney several times. First she spots a deer. Then she teases Eddie for being scared of a garden snake. Then the class crowds around Courtney, as she lets two bumblebees walk across her palm. Then, she takes the bees and throws them at Eddie.
On the bus ride back, the quartet of friends discuss how Courtney and her best friend, Denise, never seem to be afraid of anything. As the bus drives past the muddy forest, Eddie wonders if she would even be scared of the fabled Mud Monsters that supposedly live in the forest. His older brother Kevin is making a movie about the legend of the mud monsters in his spare time, starring his friends.
After the field trip, Eddie begins a slow descent into obsession, eventually dragging all his friends with him as he becomes infatuated with the idea of getting Courtney back. First Eddie and his friends come up with placing a rubber snake in Courtney's lunch bag. Their schoolteacher, Mr. Melvin, forgot his lunch that day, and Courtney being the nice person she is, kindly offers to share her lunch with him. The teacher reaches into the bag and freaks out at the snake. Courtney heroically stomps on the snake until she has torn the head clear off.
On the way home after that failure, Eddie and his friends are approached by a neighbor lady. Her cat is stuck in a tree and she needs help rescuing it. Eddie contemplates climbing the tree, but decides he is not comfortable with the safety issues. At that moment, Courtney rides by on her bike, sees the situation, shimmies up the tree and rescues the cat for the neighbor. The neighbor then rubs it in by chastising Eddie for not being brave enough to climb the tree.
As they leave the neighbor, the group comes up with another plan to scare Courtney. Eddie and Hat will sneak into the school’s science lab, steal a tarantula, then race up to the rafters of the gym. Down below, Molly and Charlene will get Courtney to stand directly below the balcony, and Eddie will drop the tarantula into her hair.
Eddie and Hat sneak into the science lab to steal the tarantula. They place the creature into a cottage cheese container. But as soon as they close the lid, they hear the science teacher entering the lab. They both hide inside a storage locker as they hear the teacher milling about in the room. At this point Eddie notices the lid of the container is open and the tarantula is climbing up his leg. He and Hat both freak out and as soon as the teacher leaves, they discover the locker is locked. Eddie bursts out of the locker and the tarantula goes flying across the room. There is a mad dash race by Hat to capture it back into the container.
From the rafters, they see Courtney is finally in place below them. Hat opens the container and drops the tarantula... into Molly's hair. She freaks out and tears at her head, finally removing the spider and tossing it into the air, where it lands in Charlene's hands and she bats it about like a hot potato. Finally, Courtney calmly takes the creature in her hands and pets it, telling the bystanders that tarantulas aren't all that scary. Eddie and Hat are caught and sentenced to detention, where they are forced to write a 1,000 word essay on why "It's wrong to steal living things and drop them on people's heads."
Eddie's fiery desire to see Courtney get scared continues to eat away at him. He asks his film making brother for tips on how to scare her. He points out that a snake and a spider are too small and Eddie needs something big. Like a ferocious, angry dog.
Eddie runs this idea past his friends the next Saturday afternoon. Charlene suggests that Buttercup, her cuddly St. Bernard, could do the trick. The others are less than convinced and the name does nothing to help her argument. So Charlene shows them a trick that involves whistling until the dog snarls and bares its teeth and looks very menacing. When Charlene stops whistling, the dog returns to normal. Eddie is floored and wants to put the idea into motion immediately. He knows that Courtney and Denise had a tree house built near the creek and that if they were out relaxing in the forest and suddenly a wild dog attacked, they would surely be scared.
But how to get Courtney into the forest? Molly surprises her friends by changing her voice and pulling off a perfect impression of Denise. She will call Courtney up and pretend to be her and arrange for the two to meet at the tree house. This plan does not work so well, as when Molly calls pretending to be Denise, Denise is already standing next to Courtney.
A week goes by, before the weather allows for them to try to catch Courtney off-guard in the forest. The gang treks out into the forest, merely hoping that Courtney and Denise will be at their tree house, and as luck should have it, they are. Eddie takes some shaving cream out and smears it on the dog's jaw to make it look rabid. Charlene is about to whistle, when Buttercup sees a squirrel and goes running off into the thicket after the animal. The group of friends splits up to search for the dog. Eddie hears a dog growl and turns around to see a giant, pony-sized black dog with coal-burning eyes. Hat shows up and scares the giant beast away. As the four exit the clearing, they spot Courtney calmly playing with both Buttercup and the mysterious beast dog, who is licking her hand. Courtney gives them a lecture about letting their pet go wild in the forest.
The following week, Eddie and his friends lie to their parents and claim to be studying, but instead sit around and think of ways to scare Courtney. No decent ideas come to fruition, but on the way home, Eddie gets spooked by the wind, and gets an idea when he realizes that the reason Courtney was not getting scared was because they kept attempting to scare her during the day. They need to scare her at night.
At school the next day, Courtney tells her teacher that she believes in monsters. She gives proof, such as the photographs of the Loch Ness Monster and the footprints of Bigfoot. Eddie uses these comments to think up a new idea. Eddie agrees to be his older brother's slave for one month, if Kevin and his friends will dress up in their mud people costumes and scare Courtney in the forest. He agrees and Eddie tells him to go out into the forest. Now all Eddie and the gang need to figure out is how to get Courtney into the forest. Molly calls her and challenges her to meet them in the forest to see the mud monsters. Molly tells Courtney that she heard on the radio that they would be rising up from their muddy graves tonight. Courtney takes this as truth and agrees to be in the forest in ten minutes to prove she is not afraid.
We're then given a brief history of the legend of the mud people. Once upon a time there were two neighboring villages, one in the forest and one in the city. The city village hated the forest village and treated the villagers poorly. One stormy night, a rainstorm caused the creek in the forest to overflow and flash flood, burying the entire village in a mudslide, killing all the villagers. Local legend claims that once a year, the townspeople return to form, covered in mud, and go to find innocent victims to drag back with them into the mud.
The four friends hide about 100 yards behind Courtney's tree house and they see her looking out into the creek with binoculars. Suddenly, behind her, three shadowy figures emerge. Eddie's brother and friends came through; their plan worked! Eddie hears rustling behind him and the friends turn to see three more mud monsters! Eddie's brother apologizes for being late.
The group turns back towards the tree house and sees dozens of mud creatures emerging from the ground, all advancing on Courtney and the tree house. They scream and yell until she notices, and all of them make a mad dash run out of the forest, escaping the mud creatures. The next day at school, Courtney is given proof that she was right, monsters do exist. Eddie and his friends are still bitter about not being able to scare Courtney, and they would love to come up with another way to scare her. But the only problem is that they are too scared to try anything else.
Plot
Eddie Campbell is on a class field trip out in a forest with many of his classmates. Among his friends are Hat, which is the nickname of a boy who never takes off his hat; Molly and Charlene, two girls who are described as interchangeable and indeed, they are. All four of these children loathe the class show-off, Courtney King. On the field trip, Eddie is embarrassed or one-upped by Courtney several times. First she spots a deer. Then she teases Eddie for being scared of a garden snake. Then the class crowds around Courtney, as she lets two bumblebees walk across her palm. Then, she takes the bees and throws them at Eddie.
On the bus ride back, the quartet of friends discuss how Courtney and her best friend, Denise, never seem to be afraid of anything. As the bus drives past the muddy forest, Eddie wonders if she would even be scared of the fabled Mud Monsters that supposedly live in the forest. His older brother Kevin is making a movie about the legend of the mud monsters in his spare time, starring his friends.
After the field trip, Eddie begins a slow descent into obsession, eventually dragging all his friends with him as he becomes infatuated with the idea of getting Courtney back. First Eddie and his friends come up with placing a rubber snake in Courtney's lunch bag. Their schoolteacher, Mr. Melvin, forgot his lunch that day, and Courtney being the nice person she is, kindly offers to share her lunch with him. The teacher reaches into the bag and freaks out at the snake. Courtney heroically stomps on the snake until she has torn the head clear off.
On the way home after that failure, Eddie and his friends are approached by a neighbor lady. Her cat is stuck in a tree and she needs help rescuing it. Eddie contemplates climbing the tree, but decides he is not comfortable with the safety issues. At that moment, Courtney rides by on her bike, sees the situation, shimmies up the tree and rescues the cat for the neighbor. The neighbor then rubs it in by chastising Eddie for not being brave enough to climb the tree.
As they leave the neighbor, the group comes up with another plan to scare Courtney. Eddie and Hat will sneak into the school’s science lab, steal a tarantula, then race up to the rafters of the gym. Down below, Molly and Charlene will get Courtney to stand directly below the balcony, and Eddie will drop the tarantula into her hair.
Eddie and Hat sneak into the science lab to steal the tarantula. They place the creature into a cottage cheese container. But as soon as they close the lid, they hear the science teacher entering the lab. They both hide inside a storage locker as they hear the teacher milling about in the room. At this point Eddie notices the lid of the container is open and the tarantula is climbing up his leg. He and Hat both freak out and as soon as the teacher leaves, they discover the locker is locked. Eddie bursts out of the locker and the tarantula goes flying across the room. There is a mad dash race by Hat to capture it back into the container.
From the rafters, they see Courtney is finally in place below them. Hat opens the container and drops the tarantula... into Molly's hair. She freaks out and tears at her head, finally removing the spider and tossing it into the air, where it lands in Charlene's hands and she bats it about like a hot potato. Finally, Courtney calmly takes the creature in her hands and pets it, telling the bystanders that tarantulas aren't all that scary. Eddie and Hat are caught and sentenced to detention, where they are forced to write a 1,000 word essay on why "It's wrong to steal living things and drop them on people's heads."
Eddie's fiery desire to see Courtney get scared continues to eat away at him. He asks his film making brother for tips on how to scare her. He points out that a snake and a spider are too small and Eddie needs something big. Like a ferocious, angry dog.
Eddie runs this idea past his friends the next Saturday afternoon. Charlene suggests that Buttercup, her cuddly St. Bernard, could do the trick. The others are less than convinced and the name does nothing to help her argument. So Charlene shows them a trick that involves whistling until the dog snarls and bares its teeth and looks very menacing. When Charlene stops whistling, the dog returns to normal. Eddie is floored and wants to put the idea into motion immediately. He knows that Courtney and Denise had a tree house built near the creek and that if they were out relaxing in the forest and suddenly a wild dog attacked, they would surely be scared.
But how to get Courtney into the forest? Molly surprises her friends by changing her voice and pulling off a perfect impression of Denise. She will call Courtney up and pretend to be her and arrange for the two to meet at the tree house. This plan does not work so well, as when Molly calls pretending to be Denise, Denise is already standing next to Courtney.
A week goes by, before the weather allows for them to try to catch Courtney off-guard in the forest. The gang treks out into the forest, merely hoping that Courtney and Denise will be at their tree house, and as luck should have it, they are. Eddie takes some shaving cream out and smears it on the dog's jaw to make it look rabid. Charlene is about to whistle, when Buttercup sees a squirrel and goes running off into the thicket after the animal. The group of friends splits up to search for the dog. Eddie hears a dog growl and turns around to see a giant, pony-sized black dog with coal-burning eyes. Hat shows up and scares the giant beast away. As the four exit the clearing, they spot Courtney calmly playing with both Buttercup and the mysterious beast dog, who is licking her hand. Courtney gives them a lecture about letting their pet go wild in the forest.
The following week, Eddie and his friends lie to their parents and claim to be studying, but instead sit around and think of ways to scare Courtney. No decent ideas come to fruition, but on the way home, Eddie gets spooked by the wind, and gets an idea when he realizes that the reason Courtney was not getting scared was because they kept attempting to scare her during the day. They need to scare her at night.
At school the next day, Courtney tells her teacher that she believes in monsters. She gives proof, such as the photographs of the Loch Ness Monster and the footprints of Bigfoot. Eddie uses these comments to think up a new idea. Eddie agrees to be his older brother's slave for one month, if Kevin and his friends will dress up in their mud people costumes and scare Courtney in the forest. He agrees and Eddie tells him to go out into the forest. Now all Eddie and the gang need to figure out is how to get Courtney into the forest. Molly calls her and challenges her to meet them in the forest to see the mud monsters. Molly tells Courtney that she heard on the radio that they would be rising up from their muddy graves tonight. Courtney takes this as truth and agrees to be in the forest in ten minutes to prove she is not afraid.
We're then given a brief history of the legend of the mud people. Once upon a time there were two neighboring villages, one in the forest and one in the city. The city village hated the forest village and treated the villagers poorly. One stormy night, a rainstorm caused the creek in the forest to overflow and flash flood, burying the entire village in a mudslide, killing all the villagers. Local legend claims that once a year, the townspeople return to form, covered in mud, and go to find innocent victims to drag back with them into the mud.
The four friends hide about 100 yards behind Courtney's tree house and they see her looking out into the creek with binoculars. Suddenly, behind her, three shadowy figures emerge. Eddie's brother and friends came through; their plan worked! Eddie hears rustling behind him and the friends turn to see three more mud monsters! Eddie's brother apologizes for being late.
The group turns back towards the tree house and sees dozens of mud creatures emerging from the ground, all advancing on Courtney and the tree house. They scream and yell until she notices, and all of them make a mad dash run out of the forest, escaping the mud creatures. The next day at school, Courtney is given proof that she was right, monsters do exist. Eddie and his friends are still bitter about not being able to scare Courtney, and they would love to come up with another way to scare her. But the only problem is that they are too scared to try anything else.
April 23, 2016
Hoo boy. "You can't scare me!" Sounds like a terrifying title no? Well strap yourself in, because this is possibly one of the worst instalments in GB history.
Our narrator Eddie has freckles and red hair (Stein gets it out of the way on page 2 thankfully). His best friend is named Hat, because he wears a hat. Eddie and his friends aren't exactly Oscar Wilde. He has two other friends Charlene and Molly. All of these pals are on a field trip to a local forest, for some nature watching/science class stuff. Two of their classmates Courtney and Denise are sitting at the front, and have the gall to actually give a shit about completing their assignment. Eddie and his friends have a disturbing hatred for Courtney, which throughout the book develops into a full blown obsession.
While looking around for animals, Eddie falls down and a green snake happens to be around his feet. He freaks out like the coward he is, and Courtney catches the snaked and saves him from the harmless animal. After Courtney walks away Eddie and his friends hope terrible violent things happen to her because she saved him from being bitten. Nice kids.
At the end of the field trip Courtney is juggling two bees in her hands. This is where things get kind of weird. So apparently bees are nice creatures you can just carry around, and Courtney decides to throw the bees at Eddie so he can hold them. Of course he freaks out again and this is probably the only true dick move Courtney pulls in the entire book. I mean you don't just throw bees at people, we live in a civilized society for God's sake. This is where Eddie and his friends decide to plot terrible revenge on Courtney, and scare her really bad so she knows how it feels to be a spineless coward like Eddie.
First up, Molly has a genius idea of scaring Courtney with a snake. You know, the thing she just casually picked up in the forest? Naturally Molly's brother has a "realistic, scary" snake in his top dresser drawer which she can steal. Maybe she should just steal his weed and this book will have a better ending. The genius plot involves putting the scary rubber snake (which apparently feels "warm" somehow) into Courtney's lunch bag. You see these kids go to school in a podunk town with no lunch room, so they all just keep brown paper bags at the back of the class. I can't tell if they're in 6th grade or kindergarten. Anyway, Molly stows the snake in Courtney's bag, but of course their teacher Mr. Melvin has forgotten his lunch. Ever the kind hearted person, Courtney offers up her lunch bag to him. Mr. Melvin pulls out the long, big, black, uh- snake and screams in terror. Courtney stomps the shit out of it and breaks it in half like a boss. Eddie and his friends are sad that their scheme has failed.
On the way home, Eddie is approached by a neighbour who is horrified that her cat is stuck in a tree. She asks him to climb the tree and save the poor cat which apparently can't jump down itself. Eddie whines about hating climbing trees, and not wanting to get dirty and a bunch of loser BS, when the cat starts to fall out of the tree. Luckily it grabs onto the branch and saves itself. Suddenly Courtney appears (in white denim, ew) and scrambles up the tree saving the cat. Eddies neighbour rubs salt into the wound by saying at least somebody around there is brave. Ouch. Eddie takes this bitchiness from his neighbour as another reason to hate Courtney (who did nothing wrong) and slips even deeper into madness.
Scare plan two comes from the genius Hat. The "simple" plan is to break into the science teacher's room after school, steal a tarantula, hide it over night, climb a balcony in the gym the next morning, and drop it on Courtney's head. This is described as a "simple" plan multiple times, and I'm starting to wonder whether Stine is intentionally making these characters idiots. Hat and Eddie go to steal the tarantula, and almost get busted by their teacher. They hide in a supply closet with the spider and Eddie manages to free the spider which climbs up his leg and causes him to wuss out again. After all of this hassle, Eddie insists that it only means everything else will go smoothly. He's a true Wile E. Coyote.
The next day the boys and girls arrange the spider drop, but of course Hat is spatially challenged and drops the spider on Molly's head instead of Courtney's. Courtney calms everybody down and catches the spider, and the guys get busted for being animal abusing assholes. Again, this furthers Eddie's hatred, as he insists Courtney must have telepathically known the spider was coming and moved out of the way. What a bitch. Back at home Eddie's older brother scares him with his Mud Monster costume. Mud monsters are the dead people from the creek across town, where there was allegedly a tragic flood a hundred years ago. Kevin and his cool high school friends are filming a video about it so remember this plot device for later. Kevin gives Eddie advice and tells him the way to scare somebody is with a big, ferocious dog.
The next day, the gang continue their streak of animal cruelty by enlisting Charlene's St. Bernard to scare Courtney. This leads to an amazing sequence where Molly reveals she can do a perfect imitation of Courtney's friend Denise, which they plan to use to coerce her out to the woods where her treehouse is. They call Courtney's house and Molly claims to be Denise and wants Courtney to meet her in the woods. Of course Denise is already at Courtney's house, making them all look like idiots. Now I'm really thinking we're supposed to hate the main characters. They go out into the woods the next weekend with the dog and manage to find Courtney and her friend out in her treehouse. The dog gets loose however, and runs away from the kids. Then Eddie gets lost, almost gets mauled by another strange dog until Hat tries to beat it with a stick. Then after trying to find the dog they discover Courtney has rescued the animal and soothed the scary black dog that attacked Eddie. For Eddie that was the last straw. Courtney had to be stopped (from being a normal, considerate person)!
The kids actually have a fucking gathering at Charlene's house specifically to plot ways to fuck with Courtney. We're entering Columbine territory people. After leaving the house at night, Eddie has another cowardly encounter where he gets scared by some leaves and wind. This gives him the breakthrough moment of the novel. The reason they can't scare Courtney is because they're doing it during the day! If they scared her at night, it would be like, ten million times scarier!
The next day Courtney engages in some very plot convenient monster talk with her teacher Mr. Melvin. She reveals that her uncle is a "scientist" (thank god I thought we'd go a whole book without one) and he says Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, and whole other pile of BS is real. Therefore, Eddie and his friends assume that she'll believe the Mud Monsters are real too!
I'm going to cut through a lot of plot now, as Eddie convinces his brother and friends to dress up like Mud Monsters to scare Courtney in the woods. They basically bully her into going out into the woods, and when they arrive they discover not just the three Mud Monsters they recruited, but dozens. These are the actual REAL monsters and Eddie and friends run screaming out of the forest. It sounds like Courtney gets a bit scared too.
After that Eddie says that Courtney brags a lot about proving how the monsters are real, and that he and his friends really want to scare her, but they're too scared to scare her. The end. Fucking seriously.
Thoughts: Wow, what a piece of shit. Not only is that ending just brutal, Eddie and his pals have to be some of the worst people in GB history. Eddie has a creepy, almost stalker like obsession over Courtney despite the fact she has practically done nothing to deserve this treatment. He sounds like a maniac that would shoot up a school or assault a woman for not sleeping with him after he was "such a nice guy". Maybe I'm projecting here.
Anyway, it's pretty messed up when a group of four people gather in private to think up various ways to psychologically torture somebody. And these are supposed to be our "heroes". Unless Stine has created these characters as a really elaborate parody, but I don't think he holds his readers in that high of esteem.
Our narrator Eddie has freckles and red hair (Stein gets it out of the way on page 2 thankfully). His best friend is named Hat, because he wears a hat. Eddie and his friends aren't exactly Oscar Wilde. He has two other friends Charlene and Molly. All of these pals are on a field trip to a local forest, for some nature watching/science class stuff. Two of their classmates Courtney and Denise are sitting at the front, and have the gall to actually give a shit about completing their assignment. Eddie and his friends have a disturbing hatred for Courtney, which throughout the book develops into a full blown obsession.
While looking around for animals, Eddie falls down and a green snake happens to be around his feet. He freaks out like the coward he is, and Courtney catches the snaked and saves him from the harmless animal. After Courtney walks away Eddie and his friends hope terrible violent things happen to her because she saved him from being bitten. Nice kids.
At the end of the field trip Courtney is juggling two bees in her hands. This is where things get kind of weird. So apparently bees are nice creatures you can just carry around, and Courtney decides to throw the bees at Eddie so he can hold them. Of course he freaks out again and this is probably the only true dick move Courtney pulls in the entire book. I mean you don't just throw bees at people, we live in a civilized society for God's sake. This is where Eddie and his friends decide to plot terrible revenge on Courtney, and scare her really bad so she knows how it feels to be a spineless coward like Eddie.
First up, Molly has a genius idea of scaring Courtney with a snake. You know, the thing she just casually picked up in the forest? Naturally Molly's brother has a "realistic, scary" snake in his top dresser drawer which she can steal. Maybe she should just steal his weed and this book will have a better ending. The genius plot involves putting the scary rubber snake (which apparently feels "warm" somehow) into Courtney's lunch bag. You see these kids go to school in a podunk town with no lunch room, so they all just keep brown paper bags at the back of the class. I can't tell if they're in 6th grade or kindergarten. Anyway, Molly stows the snake in Courtney's bag, but of course their teacher Mr. Melvin has forgotten his lunch. Ever the kind hearted person, Courtney offers up her lunch bag to him. Mr. Melvin pulls out the long, big, black, uh- snake and screams in terror. Courtney stomps the shit out of it and breaks it in half like a boss. Eddie and his friends are sad that their scheme has failed.
On the way home, Eddie is approached by a neighbour who is horrified that her cat is stuck in a tree. She asks him to climb the tree and save the poor cat which apparently can't jump down itself. Eddie whines about hating climbing trees, and not wanting to get dirty and a bunch of loser BS, when the cat starts to fall out of the tree. Luckily it grabs onto the branch and saves itself. Suddenly Courtney appears (in white denim, ew) and scrambles up the tree saving the cat. Eddies neighbour rubs salt into the wound by saying at least somebody around there is brave. Ouch. Eddie takes this bitchiness from his neighbour as another reason to hate Courtney (who did nothing wrong) and slips even deeper into madness.
Scare plan two comes from the genius Hat. The "simple" plan is to break into the science teacher's room after school, steal a tarantula, hide it over night, climb a balcony in the gym the next morning, and drop it on Courtney's head. This is described as a "simple" plan multiple times, and I'm starting to wonder whether Stine is intentionally making these characters idiots. Hat and Eddie go to steal the tarantula, and almost get busted by their teacher. They hide in a supply closet with the spider and Eddie manages to free the spider which climbs up his leg and causes him to wuss out again. After all of this hassle, Eddie insists that it only means everything else will go smoothly. He's a true Wile E. Coyote.
The next day the boys and girls arrange the spider drop, but of course Hat is spatially challenged and drops the spider on Molly's head instead of Courtney's. Courtney calms everybody down and catches the spider, and the guys get busted for being animal abusing assholes. Again, this furthers Eddie's hatred, as he insists Courtney must have telepathically known the spider was coming and moved out of the way. What a bitch. Back at home Eddie's older brother scares him with his Mud Monster costume. Mud monsters are the dead people from the creek across town, where there was allegedly a tragic flood a hundred years ago. Kevin and his cool high school friends are filming a video about it so remember this plot device for later. Kevin gives Eddie advice and tells him the way to scare somebody is with a big, ferocious dog.
The next day, the gang continue their streak of animal cruelty by enlisting Charlene's St. Bernard to scare Courtney. This leads to an amazing sequence where Molly reveals she can do a perfect imitation of Courtney's friend Denise, which they plan to use to coerce her out to the woods where her treehouse is. They call Courtney's house and Molly claims to be Denise and wants Courtney to meet her in the woods. Of course Denise is already at Courtney's house, making them all look like idiots. Now I'm really thinking we're supposed to hate the main characters. They go out into the woods the next weekend with the dog and manage to find Courtney and her friend out in her treehouse. The dog gets loose however, and runs away from the kids. Then Eddie gets lost, almost gets mauled by another strange dog until Hat tries to beat it with a stick. Then after trying to find the dog they discover Courtney has rescued the animal and soothed the scary black dog that attacked Eddie. For Eddie that was the last straw. Courtney had to be stopped (from being a normal, considerate person)!
The kids actually have a fucking gathering at Charlene's house specifically to plot ways to fuck with Courtney. We're entering Columbine territory people. After leaving the house at night, Eddie has another cowardly encounter where he gets scared by some leaves and wind. This gives him the breakthrough moment of the novel. The reason they can't scare Courtney is because they're doing it during the day! If they scared her at night, it would be like, ten million times scarier!
The next day Courtney engages in some very plot convenient monster talk with her teacher Mr. Melvin. She reveals that her uncle is a "scientist" (thank god I thought we'd go a whole book without one) and he says Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, and whole other pile of BS is real. Therefore, Eddie and his friends assume that she'll believe the Mud Monsters are real too!
I'm going to cut through a lot of plot now, as Eddie convinces his brother and friends to dress up like Mud Monsters to scare Courtney in the woods. They basically bully her into going out into the woods, and when they arrive they discover not just the three Mud Monsters they recruited, but dozens. These are the actual REAL monsters and Eddie and friends run screaming out of the forest. It sounds like Courtney gets a bit scared too.
After that Eddie says that Courtney brags a lot about proving how the monsters are real, and that he and his friends really want to scare her, but they're too scared to scare her. The end. Fucking seriously.
Thoughts: Wow, what a piece of shit. Not only is that ending just brutal, Eddie and his pals have to be some of the worst people in GB history. Eddie has a creepy, almost stalker like obsession over Courtney despite the fact she has practically done nothing to deserve this treatment. He sounds like a maniac that would shoot up a school or assault a woman for not sleeping with him after he was "such a nice guy". Maybe I'm projecting here.
Anyway, it's pretty messed up when a group of four people gather in private to think up various ways to psychologically torture somebody. And these are supposed to be our "heroes". Unless Stine has created these characters as a really elaborate parody, but I don't think he holds his readers in that high of esteem.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 5, 2023
The ending could have been better.
Overall a good book .
I think the part was only the last few
Page's (4-5) . Just some kids trying to
Scare a girl (because she was not scared
Of anything. Acted kind of smug so
They decided to take revenge,to
To embarrass her). They fail and then decide to Scare by taking her to the woods and
Scare her with towns urban legend, the mud monsters (which was introduced in the last few pages).
So they ask the hero's brother to help them.
He agreed when they made a deal that
Eddie , aka-the scaredy cat hero, will
Be his servent for a month.
They go to the creek and tell the girl to
Come . She comes with her friend Denice.
Denice and Courtney use a flashlight and check out the place. And the mud monsters come for them. Eddie thinks it's brother and his friends. But soon his brother come and whispers that they had a flat tyre and couldn't make it in time. Soon they realise the mud monsters are real. And run for their life's.
They thought in the brightside they had scared Courtney. But she becomes more
Smug, as she told her friends,, that she was right about the monster existence in the world.
The end
This was basically the story.
Plot 8/10
Character's 8/10
Scare level 0/10
Ending 6/10
Timepass 10/10
Ps- must be three stars but was good for the
Timepass.
Thank you
for reading
Till the end
Hope it was helpfull
Overall a good book .
I think the part was only the last few
Page's (4-5) . Just some kids trying to
Scare a girl (because she was not scared
Of anything. Acted kind of smug so
They decided to take revenge,to
To embarrass her). They fail and then decide to Scare by taking her to the woods and
Scare her with towns urban legend, the mud monsters (which was introduced in the last few pages).
So they ask the hero's brother to help them.
He agreed when they made a deal that
Eddie , aka-the scaredy cat hero, will
Be his servent for a month.
They go to the creek and tell the girl to
Come . She comes with her friend Denice.
Denice and Courtney use a flashlight and check out the place. And the mud monsters come for them. Eddie thinks it's brother and his friends. But soon his brother come and whispers that they had a flat tyre and couldn't make it in time. Soon they realise the mud monsters are real. And run for their life's.
They thought in the brightside they had scared Courtney. But she becomes more
Smug, as she told her friends,, that she was right about the monster existence in the world.
The end
This was basically the story.
Plot 8/10
Character's 8/10
Scare level 0/10
Ending 6/10
Timepass 10/10
Ps- must be three stars but was good for the
Timepass.
Thank you
for reading
Till the end
Hope it was helpfull
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 31, 2023
Bit of a let down with this one, the mud monsters are a cool idea but barely used. Did not feel the usual spooky adventure goosebumps offers. The villain/monster of the story might as well not have been been in it at all. The entire book is basically about a group of friends trying to scare another girl from school. Barely featured any monster or spookyness which is what I enjoy reading in goosebumps. I wouldn't recommend this to a friend unless like me you have set a goal to read the goosebumps series, that's the only reason I pushed through this one, one more off the list.
September 23, 2022
One of Stine's earlier Goosebumps, this book centers around a group of four kids, told from the perspective of Eddie, who seek to vengeance on the "perfect" girl in their class. Always being shown up by her, and humiliated on a field trip, Eddie and his friends conspire on numerous attempts to frighten Courtney back, but always fail. Until they finally come up with the ultimate plan...
It wasn't one of the best nor worst of the GB stories.
It wasn't one of the best nor worst of the GB stories.
February 9, 2025
I’m doing a full series reread and this is just as underwhelming as I remembered it to be. This story takes a significant amount of time before it starts to get remotely scary. The ending was pretty stupid too lol.
You Can’t Scare Me follows Eddie and his classmates on a school field trip. After the field trip, Eddie is desperate to find a way to scare Courtney. She’s always scaring him and his friends. He wants to get back at her really good but nothing has worked this far. Eddie goes to get help from his older brother and he thinks he has a great plan in place. However, things take a different route than expected.
You Can’t Scare Me follows Eddie and his classmates on a school field trip. After the field trip, Eddie is desperate to find a way to scare Courtney. She’s always scaring him and his friends. He wants to get back at her really good but nothing has worked this far. Eddie goes to get help from his older brother and he thinks he has a great plan in place. However, things take a different route than expected.
August 6, 2020
My first full scary novel, i liked it!
April 15, 2022
Well, I didn't hate it, but i wouldn't call it good either. Also the constant "she's asking for it" kept reminding me of rape culture. I know that wasn't the intent.
September 15, 2022
The next time someone says the earlier Goosebumps are superior I will point them in the direction of this book. Sorry Rick but this is one of the worse ones I've read so far!
July 14, 2024
This book wasn’t great. Eddie is an absolute psychopath who needs a very long therapy #TeamCourtney.
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