The Curse of the Creeping Coffin

Give Yourself Goosebumps #8

by R.L. Stine

"Reader beware--you choose the scare! GIVE YOURSELF GOOSEBUMPS!

You're off to visit your grandmother, whose house backs up to a graveyard. At first the tombstones seem far away. But every day they move a little closer. Then you discover the headstones are disappearing. But the dead aren't gone -- their ghosts are moving. Right into your grandmother’s house!

If you decide to stay, you must battle a warrior ghost. If you decide to run, one of the kid ghosts follows you home. Will you be haunted...for the rest of your life?

The choice is yours in this scary GOOSEBUMPS adventure that's packed with over 20 super-spooky endings!
"

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

132 pages

First published August 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

[Norman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I seem to like the "Give Yourself Goosebumps" series after the reading of "Toy Terror", I really think that R.L. Stine went overboard with the crazy plot twists and that sort of stuff while writing the book. Nevertheless, I would still give it and actual rating of 3.5 stars.
To start off, the only two options that I find to bring the story to a peaceful ending are "page" 46 and 78, however, I would rather choose 46 as an alternate ending, even when I feel how the ending that the author would have preferred is page 78. Firstly, on page 78, it would have been IMPOSSIBLE to ditch the grandmother's house, since she would more or less think that you're crazy instead. Also, for page 46, why would you even be playing in the game show in the first place? This is because I'm sure that the host of the show is more likely to tell you the price(s) beforehand so that you don't win anything that you don't need, thus making page 78 the best ending to obtain in the book.

[The Gooseblock Bruce · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has lots of great moments, some great description of the setting in the graveyard, and also fantastic gameplay here and there. Past that this book is lopsided with a really rough “keeper of the sword” arc which feels like a chore to get through. If this section didnt take up an entire fourth of the book i wouldve probably liked it more overall.

This books rating with the goodreads star system could get a 4/5 but im gonna give it three stars because i have the book on the lighter side of a 7/10.

[Vincent Watch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once you get past the exposition, you are in complete control of the book. You get to make your own decisions and have a wonderful time doing so. A couple of the endings came as a surprise to me (but with over 20 DIFFERENT POSSIBLE ENDINGS, how could they not?). While reading, just remember, a choice doesn't count until you take your fingers off the page it was on!

[Kierah · Rating 5 out of 5]

it was amazing i loved it so much i will gladly read it again this book is the reason i like books

[Shad Mohd. Algari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really liked how R. L. Stine stepped up his game and wrote a book where YOU can choose the ending!
It was unique, fun and very intriguing.
Finished it in one setting. <3

[Josiah · Rating 2 out of 5]

The idea behind this gamebook adventure is both surprisingly creative and very well written: You are visiting your grandmother's house (which happens to have an old graveyard in the backyard), when one day you notice that the graves seem to be rearranging themselves when you're not looking, forming patterns of themselves. Might they be trying to send you a message? Is your grandmother's house haunted?

R.L. Stine has shown again his ability to write good scary stories, and to include characters and events that are bursting with impressive originality. I like this book quite a bit.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

this time you are in the story. the house of your grandmother has a graveyard for a backyard. At 1st, the tombstones, they seem far away, but every day they move closer, and closer. Here you have two choices. 1st, If you stay, you must battle a worrier ghost. 2nd, If you run, one of the kid ghosts will follow you home. what will you choose...will you choose be haunted... for the rest of your life?

[Christer Eriksson · Rating 3 out of 5]

It had a good build up to it. I enjoyed it.

Thanks Hollie for getting it for me.

[Tiffany Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Curse of the Creeping Coffin (Update)
I’ll start with the ending I originally got. This one I came very close to getting a “Good Ending” but I picked the wrong ghost name. At least I think this is the one I picked. There are two endings where you can pick the wrong coffin.

“Bad Ending”
It’s a hot sticky day in July and your visiting your grandma. Your bored! Grandma suggests you go outside and find something to do. But, the only thing is in front of her house is a cemetery and the tombstones have been moving! When you went to look at the cool carvings on them yesterday some of them were out of place. You could have sworn there were six or seven graves in the back row. Now there are only 3. This morning there were 10 in the back row and the middle seemed more crowded.

The coffins are rearranging themselves. But how and why. When you look out the window, you exclaim that the coffin with the angel on it isn’t there. You grandma tells you don’t be silly. Its still there. You rush out and find that it is but instead of being in the back, its in the front row. You rush back in to tell your grandma and she says it’s Elmyra Martin’s grave. A strange woman in the doorway corrects her and says her name was ELVIRA. She says she never could get her name right. Grandma is oblivious to her. She tells you not to stare at her or you’ll be sorry.

Do you go outside or do you talk to her? You run outside (18). You bolt out the door. The ghost watching you with her glowing eyes the whole time. As soon as you get out the door, something grabs your ankle and you fall down the steps. You hear a boy laughing but when you look back, there’s no one there. A boy and a girl in old-fashioned clothes materialize in front of you. They’re teenagers and you can see right through them. You pinch youself and it hurts (53). They introduce themselves as Jane and John Luckmeyer.

You find out they want to have a little fun with you-which you don’t like the sound of-. You ask them about the graves but they just smile their evil smiles at you. You need to run. John has something behind his back. But which way? Into the graveyard or do you try to slip past them to get back to the house? You decide to try to slip past them and run back to the house (108). John grabs your arm and dangles a ghost snake in your face. You push past him but Elvira is still there. She tells you you will regret coming back and heads up the stairs to your room.

You follow her and she slams the door. She tells you she doesn’t want any trouble from you and then promptly kicks you out the room. You try to ask about the graves but she tells you to shut up and get out. She needs her rest. She sleeps for 2 minutes. When she wakes up, she seems to be in a better mood. You ask her about the coffins again and she says it’s the curse of the creeping coffins and they’ll all be moving into this house. You try to ask what she means by *all of them* but she gets angry again and says don’t get in her way and she might let you live. She warns you not to talk to Mc Farling-the ghost hunter- and then disappears through the wall.

There’s a commotion that sounds like it’s coming from the attic. Do you try to find out what it is or try to find out about Mc Farling? You try to find out about Mc Farling (16). You ask grandma and she says he’s a loon. He told her there’s a curse on the house and it would be haunted soon. So you look him up on the internet and find him Mac Mc Farling. You go over to Mac’s and tell him what’s going on. He says he had a feeling and he tried to warn your grandmother. He grabs an electronic box and you head back to your grandmother’s. You ask why the graves are message and he says he thinks they’re trying to spell out a curse or a message. You might can stop them but it won’t be easy.

First you have to fight the Keeper of the Sword and get the special sword to stop the Most Powerful Ghost that’s the spirit who has control over the graveyard. Once you have the sword you have to plunge it into the grave of the MPG but you have to do this before the coffins finish moving. Or you’ll never be able to get the ghost back inside.

When you get there, McFarling says there’s trouble and asks for a dollar. So, you do (57). He folds the dollar in half twice. Then he jams it into a tiny slot of his electronic box. A minute later, the beeping stops. The box spits the dollar back out and he gives it back to you. He then announces there are 10 ghosts already in the house and he can’t help you. You plead with him as he’s about to get back in his car. He says ok. He’ll help and he draws you a sketch of the graveyard and its rows. The first letter of the last names you see spells out a message S-O-O-N D-I W-I-L-L Y-O-U (SOON YOU WILL DIE). There’s only one letter missing then the curse will be complete.

He tells you to call him after you defeat the Keeper of the Sword and he’ll tell you what to do next. He warns you to stay away from the twins and find out the name of the Keeper of the Sword (8). You see the twins in the house on the second floor after Mc Farling drives off. Then you see a flickering on and off and go up to the attic to see what’s causing it. Do we think John Luckmeyer is the Keeper or do we think the Keeper is hiding in the attic. We think he’s hiding in the attic (102). At the top of the third floor landing is a soldier that looks like he’s from the Civil War. He holds his sword to your throat and tells you not to take a step forward or you’ll die.

You realize this must be the Keeper of the Sword-when you see his long sword- but you start to back up. Then you feel another sword pricking you between your shoulders and another ghost-a woman- in a fencing outfits tells you ENGARDE. Which do you think the Keeper is? You choose the fencer (99). When you choose her, the soldier vanishes. You pick up an umbrella and get ready to fight. The fight is in van. She can’t hurt you and you can’t hurt her. She says she’s the Keeper and when she takes off her mask, you realizes she has no face or head. She says she’ll help you if you can find her head. So you agree (62).

You look in the attic. The only head you see is a moose head so you bring her that-and hope she won’t be too mad-. When you give her the head, the moose head begins to glow, as if there were a light inside it. Then a ghostly woman’s face appears inside the moose head. the face rises out of the moose head. The woman’s face floats up and hangs in midair, right in front of you. She thanks you, attaches the head, tells you her name is Sarah and says she has to return to her grave. Mc Farland says Find her grave in the graveyard. Write down the year of her death. It’s a special number. You’ll need it. Then plunge her sword into the grave of the MPG.

Do you go to the grave or do you think the MPG will come to you? You go to the graveyard (96). There are two Sarah’s. One is Sarah Grayson. Born in 1820. Died in 1895. The other is Sarah McGinnis. Born 1918. Died 1940. You write down your choice. Something is happening behind you. The tombstones are moving again. They now spell YOU BOTH WILL DIE SOON! You realize that the last letter is E so the ghosts last name must begin with an E there are three Melvin Estep. Melvin Estep II. And Brandon Estep. Do you take a guess or ask Elvira? You decide to guess (48). I choose Melvin (34). You picked wrong. The coffins now say DIE! It suggests next time asking Elvira for help.

Bad Ending (These next two endings I found particularly interesting. In this story the “bad endings” were actually better than the good ones)

You try to think of a way to ask Elvira about the moving coffins without your grandmother thinking your crazy. You race out the house (30), You wanna go home but you can’t. Your parents are on vacation. You decide to go up to your room to rest. A ghost is standing in the doorway. Its hideous! You get your grandmother to call your parents and convince them to cut their vacation short. They’re steamed but at least your away from that house. Your in your bed and then you notice the sheets start to move. At first, it’s only a ghostly head. The head of a boy. his body, arms, and legs begin to materialize in front of you. He looks almost solid. You find out he’s hitched a ride back with you from your grandmothers house. You decide to go to your best friend for help (73). You tell Robin about what happened at your grandmothers, but he doesn’t believe you. All of a sudden, the balls he’s juggling (and dropped) start to juggle themselves. One hits him in the face.

He thinks you did it. He thinks differently when there’s a knock on his door and when he opens it there’s a carving knife pointed at his heart. You see a baseball bat and use that (35). It goes through the boy and smashes Robin’s desk lamp. The ghost vanishes. Robin says you can stay at his house for the night. Everything is going good until Lark (Robin���s brother whose having a sleepover) tells you to stop turning off the lights. It turns out your afraid of the dark (83),

It’s dumb but your so paralyzed you can’t move. So, Robin convinces you to hide under the sink from Lark. You see two eyes in the dark. It says you’re in the wrong book. You’re in the book It Came from Beneath the Sink. You think it might be a Grool (132). Robin reaches for the Grool. It’s just a kitten. Lark and his friends find you. You run from Lark but while your running the ghost boy whispers to you that he’ll help you but you have to do what he says tomorrow. You accept (52). The ghost boy makes Lark trip up repeatedly. The next morning, he says it’s time to hold up to your promise. He takes you to a graveyard and tells you when he disappears to stand on his grave.

So, you do (90). And you see the name on the grave is JAMES T. REDDSON III. 1875–1910. Hmmm. You do some quick math, and realize this guy was thirty-five when he died. This can’t be the kid’s grave Then you hear rumbling and the ground starts to shake. A hand reaches out of the ground and grabs your ankle. The hand is pulling you down into the ground. It hurts. In fact, your whole body aches as it is dragged right into the ground. But only for an instant. Then you feel nothing. You close your eyes. When you open them, you’re lying in a coffin — six feet underground … with no way out. You’re buried alive!

The coffin starts to feel crowded. You notice the ghost boy beside you. He says take his hand. It’s time to continue the journey. You turn him down and say you keep your promise. He says suit yourself and vanishes. You wonder if you should try to scream. The caretaker shows up once a week on Fridays. Its Friday only its Friday the 13th (13). The caretaker comes but he has an ear infection and can’t hear you. The next time he comes well you aren’t screaming anymore.

Bad Ending
You follow him to an old graveyard. This one’s on the far side of town. At the edge of the graveyard, the ghost stops. He puts out his hand to keep you from taking another step. “Wait here, until I reach my tombstone,” he tells you. “When you see me disappear, stand on top of my grave. This time you say no (110). You break your promise and run home. Nothing happens! You never see another ghost. Years later, you tell your children all about your grandmother’s haunted house. About how a ghost followed you home. And haunted your best friend’s brother’s party. And you promised to follow him into the graveyard the next day, but didn’t do it. Your children think you’re making it up, of course. But you know the truth Because every time you walk past a graveyard, you hear voices calling you. Accusing you. The voices of the ghost-boy and all his ghost friends. “Yooooooou,” they call. “Yooooou lied!”,


Good Ending (I just wanted to know out of curiosity what would happen if I choose the right name)
I choose Brandon Estep (47). Your about to stab the sword in but something happens. Brandon raises up and has an iron hand he must be the MPG. (14). Congratulations! You picked the right Sarah. Sarah McGinnis. Born in 1918. Died in 1940, at the age of twenty-two. You knew she was the right one — because the fencing ghost was a young beauty. So she must have died young. The sword plunges itself into the grave and Brandon vanishes. The only problem is his iron fist is still clutching your arm. The hand moves up to your throat and is very close to chocking you to death. The sword is nearby floating in mid-air and you use it to cut the iron hand off you (CAREFULLY).

You hear chimes and your grandmother comes out. She says the chimes of the clock tower haven’t been heard in years. Brandon and his father built the tower. He loved the clock tower and after he died it was said that he haunts the tower-which is why it hasn’t chimed-. She wonders why its chimed now. You tell her his spirit is finally at rest. She tells you don’t be goose. There’s no such thing as ghost. You go back inside to go to bed and find that Elvira is in your bed and tells you don’t hog the covers. She’s now your roommate for eternity.

Rating: 7 Of all the GYG books I’ve read I think that this was my favorite one. It was the first one that I can remember being excited about because I can so close to get the right ending. This one also gave a good storyline to work with. Some are decent. Others are meh even from the title. This time I actually got to see what would have happened if I’d chosen Brandon. In this one, the “bad endings” were actually more appealing than the “good ones”

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

As my 25th GYG log for Goodreads, I’ve decided to return to one of the few GYGs I had started but never finished. Curse of the Creeping Coffin had been a favorite of mine before I had even finished it, and that was due to me sucking at keeping track of where I was. Now being much better at it, and using the page maps on the Wikipedia to avoid headaches, I have done it. And it’s a banger. This is easily the most interactive and well written give yourself goosebumps adventure I’ve read. There’s at least ten instances of zany things that either involve real life actions or just flat out call you out. And there’s even the annual Goosebumps cameo, but no spoilers on who or what it was.
The horror and comedy balance here is superior to most attempts. This one leans towards horror but also heavily into the comedy, feeling like a literal horror-comedy film, delivering on both ends well and not leaning on one more than the other. The MPG idea was cool (not to be confused with MSM Poke Gamer, the legend), both arcs were really entertaining and equally as good, and the literal curse of creeping coffins is an awesome idea. Well done, Ghost Writers! You’ve created some s-tier material. Also, there’s a lot of great endings, the best being the horse one. However, not everything was awesome. The Casper rip-off arc had a weird underworld segment, which wasn’t very good. The ghost Hunter dude, Mac, was underused and mainly served as an info-dumper/plot device. There’s the occasional not-very-good ending, and also, a bit of repetitiveness sprinkled in here. But overall, 9/10. This book is one of the best GYGs in the catalogue and I highly recommend giving it a go or rereading it if you rated it lowly before. Montana mentioned.

[Dane Cobain · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is in the style of a Choose Your Own Adventure, and it boasts that there are over twenty different endings for you to experience. Because of that, you can’t really read it from cover to cover, but that’s not a problem. It’s actually pretty fun, but I couldn’t give it more than a three because it’s over so quickly.

In this book, there are ghosts, coffins, and plenty of spooky happenings going on. It’s alright, but I would’ve enjoyed it more as a kid – and even as an adult, I still think that the actual novels are more enjoyable than books like this. Still, it’s worth a try at least.

[Paige Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had a really good build up but my ending sucked but I didn't choose wisely I guess. Shocker. Maybe I start playing it safe from now on but where is the fun in that??

The Curse of the Creeping Coffin follows a kid visiting his grandmother while their parents are away. The kid soon finds out there are ghosts haunting this house from the very graveyard across from the house. I obviously chose to pursue the ghost instead of ignoring it. I had fun going through all the choices but when the end came I wasn't super happy BUT the adventure sure was fun!

[Mousellina · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is choose your own adventure kind of story with 20 different endings. I have found the format of flipping pages back and forth quite tedious. The story was alright but very fast paced. I have reached 3 different endings and was on the way to a 4th one when I was presented with a choice between being unkind to an animal and being unkind to an animal. I stopped reading there. Overall I did not enjoy the book and will stick with a linear story next time.

[Aqeelah · Rating 3 out of 5]

21) Written by a ghostwriter

cause of death? got bitten by vampire chickens. what the heck. this book is a DIY plot, you choose the next chapter and you follow along in that way. but i soon realised I don't enjoy having that extra freedom of choice, just tell me the story already so i can move on please 🤣

[Bianca · Rating 3 out of 5]

2019 Popsugar Reading Challenge
16. A choose-your-own-adventure book

— I loved reading these “Give Yourself Goosebumps” books as a kid. I found them fun although my character always died. Even now, I still died on my first try 😂

[paige turner ♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Page 26 was the end for me. Dropping into a washer, I guess was the end for me. I'm excited to attempt this story again at a later date. I said in the last book that I wouldn't trust something that warned me about something, but that wasn't such a good idea this time.

[Paige · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this to my almost 7 year old daughter and she loved it. This was her first "choose your own adventure" type book. She loved it so much that even when break was over at the pool, she wanted me to keep reading and didnt want to get back into the pool.

[Lindsay Wilcox · Rating 2 out of 5]

I originally picked this out to meet a “horror book” challenge. I read another one from this series when I was young. I loved finding my way to a storyline with a totally different setting, but then it wasn’t true to the title anymore, so I felt conflicted as well.

[Kaitlyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite of these books, but the main story line was good. Some of the subplots weren't too exciting.

[Kimberley H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nostalgic fun!

[Drake Sully · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting series of books. These are written in 2nd person's perspective. A really intriguing concept.

[Annie Ellora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very proud of myself for surviving lol

[Rachana Verma]

Always saw these stacked in the school library but was kinda scared to read horror. Finally read one at age 22 because someone gifted it to me so I'd appreciate the clever writing, and I do.

[Justin Spanbauer · Rating 2 out of 5]

The "main" plot is pretty interesting but a couple of the choices (including the first major one) and therefore about half of the endings feel pretty disconnected from the main idea of the story.

[Vic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doesn't hit the same wacky highs as the previous entry, but the myriad ghost adventures won me over in the end.

[Kaitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exactly as much fun as I remember it being.

[fanboyriot · Rating 4 out of 5]

The set up was really rushed but I did enjoy the atmosphere. It kinda felt like an escape room with puzzles to figure out the plot.

[Jennifer Epling · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will always be a fan of R.L Stine, he has such a creative mind. another backlist done :)

[Lucas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the book because it was very adventerous and questioned me if I made the right decision or not. It was fun to read. It had cool characters in it.

[Alby Rei · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read this for the CYOA nostalgia, and I actually finished the book this time! I used colorful tags to keep track of the endings I collected. I loved the Luckmeyer twins, those little tricksters, even if they did torment me in half the endings they appeared in.
This was the book that inspired me to write my own CYOA-style story back in high school (almost 10 years ago!), and I still have access to it! Thinking of how I can rework it into a new project... hmm...
Why four-stars? For me, I found the inconsistent rules kinda silly (sometimes you get physically hurt by the ghosts, other times you can't) and some of the cartoonish endings
(I'm looking at you--vampire chickens)