Monster Dog

Ghosts of Fear Street #24

by R.L. Stine

Adopting a new puppy named Poocher, Maggie wonders about her canine companion's glowing red eyes and sharp fangs, and soon she fears that someone will have to rescue her from Poocher. Original.

Genres: Horror, Childrens, Middle Grade, Fiction, Horror Thriller

109 pages, Paperback

First published September 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.

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

Reviews

[Briar's Reviews · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another book by R.L. Stine to check off my bucket list!

When I picked this book up, the cover reminded me of the Goosebumps tv show opener where there's a haunted dog so I just assumed this was Goosebumps. Nope! Fear Street! But, close enough. Still spooky middle grade fun!

This book wasn't my favourite but I did enjoy it. Poocher, Maggie's new cute dog, turns out to be a little more than what they asked for... red eyes, sharp fangs, creepy behaviour... Obviously, something odd is going on.

There's a rumour there was a ghostwriter helping out R.L. Stine, and this book gives me the vibes that it could fall under this rumour. The book just doesn't hit like most of his books... Oh well, another one off my list!

Two out of five stars.

[Pulp_Fiction_Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a solid, well written, fun story if not a bit basic. It had a great villainous character and location, I just wish we had spent a bit more time exploring it as we don't get there until towards the end of the book and then the actual ending felt very rushed too. I feel it would have benefited massively from another twenty pages or so (especially as it's only a hundred and nine pages in total).

[Owen · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's not a fun and interesting story. It was pale and dull. Worst Fear Street book so far!

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent surprise. The story flowed solidly, the logic was...well silly but made sense enough sense in its own silly way, most threads got resolved fine enough, and there was even a few weirdly sweet moments in there. The very last line threw me off though, felt really tacked on. Otherwise, better than I expected with this concept.

(Btw, there's a contest advertised in here and it says the winners will be announced in the 36th book, due out August 1998. There were only 35 books that last book came in October, and the winner was seemingly never announced. Whoops)

[Greg Kerestan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm glad I never picked this one up as a kid- it might have put me off reading entirely. Horror, sci-fi or whatever, there's nothing really interesting or exciting (even for a naïve kid) in "the dog that was a little too big." The attempt to attach on a sci-fi ending with a whole lab full of Dr. Moreau hybrids, and then a nonsensical twist ending where the protagonist is a vampire or something, falls flat. "Monster Dog" is, indeed, a dog.

[Hew La France · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not to say that everything Stine writes is gold, but... it's very obvious when a book with his name on it has been ghost written. Rick Surmacz tries VERY hard to emulate Stine's writing style, but... he just doesn't quite hit it, and his story leaves a lot of loose threads.

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

In all honesty, the cover says it all. This is a stupid, dumb, and goofy book—but in a good way. Kind of. I liked the characters a lot and there’s some light character development between the siblings in the story, which surprised me for a book with this batshit crazy of a premise and an execution. There’s some solid suspense and the writing was passable enough, and I liked the climax for the most part. There’s some faults however when it comes to the (who would’ve even guessed it?) DOG shit ending. Per usual… it’s just Cry of the Cat all over again. Who knew three sentences could make me take .5 off a book’s score? Moving on, the whole monster dog chaos in the reveal portion for the climax is… pushing the goofy limits, and let me tell you, the goofy limits are sky high. The first half is slower with predictable tropes and the author—Rick Surmacz, shout-out to you I guess—even has the audacity to pull of god forsaken living dummy plot twist on us. At least it adds to the slight character development. Overall, 6/10. I’ve got nothing to say. Check it out if you want? It’s short and easy.

[Yeon · Rating 3 out of 5]

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[Tyler Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book has a lot of suspense. my favorite part is when there running away from pocher in the hose. i would suggest this book to rl stine fans every were. personal i like goosebumps more but all and all it a good book

[Erikat · Rating 5 out of 5]

GREAT BOOK

[Jessie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the greatest but let's be honest, none of R.L. Stine's books are not exactly amazing.