Nightmare Hour: Time for Terror

by R.L. Stine

The wind whispered through the vines, making them quiver and bend. The scarecrows creaked, shaking their arms as if waving us away. A large pumpkin came bouncing down a hill. Thud thud thud!

A child loses his head inside a pumpkin. A skin-crawling spider spell is cast on a sorcerer's apprentice. A visit to the hospital for a tonsillectomy takes a ghoulish turn. These things don't happen--do they? In Nightmare Hour they do. The fiendishly prolific R.L. Stine, author of the Goosebumps series, offers 10 scary tales to keep you up late, quivering beneath the covers. Each heart-pounding, fast-paced story features lively writing and young characters who come into contact with the tricks and illusions on life's darker side. Curious readers will love the author's introduction to each story, where he explains how the idea for it came to him. From "Alien Candy" to "Make Me a Witch," the stories also feature a spooky illustration by artists from Edward Koren to Bleu Turrell. While not gory, some of the book's situations, such as the hospital visit gone wrong, are not for the faint-hearted reader. For the rest, these are tales you'll be too scared to put down. (Ages 10 and older) --Maria Dolan

Contents:
Pumpkinhead / illustrated by Cliff Nielsen --
Alien candy / illustrated by Edward Koren --
Most evil sorcerer / illustrated by Bernie Wrightson --
Nightmare Inn / illustrated by Gary Kelley --
I'm not Martin / illustrated by Patrick McBride --
Black mask / illustated by Mark Summers --
Afraid of clowns / illustrated by Vince Natale --
Dead body / illustrated by John Collier --
Make me a witch / illustrated by Bleu Turrell --
Ghostly stare / illustrated by John Jude Palencar.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction, Young Adult, Fantasy, Childrens, Middle Grade

160 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1999

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

[✦BookishlyRichie✦ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up at my library book sale for 25 cents. I love R.L. Stine's middle-grade stuff and I enjoyed this ten story collection. Some were super cheesy and not to my liking but others were actually pretty damn creepy. Happy to add this to my bookshelf. It's also perfect for October. :)

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the longest time I've had this vague memory of reading a story about escaped prisoners who pretended to be clowns. I thought it had something to do with them kidnapping the kids who were afraid of clowns in order to protect their secret. It terrified me as a kid! But I could never remember the title or author. Turns out, it was "Afraid of Clowns" from Nightmare Hour! I don't remember ever reading this collection of stories as a kid, but that clown story stuck with me! I was so happy to finally figure out where it came from. Also, look at the clowns from the episode of The Haunting Hour based on this story...



I've loved R. L. Stine's books for as long as I can remember. And it's been several years since I last read something he's written, so I thought I'd pick this one up for some fun Halloween reading.



This was a creepy, quick read that was perfect for October. It's full of monsters and ghosts, witches and aliens, and I loved how the author included an introduction explaining how he came to write each story. It was fascinating how the smallest, everyday occurrences could result in a horror story. Overall this was a fun bunch of short stories that gets extra points for nostalgia!

Tl;dr: Clowns are terrifying!

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining horror listening 🎶🔰

This novella is from my local library. I did a search for Halloween 🎃 stories and received 30+ to select from.

Ten will written novellas each different with interesting well developed characters lots of action and misdirection leading to each conclusion.

I would recommend this novella and author to 👍 readers of haunting horror ghost 👻 novels 👍🔰. 2023 👒😈😤😯

[Maggie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was very nostalgic for me. I was in a reading rut so I picked up this collection of short stories by R. L. Stine, the man I grew up reading. There were definitely a few stories that were lacking but overall this is a fun collection for young readers to dive into around fall. As a bonus the accompanying illustrations were incredibly well done and added to the overall experience. Would recommend for Goosebump fans or anyone wanting some fall/spooky tales!

[Camden Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I originally bought this short story collection from my local Goodwill, I didn't realize that this book was what inspired "The Haunting Hour". I loved this series growing up so reading these stories was such a nostalgic trip. The stories were mostly cheesy since they are Middle Grade but I still enjoyed them. I'm having fun going through R.L. Stine's collection and I'm so happy I got to read this.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had the opportunity to read this book (a copy signed by the author, dedicated to my cousin) while staying in Stine’s childhood home—in the room right next to the attic in which he found his typewriter, passion for writing, and interest in the “spooky.” If I had read any of these as a child, I would have been desperately terrified for years. Reading this collection of short stories at 26, however, proved to be rather underwhelming (I’m not the target audience, so I’m not miffed about it). That being said, “I’m Not Martin” is upsetting for any age group—I found it to be quite eerie and will continue to do so, I believe.

Update: I just saw a clown on a tv show and immediately had flashbacks to Stine’s story, so needless to say that one also got to me apparently lol

[Michelle Kenneth - PerfectionistWannabe.com · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't read R. L. Stine since I was a kid. I saw this book in the $1 aisle at BookOff in Manhattan, and it reminded me that I wanted to start curating R. L. Stine's books into my library.

This book of short stories, plus a little introduction from R. L. Stine on how he came up with the story, was worth every penny. This man still has the ability to scare me as an adult. I was literally going, how in the world did this not scare the hell out of me as a kid? It's still scary!

The book's cover though really creeped me out. I kept thinking...hurry up and finish this book so you can hide it away and never look at it again. That cover is really scary, especially with the luminescent eyes that change color.

This book starts off with Pumpkinhead. If you think this is just some kids stuff, Goosebumps, just some kid friendly scary story. NO. When it gets to the end of the story, I wanted to scream. How in the world was this stuff okay when I was a kid?

I was never afraid of clowns. I mean, sure IT's Pennywise is creepy and I will never step near a sewer grate for so long as I live, but scared of clowns? Me? Never.

Oh, R. L. Stine has officially made me scared of clowns now. Just read "Afraid of Clowns."

He ends the book with "Ghostly Stare." Who goes into cemeteries at night during a snowstorm? Girl, forget your gloves. They're not worth salvaging in an R. L. Stine story.

Geez, just writing this review is scaring me all over again.

This book came out 20 years ago. I'm in my 40s and I'm telling ya...R. L. Stine is not just scaring the kids, he's scaring the adults, too. I highly recommend that all adults that grew up with R. L. Stine's books revisit his stories. I think the reason why none of these current adult scary books are scaring me is because R. L. Stine ruined it for all of them.

[Catastrophe Queen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is more morbid and creepy than the Goosebumps series... I freaking love it!

[Pranav · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

[Clay Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great little collection by RL Stine. He’s the master of (young) scares.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely creepy!!! A kids book I checked out that contained 10 stories truly appropriate for this time of year. I don't think I could have read this when I was a kid. Nightmares would have taken over!!!

[Jeff_§of2014 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a collection of 10 stories by R.L. Stine, they are Halloween stories which were written to spook kids or just reading it for fun. The story that stood out to me was a story called I'm not Martin, the story takes place in a hospital when a young boy needs to have his tonsils removed. When he gets to his room there is another boy always screaming "I'm not Martin!" The nurses say that he is Martin and he is just scared for his surgery because he needed his leg removed. The day it was time for the surgery the real Martin took the clipboard from the end of his bed and switched it with his room mate when he was sleeping. The surgeons came to take him to the surgery room, but they got the wrong person so the boy screamed "I'm not Martin!" and they said " The nurses warned us you would say that."

I can connect this book to another story/folktale. This is similar to The Boy who Cried Wolf, that is because the boy kept tricking the villagers into believing there was a wolf and when they came back it was just a trick, which is the same in this story when the real Martin keeps claiming I'm not Martin, but there is a twist in the endings. In The Boy who Cried Wolf, he was punished for lying to the villagers by getting eaten but in I'm not Martin an innocent person got hurt instead of the troublemaker.

I give this book 3 stars because the stories in my opinion, were short and it always revolved around one major conflict in the story. But I liked how there were a variation of different stories.

[Halley Hopson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a nice little collection of short stories by R.L. Stine to help get me in the spooky Halloween spirit. I didn't love this collection and there were really only like 3 of the stories that I really enjoyed but it did its job.

Pumpkin Head - 2.5/5 stars
Alien Candy - 2/5 stars
The Most Evil Sorcerer - 1/5 stars
Nightmare Inn - 3.25/5 stars
I'm Not Martin - 4.5/5 stars; I really liked this one
The Black Mask - 3/5 stars
Afraid of Clowns - 5/5 stars; definitely my favorite
The Dead Body - 3.5/5 stars
Make Me a Witch - 3/5 stars
The Ghostly Stare - 4/5 stars

[Bea · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were some genuinely scary stories. Some, I could see where the story was going but some I couldn't.

[Angie Obregon · Rating 5 out of 5]

ahhh... my childhood memories...

[MeenaG · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are some really good stories and some not as good but still entertaining ones. Overall it's a very good book.

[Jesse · Rating 2 out of 5]

The tales in this volume are very obviously horror stories for kids, with the usual ghosts and werewolves and other such spooky things. A lot of them kinda felt like first drafts that were never revised. But I enjoyed a couple for what they were. "The Most Evil Sorcerer" was interesting because I've never known Stine to write a fantasy/fairy tale type story, and it had some interesting and surprisingly gross imagery. "I'm Not Martin" had a fun, eerie, Twilight Zone/Alfred Hitchcock Presents kind of feel to it, and with the combination of the Halloween setting and the grisly fate of the narrator, it was above average. My other favorite was "Afraid of Clowns". More so for the candy-colored nightmare circus imagery conjured up by Vince Natale's incredible artwork. It really helped bring the story to life, and I liked the sort of absurd nightmare logic of the clowns and their motivation. I also liked the ending. I saw it coming, but it was definitely more creative and eerie than your usual "kid gets killed" cut-to-black type climax. I could see it being really effective if it was fleshed out more. Overall, though, most of the stories were pretty subpar, even for kids. But it was a quick, distracting read, and I could see a child really latching on to some of these stories. So make of that what you will.

[Bobby Keniston · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a bit too old for the "Goosebumps" craze when it first began, or maybe felt too "cool". Now that I write plays for children, including spooky ones, I have gone back and read much of the work of R.L. Stine. This collection, "Nightmare Hour: Time for Terror" is a quick, fun collection of short stories. A few of them were a bit darker than one might expect if expecting it to be exactly like "Goosebumps". And a story like "I'm Not Martin," though a bit predictable, is a truly scary, and I mean real world scary, type of situation. A few of the stories ended too much like a punchline, but a few of them, as mentioned before, ended much spookier than I might have expected. Oh, and a story like "The Most Evil Sorcerer" feels different from much of his stuff.

With illustrations, and a brief introduction from the author before each story, I had a really good time going through this one.

[Marvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used to read Goosebumps all the time as a kid so I figured that why not have a nostalgia read, and sit down with some R.L. Stine? Ive had this book since I was younger but I just never read it. But its classic Stine!

This is an anthology of short horror stories and I have to say they're quite good. Theres a little bit of everything here from werewolves, to sorcerers and witches, to aliens, clowns, and ghosts that want your skin. Did I mention it has some pretty sweet looking artwork too?

Take this book for a ride if you want to relive those Goosebump days. Especially the story, "I'm Not Martin".

[Kayden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good but not very scary!

[Bryndís · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5☆

[R.J. Huneke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a masterful collection of ghoulish thrills for all ages!

[Roman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and thought the stories were good if you wanted a little bit creepy book but if you wanted a really scary book then I wouldn’t recommend but overall I thought it was quite a quick fun read

[Sandra (Page by Page) · Rating 3 out of 5]

For complete review, check my bookblog, pagebypage-sc.blogspot.com.

Nightmare Hour is an anthology of ten short stories by R. L. Stine who is famous for his Goosebumps series. The story-telling style and creepy level in this book is pretty much the same with other Goosebumps books. What you’ll find different is the little insight from Stine where he tells readers about where he gets the idea of each short story. It surprised me how bizarre Stine’s way of thinking must be. I mean, you don’t think about some horror story after eavesdropping stranger's non-sense talk in the bus, do you? Well, he does. Is he just pure creepy or is he really a horror genius?

In Nightmare Hour, reader will also find some illustrations that begin each of the story. I found some of them as cool and okay, but some of them are kind of disturbing. And honestly, my reason to postpone in reading this book for-what?-ten years? is because of this one particular illustration,


But, you do get the different sensation in reading horror, right? Reading a book demands us to recreate the event in our head and mind, and at the same time, at least we feel involved with the story. So, imagine if you read horror, you must put yourself willingly to be frightened, because that’s what horror genre book is all about, to frighten the reader. Ugh, I’m so aware of this feeling because I haven’t read horror again since God-knows-when.

One of the story that indeed made me shuddered is entitled Topeng Hitam (The Black Mask? I don’t know the exact title, but that’s that. I read the Indonesian translated version and clearly don’t bother to check the real title for the short story). It’s about a group of middle-age kids who like to play together in the basement of Kid A. One day, they find a black mask which is able to show you the unseen people if you wear the mask. The next day, the Kid A, who live in the house with the said basement, is face to face with a guy he doesn’t know but he'd seen him before... when he wore the black mask. And the story goes on and all the kids die. Typical horror. Almost all the main characters in Nightmare Hour’s short stories are end up in disaster.

This book gives ten horrifying short stories that some of them succeed to discomfort me in the end. But, don’t take me as a standard in horror, really. My imagination is quite vivid when I read books, so I might be a little too carried away when reading this and spooked myself more than it probably should. But I did find some of the stories are just okay and not scary at all.

However, I decided, I like this book. It’s a good thing that this book is formed as short story anthology, so the stories are rather brief and not scaring me too long. It’s still enjoyable for me.

[Catie · Rating 5 out of 5]

¿Quién no esperaba esto después de que me gustara tanto Socorro y fuera una niñita rara que miraba So Weird, Escalofríos y Le Temes a La Oscuridad en la tele? Como una ávida lectora de literatura fantástica, tengo un especial rincón en mi corazón para las historias de miedo. No soy extremadamente valiente ni nada, así que la pizca de terror que me dan y lo terriblemente curiosa que soy contribuyen a que no me pueda resistir cuando me ofrecen este tipo de historias.

Recuerdo que encontré este libro en mis tradicionales visitas a la Feria Chilena del Libro cuando iba con mi familia al mall de Viña, no tardé mucho en quererlo con todas mis fuerzas. ¿Historias de miedo y RL Stine? I'm in. Convencí a mis papás para que me lo compraran y el resto es historia. Me lo acabé en un día o menos.

Son cuentos, RL Stine cuenta cómo se le ocurrieron y, por si fuera poco, tienen ilustraciones al comienzo que te creepean bastante. Hay para todos los gustos, desde el terror psicológico hasta las típicas fuentes de pesadillas, y estoy segura que todos encontrarán uno de su agrado.

¿Lo recomiendo? Sí, de todas maneras. Una muy buena adición para las historias de miedo.

PD: Never forget No Soy Martín.

[Anastasia]

I have always been an avid fan of R.L. Stine since his Fear Street collection came out when I was about 8 years old. My brother and I read this collection when we were young and the stories resurface every time we see clowns, hospitals, or pumpkin patches. This Nightmare Hour is a GREAT collection of short stories that are perfect for any young horror fans.

Pumpkin Head What could possibly lie in the creepy pumpkin farmer's private pumpkin patch?

Alien Candy What happens to an avid alien fan?

The Most Evil Sorcerer What's it like to be a sorcerer's apprentice?

Nightmare Inn What's down the hall of the Night Inn?

I'm Not Martin Would you be scared in a hospital on Halloween?

The Black Mask Would you like to see the past?

Afraid of Clowns This story is the reason why I'm scared of clowns.

The Dead Body A dead body that plays practical jokes?

Make Me a Witch Meet a girl who's career aspiration is to become a witch!

The Ghostly Stare We advise that if you see a ghost you STARE at it.

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a creepy story to read around the campfire, look no further than Nightmare Hour: Time for Terror by R.L Stine. He has combined some of his ten scariest short stories into Nightmare Hour: Time for Terror, and this collection of short stories is the perfect length for a short read before bed, but you’ll want to leave the light on. Young readers will love the suspense in the unknown as each story contains mystery and creatures that go bump in the night.

On my first trip into the ghoulish world of R.L. Stine, I was captured by his ability to create tension that forces you to continue reading while still being scared to turn the next page. He has managed to perfectly capture the right amount of suspense and ghouls to appeal to readers and keep them engaged throughout each short story. This middle grade book will definitely entertain its young audience with aliens, magic, and mystery throughout. After each story, I was left wanting even more, and I will be sure to find it in my next venture into R.L. Stine.

[Francesco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Purtroppo Goodreads non permette di assegnare il voto in decimi, quindi mi dovrò accontentare nel dare al libro tre stelle, anche se l'ho trovato piuttosto scarso. I primi quattro racconti non sono memorabili e vanno dal mediocre all'appena sufficiente. Poi si arriva al quinto racconto "Non sono Martin!" che è davvero una storia angosciante (e come da titolo del libro) da incubi. Purtroppo la batosta arriva con il racconto successivo, il peggiore della raccolta. Questo infatti è un incrocio tra due volumi della serie "Piccoli Brividi", ovvero "Foto dal futuro" e "La maschera maledetta". Anche il finale è orrendo: se il protagonista muore come fa a raccontare la storia? Sorvoliamo sui due leggibili racconti successivi (caruccio "Il cadavere") per arrivare al divertente "Voglio essere una strega!". Il libro termina con il racconto "Lo sguardo spettrale", altro rip-off di uno dei "Piccoli Brividi", "Morto ma non sepolto". La lettura è velocissima, ma se cercate un buon libro di R.L. Stine leggetevi i "Piccoli Brividi".

[swag2perfect84 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nightmare Hour was a book with many stories in. Two of my favorite stories are alien candy and pumkinhead. Pumpkinhead is about 3 friends going to pick pumpkins. The patch owner tells them to stay away from his private patch or else. Later that night they come back and sneek into his private patch.when they are all over they get squeezed by pumkin vines untill their heads pop off.
The second story is about a kid joining an alien club. He expects the club to talk about aliens untill one member takes out so called "alien candy."when each one of them eats it they turn into ugly aliens.andy didn't turn into one though, but gets eatin.
Most of these stories dont end very happily ever after, and thats how I like it.at the end of Pumpkin Head the kids were turned into pumpkins. And at the end of alien candy the new member was eatin. This a change for happy endings and I seem to like it.

[Lauren :) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book of short stories and they were all fun to read. The author, R.L. Stine, did a wonderful job at being creative and making the plot for all of the stories and I enjoyed them all. He did an awesome job at using foreshadowing to lead the reader on to what might happen but at the same time he didn’t reveal too much information.
Although the short stories were entertaining and I enjoyed reading them I wasn’t as scared as I hoped to be. The book was spooky and eerie at times but I never got really afraid or anxious. I don’t blame the author though because I am not scared very easily. Over all this book is filled with amusing and creepy stories that I really enjoyed reading.