How to Kill a Monster

Goosebumps #46

by R.L. Stine

HOME ALONE...WITH A MONSTER?

Gretchen and her stepbrother, Clark, hate staying at their grandparents' house. Grandpa Eddie is totally deaf. And Grandma Rose is obsessed with baking. Plus, they live right in the middle of a dark, muddy swamp.

Things couldn't get any worse, right? WRONG.

Because there's something really weird about Grandma and Grandpa's house. Something odd about that room upstairs. The one that's locked. The one with the strange noises coming from it. Strange growling noises...

Genres: Horror, Childrens, Fiction, Young Adult, Middle Grade, Fantasy, Novels

112 pages, Paperback

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

[Carmen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I stared up into his hideous face - and gasped.

His eyes were deep, dark pools - with tiny worms swimming in them!

Ew, nasty.
...

Okay, this is a little different from regular Goosebumps books - the monster shows up early, about 55% of the way through the novel.

Gretchen and her stepbrother Clark (I think this is the second Goosebumps books where there are divorced parents), are being unceremoniously dropped off at their grandma and grandpa's house in Georgia.

They are shocked to find that their grandparents live in an honest to God mansion. A huge, stone mansion in the swamps of rural Georgia.

There's no phone. No television. And no car. Grandpa's deaf. And Grandma loves to cook. A lot. So much that it's as if she's cooking for 50 people instead of just 4. Why does she cook so much food?
...

Honestly, the grandparents in here are HORRIBLE people. Horrible people. For one thing, they are hoarders. They tell the kids - you can explore the house. Anywhere in the house is fair game except for that one locked room. Okay. The kids find rooms packed with 50 years worth of newspapers. In another room they find stacks and stacks of old magazines, and the house appears to be infested with some serious cockroaches. Another room is filled with tons of rusty and broken toys.

So. Already not good. Then the kids decide to play hide-and-seek. And while looking for Clark, Gretchen nearly plunges to her death on a staircase that has rotted through. Great - stellar child-care there. Just let your grandchildren run around your junk-filled, rotting-floor house. Brilliant.

Then the kids open the locked room (of course they do!) only to find a huge kind of gorilla-alligator monster inside. Now the monster's loose and the kids (and dog - Golden Retriever named Charley) are running through the house for their lives.

The grandparents are nowhere to be found. The kids see the grandparents pulling out of the driveway, leaving their grandchildren to their fates. Not to mention, the grandparents have nailed all the windows and doors shut, trapping the children inside the house.

Wow. That is really cold.

The kids then find two letters taped to the fridge, basically saying "Bye! Off to get help!" Wow, thanks, Grandma.
...

The rest of the book is the kids battling the monster, which is pretty exciting. My favorite part is when they doctor grandma's pie with turpentine, drain cleaner, rat poison and ammonia.

Tl;dr - The twist ending is a bit lame, but overall this book was pretty exciting and fast-paced. Definitely these grandparents win the "worst grandparents in history" award. Jeez Louise!

[Ethan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ah, I've finally stumbled upon one of the "terrible" Goosebumps books I've heard so much about. In How to Kill a Monster, Gretchen and her stepbrother Clark's parents have a work emergency and have to fly to Atlanta for several days. So Gretchen and Clark are forced to stay with their reclusive, "weird" (their words) grandparents, who nonsensically live in an enormous stone castle, in the middle of a swamp, in the middle of nowhere. As you can probably figure out by the cover art alone, there is a monster living in the house, which eventually escapes, leaving Gretchen and Clark to try to survive.

I really didn't like this book. At this point in the series (Book 46) you can tell Stine is running out of ideas, as the setup of and characters in this book are incredibly similar to the previous Goosebumps book I just finished, The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight. Two siblings, one boy and one girl, forced to go visit their grandparents, who happen to live in a remote setting isolated from society. One of them has curly hair, one has straight hair. The boy is really whiney and annoying. These things were all identical between the two books. It just felt lazy.

Stine's writing was also very lazy in this book; he used an incredibly limited and repetitive vocabulary, as if he only knew how to say two or three words to portray certain things, and he repeated them dozens of times: shuddered, groaned, moaned, etc. It was really annoying and, to me, lazy, like he wasn't even trying.

The story is also completely ridiculous, and not in a fun, goofy way, but in a "this doesn't make sense, doesn't work, and is just plain bad" way. Like, why do two elderly grandparents need such an enormous castle to live in? The story frequently points out how enormous it is, saying that some single rooms are bigger than Gretchen and Clark's entire house. Why do two retired, elderly people need to live in a castle that big? And they're isolated from humanity. It's not like they can take care of it themselves, and there's no one around to come help them with that. And a castle? In a swamp? In modern day America? Is that even a thing? When I Google "swamp house", all the images are of wood houses that are falling apart; not a single one was a stone structure. It's laughably unrealistic and just comes across as stupid.

And the decisions the grandparents make in this book! They make absolutely NO sense! None whatsoever. And the ending was just plain horrible; it's one of the worst endings I've ever read in a book, ever. To top it off, Stine barely described the monster, so when it finally did appear in the story I couldn't really get a good picture in my head of what it looked like, and my imagination's monster just looked silly, based on Stine's lazy and minimal description. I wish he had spent even one more paragraph to describe the monster more; it could have made the book a bit creepier.

Boring, repetitive, nonsensical, and not scary at all, How to Kill a Monster is the worst Goosebumps book I've read to date.

CAWPILE rating:

Characters: 3.5
Atmosphere / Setting: 3.0
Writing Style: 5.5
Plot: 3.0
Intrigue: 2.5
Logic / Relationships: 1.5
Enjoyment: 3.0

= 22 total
÷ 7 categories = 3.14 out of 10
= 2 stars

[✨Bean's Books✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

#46 "Step 1: Run. Step 2: Run faster."
Gretchen and Clark think staying with their grandparents in the middle of their swamp is a real drag. Their grandparents are weird and not very much fun. But when they keep hearing noises from the room upstairs something tells them they're not alone in this house. Curiosity killed the cat!

[Briar's Reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Goosebumps was one of my favourite series as a child. I really enjoyed re-reading every single book I could get my hands on. I swear, some of these books I read upwards of 50 times each because I loved them. As an adult, I really wanted to go back and enjoy all of the nostalgia of my youth. It makes me feel so warm and fuzzy to read these. It's a great throwback!

Clark and Gretchen, a set of step siblings, have to go stay with their Grandparents for a bit. Their parents leave them in this house in a swamp that's super big and super spooky. There's not much to do, and Grandma and Grandpa seem to be hiding some secrets... They are not supposed to go in a specific room. Their grandparents take off and leave them alone in the house... and it turns out, they've been hiding a monster.

This book wasn't the best Goosebumps book, but it was still fun and spooky. The cliffhanger at the end if frustrating, so I hope there is a sequel somewhere out there. I'm sure eventually I'll get my hands on the rest of the series.

The grandparents have me curious. Why were they hiding the monster? Did they capture it? Did it blackmail them? The twist ending on what happens to the monster makes me super confused why they were scared of it to begin with.

The monster takes a while to appear in this book, and then when we do see it the plot moves fast. Suddenly it's over, but the plot isn't resolved in any way.

Overall, this is a great middle grade read for those seeking a bit of spooky horror in their life.

Three out of five stars.

[Coos Burton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Creo que, de todos los padres ineptos en la saga Escalofríos, los de los adolescentes protagonistas son los peores. Y de los abuelos mejor ni hablemos, porque es para quilombo. De lo más flojito de Stine, pero aún así, tiene su gracia.

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the playful nature of this one, from the furry monster pictured on the cover to the slapstick nature of the plot.

Whilst staying with their grandparents Gretchen and her step-brother Clark decided to play a game of hide-and-seek to relive the boredom.
Soon into the game they come across a monster locked away in one of the rooms.

Even though most of the set up to this book does feel slightly familiar to other Goosebumps books, I like the fact that the monster turns up quite early.
The rest of the story is a fun thrill ride along as you don’t take it too seriously.

[Zain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scary. Amusing. Irritating.

How to Kill a Monster is book #46 in the Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine. It is both scary and funny at the same time. And also irritating.

Step Siblings and good friends, Gretchen and Clark are in the car with their parents on their way to grandma and grandpa’s house (Gretchen’s dad’s parents).
As Clark is fond of reminding her.

The grandparents are definitely weird. They live all the way out in the swamps of southern Georgia. And if that isn’t weird enough, their house looks like a giant castle. With no windows. Well, maybe three of them.

The swamp is a scary place. Especially when the children realize that monsters may live in there. Gretchen makes the book funny because she is always teasing her brother and playing pranks on him to scare him.

This does backfire on her one day. This is the day that her scare tactics really need to work. I became irritated with Clark when he suddenly gets all brave and refuses to turn and run like usual. Especially when, this time, Gretchen really needs him to.

I particularly love the ending of this book. You aren’t really given an ending. You have to read between the lines to get your answer. I recommend reading this book.

Four stars. 💫💫💫💫

[Glenn Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

Currently rereading my original Goosebumps collection

There's quite a difference between a fun, silly story for kids and just lazy writing. This book falls into the latter category. First of all, these have to be the worst grandparents in history. Who in their right mind would lock their grandchildren up in the house with a monster? And don't even get me started on how they end up "killing" the monster. I really hope this book wasn't written by Stine.

Read from June 24, 2014 - June 24, 2014

[Ren · Rating 3 out of 5]

In a series of Goosebumps re-reads, this was one of the first I went back to. Not because it was attached to fond, childhood memories, but rather because it wasn't. In fact, upon reading this one I realized what little I did remember of it I had attributed to 'The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight" in my memory, namely the pie-making and blueberry pancakes made by the grandmother.

That being said, despite my low expectations, this was a fun read. The scares were definitely stronger in the front half than the back half of the novel, but the tonal shift after the big monster reveal from horror to dark comedy is smooth and the monster's weakness gave me a sensible chuckle.

There isn't much to ponder here as there is in other Goosebumps books, but we get a fun ride and an earnest attempt at putting into words how it can feel to a kid to be dropped off at an old house with relatives you barely know and left to fend for yourself.

Writer's side note: The descriptions of the house itself, the decay, were actually quite vivid and felt perhaps even 'Fall of the House of Usher' inspired.

"A castle in the middle of a swamp. Almost hidden in a grove of dark, towering trees [...] The [living] room was enormous. Our whole house could probably fit inside it. The walls were painted green. Drab green [...] The other walls were covered in black-and-white photographs. Yellowed with age. Photographs everywhere. Of people I didn't recognize. Probably dead relatives, I thought.
[...] I glanced around the room. At the pictures. At the worn rug. At the shabby tables and chairs. The flickering light high above us made our shadows dance on the dark walls [...] The room smelled strange. Damp and sour. --"This place is creepy," Clark whispered."

[Gavin Hetherington · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 where I review them from worst to best here: https://youtu.be/lBfaxCOwAnA

[M.K. Aneal · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the better Goosebumps! Clean, no mystical or magical elements; just good fun with a monster xP A whole lot better than the show of the same. (:

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just to see a block of pages covered in Century Expanded again, the inky typeface this series used, is like receiving a visit from my oldest friend. Many things have changed since our last meeting, but reunions are aglow with remembrance. Such is the case with How to Kill a Monster, a book that, simply put, makes logic its bitch. And man oh man, is it a fun read accordingly.

Roald Dahl once said, "You can write anything for children as long as you have humor." Truer words were never spoken, and Stine follows this doctrine with such barefaced enthusiasm, he turns the most ludicrous concept into a frolicking good time.

I discovered this one at the peak of my Goosebumps phase, circa 1997. For several years before then, my mother's bedroom was littered with the paperbacks of Agatha Christie, whose macabre covers I'd observe with equal levels of horror and fascination. Maybe I have those books to blame/thank for desensitizing me, but that's how early I can recall my inner goth being awakened. From that point on, I drew sketches of Chucky the doll, raised a family of crickets in my cupboard, and tried to convince my best friend's father to let us watch Pet Cemetery (I didn't succeed). So the arrival of Goosebumps caught my attention off-rib. I sometimes saw copies in the classrooms of older kids, where I was blown away by artwork not unlike the nightly occupants of Mum's bedside table. I was in awe. I'd found a franchise that repackaged Christie's murkiness for the Power Rangers crowd, and to Stine's credit, there were some genuinely frightening spookers he concocted during that period. Piano Lessons can be Murder kept me awake for days.

This entry, however, is definitely not one of the scary ones. But as a smorgasbord of gleeful weirdness, it remains one of my favorite bad-mood breakers to this day. Maybe it's my undying love of Z-grade movies, I don't know; but How to Kill a Monster, written when Stine was clearly running out of ideas, nonetheless brims with hilarious antics and fast-paced energy. So much so, in fact, that I remember writing a fanfiction "homage" to it when I was about 12. It copied the storyline pretty much verbatim: my sister and I were trapped in an apartment with our two cats, pet mice, and a hideous beast, which we alone had to defeat. I even scripted an absurd scene that saw us narrowly escape the flat, only to go back inside to rescue our rodents. But that's perhaps where Stine nailed his audience dead-centre – what browbeaten kid wouldn't dream of saving the day in complete absence of adult supervision?

The plot is a simple one. Gretchen and Clark are two city-dwelling preteens, forced into the open-ended company of their eccentric elders when their parents are called away on business. A visit that kids rarely love making in populated areas; in this case, the location is a deserted swamp miles from civilization. Needless to say, they don't have a TV, a working telephone, or any neighbors to assist in times of need. Putting the cherry on top, it transpires that Granny and Pop have a hungry, ten-foot swamp monster locked in an upstairs room, which the kids inadvertently set loose while exploring.

That's when the fun begins, as they struggle to conquer the behemoth single-handedly. Where are their grandparents throughout this crusade, you might ask? Well they left, of course. After behaving strangely for two days, they disappear the moment the monster is released. Not only that, they barricade the kids inside the building using nails and planks "to make sure they don't wander into the swamp by themselves." The only explanation comes in a letter that Gretchen and Clark find on the fridge, giving way to something truly epic. Somehow, the kids find the time to read this letter while the ogre wrecks havoc on an upstairs floor.

"Dear Gretchen and Clark. We're sorry to do this to you, but we had to leave. A few weeks ago, a swamp monster invaded our house. We captured it in the room upstairs. Then we didn't know what to do with it. It's so loud and angry all the time. We knew it would've killed us."

"We didn't want to tell your parents about the creature. If we did, they wouldn't have let you come. We wanted so much to see you. But I guess we were wrong. You should have gone to Atlanta with your mother and father. I guess we were wrong to let you stay."



"We know it's unfair to run off now. But we're just going for help. We'll be back – as soon as we can find someone. Someone who knows what to do with this horrible beast."

"Sorry, kids. We really, really are sorry."

"If the monster escapes, you will have no choice: you will have to find a way to kill it."



So in essence, Gramps just left them a memo that read, "Even though we're both crazy old coots who are nearing the end anyway, and are so unpopular that we can live in the wilderness without a word of protest from the rest of the family, we're appointing you – two sixth-grade greenhorns – to execute the fiend without our help."

Why they didn't remove the key from its lock – having sawed an opening at the bottom of the door, it's not as if they needed the key to feed him – is something I've spent too long trying to figure out. For that matter, they could've jumped on the parents as soon as they dropped the kids off and said, "Please take us with you – we have a carnivorous giant locked upstairs and you're welcome to go check if you don't believe us. Just know that we can't guarantee your car will still be here when you return."

But no, instead they wrote the kids a second letter, sealed in an envelope beneath the first. Gretchen and Clark finally run out of time to read it, however, as the beast reaches the kitchen and, to use one of my all-time favorite sentences, "plods its way" towards them. They then try everything to save their skins, from leading Shrek over a collapsed stairway to feeding him a poisoned dessert. Okay, those are the only two things they try. But both tactics fail. By running's end, they're saved by pure chance – when it turns out the monster has a lethal allergy to people, and falls over dead after giving Gretchen a lick. Though not before asking her, "You...you human?"

Yes. He asks her that.

It's not until they escape the house that they get a chance to read the other letter, which reveals that many other monsters live in the swamp too – and don't necessarily have the sensitive stomach that their brother had.

Yeah, so...what if Clark had read these letters in the wrong order? What would they've done if – heaven forbid – they hadn't found the letters at all? And why in God's name does the monster wait until the last six pages to say something to them?

But would the book be so entertaining had it followed practical advice? I'll be giggling about its inanity when I'm nearing my mausoleum. It's stupid, it's unfocused, it's camp – it's absolutely awesome.

Also there's this:

"Where is he?"
"W-where's who?"
"The monster!"
"Upstairs. What took you so long to get here?"

Thank you, RL Stine, for my childhood.

[Mikala · Rating 3 out of 5]

The incompetence and irresponsibility of every adult in this book bordered more on disbelief than the monster itself

Reading notes...

This one is so ominous!!! I'm getting major bad vibes from these grandparents and their creepy house in the middle of a swamp! I feel so bad for these kids, I would be crying if my parents forced me to stay multiple nights alone with these people.

I just couldn't believe how these kids were left totally to fend for themselves. This book just really depressed me

[David Santos · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I didn't have to review books for my website I'd just skip straight to the final 10 chapters.

The title of the book is boring which made the development of the plot drag on and on and on. The title doesn't start to make since until around page 82. Two children are left alone in a house with a monster....talk about child neglect sheesh. Anyways I'm glad the book only has 112 pages. Any more pages and I would have thrown myself out the window. A real borefest, not one of R.L.'s best work. I'd suggest skipping this book altogether unless you're an idiot like me that reviews books.

[Zoey De Leon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those Goosebumps books that just hits right back home although this is the first time I've read this book, the story in here is the very basic paper idea of what you hear from grown-ups older than you as a scary bedtime horror story and it just worked for me. It was creepy, fun and ridiculous, the monster description was very basic yet how it was written with all it's roaring and all the chase scene with the kids just hits with the feels, it isnt' the most iconic GB villain ever but how I imagined reading the monster on how it walks around and how it first appeared will live in my head rent free.

Sometimes, being a basic story is just enough when picking a Goosebumps book but not with it's plot holes and this one is the most glaring one and a very poor excuse just to put our kids into this situation, it just boggles the mind how the grandparents act in this one, they could have done something else other than having convinient letters for characters to read but what the heck, there would be no conflict in the book, It could have been done better and it just boggles the mind. Aside from that, this book is fun if you all just want is a monster cat and mouse and action.

[Austin Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was always one of my favorites as a kid. I loved the creepy swamp setting, even though it's been used before, and the very basic premise (yet creepy) of being trapped in a house with a monster, because the kids' grandparents are psychopathic and decide to leave them in the house while THEY go and "try to get help".
It could be argued that the kid's parents are just as psychopathic, as they leave them to stay with their grandparents that they haven't seen in eight years while they go on a "work" trip to Atlanta.
Anyways, this book is a really fun read. It feels fast paced, it's creepy, it's fun, and has a little bit of humor in it, but not too much to where it distracts from the horror elements; except possibly at the end. The resolution is a bit silly, and I think R.L. Stine could have come up with a slightly better way for them to "Kill" the monster, but it is what it is. The ending itself I have no issue with. Typical twist ending, a bit predictable, but it fits well and is not extremely outlandish.
My main problem with this book, and the problem(s) that keep me from giving this goosebumps book a near-perfect score, are the gaping plot holes / and lack of logic within the story.
There are many questions raised within the story, that even as a kid, I remember having them in the back of my mind. You usually always have to suspend your disbelief a bit in a goosebumps book, but this one has some pretty ridiculous situations that don't make any sense. Some examples are,
Why did the grandparents leave and LOCK the kids inside their house alone, while they left to "Go get help" ?
After a detailed display of brute strength by the monster later in the story, why couldn't he have just broken out of the room he was locked in a long time ago ? How did an old door keep him in place?
Those are just a couple of examples. There are many more questions that could be raised, but I won't flood this review with them.
Overall, this is still a good goosebumps book, despite its glaring flaws.
I would have to give this one a 4 / 5 stars.

[Ger Francus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book! I've read it about a year or two ago, and just LOVED it! It's such a creepy, scary and thrilling story that I've read it in two days (and yeah, that's fast for me! ).

In don't want to spoil anything, but there's a huge and totally unexpected twist in the middle of the book, and you think; OMG, how will those two ever survive this? xD - You really want them to succeed, but they don't! You feel the struggle and them being so afraid, and just have no clue what to do... And that's what makes the story so compelling and thrilling.

I also loved it because it was set in that dark, creepy house, totally deserted in the middle of a dangerous and mysterious swamp....

[Carmine R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ospite (in)desiderato al piano di sopra

Un mostro è rinchiuso al piano di sopra. I nonni danno da mangiare al mostro, povero cucciolo.

"Invitiamo a casa i nipotini, tanto che differenza fa cucinare per due persone in più? E andiamo a chiedere aiuto in paese, caro; ma ricordati di sbarrare porte e finestre...perché noi ci teniamo alla salute dei nostri nipotini. Bravo, chiudi per bene la porta, a prova di scasso!"

*E la lettera facciamogliela leggere quando i buoi sono già scappati dalla stalla, sia mai che vengano messi all'erta prima del tempo*

Storiella piuttosto simpatica, sicuramente molto sottovalutata rispetto a titoli più noti all'interno della collana.

[Danny · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Iskar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gretchen y Clark son dejados por sus padres en la casa de sus abuelos, debido a que tienen que ir a trabajar fuera de la ciudad.
El detalle a destacar es que los abuelos viven en una casona en medio de un pantano, aislados de todo y de todo. Y no pasará mucho tiempo hasta que los niños descubran un secreto que sus abuelos han estado escondiendo en cierta habitación de su casona.

RL Stine trae un cuento para leer en una sentada, perfecto para leer en una noche tormentosa. En lo personal la calidad de sus relatos varía, recuerdo que el anterior que leí me pareció horrendo, pero en el mal sentido, por lo que pude ojear en mi reseña. No obstante no descarto leer más de su obra porque la verdad me gusta el aporte que hace a la literatura de terror, acercándola a un público que, por ahí, no es de leer terror por, bueno, terror mismo a las historias, asique valoro el trabajo de Stine ya que son una buena puerta de entrada a este lindo género.

Cómo Matar a un Monstruo es una historia que te mantiene enganchado con cada vuelta de página, su narración es muy ágil, te da la dosis justa de información sin sobrecargarte porque, asumo, sabe que busca entretener por un par de horas. Y lo consigue.
Yo leí esta novela porque estoy en un club de lectura y la verdad fue muy divertida y entretenida. Recomiendo esta novela como una buena opción para empezar con el autor.

[Paige Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm doing a full series reread and I remember this story very vividly from my childhood lol. This story takes going to stay with your grandparents to an entirely different level. I'd be cutting my grandparents off if this was me. This story was pretty terrifying to say the least.

How to Kill a Monster follows siblings, Gretchen and Clark as their parents have to go out of town for business. The kids are sent off to their grandparents and they live in a swamp! What's the worst that could happen?

[Mary Kaimatzoglou · Rating 2 out of 5]

Σίγουρα όχι από τα καλύτερα της σειράς Ανατριχίλες..

[Drew Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m reading these with my daughter. It was enjoyable! We had a lot of fun guessing what was going to happen next with all the cliffhangers, but the ending was really bad.

[J.D. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was my first time reading this one and it left me underwhelmed to say the least.

I hate rating Goosebumps books low for a few reasons. They are written for kids so they aren't usually scary for adults and they are starting to get up there in age as well.

I like the Goosebumps books that are a bit more believable and at least a little creepy in some parts. This one was neither of those things for me.

The grandparents made horrible decisions that definitely wouldn't fly now a days. Plus I had a hard time believing any semi reasonable grandparents would do the things they did.

I also thought the monster portion as a whole was a bit lacking. With some more creepy build up and some better decisions on the grandparents part, this could have been a decent story.

[Liam Underwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Following Ghost Camp (which I liked) my expectations for How to Kill a Monster were quite low as Stine doesn't exactly seem to deliver consistently. Although this book does have some flaws, I must admit I did find myself liking a few aspects, much to my surprise. The story doesn't exactly hit the ground running, but it does build to something interesting.

It's not often Stine features divorced parents, so this was a refreshing change. I also liked the protagonist, Gretchen, and her stepbrother Clark. The swamp setting and the grandparents castle all feel a little fantastical, which I'm not exactly opposed to, but I think is a missed opportunity where there could've been a little more fun. The imagery made me think of some of the older Universal monster movies or some of the Roger Corman films.

The opening half of the book is a little slow, as Stine isn't particularly creative with his descriptions and it's a shame there's those missed opportunities with the setting. It also feels like Stine is setting up a mystery of why the Grandma is cooking so. much food, but this is very quickly resolved. However, the quality of the book picks up once Stine manoeuvres the characters and plot where he wants the main focus of the story.

The second half of the book is therefore way more entertaining, as the kids are forced into battle with a swamp monster (following some extremely questionable decisions from the grandparents). There's some really creative descriptions here which I appreciated, and the book becomes way more fun. Unfortunately Stine doesn't quite stick the landing and we get quite a weak ending, but there's a good section of this book that is pretty enjoyable. How to Kill a Monster isn't one of the best Goosebumps books, but there's definitely much worse available.

3/5

Goosebumps Ranked
1) One Day At Horrorland - 4/5
2) Stay Out of the Basement - 4/5
3) Attack of the Mutant - 3.5/5
4) Welcome to Dead House - 3.5/5
5) The Headless Ghost - 3.5/5
6) The Phantom of the Auditorium - 3.5/5
7) Piano Lessons Can Be Murder - 3.5/5
8) Night of the Living Dummy - 3.5/5
9) The Girl Who Cried Monster - 3.5/5
10) The Werewolf of Fever Swamp - 3.5/5
11) The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight - 3/5
12) The Haunted Mask - 3/5
13) The Ghost Next Door - 3/5
14) Ghost Beach - 3/5
15) Monster Blood - 3/5
16) Night of the Living Dummy II - 3/5
17) The Haunted Mask II - 3/5
18) Ghost Camp - 3/5
19) Deep Trouble - 3/5
20) How to Kill a Monster - 3/5
21) Say Cheese and Die! - 3/5
22) A Night in Terror Tower - 2.5/5
23) Why I'm Afraid of Bees - 2.5/5
24) The Cuckoo Clock of Doom - 2.5/5
25) Be Careful What You Wish For... - 2.5/5
26) The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb - 2.5/5
27) Monster Blood II - 2/5
28) My Hairiest Adventure - 2/5
29) Night of the Living Dummy III - 2/5
30) Go Eat Worms! - 2/5
31) Monster Blood III - 2/5
32) Say Cheese and Die - Again! - 2/5
33) Vampire Breath - 2/5
34) The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena - 2/5
35) It Came from Beneath the Sink! - 2/5
36) Calling All Creeps! - 2/5
37) Egg Monsters from Mars - 2/5
38) Return of the Mummy - 2/5
39) Let's Get Invisible! - 2/5
40) Welcome to Camp Nightmare - 2/5
41) A Shocker on Shock Street - 1.5/5
42) Revenge of the Garden Gnomes - 1.5/5
43) How I Got My Shrunken Head - 1.5/5
44) The Horror at Camp Jellyjam - 1.5/5
45) The Barking Ghost - 1.5/5
46) Bad Hare Day - 1/5
47) Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns - 1/5
48) You Can't Scare Me - 1/5
49) The Beast from the East - 1/5

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrible.

Parents leave children with the grandparents. We are to believe the father has not seen his parents in eight years. And did the father grow up in the house in the swamp? That was unclear.

Anyhow, children left with grandparents who live in the middle of a swamp. The grandparents are hoarders, kind of. Some rooms are stuffed with boxes of newspapers and magazines while others are virtually empty.

Anyhow, there's one room that is locked and the children are forbidden from entering. Yes, they do.

Inside is a swamp monster. I thought at first it was going to be friendly. It isn't.

The children run and seek their grandparents' help. Yeah, the grandparents left and sent mail that they left and had locked the children inside. Really?

Another note arrives from the parents stating they aren't coming to pick the children up anytime soon.

Then another letter arrives from the grandparents stating not to walk through the swamp as there are other swamp monsters.

This story is not good on any level.

One thing that did happen, which is out of character for these stories is that there was an actual death . . . committed by the children. That was at least different.

Unless you have a reason for reading this one, I would avoid it.

[Aliya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the book because it was a book that I understood and enjoyed.Also if I had a chance to keep reading goosebumps I would cause I love those books.I would recommend this book to other people because I think they would like it cause I did.Once I started reading most of it i just wanted to keep reading it cause it was a good book.This book had me laugh a couple time cause the way they said things but on the other had I thought some of the parts weird.


There are the two kids, one Gretchen and the other Clark.We also had the grandma Rose and grandpa Eddie.The setting takes place in grandma Rose and grandpa Eddie's house.They live out in the middle of nowhere by a swamp.The main point of this story is when it all came a mystery.The climax of this story is when they tried to figure out the mystery such as when the grandma lock the monster in a room and never let it out.Then the kids came over a snooped around when they were not allowed to.Then when they accidentally let the monster out and then they tried to kill the monster.

[Ms. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was about 2 kids, named Gretchen and Clark, and they had to stay with their grandparents while their parents go to Atlanta. Their grandparents live in the middle of a swamp. Gretchen found out it was REALLY boring there. Then, when they stayed home alone, Gretchen opens a door that their grandma told her not to enter, and she did, and she saw a MONSTER! She and Clark runs and tries to hide, but they found out that their grandparents had locked them so they would be trapped inside, because there are even more swamp monsters outside. So then Gretchen had to kill it! (with the help of Clark of course) She tries a lot of ways to kill it, but will she kill it? Read to find out. And the spoiler is that the monster was allergic to humans, and Gretchen and Clark were saved. They previously attempted to kill it by feeding it a pie filled with dust moth, paint, and other nasty stuff. Also they tried to kill it by luring it to a big hole!

[Darius Surenian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I Watched The Youtube Video About the Critic The Book Worm Expecting A Novel With Pure Suspense, A Great Climax, And An Untouched Ending. What I Got Was A Slow, Boring, And Uninteresting Story. The Book Worm Said That The Beginning Was A Bit Slow And When The Monster Of The Story Comes In It Creates Lots Of Suspense, Instead It Is Incredibly Slow Killing The Suspense And Making The Story Boring. The Story Does Not Deliver For A Great Goosebumps Story That Should Be One Of The Best, But It Does Have Its Moments, I Did Like The Monster Set Up, The Characters Are Fine, The Ideas Used To Kill The Monster Are A Bit Dark Making it More Adult, The Ending Is Pretty Suspenseful, And Yes This Book Probably Deserves A Sequel. I Am A Fan Of These Books, But Maybe You Should Leave This Monster Of A Story To Be Killed By Critics.

[Γιώτα Παπαδημακοπούλου · Rating 4 out of 5]

Το βιβλίο αυτό είναι κάπως διαφορετικό απ' ότι μας έχει συνηθίσει ο Stine, κάτι που κυρίως οφείλεται στο γεγονός πως το "τέρας" κάνει την εμφάνισή του από πολύ νωρίς και έχει ζωντανό, ενεργό ρόλο στο μεγαλύτερο μέρος αυτού. Ως υπόσταση, και όχι ως κάτι που υποθέτουμε πως υπάρχει. Βέβαια, το πιο ενδιαφέρον στοιχείο, νομίζω πως έχει να κάνει με την αίσθηση της αποκοπής του κεντρικού ήρωα από τον έξω κόσμο, που μειώνει τις πιθανότητές του να επιβιώσει. Δεν έχει σημασία που ξέρουμε πως θα τα καταφέρει. Η αίσθηση αυτή παραμένει.