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The Nightmare Room #4
Liar liar
That tall boy walking so confidently into the party is Ross Arthur. This isn't a surprise party, but Ross has a frightening shock in store. You see, standing across the room is Ross's identical twin. The problem? Ross doesn't have a twin. It looks as if tonight this party is being held in The Nightmare Room.
130 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
12 people are currently reading
620 people want to read
About the author
R.L. Stine
1,681 books18.7k followersRobert Lawrence Stine known as R. L. Stine and Jovial Bob Stine, is an American novelist and writer, well known for targeting younger audiences. Stine, who is often called the Stephen King of children's literature, is the author of dozens of popular horror fiction novellas, including the books in the Goosebumps, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, The Nightmare Room and Fear Street series.
R. L. Stine began his writing career when he was nine years old, and today he has achieved the position of the bestselling children's author in history. In the early 1990s, Stine was catapulted to fame when he wrote the unprecedented, bestselling Goosebumps® series, which sold more than 250 million copies and became a worldwide multimedia phenomenon. His other major series, Fear Street, has over 80 million copies sold.
Stine has received numerous awards of recognition, including several Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards and Disney Adventures Kids' Choice Awards, and he has been selected by kids as one of their favorite authors in the NEA's Read Across America program. He lives in New York, NY.
http://us.macmillan.com/itsthefirstda...
R. L. Stine began his writing career when he was nine years old, and today he has achieved the position of the bestselling children's author in history. In the early 1990s, Stine was catapulted to fame when he wrote the unprecedented, bestselling Goosebumps® series, which sold more than 250 million copies and became a worldwide multimedia phenomenon. His other major series, Fear Street, has over 80 million copies sold.
Stine has received numerous awards of recognition, including several Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards and Disney Adventures Kids' Choice Awards, and he has been selected by kids as one of their favorite authors in the NEA's Read Across America program. He lives in New York, NY.
http://us.macmillan.com/itsthefirstda...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
September 27, 2023
It continues
April 28, 2018
A nice tale of suspense, but it ends rather abruptly and nothing is explained. I read a lot of Stine's books as a kid, and I always preferred his books that resolved to his books with non-endings. This book's plot hinges on the idea of parallel universes, but they seem to work inconsistently. For one thing, . And there are some issues that are never addressed. This is such an interesting premise, and the main character makes a very entertaining and dynamic narrator. Stine builds the suspense and keeps it going through the book, but the ending seems mostly to be just for shock value. It's worth reading, but don't expect anything too deep.
January 21, 2024
I just finished another book in The Nightmare Room series This is Liar Liar.No not the movie with Jim Carrey. The story starts off with the Ross Arthur,a compulsive liar telling us all about his life.Hes rich.His dad is a movie director and he lies a lot and it shows.He lies about having a dog.He comes up with excuses not to hang out with friends ,and he lies to two girls leading them both to think that he's going out with them to a party.Even though he's a compulsive liar, he's also a bully.He bullies his little brother a lot and he ends up getting grounded for breaking a statue at one of his dad's clients'house.He is grounded from going to this pool party at his friend's house.His mom and dad ended up leaving him and his brother home alone trusting that Ross will stay grounded.Bur Ross has the idea to sneak out he's going to go to his friends party and try and make his little brother not snitch on him.He goes to the party and both of the girls that he's supposed to be with is there and they figure out he's lying, so they throw him in the pool.As he's in the pool he thinks he's drowning.He sees a kid underwater that looks exactly like him.The kid mouths the words "go away" at Ross.He ends up getting out of the water and going home but not before telling everybody what he saw. But of course nobody believes him.He begins to run into his doppelganger more and more and every time he runs into him something weird happens, like when he falls in the grass, the grass basically catches on fire.He goes to see this other kid that looks like his twin and he touches his arm only for it to shrivel away and have his face melt off? What? I'll admit, I was expecting to hate this book but I didn't. I didn't love it either. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about it to be completely honest.The build up was actually really good.And it had some of the best gore.It definitely wasn't boring. I was curious to see where this thing was going, but we get to the reveal it's very poorly explained.And then we get the ending which made sense ,but then we get another ending that ruined that ending and the it didn't make any sense.I give Liar Liar a three out of five stars.
February 27, 2022
Well, it took 5 books from the Nightmare Room series to discover a bit of a flop. That's a pretty good track record, so far, I'd say.
In Liar Liar, we actually get a somewhat interesting idea injected with a moral that seems to be a regular thing in these books at this point. The plot of this one ties into the whole "boy who cried wolf" message, as our protagonist Ross, a borderline sociopath, causes a "break" in reality due to his excessive lying, and ends up crossing paths with his (evil/good?) twin in a parallel world. I found this concept to actually be a bit interesting, and it does lightly borrow from past Stine titles such as I Am Your Evil Twin and Ghost in the Mirror. The subtext clearly conveys the message of what happens when you speak more lies than truth. The outcome of this in terms of the story are a bit wild and outrageous, and this is also where the book is a bit lost on me.
There's too many logical inconsistencies and... WTF moments, to be blunt. Ambiguity is not this book's strong point. In fact, I think out of all the Nightmare Room books so far, this one is the least coherent - which is its ultimate downfall, paired with a typical Stine twist ending. I've appreciated that books like Locker 13 and Don't Forget Me sort of broke that mold and aspired for a different outcome... but this one falls in line with some of those nonsensical Goosebumps titles - it does have imagination, I'll give it that - but it fails in most every other way.
Now, not to say this book is bad; I can think of quite a few Goosebumps books by Stine that would make Liar Liar look like a masterpiece. But I predict this one will fall somewhere towards the bottom of my ranking whenever I finish reading through this series.
2 / 5
In Liar Liar, we actually get a somewhat interesting idea injected with a moral that seems to be a regular thing in these books at this point. The plot of this one ties into the whole "boy who cried wolf" message, as our protagonist Ross, a borderline sociopath, causes a "break" in reality due to his excessive lying, and ends up crossing paths with his (evil/good?) twin in a parallel world. I found this concept to actually be a bit interesting, and it does lightly borrow from past Stine titles such as I Am Your Evil Twin and Ghost in the Mirror. The subtext clearly conveys the message of what happens when you speak more lies than truth. The outcome of this in terms of the story are a bit wild and outrageous, and this is also where the book is a bit lost on me.
There's too many logical inconsistencies and... WTF moments, to be blunt. Ambiguity is not this book's strong point. In fact, I think out of all the Nightmare Room books so far, this one is the least coherent - which is its ultimate downfall, paired with a typical Stine twist ending. I've appreciated that books like Locker 13 and Don't Forget Me sort of broke that mold and aspired for a different outcome... but this one falls in line with some of those nonsensical Goosebumps titles - it does have imagination, I'll give it that - but it fails in most every other way.
Now, not to say this book is bad; I can think of quite a few Goosebumps books by Stine that would make Liar Liar look like a masterpiece. But I predict this one will fall somewhere towards the bottom of my ranking whenever I finish reading through this series.
2 / 5
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November 2, 2018That tall boy walking so confidently into the party is Ross Arthur. This isn't a surprise party, but Ross has a frightening shock in store. You see, standing across the room is Ross's identical twin. The problem? Ross doesn't have a twin. It looks as if tonight this party is being held in The Nightmare Room.
January 16, 2019
I know, I know. This book shouldn't be a 5 star book but I don't really care. See, I'm not really concerned about ethics. I'm rating these books on the scale of how much did I like them at the time and I absolutely love R.L.Stine and this book. I can say that 12 year old me is proud now.
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November 30, 2019راس آرتور، پسری ۱۲ ساله با موهای صاف قهوهای، قدبلند، خوشتیپ و یه دروغگوی تمام عیار(!)
راس تو محله ی بِوِرلی هیلز زندگی میکنه. خونهی خیلی بزرگی دارن با یه استخر و زمین تنیس تو حیاط پشتی و یه زمین بازی تو زیرزمین خونه. پدرش هم یه استودیوی بزرگ فیلمبرداری داره.
با همه ی اینا زندگیش چندان کامل نیست. راس یه دروغگوی قهاره؛ اونقدر دروغ گفته که حتی خودشم نمیدونه کدومشون راسته و کدومشون دروغ.
یه روز پدرش بعد از مدرسه اونو میبره به یوتیورس فیلمز چون باید یکی از تهیهکننده هارو میدید و یه قرارداد باهاش امضا میکرد. وقتی میرسن به اونجا، پدرش به راس میگه تا به کلکسیونی که اونجا بود دست نزنه اما اون بعد از دودقیقه نشستن رو کاناپه حوصلش سر میره و به طرف کلکسیون میره ک موجب شکستن چیز مهمی میشه. بعد از اینکه پدرش این موضوعو میفهمه با عصبانیت بهش پیگه که اجازه بیرون رفتن تا اطلاع ثانوی رو نداره؛ اما اون شب مهمونی یکی از بچههای مدرسه، ماکس بود و با هر دردسری که بود به مهمونی میره.
راس همزمان دوتا دخترو به مهمونی دعوت کرده بود(😐)و وقتی اونا اینو میفهمن میندازنش تو استخر و سرشو میکنن زیر آب و نمیزارن بیاد بیرون اما با هر زحمتی که شده خودشو آزاد میکنه و بعد جرقههای نوری رو تو آب میبینه. دوباره نفسی میگیره و میره زیر آب و شروع به شنا کردن میکنه و اینجاست که به قول استاین، او سر از جای ترسناکی در میآورد؛ تالار وحشت.
راس ناخواسته از دریچه ی ورود یه دنیای موازی در میشه همزادشو تو دنیای موازی میبینه اما اونجا دیگه جایی نیست که بتونه با دروغ گفتن کاراشو توجیه کنه و بتونه دوباره به دنیای خودش برگرده.
اصلا آخرش میتونه به دنیای خودش برگرده؟
نکته همینجاست.
خب...مث اینکه این چرخه ادامه داره•••
December 13, 2015
I read a super spooky book, called "The Nightmare Room; Liar, Liar" and I thought it was really cool! I would recommend this book from 5th grade to all ages. If you like books to make you jump and make you have goosebumps this is the perfect book for you. I rated this book a 5 out of 5 stars because it was really entertaining and fun to read. "Liar, Liar" is about a 12 year old boy named Ross Arthur who always lies, A LOT. Most people, including his mom, teacher, brother, friends, and pretty much everyone doesn't believe after all of his lies. After he told his mom he would babysit his brother for the night, after getting in trouble, and he sneaks off to the cool kid, Max's, house for his pool party birthday, which everyone went to. When he takes a dive into the pool, he sees himself. I know what you're thinking. There's probably a mirror in the pool, no. The boy mouthed the words "go away" Ross is terrified. Everything just goes downhill from there. To find out more on this interesting book, you should read it! If you love thrillers and spooky stories, I would definitely recommend this book for you!
January 5, 2009
دروغگو دروغگو - از سری کتابهای تالار وحشت شماره4
در مورد کتاب : آن پسر بلندقد و خوش تیپی که با اعتماد به نفس قدم به مهمانی می گذارد ، راس آرتور است. این یک مهمانی سورپریز نیست ولی راس باید انتطار وحشتی نفس گیر را داشته باشد... راس در اتاق ، رو به روی رو قلوی خود ایستاده است. اما مشکل چیست؟ اینکه راس برادر دوقلویی ندارو. به نظر می رسد که مهمانی امشب در تالار وحشت برگزار شده است.
در مورد کتاب : آن پسر بلندقد و خوش تیپی که با اعتماد به نفس قدم به مهمانی می گذارد ، راس آرتور است. این یک مهمانی سورپریز نیست ولی راس باید انتطار وحشتی نفس گیر را داشته باشد... راس در اتاق ، رو به روی رو قلوی خود ایستاده است. اما مشکل چیست؟ اینکه راس برادر دوقلویی ندارو. به نظر می رسد که مهمانی امشب در تالار وحشت برگزار شده است.
January 31, 2013
I love RL Stine and actually this is the first book that I've ever read and love and leave such a deep impression on me. I read this book when I was like what? 9 or 10 maybe. I've become a fan of his ever since. Frankly speaking I'm not really the type who read but this books actually makes me love reading. A really good book to read.
February 9, 2021
De esta colección, este es el que más me gusto.
Toca el tema de mundos paralelos, el protagonista aprende de sus errores y luego de mentir tanto recibe su merecido.
Luego de encontrarse con un chico idéntico a él, comienza su aventura.
Se introdujo en un mundo desconocido, ¿pero logrará salir de él?
Toca el tema de mundos paralelos, el protagonista aprende de sus errores y luego de mentir tanto recibe su merecido.
Luego de encontrarse con un chico idéntico a él, comienza su aventura.
Se introdujo en un mundo desconocido, ¿pero logrará salir de él?
June 6, 2015
YOU HAVE LOST THE BOND BETWEEN REALITY AND ILLUSION!
It was very twisted and very scary!!! In the whole series this one is my favorite! I loved it so much and I think it was kinda real because generally this happens in real life.
It was very twisted and very scary!!! In the whole series this one is my favorite! I loved it so much and I think it was kinda real because generally this happens in real life.
April 28, 2014
Its pretty interesting and filled with amazing imagination! I read this when i was small,but i can still remember How great it was!
March 25, 2019
What.
February 21, 2014
This book is really good and one of the best books I've ever read
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June 18, 2024Liar Liar
As the story starts, we find out Ross has a double. He’s already lied about his eyes. He says they are blue but their gray. Gray does not look remotely like blue. Ross is at school and Cindy is demanding to know where he’s been. He was supposed to meet her at Urban Outfitters. So he starts telling lie after lie. First, he says his tennis instructor hurt his hand. S Then he says his dog got sick and he had to take him to the vet. Cindy sees through all this bs and reminds him that he’s supposed to go with her to Max’s pool party. Another girl Sherma asks if she should meet him there or does he want to meet her there. He says he’ll meet her there (He forgot he asked her to). He’s late and has to lie to the teacher about helping another teacher return some books to the library. The teacher asks him to share his essay but he got distracted by wrestling on TV. He tells her he wrote it but there was an electrical blowout and his printer blew up. He’ll have a new one tomorrow tho. She tells him if he keeps it up he’ll fail the course.
Some guys ask Ross if he wants to hang but he has an acting class. Cindy’ asks Ross where he’s going and he lies and says he has to help him mom do some charity work. He doesn’t even know why he tells so many lies. (It should be noted that Ross’s dad is a movie executive and works at a studio). He asks if Ross mailed the envelope he gave him. Earlier we find out it's in his locker, but he plans to mail it the next day. His dad says it’s important and can’t be late or it’s his butt. Ross’s dad goes to the studio to talk to someone (Mort) and leaves Ross in his office. He clearly instructs him not to touch anything. Mort goes berserk if there’s so much as a fingerprint on his stuff. After a while tho, Ross gets bored and sees an Oscar statue. He’s fooling around with it and drops it. The head comes off. Then he hears the footsteps of someone about to enter the room.
When his dad comes in he asks what he’s doing on the floor. He says he dropped his chewing gum but he got it. Then he says he swallowed it. His dad says he heard a crash. Ross says he didn’t hear it. (The Oscar is shoved under the coach). Later that night Ross and his brother Jake have a fight over Ross borrowing Jake’s comic books. Ross says he doesn’t have them but they’re in his bottom desk drawer. His dad tells him to come down and says Mort doesn’t want to work with him anymore. He found the Oscar. Ross lies and says two cleaning ladies came in, but his dad knows he’s lying. He says he has to be punished. He just cost him millions of dollars. Jake says they should cut off his hand. His dad says they are going to do something much worse. Then he grounds him, That means no pool party at Max’s. He tries to talk his way out of it but it doesn’t work. Jake says cutting off his lips.
On party night, Ross is stuck at home playing a video game with his brother. He hasn’t told the two girls he’s not coming. He tells his brother he’s going to let him watch a DVD in his room. Jake doesn’t have a DVD player. He’ll just be out for a short while. Jake says he’ll tell but Ross heads to the party anyway. Ross lies to Max about being grounded. He lies to Cindy about why he’s late. (He says his brother wasn’t feeling well and he had to stay home and make his brother feel better). He tells the other girl the same thing (Sherma). She asks what he was talking to Cindy about. He weasels his way out of it by telling her he’ll meet her in the pool. Cindy asks what he’s talking to Sherma about. He says a school assignment. They both find out about the other and toss him in the pool. Then they hold him underwater and they keep doing it. They do it for a second to long and Ross feels himself drowning. When he resurfaces, everything is too bright so he jumps back in the pool and starts to swim. There’s someone underwater that looks just like Ross. He has the same eyes, hair, and face. The boy is saying what looks like “Go away!” Ross surfaces. The other boy doesn’t. He even swims back to the bottom floor but the boy is gone. Ross tries to tell the girls but they ignore him. He then tells Max he has to get home to watch Jake. On the way, he sees the lights on and his mom’s car in the drive. So, he tries to sneak in through his window. It’s Jake.
He won’t tell whether he did or didn’t rat him out. He tries to lie about where he went to his mother but he’s wearing the bathing trunks. He says he was just in the backyard. But then Ross gets a call from max and he tells Ross’s mom he left his extra towel and trunks at his house. His mom tells him she’s worried about him. He doesn’t seem to know the difference anymore between the truth and lies. Then she says when his father get home they’re going to have a family meeting. He asks his mom if he has a twin and she surprises him by answering yes he does. But she’s playing. She says there’s a good twin and a bad one and he’s the bad one. He tells his mom about the boy he saw but she just thinks he’s looking in a mirror. She then again accuses him of lying.Later that night, Ross hears his mom talking to a boy (he has his voice). His mom asks the boy if he’s going crazy. He doesn’t have a twin.
When he goes to investigate, he finds his mom in the kitchen. He tells her she was in the kitchen talking to a boy but she says she wasn’t. She was in her bed sound asleep until she heard him. She told him he must have been having a nightmare. So, he just goes back to bed (even though he knows it was real). The next day, Cindy seems to forgive Ross (after stepping on his foot). But he can’t hang with her he has tennis practice (For once this is the truth). But he lies to his coach about why he’s late and says he had a nosebleed. He sees his double a couple of courts over playing against a guy named Jared. The boy sees him and recognizes him too. The boy scowls and mouths “Go away!” Ross starts to run after him but trips. When he looks up the boy is gone. Jared when he runs up thinks the boy was Ross (even when he says it wasn’t).
Ross walks home with Serma and tries to tell her about his twin, but he’s lied so much that she doesn’t believe him. She does suggest tho that this could be a ghost. But wouldn’t he have to die to have a ghost. The light turns green and then red and Sharma pulls him into the street. He trips over the curb and falls in the grass. Sharma waves at Cindy and when Ross gets up the grass where Ross was is brown and sizzling. He tries to point it out to her but she walks away to talk to Cindy. When he gets home, his mom tells him his karate teacher is coming by early. Only Ross doesn’t take karate. She says he’s taken it since he was seven. Then she asks about his tennis practice. He starts to tell her about his twin but decides she won’t believe him anyway. She says she’s made his favorite brussel sprouts. But he hates them. Ross demands to know what’s going on.
Hmm. Sounds like he’s slipping in and out of an alternate universe to me. But the phone rings. He goes in his room and in his closet is a white karate robe. He looks around his room, but nothing changes. White lights start to shoot through his head and intense pain. Mom sends him to the store to buy some milk. Theirs is sour. It's four blocks but it’ll give him time to think so he doesn’t protest. On the way out he again sees his twin. He takes off running taking advantage of his twin's distraction. Ross grabs him and turns him around. It’s not him. The boy's parts start to shrink and he grabs him. His face changes and his skin starts to peel until he has none. His hair drops off and he turns bright red. He has no nose and empty eye sockets. Then he starts howling and takes off running screaming HELP! HELP! Another sharp pain hits his head. Then another and another. It stops abruptly.
He goes to get the milk, but when he picks it up his touch melts the carton and sour milk spills out. The woman in the store kicks him out. There are two boys in the store who were buying candy bars. Ross goes up to them and the boys tell him not to touch them. At home, Jake tries to get out of the lesson by saying he’s been having headaches but no such luck. He has to go through with the lesson. He takes a hit and goes down. Mr. Lawrence wants to know why he didn’t defend himself. Ross just takes off running. In the hallway, he runs into his twin. He takes the robe and kicks himout and tells him he doesn’t belong here. He sends him upstairs to “his” room before they see him. He says they’ll come back after the lesson. Then he locks him in. He sees the window and thinks he can escape and then go back and show his mom his twin. His twin comes back and in the room and then tries to push him out the window. He says there isn’t room for both of them.
The twin says he broke the fabric of reality he lied so much. Then he tells him he’s in a parallel world I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT! They then start to wrestle. He tells him he won’t survive there. He’s going to die. Their mom hears but she thinks he and Jake are just fooling around. His twin explains that the night of Max’s party he slipped into his world from a portal underwater and ever since then he’s been slipping in and out of worlds. YES, I KNEW IT! But now he’s stuck in his world. Ross thinks he’s just lying and he’s goood! He oughta know. The twin tells him he’s an intruder and whether he means to or not he’s dangerous. When he touches things it can either destroy or chane them. So, Ross then touches *him*. But the twin says *he’s* the one that’s going to die in two days. He says he should already be experiencing the pain (the headaches). Then he’ll start to fade. Ross calls him a liar and shoves him. Then he starts to look for his mom. When he can’t find her he runs out the door. Then he runs to Max’s but he isn’t there.
Ross says he’s neighbor’s dog “Flash” and tries to get him to come to him. He comes to him alright and sinks his teeth into his arm. Flash then rolls off him, then his skin starts to melt away, he falls over and dies. Ross is horrified and starts to run as he hears the dogs last pitiful whine. Ross then sees the cops saying they caught an intruder. Ross is able to get a look at him. He has long hair and tattoos. The guy is pleading with him that he’s not an intruder. They tell him he doesn’t have much time and to give up. The man tries to escape but they grab him. Ross sees right through the man and he has blue veins. The man starts to scream and Ross’s head starts to throb. Finally, he realizes his twin was telling the truth. The intruder is taken away.
Ross thinks of a plan. He’ll just go back through the portal in Max’s swimming pool. But on the way there a police car stops him, but there’s another call and the cop just tells him not to be walking around at night. When he gets to Max’s he finds out the pool has been drained. He goes back to his twin and the twin tells him that since his whole world turned into a lie as a result of him lying he now has to tell the truth about what happened to him in this reality. The next morning, Ross tells the other Ross’s mother and says if she comes upstairs he can prove it. She just brushes him off because her girlfriend has an emergency. So he decides to go to school. The twin says he won’t help him. He tries to tell Cindy but she doesn’t believe him and trying to destroy the grass doesn’t work apparently in this reality. Then the pain hits. Max doesn’t believe him either and thinks he’s just trying to get out helping him wash his father’s car. So he tries his teacher Mrs. Doughlas. She doesn’t believe him either. In fact, no one does. When he gets home tho, he realizes a loophole. The other Ross believes him and he only needed one person. But the other Ross says he lied. Then he feels himself starting to blow away and vanish.
T
he twin tells Ross that if he can get to the attic there’s a portal there but Ross realizes he’s lied again. He shoves him in the room so he can die there. Ross is weak but he starts to wrestle with the twin. They make their way to the pool. The end of both falling in the pool. Ross tells his twin this time to “Go away”. Then everything turns dark. Then he starts to fade. Then he’s back to the present at Max’s party. Cindy and Sherma were holding him under and held him under too long and he started to choke. Ross convinces himself the parallel universe thing never happened. Max’s father was the one that saved him, Ross starts to run back home remembering Jake. When he sees Jake his face is gone. It’s gray and he has a toothless grin. But it’s a mask. Two more Jakes burst into the room. His mom tells him he needs to stay home and watch the triplets. He messed up and is in anod is in another parallel world.
My Thoughts
I was so excited because I figured out what was going on. I guess that’s because I’ll let you in on a secret. I’ve been writing a story of my own that involves an alternate universe and I’ve done some research on parallel worlds and clones. You are going to LOVE IT! I promise you! Just keep your fingers crossed for me that I can get this special story to go from just being on my screen to being on your screens one day.
The character Ross reminded me a lot of my uncle. I was told a story of how during a basketball game (he was on the basketball team) he was called out in the middle of a game by one of his girlfriends. He had given both girlfriends the same ring and she found out about it. Then she begin to curse him out *during* the game. The method my uncle used the most in these situations was to just run. SMH. So when the game ended that’s what he did. I thought about this when the two girls found out about each other at the pool party and tried to drown Ross. I guess my uncle was lucky there wasn’t any water around or *he* might have suffered the same fate as Ross.
I did wonder how he managed to get into yet another entirely different dimension, but if there are infinite ones and no logical way that you can control which one you slip in and out of then it can happen. But it skipped all over the fact that HIS TWINS FACE COULD PEEL OFF! That would have been the FIRST thing I’d want to know after who are you and how did I get here? There is NO WAY he just forgot that in his eagerness to get back home. I think the better question would have been WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU and WHAT KIND OF PLACE IS THIS? I did like the idea also of the cops and the traitos and then having translucent skin to identify them. It gave me an idea.
Rating: 7
As the story starts, we find out Ross has a double. He’s already lied about his eyes. He says they are blue but their gray. Gray does not look remotely like blue. Ross is at school and Cindy is demanding to know where he’s been. He was supposed to meet her at Urban Outfitters. So he starts telling lie after lie. First, he says his tennis instructor hurt his hand. S Then he says his dog got sick and he had to take him to the vet. Cindy sees through all this bs and reminds him that he’s supposed to go with her to Max’s pool party. Another girl Sherma asks if she should meet him there or does he want to meet her there. He says he’ll meet her there (He forgot he asked her to). He’s late and has to lie to the teacher about helping another teacher return some books to the library. The teacher asks him to share his essay but he got distracted by wrestling on TV. He tells her he wrote it but there was an electrical blowout and his printer blew up. He’ll have a new one tomorrow tho. She tells him if he keeps it up he’ll fail the course.
Some guys ask Ross if he wants to hang but he has an acting class. Cindy’ asks Ross where he’s going and he lies and says he has to help him mom do some charity work. He doesn’t even know why he tells so many lies. (It should be noted that Ross’s dad is a movie executive and works at a studio). He asks if Ross mailed the envelope he gave him. Earlier we find out it's in his locker, but he plans to mail it the next day. His dad says it’s important and can’t be late or it’s his butt. Ross’s dad goes to the studio to talk to someone (Mort) and leaves Ross in his office. He clearly instructs him not to touch anything. Mort goes berserk if there’s so much as a fingerprint on his stuff. After a while tho, Ross gets bored and sees an Oscar statue. He’s fooling around with it and drops it. The head comes off. Then he hears the footsteps of someone about to enter the room.
When his dad comes in he asks what he’s doing on the floor. He says he dropped his chewing gum but he got it. Then he says he swallowed it. His dad says he heard a crash. Ross says he didn’t hear it. (The Oscar is shoved under the coach). Later that night Ross and his brother Jake have a fight over Ross borrowing Jake’s comic books. Ross says he doesn’t have them but they’re in his bottom desk drawer. His dad tells him to come down and says Mort doesn’t want to work with him anymore. He found the Oscar. Ross lies and says two cleaning ladies came in, but his dad knows he’s lying. He says he has to be punished. He just cost him millions of dollars. Jake says they should cut off his hand. His dad says they are going to do something much worse. Then he grounds him, That means no pool party at Max’s. He tries to talk his way out of it but it doesn’t work. Jake says cutting off his lips.
On party night, Ross is stuck at home playing a video game with his brother. He hasn’t told the two girls he’s not coming. He tells his brother he’s going to let him watch a DVD in his room. Jake doesn’t have a DVD player. He’ll just be out for a short while. Jake says he’ll tell but Ross heads to the party anyway. Ross lies to Max about being grounded. He lies to Cindy about why he’s late. (He says his brother wasn’t feeling well and he had to stay home and make his brother feel better). He tells the other girl the same thing (Sherma). She asks what he was talking to Cindy about. He weasels his way out of it by telling her he’ll meet her in the pool. Cindy asks what he’s talking to Sherma about. He says a school assignment. They both find out about the other and toss him in the pool. Then they hold him underwater and they keep doing it. They do it for a second to long and Ross feels himself drowning. When he resurfaces, everything is too bright so he jumps back in the pool and starts to swim. There’s someone underwater that looks just like Ross. He has the same eyes, hair, and face. The boy is saying what looks like “Go away!” Ross surfaces. The other boy doesn’t. He even swims back to the bottom floor but the boy is gone. Ross tries to tell the girls but they ignore him. He then tells Max he has to get home to watch Jake. On the way, he sees the lights on and his mom’s car in the drive. So, he tries to sneak in through his window. It’s Jake.
He won’t tell whether he did or didn’t rat him out. He tries to lie about where he went to his mother but he’s wearing the bathing trunks. He says he was just in the backyard. But then Ross gets a call from max and he tells Ross’s mom he left his extra towel and trunks at his house. His mom tells him she’s worried about him. He doesn’t seem to know the difference anymore between the truth and lies. Then she says when his father get home they’re going to have a family meeting. He asks his mom if he has a twin and she surprises him by answering yes he does. But she’s playing. She says there’s a good twin and a bad one and he’s the bad one. He tells his mom about the boy he saw but she just thinks he’s looking in a mirror. She then again accuses him of lying.Later that night, Ross hears his mom talking to a boy (he has his voice). His mom asks the boy if he’s going crazy. He doesn’t have a twin.
When he goes to investigate, he finds his mom in the kitchen. He tells her she was in the kitchen talking to a boy but she says she wasn’t. She was in her bed sound asleep until she heard him. She told him he must have been having a nightmare. So, he just goes back to bed (even though he knows it was real). The next day, Cindy seems to forgive Ross (after stepping on his foot). But he can’t hang with her he has tennis practice (For once this is the truth). But he lies to his coach about why he’s late and says he had a nosebleed. He sees his double a couple of courts over playing against a guy named Jared. The boy sees him and recognizes him too. The boy scowls and mouths “Go away!” Ross starts to run after him but trips. When he looks up the boy is gone. Jared when he runs up thinks the boy was Ross (even when he says it wasn’t).
Ross walks home with Serma and tries to tell her about his twin, but he’s lied so much that she doesn’t believe him. She does suggest tho that this could be a ghost. But wouldn’t he have to die to have a ghost. The light turns green and then red and Sharma pulls him into the street. He trips over the curb and falls in the grass. Sharma waves at Cindy and when Ross gets up the grass where Ross was is brown and sizzling. He tries to point it out to her but she walks away to talk to Cindy. When he gets home, his mom tells him his karate teacher is coming by early. Only Ross doesn’t take karate. She says he’s taken it since he was seven. Then she asks about his tennis practice. He starts to tell her about his twin but decides she won’t believe him anyway. She says she’s made his favorite brussel sprouts. But he hates them. Ross demands to know what’s going on.
Hmm. Sounds like he’s slipping in and out of an alternate universe to me. But the phone rings. He goes in his room and in his closet is a white karate robe. He looks around his room, but nothing changes. White lights start to shoot through his head and intense pain. Mom sends him to the store to buy some milk. Theirs is sour. It's four blocks but it’ll give him time to think so he doesn’t protest. On the way out he again sees his twin. He takes off running taking advantage of his twin's distraction. Ross grabs him and turns him around. It’s not him. The boy's parts start to shrink and he grabs him. His face changes and his skin starts to peel until he has none. His hair drops off and he turns bright red. He has no nose and empty eye sockets. Then he starts howling and takes off running screaming HELP! HELP! Another sharp pain hits his head. Then another and another. It stops abruptly.
He goes to get the milk, but when he picks it up his touch melts the carton and sour milk spills out. The woman in the store kicks him out. There are two boys in the store who were buying candy bars. Ross goes up to them and the boys tell him not to touch them. At home, Jake tries to get out of the lesson by saying he’s been having headaches but no such luck. He has to go through with the lesson. He takes a hit and goes down. Mr. Lawrence wants to know why he didn’t defend himself. Ross just takes off running. In the hallway, he runs into his twin. He takes the robe and kicks himout and tells him he doesn’t belong here. He sends him upstairs to “his” room before they see him. He says they’ll come back after the lesson. Then he locks him in. He sees the window and thinks he can escape and then go back and show his mom his twin. His twin comes back and in the room and then tries to push him out the window. He says there isn’t room for both of them.
The twin says he broke the fabric of reality he lied so much. Then he tells him he’s in a parallel world I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT! They then start to wrestle. He tells him he won’t survive there. He’s going to die. Their mom hears but she thinks he and Jake are just fooling around. His twin explains that the night of Max’s party he slipped into his world from a portal underwater and ever since then he’s been slipping in and out of worlds. YES, I KNEW IT! But now he’s stuck in his world. Ross thinks he’s just lying and he’s goood! He oughta know. The twin tells him he’s an intruder and whether he means to or not he’s dangerous. When he touches things it can either destroy or chane them. So, Ross then touches *him*. But the twin says *he’s* the one that’s going to die in two days. He says he should already be experiencing the pain (the headaches). Then he’ll start to fade. Ross calls him a liar and shoves him. Then he starts to look for his mom. When he can’t find her he runs out the door. Then he runs to Max’s but he isn’t there.
Ross says he’s neighbor’s dog “Flash” and tries to get him to come to him. He comes to him alright and sinks his teeth into his arm. Flash then rolls off him, then his skin starts to melt away, he falls over and dies. Ross is horrified and starts to run as he hears the dogs last pitiful whine. Ross then sees the cops saying they caught an intruder. Ross is able to get a look at him. He has long hair and tattoos. The guy is pleading with him that he’s not an intruder. They tell him he doesn’t have much time and to give up. The man tries to escape but they grab him. Ross sees right through the man and he has blue veins. The man starts to scream and Ross’s head starts to throb. Finally, he realizes his twin was telling the truth. The intruder is taken away.
Ross thinks of a plan. He’ll just go back through the portal in Max’s swimming pool. But on the way there a police car stops him, but there’s another call and the cop just tells him not to be walking around at night. When he gets to Max’s he finds out the pool has been drained. He goes back to his twin and the twin tells him that since his whole world turned into a lie as a result of him lying he now has to tell the truth about what happened to him in this reality. The next morning, Ross tells the other Ross’s mother and says if she comes upstairs he can prove it. She just brushes him off because her girlfriend has an emergency. So he decides to go to school. The twin says he won’t help him. He tries to tell Cindy but she doesn’t believe him and trying to destroy the grass doesn’t work apparently in this reality. Then the pain hits. Max doesn’t believe him either and thinks he’s just trying to get out helping him wash his father’s car. So he tries his teacher Mrs. Doughlas. She doesn’t believe him either. In fact, no one does. When he gets home tho, he realizes a loophole. The other Ross believes him and he only needed one person. But the other Ross says he lied. Then he feels himself starting to blow away and vanish.
T
he twin tells Ross that if he can get to the attic there’s a portal there but Ross realizes he’s lied again. He shoves him in the room so he can die there. Ross is weak but he starts to wrestle with the twin. They make their way to the pool. The end of both falling in the pool. Ross tells his twin this time to “Go away”. Then everything turns dark. Then he starts to fade. Then he’s back to the present at Max’s party. Cindy and Sherma were holding him under and held him under too long and he started to choke. Ross convinces himself the parallel universe thing never happened. Max’s father was the one that saved him, Ross starts to run back home remembering Jake. When he sees Jake his face is gone. It’s gray and he has a toothless grin. But it’s a mask. Two more Jakes burst into the room. His mom tells him he needs to stay home and watch the triplets. He messed up and is in anod is in another parallel world.
My Thoughts
I was so excited because I figured out what was going on. I guess that’s because I’ll let you in on a secret. I’ve been writing a story of my own that involves an alternate universe and I’ve done some research on parallel worlds and clones. You are going to LOVE IT! I promise you! Just keep your fingers crossed for me that I can get this special story to go from just being on my screen to being on your screens one day.
The character Ross reminded me a lot of my uncle. I was told a story of how during a basketball game (he was on the basketball team) he was called out in the middle of a game by one of his girlfriends. He had given both girlfriends the same ring and she found out about it. Then she begin to curse him out *during* the game. The method my uncle used the most in these situations was to just run. SMH. So when the game ended that’s what he did. I thought about this when the two girls found out about each other at the pool party and tried to drown Ross. I guess my uncle was lucky there wasn’t any water around or *he* might have suffered the same fate as Ross.
I did wonder how he managed to get into yet another entirely different dimension, but if there are infinite ones and no logical way that you can control which one you slip in and out of then it can happen. But it skipped all over the fact that HIS TWINS FACE COULD PEEL OFF! That would have been the FIRST thing I’d want to know after who are you and how did I get here? There is NO WAY he just forgot that in his eagerness to get back home. I think the better question would have been WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU and WHAT KIND OF PLACE IS THIS? I did like the idea also of the cops and the traitos and then having translucent skin to identify them. It gave me an idea.
Rating: 7
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 6, 2025
Not to be confused with the Jim Carrey flick of the same name, Liar Liar is a bizarre “boy who cried wolf” retread that I really, really liked—until the final thirty pages. The universe hopping idea and all that came with it was right up my alley. The themes and morals here are standard but better than the two fistfuls of nothing we get from most kids horror, so I appreciated that. There’s some great scenes and moments in here (the first instance of the book’s few gorier elements, the first encounter with Ross’s twin in pool [legitimately gave me goose bumps], etc.) as well as a super engaging first hundred pages. The story is a pretty swift ride all the way through and was quite fun for most of it. The main character is insufferable and deserves a beating, and thankfully he was put through the wringer, which I liked… but then again, there’s that final line of the book. My biggest gripe with this one, sadly, is the climax. When the ball starts rolling on the undoing of the madness, we get an utterly pointless meander-sesh of a repetitive goal, dumb cliffhangers, and Ross (the one we follow) turning his brain off to allow for idiotic character moments that don’t make any sense. It’s all resolved in a way we could’ve just gotten to way sooner and it’s not even that clever (I was betting on that hole he kicked in his wall in the intro, but no, it’s something a lot less genius than that). The twin Ross is super randomly evil and is apparently exactly like him in every way… except that he’s not, so it doesn’t make any sense (you thought I was gonna pull an Austin Powers reference, huh? Buffoon). There’s a few really obvious twists (namely the “I lie too, dumbass” twist near the end) and the ending of the book was a borderline train wreck. I wouldn’t mind it as much if it were just the soul reveal of again a very predictable close, but nope, the final line had to be thrown in there—and it contradicts the entirety of Ross’s half-asses arc. Look, I ate up the first hundred pages of this thing—and yes, I’m gonna give this thing a high-ish score—but zamn was that final chunk just rancid… anywho. Overall, 8/10. The first hundred damn near made up for it, and if it headed the way I was hoping, this could’ve gotten a perfect score. Sadly, it threw some shit meteors at me and tainted my star gazing. Nightmare Room is still insanely consistent, though.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 9, 2023
Helllloo?!!!! That was really good. Stine has some good twists in his pocket. I felt thrilled to read this. His ability as an intruder is actually creepy. I would love it if there was an adult version with extended events. I was on edge while reading about the fight from the latest pages. Can be read within a blink. The book is about Ross and the consequences of being a chronic liar.
June 8, 2025
Liar, liar, Ross. The boy just couldn’t tell the truth no matter what. Of course, when you lie so much, no one tends to believe you. And so, no one believed Ross when he said he spotted his twin—a twin that doesn’t want him around. Ross was so confused about this and nobody would believe him either. And it seemed everyone was remembering different stuff about Ross like him loving brussels sprouts. Eck!
Turns out Ross was stuck in a parallel world—a world he didn’t belong. If he didn’t leave it soon, he would disappear forever. For once, Ross was gonna have to learn to tell the truth.
A good read!
Turns out Ross was stuck in a parallel world—a world he didn’t belong. If he didn’t leave it soon, he would disappear forever. For once, Ross was gonna have to learn to tell the truth.
A good read!
August 27, 2023
Never in my life have I hated the main character as much as this boy Ross. A pathological liar in every universe. Such an insufferable dude and you know what, he truly deserves what's coming for him. If he ever got back to his world, I hope he learns his lesson.
Although there were some inconsistencies in how the portal work, it's still a pretty solid work from Stine. I'm glad it doesn't follow the trope of Ross's actually having twin but his parents hid it from him or something because that would be very similar to that Goosebump books whose title I forgot.
Although there were some inconsistencies in how the portal work, it's still a pretty solid work from Stine. I'm glad it doesn't follow the trope of Ross's actually having twin but his parents hid it from him or something because that would be very similar to that Goosebump books whose title I forgot.
February 27, 2023
Me gusto mucho.
Es corto, muy fácil de leer y es entretenido, me lo acabe en un día.
Habla de universos paralelos y el protagonista sufre las consecuencias de sus actos (Aunque para el final final como que no aprendió nada, pero se lo perdono por que hace un circulo perfecto)
El adelanto del próximo libro de la colección me dejo picada, aunque no creo leerlo o por lo menos no en estas ediciones, ni siquiera creo que se sigan haciendo :l
Es corto, muy fácil de leer y es entretenido, me lo acabe en un día.
Habla de universos paralelos y el protagonista sufre las consecuencias de sus actos (Aunque para el final final como que no aprendió nada, pero se lo perdono por que hace un circulo perfecto)
El adelanto del próximo libro de la colección me dejo picada, aunque no creo leerlo o por lo menos no en estas ediciones, ni siquiera creo que se sigan haciendo :l
April 9, 2025
com uma proposta interessante e um enredo cativante, o autor o tempo inteiro brinca com a realidade e com a cabeça de ambos, personagem e leitor. o suspense do final é a cereja do bolo!
livro curto e com uma ótima mensagem, principalmente se direcionada ao público infantojuvenil: mentir é errado, e quando isso se torna frequente, ninguém acreditará em você, mesmo se você estiver falando a verdade.
livro curto e com uma ótima mensagem, principalmente se direcionada ao público infantojuvenil: mentir é errado, e quando isso se torna frequente, ninguém acreditará em você, mesmo se você estiver falando a verdade.
September 1, 2022
A chilling story worth a read. As good R.L. Stine books go, there are often scares, excitement, lessons, twists, and an entertaining read. I would recommend this book particularly for R.L. Stine fans between Goosebumps and Fear Street age. The Nightmare Room is similar to a more modern The Twilight Zone.
March 22, 2023
Yeaaahh, it's got a bunch of plot holes and inconsistencies, but I read it all in one sitting, just flew through it because it was a lot of fun and I love the twisted nature of most of Stine's work. Also, I don't know how much of a hot take this is, but The Nightmare Room series is sooo much more interesting than Fear Street.
March 27, 2025
No, because you have to be a completely different type of entitled to drop yourself in the life of your twin from a parallel universe and demand that he gets out of his life so you can stay there without fading away.
November 19, 2025
Ceritanya cukup ketebak yah, namanya juga ini buku buat anak-anak. Ini kalo gue bacanya pas SD bakal kerasa serem dan ngerinya. Ditambah lagi dengan plot twist khas Goosebumps yang ngegantung bikin ending ini diserahkan ke pembacanya.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 17, 2018
It was ok, a nice lite read. Not that deep of a story but I didn't expect it to be.
January 19, 2019
My first book I ever read by R. L. Stine!
January 16, 2020
Typischer R.L. Stine, top wie immer! 👍
Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews