The Beast 2

The Beast #2

by R.L. Stine

Ashley just wanted one more ride...

But when The Beast stopped, she was gone!

So where was she? I couldn't find her anywhere in the park. And I wouldn't leave without her. There was only one thing to do. Get back on The Beast and follow her... on the most terrifying ride ever.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Childrens, Young Adult, Time Travel, Horror Thriller, Fantasy

144 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1995

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.

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Reviews

[Daniel Stalter · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Beast 2 is the sequel to one of my favorite RL Stine books. I like to think of The Beast duology as the “lost” Goosebumps books (where “lost” means “published by a different publisher”). Regardless, they fit in perfectly with the rest of the franchise. I’m having difficulty summarizing my thoughts on this one. It wasn’t good, but it wasn’t bad either. So far as RL Stine’s track record on sequels goes, this was one of the better ones in that it wasn’t actively terrible. It had some good weird moments with the Children of the Future and the makings of a good villain with Captain Time. James and Ashely were solid leads, and I liked the struggle of life with braces as a subplot. Stine attempted to bring some new depth to the time travel element, but I’m not sure it worked. It ended up being silly but remained on the cusp of being something better. It was entertaining but ultimately hollow. I think that is how I would describe this book as a whole. It avoids the usual pitfalls of Stine’s worst sequels but fails to stand on its own in any significant way. Which is a shame, because it had the potential to. I think it went wrong on one specific aspect, and that choice derailed the rest of the book. All of that leaves us with an OK sequel to what was one of Sine’s single best works.

Score: 2

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[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, we didn’t need a sequel to Stine’s amusement park tie-in The Beast, and much like the park’s own ill-fated Son of the Beast coaster, this follow-up doesn’t match the original. Our coaster-obsessed main characters return for some more inadvertent time traveling, but this time the action in the past is nowhere near as fun, and the story has even less resolution, leaving the other (presumably ill-fated) "Children of the Future" behind; but hey, our plucky cousins get to come back and ride The Beast some more, so that’s a happy ending, right? Combine the threadbare plot with some very dubious time travel logic (involving clothes and caramel candy), and you have what was clearly a hastily written cash grab, which doesn’t even have the novelty of its predecessor to generate any goodwill. A curiosity, for sure, but there’s good reason these Beast novels aren’t at the top of Stine’s bibliography.

[Owen · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's alright, book. I wouldn't read again
(Ok) book

[Earline · Rating 3 out of 5]

This sequel was crazy, over-the-top fun with lots of twists and suspense. Not as good as the first book, but still wanted to read it since "The Beast" is one of our favorite rides at Kings Island.

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why is this even real? I’m genuinely asking: who wanted this book? I’m not exactly over-the-moon about this existing unlike my rating might suggest, but it’s not a bad book—on its own. It’s got a great twist from an initially heavy-paranormal and fate themed story (the first book) to a science-fiction adventure (this book), and as an advocate for these types of stories, I dug that. There were some dark and quite interesting moments throughout that imply cool shit, and I liked the return of a familiar ghost friend albeit brief. The main duo is back as well and they’re just as good as they were in the original book, and it’s overall a decent story… if you can ignore that it’s a completely unnecessary sequel that doesn’t even make much sense. The characters have some kind of plot amnesia, but not at all at the same time; they remember everything from the first story but don’t give a damn and ride the Beast to their hearts content, which is like, “y’all hittin’ the bong a lil’ too much lately?” It’s bizarre character amnesia without being amnesia. This book had barely anything to do with the Beast 1 and didn’t follow up on jack shit (mild spoiler but who cares). This could’ve been a completely separate story, but oh no, it had to be a sequel to a very unpopular R.L. Stine story for no reason, and it bugs me. I’ve heard Robert’s Babysitter books are like this too lol, how exciting. The pacing is awful in the final 30 pages, with random filler and fast resolution and time-jumps (pun intended I guess?). The villain is underwhelming, just about nothing happens, and there’s some random logic jumps invoking the Beast, how to solve certain book dilemma, and the ending having the shittiest instance of plot amnesia I’ve ever seen. Don’t get me wrong, I like this book, but damn there was so much dumb crap shoved in here. Overall, 7/10… when am I gonna find a book that gets a rating other than 3/5 or 4/5 this year? Don’t recommend this.

[Nate Pal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a bad book at all, but like most sequels, it doesn’t quite measure up to the first. Keep in mind I am way above the target age for this book, but I read the original as kid and I just was thinking about it, randomly one day and checked my local library and they had it sent in from one of the other libraries in the network, while on the website, I noticed that they had a second book, which I had never read as a kid and I said why not it can’t hurt to read this as well. As other reviews have mentioned, it was kind of confusing how the kids still didn’t believe that the beast was haunted, even though they had literally experienced how haunted it was Justin the summer prior when they met “J.D” the ghost and he sent them back in time and they met his younger self. Yet they still are confused. The plot here is a little bit more far-fetched, even though the first was obviously not realistic itself, but this one seemed even more out there and it didn’t quite make any sense what the “Captain Time” character was trying to accomplish. They also make this man seem to be a monster sometimes but nice others. Maybe it’s because it’s from a child’s point of view and they sometimes don’t fully understand how to judge an adult. I think I’m putting way too much thought into such a simple book but if you enjoyed the first it doesn’t hurt to read this one. Would I go out there and buy it on Amazon for $20? No definitely not but if you see it at your local library pick it up and if you’re looking for something for your kids to read, and they enjoy the first one definitely have them read the second.

[Past Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plot moves in like 40,000 different directions here, which is fun. It doesn't ever really feel cohesive, but I've gotta hand it to a book that features time traveling roller coasters, pterodactyls and kidnapped children forced into amusement park slavery!

[Austin Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yuck. A disappointing sequel that is very sloppily written compared to the first with a much less cohesive plot.
The characters, although the same as the first book, don't feel the same. Very cookie cutter dialogue and actions.
Loved the first book. Would not recommend this one.
1.5 / 5

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I borrowed this book through Libby/OverDrive. The book itself says it's THE BEAST, not THE BEAST 2, so I'm confused why it says I read the sequel here.

[Derek L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a lot going on in second book in this duology, and yet not a lot. I don't think The Beast needed a sequel, unless there were different characters and no pterodactyl lol.

[Kayleigh Lakes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book was a cute little book. If you have been to kings island before it makes it even more special. Definitely a fun quick read

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sounds like the first book had more promise, and didn't need a sequel. Cool to see Cincinnati landmarks in children's books.

[Aidan McGuire · Rating 2 out of 5]

Taking some real swings with this one, huh, R.L.?

[Tricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Note that the description in the goodreads entry is actually for The Beast 1, not The Beast 2 (although it appears the storylines aren't that different at the core...).

When my 8yo brought this home from the book swap at school, I was not very keen to start reading it. Stine has a reputation for "scary" kids books, but this wasn't all that scary. It was more of a science fiction (time travel) story, with an edge of a thriller (mention of ghosts, mysterious disappearances, etc). For the most part, it was better written than I expected, and I did not dread the bedtime reading ritual (although I wasn't racing to grab the book either). I rated it a 2, but it's more like a 2.5 - I can quite bring myself to give it 3 stars.

[Adam Hardesty · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the sequel to my favorite book The Beast. While I did not like this book as much as I did the beast, it is still a great book. This time two children ride the Beast roller coaster and it travels in time. This is still a great book for older elementary children and is not too scary.

[Ashley]

Dude. I was so in love with this book when I was a kid! Wow. The memories :P

[Queensheba Pinkston]

i love beast two i find this book amazing

[Rachel Silvey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it! But I did not realize there was a firs one. I can not wait to read it!

[Jennie Shook · Rating 3 out of 5]

A super fun read. Much darker than the first. :)

[Dc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pulling us back in, The Beast 2 is a fun, quick read of turning my favorite roller coaster into an escape story.