Escape from Horror House

Give Yourself Goosebumps #37

by R.L. Stine, J. Feiwel (Editor), K. McKeon (Editor)

Strange things are happening at your house. Furniture moves around, objects disappear, and writing appears on the walls. Poltergeists have moved in, and they're ready to take up residence inside you!

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Childrens, Middle Grade, Gamebooks, Paranormal, Choose Your Own Adventure

137 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1999

About the author

Robert Lawrence Stine known as R. L. Stine and Jovial Bob Stine, is an American novelist and writer, well known for targeting younger audiences. Stine, who is often called the Stephen King of children's literature, is the author of dozens of popular horror fiction novellas, including the books in the Goosebumps, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, The Nightmare Room and Fear Street series.

R. L. Stine began his writing career when he was nine years old, and today he has achieved the position of the bestselling children's author in history. In the early 1990s, Stine was catapulted to fame when he wrote the unprecedented, bestselling Goosebumps® series, which sold more than 250 million copies and became a worldwide multimedia phenomenon. His other major series, Fear Street, has over 80 million copies sold.

Stine has received numerous awards of recognition, including several Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards and Disney Adventures Kids' Choice Awards, and he has been selected by kids as one of their favorite authors in the NEA's Read Across America program. He lives in New York, NY.

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

Reviews

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

So a couple of months ago I read Check Out Time At the Dead End Hotel, A book I've wanted to read for a long time. My anticipation was high but when I was finished I felt a little underwhelmed. This time I read Escape From Horror House. A book in the same series that I've wanted to read for a while. I loved the cover the Monster House esque cover.It is easily one of the best. Is the book good though? It's better then the Dead Hotel that's for Sure. The story starts off with you being grounded because your getting blamed for things that happen in your house. Chairs being stacked on a tables And other stuff. Somehow your blamed. You think their is a poltergeist in your house. You have a friend named Bobby that knows all about these things and he thinks the same thing.You end up receiving a knock at the door from a lady that's named Madame Matilda, a physcic like lady that wants to help you get rid of these ghosts,and depending on which route you take she can either be helpful or harmful. You also get a guy that comes up to your house that hunts ghost named Marvin, who is the real deal.If you decide to not want any help at all you can either join your friends as they help you deal with a wall of ghosts in your basement ,ghost that come with you to school ,or ghost that takes over your sisters dolls,which was my favorite . Fighting with possessed dolls was easily the highlight of the book and one of my favorite endings in the book deals with your sister who your really afraid of telling about the ghosts shows she knows how to deal with them. As for the poltergeists,we don't learn a lot about where they come from they just sort of pop up.Some aren't even human which I thought was different.But not necessarily good.The biggest problem I had with this book was the changes made depicted on the choices you make.Some choices show your house isn't really haunted somebody just has telekinetic powers. Some show the ghosts are just having fun being pranksters, and certain people either being good or bad.That was kinda disappointing.I'd rather everything be the same regardless of your choices.As I said before I really enjoyed the toys coming alive story,and bits and pieces of Matilda showing up. Their is some good scenes with gore,heads exploding and melting faces both included.I did also like how the ghosts operate.They get power based on fear and anger. Other then that Escape From Horror House was a pretty standard book. I give it a three out of five stars.

[Colton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Imagine a mix of Ghostbusters and Poltergeist and you pretty much have this book, though there are a few weird endings where the poltergeists possess other objects. There are two particularly violent endings where you get possessed, all your skin melts off, and your head explodes(?!) but other than that, it's average for the series.

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven’t heard the damndest thing about this book, it being the least popular of the series apart from Cave Creatures, Circus of Fear, and Toy Terror. Why is that so? I haven’t a clue. The book has some fun characters like Madame Matilda and the Ghostbuster-wannabe, Marvin. There’s an abundance of disturbing endings as well as a good few genuinely funny ones, and all-in-all, I really liked most of the endings from this book. The ghost action is great and I love the variation you get from it, whether it’s possessing something or it’s a different kind of spirit with differing intentions. The ‘help’ arc (the one with Matilda and Marvin) is my preferred one, having a wicked ghost design and some of the better endings. And all in all, entertainment value was at a high-high. Now for some issues: there’s typos. Goosebumps is a series with a real lack of errors in books, but there are times where the editors overlook things, and there’s at least four typos here. It’s weird but just a nitpick, since Goosebumps is great at not having them. The school segment was probably the weakest part of the book, mostly because it didn’t make sense and it felt pretty mean-spirited. There’s also the ‘be nice’ segment, which was a bore and much slower than the rest of the book. But still, the book is very good. Overall, 8.5/10. It’s like Payne House but toned down in scale, scares, and threat-level—which works, but it had more issues no less. Monster House lookin’ ahh.

[Griffin C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has two paths, one where you hire a medium to expel the poltergeist in your home and one where you deal with it yourself. Both paths are incredibly fun. The poltergeists are great and this book also has some really good endings. 10/10

[Sharren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny and whimsical in a few short sentences up to an interactive horror ending. It do be a light and leisurely read to use if you just want time to pass by!

[fanboyriot · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this had more of the original goosebumps vibes than some of the recent books in this series. It was dramatic and funny and I had a fun time reading it.

[Josiah · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a good case study of what it's like when a gamebook writer elects not to place much importance on the concept of internal consistency; meaning, the fundamental action of the plot often changes, depending on what choices you make, in ways that should not realistically be affected by your decisions. For example, in Escape from Horror House, depending on what you decide to do, the cause behind the poltergeist(s) invading your home will drastically differ. Some gamebook readers don't like this because it affects the stability of the solid story structure and seems unrealistic, while others just shrug it off as something often associated with the genre. Personally speaking, I like to read books of either "school".

Unlike many of the Give Yourself Goosebumps books written by R.L. Stine, Escape from Horror House doesn't really have any unusual tricks up its sleeve. The books in this series have often been known for their creative complexity in designing choices that seem to break the fourth wall a bit, the kind of decisions that rarely, if ever, pop up in your typical gamebook. Declining to go that route in Escape from Horror House is fine, though I do miss the innovation of some of those earlier Give Yourself Goosebumps books.

Basically, the Escape from Horror House story is about a presumed poltergeist that has set up residence in your family's home, destroying things around the house and getting you blamed for the aimless destruction. You've been strictly punished by your mother for what she thinks you've done, and now you're becoming desperate to prove that a malevolent outside force is actually behind the menacing events at your house.

There is more than one legitimate way that you can go about trying to prove that a poltergeist has set up shop in your home, but what will dictate success in the long run, more often than not, is whether or not your choices are ruled by a logical, level head. Though not always the case in the book, just like in real life bad choices tend to lead to bad results (and perhaps a decline in quality of future decision options), and good choices trend toward positive results, and an increased spectrum of possible good choices. If you're able to reach an undeniably happy ending in Escape from Horror House, you'll have earned your way.

This might not be one of R.L. Stine's more gripping or provocative scary stories, but it's a fun book to read, and making the decisions is an enjoyable experience. I would most likely give one and a half stars to Escape from Horror House.

[Yasara T. · Rating 2 out of 5]

First of all this is NOT scary at all. No, this won't give you goosebumps unless you are a 8-10 year old.

Unlike any other story books, in this you get to choose how you want to end the story. Actually there's 30 different endings. Yes, I took a piece of paper and jotted down all the ending 'cause I wanted to know how each story ends, if I took the wrong decision or not.

Well, the story is about a kid (you) being grounded because of poltergeist(s). First ending I ran into was hilarious. Poltergeists tickle you to death when you try to escape. Epic way to die. You can say "I died laughing"

Here’s another ending. You turned out to be the poltergeist. You have telekinetic power. That’s kinda cool. You can make shit happen and make people freak out and scare them. That's be fun right?
There’s more ways to end this story. Most of the time you get into trouble and die because you took the wrong decision. Anyway you die. The end!

[Brynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read this book at least 6 times in different ways. It is kind of hard to write a review for it because YOU choose what the story will be like and how big a scare you'll get. I love reading this book at like 9 because you are sitting there wondering what will happen if you choose that or vise versa. I would recommend this book to anybody. Unless you get scared TO easily.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

It made me bite my nails!!!

[Ally Skinner]

ok

[Sahil Soni · Rating 2 out of 5]

it's a god book

[Jennasis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great mystery/horror series geared at kids. Not too scary but enough to give you Goosebumps!