The Ghost of Slappy

Goosebumps SlappyWorld #6

by R.L. Stine

Slappy's back as a ghost! And this time, the only thing you'll play is hide-and-go shriek!

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Childrens, Thriller, Middle Grade, Fantasy, Audiobook

133 pages, Paperback

First published August 28, 2018

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

[Justin Tate · Rating 4 out of 5]

As if the Living Dummy wasn't evil enough, imagine what havoc he can wreak as a ghost! Despite having serious Slappy fatigue by now, I enjoyed this latest Goosebumps entry. Feels a little “slapped” together, but as usual the ending comes through and delivers a great surprise.

[Josiah · Rating 1 out of 5]

This series features Slappy as the villain for three of the first six books, and why not? He runs the show in SlappyWorld, interrupting the narrative at will to comment on the action and throw in a few sarcastic jokes. Twelve-year-old Shep Mooney is the evil ventriloquist dummy's target in The Ghost of Slappy. Shep is a worrier, but with good reason: his home is haunted by the ghost of a girl his age named Annalee, who materializes every time he enters the basement. Shep's nine-year-old sister Patti thinks he's imagining Annalee, and so do their parents, but Shep stays out of the basement if possible. As our story starts, he's leaving for an overnight camping trip with his class from school and their prankster teacher, Mr. Hanson. The teacher undoubtedly will attempt to unnerve his students with ghost stories and scary stunts, but Shep and his friend Carlos can handle it. Shep mainly hopes to avoid Trevor Pincus on the trip, a kid who used to be Shep's friend but turned on him after a soccer accident. There are reasons to worry about this trip, but it should be fun.

The overnight is derailed when a prank by Mr. Hanson goes horribly wrong. The leering wooden dummy he brought along comes to life and nearly crashes the bus en route to the campsite. Everyone is badly shaken, but Mr. Hanson assures the class that he's said the magic words to put Slappy to sleep, so he can't bother them anymore. The rest of the camping excursion passes without incident, but Shep returns home to find Slappy stuffed in his bag. Did Trevor do it, or is the dummy still conscious? It's Shep's turn to join the tradition of kids tormented by Slappy in Goosebumps novels. As usual, no one believes a wooden doll is stalking him. Shep seems to gain the upper hand when Slappy falls into an open grave, cracks his head open, and dies, but his troubles only worsen. Now he's haunted by Slappy's ghost, who wants to even the score by taking Shep's life. Can this scared kid restore Slappy to his broken body and then defeat the wisecracking villain incarnate before Shep is forced to join him in the realm of the dead?

Most of the first six SlappyWorld books don't exactly make sense, and The Ghost of Slappy is no exception. The concept is an uptick in originality, though, so I'd rate it one and a half stars. Don't expect a story on par with Night of the Living Dummy or Night of the Living Dummy II, but The Ghost of Slappy is enjoyable for what it is. I look forward to resuming the series with book seven, It's Alive! It's Alive!

[Austin Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am so relieved to be done with the Slappy books from this series. This was also one of the worst ones. Or maybe I'm just fatigued on this character and his repetitive storyline, antics, and jokes. Nevertheless, 1⭐.

[Bri Little · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Wow that ending got me. It was so abrupt though! I wanted a little more. Overall quick and creepy and a little over the top silly. Classic Stine.

[American Mensa · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The bus rocketed down the middle of the street, picking up speed. We were zig zagging ...The tires were squealing….Engine thundering. We were roaring away--and the dummy was driving.” Shep Mooney has to go on an overnight campout with his class - in the forest. His teacher brings Slappy as a joke. Slappy surreptitiously appears in Shep’s bag.
Shep is this book's main character. He has experience with ghosts as he has one haunting his own house! She lives in his basement. Somehow, Slappy ends up at Shep’s house. His younger sister, Patti, awakens him. Slappy hits his head on a rock when Shep was trying to get rid of him, and this unleashes Slappy’s ghost. Shep will now have to figure out how to get Slappy back into his old body and find a way to put him to sleep or else he will have the ghost of Slappy with him forever. Will Shep succeed and be able to lead a normal life again? Or will he be stuck with two ghosts in his house forever?

I recommend this book for ages 8 and up because this book is an easy read. I enjoy reading Goosebumps and this was a good addition to the Slappyworld series.
Giovanna P. Age 11, Connecticut/Western Massachusetts Mensa

[Wolverinefactor · Rating 1 out of 5]

Look I realize I’m not the target demographic for this series but I’ve literally read every book as they’ve come out since the original Haunted Mask.

This entry is one of the worst. It takes 90 pages for the title to even happen (and you know how long a goosebumps book is)

The school has an overnight camping trip but then it snows the next day?

While I didn’t see the ending coming, I also expected an ending which this one doesn’t have.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Ghost of Slappy is the 6th book in the Goosebumps: SlappyWorld series. It's also the last book in the boxed set I got at Ollie's last month. I hope to read the other books in the series eventually. In my review of the previous book in the series, Goosebumps: SlappyWorld, Book 5: Escape From Shudder Mansion, I mentioned that it put me in a Halloween mood, even thought it's only May now, because the book took place in a haunted house. This book is called The Ghost of Slappy. As the title implies, ghosts do factor heavily into the plot. And that also makes me long for Halloween, which is still months away at this moment. Anyway, I loved it!

P.S., I know I kept saying I'm moving today. Well, now that's gonna happen on Wednesday.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

A little disappointed with this story, just as it started to get going it suddenly ended without an ending! Nonetheless, The Ghost of Slappy was a fun read for the start of the spooky season.

[chris]

"yeah I like to dance- on your face!"

sigh... slappy... this could be us but u playin

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

It pains me how great this could’ve been versus what we got. The concept had potential to be the greatest Slappy story of them all, I feel, but it just fumbles the bag in a lot of ways. Thought, it has its moments, starting with Anna-Lee. Her character was an interesting addition. I like the twist with her, she had some good scare scenes, and it’s neat. Slappy is actually a likable antagonist in this book because he ain’t pulling the “am I alive or am I not” bullshit the entire time and (quite literally) steps on the gas immediately, which is super commendable. The main character is an above average protagonist, which isn’t common in modern Goosebumps. He had a lot of background given; crush, past friend; he even had a hidden story arc, which is my next upside. This is one of the reasons I think this could’ve been a great book, and that is the kid manning the fuck up and taking the situation into his own hands when a certain 2 foot 9 inch tall wooden figure escapes his home. He was a scaredy cat, hence his relationship with Anna-Lee, but he got brave to deal with the current situation. That’s rare to see. A couple more things to throw out there are the graveyard scene, which is potentially the best scene in any living dummy book ever, the first 30-40 pages being very atmospheric, creepy and wild, and probably the twist with Anna-Lee. Just her though. The books fucks shit up with wasted potential. Slappy, believe it or not, DIES AND BECOMES A GHOST (biggest spoiler of all spoilers, I know), and him being a ghost literally just makes him able to fly pretty much. Yeah, fuck that. There could’ve been multiple things done with this. To name some: unfinished business, more ghostly abilities, Slappy terrorizing everyone and making the main character be the one to defeat him. But the story says, and I quote, “Nope. That’s stupid!” And here we are. Jokes aside, ghost Slappy could’ve been a cooler idea. Some other biggish and small issues are the annoying ass side characters, horrible resolution in terms of wrapping up the book and repetitive Ghost antics from Slappy. 6.5/10, this should’ve been amazing but just didn’t come out right. Slappy X Camp Horror is the cherry on top of the shit and chocolate smoothie. Sorry for the small spoilers (half of them are in the blurb bro)

[Daniel Duggan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the bit when Slappys ghost threw a pie at Shep

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would you enjoy reading it again:
Maybe. Tons of fun stuff were happening throughout the book and it was very interesting throughout but the book had a tendency to fall into old tropes (parent's don't believe kids about Slappy) and, related to this, some of the actions the kids took seemed to be foolish which was annoying. Despite being a great plot, there were not many jokes in the book. There was a lot going on in the book and it would have been nicer if the book had been bigger or had been tightened up stronger: instead of the sister saying the words to bring Slappy to life, the original ghost could have done that (so we wouldn't have to bother with the sister character). This book failed to have the same intrigue as an original Goosebumps book because the plot was scattered and it felt easily resolvable and there was nothing truly unique about this story - it was a mesh of prior used ideas - but it was still fun.

*SPOILERS* A kid is being haunted by a ghost in his house but nobody believes him. He goes to a camp trip where Slappy drives a bus and almost hurts the students, to which the teacher explains the lore of Slappy. Kid's bully hides Slappy in kid's bag. Kid finds Slappy when goes home. Sister brings Slappy to life. Briefly nobody believes Kid about Slappy being alive. Kid follows Slappy to graveyard and Kid kills Slappy accidentally. Ghost Slappy bothers Kid by making fool of himself to crush and ruining best friend's birthday party. Kid brings Slappy back to life (fixing his broken head) because a dummy is better to deal with than Ghost Slappy. Original ghost explains she is only a ghost because she has unfinished business, and the only way to move on to the afterlife is to do a good deed. She reveals the piece of paper with the words to put Slappy back to sleep (which character was searching for) but she rips up the paper - making it so she did a good deed for Slappy and she went to the afterlife. Book ends with Slappy laughing over how he won and now the kid is Slappy's slave. - 3

Did you enjoy the plot:
Plot was interesting but illogical in spots. I liked how the book did all these different things - it was lot of fun, but the plot failed to contain a central theme; Goosebumps books don't usually have a central theme so it is okay to overlook that but it felt this book had potential to make a meaningful comment about being a good person (especially since the book ended with the original ghost dedicating to be a good person) - 4

Did you enjoy the writing style:
Yes. There was descriptive details about the environment, characters and so on. The conversation to narration was great- 5

Good ending?
Great but was somewhat let down. Like I said, this book had great potential to make a statement. Slappy winning was very funny to me but I sort of wish there had been more closure with all the different pieces - like statements of what happened to his crush, best friend, sister and bully; it would be nice if this book was longer and contained more information on everything Slappy did after winning- 4

Format: physical book (paperback)
Average rating: 4 stars.

[JENNIFER L TROUT]

The book, The Ghost of Slappy, by R.L. Stine has a suspenseful start about a scared boy that is camping in the woods with his classmates. The story focuses on the boy who has a dummy named Slappy, and his efforts to give the dummy back to the kid that gave him it. The boy does not give up when the dummy makes bad things happen.

This book is about a boy named Shep who was being bullied at school.The main events of the story start with a bus ride where Shep was getting bullied and finds out the bus driver was Slappy. Shep ignored the bully but was worried that Slappy was the bus driver. Next, Shep finds himself tracking Slappy in the snow through a graveyard. Shep was nervous but didn’t want Slappy to hurt other people. Shep went to a birthday party and was on a horse, and the horse saw Slappy and crashed into the cake and ruined the birthday party. Shep felt like people were blaming him for the horse's actions. Shep brought back Slappy and Slappy grabbed Shep's neck and a ghost betrayed Shep and helped Slappy. Shep was scared of Slappy. Shep was packing for a field trip in the woods and was scared of the woods but it was with Shep's class which had Shep's bully so that made things worse. Shep was mad and scared to go on the field trip with his class but he went anyway.

I think people that like mysteries and scary books would like goosebumps. The author did a good job on how Shep responded to problems and how he made a lot of mysteries about Shep and Slappy. The quality of this book compared with other R.L. Stine books is lower because there was less detail in this book. All in all this book was a fun fictional book to read.

This was a decent book at the end of the story, and similar to R.L. Stine's other books because there was a main character that solved mysteries and faced big problems. I recommend checking out R.L. Stine’s other books like this because they are even better than The Ghost of Slappy.

[ And that will wrap up The Ghost of Slappy by R.L Stine]

[Sean Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a very good and fun book to read. This was my first time reading this book and I absolutely loved it. As it had a lot of twists and turns and I would say not mature, which I like. There is a series of books just like this on Goosebumps.

Slappy is this doll they call a dumy but he really doesn't have a part or effect in the start of the book but a girl ghost does. The main character in the story is Shep Mooney. He is a boy that believes in ghosts. But he believes in them because he sees one of his own. Going back to this girl ghost, Shep has been seeing her and no one believes him. The first time in the book where he sees her is in the basement when he saw this person and no one was down stairs with him. He was frightened and even when he kept seeing her his family never believed him. But after he was packing up to go camping in the woods. Chapter 6 is when they first see the “Dummy” slappy because their teacher brought it as a joke to try to make them sacred . They did not know what to think because some of them knew who he was, so they did what any teen boys would do and picked it up to see. These kids knew that he came to life before and did some bad thing. When Shep had slappy he tried to get rid of him so he would not be scared of what could happen but by doing that he made a huge mistake and that was releasing slappy's ghost. And if you think reguler slappy was bad he had no idea it was coming. So Shep had to find a way to put Slappy back in his body so he won’t have a dummy following him his whole life. But what Slappy wanted to be friends? What if he does not want to hurt Shep? I guess you're going to have to find that out yourself.

This book had a lot of plot twists when you did not see them coming as one moment you think Slappy wants to hunt Shep the next he is talking to Slappy like a friend. But I would 100% recommend this book because I feel like it's not boring and is actually an entertaining and interesting book.

[Casey Frost · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have been reading all of the Goosebumps books to my son that involve Slappy because he loves that creepy dummy. Many of the SlappyWorld series don't have Slappy as the main character but rather the narrator. We were stoked to see this book actually had Slappy as the main character. However, this book was a let down for me and even my son who loves Slappy, had a hard time staying engaged.n

The main super big annoyance to me is that in this particular book the words "Karru Marri Odonna Molonu Kareano", which normally make the dummies come alive, is now being used to also put the dummy to sleep ? Maybe this shouldn't frustrate me but it does. In every other book we've read that involves Slappy, it's been said that those words ONLY bring things to life. Those words are unable to kill Slappy or put him to sleep. Now all of a sudden, those words can put him to sleep? I don't like it. It doesn't make sense. It shouldn't have been changed because it didn't even do anything to increase the story's likability.

The story itself was no interesting in any way and I wish I didn't have to read the whole thing out loud, but my son can't read on his own. I felt like I wasted so much breath on this book and it definitely was not worth it.

[House of Goosebumps · Rating 3 out of 5]

5.25/10 This book felt like a generic slappy book until half way through the book when slappy dies and becomes a ghost.

Slappy being a ghost in this book made it slightly more interesting opposed to the usual night of the living dummy book, however the book was still not amazing. I feel like it simply lacked suspense as in the first ten pages the main character: Shep explains that he’s haunted and tormented by a ghost in his basement, it just happened way to early in the book.

And the rest of the plot is just your generic slappy book: A kid finds slappy, says the magic words, slappy embarrasses and torments the kid, the kid try’s to destroy slappy, slappy comes back.

And usually at the end of the book slappy is finally eliminated, however this book ended extremely anti climatically and slappy wins. I wish stine would have also expanded on the original ghost in the book.

The reason I have rating this so highly was just simply because it wasn’t a bad book by any means, I liked the atmosphere and the characters, it’s just the plot and the ending that drags it down

[B.J. Burgess · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have lost count on how many Goosebumps books Slappy has been in, but there's been many of them and after awhile the plots do get repetitive. While the setup is a completely different, the plot involves Slappy once again causing chaos to a young kid's life. Maybe because I'm now an adult, but Slappy isn't as scary as he used to be. The villain spends most of his time saying silly one-liners and dumb jokes. He might move something to a different location or destroy an object in the house, but he's not much of a threat. There is a nice twist towards the end that makes the book worth reading and it does involve a ghost.

Overall, Goosebumps SlappyWorld: The Ghost of Slappy is an average read at best. The plot is redundant! The only thing saving the book from being a complete dud is the ending twist.

[Book Jester · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was last month's bedtime reading book with my 9 year-old son and is the last in the Slappy World series. And of course, it was another fun little read with all the classic Stine tropes which both my son and I love - I've said it before and I'll happily say it again: R. L Stine, you are a true wonder and I am so grateful for you for helping to inspire a love of reading in my son.
And since I learned that one of R. L Stine's greatest inspirations is Ray Bradbury, then I now love him even more.

[Joseph D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 6 in the SlappyWorld series. Also stand alone albeit it would like to see a sequel to this one. I enjoyed the characters and would like to see a resolution to the feud(s) with them all in danger of Slappy. But we will have to see. This book defiantly answers what is worse than being threatened by a living puppet...being haunted by the ghost of that puppet. Interesting resolution to this one.

Joseph McKnight
http://www.josephmcknight.com

[Ketekun Phanith · Rating 4 out of 5]

[The Ghost of Slappy - R.L. Stine]

Rating: 4.21/5.00

"Well. Slappy still remains mean even as a ghost. I would say I love how the protagonist is self-aware about how dangerous the antagonist is in the entire book since it is not very common. Although I feel that the storyline could have been executed better, I really like the plot twist in the end as it sends chills down my spine. Overall, it is a pretty solid book in the series."

#TheGhostOfSlappy #RLStine #Slappyworld #ChildrenHorror

[Azuma-chan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slappy is back after being gone for few issues this time to hunt the miserable Shep was is the new owner of the evil dummy after a prank from his enemy Trevor.

Some of the events were really similar to the ones in the first issue. The birthday party, the paper with the spell, reading it wrong and all. It felt like I’m reading the first issue all over again. What Annalee did at the end really annoyed me. Ghosts really can’t be trusted. Actual rating 2,5 stars

[Marisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my first Slappyworld book, and it is, indeed, his own story. Not only is he the main villain, but he interjects during the narrative and buddies-up to the reader. Looking back, it was silly of me to expect a way out for Shep. This is a Slappy story! He's going to win the day!

[David Hoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the dark ending in this one. Main character thinks the ghost is about to save them by putting slappy back to sleep and instead rips the paper with the words to shreds leaving slappy with his new slave.

[Jess Elvira]

All Im saying is .... if I was Slappy I wouldve stopped laughing a long time ago.... youve been put to sleep how many times now??? By mere chiLDrEN??? Also I feel like someone should see if you can burn him? Hes made of wood??

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Your average gosoebumps level book. Gave a bonus star for a legit trick ending.

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

good book

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Classic Goosebumps. End slightly more brutal than his old books imo.

[Kara Rowley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cool and scary

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s a ever nice book it’s a mistery of what happened to slappy.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easily the best of the series thus far. I absolutely loved the ending. It had alot of terrifying scenes also great book highly recomended