The Werewolf of Twisted Tree Lodge

Give Yourself Goosebumps #31

by R.L. Stine

Earning first place in a horror story contest, a literary winner is invited to spend a weekend with famous horror writers at the Twisted Tree Lodge, where everyone turns into werewolves.

Genres: Horror, Childrens, Fiction, Choose Your Own Adventure, Supernatural, Middle Grade, Werewolves

144 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1998

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

[Weathervane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one sets itself apart from the other books in the series in a number of ways. The plotline is a tad more creative than usual, as well as being less random. The corny humour so prevalent in the series is mostly lacking here, and it's not exactly missed. This is a more "straight" horror story -- zombies, ghouls, vampires, and werewolves. You won't find many zany adversaries in this one.

Speaking of werewolves, the book's title is clearly misleading. It should definitely be plural.

The internal consistency is lacking, as usual -- somewhat disappointing, since it really hurts an otherwise decent book. The choices are not stellar.

However, I'd still say this is a (small) cut above the other GYGs.

[Nader Nate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Werewolves, Vampires and Zombies!!
I really enjoyed this one, the premise of the story was a good idea, the lodge, the woods atmosphere and the characters too, the only thing I dislike about this book was a lot of the endings were repetitive, I was hoping that if there were fewer endings in longer stories, it would be better.
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#VERDICT
(3.5/⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)

[Brie]

when I read this as a child – even though it is technically the bad ending – I marked down the ways to become a werewolf. is it any surprise I am now the woman that I am?

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the better give yourself goosebumps books, it had everything. There were zombies werewolves vampires. It was fun. The only thing slowing this book down was alot of the endings were repetitive, but overall a fun werewolf chose your own adventure book. 3out of five stats for me.

[Tiffany Spencer · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Werewolf of Twisted Tree Lodge
My Story: I won a contest by as a joke submitting a story to a horror contest. Only the story wasn’t mine. I found it in the trash can. The prize is I get to meet a famous writer. When I get to the lodge, I see a man in a black hat with a suitcase and manuscript pages soon go flying (very much like in the Goosebump theme song intro for the television series. NIIICE!) As I pick the pages up I discover it’s all the events leading up to this point. As I read on the pages give a warning that basically says the Werewolves are gonna destroy everyone at the Lodge. (If this isn’t a time to hail the next bus outta there no time is. You ain’t gotta tell me twice!) BUT the book me seems to find it funny (I guess RL me has watched too many horror movies to ignore FLAT OUT warnings). So I decide the man probably wants his pages so I knock on the door (a real looking wolf head) but I see him slinking off into the hedges. So because following him seems like a more exciting path I do. (Wait a minute is this RL STEIN?) He’s left a trail of papers but they’re all random sentences. The first one says “I’m in trouble now”. As you read this you look up and see a boy trying to escape out a window! (Sign number 2, I’d be reaching in my pocket for my cell phone). The boy pretty much confirms this and gives us the 411 (or 911) that he won a contest, a strange lady locked him in a room that seems to stick up hers about people having too many characters, oh and by the way there’s a man with a claw that threatened his life. And that man is the man in black whose now in the upstairs window (yeeeeah). The man (I’ma call him RL) spots us and beacons us to come inside. The boy is telling us no. I think I’ma listen to the boy cause my Spidey senses are telling me NOPE! The boy takes off and we’re alone in the woods. Something jumps us from behind. It’s the boy, except he’s a were wolf and he tells us we get to live out it was all a trap played on the contest winners and he’s about to make us a part of a story of our own. Revenge of the Werewolves.

Alternate Version I go inside the house to meet RL. The strange lady appears and grabs my bag. I notice that the name Corey Mckenzie has been scratched out the log book. Corey turns out got “taken care of” because his story was fake also. RL tells us we have work to do. He’s the guest of honor. But not of hospitality. He shoves us in a room and locks the door. We notice this is the room the boy escaped from but they nailed the windows shut. He claims it’s not to lock us in but lock the other creatures out. There’s a missing page on us that the man didn’t grab. Since this is an E-BOOK and I don’t have the actual copy to toss I tossed another and it landed on the back cover. The page side we read instructs us to open either the door or the wall. Only the only “door” is the window. I decide to break it and run. Someone opens the door and the howling stops. It’s the strange lady. She sends us home for being a vandal. It kinda really is what we get because we didn’t write the story so we won’t get to meet the horror authors.

Rating: 5 Like the other’s the premise of the story line was a good idea, the stories just didn’t live up to it. You can’t even get into the stories good before it’s over. And the endings are kind of anti-clamatic because there’s this feeling that when you start the books something BIG is gonna happen and then NOTHING! I guess at least there was a were wolf in one of the endings I got.

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story time: this was the first blackspine I ever obtained. When I was about 7, I came across this book alongside what is still my only copy of the Holiday Collectors Caps book (that isn’t sealed) and I believe some Series 2K inside of a MRM, extremely close to home (though it sadly relocated further out). I got the whole lot, of course, and I cherish that memory dearly. I knew I was half nostalgic for this since I’ve owned it for so long, and I even read that very copy… but I ain’t blind lol. This one is partly overrated; it’s just fine. The whole concept of the book is dope, whether it be a group of ghouls and werewolves luring kids into what is a giant trap at Twisted Tree Lodge or a trillion variations of that base concept that don’t differ much. It’s interesting enough and I enjoyed a lot of this entry. There’s like 2 good endings, specifically the endings where you make it out alive, and I did enjoy some of the meta elements and the reference to the Goosebumps TV Show in the opening, though not to an excessive degree. The concept of the manuscript/pages you find early on telling the future is cool too and there’s even some stuff involving writing things into reality. It’s all-in-all a read with lots of neat concepts and winter/writing theming, but it had some big pitfalls. The book is repetitive and kinda boring, especially the second arc I took which I can barely distinguish sheerly because of how little this book differs in concept; I guess I’ll call it the “it mostly takes outside in the woods” arc. The book needed more to do to keep it interesting throughout its entirety. And another big thing weighing it down is the large majority of mid endings. I’d say at least fifteen endings were mid, and a handful (3 or so, at least) were legit ass. Not much an iota worth of endings that I found actually good, per se, those being (again) happy endings. And generally, this one was super forgettable outside of that initial plot and some concepts; it’s another “in one ear and out the other” kinda GYGs. Overall, 6/10. It’s decent at best, with some good themes and ideas but a lack of intrigue throughout and mid endings. It should be werewolves, not werewolf; title’s a bit misleading there lol.

[fanboyriot · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was good but it wasn’t the plot I was thinking it would be. There were two main paths with very different endings which was interesting.

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great goosebumps book to read it’s different from all the others because as the reader you are the main character in the story your choices lead to different endings you follow the directions on the bottom of the page and decide your fate by your choices. This book has over twenty spooky endings to choose from. The backstory of this book is that you find a short horror story called revenge of the werewolves and put your name on the top and sent it in and end up winning first prize for best horror story as a reward you get an all expense paid trip to twisted tree lodge for the horror story convention and meet all the best known horror writers, problem is the place isn’t what it seems and you aren’t the only one who faked that writing that story some of the endings are


You and Corey stay at the lodge after agreeing to the werewolves that you guys would edit their stories to make them better as they publish them.
You get turned into a werewolf
Maria, Peter and Corey turn into werewolves and attack you and Grimsy
You and Corey escape from a pack of ghouls
Corey becomes a werewolf and locks you in a coffin
Maria a vampire releases three werewolves into the room
It was all pretend or was it
You and Corey escape the lodge and make it to a bus stop
You and Corey are locked in a coffin to be awaiting meals for a vampire
You meet a boy who turns out to be a werewolf who turns you
You, Peter and Grimsy escape the lodge and Grimsy writes a book about the experience with the werewolves.
You are doomed from the start because of the manuscript
You and Corey find yourselves surrounded by ghouls, zombie, vampire, ghost
Your dad is called to the lodge to pick you up for falsely claiming to have written the story
You and Corey rip up the manuscript pages and watch as the monsters disappear
Corey is a werewolf who attacks you
You erased the story, so the story never began it doesn’t exist.

I rather enjoyed these choose you own endings book because you don’t know where your choices will lead to which ending and what ending your fate will be. It’s different from all the other books out there and adds something a little unique to the mix that’s why I kept this book.

[Maham :3 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first book I read of RL.Stine's back when I was 10 years old... And I absolutely loved it... and yet I think its great.