Elevator to Nowhere

Give Yourself Goosebumps #34

by R.L. Stine

On a visit to an eccentric inventor, you discover his newest invention: the Transdimensional Transvator. Rather than going up and down, it travels to other dimensions where it's illegal to be a kid, or where people are the smallest things in the world, or worse.

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

136 pages, Paperback

First published March 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

[Josiah · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's been said Give Yourself Goosebumps is a series of inconsistent quality. That's fair, but Elevator to Nowhere offers a surprising degree of excitement, originality, and freedom to roam the narrative however the reader chooses. You feel confident your upcoming school science project will be a good one, since your teacher paired you with Jamie. Not only does she have brains, but her uncle Darius is a professional inventor and has promised to help with your project. You know you're in for a wild ride when Darius shows you his Transuniversal Transvator, which he claims can carry people between parallel dimensions. It seems outlandish...until he uses the machine to transport himself to another universe. In his place returns a man who looks exactly like him, but turns out to be a headhunter from a world full of such brutal predators. Will you and Jamie attempt to evade him here in Darius's house, or hop inside the Transvator to rescue her real uncle from the headhunter's world?

Crashing through Darius's house with the headhunter pursuing, you might find the Disintegrator Closet Darius invented. Will it save the day, or are you better off taking a more defensive posture? Locking yourself and Jamie in the basement buys you time, but caution should be exercised around Darius's inventions. His Ear Irradicator can be a weapon against evil Darius, but using the wrong setting is a ticket to your doom. The Captivator Helmet could give you control of evil Darius's mind, but use it unwisely and you'll lose your head. The Escalator Shoes have their own intrinsic peril if you're not savvy enough. You may be able to stall headhunter Darius until Jamie's uncle makes it back, or sneak into the Transvator and choose to proactively look for him after all, but the odds don't play in your favor if evil Darius corners you.

Ah...the Transvator, this book's central hub. Five labels offer an assortment of worlds to explore, but the main goal is bringing Uncle Darius home. Choose the BUGGY world and you travel to a version of earth where insects crawl everywhere, even all over the humans. Insects are in charge here, and consider any person not swarmed in bugs an enemy. You're at risk of being zombified by the bugs every second you spend in this world; can you make it back to the Transvator with your independence intact? The FAUNA world is a place where animals speak eloquently and humans are speechless; your ability to talk makes you a target. Is this where headhunter Darius is from, or do you need to get back to the Transvator and select again? FLIP is an upside-down world where simply going outside puts you in jeopardy. What happens if you fall up into the sky, where the cold, empty darkness of space awaits? TRUANTS is a universe where children are illegal; for you and Jamie, being on the streets is an invitation to arrest. You may never make it home if the police nab you. The world called TRAPPER pits you against a horde of eager, bloodthirsty men, and navigating their threat with calm clarity is a must if you are to accomplish your objective and return home. Which of these worlds is where Uncle Darius traveled, and can you save him from the headhunters and complete your science project? If you survive, you'll probably never mess with Darius's wacky brand of science again.

Elevator to Nowhere is a pretty good science fiction story. It has silly moments, but never flies completely off the rails as many Give Yourself Goosebumps books do. Some scenes are suspenseful, particularly in the TRAPPER world, where any slight wrong move can lead to an abrupt, macabre ending. I'm intrigued by the subtext of the Captivator Helmet narrative path; if you put the helmet on yourself, all resistance to anything Jamie orders you to do evaporates. You grin goofily and go along with her every whim, just to be nice. But doing foolish, uncomfortable, or dangerous things to be agreeable can land a person in hot water; it's important to set reasonable boundaries you aren't willing to cross, in real life just as in this book. Elevator to Nowhere is one of the better Give Yourself Goosebumps entries, a romp I'll be happy to take anytime I want a certain brand of dark fun.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's time to talk about the Give Yourself Goosebumps book with the worst cover!I am of course talking about Elevator To Nowhere.The story starts off with you and your friend Jamie going to her uncle's house for help on a science project.Jamie warns you that her uncle Darius is a little weird and loves to show off his different inventions.But she warns you not to let him show them off to you. Immediately when you arrive Uncle Darius tells you about this thing called a Transvator,which essentially is this elevator that travels through dimensions.Of course you think he is crazy but you allow him to show it off.He informs you that all realities are different in only one specific way.Uncle Darius ends up going inside the elevator and coming back with a present.Its your head in a box and it's shrunken.He wields a machete and now he's after your head So you get your first choice you can either go inside the elevator to find the real Uncle Darius ,or you can try to capture him inside the house using his gadgets against him,such as shoes that let you walk on walls,a gun that makes obnoxious noises, or a helmet that controls minds. If you go to the elevator you get a bunch of different realities like one where kids are illegal and spend their entire life in school, which is basically a prison until they are eighteen,an upside down world,a world where pets rule and kids are in zoos,or bug world where everything is just gross.I really enjoyed Elevator To Nowhere.I was hoping it would be good.If you have a bad cover like that, and the story is bad your in trouble.The elevator story was easily the best.I enjoyed the different realities and was excited to see what was what.I was however way more interested in the realities that barley had any pages in them.The upside down reality and the pet reality we're both extremely short.As for the story with capturing Uncle Darius,it was fun, but got repetitive pretty fast.All of the endings had a decapitations in them,and that got old.These books sometimes have Easter eggs in them and this one had a nod to The Cucco Clock Of Doom,which I loved.I also wanna give props to the scene in the shed with headless corpses.That was really surprising and I'm glad they went there.I also wouldn't be me if I didn't point out this is the first Goosebumps book with the word "boob" in it .Turn to page 114 for references.I don't think Elevator To Nowhere was a perfect book,but it's definitely above average.I give Elevator To Nowhere a four out of five stars.

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of all books to earn the title as my favored blackspine, this one was NOT on my bingo card. Not only did this just slap, but it may very well be a sequel (and prequel) to both the Goosebumps stories “The Wish” (from Still More Tales to Give You Goosebumps) and “Earth Geeks Must Go!” More on that later… now for my immediate glaze: the alternate universes. There’s a good few unique universes here that get explored, my personal faves been the “buggy” one and the “flip” universe. I liked them all, and some of them had really cool little ideas in them, especially one in particular, which I’ll mention later. There’s a ton of solid endings, some of my faves being the falling upwards ending and pretty much all of the grotesque and morbid ones, and thankfully, every ending here was at least okay—an insanely solid average. Uncle Darius is cool with what we get of him, the plots are laid out well and extremely entertaining, the Sci Fi theming in this one was wholly welcome and I loved it, and I legitimately savored this thing. Though I love this one (dare I say it, but yes), there’s one light flaw: Uncle Darius was underused. I just wish we got more of him; he had potential, and trust me, I love my crazy scientist kooks. This guy would’ve been better than he was if we had more of him in the book, as he’s really only in the intro and in some near-ends to arcs. But no less, it’s a nitpick… and my only real complaint here… holy shit. Begrudgingly (since the cover is ass), I’m gonna have to give this one a 10/10. This is, by far, the most fun, wild, and creative book of the series, and it had about everything I was looking for. A low ten, to be fair, as there’s some lesser endings (even if okay) and some segments that could’ve been better, alongside Darius’s lack of appearances. But yeah—this was a banger. And now for what I was on about earlier… there’s some indications that have led me to believe this is a potential sequel to Earth Geeks and a prequel to The Wish (from Tales 4). For The Wish—there’s a universe here where kids are illegal, hunted by the law and put into prisons (aka schools there, hilariously) until they’re eighteen. This sounds eerily similar to the plot of The Wish, where in an alternate universe, kids are endangered and hunted by law and put into zoo pens. Though there’s a clear difference, it’s not hard to believe maybe in that universe (from Elevator to Nowhere) kids began to diminish and soon become extinct, evolving into the world from The Wish. Now for Earth Geeks: there’s a dimension where people wear small little black bugs on their skin, and they seem to have been likely invaded by the bugs beforehand, like with showers being present yet being a weakness to the bugs (mild spoiler but it’s not even mentioned or used again). Assuming in an alternate-alternate universe where the residents of the planet from Earth Geeks Must Go lost against (spoilers) the bugs, then this could’ve been what happened, which could imply this is a sequel—before Earth Geeks even released. Impossible, since Stine didn’t write these, I’m sure… but, wild if so. BUT it’s just a theory. A LITERATURE THEORY!!!!!!

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

My kids made me read this book. While I was making dinner last night a bit of the conversation taking place two feet from me punctured my Mom Zone. I tune them out as much as possible but alarming statements like "I went after the neighbor with a screwdriver" and "There was blood everywhere. Awesome." tend to drift in. It turned out they were discussing a book. A book? "Goosebumps, Mom. It's awesome." "Stop saying awesome. Why aren't you reading something worthwhile?" The nine year old reads thousand page books. The eight year old is a spelling bee champ. She did her second grade book report on The Odyssey. In the end I agreed to read the book before I berated it further. Ugh.

Obviously it's a quick read. Especially if you make foolish choices (there's usually a choice to be made at the end of each page that will direct the story) and get yourself killed. You know what though? It was fun. I enjoyed it. No, it was not awesome. It was fun though and I guess if my kids are reading and having fun I'm okay with it.

[fanboyriot · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was okay, it kinda felt a bit plotless but the adventure was fun with some of the paths.

[Kumail A · Rating 2 out of 5]

yeah, don’t bother.

[Tiffany Spencer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Elevator to Nowhere (Updated)
Version 1
You and Jaime have a science project. Your feeling good about it. Her uncle Darius is an inventor-tho he can be a bit extreme (warns Jamie)-. Then Jaime is the smartest one in the class. The house is a little creepy. Jamie tries to explain why the house looks so unkempt. She says he’s too busy inventing things to keep the place up. There isn’t much furniture just machines. Jaime says he must be in the lab. She says she doesn’t want to disturb him. He’s rather excitable. Just then a pair of hands grab you.

It’s an old man with thick glasses and a Hawaiian shirt. He invites you into the lab. Its full of gizmo’s and gadgets. He says he’ll be glad to help with their science project. He shows them something that looks like an elevator and tells them it goes to other universes. And your thinking this man is from another universe! You play along and say maybe you can take a ride in it. He says too dangerous. Other universes look just like this one At first, but there’s always a difference (a deadly one).He calls it the Transuniversal Transvator.

He says let him run more test and maybe he’ll bring back a souvenir. He steps in and when he comes out he’s growling and gives us a box with a shrunken head inside-that’s ours-. Uncle Darius asks do you like it. Jaime makes an excuse for them to leave and says you have to study. He says he’s sure you don’t need to study. You have a good head on your shoulders. Then he raises a curved knife over your head. Should you duck and try to knock Darious over or run for the door? We duck and try to knock him over (85).

Your able to knock him down and the knife falls, but he’s able to retrieve it again. He comes toward you but you realize your holding the head. You throw it at him and he falls. You run out of the room. Jaime has disappeard. You run into a room with books and magazines. Then you hear something behind you and you turn slowly. It’s Jaime.

You ask her what’s up with her uncle and she says that’s not her uncle. She reminds you of what he said. There can be replicas in other universes. She says she suspects he’s still in the other universe. It’s a place where head hunting is the most popular sport. They even have game shows. You realize you must have existed in that universe until he got you. Now he wants a matching pair. The door is locked and the controls are in the lab.

Jaime, suggest you go to the head hunter universe and rescue the real uncle Darius. You can either try to capture the evil uncle Darius with the inventions in the house or try to rescue uncle Darius. You decide to try to capture the evil uncle Darious (27). There’s a disintegrator closet that Jaime was warned to stay out of or we can look for another invention in the basement. We decide to look for another invention in the basement (72). You think you’ve made it past Darius only to discover he’s got you trapped in the basement.

There are a few inventions you can try, the elevator shoes, the Captivator Helmet, and the Irradicator. You decide to try the Captivator Helmet (78). It will make people do whatever you say. Jaime tells you to put it on but you’re a little scared. So you play paper, rock, scissors. You choose paper (121). She chooses rock. You win. She has to wear the helmet. She gets a blank expression and then starts to repeat what you say. You make her say your smarter than her. You tell her she can take it off and then punches you in the arm.

You come up with a plan. You’ll get Darius to come into the basement and Jaime will put the helmet on his head. The plan works. They ask what he did with the real Darius. He says he put him in a new invention. One that shrinks heads. You tell him to take you to him. You follow him into the transvator. Then the door opens and your in a similar room. You come to a room with a KEEP OUT sign. Shall you tell Darius to take off the helmet or take it off him.

You decide to take it off him yourself (68). You make him walk down the stairs and turn on a light. Then there’s an explosion of light. When your vision clears you see Darius at the bottom of the steps. It was a bobby trap. You see a machine the size of a refrigerator and hear a voice saying HELP ME from inside. They open it and it’s uncle Darius (the nice one). They get him out. He says he’s glad they found him and are using his invention for a good reason. He says they’ve earned some extra help on their project. It’s gotten so late they haven’t had time to work on it. Jaime says no one will believe what happened. That is unless… they make them.

The next day you present your project. Mr. Johnson asks how it works. You tell him to slip it on his head. You tell him to tell everyone you’re the smartest kids in class, make him stand on one leg, and flap his arms like a chicken. THE END!

Version 2
You and Jaime have a science project. Your feeling good about it. Her uncle Darius is an inventor-tho he can be a bit extreme (warns Jamie)-. Then Jaime is the smartest one in the class. The house is a little creepy. Jamie tries to explain why the house looks so unkempt. She says he’s too busy inventing things to keep the place up. There isn’t much furniture just machines. Jaime says he must be in the lab. She says she doesn’t want to disturb him. He’s rather excitable. Just then a pair of hands grab you.

It’s an old man with thick glasses and a Hawaiian shirt. He invites you into the lab. Its full of gizmo’s and gadgets. He says he’ll be glad to help with their science project. He shows them something that looks like an elevator and tells them it goes to other universes. And your thinking this man is from another universe! You play along and say maybe you can take a ride in it. He says too dangerous. Other universes look just like this one At first, but there’s always a difference (a deadly one). He calls it the Transuniversal Transvator.

He says let him run more test and maybe he’ll bring back a souvenir. He steps in and when he comes out he’s growling and gives us a box with a shrunken head inside-that’s ours-. Uncle Darius asks do you like it. Jaime makes an excuse for them to leave and says you have to study. He says he’s sure you don’t need to study. You have a good head on your shoulders. Then he raises a curved knife over your head. Should you duck and try to knock Darious over or run for the door? We duck and try to knock him over (85).

Your able to knock him down and the knife falls, but he’s able to retrieve it again. He comes toward you but you realize your holding the head. You throw it at him and he falls. You run out of the room. Jaime has disappeard. You run into a room with books and magazines. Then you hear something behind you and you turn slowly. It’s Jaime.

You ask her what’s up with her uncle and she says that’s not her uncle. She reminds you of what he said. There can be replicas in other universes. She says she suspects he’s still in the other universe. It’s a place where head hunting is the most popular sport. They even have game shows. You realize you must have existed in that universe until he got you. Now he wants a matching pair. The door is locked and the controls are in the lab.

Jaime, suggest you go to the head hunter universe and rescue the real uncle Darius. You decide to head to the Transvator to rescue the real Darius (77). You decide to use the Transvator and you make it to it but you hear footsteps behind you. Then a raspy sound. The Transvator door won’t open. Evil Darius is behind you rubbing his knife with a piece of stone. The door opens as he comes at you. You spot a button that says CLOSE DOOR. The doors close just in time. His knife slides through the slit of the door inches from your throat. Jaime tells you to push another button before he gets the door open.

Go to page (73). The button says TRAPPER hoping you don’t get trapped. There’s a high-pitched noise. When it stops you peer out into a dark lab. You spot a bear trap with steel jaws. Jaime calls out for her uncle. You hurry toward the library. Jaime says she thinks you found the right universe and you see she’s right (but wishes she wasn’t). There are boxes full of shrunken heads with different facial expressions. There’s a trophy to Darius for the most heads collected. You see an empty box and read the label.

Your name is on the box. You and Jaime explore the rest of the house. You find a lot of things but no uncle Darius. There’s a shed out back and a basement. He could be in either. You could search the house for the key to the basement. Even tho it makes me nervous I decide we should check out the back yard. Before you can get to the shed, Jaime screams. A net has dropped from a tree. You struggle to get her free and then you hear THUD THUD THUD. You see five people. One is Mr. Johnson (your science teacher). He says they caught Jaime. She has a good head on her shoulders. He’s a head hunter. One of the others says not for long.

We run to the house for a weapon (54). You escape the head hunters net and make it to the house. You find something that looks like a paint sprayer and a machete with two blades. Which will it be? I pick the paint sprayer (83). Goo covers Mr. Johnson when shot at him. It breaks up into strands and they wrap around him. It covers his body and then it starts to shrink. When you look at him the goo has evaporated and he’s only an inch tall. You demand them to put down your friend and they do. Then they run off.


They check out the shed. Inside the shed are a bunch of headless corpses. Jaime says she doesn’t think her uncle is there. He was wearing a Hawaiin shirt. Jaime says she thinks she found the key (on the floor) to the basement. You find a flashlight (78) and then hear a dripping sound coming from the refridgator. When you open it you find uncle Darius with a shrunken head. You go back to your universe and uncle Darius’s head goes back to normal. Uncle Darius says he has a plan. He has 247 inventions in his house and he has the control for all of them. Surely one of them will take down evil Darius.

At first you don’t see him. Then you hear him say he’s been waiting for you. He has a surprise and the floor under you drops and your falling. Your able to grab the edge of the floor. Your over the pit. Jamie and uncle Darius fall in. Jamie is ok. Darius is knocked out. Jaime throws you the control. It has three buttons. You press (56).

A metal disc on a pole starts to spin. There’s humming, screaming, electricity. It spins faster and faster. You push all the buttons. Nothing is working. Darius raises his machete. Darius ends up getting burnt to a crisp. Jamie captured the tiny shrunken Evil Mr. Johnson from the alternate universe for you to show off to the real Mr. Johnson as your science project.

My Thoughts:
Even though these were said to be the *better* endings, I just wasn’t into the head hunter plot. The title of this book had a lot of potential but when you think about it (it) was misleading because the elevator did go *some* where. It went to different universes. Some of the shorter endings (that are usually not good) are actually a little better than these two endings. A lot of them end in decapitation. This is what happened in some of the others.

BUGGY
You visited a friend’s house whose uncle is an inventor. He’s invented this crazy contraption that goes back in time (looks like a elevator). He steps in and comes back as a psycho. And he’s holding a head. And a KNIFE! My head. He lunges. We knock him out and escape. He says something about there being alternate dimensions but things in the other dimensions are a lil more dangerous. We have a decession to make. Stay there and find an invention to help take out evil Uncle Darius or go to the alternate universe and take a chance on the head hunters coming after you. We decide to look for the real one in the alternate universe. Just as you get the doors open Evil Uncle jabs a knife through the doors. But which button do you push they all look alike. The choices are (fauna, flip, trapper, buggy, and truants). I’m just gonna go with “Buggy”. But when you get off it’s quiet and everything looks the same. We go outside and see a version of a friend of ours whose acts weird (like he’s under some kind of trance). Mikes body is crawling all over with bugs! The neighbors crowd us, because Jaime screams. They notice I don’t have bugs and try to grab me but I break loose. I almost make it back to the house but Mike grabs me. Jamie may have made it. Bugs travel from him to me and yup you guessed it. I’m not a Bug infested Zombie.

FAUNA
The animals talk in this universe. When I talk to the cat it aims a harpoon gun at me. It hits Jamie as we start to run to the Transvator. It then hits me. We reach it but am I able to push a button to get outta there. When we wake up we’re exhibits at the National Human Zoo.

FLIP
You get out and all the furniture is on the ceiling. Gravity is reversed in this world. We go outside but it doesn’t take long for it to get to us and make us dizzy. Basically, we don’t stay in this world long and go back to the Tansvator.

TRUANT
In this universe, kids are illegal. We fall into the trap of playing with the toys we see here. But one action figure comes alive, arrest us, and then sticks us in a van. We can’t escape so were sent to a school that runs 18 hours a day.


Rating: 5

[Schen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable. In both storylines there is a clear plot, and both have fun settings - either the wacky inventions or the wacky dimensions, though the latter definitely wins in fun-ness. I found it somewhat predictable which dimension you would find the uncle in based on their names. So you can shortcut the plot if you want, but would suggest visiting the rest for the fun of it. Things I liked about the other dimensions - the animals who tell you that "humans aren't allowed in the lab" or the different meaning of "bug spray".
I also give this book points for endings that make sense and can be predicted. E.g. if you see a sign on a door and tell evil Darius, who is wearing a mind-control helmet, to "take it off", he's obviously going to think that means "take off the helmet". Or in the trapper dimension, what good can come out of turning on a robot designed by literal head-hunters? Or the fact that in both storylines, evil Darius's lab's light switch is connected to a lethal electricity source, so sharp-eyed readers who have done one storyline can avoid dying in the other.

[Dope Ghost Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dimension hopping and time travel...oh yeah, it's the only elevator to nowhere!

There's a bug world scenario that scuzzed me out as a kid and even today, it still grosses me out!

[Griffin C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very fun, both storylines are great, lots of great endings. 10/10