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Goosebumps: Hall Of Horrors #5

by R.L. Stine

Welcome to the Hall of Horrors, HorrorLand's Hall of Fame for the truly terrifying.

Jack Harmon finds a cell phone on the school bus. He raises the phone to his ear and hears a girl's voice: "Hi, Jack. Don't scream. I've been waiting for you. I'm your new friend." Jack thinks it's a joke. He tries to end the call, then turn the phone off, but the girl's voice won't go away: "Don't make me angry, Jack. I'm warning you." Jack is puzzled and a little frightened. He must obey her every wish. She appears in all sorts of electronic devices-he can't escape her. "Don't scream, Jack. I'm just a voice. But you're going to be my body." She begins to force him to do dangerous things like stealing a laptop from school. But Jack finally outwits the voice when she jumps into his wristwatch. The school bully has been after that watch all year, so Jack finally lets him have it.

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

Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

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 1 out of 5]

Twelve-year-old Jack Harmon is next in line to speak to the Story-Keeper at Horrorland theme park's Hall of Horrors, where kids who survive terrifying experiences instinctively go to confide their stories in someone who understands. When Jack picked up the cell phone sitting next to him on the bus seat after a routine afternoon of bullying by Darryl and Mick, he envied whatever kid owned such an expensive, modern phone. Jack had pleaded with his parents for months to purchase him a phone, to no avail. But when he discovers the nasty secret hidden inside this particular phone, Jack wants to get it as far away from him as possible. He won't mind if he never gets his own mobile device.

The girl's voice addressing Jack through the phone is amiable enough at first, if oddly persistent in declaring him her new best friend. He doesn't know who he's talking to, but he's alarmed to find that she stays connected on the other end of the line even after he powers the phone off. How is that possible? Soon the voice emanating out of the sleek, sophisticated smartphone progresses from annoying possessiveness of Jack to levying threats against him if he doesn't do as she demands, and demonstrates frightening ability to deliver on those threats. Moderate electrical current shoots from the evil phone and zaps Jack whenever he steps out of line, and his friends aren't safe from being shocked, either. The mysterious voice on the other end of the line still refuses to identify herself, going silent when Jack tells her to talk to his parents or anyone other than his techie friend Eli. No matter what desperate measures Jack takes to be rid of his cyberstalker, she's always a step ahead, finding a way back to him even after he smashes the phone with a sledgehammer. It looks like Jack's technological parasite is his for keeps, but the cellular bullying moves him to an unsustainable level of risk when the girl in the phone starts forcing Jack to partake in increasingly illegal activities. Will he ever revoke the curse of the maniac on the other end of the phone line, or is he doomed to remain its cyber-slave for life?

R.L. Stine has a talent for creating likable protagonists, and Jack is a good one, an undersized kid who suffers ridiculous degrees of bullying from Darryl and Mick but doesn't let it sink in too deeply and embitter him. Kids should have fun reading his story and identifying with him as a regular kid caught in a nightmare scenario. Don't Scream! isn't R.L. Stine's best Hall of Horrors book—most of the whys and hows of the plot go unexplained, and not everything makes perfect sense—but it's a fun junior novel for readers tech-savvy or otherwise, and I'd give it one and a half stars. Goosebumps is a unique pleasure that never seems to lose its charm.

[Gavin Hetherington]

I read all 25 Goosebumps HorrorLand and Hall of Horrors books in one movie-length vlog on YouTube, check it out: https://youtu.be/DsKCfCAAt7g

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rounded up to five stars, which it honestly deserves. This is easily one of the scariest modern Goosebumps books and the most fun one as well. Emmy was a fantastic villain and absolutely carried this book. The main character was neat, and the other characters were okay. Scare factor was through the roof, some of the most intense scenes in all of Goosebumps. Very good plot and the book had a consistent quality and pace all throughout. Only issue, making this truly a 9.5/10, is that god damn ending. You fucking kidding me? Overall, fantastic book. Don’t sleep on this modern book.

[Austin Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Goosebumps books that have underlying themes and messages to them are far and few in between. But when they pop up, it always makes me appreciate the book a little more. And while I didn't love this book, it stands out the most in the Hall of Horrors series as being the most unique entry of the series.

This one is about our MC Jack, who discovers a smartphone on his school bus during his ride home. He checks it out and starts hearing a girl's voice coming through the phone, talking to him directly. It's got to be some kind of prank, right? When Jack gets off the bus, leaving the phone behind, a classmate kindly requests (screams) at the bus-driver to stop because Jack forgot *his* phone; where she then tosses the phone out of the window at Jack.
Jack looks at the phone some more and discovers pictures of himself and his family on it. The mysterious voice that comes through the phone even when it's shut off continues to torment Jack. Jack spends the rest of the book under the grip of the mysterious entity (named "Emmy") living in his electronic devices. Who is she? what does she want?
Unfortunately, not all of our questions get answered... but first, I'll talk about what I liked with this book.

This book presents a pretty different and interesting idea that covers more serious topics in today's society regarding phone usage and social media addiction. Stine takes a rather simple premise and manages to do pretty good with it, even after all these years of rewriting the same books over and over. One of the things I liked about this idea, is how grounded in reality it is. Considering how crazy technology is in today's age, the events of this book don't seem entirely far-fetched. And to me, the more grounded the horror is, the more effective it is - and I felt that, at times, with this book. It certainly has its moments of suspense.
I also enjoyed the character dynamics in this book. Even though our protagonist Jack is as one-dimensional as ever (like most GB characters) I really like how the parents played a role in the story. They felt a bit more believable as parents and their reactions to certain situations felt more natural than what I've come to expect from most GB books. I also enjoyed the bullies' roles in the story and how Jack is kind of going up against them almost as much as he is Emmy. It makes you feel a little bit for Jack, even if he isn't the most developed of characters.
Lastly, I loved the psychological bits near the end that further capitalize on the underlying themes of the book and also add to the emotion of the story itself, even though it never really changes direction all that much. It is (just a bit) thought-provoking and does create that possibility of leaving certain aspects of the book open for interpretation, even though it's pretty linear for the most part.

What I didn't like about this book:
I didn't care for the setup. How Jack acquires the phone, how his classmate throws the phone at him through the school bus window, and I was also very annoyed by some of Jack's decisions later on - all of these things were done very obviously to drive the plot forward. It always annoys me when it's done in a way that makes it clear what the book is doing. I think it could have been written a little more organically... but Stine decided to have some ridiculous decisions that would be made by (very) few people in real life, if by anyone, just to carry on the story.
This one is a nitpick, but I also didn't like how some of the chapters ended. There were quite a few: "I had a very bad feeling about this..." and "And this is when the nightmare started..." - y'know... the cheap kind of chapter endings the Chiller books are known for, not Goosebumps. While they didn't ruin the book here or anything, they were slightly distracting and felt out of place. I was surprised to see them as Stine doesn't usually resort to that sort of thing.
I also didn't care for the ending. The final twist of the book left a lot of things unexplained. There were already some unanswered questions by the ending, and that final twist just raised more of them that can't really be answered. Overall, there is just not enough explanation for me. I wasn't buying the motives of the villain, Emmy, or what little motive she had, anyway. These gaps in the story left me feeling like this book could have been a lot better than it was.

In summary:
I enjoyed this one. It's different, has moments of suspense, is a bit more serious / much darker than the last book, Why I Quit Zombie School, and it also has some underlying themes to it which you don't see too often in Goosebumps. This is a book you could analyze and dissect the deeper meaning behind it - if you wanted to - or you could simply enjoy the story as is. However, I feel like this book, similarly to The Five Masks of Dr. Screem, just wasn't the most well-executed. It felt like it was missing something for me. I think I appreciate this book more than I actually enjoyed it, overall. The flaws with the logic and the plot kind of bring it down for me a little bit, and the ending is pretty weak. Still, I think this is a good book, even with its flaws - much better than some of the other, newer GB books.

I give this one a 3.5 / 5 stars.

[Weathervane · Rating 4 out of 5]

About the closest Stine has come to social commentary in Goosebumps, but its unconventionality muffles the obvious -- plain-spoken as the satire is, a Stine story is the last place the reader expects to find it, and so goes it unnoticed for longer than respectable.

Once it hits, though, how nice it is for a Goosebumps book to have a second layer! The "ghost in the machines" who bombards our protagonist with attention from every electronic device is the monsterification of the internet's ubiquity, and the horrific inability of the modern person to escape its web. Jack tries to free himself from Emmy's call, but always lies another digital device to entrap him. He takes his quest to its logical extremity and smashes every piece of electronics he owns, yet the nightmare never ends as long as one other person exists to be harassed: hate the internet's influence to your heart's content, you cannot remove yourself from it but by removing yourself from society.

Granted, the analogy isn't exact; Emmy coerces, the net inveigles; and somehow an artificial intelligence can thrive inside an alarm clock -- go figure!

"Black Mirror" theorizing aside, this really is a fun tale, resembling some hybrid of the movie "Her," a demon possession story, and a Slappy book. More than a couple of these latest Goosebumps stories boast surprising creativity, when one considers the ages of both the series and Stine. That he can still entertain me, when I've read tens if not hundreds of his works, is testament to the man's skill, and perhaps the durable flexibility of his formulae.

A few curiosities:

Is the name "Emmy" an oblique reference to the TV show nominations?

Stine's many, many references to "game-player" made me chuckle. He's tried his best to keep abreast of the ever-changing kids' tech milieu, but dear god man, check an internet forum. "Game-player" is something from the nightmare Berenstain universe -- it may look right to a couple people but it's never existed. It's always been "game console," "handheld," or "Game Boy" (as a generic). None of this "game-player" voodoo.

The ending was pure-form Goosebumps, with a bully receiving due deserts and still finding a way to harass the protagonist, this time worse than before!

And finally, "Don't Scream!" may win the dismerit for dullest Stine title ever. He says he conceives the title first and the story flows from it, but I think any of his books could've been inspired by something as vague as "Don't Scream!" "Egg Monsters from Mars" it is not.

[House of Goosebumps · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Don’t Scream, Goosebump Hall Of Horrors #5, by R. L. Stine

This book is known for being one of the good books amongst all of the modern Goosebumps series, going into it, I was really excited. Unlike A Shocker On Shock Street, I wasn’t too disappointed by the book. I just think it had so much more potential, like for example, Jack going into a virtual reality thing and meeting Emmy. There is a very brief section of the book where the scene depicted on the book cover happens, and I feel like it was too short.

The book is about a strange voice of a woman that keeps following Jack around, finding it’s way into phones, watches, televisions, game consoles and more. The voice keeps telling Jack that he’s her new best friend, saying that Jack has to obey her orders…

I’m not the type of guy to mark down books for characters that are meant to be annoying, but I just want to say that Jack’s sister, Rachael is one THE MOST ANNOYING CHARACTERS IN THE WHOLE GOOSEBUMPS FRANCHISE!!!, I’ve never wanted to throw a kid out of a 8 story building more than RIGHT NOW!!!. I HATE HER WITH A BURING PASSION!!!

Let’s go to another topic…

This book is definitely on the scarier side of goosebumps. Think about this: a voice of an unidentified woman following you around, jumping from electronic to electronic, trying to get you to do stuff like stealing just for her own personal benefit, and saying that you will be hurt if you fail to meet her demands. And by hurt I mean she literally gives people electric shocks like an electric eel, and she SETS JACK’S BAG ON FREAKING FIRE🔥🔥🔥. She can also scream at the top of her lungs in an attempt to make you DEAF.

This book deserves a solid 6.5/10 it’s alright but not the best book. I recommend this book, BUT… I think you should read “Why I Quit Zombie School” INSTEAD, it is a much better book that deserves extra recognition in my opinion.

[Bri Little · Rating 4 out of 5]

This unexpectedly creeped me out! R.L. Stine definitely embraced my deep fear that AI will soon start threatening and controlling us.
Based on this book, it seems like this Goosebumps spin-off is pretty good. I will pick up some of the others if I can find them at the library.

[Brayden Crooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great book for kids that want to read something scary that is still age appropriate. It is very exciting and can be intense and makes want to read more. Most definitely a 5 star book.

[Tiffany Spencer]

Don’t Scream
Jack Harmon is being bullied by Daryl and Mick-who have gotten his hat and spit in it-. They “offer” to return it in exchange for his watch. That’s not happening. It was a special gift from his grandfather for his bday. The bus driver breaks it up. Jack is feeling lucky that he survived another bus trip. That’s when he sees the silver cell phone on the seat. When he turns the phone on, it’s already loaded with tons of apps. There’s someone on the other end that says she’s his new friend. He thinks it’s his sisters baby-sitter Mindy but she tells him it’s not and don’t piss her off. Whatever he does DO NOT piss her off!

He has a thought that it must be Eli-a friend of his that’s good with technology and has a box that disguises his voice-. She tells him it’s not Mindy or Eli. She’s his new best friend but he needs to stop guessing. Jack gets impatient and hangs up the phone and powers it off. But there she is on the line again. She tells him he can’t get rid of her that easily. Jack just walks off and leaves the phone on the seat -all the while it’s warning him not to-. When he gets off the bus, he hears someone screaming.

A girl -Polly- throws the phone out the window and tells Jack he forgot his phone. The phone tells him not to try that again. Jack figures he can find out who the girl is by looking at her photo’s. Only all the photo’s are of *him*(and his family). She says she guess that’s his so he’d better keep it. He tries to tell his sister (Racheal) and Mindy about it. Mindy tries to speak to the girl. Of course, she doesn’t respond.

The girl gets on the phone afterwards and tells him he shouldn’t tell the baby sitter about her. She’s *his* friend. He gets a shock from the phone when he dares tell her what if he doesn’t want to be her friend. He drops the phone but it sticks to his palm. She warns him she can really hurt him. He asks why she’s doing this and she tells him to pick up the phone and tells him to never threaten him again. She tells him she’s going to be with him FOREVER! Racheal runs into his room and steals the phone-trying to play with the apps-. Jack screams at the phone not to hurt his sister.

Racheal thinks Jack is losing it. Surprisingly she doesn’t get shocked. She declares the phone busted and tosses it. Then she leaves the room. The girl gets back on the line and advises that he not let his sister touch her again. He starts firing out questions but she doesn’t answer. Then someone behind him says he didn’t call Jack he called him. It’s Eli. Jack called and told him it was important he come over. Jack tells Eli about what happened. At first he thinks it’s a joke. What really convinces him tho is when he picks up the phone and the girl tells him to Go away! She’s Jack’s new best friend. Eli says he has a plan.

He says he thinks the phone has two SIMS cards and another receiver. If he can disconnect it, the girl will go away. Jack tells him it’s too risky. She could electrocute him. He says ok. He’s got another idea. He says give him a really big hammer. So, Jack gets his dad’s sledge hammer. Jack smashes the phone to smitherins! Eli shows Jack his player but the girl’s voice comes out and asks did they try to hurt her. Eli screams! It starts to burn Eli and he tries to drop it but he can’t.
The game player just melts and his hands are scorched. The girl says she warned them and laughs. Eli wants to know where she’s coming from. She says she doesn’t have to answer them. She tells jack he’s going to have to help her, but she disappears when Jack’s dad appears. Jack and Eli try to tell them what happened with the phone, but they think it’s all a joke. Why are GB parents so dumb? Jack’s dad wants to see the game player so they take it to him. The girl tells them don’t mess with her. She orders them to put her down. They encourage her to talk to Jack’s dad, but as we know she wouldn’t she doesn’t speak up. Dad starts to smack the player and all of a sudden there’s a shrill scream. That makes them all scream! When it finally stops, dad declares the player defective. The effects from it are bad. Their heads-and ears- are still rining.

Eli and Jack know it’s not the game player itself when Dad says they’ll go to the store and replace it. Maybe get it recalled. Jack says this might be a good thing. If they take it to the store it’ll then be the *stores* problem and she’ll be off their hands. When they get to “Jolt City” Jack’s dad takes the game player. Immediately after there’s a black out. When the electricity comes back, red lips are shown on all the tv displays.

She then tells Jack not to try to leave her. He’s her best friend forever. The store workers are like WTH and start to look around for Jack. Then the tv’s go back to normal. Dad returns with a new game player for Eli. He says they’re going to call the company about the old one (the store manager that is). They threw the old one in the trash. Jack thinks maybe that’s the end of it, but right before he gets to the car dad decides now is the time to get Jack a cell phone. Jack tries to protest but he leads him back into the store. They pick something simple without the internet. When Jack gets to the car and tries the phone (to call his mom) the girl’s voice tells him she’s still there and she’ll never leave him.

Later he finds out she’s a digital mistake (artificial intellegance), she gives herself the name Emmy and says she can control electricity. She says she knows there are others out there like her and jack is going to help her find them. Jack tries to text Eli the next day. No response. He also tries to speak to Emmy. No response. Eli says he didn’t get any text. He tells him about Emmy. He says they’ll talk later. In class, Emmy starts to tell Jack she sense’s another something like her in the computer lab and she needs him to steal a laptop. To make him obey she starts to burn him. She makes him obey by raising his hands and screaming to the top of his lungs. He tells his teacher it was a bee string. She makes him stand on his head.

To make matters worse, the bullies harass Jack on the way home. Jack agrees to steal the laptop if Emmy will go away and leave him alone. Mr. Feingold catches Jack trying to steal the laptop. He tells him he was returning it and he buys it. There’s another signal from Mick’s camera but Jack refuses to steal that. He says he’ll find her a friend tho. As punishment she makes his backpack burst into flames. Jack pretends to trip up and stick’s Mick’s camera in his pocket during lunch. But on the bus, Daryl and Mick are picking on Jack again and ask how his bag got burnt. When they turn it over to look for matches, they see the camera. They’re fooled enough to believe Jack just wanted a camera like Mick’s (because he doesn’t know his is stolen). But then Mick gives the camera to Daryl as a gif.

Emmy hears another signal and makes Jack break into a house to steal a digital alarm clock. They’re almost out of the hosue with the radio before Emmy wants to check it. She says she made a mistake. No one’s there. So, Jack goes back to return it. Unfortunately, Mrs. Howell catches Jack-and recognizes him-. He tells his parents it was a dare from Mick. But Mick’s parents called and tell his mom he stole Mick’s camera. He has to apologize to Mick, the Howell’s, and his mom. He tells Emmy he’s DONE! She says we’ll see.

He leaves the cell phone at his house the next day and at school they have a going away party for Mick. When he gets home he finds Racheal has his phone and it shocks her. He goes berserk, takes the sledgehammer, and destroys all his devices (tv, IPOD, laptop, cellphone, and radio). But getting on the bus he hears Emny’s voice. It’s coming from his watch. He’s able to trade his watch with Mick before he de-pants him in front of everyone. When he gets home his parents give him a new phone. When it rings its Mick. She trapped him in the phone and he needs help getting out or he says he’ll hurt Jack.

My Thoughts:
Ok, so this one was FREEEEEEEEEAAAAKY! It was the way “she” just seemed to be living in EVERY SINGLE digital device he owned. And not just in *his* devices. How “she” could take control of any other device she choose (like the game system and the televisions in the electronics store). If my devices EVER did anything like that.. Well I don’t know about smashing them with a sledgehammer buttt… But our Alexa’s have done some STRANGE things. One time it was late and I kid you not. I asked it what time it was and she told me to go to bed. I was like WHAT? Then the one down stairs took a picture and no one asked it too. Then when we looked up there was a picture on the screen of the fireplace. These devices sometimes can be too *smart* for their own good and it really is frightening to think about how much in the future AI could possibly control things. I also thought this was a good revenge story. The only thing I wondered is how Emmy trapped Mick in the phone.
Rating: 7

[Christine (KizzieReads) · Rating 5 out of 5]

My son loved all the cliffhangers and was just bowled over with the ending.

[Victoria Zigler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty good read, but it's not one of my favourite Goosebumps books; interesting concept, but the actual story could do with some improvements, in my opinion.

[Layla · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was not my favorite. It wasn’t as interesting as most goosebumps books and I was confused sometimes.

[Clover · Rating 4 out of 5]

TLDR;
Jack’s new friend Emmy is psychotic. She won’t leave him alone and forces him to do a bunch of illegal things to help her find other “digital mistakes”. I love that term, and I love this concept. The characters are fun for a Goosebumps book (ie. for cardboard characters), and the tension was high. Jack had to contend with Emmy electrocuting everything in site and his school bullies, Mick and Darryl. The ending was good and made you wondering: is this good or bad?

The New BFF:
“Big Mick and his friend Darryl ‘The Hammer’ Oliva like to beat me up, tease me, and torture me on the bus every afternoon.” After another afternoon of bullying, Jack Harmon finds a cellphone on the bus. A girl’s voice is on the phone and knows Jack by name. He thinks it’s Mindy—his “little sister Rachel’s babysitter”—or Eli, Jack’s best friend. This angers the girl who refuses to say who she is, only that she is Jack’s new best friend. Jack tries to turn the phone off but the girl is still there. Jack calls Eli over and this further upsets the girl. They break the phone but she transfers to Eli’s handheld gaming system, which she then melts while electrocuting Eli to frighten him. She continues to reiterate that she is Jack’s only best friend and she can hurt him very badly. Jack “ha[s] to get some answers from the girl. [He] ha[s] to find out who she was and why she was haunting [him].”
Eventually, she tells him that her name is Emmy and says: “It sounds like a real girl. Which I’m not.” Emmy wants Jack to find other “digital mistakes” like her, and she wants Jack to do whatever it takes to find them. Jack is tasked with stealing multiple things and other illegal activities in order to appease Emmy. Emmy continues to get more threatening and aggressive as the book progresses, not that she was ever very friendly to begin with.

This was an interesting book. I thought the parents were funny for always “helping”. Eli and Jack do their best to get rid of Emmy and I enjoyed their friendship. The Story Keeper openings for this series is much better than the Slappy ones for SlappyWorld. The Most Wanted introductions with R.L. Stine are corny and repetitive, but so is Slappy. I liked the ending of this, although it made me wonder, in a good way! Jack and Rachel are great, typical siblings with Rachel being “six years younger than [Jack].” He was annoyed at the typical things, he was protective in the right moments, it was very authentic and I liked them together.

Pacing was fine, I was so frustrated that the bullies got to do whatever they wanted. But I will agree that bus drivers rarely ever intervened when I was in school and teachers are too oblivious/overworked to really notice. I did enjoy the scene that the cover is based on, it was fun and unsettling. I liked Jack being friends with Eli, but if Eli was so nerdy, why was Jack the only one being harassed? Overall, pretty fun characters for a Goosebumps book.

3.5/5
I don't know if I want to give this a 3 or 4 star, I wish Goodreads would just give us half-stars already. I think I'll give it 4 because I enjoy the Story-Keeper so much in this series.

This is Day #20 of my October Goosebumps Challenge.
Day: 20/31
Books: 20/31

[Kevin Chauhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Thrilling Goosebumps Classic!

As a 12-year-old, my first experience with Goosebumps was nothing short of electrifying. The thrill and terror gripped me so tightly that I nearly devoured the book in a day (or maybe a week—I can't quite remember). The genius of R.L. Stine's storytelling had me hooked, leading me to dive into other spine-chilling classics like Say Cheese and Die, Night of the Living Dummy, The Haunted Car, and The Haunted Mask.

But DON'T SCREAM from the Hall of Horrors series stands out as one of my favorites. The story is super engaging, blending nightmarish horror with moments of amusing comedy that kept me on edge yet entertained. The suspense is revealed with perfect timing, keeping you guessing while adding a touch of fiction that heightens the thrill.

If you're into horror with a bit of humor, I highly recommend this book.

[Dev · Rating 3 out of 5]

actual rating: 2.5

I've only read a few of the original Goosebumps books but I thought I would give one of the newer ones a try since I needed a book published in this year for a challenge. Not super impressed with this and I'm not sure if it's because the quality has degraded over time or that I don't generally enjoy like 'haunted technology' stories or because I had to read this one while I listened to the other ones. It was okay but definitely not something that stood out to me or that I will probably remember in the future. I did round up because 1. it's a kids book and I'm sure a kid would enjoy it more and 2. I've always gotta give props when he kills a kid. I know that sounds messed up but I really appreciate it because most authors are too afraid to do that and I think it probably ups the scare factor for the kids reading it as well.

[Shanna Houston · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this because I’m subbing in the Elementary’s library this week and we are talking about books that got us into reading. As a kid I loved Goosebumps books by R.L. Stein.
This was a story about a boy who finds a mystery phone that has a voice inside it. Although he turns off the phone it can still talk to him. It wants them to be friends or for him to do questionable things in order for them to find another A.I. like the voice.

[J.D. Estrada · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like many Goosebumps books I've read, this was a fun little horror trot with some highlights for sure. Certain scenes definitely jump out at you and definitely have plenty of creep factor in them. The plot is a bit odd at times and the resolution did feel a bit rushed, but all in all, creepy good fun.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fine, probably closer to 2.5. I wish we’d gotten more explanation about the phone and I don’t get why the bus driver was so nonchalant about physical bullying—maybe this worked in the original ‘90s series, but it really doesn’t fit in a book from the 2010s.

[Madison W.]

This book was very interesting. It definitely isn't the kind of book that takes forever to get to the point.

[Michael Kitazaki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting story that manages to stand out in a very long series.

[Masoome · Rating 1 out of 5]

حقیقتا مجموعۀ به درد نخور و لوسیه!

[Zara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A boy contents with a strange entity that can inhabit electronic devices.

[Noah Chipman]

Spooktacular!

[Rizu Prakash · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly horrifying book!

[Michaela Borges]

This was a silly and nostalgic book. I had fun reading this gem!

[Gyanesh Satyawali · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not much terrifying in comparison to others.

[David Bennett Black · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would have been 4 but that ending was bleeh.

[Totoro · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://youtu.be/2i9oAEWks8c?si=KKkyG...

[The dynamic book reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a very funny and creepy book. When he finds the phone with the creepy voice, it makes him steal stuff.

[PageTurners; · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story but a bit annoying. Liked the revenge of mick tho. Also he couldve easily covered the phone with a lot of something thats an insulator. That was stupid (this book barely got 4)

3.65 ⭐️