Why I'm Not Afraid of Ghosts

Ghosts of Fear Street #23

by R.L. Stine (Creator), Nina Kiriki Hoffman

Robbie and Dora are the spookiest ghosts on Fear Street. At least, they think they are. Until Oliver Bowen moves into their house. Oliver can't be scared! The kid has an explanation for everything. The sheet rising off a chair all by itself? Only the wind. The howls and moans at midnight? His sister having a nightmare. The horrible face in the attic window? Just a weird reflection.

But Robbie and Dora have a plan. A plan to scare Oliver out of his socks -- and out of their house for good.

Genres: Horror, Childrens, Fantasy, Ghosts

128 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1997

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

[∗ Elena ∗ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ich hab das Buch (zusammen mit ein paar anderen Fear Street Büchern) neulich bei meinen Eltern wiedergefunden und dachte mir Wie passend so kurz vor Halloween!
Natürlich musste ichs aus Nostalgie wieder lesen.
Und wie mit jedem übersetztem Buch hat man gewisse Stellen, an denen es etwas hapert. Ich kann mich leider nicht erinnern, ob mich das als Kind gestört hatte, aber das hat diesmal etwas die Freude gekostet. Aber vermutlich liegts daran, dass meine Ansprüche etwas gestiegen sind... :D
Die Geschichten an sich sind trotzdem spannend und gut!

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nina Kirki Hoffman—as far as I know—has only done three entries for this series, and this is one of them. Out of those three, this is her only dud. This book tried to do a lot of things, and some of it landed well—whilst some of it didn’t at all. I must praise the idea for this book; it’s an already explored idea for horror, with it being from the perspective of the ghost, but it’s a nice switch up for this series, and the perspective changes added a nice flair to this story. There’s some decent moments: the introductory scene to the ghosts, the lab scene (I laughed my ass off), and the reveal involving Shawn. Said reveal was an interesting direction for the book that I called from PAGE TWO but was shocked by anyways since it waited to long to drop it on the reader. It’s neat, but nothing ground-breaking. There’s some ideas at the very end that are interesting and I’d like to see it explored further, however the delivery on it was shit. Now for the bashing: the ending. It’s a mixed bag to say the absolute least, and takes you on a roller coaster for six pages straight, and it involves a huge recontextulization, ghostbusters, vampires, a big turning-of-leaf moment, and a take-back of one of the prior, and also giving the read an aneurism. I don’t even wanna go over it, but it was WAY too much. Good ideas in there, I guess, but all delivered way too quickly and in an excessive quantity. Jesus. The entire book is also a snooze fest, though it picks up hella in the final fifteen or so pages. Most of it is just the repetitive stuff one would expect here: the ghosts try (and fail) to scare Oliver, a stubborn unbeliever as we’re led to believe. It never even goes anywhere, there’s no payoff, and it’s depressingly similar to the biggest issue found in books like You Can’t Scare Me! and such. The ghost kids are also the most irritating characters. Bickering is fine, but it was excessive, almost to the point I was just pissed off reading it. Seriously Nina, don’t make your characters annoying, bickering, arguing, mean-spirited brats—because you’re too good at it. And, the book exceeds what it rightfully warranted page-wise. This should’ve just been a short story, whether it be in the Tales to Give You Goosebumps series or another kids horror anthology collection. Way too long for what we got for about 85 pages of it—the repetitive bs. Overall, 4.5/10. It’s not terrible, but definitely a light bad. The lab scene was literally that one SpongeBob scene where SB was watching the Flying Dutchman unveil astral horrors beyond our comprehension—with a blank, dead face. LMAO.

[Lelouch · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book 15-20 years ago. I remember the highlights of this book, but my memory is hazy through most of it. I do remember that the twist ending was so ridiculous that it was hilarious. The character even comments on how ridiculous it was. It was the first Ghosts of Fear Street book I read, and I remember wanting to read more.

Book Summary:
Robbie and Dora are siblings who haunt a house. Robbie died wearing a sailor's outfit he hates, so he focuses on making spooky sounds and not revealing himself. I don't remember what Dora looks like. They try scaring Oliver, but nothing works out. Oliver's best friend keeps warning him about ghosts, but Oliver ignores him. Eventually they plan some big scare. I don't remember the details. at the end: Robbie/Dora actually knock Oliver's best friend out. They think they killed him. Sure enough, he raises up as a ghost. They're terrified they actually killed someone. But Oliver isn't scared. They look at Oliver, who's staring at a mirror. To their surprise, Oliver doesn't cast a reflection. Oliver quickly spins around to face Robbie and Dora and reveals he's a vampire and wants to eat them. Robbie and dora flee, and Oliver's friend huddles in fear. Oliver's friend was a ghost this whole time. Oliver reveals he's not actually a vampire, so his friend is safe. Oliver and his dad were hired to chase ghosts out. And Oliver points out that ghosts shouldn't be afraid of vampires because they don't have any blood.

[UK Goosebumps · Rating 2 out of 5]

Before I say anything else this the twists at the end of this book remind me of slappys nightmare. Started this book a week or two ago and buddy read it with my good book friend @pulp_fiction_books (check his review out as well!). This book follows two ghosts who haunt a house and are trying to scare the new kid who moves in. So this book is the most repetitive, no new idea, filler book I have seen in a while 😂. The ghosts just try and scare this kid in different ways and fail each time, this repeats for the ENTIRE book. I think if they went in the direction of trying to scare him and maybe going into there backstory or any sort of mix up with the story then this book could have been better. And don’t get me started on the triple twist ending that is totally unnecessary. (A twist on the last 2 pages which is stupid) 1.5/5 only for the good body horror and scare descriptions.

[Pulp_Fiction_Books · Rating 2 out of 5]

This had a great concept as we have dual pov's and one half of them that we're following are ghosts. Unfortunately the book never capitalises on its unique premise and ends up being very repetitive. There was nothing scary or even spooky about this, it had moments of good body horror imagry but even they didn't hit as they were all undercut by being portrayed in a silly comedic fashion rather than used as moments of horror. There's also two reveals late on, the first was extremely obvious and the second was absolutely ridiculous and completely out of left field.

[John Loyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oliver and family have just moved onto Fear Street. Into a supposedly haunted house, but he's having none of that, Oliver doesn't believe in ghosts. Dora and Robbie are going to make sure he's scared. They make a point of haunting Oliver, but he shrugs it off as the wind or something. The frustrations of the ghosts are humorous, but it just makes them more determined.

Quick, fun, humorous. Nice twists. 4.5 stars.

[Brandon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried putting on my nostalgia goggles for this book .It still didn't work. The writing was a little off for me .I did enjoy the first twist, but it didn't make sense. Luckily it wasn't the real twist .the real twist made more sense, but the overall book was just kinda bland, not my favorite of the series. 2 out of five stars for me.

[Sawri · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5. Great plot, fun times. Nostalgia.

[Yeon · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Cộng nửa điểm vì tính em Oliver giống mình ban đêm nghe tiếng động lạ điều đầu tiên là ngủ tiếp ai gảnh đâu tìm coi có ma không =)))

[LaGranVacaCosmica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mi primera impresión al leer la contraportada fue: "Jesus, un retelling juvenil de "El Fantasma de Canterville" de Oscar Wilde... paso". Muchos años después, acá estoy, y al contrario de lo que creía, me dejo un buen gusto de boca.

Es considerablemente divertido. Tiene las descripciones justas y esos giros finales a los que R L Stine nos tiene acostumbrados. No es una de sus obras más originales, ya que es como la parte de "El Fantasma de Canterville" en la que el susodicho espectro no logra asustar a los niños durante poco más de cien páginas pero en un contexto juvenil noventero en Estados Unidos, honestamente, se deja disfrutar. Es un libro para despejarse y entretenerse sin más pretensiones. Lo banco, aunque tampoco sea lo mejor del autor.

[Mercedes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Muchas veces, viendo y leyendo Goosebumps u otras cosas de Stine, solía anticipar lo que iba a pasar. Este no fue uno de esos casos.

Me llamó mucho la atención el uso de spooky beings en este libro. Los intentos de Robbie y Dora son tragicómicos, y Oliver. Aw. Mah. Gawd.