Guess Who's Coming for Dinner?

Shivers #11

by M.D. Spenser

With friends like that. . .you could die.

Michael Sturdevant is quiet and doesn't have many friends. Josh Jennings is the most popular kid in school. But yet, they're friends. Enter the decidedly strange Sturdevant family--especially Michael's creepy little sister Gladys. Among other weird things, this family really enjoys dinner, maybe too much. But, when Josh's class teacher vanishes after a supper invitation from the Sturdevants, he gets the unappetizing feeling she was the main course. Now, would Josh be on the menu for THE MOST GHOULISH MEAL OF THE DAY?

Genres: Horror, Childrens, Middle Grade

118 pages, Paperback

Published November 5, 1995

About the author

M.D. Spenser is a children's author, journalist and music critic. Born in the United States, he lives now in the UK.

"The Enchanted Attic," Book 1 of his popular SHIVERS series of novels for children, was republished as an e-book in August 2011. It is available at amazone.com, Barnes & Noble, Sony and iBookstory. Book 2, "A Ghastly Shade of Green," and Book 3, "Ghost Writer," followed shortly afterwards.


The rest of the 36-book series will be published as ebooks over time.

Also, an internet petition is circulating asking that the entire 36-book series be republished in paperback: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/md...

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

We return to the shocking world of Shivers for a weird one. At every turn, it kinda surprises me given what this is. Our two main friends are a shy loner with no friends, while the other is a popular jock. You'd assume the former is our protagonist but nope, it's the latter. Yes, really.

He's not the jerk-y kind, his name is Josh and he while he knows the other guy, Micheal, he hasn't talked to him much. But one day they start bonding over chess and Micheal begins tutoring him. The highlight of this book is weirdly their friendship. It feels relativity genuine as Micheal helps Josh get better grades and Josh notes how proud he is to finally be doing better. I don't often see sort of arcs lie this so I enjoyed that quite a bit. That carried this whole thing.

However, Micheal has a little sister named Gladys who is a terror, like her actions and description made her actually kinda creepy, weirdly enough. Josh notices that sometimes people invited over to Micheal's for dinner, than mysteriously vanish. And Micheal and Gladys make tons of comments about eating, with at one point the mom saying she could just "eat you up".

Yeah, the implication is that they are cannibals. And they don't turn out to be monsters at any point, there's no explicit supernatural stuff here. After Pool Ghoul took a break, this one brings the darkness back...sort of. It's weirdly restrained for one of these. The others would eventually go into gross detail but we mostly get tons of teasing. Usually I'd say he didn't wanna go too far...but come on, even this early on Shiver had entries that went further.

Speaking of being different, the writing is weird. It uses a lot of vocab words, which I like, although some feel like the author was just showing off. I actually had too look up at least one. That's sad, I know. Also, the chapters often end on random notes.

This book is mainly fine with the nice friendship and it builds up tension well enough...the problem s that it does it too much. There's so much build up that I just wanted them to get the fireworks factor already., It doesn't feel uneventful for the most part, just makes you antsy. Does the climax and ending make up for it?

Not quite, that's my big problem. The ending is the most abrupt I've ever read. It straight up feels like chapters are missing, seriously. We also don't fully get the deal on what is really going on here, so it feels kind of incomplete.

It's weird. I generally like it for some of the tension and the likable protagonist, but it has tons of build up for a non ending. If the ending felt more complete, I would have liked it a bit more despite the other flaws but as it is, it feels like Spenser ran out of time and just published it before it was done. Again, weird but at least there's no preachy stuff in this one lol.

STRAY NOTES:

Josh has sister he dislikes named Megan. If he another brother named Drake, I would tap out lol.

I didn't mention this in the review, but Pool Ghoul is my first Shivers where the parents were involved and they were actually good, being concerned even if they don't believe in the supernatural. That continues here, as they kinda quirky but nice and understanding. At one point she considers having Josh stay at Micheal's house while they are out but is hesitant since she hasn't met the parents yet. Usually she'd just randomly dump him so good for her.

These often have cheap cliffhangers, basically "Boo!" scares. Well, this one has one that, I kid you not, literally is just someone yelling "Boo!". I am not kidding. Just...wow.

[Brandon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Guess Who's Coming For Dinner  from the Shivers series is a book I've been wanting to read for a while.It had a really fun looking cover.Thanksgiving is right around the corner,so the theme is there.The book itself is easily the worst I've read so far in the Shivers series.The book starts off with a kid named Josh telling us all about how he became friends with this other kid named Michael.Michael Sturdevant is a weird kid that is never seen eating anything.Josh is completely the opposite.Hes a jock he has plenty of friends.One day Josh sees Michael playing chess and they begin to bond over it.Michael teaches him how to do different moves in chess,along with helping with academics.We learn that Michael has a reputation for making friends and then the friends end up dissapearing.Josh has a little sister that goes to school with Michael's little sister.Her name is Gladys and we meet her pretty early on.She comes into the cafeteria and yells at Michael for eating cupcakes.Its very bizarre.Nothing really important happens until much later when the teacher,who's name is Wicked Warner gets invited to dinner with Michael and his family.We get vague scenes of Michael trying to explain what is going on exactly but no real answers.The teacher ends up leaving in a black van and there is like three chapters trying to find Michael's house.We finally get there close to the end and nothing is still really explained.There are some weird scenes with missing kids photos throughout the house and even a picture of Josh at one point.This book was bad.It was mostly bad because it suffers from the same problem as the few other bad books in the series,nothing happens, only this time nothing happens and the important things that do happen gives us no explanation. I give Guess Who's Coming To Dinner a one our of five stars

[Horror Sickness · Rating 4 out of 5]

Josh is a popular kid at school and good at sports. Michael is the weird loner that never has lunch and just plays chess.

Josh happens to be really into chess as well and decides to talk to Michael and play with him. They end up becoming friends.

However everyone starts to tell stories about Michael's family and how the kids that were friends with him or his sister Gladys disappeared.

As Josh gets closer to discovering the truth about Michael's family, he and his loved ones will be in grave danger.

This has been so far one of my favorite Shivers because the story is way darker, unsettling and leaves a lot for the reader to interpret.

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely creepy & definitely kept me trying to guess what was going to happen but something was missing from the end.

[Austin Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's astonishing... how incredibly consistent MD Spenser is in writing bad books.

[UK Goosebumps · Rating 1 out of 5]

Time to explain why I have this book a 1.5, here we go. So I felt like there was a massive build up with a fair bit of filler which just led to absolutely nothing in my opinion. I wouldn’t say I was bored reading this because I genuinely thought something interesting might happen but when I finished reading this book the last 100 pages I read just felt like a massive waste of time and if I did every try to read it again I would just get so bored. Im not going to spoil anything but the book is referencing (it’s pretty obvious even from the title) that this particular family are cannibals of some sort. I guess it kind of leaves the question are they aliens or something but for that amount of build up i at least want some horror or questions answered. Felt like a big chunk of writing that didn’t lead anywhere and didn’t have a satisfying ending. 1.5/5

[House of Goosebumps · Rating 1 out of 5]

2.5/10

Cool concept just executed really badly. The books was extremely confusing and had lots of filler.

[Mel (who is deeply in love with herself) · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is short and sweet, and i read it a few years back, when i was only about 12. now I'm 15, and i guiltily confess that i still love this book for it's story and fast pacing, which is rare in books more recently. the main hero is very likeable, but he's just about the only one; all the others are jsut creepy beyond belief, and I thank God that i dont have any classmates like the ones Josh unfortunately has.
i would say that the way Spencer ends chapters is very great and intriguing, and the ending especially is great. i wish that it was longer, so i could enjoy the story for an even longer amount of time.

[Wolverinefactor · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn’t too bad until it just ends... no reveal, no resolution. Felt like chapters were missing

[Owen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read all the Shivers books, and this is just another filler book. The ending was quicker than a quake.

[E.D. Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shivers Summer! Spoilers below.

We continue our descent into the meat locker of middle grade mayhem with Book 11: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? a title that says “social satire” but delivers more of a Yellowjackets kids’ menu energy.

Right off the bat, this book for sure has what might be the best cover in the entire Shivers line-up. That’s a bold statement, considering how many amazing covers this series has. My best friends' family eats people vibe is absolutely firing on all cylinders.

We meet Josh, our main dude, who befriends Michael, the quiet, weird kid. Michael is part Bobby Fischer, part Hannibal Lecter, all pre-teen dork. They spend their lunch periods locked in chess battles, and Josh starts noticing Michael never actually eats lunch, which is usually your first red flag that someone might be hiding their acquired food preferences.

Josh’s sister Megan knows Michael’s sister Glady, and Glady’s is built like an outside linebacker , the total opposite of her scrawny, pale brother Michael, who clearly skips out on whatever family meal plan the rest of them are on. Megan drops the bomb on Josh, and basically says: Michael’s family eats people. That’s why kids go missing every year like it’s the Purge for cannibals.

Michael doesn’t deny it. He basically tells Josh, “My family isn’t safe” like he’s pitching a Netflix docuseries. He even mentions that they’ve invited their math teacher over for dinner, which, to be clear, does not mean she’s eating dinner.

Now, there are some great horror moments in this book that absolutely rule. The family has photos of their past "victims", again the book never straight up says that but its implied, hanging in their living room like they’re running a people-eating TGI Fridays. Josh even finds a photo of himself from the year before, which would’ve been an incredible plot twist; like the family had been grooming him for the smoker. But sadly, that idea is tossed aside faster than a bag of leftover femurs.

At one point the family is keeping the teacher locked in a basement cage to “fatten her up,” which feels less like middle grade horror lit moment and more like a deleted scene from Teaching Mrs. Tingle, if it had been directed by Rob Zombie. Josh and the gang end up busting her out and no one gets turned into teacher chili. Love a clean ending, but I wanted a bit more time in the House of that cannibals built . Less build-up, more meat sweats.

At the end of the day, I really wanted a full admission of cannibalism. Like, just say it. But even heavily implied, this is a top-tier creepy entry. The vibes are there. The pacing mostly works. The ending limps a bit, but the journey’s worth it. This was one of my favorites as a kid and it still holds up.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved this as a kid. But unfortunately, I can't say the same as an adult. The implication that the family are cannibals is strong, but as others have pointed out, it ends so abruptly that you'd think several chapters are missing. It's as though the author was made cut more gruesome details and didn't have time to finish it. Which is a pity, because other books in the Shivers series are pretty brutal for kids books

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish this had an actual ending.

[Dharia Scarab · Rating 3 out of 5]

My love of reading started when i was young, and it gives me immense pleasure to provide books to Spread the Word Nevada, an organization that passes them on to children in the community. They are a terrific organization supporting an important cause. If your local I encourage you to check them out. For those living further a field, look in your own community, their may already be a similar program in place. And if not, you can always help start one.

http://spreadthewordnevada.org/

Myself, I go out on the weekends and
shop thrift store and bulk book lots to rescue books and donate them. Sometimes I'll find a book I remember reading when I was young and will read it again before passing it on.

[Arthur · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bleh. It's like too strenuous to read. It's basically like the writer dreamt up this whole thing, story, plot and characters. It moves slowly, psychologically dull. And having said that let me explain why someone should bother to read this book. There's actual confusion where the story evolves. It's like a low budget flick where the writers of a movie don't have anything original to throw at an audience so they film from a monsters perspective and the audience is let without seeing any monster or blood or stuff.

[Emma_bookaholic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Back to my childhood with this book! Used to love reading these! This book was enjoyable to read, following Michael and his family. Something isn't right with them but can Josh find out what's wrong before it's too late?

Gladys is a creepy girl too, one you wouldn't want to meet down a dark alley! I liked the chess element, as in playing it helps Michael blend in with the other student but by doing so, makes friends with Josh. Can he keep him safe when his mum invites him over for dinner?

Would recommend this book and series

[Noha Basiouny · Rating 3 out of 5]

It ended before telling what was going on in Michael's house. I guess they were eating people or something. Or maybe they were vampires. I don't know but I guess the author meant to do that to let every reader imagine what it was about. And thus, he could have thousands of different stories!
Gotcha!

[Louise · Rating 2 out of 5]

Underdeveloped. It never explicitly states what is going on, there's no resolution. I must have read this as a child and not remembered anything about it. I'm not surprised as there's very little here.

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

A boy befriends one of his odder classmates. A classmate with rather odd eating habits.
Soon he discovers and odd pattern - everyone invited to dine with the boy's family is never seen again...

[Ti · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book left me confused. Disappointing ending