Haunting with the Stars

Goosebumps SlappyWorld #17

by R.L. Stine

This is Slappy's world -- You only scream in it!

Space-obsessed Murphy Shannon is pumped that his 6th grade class is visiting the Rayburne Observatory. Except, being a know-it-all means he's totally bored with the lectures he has to sit through. So when classmates Orly and Cleo say they should explore on their own, Murphy sneaks out with them. But when they come face-to-face with the strange Dr. Rayburne and his experiments, they realize they may be in way over their heads. A grand adventure in space may be in store for them, if they can survive…

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

123 pages, Paperback

First published June 28, 2022

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

[Justin Tate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every Goosebumps book falls on a scale between silly and scary. The last book, Slappy in Dreamland, was heavy on creepy. This book is almost exclusively for laughs. There's nothing remotely scary about the monsters and there's no lurking mystery to solve. It's slapstick adventure from beginning to end, with even "adventure" being too dramatic of a word.

Being that I am much more a fan of the horror side of Goosebumps, I was generally bummed by this book. Seems like a waste of a great cover and good title. The title, by the way, has absolutely nothing to do with the plot. They do travel through space, but never see stars and certainly there's no haunting. Stine is up-front about his process of thinking of a title before coming up with the story. Rarely has that been so evident.

Negatives aside, did I gobble up the book and read it in a few hours? Yep! And bring on the next one!

[Austin Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

Complete rehash of Earth Geeks Must Go from Series 2000, as well as Don't Make Me Laugh; the short story from the Haunted Library set. And this book is probably worse than both of those. It has a cool title and cover, though.

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Allright ! I finally read Haunting With The Stars! Number 17 in the Slappyworld series. I've always been a little intrigued by this book, because the symbiosis doesn't really tell you a lot But a few people compared this book to Earth Geeks Must Go!,my favorite of the series 2000 books.So that made me more excited. The story starts off with a guy named Murphy he is obsessed with space and stars and all that cool stuff. He first became obsessed with this after seeing a rocket ship blast off as a kid. The beginning of this book begins with Murphy writing a story about having to protect the planet from martians.We cut away from that and Murphy dosnt know how the story will end.His mom tells him he will find inspiration when he goes on this field trip at a space observatory.When they get to this space thing Murphy is excited he talks over people asks questions obnoxiously. But that's only because he's asking questions to a guy he looks up to named Dr.Rayburne,a guy that invented this telescope that can see a lot further or something.They end up going to an auditorium and getting bored.So he and his two friends Orlly (I think.) and Cleo, which both have ridiculous names sneak out to go explore even though they are told not to go alone anywhere in this place.They discover a few maps of the Galaxy,and a few other neat things. This Dr. that works there, Dr.Jackson discovers the kids sneaking around and tells them they need to leave ,but not this room but this whole place in general. They end up running to another room and running into Dr. Rayburn and he's mad, because these kids discovered his transition room. The kids of course have no idea what this is but Rayburn decides to punish them by sending them to another planet. I really don't wanna spoil what is on this planet but I'll give you a few details. Two headed, sometimes bald sometimes flower topped heads, with hooves as feet that tap dance living in a world with three moons sometimes, and a pink sky. They also have six legged squirrels. I know that sounded random as heck, but that's the truth. So the beginning of this story had me very intrigued. I enjoyed the exploration of the world and kids trying to survive and stuff, but here is one of the biggest problems I had with this book.The kids barley mention going back home.They instead want to get food and change clothes to blend in and all.Its very meandering.Towards the end with the king was really just random and silly .Alot of people compare this book to one of my favorites Earth Geeks Must Go! And I completely understand why. But what that book had and this one didn't was plenty of twists, and really intriguing mystery. We already know why these kids are here from the get go. We just have to wonder how will they get home. Haunting With The Stars is a very mediocre book,that I was really excited for,but didn't quite live up to the expectations. I give it a three out of five stars.

[Josiah · Rating 1 out of 5]

On occasion, R.L. Stine includes a non-horror entry in his various Goosebumps series. Often these are superhero stories, but Haunting with the Stars fits a rarer category: pure science fiction. Twelve-year-old Murphy Shannon is fascinated by all things outer space, so he's thrilled when his class at school goes on a field trip to the observatory owned by illustrious cosmologist Dr. Sidney Rayburne. Meeting him is a bigger deal for Murphy than for his best friends Orly Roberts and Cleo Lambeau, but all three are ready to have fun today. Then Murphy gets the idea to sneak away from the class and explore. After getting caught by security, he expects to be in trouble...but has no idea how bad it's about to get.

Where does an eccentric scientist find volunteers for his experiments? In Dr. Rayburne's case, it's by forcing kids like Murphy, Orly, and Cleo to help. Using a device that can instantly teleport a person's molecules across deep space, Dr. Rayburne sends the three kids to a remote planet called Zoromisis 12. He believes intelligent life occupies this planet, but it is too far away for contemporary travel methods to reach. The transporter works: Murphy and his friends materialize on the surface of Zoromisis 12, in a city of two-headed humanoids. Soon it is obvious that "one-headers" are reviled on the planet, and its leader, Hoofer the Horrible, intends to destroy the new kids. Has Dr. Rayburne provided a way for Murphy, Orly, and Cleo to return to Earth before they are executed, and if so, can they discover it?

Haunting with the Stars feels more like one of Johnathan Rand's American Chillers than a Goosebumps book, complete with a wacky scientist and over-the-top villain. There are also notable similarities to R.L. Stine's Don't Make Me Laugh mini-book. The sci-fi theme may disorient readers expecting a horror story, but what prompts me to rate this only one and a half stars is the logic flaws throughout. These could have been reconciled and even leveraged for creative momentum, but it appears little effort was taken. One bright spot is the light philosophical commentary on how societies deal with people who are different; the aliens of Zoromisis 12 declare Murphy and his friends monsters because they have a single head. Such deviance will be disturbing for the planet's children, so these "one-headers" must be eliminated. The instinct to brand as monsters and do away with people who present as abnormal is apparently a universal phenomenon. Haunting with the Stars could have been a good book in the vein of Please Do Not Feed the Weirdo had this point been the focus, but as is, it isn't worth more than a passing glance.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alright, new Slappyworld for me to review. As usual, slightly bigger coming way down the line. Making a shorter version will be a problem so there's not much to say.

I don't know how to rate this to be honest. It's fine-ish and it weirdly got both better and worse for me after I finished it and started reflecting. Despite the title, it doesn't have space travel (or ghosts) and instead has kids being transported to a planet right away by a famous scientist guy the protagonist likes.

It's mostly him and his two female friends (no male one this time, or siblings) going around the planet and seeing what it has, while trying to escape as their kind is not allowed here. Some will expect something bigger while I figured what we got is what was going to happen. It gets into thing quickly enough and there's fun to be had with the culture of this planet and the wild leader they meet.

It seems to keep itself simple on purpose, as you expect Rayburne to be this big evil human villain but he's really just a dick and doesn't have a big evil plan. You think the aliens would have a big thing but hah, they just hate humans and want them gone. That's fun for subverting things, not doesn't make for the greatest story, which can feel a bit wheel spinny. A couple scenes are fully pointless.

Some may feel a bit "when are we gonna get to the ride", while I feel "This is the ride!", since the planet is what is built up and we spend most of this there. There's enough fun to be had with the wacky culture.


But it does end up feeling a bit empty by the end, even if the final chapter acts if if this was a bigger story than it was. I wasn't sure if this was a high 2.5 or a low 3. It's fun enough and I was into it okay, but by the end it did feel like it hit a wall and didn't know how to keep going. yet in other ways it did exactly what it wanted, and it's just a case of it not being exactly what some happen to want. It's weird, I'm making it seem deeper than it is in that way lol.

In the end, I went with it being fine enough. It just barely has enough wacky fun to make it not boring, it mostly has things happening and doesn't get into padding until near the end. I've read more boring and frustrating ones in the series, trust me.

I imagine most will go harder but eh, doesn't matter too much. Fair enough, just another one to throw on the pile. It's fine, just don't expect too much. At least the next one will be bigger, being what it is.

There ya go. Sunday will be the July Pike book, see ya then.

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stine-WHY? It took me months to read this nightmare. And was it worth it? Nope. This is my pick for the absolute worst book in the franchise. 1/10, I’d rather watch Shingles (joke).

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this one! First Goosebumps I’ve seen where kids go to space, pretty original. Definitely eating my words with that reskinning comment on yesterday’s review. No ghosts despite what the title implies, and not much actually happens besides try to escape an alien planet, but that’s okay.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this with my 7 year old. Nice to mix it up with a little R.L Stine nostalgia.

[Jojo Holm · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hadn’t read a goosebumps book in a few years and when I was at the bookstore I saw this book and said why not. So I picked it up and gave it a read, I was suspecting this to be bad but I was surprised. The book is not that long and gets to the story quick so it held my attention as stine’s books do. As for the actual tale that was told, Murphy and his friends get transported to a alien planet and have to find a way home. The alien people were just normal people but with two heads I mean it is a good way to get to the theme of the story as easily as possible but it would have been more interesting if the aliens were more monster like. There are some parts with filler especially near the end and the characters are dull and forgettable, I couldn’t remember the names of Murphy’s friends and I only remembered Murphy because his name was on the back of the book. The twist at the end I know before starting the book and I was interested in how it would happen (it was not explained) it may seem like I am saying that this book was terrible but it was a fast and fun read if you look past the unexplained then it is a very fun book to read 4 stars

[Devin Wheeler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Even with the most imagination on the mind still hard to picture what’s truly going on on the distant planet the 3 protagonist go too , super weird wacky World that doesn’t make sense at all , even the ending was a dud

[Colton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite it was just ok I was excited for this one but it fall flat

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this one but I didn't love it.

[Clover · Rating 3 out of 5]

TLDR;
Stine takes us on a Sci-Fi cruise to Zoromisis 12, where two-headed creatures who never stop tap-dancing live. It was a very bizarre concept that was executed as well as you can in such a short book. I would have appreciated some more world building, but alas. It wasn’t scary or frightening, even once they got captured. I liked the ending and it felt satisfying though. Take that Rayburne. Classic Goosebumps ending and overall, an okay book.

To the Stars, Murphy!
Murphy Shannon is obsessed with everything space. His class is going on a fieldtrip to the Rayburne Observatory, named after Murphy’s idol, Dr. Sidney Rayburne. Murphy is in the back with his friends Orly and Cleo. Murphy already knows all the history the scientists are telling the class so he convinces his friends to sneak out. Cleo is the timid one in the group and doesn’t want to go, saying, “I don’t like adventure. . . . You know what adventure means? It means trouble.” And trouble is what they find. Dr. Jackson catches them wandering around. She only warns them that they need to leave now before it’s too late. Murphy finds that odd, but a close call is enough and they go looking for a way to reunite with their class in the observatory. They’re completely lost and get caught by Dr. Rayburne. He won’t let them leave, their class has already left without them and they’ve seen too much. He’s decided that these three lucky kids will use his newest invention and it’ll make him famous. He hooks them up and vaporises them into particles that are then sent to a brand new, inhabited planet.
Murphy finds out he’s invisible shortly after materialising on Zoromisis 12. He sets off to find Orly and Cleo, and the group make their way to the only buildings they see. They notice a “steady tapping” that makes their ears ring. They find the two-headed inhabitants of Zoromisis 12 are the ones making the noise. “Their feet looked like animal hooves, like goat hooves. And they weren’t walking. They were dancing. Tap-tap-tapping. Like tap dancing. The hooves clicked loudly on the pavement.” Some have yellow flowers growing on one of their heads, some have white. The group go into a restaurant to steal some food. I don’t know if it’s time-passed or food-activated, but the group all become visible again as they are there. This causes chaos and things get even worse for the kids once they are captured.

This book was okay. It wasn’t scary, the creatures weren’t mean or evil. They simply didn’t want their children scared. Although there was a conversation that they said they didn’t understand what the word “child” or “adult” was and that made me shake my head. The ending was good, I thought it was interesting and a good use of a trope. It even had some actual plot threads to tie it together so it didn’t just happen at the very end and leave us disappointed. I really liked Murphy’s idea at the end that the girls understood and followed along with. I found that very smart and satisfying. And of course, a typical Goosebumps ending on the final page that filled me with nostalgia and I laughed.

It's pretty weak when compared to the last few books, but it was also one of the more original settings/ideas. Sending the kids to Zoromisis 12 was interesting, creating the goat-hooved creatures was interesting, but these books are always too short to have strong world building and creature creation to the extent of good Sci-Fi. It was still good though, not terrible.

One of my favourite quotes was when the girls were trying to assign gender to one of the creatures: “Here we were on a distant planet, watching creatures no one on Earth had ever seen, and I just realized—why would we think there’d be boys and girls here?”
I very much appreciated this tiny little thought of Murphy’s. Good on you, Stine.

3/5

This is Day #18 of my October Goosebumps Challenge.
Day: 18/31
Books: 18/31

[Jay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall I have enjoyed the SlappyWorld series. The actual Slappy stories have been fantastic, a few others have been strong, and even the Monster Blood book, which isn't my favorite theme, was fun.

There have been some poor books, like Revenge of the Invisible Boy and Fifth Grade Zombies (which is probably in the bottom 10 R.L. Stine books). Haunting with the Stars comes in above those but is still not great. It's just weird. Now, I give it credit for being much different than other books in the overall Goosebumps collection. I don't recall many, if any, Goosebumps books dealing with outer space and aliens (outside of Welcome to Camp Nightmare which doesn't really count since you only know they are on another planet based on the last line). But while there are interesting concepts, it's not greatly explained and the scares just aren't there. The villain is some dancing buffoon who makes threats but can't seem to actually do anything.

I did like the little twist at the end. And that kept it open for this theme to get expanded on in the future, which is always interesting. Overall, this certainly wasn't the worst Goosebumps book, not even close. It was unique and funny. It just didn't have the scares necessary to push it higher on my list.

[Erribella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very cool story.i like the way the kids did things on other planet.im glad they made it home. The 3ftiend stuck together.i will not go to observatory ever again though. Haha.i want to read more slappyworld.

[Owen · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's the weirdest book I've ever read, lol. It had a lot of crazy ideas for a kids' book. It wasn't the best, book, but I thought the intro was really interesting to read the whole book. Ending was kinda lacking imo

[Wolverinefactor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was pretty good. Ending felt forced but oh well.

[Thomas-James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good silly fun!

[H.C TOWERS · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked it

[Belinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok

[Chris Seltzer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book. I'm happy we still get silly out there Goosebumps stories.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Walter wanted me to read this one on my own and tell him about it. So…two headed people on another planet. Coincidentally, second straight book with a two headed person in goosebumps books.

[David Bennett Black · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did L. Frank Baum come back from the grave to ghost-write (pun definitely intended) this?

[Cj Otaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good enough!

[Cynthia M King · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good book

The story has a really good twist to it. Let's just say it has a double hitter. Totally recommend it.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a better one. The kids are still not that sharp, but they did run around a lot trying things. The science was silly but I do like a little science in my horror.