Oh, I’ve been looking forward to this. I want to read some random stuff but I had to do this first. R.L. Stine has finally returned to short stories with this one. The last time was Haunting Hour back in like 2002. He has had plenty of one off stories in other collections but this is all his. I think he’s mostly good at short stories and I quite like the Nightmare/Haunting Hour duology especially so this was one I was hyped for. I’ll get to fully review on the blog someday but for now let’s see how the stories fared.
Welcome to the In Between: A boy who is always late gets trapped in time when he breaks his new smart watch. This has similar vibes to Click, Nutcracker Nightmare, and that one Twilight Zone episode. It plays off the idea of your view of time just like Nutcracker did it works by giving it a fresh spin. It does feel rushed though so the horror of this, while there, isn’t as potent as it was in those other stories. The whole In-Between thing is a cool idea and the twist is whatever. A decent one to start off but could be better.
Our Little Monsters: A girl takes up an odd babysitter job. This one was fun, it has some charming back and forth. The girl gets along with her siblings despite them being kind of annoying and the friend was fun. The twist is super predictable but it works due to proper foreshadowing. It does feel like a bit too much of a windup for a predictable ending and I am left with questions by the end. Still, it’s a pretty fun one.
Skin: A boy’s skin starts to fall off. I was hyped for this based on what it says about it on the back blurb and it worked. The idea leads to some solid body horror, even if it’s not pushed as far as I kinda thought. It gets started right away and the ways this gets in the way of his life works. It’s the better version of things like Chicken Chicken. The twist is kinda weird, it has foreshadowing at least but isn’t fully explained and felt a bit repetitive given the last story. But overall, it is soli9d.
The Ghost in the Car: A boy has an asshole older cousin who claims his car is haunted. This one is another that has a lot of wind up but I liked the general stricture to it. The cousin is enjoyable dick-ish so I did want the kids to get their revenge. The ending is fairly predictable but the twist itself was kinda dark which I liked. It’s kinda basic in some ways but I feel it was handled decently enough and it felt different enough from Haunted Car too, kinda. (Also, the kids parents are divorced, neat)
The Boy Who Heard Screams: A prankster hears screams coming from a local haunted house. This one was a solid comeuppance type story. It has the usual boy who cried formula that the previous story also kind of had. The build is standard but the punchline worked. It’s confusing in a way in an intentional way, it makes my head hurt in a good way. But the ending itself is super abrupt, it feels the end of a chapter or section rather than the end of a story, it’s odd. Still, it works well enough.
Bugs: A boy who is afraid of bugs start to see them everything. This premise was hard to explain as that’s not quite it but I don’t spoil it. This one was weird. It takes until the last minute to get into possibly supernatural stuff with bugs, but it stays on topic with a lot of scenes about bugs and such. His deep fear is treated seriously, as he even sees a therapist about it. Yes, really. It’s weirdly serious and creepy but the pacing is just odd. Then the ending makes no damn sense, it’s weirdly handled. It’s a memorable freaky kind of ending but just odd. I think this one is a bit of a flop but also kind of good horror wise, it’s weird, don’t know how to feel about it.
How to change your life: A boy with a terrible life gets it changed with a mysterious book. This is another miixed-ish one. Of course they play up his bad life with awful friends, siblings and parents. It has a bit of Don’t go to sleep vibes with the concept and sadly we only get like two different lives. The main one has some more fame satire which works. The twist is typical but fun. It’s mostly fun but it has the same moral issues that Sleep did, but it doesn’t go full in on the moral, it’s more about the new life not being for him which he even says. So that makes it lack a bit but it does help it. I’d say it’s fun but slightly wonky.
The Bad Side: A good kid finds that he has an evil version running around. This was pretty similar to things like I am your evil twin and Horrors of the Black Ring bu it was still fun. It flowed mostly well with the core idea being a solid creepy one. The explanation is odd but it works. The ending is a bit abrupt, it could have been a bit stronger, it’s slightly off. But otherwise, it’s basic, yet it works well.
The Hole in the Ground: A boy discovers a hole in the ground that keeps getting bigger. A basic and generally solid one. There’s decent tension as we wonder what is going on with the hole. The twist is kinda freaky but also doesn't make much sense with the final beat. And it’s another one that is rather abrupt and wonky. It’s mostly good but a bit basic and wonky, so a bit mixed. Also the mom sucks.
The Monster-Maker: A boy (I think) who is into making monster models get a monster maker that is not what it seems. This is just a big setup for a punchline but it mostly works. I liked the angle with the kids being into making stuff and the punchline was at least funny. He wants to out do this Issac kid and they set it up like Jamie is a jerk for just wanting to outdo him but the ending does muddle that a bit plus Issac is a bit of a jerk. It’s wonky but everything works fine, it’s just a bit for how simple the setup and punchline is. Also it’s rehash from an obscure Goosebumps TV guide story. Not even kidding. So yeah, mostly fine just not perfect.
I'll get to have more detail on the blog someday but it will be spoiler-y so I'll say stuff here. This was generally decent. You can tell he's a bit rusty with short story books as some flaws do creep in. The flow and structure of these can be wonky, as well as some of the logic. I wouldn't say too much was super stand out here but I think all were fun to some extent.
It's closest to Nightmare Hour, where there are clear flaws holding a lot of it back but enough food qualities to make it decent. I feel like he put more effort into little details but it did make them feel padded for short stories. Again, a sense of being rusty. I hope there's another one as Haunting Hour managed to improve a lot so I can see that happen here too. Even the weakest here have cool stuff so it end sup being consistently decent, but not always being too special.
My favorite was Skin, just solid and creepy, Least favorite...maybe Bugs or How to change your life but they had some memorable elements at least. I feel like more could have been to make these super solid and memorable but as it is, it is a fun collection. It's more on the fine side but I'd recommend it, it was decent, just not Tales 6 or Haunting Hour levels. I'[ll have to let it all sink in come review time.
STINE-ISMS: riot, swallowed hard, sour, long woosh of air, silvery, dry as cotton.
RED-HEAD WATCH: Shannon Derby (The Bad Side), Kendra (The Hole in the Ground)
(Side note, there are /3/ stories that mention Minecraft. Was he being paid off or what?)