Sam Waters desperately wants a pet. Too bad his parents don’t think he’s responsible enough and will barely let him keep the weird Insta-Gro animal from the HorrorLand gift shop. To prove he’s responsible, Sam takes an after-school job in a pet store that sells nothing but hamsters. To his horror, Sam soon finds that cute little hamsters can become very UNCUTE monsters. Suddenly, Sam isn’t fighting for a pet—he’s fighting to survive! Could the HorrorLand souvenir have anything to do with this?
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.
This was fine. Kind of stupid to be honest with the hamsters. I also didn’t like the friendship, I thought it was very one sided. The parents were awful as well.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new contender for the worst Goosebumps book of all time. Stories that focus on animals are always a hard sell for me. Animals simply aren't scary. Little Shop of Hamsters also reminds me of a poor man's Monster Blood. I've been clear that I don't really like Monster Blood, so to be a massively inferior version of something I already don't love is, shall we say, not ideal.
We get Sam, who purchases a Phoney Phone, which is basically a candy dispenser, and Insta-Gro Pet, which is a sponge version of Monster Blood, where you eat it and grow huge, at HorrorLand. Back home, Sam really wants a pet but his parents won't let him until he shows he is responsible. To prove to his parents, Sam gets an after school job at Mr. Fritz's Little Shop of Hamsters.
This is where the "scares" begin. The hamsters get a hold of the candy from his Phoney Phone and they start getting very mean. Every time Sam enters the hamster cage to clean, feed, and water the hamsters, they attack him. Wow, so scary! Tiny little hamsters growling and scratching at him. That is the main issue here. Hamsters aren't scary at all. Even mean hamsters can't do anything. And this continues for about 100 pages over and over again.
At the climax of the story, one of the hamsters eats the Insta-Gro Pet sponge and attacks Sam. This is a plot point stolen near identically from Monster Blood. What makes matters worse is how impotent the Insta-Gro Pet is. It only works for a few minutes. So we get a plodding story and the payoff ends up being an extremely temporary giant hamster. Just awful.
The twist at the end is that it wasn't the Phoney Phone candies that made the hamsters angry. It was actually something called Vito-Vigour that Mr. Fritz was feeding the hamsters. His master plan was to develop an army of fierce hamsters that people could use as security or hamster fights or even for the military. He'd be rich! After seeing Sam make the hamster grow, Mr. Fritz wants in on that too. He tries to capture Sam but he gets away easily.
Mr. Fritz may very well be the worst villain in Goosebumps history. He spends the entire book in the basement. Every once in a while he comes upstairs and does nothing. He finally does something and Sam gets away from him with no trouble whatsoever. Just completely pointless.
So we have "monsters" who aren't scary, a villain who does nothing, and a payoff that takes a few minutes in Goosebumps time. There is nothing, absolutely nothing redeeming about this book. I really hated Welcome to Camp Slither, the previous worst HorrorLand book. But that book is a masterpiece compared to this. But is it the worst of all time? Yes, it is. How I learned to Fly previously held the crown. In that book, fame was the real "villain." A kid learns to fly, gets famous, and then gives it all away by pretending to lose the ability to fly. I hated that book because it is every kid's dream to be famous. An athlete, astronaut, princess, rock star, whatever. So fame being the villain really turned me off. But there were at least a few interesting parts. Little Shop of Hamsters had nothing enjoyable whatsoever.
1. Revenge of the Living Dummy 2. Escape from HorrorLand 3. Who’s Your Mummy 4. When the Ghost Dog Howls 5. Say Cheese and Die Screaming 6. Creep from the Deep 7. Dr. Maniac vs. Robby Schwartz 8. My Friends Call Me Monster 9. Help! We Have Strange Powers 10. The Streets of Panic Park 11. Monster Blood for Breakfast 12. The Scream of the Haunted Mask 13. Welcome to Camp Slither 14. Little Shop of Hamsters
In my view, this book has been the best so far among those of the second tier of the Horrorland series. The characters have a genuine feel about them and the action is unexpected, creating twists in the plot that really have the potential to surprise the reader.
As Sam and his friend Lexi hit on the perfect way to convince Sam's parents that he is responsible enough to own a pet, the dark side of the souvenirs that the two friends bought at the Horrorland theme park begins to emerge. A blunder on Sam's part opens the door to terrible consequences when the hamsters that he has been hired to take care of start to change, in ways that are not at all normal for hamsters. Now, Sam has to find a way to neutralize the effect of his mistake...before it costs him more than just the chance to own a pet. But is the real foe that Sam and Lexi face a human, animal or monster?
Little Shop of Hamsters will keep readers guessing, not only until the end but beyond, into the next book. Given that all of the books in the series are linked it can be hard to judge them as totally separate, but this is a good story on its own, and R.L. Stine is a pretty good descriptive writer. One of his finest abilities as an author has always been the way that he so realistically describes action in such surreal stories, and he hasn't lost a bit of that skill.
This book is unfortunately mediocre at best. It rings real hard with familiar GB tropes, but you can tell R.L. Stine was having fun making the hamsters EVIL, because it's so ridiculous you can't help but smile when reading it. The ending is even crazier, and due to the epilogue, you actually get to see the AFTERMATH of a Goosebumps twist! ...it is rather anticlimactic, for all the enjoyment you may get from the sheer novelty of it.
That said, it's…dumb. Painfully dumb. The book is enjoyable only for how crazy it is, not because it's good (as much as I hate to say that). Angry hamsters are silly and entertaining, but the reasoning behind their behavior/the circumstances behind it makes so little sense, that the sheer silliness of the "reveal" cannot hide how truly stupid it is. Not to mention, the climax is basically identical to the ending of Monster Blood II, so the unoriginality is really hammered home. Of course, it IS fun to read about someone being legitimately terrified for his life because of feral hamsters, but the ending just goes past the point of acceptable stupidity.
I don't want to end on a bad note, so I'll mention other things I liked about the book. I genuinely loved the bits with his little brother. I thought the development of the brothers' relationship was cute. He goes from thinking his brother is annoying to actually liking him, and the book has several scenes with the main character babysitting his little brother that show the slow changes in his attitude. Also, there's a scene when the main character calls the candy company to tell them what he thinks is happening, and their conversation is hysterical.
All in all, if you want to read the book based off of the title, like I did, know that you are getting exactly what you expect you're going to get.
The children talk like adults, the plot stops halfway through and has issues picking back up, the ending was a twist but not the good kind, Lexi honestly thinks stealing from a guy that just gave her and the main character jobs is a good idea, the rules of goosebumps is scuffed as is but this is worse than usual. It's probably a 2.5 out of 5 but since THERE'S NO HALF STARS and because I'm nostalgic towards these books I gave it a three. It's an alright book but I wouldn't call it good, it's definitely not as good as classic goosebumps.
They are kids books but the IF THE ORIGINALS COULD BE DONE RIGHT THAN SO CAN THE NEWER ONES, THIS WAS WRITTEN IN 2010 IT'S NOT LIKE IT'S SUPER NEW. Maybe it's the Horrorland series as a whole but in my opinion these books are only being written to make money, R.L. Stine seems burnt out.
And yes, I'm probably too old for these books, but the original 20 (which I have in a box set) hold up fine more than a decade later. My soul is deeply hurt by this horrifying decline in a good series.
The main character's parents SUCK, maybe it's the goosebumps magic making them all funky but the parents always seem to hate the main characters, at least a little.
Noah scares me, anklebiter.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
It was a very intense book and when I found out that Fitz was evil I was shocked I thought he was a nice guy. I was also relieved that Fitz didn’t take over the world with his savage hamsters. I was also happy that Sam got away from Fizt. And I felt bad for Lexi after she turned savage but in the end everyone turned out okay and Fitz didn’t take over the world.
The book “Goosebumps: Little Shop of Hamsters” by R.L. Stine, is about a boy named Sam and his friend Lexi. Sam is not allowed to have any pets until he proves he is responsible enough because of when he bought insta-grow pets and phone candy at horrorland. Witch even causes fierce and giant hamsters (yeah, not our everyday hamsters). This book is recommended from me to people who like animals and adventurous stories. This book might even make you terrified from hamsters.
A very nice read but it’s sadly really uninspired. The major things I liked were the tense bits involving the hamsters, the grow toy (specifically the dinner scene), and the final battle for say. The main character was decently likable, having returned a hamster his friend stole instead of keeping it, which was very nice, and trying to keep the shopkeeper at bay in a respectful manner. Well written as always and the scene where he called a certain company was hilarious. Sadly, the book hits some basic tropes, with a spooky monster, surprise recontextulization that sucked, twist villain(?), and a basic ass twist ending. The hamster horror is appreciated but expected, and it feels a little to cheesy at times. Also, the parents of the main character are just assholes, and his little brother is annoying as shit. Per usual. Overall, 6.5/10 but it’s a very high six and a half out of ten.
As one of the many kids who became readers because of Goosebumps, I periodically buy entries from new off-shoot series to both honor my loyalty to Stine himself (who always kindly responded to my many emails when I was a kid) and satisfy my curiosity about how they read to me as an adult. This entry comes from the new Horrorland series that offers a Marvel-esque cross thread between each book and the Horrorland amusement park. In this entry, though, the tie is minimal: Sam wants a pet but his skeptical parents disagree. Two strange souvenirs from Horrorland combine with a new hamster-centric pet store in town to produce some uncomfortable situations for Sam, his best friend Lexi, and Sam’s family. I love hamsters and, in particular, Stine’s monster blood-hungry hamster, Cuddles, so this seemed like a good choice to explore. Interestingly enough, Little Shop of Hamsters had some interesting elements. I’m well-trained to sniff out twists and I definitely predicted some of the major ones, but the story effectively turned hamsters into a source of menace, capturing a feeling of being swarmed. Sam was fairly grating as a narrator, whiny and careless, and both he and Lexi made terrible choices throughout, but his confusion and frustration both came through. The flatness of the characters stood out to me the most, with principal figures like Lexi poorly developed and a convenient device to further the plot. I’d also criticize that the pet shop was very hard for me to render in my mind: the dimensions of both the store and the huge glass cage never settled into shape for me, making two pivotal scenes a major challenge to visualize. The extremely-simple language was not a shock, but the quick read and simplicity were strengths that let me digest it in two short sprints (and didn’t inhibit the descriptiveness of everything but the pet shop). For a children’s horror novel with murderous hamsters and mysterious relics, Little Shop of Hamsters isn’t peak Goosebumps but it was silly, enjoyable, and not without some quality descriptive writing. I’m definitely glad to see Stine’s work that really defined my childhood living on today.
Sam really wants a pet but his parents don't think he's responsible enough. So, he gets a job after school in a pet store called Little Shop of Hamsters...
You know, Sam's parents were right. He really wasn't ready for a pet. Or a job, really.
Yet, that isn't the worst thing about this book. Nope. It's totally silly, the characters are mostly super annoying (I'm talking to you best friend and little brother), and the hamster thing was just so... ridiculous.
There's nothing freaky or creepy about this story. It's not even interesting because I often found myself skimming forward and didn't miss a damn thing. 😒
Hamsters are small and cute they can't be dangerous, right?
The plot: I really liked the plot of this one. I think it had the perfect amount of mystery and suspense and had me wondering what had happened to this shop of hamsters. I felt that I found myself wanting to keep reading for the mystery to unravel.
The characters: The characters were fine in my opinion. The MMC seems to always find himself at the end of trouble or getting caught up in situations that make him look bad. He is trying very hard to show that he is responsible enough to have a pet. His friend was a little obnoxious but not enough to turn the book or story.
It was about when Sam Waters and Lexie Blake hit the store Sam is suffering from pet anxiety as in he doesn't have a pet and his mom and dad won't let him get one. So he buys an Instant grow animal from the Horror land shop and takes it home. His parents aren't too sure about this unusual purchase but to help them see him as responsible Sam takes a job in a hamster only pet store. These however are not your typical garden variety hamsters in reality they are very strange and unbecoming little MONSTERS and now Sam is waging a personal war against the hamsters.
Little shop of hamsters by R.L. Stine is a very good book. Sam Waters always wanted a pet but his parents never thought that he was responsible enough. He finally wants to prove his parents wrong but it results with an even bigger problem, which means they don't think that he is responsible the slightest bit. He tries working a at a hamster only shop to prove that he is responsible but accidentally messed that up too. Sam just can't seem to catch a break. This book was very good and I recommend it for mostly middle schoolers.
My sister owns two lil guinea pigs, so you can bet I forwarded this book to her. ;D
Insta Gro Pets, grow your own pet. Candy dispenser shaped like a phone. Having bought these two from the Chiller Store at HorrorLand, Sam is kind of happy. But little does he know his life is about to turn upside down. When he starts working in a pet hamster shop near his home, Sam becomes convinced the hamsters are evil. Is it the truth? Or is it just Sam's overactive imagination at work?
I fondly remember my high-school production of ‘Little Shop of Horrors’. The pit orchestra has its highlights, nobody can see you sweat, you can see the edge of the stage, and the music is right there with you. No music, no show IMO.
I digress! This one wasn’t my favourite goosebumps story, and it did take a little while for the horror to set in, but I still loved it. Next time you head to your local pet store, be sure to check the hamsters!!
The books are getting boring now. Even a good writer can't sometimes hold a story for long! The stories are getting common now, nothing new. Getting something from horrorland, having some fights with the villains and nobody notices anything, then everything back to normal....but! But there is something coming out in the later books! Cool idea, yes. But it's getting boring and repititive.
Woo-hoo-hoo! If you don't like the idea of terrible, ferocious, man-biting hamsters... Then don't read this book. They make for positively horrible pets... Especially if they attack you by the hundreds!
Wow! I literally binged this book. Whenever I read Goosebumps I feel like I am inside the book seeing all these things happening rather then just staring at a page filled with words. The ending was😱💀(゚ー゚*)