The Streets of Panic Park

Goosebumps HorrorLand #12

by R.L. Stine

The Streets of Panic Park (Goosebumps Horrorland) [Paperback] R L Stine

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

160 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2009

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

[Ethan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Streets of Panic Park is apparently the conclusion to the story that started in the preceding book, Escape From HorrorLand, which I haven't read. From what I understand, the first ten HorrorLand series books were each composed of a first hundred pages consisting of an original story with a certain protagonist or protagonists, and a final thirty-or-so pages featuring those same protagonists but in the HorrorLand amusement park, in a broader story arc that develops across all ten books. Then, in book eleven, Escape From HorrorLand, all the protagonists from the first ten books are in HorrorLand together, and the entire book takes place there. And then The Streets of Panic Park, book twelve, wraps up the story started in book eleven.

In this story, the characters are convinced they are not safe in HorrorLand and that they should go to another amusement park called Panic Park, where they will be safer. Unfortunately, after they arrive, they discover that Panic Park is stuck in a grayscale 1974, and they are stuck too. They are confronted by the villain of the park, known as The Menace, who tells them that if he's able to scare them all enough, their fear will transport Panic Park back to the real, modern world. And so ensues a series of terrifying events aimed at driving up their fear. Can they resist? Or will the evil of Panic Park make it back to their world? And if it does, what will happen to them?

This one was okay, but for me it was middle-of-the-road. The grayscale world is something Stine has done before in the OG 62-book Goosebumps series in The Haunted School, so the story wasn't exactly original, and Slappy was pretty ineffectual here; usually he steals the show, but despite being featured on the book's cover he has a pretty minimal impact on this story. He seemed like a bit of a throw-in, I thought, and that was a bit disappointing. There are also references to some events and backstory from the first eleven books that I didn't understand, so unfortunately if you haven't read all of those (like me) you'll be left in the dark a little bit. I don't think these gaps in knowledge impacted my enjoyment of the book, and I don't think I would have liked it more if I knew about them, but it's worth mentioning because it may bother some people more than it did me.

Overall, not a bad book, but nothing special or super original either. A middle-of-the-road "okay" Goosebumps book.

CAWPILE rating:

Characters: 4.5
Atmosphere / Setting: 6.0
Writing Style: 4.5
Plot: 5.0
Intrigue: 4.5
Logic / Relationships: 4.0
Enjoyment: 4.0

= 32.5 total
÷ 7 categories = 4.64 out of 10
= 3 stars

[Veronica Morfi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 4/5

Finally I am done with the Horrorland series. Now I have a ton of reviews to write. Including this one :)

[Neal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like this book because all the enemies join forces with the good to stop their leader.

[Matt Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

WHo- The menece, Byron, Luke, Lizzy

What- Taken through mirrors and ended up in horrorland, and they can't go back through the mirrios the only way to make it out alive is to survive a lot of scares

Where- Panic Park

When- 1960s

Genre- thriller horror fiction

Auther- R.L Stine

Likes- Genre Goosebumps series the menaces two faces liked the ending

DIslikes- Too many characters and it made it hard to follow the story

Reccomendations- I reccomend this book to people who like horror thriller and fiction book

[Gavin Hetherington]

I read all 25 Goosebumps HorrorLand and Hall of Horrors books in one movie-length vlog on YouTube, check it out: https://youtu.be/DsKCfCAAt7g

[Bronwyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Galen read March 10-11, 2024

“You know what? Not everyone that are very special guests are good guys. As if Jillian and Jackson work for the Menace because they got their powers from the Menace. (The Menace is Karloff Mennis.) Hurry! Escape from Panic Park! As if the Fear Meter goes up then Karloff Mennis gets his Panic Park back! Make the Fear Meter go down so it disappears forever! Problems are going on. Robby is invisible! Carly Beth and Julie won’t stop shaking! And Brittany has a ventriloquist dummy head.”

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I forgot to count this one. I am surprised this has 4 stars, making it one of Stine’s higher rated books.
For starters, it wasn’t clearly designated a sequel anywhere even though it’s definitely a sequel.

So we didn’t read the first one.

The actual book itself was kinda bonkers. So high in action that i didn’t feel like i didn’t register it all.

But there were some good parts, some fun villains. Kinda like if Willy Wonka were evil and ran an amusement park instead of a chocolate factory.

[clumsyplankton · Rating 4 out of 5]

During this reread I’ve been reading these books to my youngest sister and honestly this one was the one she was most interested in

[Alyssa Collins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Catching up to my Goodreads goal by any means necessary

[claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book picks up at the end of Escape From Horrorland, which i didn't know prior to reading. Regardless, this was surprisingly entertaining and action packed. Every Goosebumps book I've read is filled with false scares, which is fine and something I accept as part of the series, however it was a welcome surprise that this story primarily focused on real threats to its characters instead. This made the stakes feel higher than typical imo. This was probably my favorite Goosebumps reading experience I've had since I was a child first discovering these books :D

[Jose Ramirez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Title:Goosebumps Horrorland The streets of panic park
By:R.L. Stine
I think that goosebumps horroland the streets of panic park is a very good book because it has horror that you can actullay feel.There was a group of kids they were invited to an imusment park they were called to be very special guests then a girl named lizzy and her brother luke knew the truth of the anmusement park.Then they both went inside the park to warn the group of kids that they should stay in the park but they didnt listen to them so luke and lizzy followed them.Then when they went to the other park it was all black and white and nobody was there except for a little shadow girl and one of the kids went to the girl and out of nowhere a bunch of shadows came out and surrded the kid and got turned into a shadow.Then someone told the group that they escaped this place but she dosent remeber but she rembered a white building that was windy they went into a white building but it was the wrong one because dr.mainaic was there and frigten them.they got captured by the menace and then he told them that the exit was to the right they went to the exit and realized that it was a trap and all their greatest fears were there and they told the group how to escape but they had to get rid of the menace.then at the end they escaped and lizzy got in her car and put her jeans on but she felt something in her suitcase and she gasped and it was slappy the dummy.

[10-11 Noah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A young girl and her friends go to panic park to see if it was fun. But is was not at all. An evil puppet named Mac enslaved her brother and locked her in a mental hospital. On her way to find her brother she finds a few friends to help her. When she finds her brother, Mac had locked him up in a super cell where he can not get out no matter what. So she has to find a way to get him and save her friends. And defeat Mac the evil puppet.

[Santiago Gutierrez · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book “Goosebumps: The Streets of Panic Park” by R.L. Stine is about a group of kids who got invited to horrorland. Luke and Lizzie warn the rest of the kids that they’ll be safer in horrorland than panic park. The kids ignore them either way, and go to panic park. And they don’t know what The Menace has in store for them.They meet with old friends to get out of panic park. I really recommend this book to people who like dramatic, intense stories.

[Bryanw]

Awesome

[Juan]

its okay

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a giant Goosebumps reunion and I love it. It’s an incredible conclusion to HorrorLand arc one, and so incredible that I’m gonna bring up some spoilers for this. And I’m gonna break this down a bit more than other reviews.

Positives:
• The Menace
What an awesome villain. He is pure evil, funny, and fun. His design is okay and I like the idea of him having two faces. His defeat is really neat and his lore, how he made the park so unfathomably scary and it spun out of existence, is really cool.

• The Character Usage
Each character felt like they did enough. The main talkers are Matt, Lizzy, Carly, Monster, and sometimes Robby. I think some others should’ve talked more and I’ll get to that later. The villains are the same; they all talked enough and has their fair share of spotlight, weirdly letting Book 10’s Dr. Cranium getting a huge spotlight. Talk about cool.

• The Story
It’s generally really solid. The scares managed to keep being interesting and gradually get more extreme, my favorite being the Hall of Mirrors/Outside of Hall of Mirrors seen (villain reunion orgasm lol). The whole idea was well executed.

• The Twist
The big twist of the book is the villains having to team up with our heroes to all get out alive. I think this was wonderfully done and very unique to see here, having Slappy’s jokes actually be funny to the heroes for once and them just acting chill instead of trying to murder each other. It’s just cool, plus is fun to watch play out. Reasons why are handled well too.

Some quick positives I can throw out there are the pacing being pretty much perfect, the 30 page opening being great, Byron just being evil Byron and the FTD place being kinda cool. There’s a dark vibe as well knowing people have actually perished at Panic Park. Now moving on to downsides.

Negatives:
• Julie and Boone
They didn’t do shit as characters. They just stand there, adding nothing to the story. But I am more forgiving for Boone since Dr. Crawler is actually in the book (from Camp Slither, W villain) whilst the Cursed Camera is nowhere to be seen. Like, Dr. Crawler was pretty much an accessory to Dr. Cranium, son why couldn’t someone be wielding the cursed camera? It feels weird, not to mention Julie adding TWO WHOLE LINES OF DIALOGUE for the whole damn novel. Bullshit? I believe so.

Also, where the fuck was Monster Blood???

However, nitpicks if anything out of the way, this book was an absolute blast of a finale. 10/10 dare I say, but I’m proud to say it do love it—even it it’s a stereotype. But who wouldn’t love to see Slappy and the Haunted Mask team up with Carly Beth, Billy Deep and Lizzy Morris? I sure fucking do!

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Streets of Panic Park had the makings to be one the best Goosebumps books ever. The story had been building for 11 books. Ten villains, plus the Mastermind of Panic Park named Menace, have the kids trapped in both place and time. In order to bring back Panic Park, the Menace must scare the children. It all sounds good.

But it ultimately fails.

The Menace uses a fear meter to track how scared the kids are. Supposedly, when it reaches 100, Panic Park will be brought back to the present, taking out HorrorLand, which was built in the exact spot Panic Park disappeared decades before. Unfortunately, the scares aren't all that scary. We see the fear meter steadily increasing but the stakes don't really seem that high. Sure, the Menace and Panic Park will return, but we don't really know what that entails.

However, the real failure is the use of the other villains. We have classic villains like Slappy, the Haunted Mask, Monster Blood, and HorrorLand Horrors, as well as some new villains. But many of them don't even make an appearance while the rest do little or nothing at all. There is a twist where the villains aren't really working for the Menace. I suppose some people will find the kids and the villains working together interesting. But as I said, the villains barely do anything. It would have been far more interesting if the kids had to defeat them prior to ultimately defeating the Menace.

Overall, this isn't a bad Goosebumps book, just very disappointing. It could have been classic but it ended up kind of dull.

1. Revenge of the Living Dummy
2. Escape from HorrorLand
3. Who’s Your Mummy
4. Say Cheese and Die Screaming
5. Creep from the Deep
6 Dr. Maniac vs. Robby Schwartz
7. My Friends Call Me Monster
8. Help! We Have Strange Powers
9. The Streets of Panic Park
10. Monster Blood for Breakfast
11. The Scream of the Haunted Mask
12. Welcome to Camp Slither

[Jess Castz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Como les comenté, me leí los dos libros que conformaban esta historia y, si el primero los dejó con la boca abierta por todo lo que viven los personajes dentro del recién descubierto Parque del pánico, prepárense por qué en este tomo se sube la apuesta con la aparición de una figura que lo único que busca es devolver su respectivo parque al espacio que antes ocupaba.

Si pensaban que Horrorlandia y sus espectros eran un desafió complicado de superar, ¿imagínense estar atrapados en un sitio donde, si su miedo alcanza una escala de 100, su vida llegará al final? Si, así de intensa se pone la cosa para los protagonistas, quienes, aunque ya vienen de otras historias y de vencer a otros villanos, es claro que nunca se han enfrentado a nada tan desafiante como la calle del pánico.

¿Están seguros de que pueden con la entidad y con los horrores que tiene guardados para los protagonistas? Es tiempo de ver cómo concluye esta historia.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I read the entire Goosebumps Horrorland series, and by and large, I was underwhelmed.

R. L. Stine's Goosebumps was once a favorite of mine when I was in middle school. There were many things he knew how to do well. He realistically portrayed kids' dialog, hobbies, interests, and thoughts, creating kids who were very easy to relate to, something most authors have a hard time with. At least, they were easy to relate to until the inevitable "tell the parents what's going on and get angry when they don't believe you" moment, which occurred in a lot of his books.

In his earlier books, he knew how to create some genuinely unsettling moments and plot twists. I remember actually being very afraid when reading the scene in "Don't Go in the Basement" where the father, who was turning into a plant-like being over time, cut himself and bled green blood in the bathroom sink, while the kid was staying in bed and pretending to be asleep, desperately hoping his dad wouldn't notice he was awake. That scene had some excellent tension, and there were others in his earlier books that had a similar effect.

But over time, Stine's writing seemed to deteriorate, and he started to fall into repetitive cliches. All younger sibling characters are annoying. All older sibling characters are condescending. There's often a bully - the main character is *never* the bully (at least when Bruce Coville wrote My Teacher Fried My Brains, he wasn't afraid to dive into little-explored territory and actually made a school bully the hero, and even a sympathetic one). A lot of the same dialog expressions were recycled regardless of whose mouth they were coming out of.

The stories, already suffering from fake-out scares where nothing really happened, began to rely on them so much that it started to grate. And they just became super predictable.

Goosebumps Horrorland isn't so much a fresh start as it is a continuation of what Stine did right and wrong - mostly wrong - later in his Goosebumps career.

The kids are modernized, now using cell phones to communicate instantly with friends, and using somewhat more modern slang. Blogs and webcomics were featured as plot elements to some degree. It was clearly modern day.

But the storytelling was largely stuck in the past. Fake-out scares galore, both from the kids being scared by any little thing that happens at the end of a chapter, or by other kids playing pranks. The real scares and threats were not much different than before, but at least some of them were more creative or genuinely unsettling. One story involves a person who attempts to attain immortality by eating the innards of still-living mummies! That is just plain dark, and totally unexpected from the normally tame Goosebumps series! There's some more stuff like that, with some characters having fates worse than death as a backstory, but this is still the exception rather than the rule.

The major new element to Goosebumps Horrorland is the addition of the Horrorland subplot at the end of each book. The main character of the story you just read ends up in the fright-themed amusement park of Horrorland, ultimately joining up with the main characters of all the other books in this series. Essentially, each Goosebumps Horrorland book contains two stories: the main story, involving an original character with an original threat, and the continuing story of the Horrorland saga, which continues on from the previous book in the series and essentially runs as a serial.

The main story moves quickly, but due to the need to fit the Horrorland subplot at the end, the main story is now shorter than a regular Goosebumps book would be, and has less of a chance to really attempt to establish atmosphere, as the plot needs to move quickly.

The curse of a quick-moving plot afflicts the Horrorland subplot as well, however, resulting in a story that feels very random, as various "scary" things happen too rapid-fire to really be scary due to the total lack of atmosphere.

This problem should have been rectified by the last two books in the Goosebumps Horrorland series, as they take place exclusively in Horrorland as well as a place called Panic Park, and are continuations of the Horrorland saga thus far. Sadly, not only are they not, but the final book in the series is the most random of all!

Streets of Panic Park, the final Goosebumps Horrorland book, involves a character who has captured all of the kids in the saga thus far, and plans to literally frighten them to death as part of a bizarre, nonsensical plot. The result is the most random imagery I'd ever seen in a Horrorland book, and a plot that feels rather lacking in places to really branch out.

And that's a royal shame. Since I first heard about this series, I'd thought that the idea of bringing many main characters from different, original Goosebumps stories together and putting them in Horrorland would make for some very interesting storytelling possibilities. Some of them are utilized. The villains of the main stories of Goosebumps Horrorland show up a second time to threaten the kids in the Horrorland saga subplot, thus allowing the kids to see what threats their new friends have faced. Furthermore, one pair of kids actually have special powers that they gained from their own story, which they put to use here.

Other than that, though, Goosebumps Horrorland is largely disappointing. R. L. Stine has probably racked his brain for all the ideas he can come up with for children's horror, and it seems he really used them to his best ability in the first few books of the original series. It may be time for him to try something different from horror, or Goosebumps, if he is to keep on writing.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grade: C+

Goosebumps Horrorland 12

The Streets of Panic Park is the climax of the first Horrorland story arc. The children from the first ten books in the series confront a new villain, the mastermind who trapped them in Horrorland -- a two-headed monster named The Menace.

The Menace is trapped in time in an amusement park called Panic Park, where Horrorland used to sit. Now, he's using the children's terror to fill his Fear Meter. Once the meter reaches 100%, the past and present will merge.

When The Menace doublecrosses the villains he used to lure the children to Horrorland, Slappy and other classic Goosebumps villains must team with the kids they tormented to overthrow a new threat.

[Benedict · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 12th and final book in this arc of the Horrorland series, this continues the story left on a cliffhanger in Escape From Horrorland, where our gang of protagonist kids are trapped in Panic Park at the hands of main villain, The Menace.

It continues as all the others in this series have, with fast-paced action throughout. It's not a deep story, but it's fun and engaging, and good to see this 12-book narrative finally have a conclusion.

It's been fun. I might listen to more of the Goosebumps audiobooks from Scholastic, because they are absolutely top-notch recordings.

[❤Marie Gentilcore · Rating 5 out of 5]

We (me, boy-11, girl-10) have sure enjoyed the Horrorland series. We listen in audio so we can all experience it together. In this book the Horrorland Special guests finally escape from Panic Park and return to Horrorland Park. This is the last audio in the series for now and it was fun and fast paced and entertaining. We had a great time reading this book series together. Highly recommend this series for kids and family group reads or listens.

[Lily Newman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story creates suspense and horrors to await for you in this book. There's more than just one character in this story, but is all the character's from previous books that went on their own adventure. They escape from HorrorLand to Panic Park, but that was a mistake. The Menace is using them to get his park back to the real world! They need to stop him but how? I think this is a good book and I would recommend it to people that are into horror. (It also has some twists)

[anuprash · Rating 5 out of 5]

nice fiction, I have viewed the border of madness i.e, menace -starkly mad keeping fear meter and fearing the children to return to the present world with the help of fear that's the menace but with the help of the villains who have frightened them to death previously and with a hugest weapon to fight the fear they returned to their world. From mine its a nice novel.

[Sarah Goodner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a difficult time following this one because it was SO far-fetched. The problem-solving / conflict resolutions felt forced to me.

All the kids who are VIPs at Horrorland are now swept away into this alternate past reality, Panic Park. Their own personal monsters are all there, too, so who do they trust?

[Leander · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one earns itself a four stars.
Why?
Because of the way Stine put them all together, his characters, his villains.
It's a beautiful piece of work in itself.

And, the one whom they thought they could trust. The only one. He/she (won't give any hints), turned out to be with the evil side.

And, what does it take to make an evil person have your back?

[Katie Harder-schauer · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seems like the newer books in the Goosebumps series are more focused on continuing horror. A lot of the earlier books, when the book was over, the characters were safe, or at least seemed safe. The Horrorland books that I've read so far definitely don't continue that trend though, as the kids are still clearly in some sort of danger in the end. It's a fun change.

[House of Goosebumps · Rating 5 out of 5]

10/10

I don’t have a single complaint about this book, it’s absolutely perfect and one of the best books in the whole Goosebumps franchise.

I loved the idea of Panic Park and the Menace, he is one of the best Goosebumps villains of all time in my opinion.

I loved this book so much and I highly recommended it.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally, the Horrorland book that brings everything together ( not to mention answers whether Byron is friend or foe). Except, just as I was saying “I *knew* it!”... along came another plot twist that had me geeking out.
In short, read the Horrorland series in order.

[Marcus Garcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

In The Streets Of Panic Park, there were a group of kids reported missing. Some people sent over some teenagers to look for the kids, but they had some situations that might get them into trouble and problems.