Halloween Night II

Halloween Night #2

by R.L. Stine

Unsettled by Dina's return to town and further upset by her boyfriend's escapades with another girl, Brenda hopes for a safer Halloween, unaware that someone has evil plans in store

Genres: Horror, Young Adult, Halloween, Fiction, Thriller, Horror Thriller, Teen

176 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1994

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

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Los dos libros de noche de halloween tanto este como el primero tienen una cualidad que no me agrada del todo: me hacen sentirme muy enojada.
El motivo:
Todo lo que le pasa a Brenda es por culpa de otras personas que no sé porque le tienen envidia, resentimientos y demás emociones que me sacan de quicio.
El personaje más odioso es la prima Haley, no la soporto, siempre haciéndose la víctima, al principio caes en la trampa y luego te enteras que todo es premeditado, es horrorosa, envidiosa a más no poder, y su único propósito en la vida es tener todo lo de Brenda.
Engancha desde la primera línea pero te hace pasar unos corajes...
El misterio está muy bien llevado y aunque dejan pistas de quién podría ser el responsable, la relación tóxica con la prima te envuelve tanto que la resolución es muy inesperada.

[Ken · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can appreciate that Stine is such a prolific author that sometimes he would reuse an idea, but with this being a complete rehash of the original book makes it a completely disappointing entry in the range.

The fact that this didn’t even need to be have been set at Halloween speaks volumes!

I’ll always like the individual stories under the Point Horror brand, so will always think that sequels are unnecessary.
This reaffirms my belief!

[Steph · Rating 2 out of 5]

stine really just redid halloween night and made the characters go through the same conflicts all over again.

seriously, if you've read the first one, you've read this one. nasty threats leading up to halloween, shamelessly cheating boyfriends, the cousin from hell who takes the blame for everything, horror fakeouts at the end of almost every chapter, and the classic besties fantasizing about murdering their peers. oh, and the exact same brand of villain, revealed in a similar chaotic twisty climax.

there's also a whole lotta fatphobia in this one. which is of its time, but is still uncomfortable and unnecessary.

the badass cover art is the only thing that made this one worth reading!!

[Grace Chan · Rating 3 out of 5]

****SPOILERSSSSSS****

Halley is still a skanky boyfriend stealer. Brenda is still a drama queen yelling "shrilly".
The girls all decide to faux-kill someone again on Halloween except...things go horribly AWRY.
This is all basically more of the same of Halloween Night 2. I was gonna give it 2 stars but since this time there was AN ACTUAL MURDER and not an RL Stine specialty fake-out, I decided to be generous with giving 3 stars.

Random musings:
Creepy dude follows Brenda and her friends around the mall and she screams "IT'S THE FAT MAN!! RUN!!" Rude, girl.

Dina the murderous ex-BFF is out of the loony bin and SHE'S BAAAACK....but totally under- utilized?! She serves no real purpose except to stare creepily at Brenda and come into the house unannounced, holding a knife like 'Oops you dropped this!' A proper REVENGE arc would've been awesome.

There are questionable fashion choices made. "An oversized pale green V-neck shirt over a canary yellow shirt and dark green denim jeans." Eww!! The sartorial taste of 90's YA killers is just begging for a makeover montage!

3 out of 5 stabs from the kitchen knife. Bye bye boyfriend!! 💀💀💀

[ItzSmashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know Stine has a tendency to do this, but this sequel is almost beat for beat the same as the original. Same plot points, same character arguments and a very similar end reveal. That being said I have rated this one higher than the last as I actually think its better executed. Second times the charm apparently.

1 year after Brenda was stabbed at her halloween party. Her and her new best friend make a plot to scare a boy who has cheated on her and film it. But when things start to go against the plan they discover everyone is a target. And somebody else has vengeance on their mind.

[Brendon Lowe · Rating 3 out of 5]

We continue following our characters from the first story in this one. After the horrific events of halloween night one year prior will this years party be any better? Bets are on it being worse when the killer from the first novel returns, but is she reformed or is revenge on her mind?

This one has less halloween feeling to it even thought it does have a house decked out in awesome decorations and some cool skeleton costumes. Its still an enjoyable read but I prefer the first book a bit more.

[kylajaclyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow. It must have been the devil that possessed RL Stine to believe we needed a sequel to Halloween Night. The protagonist, Brenda, was horrible in the first book, and she's horrible in this one too. Why is she never the one who dies? I have no good answer for that. Essentially this book is a rehash of the first one. Instead of getting along in this book, Brenda fights with her cousin Halley AGAIN. One of her friends turns out to be psycho AGAIN. Somebody puts gross things in her bed AGAIN. Halley steals Brenda's boyfriend AGAIN. Only a few details are different. Basically all you need to know is that Brenda has horrible taste in friends. Angela, the new girl at McKinley High, has replaced Dina as the psycho in this book. She's slightly chubby, therefore she ends up evil. And Brenda is afraid of a fat man at the mall that only wants to give her her wallet back. I feel like I'm in a fat-bashing Sweet Valley book. It was so obvious from the beginning that the man wanted to give Brenda her wallet back that I'm not sure why it was a subplot.

Brenda and Traci and Angela are working on a horror film for a school project instead of a book this time. The whole gist is that now instead of wanting to kill Halley, they want to kill Jake (they do pay Halley back for stealing Jake, though, by "pretending" to strangle her for their movie. Yep, Brenda is the worst). Jake dated Traci, then Brenda, then dumped Brenda for Halley, THEN dumped Halley and told Brenda he wanted to come back to her. All in the span of one book. The plan is for them to use Angela's creepy Halloween-fied house in order to scare Jake so badly that they get it on film to get revenge on him. But Angela doesn't stick to the plan when they show up. Then Halley and Dina are there, and Brenda thinks Dina is going to kill them again. In reality, Angela is pissed because Jake promised her he'd be with her, but then he went back to Brenda instead. Angela kills Jake, "ties herself up" upstairs, where Brenda finds her, but when they come down and Traci announces their video camera was on the whole time, Angela comes clean and goes crazy at the same time.

I'm sorry, guys. This one sucks so much shit I can't even review it properly. I'm sure most of the Christmas books will suck too, but at least I can finally move on to a different holiday!

[Alex (The Bookubus) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was very similar to the first one in that it is very dialogue heavy and fast-paced, but also in that it rehashes some of the same plot points. I actually quite liked the ending so that was a nice surprise. But otherwise there wasn't much substance to it. And there was some fat-shaming going on which is not cool.

[Erica Leigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

More of the same. All of these teens are psychopaths.

[Alexa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just as good as the first one. Although this time around it was even easier to tell who was behind everything. Aside from that it was a super fun read with cool twists and turns. The ambiance was great and spooky and definitely a great read for Halloween. I would recommend this to others.

[Corey Woodcock · Rating 2 out of 5]

I defend RL Stine whenever possible and often let him slide on things I shouldn’t, but yikes. This one was rough. Yet, I was still “entertained” enough to finish it in about a day, lol. So 2 stars it gets.

This really is the same book over again, but far more ridiculous. The dialogue is really just not good. Brenda spends the entire book yelling at everyone and whining, Halley’s arc is literally identical to the first, and who are the other characters? I’ve forgotten. I can suspend my disbelief enough to enjoy these books most of the time, but this was just absurd, I’m sorry.

Some of RL Stine’s books are clever and quite entertaining. This feels like something he wrote in an evening unfortunately. I generally see the Fear Street and Point Horror novels as Stine’s best as a whole, but this is one of the weakest entries by far.

If you’ve read Halloween Night, you’ve read this one. Appreciated the Halloween vibes though—Happy October! 🎃

[Jason Harlow · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story picks up a little less than a year after the events of the first one, and Brenda returns as the story's main protagonist. Trick-or-treating was rumored to be canceled due to the fact that a dangerous man is on the loose. On top of that, Brenda's rivalry with Halley has been renewed, as Halley is once again constantly causing problems between the two. With Halloween night just around the corner, Brenda, Traci, and their new friend Angela devise a plot to scare Halley's new boyfriend. This is similar to its predecessor in many ways, but was overall a more ambitious story to tell, with different avenues of horror slowly building until the resolution. The climax of the first one was arguably more intense, but R.L. Stine did an amazing job creating suspense here, and the final reveal is so dark. I found myself entertained from start to finish, not wanting to set this book down for a single second. If you can get past the fact that R.L. Stine incorporated way too many of the false scare sequences in this, you will be highly entertained. The two Halloween Night books should be an essential read for horror fans every October.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love R.L. Stine's books because they are simple, enjoyable and quick to read. This is a great seasonal chapter book, but you'll definitely want to read the first one to really get the premise. This one is not a standalone Stine. :) I appreciated the texture of the characters here because it wasn't so easy to follow the mystery.

Brenda is a whiney character in both books, but her conversations with her friends take interesting turns and her feud with her cousin is downright edgy and dripping with spite. Such drama.

And the worms!

Great Halloween read, 4 stars.

[William Beck · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

I picked this up for nostalgia, as this was the first book I rented from the adult section in the library and I was captivated by both the cover & sheer idea that even adults had a place for RL Stine.

So now, well over 20 years later when I stumbled across this again, I had to grab it.

Even without having read the original Halloween Night, the story is referenced so frequently here as to feel like a retread. This is a sequel that feels very much like same story, different night, and feels all too predictable in its formulaic approach. This is most notable in its chapters. Any reader of Stine will no doubt know how much he loves a cliffhanger for his chapter ends, and this is certainly true for Halloween Night II to almost parody levels. Almost every chapter ends with a dramatic cliffhanger followed by a fake out at the start of the next page, and it just becomes exhausting and kills any tension going forward, even when the madness truly begins. Which is a shame, because there’s some great visceral imagery in the climax, it was just hard to feel invested after so many false jumps leading into it.

A quick read with a handful of spooky pages, but not enough to truly recommend this to anyone but die hard fans of RL Stine.

[Matias · Rating 5 out of 5]

Novela corta o cuento corto. Cuestión,el hombre sabe hacerlo. Mezclar lo juevenil con el terror más puro y verdadero dónde nada sale bien y te hace sentir (aunque no hay unos personajes que brillen por su desarrollo)todo el miedo y sus problemas dentro de la pequeña historia. Increíble y aterrador.

[Autumn Ketchum · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this one a little bit more because of how dark it got at the end. That was pretty cool. Otherwise it was pretty much the same. Halley is still AWFUL, the dudes all suck, and I felt it was a fairly predictable villain with predictable reasons.

[Sati Marie Frost · Rating 2 out of 5]

One-Line Review: Whingers and entitled bitches and scummy parents, oh my!

Full Review:

In many ways, this is a rerun of the first book. After becoming friends with Brenda in the end of Halloween Night and promising to be a nicer person, Halley's turned into a brat again and is doing exactly the same things as in the first book, including stealing Brenda's boyfriend Jake - despite the fact that she's already dating Ted, the guy she seduced away from Brenda last time.

(Good Lord, R.L. Stine, where do you get these douchebag teenage boys from? Are high school boys just like this in the States? It's been ten years since I was in high school, but if my foster kid had behaved like any of these guys he'd have been in for some serious verbal whipping.)

So the pranks continue, as in the last book. Halley "accidentally" pours sulphuric acid over Brenda's hand in Chem. Someone sticks rotten pumpkin flesh in Brenda's locker. And Brenda and Traci and their new friend Angela decide to humiliate Jake - and maybe Halley - by setting up a haunted house and then pretending that they're going to kill him. A bit weak really.

Brenda's parents are marginally less scummy than in book 1, although they don't seem to have any real sympathy for Brenda's sulphuric acid burn. Halley is insensitive enough to bring the person who tried to kill Brenda last year into the house, saying that everyone deserves a second chance. Now that shit is wack. If someone brought the guy who tried to kill me into my house, I'd scream bloody murder. And then I'd kick them both out. And if I were a teenager without the authority to do that, I'd call child protective services, because clearly Brenda's parents are neglectful to the point where their daughter nearly gets killed TWICE, after receiving threats each time that the parental units didn't take seriously.

Even though Brenda's a whinger, I just feel so bad for her.

I'm tempted to up the rating again, because even though these books were uncomfortable to read, R.L. Stine obviously has talent - he makes me feel for these (annoying) characters, and get angry on their behalf. But I'll leave it down, because I'm trying to grade the Point Horror books against each other, in the context of teen horror, and these certainly aren't the best.

I don't know, maybe I'm just getting too old for Stine. He writes so many really unpleasant characters, and I like to surround myself with nice people, of both the real and the fictional variety. Some of his Fear Street books are still great, but I'm still looking for a book this autumn that makes me happy the way Beach Party did.

Verdict: Arrgh! It's Night of the Living Rerun! But with more death.

[Sharron Joy Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Following the trauma of last Halloween where her friend had tried to kill her, Brenda is no longer a fan of the holiday! This year her friends convince her to pull a Halloween prank to punish her cheating boyfriend but it all goes very wrong.

Brenda makes her life so difficult, she is selfish and self centred, feeling constantly under attack without considering the reality and hitting out often violently. I am astonished she has any friends tbh 🤣

This story is ok, it has great Halloween vibes but I couldn’t get past how annoying she was! To be honest this is a carbon copy of the original story which is why sequels do not work in Point Horror in my opinion. Love the book cover though 🎃

[Liliana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reviewed on Lili Lost in a Book

It’s been a year since the awful Halloween party in which Brenda’s own friend stabbed her. This Halloween, Brenda is getting threatening messages again. Could it be her cousin Halley who is still living with her family? Or maybe one of her own friends... again?

This book... it was filled with characters that were just not great. Cousin Halley is still awful... still stealing Brenda’s boyfriends. Although I do believe she’s just lonely. And Brenda is not much better. She’s the main character and I didn’t even liker her! She was insane and totally overreacted about everything. With everything that happened last year I can understand why she would be cautious, but the way she acted was just ridiculous!

So, she lost her wallet at the mall. This big, menacing man then “comes after her.” He’s really not. He was just trying to return her wallet. I knew this right from the start. It was ridiculous!

Oh, and Brenda’s new boyfriend? An absolute jerk! I hated him. I’m glad that in the end Brenda saw it too.

This book, it was not the greatest. The only reason why I didn’t give it one star was because I didn’t hate it. It was just a nothing book with not great characters and predictable plot twists. I really liked first book, but this one? Not so much.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Halloween night 2 stars Brenda again and this time the story starts off with her two friends and one is trying to stab her ! Oh wait no there making a horror movie called Night Of The Jack O Lanterns ,which I believe is the original title for Attack Of The Jack O Lanterns, but I could be wrong .They take a break, only to find somebody Brenda knows from the last book is in her house and Brenda doesn't want her there and rightfully so .She almost got stabbed by this person last time .So she gets kicked out "cruelly"as one of her friends put it. It doesn't take long for the Halley shenanigans to ensure ,stealing Brenda's new boyfriend so Brenda tries to strangle Halley only for it to be revealed to be part of the movie. Some Halloween pranks are also happening at the same time. She gets a letter with a bloody Jack O Lanterns that reads happy late Halloween and somebody puts a rotten pumpkin in her locker and a pillow case with worms made to look like a jack-o'-lantern is placed on her bed.So then Brenda and her friends decide to come up with a plan to scare Jake, Brenda's ex and halley and record it to embrass Jake and get back at halley. I'll be honest I didn't like this one as much as the first .It was really predictable but the biggest flaws is this book wasn't really needed and some of the things that happen in the first book, you would think the characters would learn to do better. Other then that I really liked Halloween night 2 .I give it four out of five stars .

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Mindy G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

MM $11.70 Ebay 7/3/25

[J.D. · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's been a year since Brenda's disastrous Halloween party. This year she doesn't feel up to celebrating.

But when her ex best friend who tried to kill her shows up and she starts receiving threatening messages again, she is forced to fight for her life a second time on Halloween night.

Well Brenda has horrible taste in both friends and boyfriends, that's for sure!

Unfortunately this book was pretty much a repeat of the original one. I thought Brenda would have learned what not to do the first time around.

Overall I don't think the first book needed a follow up.

[Angela · Rating 1 out of 5]

The more Stine I read, the less understand why he was so popular when I was younger. This is another disappointing addition to the Point Horror series, full of insipid characters and a complete lack of intensity.

[Bookworm of the Damned · Rating 2 out of 5]

My new video is up where I rant about "Halloween Night 2" by R.L. Stine. Also, the pumpkin spice latte returns with a vengeance.

https://youtu.be/vg0oP1v0g8Y

[Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Brenda still sucks.

FULL REVIEW: https://spongey444.wordpress.com/2021...

[Slappy Horror Legend · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four and a half stars for this one. This was better than the first, and someone actually died in this one

[Kelsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

[Shay · Rating 2 out of 5]

The plot was very similar to the first one but the first one was way better.

[Austin Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked this one. This surprised me.

From what I remember, I quite enjoyed the first Halloween Night by R.L. Stine, but the last few Point Horror books that I've read have been stinkers. This was really enjoyable though, almost as good as the first Halloween Night.

What we have here is basically a recycled version of the first:
Halley steals Brenda's boyfriend (Again)
The characters haven't seemed to learn anything.
There's another Halloween party and another plot to kill someone (sorta / a little bit different this time around)
Oh, and Dina comes back, but it's not really explained how or why.

So yes, in many ways this is kind of a recycled version of the first, but I still enjoyed it for the most part. What is it about these Halloween Night books that appeals to me so much?
I think there's something about them that offer a different flavor and darker tone than typical of Stine's other Point Horror titles.
There's a lot of the teen melodrama present, which is par for the course, but in these books it's much more angst and hate-fueled than usual. These books are really mean-spirited and most of the characters are assholes - some more than others, but they're all kinda jerks and there's not really any moments of resolution or reconciliation among them. I like this aspect of the book, it makes it feel darker, and more realistic in a way - sometimes people just can't get along, and it adds to the melancholy vibes this book gives off.

Speaking of vibes, I also dug the Halloween vibes and sometimes sinister atmosphere this book had. I'll admit that it wasn't frequent, but there's just this sense of foreboding as someone continues playing cruel pranks on our lead girl, Brenda, and it seems like everyone is out to get her - not to mention an older, shady looking guy who creepily watches her and even chases her a couple of times. What does he want? You don't find out until the final chapter (I predicted what he wanted, and it was kind of lame, but it was funny, so whatever).

It was a bit predictable, which is one of my negatives I have with it. I also easily guessed who the culprit was behind the pranks and then the Halloween party shenanigans at the end. Having read so many of Stine's books at this point, though, I'd be worried if I couldn't at least make some accurate guesses. Someone who hasn't read many of these might not find it as predictable.

My other minor complaint with the book is that it just feels a bit empty and redundant in some areas. Dina makes a return, as I mentioned, but... why? Her character hardly gets any scene time, and by the end her role in the story doesn't matter at all. I think Stine brought her back to use her as a red herring, which is fine, but he could have utilized her character so much better than he did.

One other thing - the Halloween party / climax of the story left me with some mixed feelings. I actually liked it better than the first book in that it's a bit darker and more violent. A character dies in the story, and from what I remember that doesn't happen in the first book. On the downside, the climax feels just a bit rushed through and I would have liked some more detail and I would have liked to see more of a struggle between the protagonists and the antagonist. It's all over a little too quickly.

Overall I thought this book was a lot of fun. It's dark, creepy at times, has a few nice moments of humor in it, but mostly mean-spirited and ill-fated for the characters which is a nice change of pace. It moves along at a nice pace and has an intriguing enough mystery, even if it does essentially rehash the first book.
I'm giving this one a 3.25 / 5
Not quite great but one of the better Point Horror books from Stine that I've read so far.