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Goosebumps Triple Header #2
Three Shocking Tales of Terror
Three-headed monster Lefty, Righty, and Slim introduce three gruesome short stories about an out-of-body experience gone wrong, a mummy, and some really monstrous schoolmates.
159 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1998
3 people are currently reading
231 people want to read
About the author
R.L. Stine
1,679 books18.6k followersRobert 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...
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...
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 15, 2020
I honestly have no idea how this book ended up in my book collection. Judging by the yellowed price tag sticker still on the back, I spent 4 dollars on it at a Barnes & Noble. How long ago, I do not know. I just know that sometime in the past, I made the conscious choice that I would buy a book where three novellas are narrated by a three-headed monster named Lefty, Righty, and Slim. Good going, me.
It's always hard to choose what rating to give an R. L. Stine book. The Goosebumps and Fear Street novels are not what anyone would consider high literature, and this book in particular has things like dogs astrally projecting themselves and some kid being dared by monsters to eat dirt.
In short, I give it two and a half stars because...this book is really stupid. Eye-rollingly stupid. But it's a fun stupid. A fun stupid with bad literary jokes (a monster tells the other monster he smells, and his reply is "thanks for the compliment"), some real 90's-esque jokes about slime and drool, and puns as far as the eye can see. To give it any more stars would be to elevate it to a level it does not have, but to say it's "bad" also does it a huge disservice.
The three novellas and the book's narration are structured as such:
The Introductions-Lefty, Righty, and Slim talk to each other in script format before mentioning a basic synopsis of one of the three novellas. Here's an example of how this monster talks to itself.
Hah, get it, because they're monsters and therefore think differently from humans.
Not much more to say about them, other than the design of the monster itself is kinda fun. I like how Lefty (...Righty? Are they named after my left or the monster's left?) is wearing a fashionable pair of glasses despite being a gross monster. It's the little touches...
Ghoul School-Normal human boy accidentally ends up in a school filled entirely of monsters and tries to survive by lying he's a monster. You can tell they're monsters because instead of eating ham sandwiches, they eat hand sandwiches! Luckily, he finds a fellow human being in the school that is sure to get him out of the pickle he lands himself in.
I'm actually going to give away the twist ending here because it's really, really dumb. The monster school and all the students inside get arrested by the CIA because monsters are illegal. The human boy was installed there as "bait" by his father to help shut the school down. Because clearly, that's the best solution - not warning your own son about potential death or maiming while sending him into a nest of suspected monsters.
Of the three stories, this one seems to be the one with the most effort put into it. In that, unlike the other two novellas, I could see this one being more fleshed out and made into an actual Goosebumps novel.
The Revenge-After a school bully nearly kills her dog, Amelia decides to get revenge by going to a fortune teller and paying her $100 in order to make her teach her how to use astral projection.
...Yep.
This book is probably the "scariest" one because while the other two deal with silly monsters, this one deals with the consequence of having your soul locked out of your body and being conscious for all eternity as your soul floats in the void. Which might sound familiar if you ever read Stranger with My Face.
To make this even scarier, this actually happens to one of the characters in the book! is trapped outside of their body and it's oddly treated like a good thing even though now that soul is going to watch all the stars in the Milky Way die long after the Earth has been consumed by the sun. But hey, is just so cool that we're supposed to forget about that tiny little detail.
Speaking of Stranger with My Face...
The Mummy With My Face-Norm and his older sister Claire are bored with their tour of Egypt and the pyramids (making them the worst kids ever because who visits Egypt and is like "man, all this ancient history is BORING") and they end up following a complete stranger into a cursed pyramid full of mummies. Because adventure, I guess.
This novella is mostly mummies trying to attack people and really fake cellphone magic somehow saving the day because .
I also feel like if they changed the names of the characters to Scooby Doo characters and left literally everything else intact, no one would bat an eyelash. One of the villains even gives a giant motive rant explaining the whole thing as he's being led away in handcuffs. Zoinks!
In conclusion, read if you like dumb things and would find entertainment in these thoroughly dumb plots of dumbness. Skip if you're actually looking for something well-written.
It's always hard to choose what rating to give an R. L. Stine book. The Goosebumps and Fear Street novels are not what anyone would consider high literature, and this book in particular has things like dogs astrally projecting themselves and some kid being dared by monsters to eat dirt.
In short, I give it two and a half stars because...this book is really stupid. Eye-rollingly stupid. But it's a fun stupid. A fun stupid with bad literary jokes (a monster tells the other monster he smells, and his reply is "thanks for the compliment"), some real 90's-esque jokes about slime and drool, and puns as far as the eye can see. To give it any more stars would be to elevate it to a level it does not have, but to say it's "bad" also does it a huge disservice.
The three novellas and the book's narration are structured as such:
The Introductions-Lefty, Righty, and Slim talk to each other in script format before mentioning a basic synopsis of one of the three novellas. Here's an example of how this monster talks to itself.
LEFTY: Hey, I had a talk with my teacher today. She said I was smart, nice, and well behaved.
SLIM: Don't feel bad, you'll do better next semester!
Hah, get it, because they're monsters and therefore think differently from humans.
Not much more to say about them, other than the design of the monster itself is kinda fun. I like how Lefty (...Righty? Are they named after my left or the monster's left?) is wearing a fashionable pair of glasses despite being a gross monster. It's the little touches...
Ghoul School-Normal human boy accidentally ends up in a school filled entirely of monsters and tries to survive by lying he's a monster. You can tell they're monsters because instead of eating ham sandwiches, they eat hand sandwiches! Luckily, he finds a fellow human being in the school that is sure to get him out of the pickle he lands himself in.
I'm actually going to give away the twist ending here because it's really, really dumb. The monster school and all the students inside get arrested by the CIA because monsters are illegal. The human boy was installed there as "bait" by his father to help shut the school down. Because clearly, that's the best solution - not warning your own son about potential death or maiming while sending him into a nest of suspected monsters.
Of the three stories, this one seems to be the one with the most effort put into it. In that, unlike the other two novellas, I could see this one being more fleshed out and made into an actual Goosebumps novel.
The Revenge-After a school bully nearly kills her dog, Amelia decides to get revenge by going to a fortune teller and paying her $100 in order to make her teach her how to use astral projection.
...Yep.
This book is probably the "scariest" one because while the other two deal with silly monsters, this one deals with the consequence of having your soul locked out of your body and being conscious for all eternity as your soul floats in the void. Which might sound familiar if you ever read Stranger with My Face.
To make this even scarier, this actually happens to one of the characters in the book! is trapped outside of their body and it's oddly treated like a good thing even though now that soul is going to watch all the stars in the Milky Way die long after the Earth has been consumed by the sun. But hey, is just so cool that we're supposed to forget about that tiny little detail.
Speaking of Stranger with My Face...
The Mummy With My Face-Norm and his older sister Claire are bored with their tour of Egypt and the pyramids (making them the worst kids ever because who visits Egypt and is like "man, all this ancient history is BORING") and they end up following a complete stranger into a cursed pyramid full of mummies. Because adventure, I guess.
This novella is mostly mummies trying to attack people and really fake cellphone magic somehow saving the day because .
I also feel like if they changed the names of the characters to Scooby Doo characters and left literally everything else intact, no one would bat an eyelash. One of the villains even gives a giant motive rant explaining the whole thing as he's being led away in handcuffs. Zoinks!
In conclusion, read if you like dumb things and would find entertainment in these thoroughly dumb plots of dumbness. Skip if you're actually looking for something well-written.
April 3, 2023
A fun little blast from the past. What a good intro to horror for kids. Scary but not too scary.
July 31, 2025
Triple Header book 2 was a fine collection of stories. Im not exactly sure if im being nicer to this book than i should be just because of how bad book 1 was… but nevertheless, heres my thoughts.
Ghoul School:
Fun idea and could’ve been actually really good if taken more seriously, sadly its not. This has about the seriousness of a Bone Chillers story. Cant hate it at all, but it leaves something to be desired, 4/10.
The Revenge:
I really like that the story doesn’t waste time and gets right down to business. This tale is a little too back and forth in the sense that it feels like its trying to teach you a lesson that revenge isn’t right, but also nothing bad really happens to our main character(given the bittersweet ending), 5/10.
The Mummy with My Face:
So far from the mummy stories I’ve read this has got to be the weakest, and its still not TERRIBLE… i feel as if it just needs a more interesting idea overall. Im fine with what is brought to the table but its just so basic and feels like it could be cut down to a 20 page story from tales to give you goosebumps, 4/10.
Overall, its an okay collection, but i really wish more was done with these tales. It doesn’t shock me this book line was cancelled so early, 4.5/10.
Ghoul School:
Fun idea and could’ve been actually really good if taken more seriously, sadly its not. This has about the seriousness of a Bone Chillers story. Cant hate it at all, but it leaves something to be desired, 4/10.
The Revenge:
I really like that the story doesn’t waste time and gets right down to business. This tale is a little too back and forth in the sense that it feels like its trying to teach you a lesson that revenge isn’t right, but also nothing bad really happens to our main character(given the bittersweet ending), 5/10.
The Mummy with My Face:
So far from the mummy stories I’ve read this has got to be the weakest, and its still not TERRIBLE… i feel as if it just needs a more interesting idea overall. Im fine with what is brought to the table but its just so basic and feels like it could be cut down to a 20 page story from tales to give you goosebumps, 4/10.
Overall, its an okay collection, but i really wish more was done with these tales. It doesn’t shock me this book line was cancelled so early, 4.5/10.
January 14, 2017
This is an unusual book by R.L. Stine. But all of theese stories were great! İt is a really fun read. Wish they continued publishing goosebumps triple header!
November 26, 2021
Lefty, Slim, and Righty are back for round two in R.L. Stine's trilogy of terror! The question is... is this book any better than the first...?
Our opening title is Ghoul School, where a kid is sent to school where the students are all MONSTERS. *Gasp* - The monsters soon learn that he's a normal kid, and unless he can prove he's a monster like the rest, they plan on eating him... will he be able to convince them he's not a normal human?
3 / 5 for this one. This feels like an outline for Why I Quit Zombie School from the Hall of Horrors series. Not bad, not great.
The second story is titled The Revenge, and is about a young girl who seeks help from a fortune-teller who grants her mysterious powers to get revenge on the school bully. But with great powers come great responsibilities - and great consequences. A short Goosebumps story in the style of Be Careful What You Wish For or Revenge R Us.
3.5 / 5 - my favorite story of the collection, though not by much.
And for the final, last story of the trilogy, we have: The Mummy With My Face. Two kids follow a strange tour guide into an ancient egyptian pyramid where - big surprise - mummies come to life and begin chasing the kids! Will they make it out alive? A very dry and bland story that's only somewhat redeemed by the twist ending. My least favorite of the collection. Still not necessarily terrible, though.
2.5 / 5
Overall, another average collection of stories from Stine. Not disappointing but not surprising, either. Recommend to fellow Goosebumps fans that want to read everything by Stine. For all others, you can skip this book.
Our opening title is Ghoul School, where a kid is sent to school where the students are all MONSTERS. *Gasp* - The monsters soon learn that he's a normal kid, and unless he can prove he's a monster like the rest, they plan on eating him... will he be able to convince them he's not a normal human?
3 / 5 for this one. This feels like an outline for Why I Quit Zombie School from the Hall of Horrors series. Not bad, not great.
The second story is titled The Revenge, and is about a young girl who seeks help from a fortune-teller who grants her mysterious powers to get revenge on the school bully. But with great powers come great responsibilities - and great consequences. A short Goosebumps story in the style of Be Careful What You Wish For or Revenge R Us.
3.5 / 5 - my favorite story of the collection, though not by much.
And for the final, last story of the trilogy, we have: The Mummy With My Face. Two kids follow a strange tour guide into an ancient egyptian pyramid where - big surprise - mummies come to life and begin chasing the kids! Will they make it out alive? A very dry and bland story that's only somewhat redeemed by the twist ending. My least favorite of the collection. Still not necessarily terrible, though.
2.5 / 5
Overall, another average collection of stories from Stine. Not disappointing but not surprising, either. Recommend to fellow Goosebumps fans that want to read everything by Stine. For all others, you can skip this book.
April 14, 2021
Because Goosebumps books are already so short, to shorten the stories even more only lessened the quality of story. It left little time for story development which made everything feel really rushed. Because of this, I unfortunately didn’t enjoy this book that much. I understand I’m not the target demographic and these books are meant to be mindless easy reads for children, but I couldn’t help but notice it.
That being said, it’s a good one to pick up and read in a single sitting or if you don’t want to commit to a massive book.
That being said, it’s a good one to pick up and read in a single sitting or if you don’t want to commit to a massive book.
February 21, 2025
Easily the best of the Triple Header series, every story is a 10/10.
My reviews for each story:
Ghoul School - 10/10
Wacky story with some darker moments.
The Revenge - 10/10
A far better version of Revenge R Us.
The Mummy with My Face - 10/10
Fun little mummy story.
Overall: 10/10
My reviews for each story:
Ghoul School - 10/10
Wacky story with some darker moments.
The Revenge - 10/10
A far better version of Revenge R Us.
The Mummy with My Face - 10/10
Fun little mummy story.
Overall: 10/10
April 6, 2025
I can see why the Triple Header series never made it past 2 issues. While not as awful as the first, this one was still pretty mediocre and unoriginal. I honestly have a feeling both volumes were ghost written, as were many stories in the Tales to Give You Goosebumps series were.
August 11, 2019
Three short stories, nice in their way, the first one is quite dull, the other ones are better.
August 28, 2023
These three stories were better than the first entry into this series, on par with the average story in the original Goosebumps run. I am still sad they didn't continue the series beyond this book.
December 1, 2023
Pretty good. Don’t have much to say. Just pretty good. 8.5/10.
May 26, 2016
I let my kids rate the book. I finally found it and finished it. I read to them at night so I have to count it because I need glasses so anything I read for them that is a somewhat long book I will count it.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews