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Ray is thrilled when he finds a ventriloquist's dummy at the HorrorLand gift shop. His brother Brandon isn't so sure - he thinks the puppet look evil. At first, Ray laughs it off. Brandon is a scaredy-cat. But then strange things start happening.

141 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2010

90 people are currently reading
1988 people want to read

About the author

R.L. Stine

1,680 books18.7k followers
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.

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5 stars
532 (42%)
4 stars
322 (25%)
3 stars
272 (21%)
2 stars
99 (7%)
1 star
28 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 92 reviews
Profile Image for clumsyplankton.
1,042 reviews15 followers
October 28, 2023
My sister found this one so funny and honestly it wasn’t as bad as some of the others
Profile Image for Grace grace_loves_books13.
441 reviews27 followers
June 7, 2023
Read out loud to my 9 year old son. He gives it 4 stars! My voice hurts from voicing Slappy. Fun and silly!

Profile Image for Bookish Devil.
510 reviews71 followers
January 26, 2019
"Slaptastic read"

Since my last Horrorland book, "The Haunted Mask", was a bit offbeat, I picked up this one in a somber mood. But the mood didn't last long as 'Slappy' gave a slap hard enough to send chills down my spine. Slappy (The very mention of the name instills me with a sense of dread), the living dummy, which Ray and Brandon presumed to be harmless, starts to haunt them after Ray 'Wakes it up', a decision which Ray should have never taken. This story is about the epic face-off between the Slap....Er...The Living dummy and the two brothers who are, most of the time, on the receiving end. Filled with so many Horror elements, "Slap** New Year!" turned out to be much scarier than I expected it to be.

*Wouldn't risk saying its name. The last thing I want is to have that Creepy dummy sitting in my closet.
Profile Image for τλιϓλ.
1,036 reviews202 followers
October 15, 2018
مرة أخرى مع ذاك الـ "سلابي" وتقريباً ذاتُ المشاغبات كما في القصة السابقة لها مع اختلاف الأجواء ومع ذلك فهي جيدة، بت الآن أتطلع لدماي وألعابي، ترى ماذا تفعل إبان نومي؟ ولكن لا إنها تأثيرات الخيال فالدمى لا تتحرك، أليس كذلك؟
أليس كذلك؟
Profile Image for Wendell D'Costa.
150 reviews
November 29, 2018
Ray Gordon is really excited for the new years eve party he is hosting with his friend Elena. But suddenly his brothers room is trashed and his cloths are ruined by syrup, and at both times he finds Slappy at the scene grinning melavaelontly at him. Is the Dummy that he got from Horrorland responsible for all the trouble? Or is there someone else to be blamed?

Slappy new year! Was a great book. I have always like the Jonathon Chiller arc and the concept of Horrorland itself. But speaking about this book. It was written well. The mystery about the trouble being caused and defeating Slappy was great. And always Slappy's character was written beautifully, or should I say terrifyingly?
It was a nice Horrroland and Slappy book, worth reading.
2 reviews1 follower
October 6, 2022
The characters I connect to the most is Ray Gordan. I relate to Ray the most because his little brother Brandon is a scary crybaby and always ruins things foe Ray. The most interesting part of the book was when Slappy was the one doing all of those bad things and nobody knew it. What I wished that happened at the end was that Roy said the magic words and threw Slappy in a fire pit to get rid of him forever.What could've made that better was if Slappy possed Brandon and make him do bad things.
Profile Image for Mario.
2 reviews
March 28, 2024
Book is good and intresting but the ending is a little weird
Profile Image for Josiah.
3,488 reviews158 followers
November 18, 2025
I haven't yet read any reviews of this book, but I get the feeling at least a few will say it felt like a rewritten version of most other Slappy stories in the Goosebumps series. I can't say they'd be wrong; no new ground is broken, and all the surprise twists have popped up in previous books about Slappy. Nonetheless, I am pleased with Slappy New Year!. Slappy is the most written-about villain in all of R.L. Stine's many, many books, and seeing the familiar evil doll in a new story after so many years is kind of comfortable. I love that R.L. Stine still has plans for Slappy, and I'm certain he's going to play an integral part in the finale to this series.

Slappy New Year! begins much the same as the other books about Slappy, the main difference being how twelve-year-old Ray Gordon first acquires the frightening ventriloquist dummy. Unlike every previous owner, Ray comes across Slappy inside of the mysterious Jonathan Chiller's Horrorland souvenir shop, the place where all of the kids in the Horrorland series have picked out their particular haunted item that ended up terrorizing them. Ray ignores the protests of his younger brother Brandon, who at age nine (though already bigger than Ray) is afraid of the nasty-looking dummy that Ray wants to purchase, and decides to buy Slappy anyway; and, of course, as always, this is where the horror begins.

There's no need to get much deeper into the plot, as most of what proceeds from this point is a walk down memory lane for readers familiar with Slappy's modus operandi. Even though he's exceptionally strong for his size, Slappy understands that he'll be defeated with relative ease if he reveals himself to people indiscriminately; therefore, he chooses his spots with caution, and only performs his malicious work when kids are around to act as easy targets for blame by adults. It's a method that always works, so unless Slappy slips up and lets an adult see him move on his own, it's nearly impossible for the kids he is taking advantage of to defeat him.

Slappy New Year! leads right into the final installment to this tier of the Horrorland series, so even though we still know virtually nothing about Jonathan Chiller's grand plan, it surely will be revealed in the next book. I don't plan on much of a delay before reading it, either, as I've waited a long time to find out what will happen. It's good to have R.L. Stine back in the business of writing new Goosebumps books.

I might give the full two stars to Slappy New Year!. It's an engaging story with perhaps a bit more depth of feeling than usual for Goosebumps books, as a few times during the narrative Ray ponders the real source of his greatest fears, the fact that his parents won't believe him about Slappy no matter how much he insists on his own innocence. It makes the surreal experience hit closer to home than otherwise possible, and invites us to consider how we would deal with the stress of not being believed in a similar situation.

While I wouldn't recommend Slappy New Year! on its own, it's as a must-read for anyone who has followed this segment of the Horrorland series so far, or for any Goosebumps fans who grew up reading about Slappy and want to relive some of his brand of action in an all-new story.
Profile Image for Eesh.
1,276 reviews91 followers
October 19, 2015
Okay Confession! I only read the books for a reading challenge.These books are so short and easy to read. And they're fun so I went for it.

I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It's really funny and Slappy is a creep and Ray can be quite evil and I flew through it.

I also liked the little tid-bits of information that we got about Ray's family or their past. It gave them more dimention. And I got to read a different writing style. Mostly it's either past or present. This one was past but more like recent events. Like something that happened last week. If a girl had long hair then, she probably still has now, so the descriptions were in present. I haven't read it before and I enjoyed that.

And Brandon... The little jerkface who turned out to be a hero...

It was a lot of fun reading this. Made me want to read more.
Profile Image for Alanna.
6 reviews
August 9, 2016
It was a really fun book. Slappy is my favorite goosebumps character. If u want to read about an interesting new year Read slappy new year.
Profile Image for Rose.
62 reviews2 followers
August 5, 2024
I read it…. So that’s worth something?
Profile Image for Opal.
130 reviews27 followers
July 2, 2020
As someone who has only read the original series as a child, I wanted to see what the newer books were about. I'm not sure if this book is part of a sequential series or if it could be read as a stand alone, though I guess it's both. The Horrorland aspect is clearly part of the not-stand-alone part, but it's a small part of the book. The Slappy portion is what I came for, and that's what I will be judging.


Plot:

If you have read any of the original Slappy books, the plot is just a carbon copy of those. Kid gets dummy, bad things start happening that may or may not be caused by an annoying sibling, Slappy comes to life and wants to make the children his SLAVES, and horror/hilarity ensues. 


Characters:

Goosebumps Parents, in my house, is a syndrome that plagues most of the Goosebumps series, and it is rampant here. The parents do not listen to their kids, they don't care about what they have to say, and they talk about them as though they aren't there. Basically, the point of the Goosebumps Parent is to be present only because the main character (mc) is a minor, but to be completely irrelevant to the plot so that the mc is functionally alone. Often, it makes the parents seem either completely braindead or downright neglectful, and here it comes across as the latter. Nastily, the mom calls her 12 year old son a wild animal after Slappy insults the family and literally almost bites off the kid's nose IN FRONT OF THEM, causing him to bleed profusely. The adults in Derry have nothing on these guys. I'm almost willing to forgive this, since this is basically a Goosebumps trope, but that was a bit too much.

The main kids themselves are not likeable. They are barely cardboard cut outs with personality traits I have seen done better in other Goosebumps books. I don't expect a masterpiece of character development, but at least make me want to root for them. Making them both little brats to start off and basically doing nothing to change them OTHER than bringing a worse villain in is not a good choice, though to be fair, I don't think the other Night of the Living Dummy books are quite free of this, either.


The reason I'm here, Slappy:

Yep, it's Slappy. Nostalgia meter is filled. His dialogue is just as nasty as you'd expect, while being simultaneously more and less terrifying. For one, he actually says, "dudes" at one point, which is hilarious. I can't even imagine his voice saying it (from the old tv episode). He also, in a sly (rated pg) and disjointed manner, tells the kids he is going to murder their entire family and threatens to chop their heads off and mount the severed heads on a snowman. Good ol' Slappy. There are some inconsistencies regarding Slappy and how he works, but I'm not 100% sure it isn't part of the "larger" storyline, so I'll forgive it.


Conclusion:

Despite how off-putting the parents' stupidity/neglect was, I was more or less okay with this book. I didn't have high expectations, and the book was just shy of meeting them, so it's not a huge disappointment or anything. Also, it's always fun to see Slappy try to assert himself over actual children and fail miserably. If, like me, you're interested in this book for nostalgia's sake or if you simply love Slappy and can't get enough of him, by all means go for it. Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend this on its own. Maybe it works better as a part of the larger story arc.
Profile Image for Alejandro Joseph.
465 reviews1 follower
September 20, 2024
I’m gonna tell you point blank: this is the most basic Slappy story out there. And whilst that might make it sound very uninteresting, it has noticeable differences even if its plot is super-duper-extra-ultra basic. The only thing notable going for the book is the time frame/atmosphere. There’s great depictions of the Christmas and New Years time frame with the snowy environment and general traditions. There’s also some decently creepy moments in the book. Slappy was, well, Slappy. Nothing to be said there lmao, he was just good. The Christmas scene (as well as that very violent New Year’s Party) was easily the best part of the book, even if it contributed to an issue I had. And the HorrorLand segment is awesome, so that’s nice. But there’s some issues here, but not the typical ones. Whilst most Slappy stories suffer from overdone tropes that try to put a spin on them or make them different, this one didn’t have that, which is why I call this the most basic Slappy story out there because neither does it have any great substance. That’s not really an issue but rather an in between. A real issue the parents. They’re brain dead stupid fucks who can’t use context clues to make sense of the situation. They literally observe Slappy running around, throwing a certain object, and they don’t assume something other than their kid going psycho is actually at play, and not to mention them blaming him when he would’ve had to have been in two places at once. Unfuckingbelievable, fuck the parents. Fuck. And some smaller nitpicks is that the story is still very much in line with the tropes, which makes the plot super bland and uninspired. But not in the worst way possible thank the lord. Also, Slappy’s magic spell card can canonically teleport. Wowzers. Slappy New Year! This book gets a 7/10, I surprisingly enjoyed it minus the stupid parents. Now we need Snappy Hanukah!
Profile Image for Jay.
192 reviews2 followers
June 7, 2021
Slappy is back to terrorize another family. After half of dozen Living Dummy stories, you know how this will go. A kid will get Slappy, they will read the words to bring him to life, he will cause all sorts of mischief, he'll threaten to make the kid his slave, they'll think they have defeated him, he'll return, and then they ultimately defeat him (but not for long).

What distinguishes Slappy books is usually how much danger the children are actually in. Sometimes Slappy just pulls pranks. Other times, he really puts the kids in danger. Here, Slappy does quite a bit of damage while also trying to kill the kids from time to time. And his final act of attacking a group of kids at a New Year's Eve party is really great. Ultimately, this is a very good Slappy story, though not as good as the first in this series.

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. Slappy New Year
8. Weirdo Halloween
9. Dr. Maniac vs. Robby Schwartz
10. My Friends Call Me Monster
11. The Wizard of Ooze
12. Help! We Have Strange Powers
13. Heads You Lose
14. The Streets of Panic Park
15. Monster Blood for Breakfast
16. The Scream of the Haunted Mask
17. Welcome to Camp Slither
18. Little Shop of Hamsters
Profile Image for ميرهان  مصطفى.
70 reviews58 followers
May 26, 2025
القصة بتدور حوالين راي جوردون، الواد اللي دايمًا بيوقع في مشاكل بسبب أخوه الصغير براندون، اللي بيحب يعمل مقالب ويخرب كل حاجة. المرة دي، راي بيقرر يجيب دمية اسمها سلابي، ودي مش أي دمية، دي دمية شريرة فعلاً، من ساعة ما سلابي يدخل البيت، الحياة بتتحول لفوضى، وكل حاجة بتبوظ، خصوصًا لما بيحاولوا يعملوا احتفال بمناسبة رأس السنة. الدمية دي زي الشيطان الصغير، بتعمل حاجات تضحك وتخض في نفس الوقت.
اللي عجبني أوي في الرواية إنها بسيطة وسريعة، يعني تقرأها في جلسة واحدة لو عايز. الكلام فيها سهل ومباشر، والأحداث بتجري بسرعة من غير ما تمل. كمان، شخصية سلابي فيها كاريزما غريبة، يعني هو شرير بس في نفس الوقت مُسلي، وده بيخليك تحبه وتكرهه في نفس الوقت. لو عندك عيال أو مراهقين، الرواية دي هتعجبهم جدًا لأنها مكتوبة بطريقة تناسب سن الصغيرين.

Profile Image for Sean R_C2.
35 reviews7 followers
January 15, 2019
If you know me well, you would think that I will be the last person to pick up this book. Why? I'm known to be a nonfiction reader. However, I love the Goosebumps series more than any nonfiction book I've ever seen. Ray gordon, the main character, loves to scare Brandon, the younger brother of Ray and a scaredy-cat. Slappy, the antagonist dummy seen in almost every Goosebump HorrorLand book, was bought as a regular doll from Jonathan Chiller's gift shop. However, it turned out to be a dummy that is alive. Although this book sounds childish, it generates insightful conversations and it refines the definition of a horror book.
10 reviews
October 16, 2018
Slappy new year by R.L. Stine in my opinion was not that good. Because i don't think that there wasn't that much detail then any other scary books that I have read. I recommend this book to anybody who like scary and interesting books if you do like those type of books then I would recommend this book to you. A strength of this book is when there was some detail in the start of the book at the end all the detail started to ware off and I fell like the writer started to rush writing the book at the end of the book. If this book has a series i wouldn't read it I didn't like the first one why would I like the rest. Also there wasnt that much detail not only at the end of the book but most of the book thats why I think that the book wasn't that good. In total I think that the book wasn't that good so that's all what I think about the book.



Profile Image for Leander.
217 reviews5 followers
October 16, 2019
Two stars.

Slappy strikes again, with a sprinkle of HorrorLand.
I think of all the Goosebumps series, Slappy is the character that makes the most appearances.
A wimp younger brother with the built of a jock, the elder brother with a frail built. The elder can't help but play pranks on the younger one.
And the craving for scream your head off horror dooms them all.
Profile Image for Lily Newman.
29 reviews1 follower
October 31, 2017
It is a good book. And it had twists in it so look out for those. Slappy came back and is ready to conquer after being brought to life by strange words that will make life terrible as he has to get rid of it before it destroys his life.
93 reviews1 follower
October 13, 2022
I mean got to say, it was a little cringe. (Like every goosebumps book.) Crazy cliffhanger, which is why I'm so excited to read Slappy world. Every book with slappy in it is super funny, cause slappy just roast everyone so hard. I think this was a great finale for the Horrorland series.
449 reviews
January 21, 2025
The Living Dummy books always have the same sort of set up (horrible sibling tells a lie and then the main character awakens this demonic entity for real) but I love them every single time. They’re a cliché, but I always enjoy reading them.
165 reviews4 followers
June 12, 2025
The book was scary and funny. Slappy caused so much trouble for the kids and everyone. I had some great laughs !! Can't wait to read more scary books like this one. Slappy my favorite Gossebumps character. He got sent to the Chiller House at the end of the book to play a game at HonorLand park.
Profile Image for Justin.
561 reviews49 followers
December 29, 2025
A very solid entry into the Goosebumps/Horrorland franchise. It starts off a bit odd, but once the story really gets going, the spooky takes over. That damn doll is up to no good yet again! I think kids would really enjoy this one.
Profile Image for Anish Nair.
52 reviews5 followers
January 15, 2021
It is awesome to read everything is just awesome one of the best Slappy book and Horrorland book too
Profile Image for tiara.
46 reviews
July 24, 2021
if 2021 was a book, it’s definitely a slappy new year book.
Profile Image for فاطِمة طه.
473 reviews134 followers
Read
September 28, 2021
أيقنت أني اكره قصص الرعب حتى لو كانت للأطفال😂.
و لكنها كانت جيدة، و م��تعة نوعًا ما.
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