- "Reader beware, you choose the scare!"
- ―The series' slogan
Give Yourself Goosebumps is a horror fiction gamebook series in which the reader chooses the story. All of the books are credited to R.L. Stine, but many were ghostwritten. Revealed in October 1994,[1] the series ran from 1995 to 2000, starting with Escape from the Carnival of Horrors, and ending with All-Day Nightmare (which would be the last Goosebumps book until Goosebumps Graphix six years later). There are fifty books in the series, including the eight special editions. Only one book in this series has been reprinted: Please Don't Feed the Vampire!, which was made into a Classic Goosebumps book as a tie-in to the 2015 film.
Background[]
After the success of the original series, Scholastic used R.L. Stine's experience in writing gamebooks to make a spin-off series where there is more than one ending. The books are similar to the Choose Your Own Adventure books. Each page will give the reader their options for which page(s) they can turn to next. The pages are not meant to be read in numerical order.
According to Scholastic, Stine's contract for this series did not stipulate he had to be the sole author (unlike Stine's contract for the original Goosebumps series). While all of the books are credited to Stine, many of the books were ghostwritten by uncredited authors. It's known that Beware of the Purple Peanut Butter was written by Kathryn Lance[2] (who wrote seven books for the series),[3] and All-Day Nightmare was written by Scott Westerfeld[4] (who wrote five books for the series).[5] USA Today once attributed Stine's sister-in-law Megan Stine as a ghostwriter for this series,[6] but this could be a mistake; since Megan Stine was a credited ghostwriter for Goosebumps Presents, it's possible someone confused the two spinoffs.
Stine stated that writing the series was easy for him, as it wasn't like writing a whole book. He would take a pad and number from one to 100 and then write a series of punchlines.[7]
Premises[]
There are over twenty endings per book, and the reader's choices influence the story path. Some choices are decided by chance (flipping coins, rolling dice, or other means). If the reader takes an obviously bad path, they may be instructed to go back and pick another option, or the story might end abruptly.
Storylines[]
Each book contains at least one major plotline. Books that feature two distinct plotlines are especially common. Some of the books have smaller plotlines, side-stories that only consist of a few endings. Some of these side-stories have no good endings (with Trapped in Bat Wing Hall featuring the first example of this).
Checkout Time at the Dead-End Hotel, It Came from the Internet!, and most of the Special Edition entries are examples of books with one storyline for the reader. The books Escape from the Carnival of Horrors and Return to the Carnival of Horrors are typical examples of dual-storylines, focusing on either rides or sideshow attractions. The final book in the Special Edition series, Weekend at Poison Lake, has four storylines, with the reader becoming a completely different character in each one.
In some books, the continuity between storylines is fairly good. Other times, it's ignored. A character who appears to be nice in one plotline might be a secret villain in another.
Endings[]
Deaths and bad endings are common in the Give Yourself Goosebumps series. Typically, there are only a few happy endings per book.
In many of the bad endings, the reader dies, but the death is typically implied and not stated directly. Often, at the end of each plot-line, the reader will be met with the "THE END". This phrase might be incorporated into a sentence. Other times, it says simply "END" or has a different phrase all together that makes sense within the ending (like saying "GAME OVER" if the ending involved virtual reality).
In many of the bad endings, the book will criticize the reader for their bad decision making or cowardice. In these instances, the book will usually demand that the reader turn to the "correct" page or suggest that they stop reading. Sometimes, the reader can miss out on the actual adventure entirely by making unadventurous choices.
Types of endings[]
Although endings differ between each book, the types of endings you can achieve are often similar. Some of the most common endings are as follows:
- Death
- Permanent transformation
- Enslavement or loss of control
- Becoming frozen or transforming into a stationary object (sometimes still aware of surroundings)
- Dying and becoming a ghost or other undead being
- Missing out on the adventure
- Becoming trapped
- Winding up in the wrong time and/or place
- Discovering your true identity
- Getting scolded by the book for picking an obviously bad or wimpy choice
- Surviving the adventure, but with something wrong (like you've been transformed, for example)
- Surviving the adventure, but not accomplishing anything important or having fun
- Surviving the adventure and achieving your goal
The endings above are not necessarily mutually exclusive, nor is this list definitive.
Books[]
For international releases, please click on one of the following:
Special Edition
- Escape from the Carnival of Horrors
- Tick Tock, You're Dead!
- Trapped in Bat Wing Hall
- The Deadly Experiments of Dr. Eeek
- Night in Werewolf Woods
- Beware of the Purple Peanut Butter
- Under the Magician's Spell
- The Curse of the Creeping Coffin
- The Knight in Screaming Armor
- Diary of a Mad Mummy
- Deep in the Jungle of Doom
- Welcome to the Wicked Wax Museum
- Scream of the Evil Genie
- The Creepy Creations of Professor Shock
- Please Don't Feed the Vampire!
- Secret Agent Grandma
- Little Comic Shop of Horrors
- Attack of the Beastly Babysitter
- Escape from Camp Run-For-Your-Life
- Toy Terror: Batteries Included
- The Twisted Tale of Tiki Island
- Return to the Carnival of Horrors
- Zapped in Space
- Lost in Stinkeye Swamp
- Shop Till You Drop...Dead!
- Alone in Snakebite Canyon
- Checkout Time at the Dead-End Hotel
- Night of a Thousand Claws
- Invaders from the Big Screen
- You're Plant Food!
- The Werewolf of Twisted Tree Lodge
- It's Only a Nightmare!
- It Came from the Internet
- Elevator to Nowhere
- Hocus-Pocus Horror
- Ship of Ghouls
- Escape from Horror House
- Into the Twister of Terror
- Scary Birthday to You!
- Zombie School
- Danger Time
- All-Day Nightmare
Special Edition
Early titles and canceled book[]
- Main article: List of scrapped and pre-release material
Many of the later books were revealed online with working titles, such as Ship of Ghouls, which was listed as Deadly Cruse on several websites before its release.
In 2017, artwork by Craig White of what would've been the forty-third book in the series was posted online.[8] The plot details and title are unknown, but the artwork depicting three aggressive emperor penguins suggest that it would have been themed around Antarctica. The book went unpublished due to R.L. Stine's fallout with Scholastic early in the year 2000.
Connection to other Goosebumps series[]
There are two books in this series that are sequels to other Goosebumps books. These include Return to Terror Tower, which is a sequel to A Night in Terror Tower from the original series, and Revenge of the Body Squeezers, which is a sequel to Invasion of the Body Squeezers: Part 1 and Part 2 from Goosebumps Series 2000.
Characters from other Goosebumps books are occasionally mentioned and appear in cameos, such as Slappy the Dummy and Monster Blood, who appear in Escape from the Carnival of Horrors. Some books also feature quizzes about other Goosebumps books.
Covers[]
Tim Jacobus, the illustrator for the original series and most Goosebumps material during the 1990s, illustrated Escape from the Carnival of Horrors; his signature is covered up on the front by Choose from Over 20 Different Scary Endings!, but it is visible on the back. Scholastic didn't want to overwork Jacobus[9], so Mark Nagata took over from book two, Tick Tock, You're Dead!, to twenty-four, Lost in Stinkeye Swamp. The next book, Shop Till You Drop...Dead!, was also intended to be illustrated by Nagata, but he was replaced by Craig White as the series artist. White illustrated the rest of the series all the way until book forty-two, All-Day Nightmare and all eight special editions. He created the covers using computer animation software, sometimes incorporating 3D elements and digital textures.
The first twenty-two books used a template similar to the original series, but with a metallic-holographic prism effect involving a single abstract design repeated on the cover that would change shape or form when it was exposed to different areas of light. The slime and holographic-look were ditched in favor of a more sci-fi aesthetic starting with book twenty-three, Zapped in Space.
List of characters[]
Villains/Enemies/Antagonists[]
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References in other Goosebumps media[]
- The Snake Lady, Muglani, Cronby the Troll, Professor Shock, Fifi the Vampire Poodle, Countess Yvonne, The Annihilator 3000 and the E. Ville Creeper's Plants appear in the Goosebumps film as background monsters.
- Cronby the Troll, Fifi the Vampire Poodle, and the Annihilator 3000 also appear in Goosebumps: The Game. Other monsters from this series that appeared in the game include the Purple Peanut Butter, Officer Murphy, and the Living Mannequins.
Goosebumps series | ||
---|---|---|
Main series | Original series • Series 2000 • HorrorLand • Hall of Horrors • Most Wanted • SlappyWorld | |
Spin-off series | Tales to Give You Goosebumps • Give Yourself Goosebumps • Goosebumps Presents • Triple Header | |
Other series | Collector's Caps books • Goosebumps Gold • Classic Goosebumps • Goosebumps film books |
References[]
- ↑ A Chat with R.L. Stine - Presented by Scholastic Network on America Online - October 31, 1994
- ↑ "She did uncredited work for the Give Yourself Goosebumps series, writing [...] Beware of the Purple Peanut Butter, one of my childhood favorites." (Twitter) (mirror)
- ↑ Publications (Kathryn Lance) (mirror)
- ↑ "My favorite of my own Goosebumps was 'All-Day Nightmare', an amnesia-based choose-you-own-adventure. What’s not to love?"
- ↑ A Decade of Freelance
- ↑ Stine gives kids 'Goosebumps' with frightening speed
- ↑ SYFY - 'Goosebumps' at 30: R.L. Stine talks creating a horror phenomenon, new BOOM! comic & more 'Fear Street' movies
- ↑ Goosebumps Wiki - An interview with illustrator Craig White
- ↑ "The Bumps" — timchat.txt: "I did gygb #1 and the way that I understand it, they were afraid, that it would be too much work for me. Mark Nagata did a nice job with that series"