Night of the Living Dummy II is the thirty-first book in the original Goosebumps book series, and the second book in the Living Dummy saga. It was first published in 1995.
This is the first book where Slappy is the lead villain. After this book, Slappy becomes the main antagonist of the Living Dummy books (except in Slappy's Nightmare where he was the protagonist).
The original cover illustration shows Slappy the Dummy sitting at the foot of a pink bed, alongside two stuffed animals.
Blurb
YOU CAN'T TEACH AN OLD DUMMY NEW TRICKS!
Amy's ventriloquist dummy, Dennis, keeps losing his head...for real. So Amy begs her family for a new dummy. That's when her dad finds Slappy in a local pawnshop. Slappy's kind of ugly, but Amy's having fun practicing her new routine. Then terrible things start happening. Horrible, nasty things. Just like what happened the first time. Because there's something odd about Slappy. Something not quite right. Something evil...
Plot
Amy Kramer is performing a small ventriloquist act as a part of a family talent show. Amy is performing with her ventriloquist dummy, Dennis. Unfortunately, since the dummy is already a bit old, during her performance, Dennis's head falls off. Amy's siblings, Sara and Jed, laugh at her, causing Amy to ask her father to buy her a new ventriloquist dummy. After this, Sara shows her family her new watercolor painting, but she is disgusted to discover that someone has painted a red smiley face on her artwork. Jed admits that he is the culprit, and he is punished. Later, while Amy is in her room, she sees Dennis's head looking at her through the window. It turns out that Jed placed it there. Jed wanted to scare Amy because she didn't defend him after he vandalized Sara's painting.
The next morning, Amy's friend, Margo, visits her. Margo asks Amy to perform with Dennis in her father's restaurant to entertain some of the guests. Later that day, Mr. Kramer comes home with a gift for Amy: a new ventriloquist dummy named Slappy. While Mr. Kramer examines Slappy, Amy finds a small card in his pocket and reads it aloud: "KARRU MARRI ODONNA LOMA MOLONU KARRANO." Shortly after saying this, Amy thinks she sees Slappy blink. Amy tells her father, but Mr. Kramer remains skeptical, saying that the dummy could possess a blinking mechanism. Suddenly, Slappy slaps Mr. Kramer on the cheek, and Mr. Kramer assumes that Amy did this. She denies the accusation, but she apologizes anyway.
Amy tells Margo that she will be able to perform at her father's restaurant because she has received a new dummy. After this, Amy starts spending more time with Slappy than with Dennis. During another family talent show, Amy performs with Slappy. However, Slappy insults Amy's parents, making them angry. She tries to tell them that Slappy is talking on his own, but her parents don't believe her. Amy apologizes and goes to sleep a little angry and confused.
Some time later, Amy is working on a science project for school. Since Sara isn't home, Amy enters her room to pick up some markers for her project by herself. She notices Slappy lying near the door. When Sara returns, she finds her room completely destroyed and all of her paintings ruined. While he is initially accused of the vandalism, Jed says that he isn't responsible, and he says that he saw Amy enter Sara's room. Sara accuses Amy of being the culprit, so Amy is punished. Strangely, she notices paint on Slappy's shoes. That night, the whole family gathers to decide what to do with Amy. She insists that Slappy had something to do with the vandalism in Sara's room. Amy's parents ponder taking her to a psychiatrist, but they ultimately decide to punish her for two weeks. Still, Amy's parents allow her to perform at Margo's father's restaurant, but Amy feels a bit uncomfortable with Slappy.
On the day of her first performance at the restaurant, Amy is assigned to entertain a birthday party for a girl named Alicia. Amy asks Alicia if she would like to shake Slappy's hand. When Alicia shakes his hand, Slappy holds her tightly and doesn't let go. Slappy laughs evilly, and Alicia starts crying. Alicia's mother calls Margo's father to tell him that she is going to sue his restaurant. Margo tells Amy to leave. When Amy get's home, she throws Slappy in her closet.
Later that day, Sara discovers that all of the walls in her room have been scrawled with Amy's name, written repeatedly in red paint. Slappy is lying near a wall with a brush, but Amy's parents think she placed the dummy in the room. Worried about Amy's behavior, the parents leave. Amy shouts angrily at Slappy, but Slappy simply laughs cruelly. Amy vows to catch Slappy moving on his own and expose him. After dinner, Amy is going to her room when she sees Slappy leaving her closet and heading for Sara's room. Amy stops Slappy, but she is discovered by Sara. Sara thinks Amy is trying to destroy more of her belongings.
That night, Amy watches Slappy exit her closet. She asks the dummy to explain himself. Calmly, Slappy tells her that — because she read the card in his pocket aloud — she is now his slave. Slappy threatens to destroy more of her family's belongings if she doesn't do what he says. Furious, Amy locks Slappy in the closet and goes to ask Sara for help. To Amy's surprise, Sara reveals that she already knew that Slappy was alive. She had seen him destroying her room, but she was afraid to tell her parents because they likely wouldn't believe her. Together, the sisters grab Slappy and throw him down a sewer. However, he returns the next morning.
The sisters formulate plan: they're going to dress Jed as Dennis in order to surprise Slappy with their parents watching. The scheme goes as planned until "Dennis" bashes Slappy's head against Sara's bedpost, breaking it in half. A worm-like creature comes out of the dummy's broken head and floats through a crack in the wall.
Amy's parents apologize to her for not believing her. The family, wanting to congratulate him, looks for Jed. It turns out that Jed had fallen asleep and forgot to disguise himself as Dennis. The whole Kramer family is silent and they wonder who beat Slappy.
Reprints and rereleases
| Book | Release date | Type | Media |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
October 1996 | Collection | Hardcover |
2003 - 2007 reprint series  |
June 2004 | Standalone | Paperback |
 |
January 2005 | Collection | Hardcover |
 |
April 28, 2015 | Standalone | Paperback |
Differences
- The Classic Goosebumps reprint was released as a tie-in to the Goosebumps film. Also, the title of the reprint uses traditional numerals instead of Roman numerals, meaning the reprint is titled Night of the Living Dummy 2.
International releases
| Gallery | |
|---|---|
 UK  Italian  Spanish  Mexican  Greek  Portuguese  German  Hebrew  French (Ver. 1)  French (Ver. 2)  French (Ver. 3)  French (Ver. 4)  French (Ver. 5)  Canadian (French)  Danish  Chinese  Chinese (Ver. 2)  Chinese (2015) Classic Goosebumps  UK  Spanish  Danish  Arabic  Catalan | |
Differences
- In Portugal, this is the thirty-second book in the original Goosebumps series.
- In France, this is the fourteen book in the Goosebumps series.
Adaptations
TV series
Night of the Living Dummy II was adapted into an episode of the Goosebumps TV series. It is the tenth episode of season one.
Audiobook
| Audiobook | Release date | Length | Narrated by | Published by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
September 2015 | 2 hours, 30 minutes | Renee Dorian | Scholastic Inc. |
Artwork
Trivia
- This being Slappy's first role as the lead villain is similar to the horror film franchise Friday the 13th. In the first film, the villain is Pamela Voorhees, but in the rest of the films, the villain is her son, Jason Voorhees.
References in other Goosebumps media
- The title of the book is mentioned in Goosebumps: The Game; Slappy kills you if you say that he was the main villain in Night of the Living Dummy. He gets angry because Mr. Wood was the main villain.
- This is similar to a scene in the horror film Scream. A man calls Casey Becker on the phone, and he agrees that he won't harm her if she can correctly answer a question. The man on the phone asks her to name the villain in the film Friday the 13th. Casey mistakenly believes that Jason Voorhees was the villain in the first Friday the 13th film.