Happy October Readers!

I’m so excited for Halloween, aren’t you? Me and the bf started getting our decor out this weekend and I was on cloud nine. We plan on watching a ton of scary movies. How about you?

Anywho, with Halloween looming just weeks ahead it was time to dive into more reads. My first Halloween read was Night of the Living Dummy (Goosebumps #7) by R.L. Stine. 

I grew up reading these bad boys, and I couldn’t resist choosing one for my first read of spooky month since I found a copy at a local thrift store. I actually don’t recall reading this one, so I went in blind for the most part. Alright, on to the review!

Blurb

When twins Lindy and Kris find a ventriloquist’s dummy in a Dumpster, Lindy decides to “rescue” it, and she names it Slappy. But Kris is green with envy. It’s not fair. Why does Lindy get to have all the fun and all the attention? Kris decides to get a dummy of her own. She’ll show Lindy. Then weird things begin to happen. Nasty things. Evil things. It can’t be the dummy causing all the trouble, Can it?

GoodReads

Amazon

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The Review

This was a creepy first read for Halloween, but it left me wanting a bit more.

Twins Lindy and Kris fight all the time with each other. One day when they’re outside playing, Lindy finds a discarded ventriloquist dummy in a dumpster. Intrigued, she starts practicing her comedic skills with a measure of success, much to Kris’s disappointment. As the twins bicker with each other, they soon discover that there’s more to this dummy than meets the eye.

Starting out, this book had a lot of potential. Anything related to dolls are creepy in my eyes, and as I read along I was keeping a close nervous eye on the two dummies Mr. Wood and Slappy.

Unfortunately there weren’t really a lot of scares. The first half of the book is almost entirely centered on the twins bickering. While it felt relatable (I fought with my sister all the time growing up), that’s far too long to spend on building up a story without some chills and thrills.

Even when the threat comes into play, it wasn’t very scary at all. The reveal kind of gave everything away when it could’ve been staggered out for maximum scares. One thing I will say is that the antagonist really made me laugh with the cheesy humor, so I would actually give the sequel a go and see if its any better.

One last thing I wanted to bring up that felt important was the cover. The old and new cover have Slappy on it, but this book is clearly about Mr. Wood, so it doesn’t make sense to have Slappy on the cover.

Is that novel scary? No. Funny? Yes. If you’re looking for scares, consider some of Stine’s more creepy material.

That’s A Wrap!

Well that’s it for this book review. I hope you enjoyed it!

Have you read this book? Are there other similar books you’ve read that you simply have to gush about? Feel free to leave a comment. I’d love to start a conversation!

Have a great day!

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