Hey Bibliophiles!

I hope you’re having good luck getting ready for Christmas. It’s gonna be a photo finish for me.

With grad school over, I’m trying to slowly reacclimate to reading for my own personal entertainment. Given my love for nostalgia it’s probably not too surprising that I chose The Beast from the East (Goosebumps #43) by R.L. Stine as my next read.

The cover looks familiar, but I can’t seem to recall reading this one as a kid. However, I recently picked up an old school copy at my local thrift store, so I couldn’t resist giving it a go. Let’s see how it went!

Blurb

EVERY BEAST FOR HIMSELF!

Ginger Wald and her identical twin brothers, Nat and Pat, are lost in the woods. No problem. After all, Ginger did go to that stupid nature camp.

Still, there’s something odd about this part of the woods. The grass is yellow. The bushes are purple. And the trees are like skyscrapers.

Then Ginger and her brothers meet the beasts. They’re big blue furry creatures. And they want to play a game. But in this game, the winners get to live. The losers get eaten. . . .

GoodReads

Amazon

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The Review

This was definitely entertaining, though it was a bit too off the wall for me.

Ginger, her parents, and her twin brother Nat and Pat go off on a camping trip, but when Ginger and her siblings go off to kill some time exploring in the woods they find themselves in a strange place with even stranger creatures. Can they find a way back?

I really loved the premise of this one. It’s portal fantasy, and I loved all the alien creatures and variations of common earth plants and trees. It made every chapter feel vibrant and mysterious.

Ginger is the responsible and level-headed one of her and her brothers, and I thought she was pretty heroic overall. Nat and Pat were there, but they didn’t really have too big of a role to play other than being rambunctious. It would’ve been nice to see them rise to the challenge like Ginger did.

The plot was pretty interesting. There’s a set of bad creatures that Ginger and her brothers have to play a game of hide and seek with, but with bizarre rules. This was a lot of fun, but the rules weren’t explained and even when bits were revealed, it tended to favor Ginger and her brothers much too coincidentally. This kind of killed the vibe for me, so I ultimately felt a bit disappointed, but I think younger readers would have a lot of fun with this read.

Series Review Links

Book Review: Welcome to Dead House (Goosebumps #1)

Book Review: Let’s Get Invisible! (Goosebumps #6)

Book Review: Night of the Living Dummy (Goosebumps #7)

Book Review: The Werewolf of Fever Swamp (Goosebumps #14)

Book Review: One Day at Horrorland (Goosebumps #16)

Book Review: Attack of the Mutant (Goosebumps #25)

Book Review: Bad Hare Day (Goosebumps #41)

Book Review: How I Learned to Fly (Goosebumps #52)

Book Review: The Curse of Camp Cold Lake (Goosebumps #56)

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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