Hello Blogging World!

Jonny

I’m Jonny, and anything that imitates a living thing is scary if you ask me!

Misty

I’m Misty, and seeing Jonny talking about Goosebumps last year got me wanting to read them for the first time.

This buddy read and rant is for Revenge of the Living Dummy (Goosebumps HorrorLand #1) by R.L. Stine.

Blurb:

It’s a whole new ride from master of horror and bestselling author R.L. Stine–with a story so fiendish that it can’t be contained to just one book!

Fright-master R.L. Stine invites you on an all-new, all-terrifying adventure!Britney Crosby thinks her cousin Ethan is pretty weird–and she happens to be right. Ethan won’t stop tormenting Britney with an old ventriloquist’s dummy. And the puppet has plans for Britney, too! Next, someone will be offered a vacation at a popular “scream park.” An entire week for free? You’d have to be a real dummy to refuse that! But some guests aren’t allowed to escape HorrorLand after just six days and seven frights…

GoodReads

Amazon

Bookshop.org

***Brief disclosure***

Jonny is an Amazon and Bookshop.org affiliate and earns a tiny commission for purchases made through the Amazon links in this post. It’s a great way to help him keep things running on his blog if you’re already intrigued enough to make a purchase. 

Buddy Read Book Rant:

Jonny

Aww, Misty! I’m so glad that you gave this a shot with me. How did you feel about this as your first Goosebumps book?

Misty

I had a good time with it. It wasn’t remotely scary or creepy to me but I didn’t expect that going into it since it’s written for the younger audience.

Jonny

Yay! I’m glad you still had a good time. Yeah, Stine isn’t exactly known for being super scary, but he’s good at a creepy ambience with some light mystery. I actually liked this book a little better than the average original Goosebumps books I’ve reread so far. Stine has a habit of putting a lot of not so great jump scares and dad jokes in his books, but this didn’t have quite as much as I remember so I really liked that.

Misty

I haven’t read any of his original books so this is my first experience with him. I listened to the audiobook while following along in the physical copy I have and that was an experience. It had a lot of sound effects which added to the experience but I will say there were times when the music in the background was so loud I could barely hear the narrator.

Jonny

Oh wow, I didn’t know that you listened to the audiobook too. I love a good audiobook with sound effects, but that’s really unfortunate that they couldn’t keep the volume down enough to hear the narrator clearly. What did you think about Britney’s friend Molly and her dad’s creepy attic? I once had a friend whose mom had a room filled with porcelain dolls and it was terrifying!

Misty

Porcelain dolls don’t bother me. My sister and I used to get one every year or so for Christmas. However all that other creepy stuff that he kept in his attic is a big nope from me. If there’s a legend around something whether I believe in it or not I want nothing else I do with it. Why tempt fate.

Jonny

I’m not sure if it was the dolls themselves or the way they were arranged like a wall of eyes, but it just felt really unsettling. Although I’ll say manikins and scarecrows are a step up on the fright factor for me. Right? Some of the items weren’t all that scary to me, but certain ones with the legends around them I would never have in my house. I don’t want that kind of crazy coming knocking on my door! What did you think of Britney’s cousin Ethan?

Misty

I mean I think he acted like a typical little boy causing trouble. The one thing the author did really really well was make me angry on Britney’s behalf. I mean she was constantly getting in trouble for things that clearly weren’t her fault even when it’s clearly Ethan’s fault she got blamed.

Jonny

Yeah, I definitely agree. I got a little upset too, especially when the things he did got her in trouble while he got off scot-free. Something I wish Stine would’ve given us was why Ethan was so troubled and why he was there. It was hinted at, but we never got any real explanation. Given his behavior I think he may have been a victim of abuse because it would explain his lashing out all the time. What did you think of Slappy?

Misty

Yeah it would have been nice to have some of that elaborated on but I understand why the author didn’t go into too much detail. It would have changed the tone of the book. I don’t even know what to say about Slappy. I didn’t find him funny or scary he kind of came off silly to me.

Jonny

Yeah, Stine doesn’t really like to explore the darker side of things too deeply, so I get why he veered away from that. Ethan’s still a brat though! Haha, I had a feeling you might say something like that about Slappy. So I have a little history with him from the original Goosebumps and yeah, he’s not scary as much as he is a megalomaniac. He loves telling people how great he is and that you should do what he says or else! I’m still a little shocked that he used the word slave so freely. Like Slappy, check the room lol.

Misty

I didn’t even clock that but now that you said something he definitely needs to check the room haha

Jonny

Haha right? Like Slappy, we don’t use those words anymore. Now get your wooden butt into this conveniently placed wood chipper. I feel like I would handle a Slappy threat pretty well since he’s not really all that scary. I mean, the options are limitless. Fire, wood chipper, the magic words, or just a nice thrashing would probably spell the end for him. Did you like the section where they went to HorrorLand?

Misty

Haha yes absolutely so many options!! I have to say that confused me a bit. Like I enjoyed it but I was like this is a completely different story what the heck is happening?

Jonny

Oh, thank goodness! That was the biggest meh for me with this book. It felt like a sudden forced change and I was pretty confused why they were even going there when they didn’t mention it earlier. It kind of felt like an afterthought to meet the brief of the Horrorland theme. It was nice to be back there (that was one of my favorite books from the OG series), but I hope they make it more of a focus going forward.

Misty

At the end of it is said more to come in the next book so is that maybe just an introduction to to what the next book is going to be about?

Jonny

Right, that’s what I’m hoping for. With the OG series they never did a to be continued, so I’m pretty excited for the next one. There are so many frights to explore in HorrorLand! 🙃🙃🙃

Misty

I have the next book maybe I should take a little peak. It looks like it’s going to be the same way it was in this first book.

Jonny

Well hopefully they can pull it all together a little bit better. It definitely wasn’t bad, just little flaws here and there.

Misty

I didn’t read much because I didn’t want to accidentally spoil myself but it seems like the new characters we get introduced to in the next book will then get an invitation to Horrorland.

Jonny

I gotcha. Hmm, okay, so maybe there is more to HorrorLand than meets the eye! I hope it all pulls together in a nice cohesive way.

Misty

Hopefully so.

Jonny

Fingers crossed! Thanks for reading this with me, bestie. I had a great time and after my current read I should be able to hop right back into HorrorLand. 🙂

Misty

Thanks for suggesting it as our next buddy read. Oh what rating are you giving it. I think I’m going with a 3-3.5 I haven’t fully decided yet. Sounds good. I let you know if I’m able to fit it in when you let me know you’re ready.

Jonny

Of course! The nostalgia was too irresistible to pass up. I went ahead and gave it a four. The lesser amount of dad jokes and lame jump scares kinda made me bump it up. Hopefully the next one will be even better!

Misty

I initially thought of giving it 4 but it wasn’t a love.

Jonny

Totally fair. There’s some room for improvement, and I’m hoping we’ll see that next time. We shall see!

Misty

Yeah definitely there’s definitely room for improvement.

That’s A Wrap!

Thanks for joining us on our buddy read and rant of Revenge of the Living Dummy! We had a lot of fun, and hope you did too! We will definitely be doing some more buddy reads in the future, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, why not check out Misty and Jonny’s other fun buddy reads?

Buddy Read: Shadow War

Buddy Read: Shadow Flames

Buddy Read: Shadow Pawn

Buddy Read: Shadow Walker

Buddy Read: Slewfoot

Buddy Read: Cemetery Boys

Buddy Read: Ravensong

Buddy Read: Wolfsong

Buddy Read: Magic Bites

Buddy Read: The First to Die at the End

Buddy Read: They Both Die at the End

Buddy Read: Under the Whispering Door

Buddy Read: The Burning World

Buddy Read: Warm Bodies

Buddy Read: The Wicked Deep

Buddy Read: The Locke & Key Series

Buddy Read: Dark Lover

Buddy Read: Please Don’t Tell My Parents I’m a Supervillain

If you like what you see, please consider leaving a tip to help keep my website up and running. Thanks so much for your support, and have a great day!

Join My ARC & Street Review Team | Subscribe

 Facebook | GoodReads | Bookbub | Instagram| YouTube