Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - Night of the Living Dummy

Collective thoughts! I can definitely see why this book in the series is a fan favorite! It is spooky, strange and 100% the Goosebumps vibe. While not necessarily a fan of the new cover, it'll forever cement my dislike for ventriloquist dummies.

SPOILERS----------

I will say it was surprising to see Slappy wasn't the villain for this one! Although his intro at the end audibly made me cackle at just how cliche it is. Surprisingly a bit darker of a story? I was not expecting the attempted dog murder but here we are. I am conflicted about the whole situation of the possessed dummies referring to the 2 young girls as slaves who deserved to be punished but in any case, I did enjoy this book more than my previous read of "The Haunted Mask".

Content Warnings

readerette's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I realize that I've definitely aged out of the target audience for this book (and the other Goosebumps stories) but this really does not stand the test of time. Most other books from my childhood I still enjoy rereading (Nancy Drew, illustrated classics, Scary Stories To Tell In the Dark, etc), but this book didn't scare me or creep me out, the main characters just annoyed me (considering their primary personality trait is nasty competitiveness sand they were the same person with different haircuts), all of the secondary characters may as well not have existed for all that they added to the story, and there was zero explanation for the supernatural elements.

The dummy kept saying he had powers, but aside from talking, walking, biting and vomiting (which are just traits of living creatures, not "powers"), demonstrated no powers. Did he have something to do with the girls' strangely meteoric rise to potential fame or something? And what was the significance of the green gas emitted when the dummy was crushed?

Trying to be generous with the rating as a young reader may find this entertaining still, but I have my doubts.

Content Warnings

More...