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A review by liamunderwood
Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns by R.L. Stine
1.0
Sigh. I'm loathe to say this, but despite being, for the most part, incredibly stupid, Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns does contain one element that is almost subtle and handled quite well. There's a sinister thread that runs through the background of this story, where there are reports of people going missing, and for a children's book, it's almost easy if you're not paying attention to miss what is implied by the end. And honestly, you could be very easily forgiven for not paying attention to a Goosebumps book.
Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns takes an excessively long time to get started. The first few chapters open with a flashback to two years ago, followed by some more chapters flashing back to one year ago, before finally reaching present day and allowing the actual plot to start to unfold. About a third of this book is really just set-up, and it's not handled very well and often feels like it's there just to hit a page count.
Sadly the juice isn't worth the squeeze, as once the plot actually finally gets going, it really doesn't justify all of the time spent setting everything up. On the plus side, I did like Drew, the protagonist, and her friends, and I thought Stine did a good enough job of making Tabitha and Lee unlikeable. Unfortunately there are problematic moments throughout the book which are handled with all of the grace one would expect from R.L. Stine, which is to say, precisely none whatsoever. Maybe it's just me, but I did actually like that the book started to give me some Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) vibes towards the end.
But then Stine delivers one of the all-time worst Goosebumps endings and I was both disappointed and mad at how ridiculous and low-effort the twist at the end is. At no point does Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns come anywhere close to greatness, but the ending solidifies this as being a truly terrible book. The entire story just screams laziness, and I honestly don't know how Stine got away with turning in tripe like this. More baffling is why kids (like me!) actually bought this. Goosebumps sure used to have me in a chokehold. But I'm an adult now and still subjecting myself to this nonsense, so I don't know what that says about me, but I don't think I like it.
1/5
Goosebumps Ranked
1) One Day At Horrorland - 4/5
2) Stay Out of the Basement - 4/5
3) Attack of the Mutant - 3.5/5
4) Welcome to Dead House - 3.5/5
5) The Headless Ghost - 3.5/5
6) The Phantom of the Auditorium - 3.5/5
7) Piano Lessons Can Be Murder - 3.5/5
8) Night of the Living Dummy - 3.5/5
9) The Girl Who Cried Monster - 3.5/5
10) The Werewolf of Fever Swamp - 3.5/5
11) The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight - 3/5
12) The Haunted Mask - 3/5
13) The Ghost Next Door - 3/5
14) Ghost Beach - 3/5
15) Monster Blood - 3/5
16) Night of the Living Dummy II - 3/5
17) The Haunted Mask II - 3/5
18) Deep Trouble - 3/5
19) Say Cheese and Die! - 3/5
20) A Night in Terror Tower - 2.5/5
21) Why I'm Afraid of Bees - 2.5/5
22) The Cuckoo Clock of Doom - 2.5/5
23) Be Careful What You Wish For... - 2.5/5
24) The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb - 2.5/5
25) Monster Blood II - 2/5
26) My Hairiest Adventure - 2/5
27) Night of the Living Dummy III - 2/5
28) Go Eat Worms! - 2/5
29) Monster Blood III - 2/5
30) Say Cheese and Die - Again! - 2/5
31) The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena - 2/5
32) It Came from Beneath the Sink! - 2/5
33) Egg Monsters from Mars - 2/5
34) Return of the Mummy - 2/5
35) Let's Get Invisible! - 2/5
36) Welcome to Camp Nightmare - 2/5
37) A Shocker on Shock Street - 1.5/5
38) Revenge of the Garden Gnomes - 1.5/5
39) How I Got My Shrunken Head - 1.5/5
40) The Horror at Camp Jellyjam - 1.5/5
41) The Barking Ghost - 1.5/5
42) Bad Hare Day - 1/5
43) Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns - 1/5
44) You Can't Scare Me - 1/5
45) The Beast from the East - 1/5
Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns takes an excessively long time to get started. The first few chapters open with a flashback to two years ago, followed by some more chapters flashing back to one year ago, before finally reaching present day and allowing the actual plot to start to unfold. About a third of this book is really just set-up, and it's not handled very well and often feels like it's there just to hit a page count.
Sadly the juice isn't worth the squeeze, as once the plot actually finally gets going, it really doesn't justify all of the time spent setting everything up. On the plus side, I did like Drew, the protagonist, and her friends, and I thought Stine did a good enough job of making Tabitha and Lee unlikeable. Unfortunately there are problematic moments throughout the book which are handled with all of the grace one would expect from R.L. Stine, which is to say, precisely none whatsoever. Maybe it's just me, but I did actually like that the book started to give me some Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) vibes towards the end.
But then Stine delivers one of the all-time worst Goosebumps endings and I was both disappointed and mad at how ridiculous and low-effort the twist at the end is. At no point does Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns come anywhere close to greatness, but the ending solidifies this as being a truly terrible book. The entire story just screams laziness, and I honestly don't know how Stine got away with turning in tripe like this. More baffling is why kids (like me!) actually bought this. Goosebumps sure used to have me in a chokehold. But I'm an adult now and still subjecting myself to this nonsense, so I don't know what that says about me, but I don't think I like it.
1/5
Goosebumps Ranked
1) One Day At Horrorland - 4/5
2) Stay Out of the Basement - 4/5
3) Attack of the Mutant - 3.5/5
4) Welcome to Dead House - 3.5/5
5) The Headless Ghost - 3.5/5
6) The Phantom of the Auditorium - 3.5/5
7) Piano Lessons Can Be Murder - 3.5/5
8) Night of the Living Dummy - 3.5/5
9) The Girl Who Cried Monster - 3.5/5
10) The Werewolf of Fever Swamp - 3.5/5
11) The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight - 3/5
12) The Haunted Mask - 3/5
13) The Ghost Next Door - 3/5
14) Ghost Beach - 3/5
15) Monster Blood - 3/5
16) Night of the Living Dummy II - 3/5
17) The Haunted Mask II - 3/5
18) Deep Trouble - 3/5
19) Say Cheese and Die! - 3/5
20) A Night in Terror Tower - 2.5/5
21) Why I'm Afraid of Bees - 2.5/5
22) The Cuckoo Clock of Doom - 2.5/5
23) Be Careful What You Wish For... - 2.5/5
24) The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb - 2.5/5
25) Monster Blood II - 2/5
26) My Hairiest Adventure - 2/5
27) Night of the Living Dummy III - 2/5
28) Go Eat Worms! - 2/5
29) Monster Blood III - 2/5
30) Say Cheese and Die - Again! - 2/5
31) The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena - 2/5
32) It Came from Beneath the Sink! - 2/5
33) Egg Monsters from Mars - 2/5
34) Return of the Mummy - 2/5
35) Let's Get Invisible! - 2/5
36) Welcome to Camp Nightmare - 2/5
37) A Shocker on Shock Street - 1.5/5
38) Revenge of the Garden Gnomes - 1.5/5
39) How I Got My Shrunken Head - 1.5/5
40) The Horror at Camp Jellyjam - 1.5/5
41) The Barking Ghost - 1.5/5
42) Bad Hare Day - 1/5
43) Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns - 1/5
44) You Can't Scare Me - 1/5
45) The Beast from the East - 1/5