Goosebumps #7: Night of the Living Dummy by R.L. Stine

 Greetings Stack Worms!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Holy shit! It's been almost two weeks since I last wrote! I'm so sorry. I'm working a lot and it's been fucking with my depression, so now I gotta play catch up. Not only with the writing but also with reading. Thankfully, I have an extra month. I know it would be passed Halloween, but November is still very much Spoopy season for me. Also, the only thing I have planned for that month is NaNoWriMo and writing doesn't take me as long as reading does. 

Anyway, let's get on with it then! 

TRIGGER WARNING!!!!!!!!!

- Animal abuse (from a dummy) 

SPOILER WARNING!!!!

Night of the Living Dummy is about Twins Lindy and Kris. They tend to compete in everything. When Lindy finds a dummy that she names Slappy, Kris gets jealous of all the attention that her sister is getting. So, she decides that she too wants to become a ventriloquist. This just pisses Lindy off! Kris is always copying her and for once Lindy wanted something for herself. When Kris gets a dummy, Mr. Wood, Lindy gets a sick idea to play a few harmful pranks on Kris to see if she'll stop copying her. And it almost works for a hot second Kris believes that Mr. Wood is alive...and evil! 

This isn't altogether wrong, After Kris finds out that Lindy was the one pulling the pranks, she decides to try and get even. However, after she finds a little card in Mr. Wood's shirt and reads it OUTLOUD...she finds that sometimes it's better to lay sleeping dogs lie. Because now Mr. Wood is alive and wants to make the twins his slaves! Of course, this doesn't work because, despite his mystique powers, he was defenseless against a steam roller. Mr. Wood is crushed and dead. 

Thinking that finally their troubles are over the twins return to their room to find that now Slappy is alive!! OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! 

The End. 

This is very much still one of my favorite books. I'm a sucker for possessed/live puppets/dolls/toys. Seriously, you'll never see me pick up a book faster than if it has to do with an evil toy...well maybe some Orca horror (it's just so rare one has to pick it up right away). 

I know what it's like to have a sibling and I can imagine it being 10 times worse if that sibling happens to be a twin. The rivalry felt real and familiar. I hated the mother. She was a cunt! Ugh!

And, yes, you read that right...Slappy the most infamous villain from the Goosebumps books is a side note in the first book in the Living Dummy books. I'm not sure how Slappy came to life, the spell card belonged to Mr. Wood. Did the evil soul pass to Slappy? I don't think so, Slappy states that he was happy to see the other dummy leave. Was Slappy alive the whole time, just biding his time? Was Slappy originally not evil? If Slappy was alive the whole time then why didn't he move before Mr. Wood got there? Then in the rest of the books, it's the same spell card that brings Slappy to life. How does one put Slappy to sleep? What's with the spell card? Does it bring any dummy to life or is it specific? If it's bringing any dummy alive then why wasn't the card destroyed? Who made the card? Why make the card? Who was the soul for Mr. Wood? Who did they use to be? Did they do this to themselves as a sort of cheating death? 

So many questions!!!!!!!! And no answers...as of now. There might be some later. It's been a while since I read the books. 

That's it for this review. Keep an eye out for the review of the Haunted Mask. Toodles! 

- Bug