The Goosebumps series was truly a gem of our childhood. They were short, thrilling, and entertaining reads that really kept us on our toes! I still have a whole collection of them carefully organized in my bookshelf back home. Here’s a list of five of the creepiest Goosebumps books! (There will be heavy spoilers for the books, be warned!)
1.) “Welcome to Dead House”, Goosebumps #1
It will just kill you . . .
What better way to start this list off than with the very first installment of R.L. Stine’s famous Goosebumps series?!
“Welcome to Dead House” is by far one of the most popular and unforgettable of the series. It features siblings Amanda and Josh who move to Dark Falls (creepy already, I know) to their newly inherited home with their parents. And Dark Falls is… weird. So are the people… who aren’t exactly human.
Spook factor: The eerie atmosphere presented throughout the book is sure to make you warily turn over your shoulder every now and then. Every time the protagonists’ new-found “friends” are around, the tension just builds and BUILDS!
The scene that got me hooked was when Amanda noticed the curtains in her room blowing violently despite the windows being closed shut.
P.S. The part where Petey (their dog) gets killed off will scar me forever.
2.) “Say Cheese and Die!”, Goosebumps #4
One picture is worth a thousand screams.
This book made me want to chuck my polaroid camera out the window.
Four friends snuck into a supposedly haunted house and found an old camera. If only they knew this camera wasn’t meant to preserve memories. It would destroy them.
Whenever the camera is used, it develops a picture that shows the someone or something in the picture being ruined in some way or the other.
Spook factor: This book featured a lot of Will they? Or won’t they? moments throughout the book. I was fidgeting out of nervousness of whether the pictures would really come true. One thing the readers know after reading the book is that Every. Single. Picture. Comes. True.
The scariest scene for me was when Greg took a picture of Shari, and when the photo develops, Shari wasn’t in it. While it is revealed soon after that she has goes missing, I’m sure we all had a mini-heart attack thinking she somehow ended up dead.
3.) “It Came from Beneath the Sink!”, Goosebumps #30
It’s warm! It’s breathing! And it doesn’t do dishes!
This book took bad luck to a whole new level!
Katrina and Daniel are siblings that moved into a lavish new house. When helping clean, Katrina found a living, breathing sponge beneath their sink. Turns out, the sponge brings bad luck to the owner. But by the time siblings realized this, it was too late.
Spook factor: The gradual worsening of the owner’s luck made you brace yourself for what might happen next. While it started off dangerous, the situations that people found themselves in just got more and more life-threatening. The part that made the book for me was the climax. The siblings finally got rid of the sponge, and soon after they saw that their dog had something in its mouth. It was a creature called a lanx, which is supposedly more dangerous than the sponge.
4.) “Night of the Living Dummy II”, Goosebumps #31
He’s still walking. He’s still stalking.
Chucky who? I only know Slappy the Dummy.
Amy Kramer’s father got her a new dummy, Slappy, after her old one’s head fell off. But Slappy is not an ordinary doll. In fact, he may even be a bit… evil.
Slappy was awakened after Amy read out a spell from a card in his pocket. From then on, it was chaos. Weird things happened around the house, with Amy taking the blame for them!
Spook factor: This might be obvious, but the fact that a living dummy is walking (and stalking, apparently) around your house is sure to give you the creeps! One scary aspect of this book that has nothing to do with the supernatural is Amy’s family. None of them believed that she didn’t do any of the terrible things that happened. Her siblings even mock her for practicing ventriloquy.
Lastly, the scariest scene in the book is the exact moment when we realize that Slappy has awakened. When Amy read the spell out loud, she swore she saw the dummy blink. And that was all it took for my heart to jump to my throat!
5.) “How to Kill a Monster”, Goosebumps #46
- Step 1: Run.
- Step 2: Run faster.
The most tension-building, heart-palpitation-inducing Goosebumps book ever! (And my personal favorite!)
Gretchen and her stepbrother, Clark, stayed at their grandparents house (in the middle of a swamp) for the summer. The place only got weirder as the days went by. And strange, inhuman noises came from the locked room upstairs…
Spook factor: The tension. The anxiety. The JUMP SCARES. The part with the monster chasing the two kids throughout the house with them frantically trying to throw it off their scent features some extremely nail-biting moments. Also, re-reading this as an adult made me realize that the grandparents didn’t leave the kids to go get help, they used them as bait.
Lesson learned from this read: it’s never dead the first time.
And that was the list! There are many more great Goosebumps books out there. These are just a few of the scariest ones! Which one is your favorite?
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