by R.L. Stine
Release Date: July 1st, 2012
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Genre: Middle Grade Mystery and Thriller
Format Read: ARC
SUMMARY
(from Goodreads)
"For the first time ever, Goosebumps is in hard cover!
Catch the series' most notorious characters--undead or alive...
From horror master R.L. Stine come two new chilling stories in one spooky standalone:
The Haunted Mask has returned and is determined to make this the worst night of your life!
Where's the last place you would want to get stuck? A haunted pumpkin patch where the jack o'lanterns are after you!
And watch for Goosebumps: Most Wanted, an all-new paperback series coming in the fall."
From horror master R.L. Stine come two new chilling stories in one spooky standalone:
The Haunted Mask has returned and is determined to make this the worst night of your life!
Where's the last place you would want to get stuck? A haunted pumpkin patch where the jack o'lanterns are after you!
And watch for Goosebumps: Most Wanted, an all-new paperback series coming in the fall."
MY REVIEW
You know a book is good, especially a middle grade book, when you dream about it, no, when you have a nightmare about it! People weren't kidding when they say that R.L. Stine is the Stephen King for kids! His descriptions and story-telling are bone chilling!
The Haunted Mask is split up into three parts, which gives us three point-of-views...
The story starts out with shop owner named William who enjoys creating beautiful, exotic and happy masks. He believes that his masks are to bring fun and joy to the persons wearing them. But when his estranged brother, Randolph, shows up with a proposition to go into business together, showing him a case full of the most ugly and twisted masks he has ever seen. They quarrel and things get quite intense and scary.
Now 40 years later, we meet Lu-Ann and Devin and they are talking about their plans for Halloween. Lu-Ann is tired of going to her friends boring Halloween party every year and now that they are older, she is hoping to make things scary and interesting. Meanwhile, Devin and his family are going to go live on a pumpkin farm for the whole week of Halloween and won't be around to go to the party.
On Halloween, Lu-Ann and her two friends, Brad and Marcus, go to Polly's boring Halloween party and weird things start happening. They run upstairs into the attic and find a chest full of masks. They decide to put on the masks to frighten the party-goers... little does Lu-Ann know that her mask is "special".
The story then jumps back a few days before Halloween showing us what Devin has been going through living on the pumpkin farm - which has not been fun... and the most scariest things have been happening too.
On Halloween everyone's story collides together creating the most suspenseful and scariest of all endings. R.L. Stine really does know how to deliver a good scare!
I highly recommend that parents read this first before giving to any children under the age of 8. My son is 8 1/2 and I'm not sure if I want him reading it yet even though he thinks the cover is one of the coolest bookcovers he has ever seen, lol! I guess I'll be finding out soon enough!
The Haunted Mask is split up into three parts, which gives us three point-of-views...
The story starts out with shop owner named William who enjoys creating beautiful, exotic and happy masks. He believes that his masks are to bring fun and joy to the persons wearing them. But when his estranged brother, Randolph, shows up with a proposition to go into business together, showing him a case full of the most ugly and twisted masks he has ever seen. They quarrel and things get quite intense and scary.
Now 40 years later, we meet Lu-Ann and Devin and they are talking about their plans for Halloween. Lu-Ann is tired of going to her friends boring Halloween party every year and now that they are older, she is hoping to make things scary and interesting. Meanwhile, Devin and his family are going to go live on a pumpkin farm for the whole week of Halloween and won't be around to go to the party.
On Halloween, Lu-Ann and her two friends, Brad and Marcus, go to Polly's boring Halloween party and weird things start happening. They run upstairs into the attic and find a chest full of masks. They decide to put on the masks to frighten the party-goers... little does Lu-Ann know that her mask is "special".
The story then jumps back a few days before Halloween showing us what Devin has been going through living on the pumpkin farm - which has not been fun... and the most scariest things have been happening too.
On Halloween everyone's story collides together creating the most suspenseful and scariest of all endings. R.L. Stine really does know how to deliver a good scare!
I highly recommend that parents read this first before giving to any children under the age of 8. My son is 8 1/2 and I'm not sure if I want him reading it yet even though he thinks the cover is one of the coolest bookcovers he has ever seen, lol! I guess I'll be finding out soon enough!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR - R.L. Stine
Robert Lawrence Stine known as R. L. Stine and Jovial Bob Stine, is an American novelist and writer, well known for targeting younger audiences. Stine, who is often called the Stephen King of children's literature, is the author of dozens of popular horror fiction novellas, including the books in the Goosebumps, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, The Nightmare Room and Fear Street series.R. L. Stine began his writing career when he was nine years old, and today he has achieved the position of the bestselling children's author in history. In the early 1990s, Stine was catapulted to fame when he wrote the unprecedented, bestselling Goosebumps® series, which sold more than 250 million copies and became a worldwide multimedia phenomenon. His other major series, Fear Street, has over 80 million copies sold.
Stine has received numerous awards of recognition, including several Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards and Disney Adventures Kids' Choice Awards, and he has been selected by kids as one of their favorite authors in the NEA's Read Across America program. He lives in New York, NY.
Believe it or not, I have never read RL Stein! I think I need to rectify that!
ReplyDeleteI haven't read him either, sounds fun though :) will add to my wish list :)
ReplyDeleteI LOVED R.L. Stine growing up! I think I've read all of the Goosebump books. He and Christopher Pike were my absolute favorites as a kid/young teen. I'm really looking forward to his first adult novel coming out soon.
ReplyDeleteWonderful review!