The Five Masks of Dr. Screem: Special Edition (Goosebumps Hall of Horrors #3) (3)

Let's get to the point: R.L. Stine obviously didn't write this one. Stine is known for the humor he injects into these books, and this one has no humor, save for an EC Comics-style introduction and conclusion (those parts are possibly written by Stine).This book, instead, is really dark. The female protagonist is constantly being held down by bugs or Egyptian priests or whomever in a manner that is, let's say, not appropriate for a children's book (overtones of another act which can be committed against women). This book is also gorier than many Goosebumps books. This series is known for being "fun-gross" (think the Purple goo the aliens excrete in "Brain Juice", or the snail-sweating monster King JellyJam), but this book simply describes the gory innards of a rabbit devoured by wolves. Stine would never write that. He was primary a joke-writer who fell into these scary stories, and he has said at numerous live readings that he always broke up something scary or serious with humor, so kids would know that the crazy events in his books could never happen to them. The tone of this book, and its writing style, make it clear to any devoted reader of the Goosebumps books that this is NOT Stine.Also, this book has some throwaway references to popular YA books that are distracting (a character named Bella....a references to Hallows).Oh, and the protagonist makes a reference to parents over-medicating children! Stine kept overt social commentary out of these books.The book itself, putting aside all of the above, is boring, repetitive, and not at all fun to read. The cover art is excellent, but that's the only positive thing I have to say about this.

I used to read goosebumps when the series first came out so in already a fan. Our 8 year old boy loves the Goosebump series! I bought him this and 3 others and he sat quietly with me reading in our home. Yes, and 8 year old boy quietly reading & happy too! Looking to purchase more!

Kids love reading these books. This is the third book in the series of hall of horrors series of Goosebumps.

My 12 year old son has a collection of R.L. Stine's books in his room. So far he has a large number of the Goosebumps, Goosebump Horrorlands, some others I can't think of lol, and is now starting to read R.L. Stine's Fear Street books. I read these books as a kid and now I'm buying them for my kids!

Its an pretty good book in my opinion I though it wuz game be bad but it turned out to be a great book

This book kept me up every night reading it. It kept me off the edge of my seat. I love how at the end of the Goosebumps's books, the characters always forgets what happens and then something bad happens again.

It's really AWESOME and creepy it gave me the chills very very scary for sureReview written by my 7 yr old son. :)

This book is excellent, exactly what any good person would want. It's the exciting adventure of two kids, too find five special masks...

It was really a weird book. it was a bit scary but boring at bits. but i would say to read it. its a bit different from the rest of the books

Good Book

Brought for a birthday present.

Happy with items

The plot of this story was intricately laid out and well explained. I totally recommend buying this book as it is worth spending the money.