10 Scariest Goosebumps Books I’m Still Thinking About As An Adult

The Goosebumps books were one of the defining series of my childhood, and many of the chilling tales have stuck in my mind well into my adult life. Created by the legendary author R.L. Stine, the Goosebumps series are largely responsible for my own obsession with horror, introducing the joy of scary stories to my young, malleable brain. Whenever I found myself in the Scholastic book fair with a few dollars to my name, I’d make a beeline for the dripping green font of the Goosebumps series.

It’s easy to dismiss the Goosebumps books as simple, easy-to-digest “horror” stories that might only frighten incredibly young children. But looking back on them, the series wasn’t afraid of getting surprisingly dark, with a few standout entries still sticking out in my mind as particularly harrowing. While the new Disney+ series has been hard at work adapting the Goosebumps books, the original literature still presents some of the most terrifying stories ever aimed at younger audiences.

11 One Day At HorrorLand

A sinister twist on a horror amusement parks

Few Goosebumps books stick out in my mind like One Day at Horrorland. The plot revolves around a family who make a road trip to a mysterious horror-themed amusement park, the titular HorrorLand, only to be trapped there when (get this) their car literally explodes while sitting in a parking lot. Trying to make the best out of a bad situation, the family soon realizes that the “costumed” staff of monsters have sinister motivations beyond showing the Morris family a good time.

At first, the generic monster designs described in the book might not seem like anything special. But it’s the claustrophobic terror of HorrorLand’s rides that made the book nauseatingly scary to me as a young child, particularly the Coffin Cruise and Hall of Mirrors sequences. The climax of the story is also very chaotic, describing a horror-themed game show centered around the capture, torture, and deaths of human patrons of HorrorLand. It’s all quite intense for a curious young reader.

10 The Beast From The East

A Saw movie for kids

Like One Day at Horrorland, the colorful monsters evoked by the cover of The Beast from the East might at first seem more Sesame Street than horror movie. But the circumstances these bizarre creatures inflict upon the book’s hapless protagonists still find their way into my adult mind every now and then, with the feelings of anxiety I felt as a kid coming bubbling up to the surface upon recalling the story. The book begins when a trio of siblings gets lost in a forest, finding themselves transported into a strange, alien-like land of monstrous creatures.

The most prominent of these cryptids, the blue-furred, gorilla-faced beasts, are sadistic, sapient creatures, who trap the Wald siblings in a twisted game of tag that will result in their gruesome deaths should they still be “it” by the time the sun sets. This ticking time bomb element and the twisted rules of the game evokes the trials and traps of the Saw movies for a young target demographic. The worst part is the fact that by the time the final chapter ends, the game seems to have started all over again.

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8 Revenge Of The Lawn Gnomes

Takes a silly premise way too far

I know how ranking Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes among my scariest recollections of the Goosebumps books might seem. Admittedly, the novel is famous for being one of R.L. Stine’s silliest ideas yet, attempting to make terrifying killers out of the lovable, cherub-cheeked fae folk known for dotting custom gardens and travel service commercials. The story’s premise even has to go to great lengths to justify the gnomes’ appearance, explaining the child protagonist’s father to be in an obsessive lawn decoration contest with a neighborhood rival.

But I’m not afraid to speak on the fact that the lawn gnomes are some of the most sadistic villains ever created by R.L. Stine. They argue among themselves over what tortuous method of execution to use on the book’s captured protagonist, Joe, either curb-stomping him to death on the basement floor or slowly pulling him apart limb from limb, showing up in terrifying numbers. That’s not even to mention the frustration of the gnomes’ gaslighting psychological attacks, framing Joe for crimes he didn’t commit.

7 Cry Of The Cat

One of the goriest offerings from R.L. Stine

Not only does Cry of the Cat stand out as one of the scariest Goosebumps books in my memory, but I vividly remember haunting visuals of the TV Goosebumps adaptation in the 90s series, as well. The book follows yet another everyman child protagonist, Alison, who has the unfortunate fate of accidentally running over and killing a cat with her bike. The graphic description of the cat’s decapitation is brutal enough to still stick in my memory well into adulthood, but that’s far from where the terror of Cry of the Cat ends.

The headless cat Rip is like an impossible-to-stop Terminator, coming after Alison again and again no matter what kind of horrific injuries it suffers, being deadly even without its head. But the true crowning achievement of the book’s terror is its unsettling description of a half-cat, half-humanoid creature, the chilling image of which in the TV series made me afraid to turn around for months on end as a kid. Cry of the Cat has a lot of moving pieces, but is shockingly gruesome in its gore descriptions for a kids’ series.

6 Welcome To Dead House

A classic haunted house story that’s surprisingly intense

The haunted house is a staple of the horror genre, and it’s no surprise that the Goosebumps series at one point dabbled in such an iconic premise. What is surprising is what lengths R.L. Stine was willing to go in order to keep the story fresh, with a few scary moments that still stand out in my memory even now. Siblings Amanda and Josh find themselves in a new house, in a new neighborhood, with new friends, but all three quickly reveal their true, sinister colors.

This book manages to stay impressively subtle with its horror for the most part, giving Amanda and Josh the briefest glimpses of other children in their home before pulling the wool back over their eyes. It’s when the ghosts reveal that they want the siblings to die with them that things truly start getting frightening, with the shocking reveal that every single citizen of the town of Dark Falls is undead still being memorable all these years later. The graveyard scene is a particularly harrowing battle against the dead that hangs with the best of zombie media.

5 Night Of The Living Dummy II

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An iconic Goosebumps miniseries for a reason

Of all the scariest Goosebumps villains that R.L. Stine has introduced over the years, there’s a good reason that Slappy is still one of the most iconic. Spawning a whole miniseries of its own within the overarching Goosebumps umbrella, I can anecdotally attest to the sheer dread Night of the Living Dummy to verify its popularity. But it’s in Night of the Living Dummy II that Slappy truly came into his own as the most iconic ventriloquist dummy horror villain ever created.

Weaponizing the inherent creepiness of the puppets, the book ups the ante on Slappy’s psychological attacks, framing protagonist Amy for a variety of disturbing actions and putting literal words in her mouth. The abusive relationship between Amy and Slappy makes for an uneasy reading experience, an uncomfortable dynamic I remember first being represented in the chilling tale. The mysterious ending and unbelievable reveal of the secret behind Slappy’s sentience also closes the book on a creepy note.

4 Ghost Beach

A whirlwind of ghoulish reveals

Judging a book by its cover, Ghost Beach might not seem like the most exciting or creative Goosebumps book. But underestimating this particular entry would be a grave mistake, as it features some of the most harrowing encounters with ghosts R.L. Stine has ever put to the page. The story begins in a dreary New England town, in which siblings Jerry and Terri make friends with group of mysterious kids while visiting their older cousins.

The book begins on a note that’s more somber than terrifying, with a particularly sad scene involving the discovery of a murdered dog’s corpse. But the true standout moment of horror is when Jerry and Terri learn that their new friends are actually ghosts, as their flesh melts from their bones, and they beg the siblings to join them in death complete with freshly dug graves. As if that traumatizing encounter wasn’t enough, the shocking twist that Jerry and Terri’s cousins were also specters all along closes the story off on an ominous note.

3 Chicken Chicken

Cronenberg body horror writ small

Like Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes, Chicken Chicken is another one of those stories with a goofy premise that R.L. Stine manages to somehow make absolutely terrifying through the sheer power of his prose alone. I distinctly remember the hilarious cover art of Chicken Chicken drawing me in with an amusing illustration of a chicken with a girl’s head, only for the actual story within to nearly scare me out of finishing the story. Chicken Chicken begins with a pair of siblings who are cursed by a suspicious witch, causing them to slowly transform into, of course, chickens.

While on paper, this story shouldn’t be especially scary, it’s the eeriely-detailed slow transformation of Crystal and Cole into common poultry that truly got under my skin as a kid. The imagery of their lips hardening into beaks, their skin sprouting feathers, and their hands curling into claws made for some unsettling body horror akin to the works of David Cronenberg. That being said, the silly “here we go again” ending is more endearing than frightening.

2 Curse Of Camp Cold Lake

One of the more morbid Goosebumps entries

From its unsettling cover to its title that evokes Camp Crystal Lake of the Friday the 13th movies, The Curse of Camp Cold Lake actually plays out a little similar to the iconic 80s horror slasher, Sleepaway Camp. The story begins with a war being waged between the protagonist, Sarah, and her irate bunkmates, escalating from simple misunderstandings to nasty pranks. When Sarah fakes her own drowning to garner sympathy, she experiences a near-death experience that puts her face to face with a ghostly camper, Della.

Della is one of the creepiest kid antagonists ever dreamed up by R.L. Stine, appearing for a split second to haunt Sarah before vanishing in the crowd. Her slow encroachment upon Sarah’s sanity was memorable, but what really stuck out to me was the ending. Just as another camper seems to save Sarah from Della, she reveals that she, too, is a dead child, and the book heavily implies that its protagonist is just another link in the chain of Camp Cold Lake’s deadly curse.

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1 I Live In Your Basement!

Relentless psychological horror

From its provocative title to its unsettling premise, I Live in Your Basement! is one of the most creative and disturbing books ever claimed to be marketed to a child audience. The story revolves around Marco, a young boy with an over-protective mother whose fears are proven justified when Marco gets a head injury after sneaking off to play softball. When Marco comes to, he gets a call from a mysterious voice on the phone who claims to live in his basement, and the book goes off the rails from there.

I vividly remember the confusing terror of Marco’s Inception nightmare reality, waking up over and over again while getting visits from different iterations of the same mysterious doctor. I Live in Your Basement! takes body horror to the extreme as well, with gut-wrenching scenes describing Marko pulling an infinite tongue out of Marko’s mouth or a child turning themselves inside-out to become a puddle of pink organs. As if that weren’t enough, the final reveal of the identity of Marco’s caller will forever haunt my fond memories of the Goosebumps series.

Goosebumps

Created by author R. L. Stine, Goosebumps is a multimedia franchise that began as a series of young adult horror novels. The books were eventually adapted and expanded in the 1995 television series, with several video games arriving in the same window. After a long hiatus, the franchise returned to the big screen in 2015, with Jack Black playing the role of R. L. Stine himself.

Created byR. L. Stine

CastJack Black , Dylan Minnette , Odeya Rush , Amy Ryan , Ryan Lee , Jillian Bell , Madison Iseman , Jeremy Ray Taylor , R. L. Stine , Caleel Harris , Mick Wingert

Character(s)R. L. Stine , Slappy the Dummy

Video Game(s)Goosebumps: Escape from HorrorLand , Goosebumps: Attack of the Mutant , Goosebumps: The Game , Goosebumps: Night of Scares , Goosebumps: HorrorTown , Goosebumps: Dead of Night

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