#60 "All dressed up and no place to howl!"
Alex is not supposed to go over to the Marlin's house. They are weird and his uncle and Aunt have strict instructions to stay away from there. But Alex is an amateur photographer and wants to take some shots. He finds the place interesting. He's about to find out why his aunt and uncle told him to stay away. ( )

Goosebumps. This is the series that kept me reading through my childhood. More than any other series, Goosebumps kept me interested in reading, and R.L. Stein is a wonderful children's writer. I applaud his efforts, and can't express enough my gratitude for the series. ( )

One of the best Goosebumps! ( )

Since I began my Goosebumps read through I've been looking forward to reading [book: Werewolf Skin]. It isn't a Goosebump book I'd read before, and having been disappointed with my adult read through of [book: The Werewolf of Fever Swamp] I was hopeful that this series would have at least one good werewolf book. Luckily, [book: Werewolf Skin] exceeded my expectations and proved to be a very enjoyable read. I could see how it would be a pretty darn frightening book for a child, and how the twist would likely shock them - though as an adult it's an easy one to see coming.

Alex Hunter is staying with his aunt and uncle for a few weeks while his parents are away on a business trip. Luckily, he's excited about it. He wants to be a photographer, and his aunt and uncle are both professionals in that business, and Wolf Creek offers ample opportunity for good photos that the city just doesn't. The only trouble is something weird is going on in Wolf Creek. It seems everyone there believes in werewolves, and there's the Marling's, who seem to be going out every night...

This is a suspenseful werewolf story, and it brings the gore in a way [book: Werewolf of Fever Swamp] didn't. It helps that this book also features, you know, werewolves and explains [author: R.L. Stine]'s take on the mythos. The skepticism that Alex has towards it, his slow turn to belief - it's fun to read. Even more fun is the descriptions of how he feels being hunted. So, this would go on my Best of Goosebumps list, and I'm happy I finally got to read it! ( )

## All dressed up and no place to howl!

12-year-old Alex is sent off to stay with his quirky aunt and uncle for Halloween while his parents work internationally. Aunt Marta and Uncle Colin live in a small, close-knit community of Wolf Creek where everyone -- everyone -- believes in and is obsessed with werewolves. Even the schools seem to teach nothing but werewolf mythology,* and most nights are (somehow) lit by a full moon.

[N.B. This review includes images, and was formatted for my site, dendrobibliography -- located here.]

Alex's hobby is photography, and before you know it, he's sneaking around trying to photograph the unusual neighbors (never seen but always heard), and taking kids up on their dares to stay in the woods at night to capture werewolves on film. As Halloween approaches, he discovers the identity of a few real werewolves, and he and his friend Hannah plot to steal the werewolf skins as Halloween costumes.

Like R.L. Stine's weird-o vampires in Vampire Breath, the werewolves of Werewolf Skin are removed from typical werewolf mythology. Werewolves aren't just half-wolves who turn into their darker natures under the light of the moon -- they rely on skins which they shed every morning. They have to hide their skins away until the next evening, then, as the moon rises overhead, werewolves must wrap the layers of the skin close around them, and let the animal's nature fuse to their bodies.

Stine's earlier vampires, I thought, were kinda pathetic, but the werewolves' reliance on these external skins is actually gross, and provides some of the book's most effective moments in which we see the startling transformation of these monsters. It's a slow, gross, painful process. Speaking of the book's horror, Werewolf Skin sheds the series' trademark playfulness and dives into explicit gore: Wild animals are violently torn apart at multiple points. They're tense moments, and for more mature audiences than most Goosebumps entries.

I enjoyed most of Werewolf Skin, but feel a lot of its horror aspects aren't used well at all. Halloween is set up as a major event, but its hardly celebrated or acknowledged prior to and even during Halloween night. The only use, it seems, was to tie the story into the book's release date (Oct. '97). The werewolf plot builds up tension really well towards a few natural twists, keeping the reader guessing the whole way which direction it will go, but then foregoes those for something totally random and bland. Werewolf Skin just sorta fizzles out and ends over the last 20 pages, making it an good entry rather than a great one. Bummer. We really need quality werewolf stories.

R.L. Stine's Goosebumps (1992–1997):
#59 The Haunted School | # 61 I Live in Your Basement!

*Somewhat questionably, as in the short time we know the teacher, everything he says is incorrect, even in the context of the story's unique mythology. ( )