The Definitive Ranking of All 62 Original "Goosebumps" Books
The official ranking of all 62 of R.L. Stine's "Goosebumps" books.
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63.
Do you remember seeing your first Goosebumps book in the supermarket checkout line or Scholastic Book Fair? The feeling that something terrible—or terribly awesome!—was hidden in the pages of Night of the Living Dummy or Monster Blood? Kids these days may have The Hunger Games, but they'll never understand the spooky joy of staying up all night exploring Camp Nightmare.
Whether you followed the series for its entire run or, like most of us, stopped somewhere in the 30s, R.L. Stine continued to write the horror fiction novellas at an incredible pace from 1992 through 1997. (Seriously, the guy was a machine.) Twenty-two years after the release of the first volume, a spin-off series, and a television show, we decided to look back and rank all 62 of the original series below. Try not to get too scared, and tell us your own favorites in the comments.
62.Calling All Creeps!
Volume: 50
Release date: December 1996
61.My Hairiest Adventure
Volume: 26
Release date: December 1994
60.Monster Blood III
Volume: 29
Release date: March 1995
59.Chicken, Chicken
Volume: 53
Release date: March 1997
58.Werewolf Skin
Volume: 60
Release date: October 1997
57.Monster Blood IV
Volume: 61
Release date: December 1997
56.A Shocker on Shock Street
Volume: 35
Release date: September 1995
55.Deep Trouble II
Volume: 58
Release date: August 1997
54.The Cuckoo Clock of Doom
Volume: 28
Release date: February 1995
53.Ghost Camp
Volume: 45
Release date: July 1996
52.Beware, the Snowman
Volume: 51
Release date: January 1997
51.Legend of the Lost Legend
Volume: 47
Release date: September 1996
50.How I Learned to Fly
Volume: 52
Release date: February 1997
49.Ghost Beach
Volume: 22
Release date: August 1994
48.The Barking Ghost
Volume: 32
Release date: June 1995
47.The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena
Volume: 38
Release date: December 1995
46.I Live in Your Basement
Volume: 61
Release date: November 1997
45.Why I'm Afraid of Bees
Volume: 17
Release date: March 1994
44.The Headless Ghost
Volume: 37
Release date: November 1995
43.Night of the Living Dummy III
Volume: 40
Release date: February 1996
42.Let's Get Invisible!
Volume: 6
Release date: March 1993
41.Egg Monsters from Mars
Volume: 42
Release date: April 1996
40.Attack of the Mutant
Volume: 25
Release date: November 1994
39.Deep Trouble
Volume: 19
Release date: May 1994
38.The Horror at Camp Jellyjam
Volume: 33
Release date: July 1995
37.Say Cheese and Die - Again
Volume: 44
Release date: June 1996
36.The Haunted Mask II
Volume: 36
Release date: October 1995
35.My Best Friend is Invisible
Volume: 57
Release date: July 1997
34.How to Kill a Monster
Volume: 46
Release date: August 1996
33.The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb
Volume: 5
Release date: January 1993
32.How I Got My Shrunken Head
Volume: 39
Release date: January 1996
31.The Haunted School
Volume: 59
Release date: September 1997
30.Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns
Volume: 48
Release date: October 1996
29.A Night in Terror Tower
Volume: 27
Release date: January 1995
28.Vampire Breath
Volume: 49
Release date: November 1996
27.Be Careful What You Wish For…
Volume: 12
Release date: October 1993
26.Night of the Living Dummy II
Volume: 31
Release date: May 1995
25.Stay Out of the Basement
Volume: 2
Release date: July 1992
24.Don't Go to Sleep!
Volume: 54
Release date: April 1997
23.The Blob That Ate Everyone
Volume: 55
Release date: May 1997
22.The Beast from the East
Volume: 43
Release date: May 1996
21.You Can't Scare Me!
Volume: 15
Release date: January 1994
20.The Curse of Camp Cold Lake
Volume: 56
Release date: June 1997
19.Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes
Volume: 34
Release date: August 1995
18.Phantom of the Auditorium
Volume: 24
Release date: October 1994
17.Monster Blood
Volume: 3
Release date: September 1992
16.The Ghost Next Door
Volume: 10
Release date: August 1993
15.Return of the Mummy
Volume: 23
Release date: September 1994
14.It Came from Beneath the Sink!
Volume: 30
Release date: April 1995
13.The Girl Who Cried Monster
Volume: 8
Release date: May 1993
12.Bad Hare Day
Volume: 41
Release date: March 1996
11.Welcome to Camp Nightmare
Volume: 9
Release date: July 1993
10.Piano Lessons Can Be Murder
Volume: 13
Release date: November 1993
Most of the later Goosebumps books had pun-tastic titles that were basically just drawn-out into 125 pages jokes. It's an ingenious formula, sort of like what The Onion does today only with children's horror novellas. But of all the play-on-word plot devices, Piano Lessons Can Be Murder hits closest to home. Anyone whose parents forced them to take music lessons can attest: Sure, there's an actual horror plot to this book, but the scariest thing of all is just remembering how much you hated practicing for 40 minutes a day.
9.One Day at Horrorland
Volume: 16
Release date: February 1994
Haunted theme parks have been a big thing for the horror genre since Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, so naturally R.L. Stine would need to put his own spin on it. This version of the story centers on a family's terrifying trip to Horrorland, a theme park that more than lives up to its name. It also has a weird reality TV/Truman Show-esque subplot that proved to be ahead of its time (the monsters in the theme have been filming the family for their own show). And the twist ending—that the family is offered more free passes by monsters—is more darkly humorous than most.
8.Say Cheese and Die!
Volume:4
Release date: November 1992
It's often said that Native Americans believed a picture steals your soul, so naturally horror writers have mined this trope for screams. One of the earliest Goosebumps titles, the book focuses on a haunted camera that kills anyone whose picture is taken. It's sort of like Marty McFly disappearing, only without time travel. And the cover, with a skeleton family flipping burgers, is perfectly macabre.
7.The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight
Volume: 20
Release date: June 1994
Of all the Goosebumps covers, this is the one that scariest. There's just something about an evil scarecrow that's undeniably creepy. The plot involves two kids, Jodie and Mark, staying on their grandparent's farm. They notice some creepy-looking scarecrows, and soon enough, they've come alive and are looking for blood. The reason, though—that they were made using instruction from an evil book—is pretty cool. And the last page, hinting that a similarly evil teddy bear was created, is one of the best Goosebumps twists.
6.Welcome to Dead House
Volume: 1
Release date: July 1992
The first book in the Goosebumps series is also one of the best. R.L. Stine treats us to a classic family-moves-into-a-haunted-house scenario. Like all the stories that would follow, there's a spooky twist at the end of the book that young readers can identify with. Though the series would later get wild and zany with the plots (see: The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena), this is where it all started.
5.The Werewolf of Fever Swamp
Volume: 14
Release date: December 1993
Every horror series needs a werewolf (or two), and this is the best werewolf-centric book in the Goosebumps series by far. The story follows Grady, a new resident of Fever Swamp, who starts investigating howling in the woods. Is it the character known as Swamp Hermit? A dog named Wolf? Or even Grady's new friend Will? Like all good werewolf stories The Werewolf of Fever Swamp is a tale of alienation and transformation, but mostly it's about a kid who wants a pet dog really badly. Who can't sympathize with that?
4.Go Eat Worms!
Volume: 21
Release date: July 1994
Go Eat Worms is a pretty #advanced Goosebumps book in that the main character is sort of a dickish weirdo you want to see punished. You see, Todd really, really likes worms. He's obsessed with them. He likes scaring people with them, playing with them, and digging for them in the playground. There was probably a kid like this in your class, and his name was also probably Todd. The story itself is basically about a giant worm that starts tormenting Todd in order to teach him a lesson. (The lesson: don't play with worms because that is a weird thing to do and the worms don't like it.) It may well be the strangest Goosebumps book in the entire series.
3.Monster Blood II
Volume: 18
Release date: April 1994
There are actually four books in the Monster Blood series, but the second really knocks it out of the park. The story picks up after Evan Ross, of the original Monster Blood, moves to a new school where he's getting bullied by a kid known as Conan the Barbarian. (Oh, side note: Monster Blood is a substance that makes anything you feed it to grow huge, and become evil.) After finding an old tin of Monster Blood, Evan and a friend decide to feed it to a classroom hamster to get back at Conan. Things don't go as planned and Evan ends up drinking some monster blood himself to save the day (and Conan's life).
The moral of the story: don't feed classroom pets evil blood, no matter how good your reason.
2.Night of the Living Dummy
Volume: 7
Release date: May 1993
Just look at that cover. Those eyes! How ventriloquist dummies were ever supposed to be anything other than nightmarish is unfathomable. This book focuses on twin siblings Kris and Lindy, whose dummies may or may not be coming alive and doing terrible things in the night (of course they are!). It's like Toy Story, if Woody wanted to kill you in your sleep.
1.The Haunted Mask
Volume: 11
Release date: September 1993
The Haunted Mask may have been the eleventh book in the series, but it was the first one that you could find literally everywhere you looked. (Seriously, these things were sold everywhere from supermarkets to car washes.) The story focused on timid 11-year-old Carly Beth, who winds up with an evil Halloween mask she can't remove. The book is insanely thrilling from start to finish, with a twist ending that was just the right amount of horrific ("How do I look in your mask?"). Anyone who's read it will tell you, the thought of it still gives them shivers.