I’ve Got Goosebumps!

Who doesn’t remember R.L Stine’s Goosebumps books. I’m not much of a fan of horror or gore but I loved Goosebumps as a kid and would read the shelves upon shelves of Goosebumps books that could be found in my primary school. I still have a fondness and nostalgia for the books that helped to grow my reading habits, I was already a bookworm but R.L Stone helped me to find a new genre to love. The Goosebumps films in recent years have me real nostalgia, whilst the Night of the Living Dummy and A Night in Terror Tower were creepy but thrilling to me as a kid, and were my favourite Goosebumps novels amongst others, including The Mask.

Although, the classic films, series and the current films set in a world where the books come to life, the new three part Netflix slasher trilogy Fear Street based the Goosebumps writer’s teen series called Fear Street. The first is set in 1994, the second in 1978 and the last in 1666, it has an age rating of 18 and from the looks of trailers and previews, is not for kid readers of Goosebumps.

In a Guardian interview with R.L Stine by Kathryn Bromwich, Stine said: “ It’s always fun to see what other authors do with my work: they made up a 300-year history, going all the way back to colonial times. But it’s faithful to the feeling of the books, which are about a cursed place inside a very normal town.” There are plenty of tamer versions for those who do not favour gore or jump scares, but just as if not more entertaining and comedic.

The Netflix Horror adaptations of the books come in time for Goosebumps, who will be celebrating its 30th anniversary of the Goosebumps books and he is currently writing new Goosebump books for fans to enjoy. This will only add to the undress of books he’s already written and the undress of millions of copies sold of those books. The Goosebumps and series like Fear Street are still just as popular decades later, and popularity is sure to grow with all the film and tv adaptations in the last decade alone.

When Stine was asked in his interview with Bromwich for the Guardian, she asked him how he felt about meeting the adult fans who, like me, grew up with his books. He said: “It took a long time to get used to being nostalgia: that was hard to take for a while. I’d do book signings: seven-year-olds came, and 10-year-olds, then 30-year-olds, and 35-year-olds. But I got to really like it. I get such wonderful messages from people saying: “I wouldn’t be a writer today if it wasn’t for you”, “Thank you for getting me through a hard childhood.” It’s great for my ego.”