Amazon.com Review
Fifteen-year-old Danielle Warner was just kidding when she said she wanted to be an only child. And she was only pretending to hypnotize her little brother Peter. But when he starts acting very peculiar, Danielle realizes she's entered... the Nightmare Room! The Nightmare Room is the place "where true horror waits." It could be anywhere--under a tree, in your basement, at school, in your
mind. Soon, Danielle is in a desperate race to save her brother's life, his memory, and his soul.
R.L. Stine, master of the macabre, needs no introduction. His Goosebumps and Fear Street series have been sending chills down readers' spines for years, and the Nightmare Room books are sure to keep those chills coming. Haunted cellars in creaky old houses, a teenage heroine who wonders if she's going crazy, slime-covered zombies whispering and beckoning lost souls through a trapdoor to be forgotten forever... any red-blooded kid is going to devour this book. Stine's writing is brisk and thrilling, if formulaic, with introductions that seem inspired by TV's Twilight Zone. The formula works, though, as countless fans will attest, making bookworms out of nonreaders. Wondering what you'll find in the Nightmare Room next time? Watch for book 2, Locker 13. (Ages 9 to 13) --Emilie Coulter
From Publishers Weekly
The author of the Goosebumps and Fear Street series is up to his kid-pleasing, tried-and-true tricks in the first installment of The Nightmare Room series. Fittingly creepy cover art will catch youngsters' eyes and the plucky plot should hold their attention. Fifteen-year-old Danielle and her family have just moved into a rambling, 100-year-old "fixer-upper" house. When her parents take off on a business trip, they leave the teen in charge of her nine-year-old brother, Peter. Danielle practices her school talent-show act and pretends to hypnotize him. She finds it a bit scary when he doesn't wake up immediatelyAand scarier yet when he finally does come to and seems to have lost his memory. Shortly after the author sends the parents off on their trip, Stine adds a man dressed in black, skulking outside the house, and the sounds of moaning and whispers emanating from the basement (where Danielle finds slime-covered, zombie-like children) to set a spooky stage for the eerie events that follow. Effectively laced with foreshadowing, appealing Danielle's first-person narrative keeps the tale moving at a quick clip. This may not bring on nightmares, but it's likely to make readers think twice about venturing into dark basements and may well bring them back for the next installment, Locker 13, also releasing this month. Ages 10-up. (Sept.) FYI: A Web site, www.thenightmareroom.com, offers related games and information about the 10 planned forthcoming titles; a story published exclusively on-line, Dead of Night, is also available on the site (Children's Books, Aug. 7)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
