Customer Reviews

Freaks and Shrieks (Mostly Ghostly)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Freaks and Shrieks is the 7th (and second to the last) book in the Mostly Ghostly series. Throughout the Series we follow Max (live boy), Tara (ghost girl) and Nicky (ghost boy)...Max is not your typical young man...he's got a brutish bully of a brother, a father who'd rather he was a jock and not so into learning and magic tricks, and oh yea...two ghosts living in his house. Nicky and Tara are supposed to be his friends, but who are constantly getting him into one big mess after another and this time out, things are no different. Thankfully, Colin (the brother) has one brief appearance in this story as I was getting quite tired of the overkill emphasis on the brotherly violence.

In Freaks and Shrieks Nicky and Tara are being stalked (yet again) by a strange man in black) and we join Max as he's preparing for an audition for his favorite magician, Ballantine (to hopefully become one of three students he's taking on). Nicky and Tara typically want to help make his audition better and you know what that means...naturally, they make it worse. Max also lucks out with an invitation from Tracy Wayne (the most popular and beautiful girl at school) to a party...but even that is in jeopardy as Nicky and Tara beg him to allow Dr. Smollet to transfer his brain to a chimp (the only living thing to have witnessed what Phears did to Nicky & Tara and their parents and perhaps the only way to find out how they really become ghosts). Will Max trade brains with a chimp? Will he impress Tracy at the party? And most importantly will he get to be one of Ballentines magical students? Things never go as planned when things are Mostly Ghostly...read and find out!

Overall, it's another three star book for the Mostly Ghostly series...the story had some interesting twists and Nicky and Tara come through for Max in the end...but I find myself mostly annoyed by the entire series and the way Stine chose to use broad caricatures in this book instead of developing them more fully and to really play up how difficult Max's life is and how horrible people are to him without any real reason...and with friends who are never there for him (ghost or otherwise). In the end, Freaks and Shrieks is really more of a morose comedy with horror elements than it is a straight up horror story. It should be interesting to see how Stine wraps this series up, since there is only one book left and this one really gave no indication of a series wrapping up the lose ends and starting to come to a place of resolution.

i love it when the guy puts headphons on max and max shakes his head back and forth trying to toss them off!

my daughter enjoyed this book so much, she can't wait to read more like it.....

Nicky and Tara are two ghost kids that live on Max's house.He is the only person who can see them.One day while Nicky and Tara were walking home after going to school whit max they notice that someone was following them. the two kids get scare because they are ghosts and no one could see them,no one but max and other ghosts.Finally they decide to start runing and hide in someone's house. some time later they are walking and they see the man who was following them before. He catches the two ghost,they are realy scare until the man explains what he is there for. he explains that he used to work whit their parents and that he knows how to bring them back to life and find out what happened to their family.He also explains to Max that he has to trade brains whit mr. Harvey,a chimpanzee.Max is scared and he doesn't want to trade brains whit him.after a while Nick and Tara are able to convense him.Finally they find out that everything was a trap and that dr.Smollet just wanted revange because he said that nicky and tara's parents ruined his life.There is a lot of confusion because every one starts to change brains whit every one.finally nicky,tara and max are able to stop dr.Smollet.