Customer Reviews

Little Shop of Hamsters (Goosebumps, Horror Land #14)

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Twelve-year old Sam Waters wants nothing more than to get a pet, but his parents first want him to prove that he can handle the responsibility of caring for an animal. What better way to demonstrate to his parents that he is conscientious enough than to get a job at a pet store. Sam happened to have stumbled upon a store that sold only hamsters, and the owner was willing to give him an after-school job feeding the hamsters and cleaning their cages. Unfortunately, Sam never realized that those hamsters would turn into mean little monsters after they got a hold of the little candies that he and his friend had gotten from the HorrorLand gift shop. His dream job quickly turned into a nightmare and he had no idea how to get out.

With this book's setting of an after-school job at a local shop, fans of R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series will get a dose of economics together with the suspense they have come to expect from this popular series.

LITTLE SHOP OF HAMSTERS, the 14th installment in R.L. Stine's bone-chilling middle-grade horror series, centers on more scary goings-on at the always bizarre HorrorLand gift shop.

When Sam Waters and Lexie Blake hit the store, Sam is suffering from pet anxiety --- as in, he doesn't have a pet and his mom and dad won't let him get one. So he buys an Insta-Gro animal from the Horrorland shop and takes it home. His parents aren't too sure about this unusual purchase, but to help them see him as responsible, Sam takes a job in a hamster-only pet store. These, however, are not your typical garden-variety hamsters; in reality, they are very strange and unbecoming little MONSTERS. And now Sam is waging a personal war against the hamsters.

How does this tie in to the HorrorLand souvenir he brought back home? You'll have to read to find out. The craziness of Jonathan Chiller's shop is neverending!

The hamsters eat candy and then turn into candy-gobbling freak animals. And they attack Sam, too. So while he's putting in his hours, improving his reputation with his dad, he's also battling a growing army of freakish hamster horrors. If you don't like the idea of little animals crawling all over you, biting and scratching, then you might find this book a little on the disgusting side. But in a good way.

Like all good Goosebumps titles, there is no way to escape the horrible repercussions of a visit to HorrorLand's gift shop. R.L. Stine's franchise is alive and well, and just as skin-crawling as ever with LITTLE SHOP OF HAMSTERS. Read at your own risk!

I know it might be silly to include Goosebumps in my challenge but it's been awhile since I've read them! It just hit me today that I should had added a Fear Street title too, oh well, there's always next year! Can I just say how crazy that cover looks? I have a confession, I'm a complete and total hamster lover. I've raised hamsters my whole life. And it was weird, as I was reading this book, I would often catch my hamster staring at me while I read (I read at night so he would be awake bathing or eating) and I would ask him "you're not gonna go crazy on me like these guys, right?!" haha.

I never understood why anyone in their right mind would visit a place called Horrorland. I have to say, the "shrimp" that burrowed into Sam's skin was gross! I would had left at that point! If you ask me, staying at that place and buying thing from there is just asking for trouble!

Sam was a decent character, he was always put in really bad situations and I felt bad for him. His parents never believed him and blamed him for everything, even things that were clearly not his doing and his younger brother (who got away with everything) annoyed the crap out of me. His friend Lexi also annoyed the crap out of me. Every time she "helped" she just ended up making the situation a million times worse! And where does she keep coming from?! I mean, seriously!

And like all Goosebump books (from what I remember) they had a weird twist in the end!