Customer Reviews

Stay Out of the Basement (Goosebumps, No 2)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In Stay Out Of The Basement, a girl's scientific father has been acting very strangely lately. She thinks that he might be half man and half plant. He has been working on an experiment for a very long time. His daughter wants to know what he is up to,so she goes into the basement to the lab and discovers that her Father's clone,who is made of plants,trapped her real dad in the closet. She couldn't tell which was which. Will she destroy her own father? Read the book and find out.

Although not as sharp as his first outing in the immensely popular "Goosebumps" series, "Stay Out of the Basement" is still quite the page-turner. R.L. Stine has the ability to grab his readers' attentions almost immediately, and that is one reason why his books are so adored by millions of kids everywhere.

This was one of the many "Goosebumps" books I got for Christmas in sixth or seventh grade. I had changed from "I'll never read those stupid books" to "I want them all!" I hadn't had most books for more than a couple of hours before they were already read. That's how hooked I was.

"Stay Out of the Basement" starts off with Margaret and Casey playing Frisbee. Their father, Dr. Brewer, is a scientist who always has to wear a baseball cap on his head; he does this because, as we later find out, one of his experiments go awry and the side-effects include having leaves growing out of his head instead of hair.

Things are going fine for Margaret and Casey until they start noticing things. Things like their father's insistent warnings to never go down into the basement; things like millions of bugs squirming around in his bed; things like their father scarfing down plant food and trying to make them eat it, too! As if having leaves sprouting up from under his cap wasn't weird enough!!

The climax works well in this book. It all comes down to the classic "Who do you trust?" saga. Towards the end, we discover that there are two Dr. Brewers; one is a real person, and one is a human-sized plant-like clone. Margaret has to decide who is lying and who is telling the truth when each Dr. Brewer claims to be her and Casey's father. I remember back when I first read it and not knowing who it was going to be. R.L. Stine had done such a wonderful job in writing the book that I didn't know who to trust, either.

In case you're a viewer who's never read the book, I won't spoil the ending for you. It's classic R.L. Stine, as everyone who has read his series will identify with. This is one "Goosebumps" book that will give you what it says.

"Stay out of the Basement" is easily one of the five best installments in the original "Goosebumps" series, a true classic. This is an entry that is loaded with fear, suspense, twisted discoveries, and clever, surprising plot turns...back when R.L. Stine used a genuinely dark, uneasy feel instead of false alarms and explanation points. He doesn't restrain the dread and tension; they dominate the story. And Stine proves that he can make even plants scary.

In this paragraph, I'll just give a brief description. Margaret and Casey are siblings who witness an alarming change of behavior in their father, a scientist who's spending most of his time in the basement conducting weird experiments on plants. When the kids go to investigate, the plants move and breathe. And their father is getting stranger and stranger...

What's so great about this story? This isn't a "parents-don't-believe-us" entry because the father IS the one at the center of the horror. It's truly frightening because these two kids suddenly can't trust/believe a parent who's plunged into madness. In fact, one of the greatest aspects of the book is the kids' reactions and worries. There's one shocking discovery after another, like the disturbing scene when the father's baseball cap gets knocked off and his hair has been replaced with leaves. It sounds silly, but when you read it, you can't deny that the scene is creepy...and uncomfortable. And that's just the beginning of several eye-openers. There's the scene when he's forcing them to eat plant food, for instance, that is just plain freaky.

All of this crescendo into a heart-pounding climax with an incredibly sinister twist that sweeps you off your feet. What's not only scary are the life-threatening danger and the graphic descriptions, but the realization that the kids don't know what to believe anymore. And if that isn't enough, the book closes on a freakishly twisted ending that'll leave you wowed. The final twenty pages are among the very best in all of "Goosebumps".

There are other, smaller things that make this a scary, creepy book. The moving plants in the dark basement. The moaning faces that are half-plant. Here, Stine knows how to use quality descriptions to help propel the horror. He's even skilled in building the tension at a preferable pace where there are many increments of frightening revelations.

I love a "Goosebumps" book that constantly surprises as a sharp page-turner. Like I said, it's a series classic, back from when Stine was at the top of his creativity.

This is another one of r.l. stines best goosebumps books. This book is about a brother and a sister (I can't remember their names) Who live in a house with their mom and dad. In the book the kids mother goes away and now there with their father. While the kids mother is gone they notice that there father isn't acting like he normally does. When the kids go into the basement to see whats going on they see a big surprise. To see what else happens you have to read this awesome book. This book also has a twisted ending to it. This book didn't really make me feel scared as I was reading it, but for the kids in the book it would be scary for them. Read this book, it is great!!!!

This book is one thrilling book. I say that because it is kind of a mystery book and is very exciting. It is about 2 kids named Casey(boy) and Margaret(girl) who live with their mother and father. Things start getting a little weird Margaret realises. One time their "father" or clone father tries to make them eat plant food,yuuuucckk! Well even if your not a Goosebumps fan read this book and you might get hooked to Goosebumps books.

Stay Out of the Basement is the second in the Goosebumps Series and we are becoming quite familiar with R.L. Stein's writing at this point, and without hesitation, I think he's about the equivalent to Stephen King and/or Twilight Zone/or The Outer Limits for kids...his stories are always slightly creepy, seem to have slightly campy leanings, almost too outlandish to be believable and always with a twist at the end that leaves you wondering.

Stay Out of the Basement is no exception...in this volume we meet Margaret and Casey Brewer (and their parents, naturally), as we join them we discover that Dr. Brewer has lost his job at the University and is continuing his work in the basement. At this point the mother conveniently has to go out of town to care for a sick relative, leaving the two kids alone with the good Dr. and his strange behavior as he becomes increasingly distant and obsessed with his work. It's only after Casey and Margaret and their neighbor disobey Dr. Brewer's strict orders not to go in the basement that they discover just how strange his work is and just how obsessed with it he is.

For me, Stay Out of the Basement isn't as creepy as the first book in the series, or even as creepy as some of his other work that I have read, but as part of a series designed to give the reader goosebumps, I think it's a fine addition. The ending as always takes a slight twist from what you think it should, and I rather like this about Stein's writing style. I give it a B-, it's entertaining, but fairly predictable. We're looking forward to reading more in the series!

Stay Out Of The Basement

Author R.L. Stine

I did a book review on Stay Out Of The Basement. It is part of a 25 book long series. This book is the 22 book in the series. Know this book is about two kids and a mom and "dad". The kid's names are Margaret and Casey. The moms name is Mrs. Brewer and the "dads" name is Mr. Brewer. It first starts when "Mr. Brewer" Takes Mrs. Brewer to the airport. Then the kids go into the basement. A couple of days later Margaret sees "Mr. Brewer" "eating weird food". That night Margaret sees her dad in the "bathroom". At the end of the book the family gets back together. But if you want to know what I mean read this book.

I rate this book 4 ½ stars. I like it because you never know what's going to happen.

Stay out of the Basement was either my second third forth or fifth Goosebump book I ever bought. I started collecting them in Kindergarten. This one is a very good book. Even if you are not in to Goosebump's, This is a book worth reading. It's not really a Horror. It's more of a Mystery Thriller. This is a book worth reading. It is very interesting.

This book is good for childrens imaginations. They're not frightning, but they're full of suspence and mystory. I still own the entire goosebumps series that i had from my fourth grade year

I collect goosebumps books. I find that most of them are very good.My favorite one is Werewolf of the fever swamp (#14).But this is my second favorite one.I highley reccomed it.