Return of the Mummy by R.L. Stine is Goosebumps book 23 in the original order. This book is a direct sequel to The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb. It has three of the same character’s returning Gabe, Sari, And Uncle Ben. There’s a couple scary moments, getting lost in a dark cave with no light, falling in a pit of spiders, and and a mummy coming to life. This novel is more about the character’s than the scares. I liked Gabe the first and so far only non white lead character in Goosebumps, but I found Sari still so annoying. Uncle Ben is more caring and pulls a pretty good prank scare off. The ending was good but not great. There is a pretty good twist ending, that will surprise most readers. I liked The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb more but this is a pretty good sequel, reading The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb is not necessary, but it will enhance your experience, since you will know what the mummy’s paw can do. This story was made into a Goosebumps tv episode called The Return of the Mummy. Go to the bottom of this review to see where I rank Return of the Mummy against the 22 other goosebumps books.
Plot Summary: Gabe is back for another Egyptian adventure in the ancient pyramids with his cousin Sari and his Uncle Ben. This time Ben is to open the tomb of Khor-Ru, who was King Tut’s cousin. Gabe still has the Summoner from the last adventure, which is a petrified mummy’s hand, that can bring back the dead, with words spoken from the last adventure. But this story it goes missing which means trouble.
What I Liked: The scene where Gabe falls into the pit of spiders was scary and well written. I liked the twist, and thought it was clever. I thought Uncle Ben’s prank was good and funny. I liked that Sari had some human moments instead of just being annoying and challenging. I like Uncle Ben’s little flirts with Nila. I liked the setting and getting to know Gabe more and his background.
What I Disliked: The story takes a while to get going and have any scares. Where the first story had lot’s of mummy’s this story has one that is really brief.
Recommendation: This story was good but not great, it had a low scare rating. The scare that it did have where great but it didn’t have that many. The thing that I felt it did well was expand on the character from the first story The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb. I will barely recommend you checking it out. I rated Return of the Mummy by R. L. Stine 3 out of 5 stars. Here’s my full ranking of the 23 Goosebumps books that I have read in order to my favorite to least favorite: 1) Stay Out of the Basement, 2) Ghost Beach, 3) Piano Lessons Can Be Murder, 4) The Haunted Mask, 5) One Day At Horrorland, 6) Night of the Living Dummy, 7) Welcome to Camp Nightmare, 8) The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb, 9) Say Cheese and Die, 10) Let’s Get Invisible, 11) The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight, 12) Welcome to Dead House, 13) Monster Blood II, 14) The Girl who Cried Monster, 15)Deep Trouble, 16) The Ghost Next Door, 17) Be Careful What You Wish For… , 18) Return of the Mummy, 19) Why I’m Afraid of Bees, 20) Go Eat Worms!, 21) The Werewolf of Fever Swamp, 22) Monster Blood, And 23) You Can’t Scare Me!
Reading with My Eyes 