Goosebumps – The Headless Ghost by R. L. Stine is a good old fashioned ghost story. The Headless Ghost is Goosebumps book 37 in the original series order. The story of the ghost and how he became headless is really great and scary, reminded me of a good campfire ghost story. The story takes place at Hill House which is an homage to the Shirley Jackson ghost story The Haunting of Hill House. This story is focused from the beginning and one of the best paced Goosebumps. The story is spooky and the danger feels real. The two co-leads Stephanie and Duane felt like good friends that really cared about each other. The twist at the end was pretty good and went with the story pretty well. This story is a personal one for me, as I can remember reading this story to bed for one of my little sister. I have read the Goosebumps stories in order and can say this story is one of the best, at the end of this review I have a full ranking of the Goosebumps books I have read so far. The Headless Ghost was published by Scholastic Inc. on November 1 1995.
Plot Summary: Duane and Stephanie are best friends because of their love of horror and scaring others. There favorite place to go is Hill House that has a ghost tour and is rumored to be haunted by a headless ghost. We hear the story of how the ghost lost his head and is still searching for it today. Stephanie and Duane get the idea to break away from the tour and find the head, but when they do they learn that ghost are real and they might just loose their own heads.
What I Liked: The ghost story with in the story is R. L. Stine best writing, it was super spooky and a good story. The pace of the story is nonstop and a hard book to put down, I read it in one setting I think I have only done that 7 times out of 37, so the story is good. The friendship was really good and worked really well. The empty room with all the voices was never explained but pretty spooky. I felt the descriptions were really good and the story was easy to picture. This story had nothing that could date it, some of Stine’s story’s are so 90’s but this one was pretty timeless. The only thing of pop culture mentioned in a Minnie watch but their still around.
What I Disliked: There’s about 4 pranks in this story and most of them work but the first one is a little lame. But that is it this story is really solid.
Recommendations: This story is one of the best Goosebumps that I have read it is scary, very atmospheric, and claustrophobic, you and the kids feel trapped in the haunted house. The story is great and Stine’s writing is at it’s best. I recommend you seek out this story. I rated The Haunted Ghost by R. L. Stine 5 out of 5 stars. Here’s my full ranking of the 37 Goosebumps books that I have read in order to my favorite to least favorite: 1) A Night in Terror Tower, 2) Stay Out of the Basement, 3) The Headless Ghost, 4) Ghost Beach, 5) Piano Lessons Can Be Murder, 6) The Haunted Mask, 7) The Horror at Camp Jellyjam, 8) One Day At Horrorland, 9) Night of the Living Dummy, 10) Welcome to Camp Nightmare, 11) A Shocker on Shock Street, 12)The Phantom of the Auditorium, 13) It Came From Beneath the Sink, 14) The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb, 15) Say Cheese and Die, 16) Let’s Get Invisible, 17) The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight, 18) Welcome to Dead House, 19) Monster Blood II, 20) The Girl who Cried Monster, 21)Deep Trouble, 22) The Ghost Next Door, 23)Night of the Living Dummy 2, 24) My Hairiest Adventure, 25) Be Careful What You Wish For… , 26) Return of the Mummy, 27) Why I’m Afraid of Bees, 28)The Haunted Mask II, 29)Attack of the Mutant, 30) Go Eat Worms!, 31) Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes, 32)The Werewolf of Fever Swamp, 33) Cuckoo Clock of Doom, 34) Monster Blood, 35) The Barking Ghost, 36) You Can’t Scare Me!, and 37) Monster Blood III.
Reading with My Eyes 