Finished Planet of the Lawn Gnomes by R.L. Stine. I received a copy from the publisher on Netgalley.
Jay has just moved to a new town with his parents and sister. Almost immediately, things get weird. For one thing, there are lawn gnomes EVERYWHERE. And if you turn away for a second, the gnomes are in different positions or even different places. And people don’t go out at night.
When Jay starts questioning this, no one will tell him anything. He gets a lot of evasions and mumbled “You know…” but he doesn’t. What’s wrong with the town?
When I was younger, I read a lot of R.L. Stine novels. I was excited to get a different Goosebumps book at BEA and to be approved for this one on Netgalley because I absolutely loved his books when I was a kid. (Note: Goosebumps didn’t begin until I had already moved on to Stephen King; I read his Fear Street books, and they were incredibly fun.)
The Goosebumps books aren’t anywhere near as good as I remember the Fear Street ones being. A lot of this could be that I’m 32 and Goosebumps are intended for people probably 20 (or more!) years younger than I am. (Moment of silence for my youth, please.) And it takes a lot more to scare me than it does someone who’s 10-12 years old.
But I’m not going to stop reading his books. Red Rain just came out and I’m very excited to read that. :) And maybe sometime, just for fun, I can re-read a Fear Street book.
