February 17, 2026 by Blackstone Publishing
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
In this mashup of and homage to his own work, Stine embraces an "everything bagel" philosophy in his approach to a horror story. Joe and Sadie Ferber move into an older home on Nightmare Street that has more than its fair share of scary features: gravestones in the basement, a cursed doll, and eerie voices. Joe complains, but his parents brush it off, explaining that it was the only house they could afford. Sadie, a year older than Joe, also gives him a hard time. Shawn screams at every turn, but the reasons end up being reasonable and benign. There's a sparrow that gets in the house, and the voices he hears are his parents talking downstairs, probably about the vague hotline his father hopes to set up, or the crocheted internal organs his mother sells online. When Joe is confronted by a vomiting, evil doll in his bed, we suddenly switch scenes to Shawn Hannigan, who is having a nightmare about Joe's life! He and his younger sister Addie also live on Nightmare Street with their single mother. The two attend Nightmare Academy, where the teachers wear animal masks "for fun". Shawn has to meet with the principal in a darkened office, where he is told that he can't take English and math, but instead must register for taffy pulling and animal surgery. When he leaves the office, he catches a glimpse of the principal, who seems to be a wolf. Late for class, he runs into the REAL principal, who doesn't believe his story. To corroborate it, they try to find Addie, but she's nowhere in the building. Going home, he finds his house is gone, but a woman in a van claims to be his mother and whisks him off to piano lessons... which he has never taken. Afterwards, both Addie and the house are back. Returning to the Ferber's story, Joe sneezes purple worms, and thinks he finds a dead body in his mother's new sewing room. Of course, it is just a mannequin. There's an instant camera that takes pictures from five minutes in the past, and Frisky the ventriloquist's dummy who comes to life. When both Joe and Sadie are turned into dummies, will they be able to escape and finally convince their parents that something is gravely wrong on Nightmare Street?
Strengths: There's an entire PhD thesis to be written about the relationship between brothers and sisters in Stine's books. Often, they are problematic, and the children torture each other. We see this a little in Sadie's reactions to Joe, but Shawn truly cares about Addie. Since I didn't read Stine's work until I was an adult, I'm sure I missed a lot of allusions to original Goosebumps books, although we certainly see a shout out to Slappy in the character of Frisky. Those mid century Charlie McCarthy dolls were certainly terrifying! The elements that make the Goosebumps books appealing are all here; short chapters with cliff hanger endings, an anxious feeling of unreality, and plenty of screaming at creepy occurrences. The cover is an important reminder to middle grade readers that if their family moves into an older home, it will definitely be haunted!
Weaknesses: The cover made me think that this would be more like the Fear Street books rather than the Goosebumps titles. This is best suited to the younger end of the middle grade spectrum who like fast paced horror stories where the threats are goofy rather than truly terrifying.
What I really think: Others have tried to replicate Stine's formula for humorous horror and failed. The closest anyone has come is K.R. Alexander, with his creepy doll books, but thos are a bit more serious. Elementary and middle school libraries will want to purchase at least one copy of this title, which is available in hardcover from Follett.
In this mashup of and homage to his own work, Stine embraces an "everything bagel" philosophy in his approach to a horror story. Joe and Sadie Ferber move into an older home on Nightmare Street that has more than its fair share of scary features: gravestones in the basement, a cursed doll, and eerie voices. Joe complains, but his parents brush it off, explaining that it was the only house they could afford. Sadie, a year older than Joe, also gives him a hard time. Shawn screams at every turn, but the reasons end up being reasonable and benign. There's a sparrow that gets in the house, and the voices he hears are his parents talking downstairs, probably about the vague hotline his father hopes to set up, or the crocheted internal organs his mother sells online. When Joe is confronted by a vomiting, evil doll in his bed, we suddenly switch scenes to Shawn Hannigan, who is having a nightmare about Joe's life! He and his younger sister Addie also live on Nightmare Street with their single mother. The two attend Nightmare Academy, where the teachers wear animal masks "for fun". Shawn has to meet with the principal in a darkened office, where he is told that he can't take English and math, but instead must register for taffy pulling and animal surgery. When he leaves the office, he catches a glimpse of the principal, who seems to be a wolf. Late for class, he runs into the REAL principal, who doesn't believe his story. To corroborate it, they try to find Addie, but she's nowhere in the building. Going home, he finds his house is gone, but a woman in a van claims to be his mother and whisks him off to piano lessons... which he has never taken. Afterwards, both Addie and the house are back. Returning to the Ferber's story, Joe sneezes purple worms, and thinks he finds a dead body in his mother's new sewing room. Of course, it is just a mannequin. There's an instant camera that takes pictures from five minutes in the past, and Frisky the ventriloquist's dummy who comes to life. When both Joe and Sadie are turned into dummies, will they be able to escape and finally convince their parents that something is gravely wrong on Nightmare Street?
Strengths: There's an entire PhD thesis to be written about the relationship between brothers and sisters in Stine's books. Often, they are problematic, and the children torture each other. We see this a little in Sadie's reactions to Joe, but Shawn truly cares about Addie. Since I didn't read Stine's work until I was an adult, I'm sure I missed a lot of allusions to original Goosebumps books, although we certainly see a shout out to Slappy in the character of Frisky. Those mid century Charlie McCarthy dolls were certainly terrifying! The elements that make the Goosebumps books appealing are all here; short chapters with cliff hanger endings, an anxious feeling of unreality, and plenty of screaming at creepy occurrences. The cover is an important reminder to middle grade readers that if their family moves into an older home, it will definitely be haunted!
Weaknesses: The cover made me think that this would be more like the Fear Street books rather than the Goosebumps titles. This is best suited to the younger end of the middle grade spectrum who like fast paced horror stories where the threats are goofy rather than truly terrifying.
What I really think: Others have tried to replicate Stine's formula for humorous horror and failed. The closest anyone has come is K.R. Alexander, with his creepy doll books, but thos are a bit more serious. Elementary and middle school libraries will want to purchase at least one copy of this title, which is available in hardcover from Follett.
January 1, 2026 by Darby Creek ™
Copy provided by Edelweiss Plus
Damon lives with his father, the chief of police, in Salem, Massachusetts. He and his friends Madelyn and Liam have been hunting demons and keeping their town safe, even though Liam is a demon himself! While out dealing with a snow demon on a day off school, they see a man breaking into a house and alert Damon's father. The owner of the house is injured, and Damon's father adds another lock to their door, but the man isn't caught. Damon has a demon of his own, Boo-en, who reads to him at night in exchange for sapping Damon's energy. When Boo-en warns Damon to hide, he finds himself dealing with the burglar. He allows Boo-en to possess him in order to deal with the intruder. While they manage to scare him off, the man runs into the street, and is killed by a snow plow. The body is taken to the morgue, and the town thinks the burglaries should stop, but they don't. The same methods is being used, and Damon finds out that the same man, Evan Wisdom, is still committing the robberies. His body is missing from the morgue, but how can this be? When Evan shows up at Damon's, he is determined to kill him. Damon fights against him with holy water and booby traps, but has to figure out what is really going on in order to keep himself safe. What is the dark secret that is reanimating Evan's body?
This did get a bit philosophical towards the end, which makes sense since it is a high interest/low level book aimed at older, reluctant or emerging readers. The debate over why Damon is being targeted is not too heavy, and there is plenty of demon killing to keep readers turning the pages.
Horror books are always in demand in my library, but many of them are longer. At just 100 pages, this book is perfect for readers who want a good scare but aren't quite ready for similar books like Krovatin's Awake, Duga's Ghost of the Harvest, or Lawrence's Many Hauntings of the Manning Family.
I did not know that this was a sequel, so was slightly confused, but got caught up quickly. This has some humor alongside the action and adventure; Madelyn is able to take out the demonic snowman who wants to "hug" everyone to death with a drone equipped with a flame thrower! Damon's relationship with Liam (who is a fairly good demon) and Boo-en (who is suspicious) is interesting, and I would be curious to see more of the Demon Hunters adventures.
The Demon Hunter series:
The Claw
Criminally Evil
Death at Dusk
The Deep End Demon
Every Witch Way
The Fallen
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