When she discovers an evil mask at the bottom of a trunk and puts it on, LuAnn's Halloween turns into a real nightmare because only an act of unbelievable kindness can remove it.

The Haunted Mask by R.L. Stine is part of a new Goosebumps books featuring an evil greek mask.

The book opens in a costume shop. The owner, a skilled mask maker, adores making costumes for children, especially for Halloween. As he's working on some bat masks, he's visited by a long lost brother, who has arrived with an evil and an unwanted surprise. The evil mask is back and the only way he can protect the world is to take it with him to his death!

The remainder of the book is divided into two Halloween night tales of horror. The first is about a girl who likes to scare her brother, and with the help of the mask, takes things too far. Besides nearly scaring him to death she ruins a Halloween party and nearly destroy's the house!

The second story follows a boy at a pumpkin patch where there's evil infesting the pumpkins. This story is my favorite part of the book. It's a typical Goosebumps where the parents are clueless, the most helpful ones are the most dangerous, and the main character has to do whatever it takes to stay alive.

The Haunted Mask is the most complex and darkest of the Goosebumps I've read. ( )

You know a book is good, especially a middle grade book, when you dream about it, no, when you have a nightmare about it! People weren't kidding when they say that R.L. Stine is the Stephen King for kids!

The Haunted Mask is split up into three parts, which gives us three point-of-views...
The story starts out with shop owner named William who enjoys creating beautiful, exotic and happy masks. He believes that his masks are to bring fun and joy to the persons wearing them. But when his estranged brother, Randolph, shows up with a proposition to go into business together, showing him a case full of the most ugly and twisted masks he has ever seen. They quarrel and things get quite intense and scary.
Now 40 years later, we meet Lu-Ann and Devin and they are talking about their plans for Halloween. Lu-Ann is tired of going to her friends boring Halloween party every year and now that they are older, she is hoping to make things scary and interesting. Meanwhile, Devin and his family are going to go live on a pumpkin farm for the whole week of Halloween and won't be around to go to the party.
On Halloween, Lu-Ann and her two friends, Brad and Marcus, go to Polly's boring Halloween party and weird things start happening. They run upstairs into the attic and find a chest full of masks. They decide to put on the masks to frighten the party-goers... little does Lu-Ann that her mask is "special".
The story then jumps back a few days before Halloween showing us what Devin has been going through living on the pumpkin farm which has not been fun... and the most scariest things have been happening too.
On Halloween everyone's story collides together to create the most suspenseful and scariest of all endings ever. R.L. Stine really does know how to deliver a good scare!

I highly recommend that parents read this first before giving to any children under the age of 8. My son is 8 1/2 and I'm not sure if I want him reading it yet even though he thinks the cover is one of the coolest bookcovers he has ever seen, lol! I guess we'll be finding out this fall whether he'll still think that or not! ( )

Wanted: The Haunted Mask, by master scarer R.L. Stine, is the most recent addition to the Goosebumps series. The story is told in three parts - William’s story, Lu-Ann’s story and Devin’s story.

William, the owner of a mask store and a maker of masks, bumps into his estranged bother who gives him the most horrible looking masks. When they come alive, William decides to hide them away and protect them from being used by anyone.

Forty years later we are introduced to Lu-Ann and Devin. The two, along with their friends Brad and Marcus, love scary things. Lu-Ann, Brad and Marcus are going to their friend, Polly’s, boring Halloween party; while Devin is going away with his family to work on a pumpkin farm.

The story - told from Lu-Ann’s point of view - continues with the boring Halloween party and Lu-Ann’s discover of the haunted mask. Meanwhile, Devin’s story is about him and his family and their work on the pumpkin farm that’s not entirely as it seems.

Children who enjoy a good scare will love these stories and the way they connect. R.L. Stine takes you away from the mask in Devin’s story and offers an extra piece of scare on the farm, but the mast is reintroduced in the end.

Parents might want to read this with children who are especially imaginative - particularly Devin’s story. Overall, I thought this would make an excellent Halloween read for children. ( )