I grew up reading Goosebumps books, I had every single one of them as a child and I would read and re-read them frequently. I loved them! I read two Fear Street books and wasn't into them, but I adored Goosebumps. When I recently saw an R.L. Stine book in the adult section of my local library I grabbed it straight away and eagerly dived into it, and after the first few chapters I felt nothing but disappointment.

In a nutshell, this novel is about a woman named Lea who writes travel blogs. She goes to a small island of the coast of America to write about it. While on the island she learns about a local shaman-esque ritual that the locals believe has the power to raise the dead. The second day that she is on the island it is hit by a hurricane and almost completely destroyed - no buildings are left standing and a lot of people die. Lea is in shock and walking along the beach to try to get away from all the death and destruction when she encounters a young pair or twin brothers. She instantly feels love for them and when they tell her that their parents were killed in the hurricane she decides to adopt them and bring them back to mainland America with her, despite her husbands protests.

When she gets them home strange things start happening, that's all I'll say to avoid spoilers. Doesn't sound too bad, so why didn't I like it?

Well firstly I'd like to point out that after she brings the twins home the story just became very silly to me, the twins were not creepy (I just found them to be annoying and bratty), their supernatural powers were just weird and I felt that they didn't fit in with the style of book that this is (especially as it's described as a THRILLER on the front cover), their reasons for doing what they were doing was so awkward and strange that I felt that it was made up for the sake of the plot and not because it actually made any sense, and the ending just felt like a typical Goosebumps ending.

The other issues I had with this book:
- The sex scenes, why were they even there? They served no purpose to the book other than to upgrade it from a "gory Goosebumps" to an "adult fiction" novel.
- The way the twins spoke. They're from an American Island, where they live with other Americans, yet they're described as having an Irish/English accent (I am Irish and can guarantee that no Irish or English accents sound alike), and they're constantly saying things like "bruvvers" instead of "brothers", "boyo" and finishing sentences with "don't you know?" When everyone else in the book speaks normally it is just very annoying to read the twins' dialogue.
- The repetitive wording and phrases. I was so fed up of hearing about Autumn's "creamy white legs", how either of the twins thought "my bruvver's a poet", or how Samuel "recognised that look on his brothers face". If those phrases hadn't been hammered in at every opportunity the book would have been far shorter! Also, the weird repetition used on random parts throughout the book, assumably to add suspense, but it doesn't and it is overused, for example "She felt it. Felt it. Felt it. Felt the burning pain." This style of writing is repeated throughout the book.
- The majority of the book is predictable, and the ending makes no sense.

I would rate this book 2/5 and the only reason I'm not giving it 1/5 is because I read it to the end. Now I'm stuck wondering was R.L. Stine always this bad of an author or is he just not cut out to write books for adults.

Unfortunately I would not recommend this book to anyone, which is a rare statement from me as I feel that most books could appeal to even a small demographic, but not this one. ( )

While the story started out creepy, it got pretty predictable and a little boring towards the middle. I think when Stine decided to write for adults, he was aiming at a little higher age group than mine (mid-thirties). Folks in their 50s and 60s will most likely love the story, but it was a little tame for my tastes. Still, it had some good creepy moments and definitely reminded me why I loved the Fear Street series. ( )

Lot of pointless dialogue
Didn't see twist
Big font
Fast easy read
Horror
Dopey
Male gaze
White gaze ( )

Oh, ouch!

I will say this much, the book does have some decent pacing. In short, at the end there was suspense. And, if you are a fan of Goosebumps, you will recognize the writing and authors voice instantly. So, there is all that going for it. Sadly, the characters fall flat and are 100% annoying. The mother whines the whole time, the daughter is nasty and rude the whole time, and the twins are so over the top with the "creepy" that it is laughable. The father is the only one who seems real and so you spend your time being frustrated for him and all the crap he has to go through.

There are also so many structural issues and plot holes through the piece. At one point we are told that one twin is holding the baby and puts him down and the next paragraph we are told that the other twin had been holding the baby. Nope. Everything is predictable, the cop story is not needed, the back story of the twins is just glossed over, everything is over dramatic.

And to top it all off, the dialogue is awful. 100% cheesy and lame. Hands down, that had to be my top pet peeve. Dialogue followed by crappy transitions and then the lack of ability to set a time frame. She said she was going to be gone for a day and a half and yet you are saying she was gone for a week, she got back at 2 but after a long rant about this and that we find out it wasn't 2am but 2 in the afternoon. Oh, one more thing...things happening just to move the plot along. Really, parents not realizing their kids are missing and other parents leaving small children home alone and swimming. I mean, just a lot of bad, bad parenting.

But, there was pacing and tension, though at times thrown off but redundant thoughts or words, which lead to suspense. The imagery was good. And, if you want to read an adult version of Goosebumps, this would be it. Like really, Goosebumps with cursing, sex, and more graphic violence.

But pretty much just Goosebumps.

Just not as fun. ( )

Perfect story.. Kept me reading. Excellent twists.

Everything you'd expect in RL Stine's first adult novel....plus more! ( )