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Attack of the Jack-O’-Lanterns (1996) by R. L. Stine ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I read an ebook version of Attack of the Jack-O’-Lanterns for a book club. It is the 48th entry in the original Goosebumps series.
It is about Drew and her best friend Walker who love Halloween. In fact, it’s their favorite holiday. But their last two Halloweens were ruined by two troublemakers (who for some reason they happen to still be friendly with) named Tabitha and Lee. The first time they were at a Halloween party at Lee’s house, and a prank was pulled on the whole group, aided by two of Tabitha’s older friends. It was an elaborate one, consisting of a fake break-in and the kids being forced to do push ups. Where were the parents during all this? Well, these wonderful ‘chaperones’ were at the house next door visiting the neighbors. Yup, they left a house full of 10 year olds by themselves while a Halloween party was going on. SUPER parenting!
The next year, Drew, Walker, and their twin friends Shane and Shana plotted revenge. They were obsessed, way more obsessed than they should have been, all year planning the best Halloween party so they could get back at them. Tabitha and Lee encompassed all of their waking hours, forgoing homework and studies. They just had to get them back for ruining last Halloween. At the last minute, Tabitha calls Drew to tell her that she and Lee can’t come to her party, after all. The four are devastated.
Next Halloween time rolls around and they finally have a plan to really scare Tabitha and Lee to get back at them for ruining their last 2 years of Halloween. A couple of weeks before Halloween, Tabitha’s mother comes in with some bad news. She’s afraid that she can’t let Tabitha trick or treat this year. The kids are horrified, and she shows them the newspaper. There have been four adults that have gone missing lately without a trace. This is one of my favorite parts of the book. Everyone gathers around the paper and see four photos of the people who have gone missing.
“Hey —- these people are all fat!” he exclaimed. Now we all clustered around the paper and stared at the gray photos. Walker was right. ALl four people were very overweight. The first one, a bald man in a bulging turtleneck sweater, had at least six chins!
I couldn’t believe that it took 40% of the book, but my friend and I always joke that R. L. Stine is obsessed with fat people. I was delighted! Ha-ha.
After some arguing and begging, Tabitha’s parents finally agree that it is ok for her to go trick or treating since it will be her last year doing so, as long as she sticks to well lit places.
So, Shane and Shana are supposed to meet Drew and Walker at the corner on Halloween night. They would all go trick or treating with Tabitha and Lee. Its getting late, so the four decide that Shane and Shana will meet up with them at some point.
They never show up, however, and after a while of trick or treating, two figures with pumpkin heads lure them through the woods with the promise of a great neighborhood to trick or treat in, a neighborhood that give the best candy. Although they are apprehensive about the whole thing, they still follow the pumpkin head creatures. They all think it is Shane and Shana, and Tabitha and Lee call them on their ‘prank’ and tell them they know it’s Shane and Shana, you can’t scare them!
Well this wasn’t part of the plan exactly, and Drew and Walker seem to be frightened as time goes on, and Tabitha and Lee, too. On the other side of the woods, there is a neighborhood that none of them had ever seen before, and they trick or treat to their heart’s content —– well, way past their heart’s content. As their bags get fuller and fuller, they begin to realize they are being forced to trick or treat — forever! They beg for them to let them stop, and try to reason with the hissing (yes, their voices sound like a hissss) pumpkin heads, saying their bags just won’t hold anymore. The pumpkin heads tell them there is only one solution to that — start eating. So they eat and eat and they soon begin to feel sick.
Anyway, this torture has to end sometime, right? The later it gets, and the more houses they trick or treat at, they begin to notice that every tenant suddenly has a pumpkin head. At one point the pumpkin heads are pulled off to reveal nothing at all underneath, so they are literally headless pumpkin people. The pumpkin heads intend on keeping them their forever and giving the kids pumpkin heads, too!
Tabitha and Lee get pumpkin heads placed over their heads, and are so frightened that they run away screaming. Drew and Walker suddenly start laughing and one of them wonders how long it will take for them to realize that they are just wearing regular pumpkins on their heads. This was the greatest prank ever! Of course, one of them says, it helps to have aliens from another planet as friends!
Yup, Shane and Shana are some kind of aliens.
What’s great about having aliens as friends is that they don’t eat candy. Drew has a realization that she has never seen Shane or Shana eat at all. What do they eat, she wonders?
Shana says that Drew is too bony and that they will find out when she gets a bit plumper.
Don’t worry, Shane consoles, their species only like to eat extremely fat people.
The book ends with Drew frantically and feverishly asking if they’re only joking. (This also solves the mystery of where the four extremely fat people in the newspaper article went.)
My other favorite part of the book is a part where we are treated to a daydream in which Lee and Tabitha are trapped in an old couple’s house in a room full of other kids so that the old people could look at their costumes forever —- which is only revealed as a daydream at the end of the scene. I admit, R. L. Stine really got me there. I was shocked that something like this was actually happening in a Goosebumps book.
I absolutely loved this book. Apparently it is one of the highest regarded Goosebumps books from the original series, which makes it even more sad that they omitted parts of the original in the reprint. References to people being fat are removed, which makes me wonder if the ending in the reprint is slightly different, too, since that ties it all together. This is my favorite so far, so I’m giving it 5 stars.
I do have to say that Walker and Drew have some serious obsession issues. Their whole lives become about how to ruin next year’s Halloween for a couple of kids who did a scary prank on Halloween. It was Halloween, guys. I understand that they are just kids that maybe can’t take a joke yet, but they seem so extremely engulfed in revenge that they are not seeing the whole picture.
And that second Halloween being ruined was totally on them. They focused on these two people so much that they couldn’t let themselves enjoy their favorite holiday all because they couldn’t get back at a couple of friends on Halloween. That’s some serious grudge-holding!
Still my favorite Goosebumps book to date. Can’t wait to see what the next one is going to be!
There is actually an episode of this from the Goosebumps TV series. I’ll view it and update this post when I watch it.
Sources:
https://goosebumps.fandom.com/wiki/Attack_of_the_Jack-O%27-Lanterns
