#22 "No swimming. No surfing. No haunting."
Terri and Jerry are visiting their cousins for the summer. They live in a small beach town where there's not really a lot to do. But when some friends get together with Terri and Jerry and start telling them a ghost story involving a cave Jerry has to explore. Besides, ghosts are real... ( )

This book was actually relatively cool. I liked the remote island setting, and the general feel of the book. The story itself held all the charm of a classic campfire tale, and indeed, followed the general pattern of it. Unlike previous books, the choices of the characters did make a decent amount of sense, even if they didn't necessarily see the obvious until it was too late. Hell, even the ending was incredibly fun.

Although I've rated some Goosebumps books a three, they have to be really exceptional for me to rate them so highly. This one is a high two for me, and I have to admit I was thoroughly charmed by some of the lore that [a: R.L. Stine|13730|R.L. Stine|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1194380070p2/13730.jpg] used for this book. Ghosts hate dogs, after all.. ( )

## No swimming. No surfing. No haunting.

Siblings Terri and Jerry Sadler find themselves caught in a ghostly mystery at the family beach house. They're visiting their older -- much, much older -- cousins at their New England ancestral home. They get away from their boring relatives as often as they can, and spend their days exploring the nearby beaches, complete with spooky caves and a family cemetery dating to the 17th century.

[N.B. This review includes images, and was formatted for my site, dendrobibliography -- located here.]

Ghost Beach gets credit for staying focused. Outside of the older cousins, Terri and Jerry only meet and interact with three distant relatives (Louisa, Nat, and Sam) and the reclusive ghost of the title. They never stray too far from home -- either to the haunted cave (a 'sanctuary' that traps ghosts) or the eroding cemetery. This lets Stine really focus on the mystery of the ghost, and make the characters (and reader) feel as isolated and trapped as possible.

It's actually quite spooky, and full of Stine's characteristic plot twists that make guessing who the ghosts are and what they want quite the challenge. Parents might want to note that Ghost Beach contains some of Goosebumps' most visceral scares, with ghosts' faces melting away to the bone, and even an implied death of a character. Even though Stine's series is labeled as horror, it typically doesn't get as spooky as this one does...which might explain why this has remained such a popular entry in the series.

R.L. Stine's Goosebumps (1992–1997):
#21 Go Eat Worms! | #23 Return of the Mummy ( )

FINALLY finished this one I started with my son. We went through a phase of watching the show Goosebumps together on TV, and after we watched this episode, he turned to me and made my reader's heart proud by saying, "The ending of the book was better!"

The cliffhangers at each chapter got a bit annoying but I suppose for the age group it makes sense. The ending did have me chuckle - I admit through reading it I was expecting more of a scooby doo type ending (it wasn't.) Good clean type for young adult thriller genre. ( )

Terri (sister) and Jerry (brother) are invited to their cousins Brand and Agatha's cottage in New England for the last month of the summer. Their cousins and their cousin's friends they meet at the cottage turn out to be ghosts. Sam, Louisa, and Nat are ghost friends of Brad & Agatha, they told them about a cave with a "ghost" in it. Terri and Jerry visited the cave and met the "ghost" who turned out to be a normal human named Harrison. He warned Terri and Jerry about the ghosts and got them to bring the ghosts to him.

I thought this was a pretty good because I could imagine it in my mind. Iit was scary enough but not so scary that it will give you nightmares. ( )