Night of the Living Dummy by R.L. Stine
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
**3.5-stars rounded up**
Many know Slappy the dummy as one of the most iconic Goosebumps characters of all time. And while I have read other books with Slappy as an antagonist, I’ve no recollection of ever reading this, Night of the Living Dummy, Slappy’s first appearance.
Recently, I needed a quick, fun, not too mentally taxing, audiobook while doing things around the house and decided to pick this up. I’m glad I did, as it fit the bill nicely.
In this story we follow twins, Lindy and Kris, who find a discarded ventriloquist’s dummy. Lindy decides to save it, brings it home with them, and names it Slappy.
Kris, never wanting her sister to upstage her, needs to get a dummy of her own, which she names Mr. Wood. In classic Stine fashion, the sisters battle it out, performing with their dummies, but are the dummies battling too?
Something weird is going on. Disturbing things begin to happen when the dummies are around, and it soon becomes clear there’s an evil lurking in their house. Will the girls be able to band together and figure out what’s happening, or will the dummies force them apart forever?
In my humble opinion, this is definitely one of the stronger Goosebumps stories. At this point in the series, regardless of the direction his character goes in later stories and series spin-offs, Slappy does indeed feel menacing here.
While Stine always loves siblings fighting and having rivalries, I liked how the twins did eventually put their differences aside, and worked together.
Overall, I would absolutely recommend this as one of the ‘must reads’ of the Goosebumps universe. I feel like it provides a solid foundation for Slappy’s character moving forward, and is also just a lot of fun!
