content warnings: violence, abandonment, bullying, general creepiness (all fairly tame)

I saw that my library had all the audiobooks for the Goosebumps Horrorland series so, like any sensible almost-adult, I made the decision to re-read them all and relive the nostalgia of being nine.

This first book is split into two halves. The first is about Brittany whose younger, bratty cousin is coming to live with her family for a while. When he arrives, he has a ventriloquist dummy with him that he's named Mr. Bad Boy (who we all know as Slappy the Dummy). As can be expected from R.L. Stine, the dummy is not as he seems and Brittany, as well as her best friend Molly, start to fear for their lives. The second half is set after the events that conspired with Slappy. Brittany and Molly have both been invited to the legendary horror theme park, Horrorland, as VIP guests. But when they arrive, they realise that the scares seem a bit too real.

I was genuinely surprised at how well this held up in terms of spookiness. I'm not going to get nightmares from this or anything, but I can definitely see how this would be scary to kids. Part of the great atmosphere was from the audiobook, which was surprisingly fantastic. The narrator, Alissa Hunnictt, does an incredible job with the voices of all the characters, Slappy in particular, and she's great at creating tension with her delivery. The production itself was also great, with creepy music and special effects like lightning.

If you're like me and are re-reading this when you're older, I would definitely go with the audiobook. I remember this as one of my favourites of the entire series and it didn't disappoint.