Stinetinglers by R.L. Stine (BOOK REVIEW) 3/5

Stine is still at it, after all these years, and I was extremely eager to jump into one of his latest spine-chilling children’s novels, even as an adult. It was like wading into a pool of nostalgia when I found out he was publishing a new anthology of spooky stories, and I was one of the many to preorder it. However, I will say… It definitely doesn’t quite live up to the novels of his hey-day.

Stinetinglers is a cute little collection of children’s tales, and each tale starts with a brief blurb from Mr. Stine about how he came up with the idea. Some involve his own experiences with fears of his childhood, as he is renown for having been a fearful child, and some involve his experiences with other people. I found these tidbits of insight into his writing process to be the most charming part of the entire novel, as a lot of the stories fell short.

They were lackluster, average stories about kids encountering things ranging from pranks to monsters. I can’t say that there are any of them that really stuck out to me, and they’ll likely fade in my memory, unlike the Goosebumps books I grew up with. It was an average read, with less of his normal amounts of humor. I’m still hoping for more good Stine in the future, but my truly outstanding reviews of his work will likely be his older novels.