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A review by dtaylorbooks
Return of the Mummy by R.L. Stine
5.0
So I think Stine’s real comfort zone is middle grade. I think Goosebumps, while at times silly, have far more developed plots, settings, and characters than his young adult stuff. In RETURN OF THE MUMMY, for instance, Stine takes his time setting the scene of Gabe going to Egypt and developing the setting while in Egypt at the dig site. The visual is much more real in my head than reading most of his YA stuff because, I think, so much of the book is setting up the creepy part to come.
Gabe and his cousin Sari have a sibling-level antagonistic relationship fueled by unwarranted competition and bickering but when stuff really starts happening they’re there for each other and protecting each other, no matter how much they may say they annoy each other. In fact, I think these two pre-teens are far more developed than a lot of Stine’s teenagers in his Fear Street books. They actually come across as real characters with multiple dimensions. Not once did I find myself balking at what was going on. I was just having fun with the story.
And it was a fun story. Never mind that it fuels my obsession for all things ancient Egypt. It was a genuinely fun and creepy story in a somewhat unique setting with POC characters (that seem to be rather lacking in Stine’s older stuff, at least). The story seemed to be modeled after Tutankhamen’s finding back in the 20s with the nestled chambers and mummy’s curse and all of that but I think it just added to the greatness of the story (at least to me, I can really appreciate that).
Plus it had a creepy edge to it. And for a lot of the book it was just slowly moving along with nothing really out of the ordinary going on. There was a lot of creep served up within a few short chapters. It was there and gone but I think it was just enough. The setting itself, out in the middle of the desert, at night, with things that have been dead for thousands of years, is creepy in its own right. The moment of reanimated mummy just adds to all of that.
So yeah, RETURN OF THE MUMMY is a super fun Goosebumps book. Great characters, great story, and I think it really epitomizes Stine’s craft and is indicative of what he does best and why people like him so much. This is what he’s good at.
4.5
Gabe and his cousin Sari have a sibling-level antagonistic relationship fueled by unwarranted competition and bickering but when stuff really starts happening they’re there for each other and protecting each other, no matter how much they may say they annoy each other. In fact, I think these two pre-teens are far more developed than a lot of Stine’s teenagers in his Fear Street books. They actually come across as real characters with multiple dimensions. Not once did I find myself balking at what was going on. I was just having fun with the story.
And it was a fun story. Never mind that it fuels my obsession for all things ancient Egypt. It was a genuinely fun and creepy story in a somewhat unique setting with POC characters (that seem to be rather lacking in Stine’s older stuff, at least). The story seemed to be modeled after Tutankhamen’s finding back in the 20s with the nestled chambers and mummy’s curse and all of that but I think it just added to the greatness of the story (at least to me, I can really appreciate that).
Plus it had a creepy edge to it. And for a lot of the book it was just slowly moving along with nothing really out of the ordinary going on. There was a lot of creep served up within a few short chapters. It was there and gone but I think it was just enough. The setting itself, out in the middle of the desert, at night, with things that have been dead for thousands of years, is creepy in its own right. The moment of reanimated mummy just adds to all of that.
So yeah, RETURN OF THE MUMMY is a super fun Goosebumps book. Great characters, great story, and I think it really epitomizes Stine’s craft and is indicative of what he does best and why people like him so much. This is what he’s good at.
4.5