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A review by liamunderwood
Beach House (Point Horror Series) by R.L. Stine
2.5
It felt somewhat appropriate to follow R.L. Stine's Goosebumps book Ghost Beach with R.L. Stine's Point Horror book Beach House. Of course, this isn't the first Stine Point Horror book I've read that takes place at the beach, with Beach Party also promising to offer sun, sand, and scares. Except I found Beach Party to be terribly dull, and is currently my least favourite Point Horror book I've read so far. So I was optimistic that Beach House couldn't be any worse, and thankfully it isn't.
However, Beach House also isn't great. I do think that there's a good concept here, but I also think Stine somewhat squanders it. The book opens during the summer of 1956 with a group of kids trying to enjoy some sun, and allows for Stine to have a little bit of fun making 'wry' observations of the time, with characters commenting about how bikinis will never catch on and so on. Then someone starts attacking this group of kids. The book alternates between 1956 and 'this' summer, which appears to be a summer in the early '90s what with references to MTV blankets and so on. Sidenote - R.L. Stine is down with the kids, and there's a passage early in the book which unreservedly proves this when he describes the kids from 1956 as having "so much fun" when a group of guys start singing 'Shake, Rattle & Roll' and "dancing like wild men". So whilst I'd say it's fair to criticise Stine for many many things, his fingers are very firmly on the pulse of what kids find fun. Evidently.
Anyway I digress. Switching between the two time periods is a pretty effective choice which I think Stine handles well, for the most part. Although there isn't a great deal of effort put into distinguishing between the two groups of kids, I found it wasn't too difficult to differentiate between them. Beach House is a somewhat enjoyable book... until the climax. I won't give anything away, but I found a certain reveal towards the end to be utterly ludicrous. Also, following Hit and Run, I both love and dread Stine introducing wild animals into these books - love because it's usually so unexpected, and dread because it's often utterly nonsensical. Beach House took me on a wild ride and it's certainly memorable, but I couldn't honestly say it's particularly good. I'm finding Stine's Point Horror offerings to be erratic, to say the least.
2.5/5
Point Horror Ranked
1) The Girlfriend - 4/5
2) Trick or Treat - 3.5/5
3) Fatal Secrets - 3.5/5
4) Teacher's Pet - 3.5/5
5) The Baby-Sitter II - 3.5/5
6) The Cheerleader - 3.5/5
7) The Hitchhiker - 3.5/5
8) April Fools - 3.5/5
9) My Secret Admirer - 3.5/5
10) The Lifeguard - 3.5/5
11) Freeze Tag - 3/5
12) Thirteen Tales of Horror - 3/5
13) The Accident - 3/5
14) Funhouse - 3/5
15) The Window - 3/5
16) The Invitation - 2.5/5
17) The Train - 2.5/5
18) The Waitress - 2.5/5
19) The Snowman - 2.5/5
20) Beach House - 2.5/5
21) The Mall - 2.5/5
22) The Boyfriend - 2/5
23) The Cemetery - 2/5
24) Mother's Helper - 2/5
25) The Baby-Sitter - 1.5/5
26) Hit and Run - 1.5/5
27) The Return of the Vampire - 1/5
28) Beach Party - 1/5
However, Beach House also isn't great. I do think that there's a good concept here, but I also think Stine somewhat squanders it. The book opens during the summer of 1956 with a group of kids trying to enjoy some sun, and allows for Stine to have a little bit of fun making 'wry' observations of the time, with characters commenting about how bikinis will never catch on and so on. Then someone starts attacking this group of kids. The book alternates between 1956 and 'this' summer, which appears to be a summer in the early '90s what with references to MTV blankets and so on. Sidenote - R.L. Stine is down with the kids, and there's a passage early in the book which unreservedly proves this when he describes the kids from 1956 as having "so much fun" when a group of guys start singing 'Shake, Rattle & Roll' and "dancing like wild men". So whilst I'd say it's fair to criticise Stine for many many things, his fingers are very firmly on the pulse of what kids find fun. Evidently.
Anyway I digress. Switching between the two time periods is a pretty effective choice which I think Stine handles well, for the most part. Although there isn't a great deal of effort put into distinguishing between the two groups of kids, I found it wasn't too difficult to differentiate between them. Beach House is a somewhat enjoyable book... until the climax. I won't give anything away, but I found a certain reveal towards the end to be utterly ludicrous. Also, following Hit and Run, I both love and dread Stine introducing wild animals into these books - love because it's usually so unexpected, and dread because it's often utterly nonsensical. Beach House took me on a wild ride and it's certainly memorable, but I couldn't honestly say it's particularly good. I'm finding Stine's Point Horror offerings to be erratic, to say the least.
2.5/5
Point Horror Ranked
1) The Girlfriend - 4/5
2) Trick or Treat - 3.5/5
3) Fatal Secrets - 3.5/5
4) Teacher's Pet - 3.5/5
5) The Baby-Sitter II - 3.5/5
6) The Cheerleader - 3.5/5
7) The Hitchhiker - 3.5/5
8) April Fools - 3.5/5
9) My Secret Admirer - 3.5/5
10) The Lifeguard - 3.5/5
11) Freeze Tag - 3/5
12) Thirteen Tales of Horror - 3/5
13) The Accident - 3/5
14) Funhouse - 3/5
15) The Window - 3/5
16) The Invitation - 2.5/5
17) The Train - 2.5/5
18) The Waitress - 2.5/5
19) The Snowman - 2.5/5
20) Beach House - 2.5/5
21) The Mall - 2.5/5
22) The Boyfriend - 2/5
23) The Cemetery - 2/5
24) Mother's Helper - 2/5
25) The Baby-Sitter - 1.5/5
26) Hit and Run - 1.5/5
27) The Return of the Vampire - 1/5
28) Beach Party - 1/5