Scan barcode
A review by thegrimhobbyist
Return of the Mummy by R.L. Stine
4.0
This book, the second of the mummy series in Goosebumps, is a 4 star with a stipulation. Retcon the first book completely.
Go check out my other review to get a complete idea behind why I dislike the first book so much, but this second book is MILES better than that one. Sure, it still has some issues, but if I ignore the biggest issue between the first and second to even give us a second book, this book deserves the four. Which is why I say to retcon (which Stine seems to like to do anyways to give us sequels) the first book to enjoy this book more (or don't even read the first book at all). You get flashbacks to the first book anyways in this, with enough context to get the gist of what happened in the first.
Why do I like this one better? The writing. The writing is the biggest factor for my star rating here. After slogging through so many books where it felt like the writing was going down hill, this one soars right back up with writing on par with the first book. Which, makes me wonder if the rumors of ghostwriters is actually true, despite Stine's denial. I mean, this is also book number 23, as opposed to the previous books, so perhaps he just got progressively better with his writing and my jumping from the first book to the second without reading the books in between is what made it seem like such a drastic change?
Did I think this book was spooky? Not really. Ancient Egypt and mummy curses don't really spook me, though. I think it's interesting, from a nerdy historical and scientific standpoint, but there wasn't anything eerie about the story and I predicted the twist very early. I'm just happy to see some good writing.
Go check out my other review to get a complete idea behind why I dislike the first book so much, but this second book is MILES better than that one. Sure, it still has some issues, but if I ignore the biggest issue between the first and second to even give us a second book, this book deserves the four. Which is why I say to retcon (which Stine seems to like to do anyways to give us sequels) the first book to enjoy this book more (or don't even read the first book at all). You get flashbacks to the first book anyways in this, with enough context to get the gist of what happened in the first.
Why do I like this one better? The writing. The writing is the biggest factor for my star rating here. After slogging through so many books where it felt like the writing was going down hill, this one soars right back up with writing on par with the first book. Which, makes me wonder if the rumors of ghostwriters is actually true, despite Stine's denial. I mean, this is also book number 23, as opposed to the previous books, so perhaps he just got progressively better with his writing and my jumping from the first book to the second without reading the books in between is what made it seem like such a drastic change?
Did I think this book was spooky? Not really. Ancient Egypt and mummy curses don't really spook me, though. I think it's interesting, from a nerdy historical and scientific standpoint, but there wasn't anything eerie about the story and I predicted the twist very early. I'm just happy to see some good writing.