With Halloween right around the corner, we here at BBGT decided it was time to bring back Goosebumps and take a friggen break from the really bad shit. You have enough to be frightened of with horror movie marathons running rampant on every network!
Last year we read Say Cheese and Die (bonus fun fact: Ryan Gosling starred as a kid in the television version of Say Cheese and Die) and Night of the Living Dummy (no joke, dummies scare the absolute shit out of me and they have almost my entire life because of these fucking books).
This year instead of doing two books, Matt and I are going to do what we did with The Host and comment on each other’s posts so we can get through one book before the end of October, and then start in on our next series. More on this later, but we’re doing Jamie Mcguire’s Beautiful Disaster and Walking Disaster! AT THE SAME TIME. Get pumped and/or terrified.
But for Halloween this year, we’re going to be reading the highly anticipated sequel to Say Cheese and Die. Can you guess what it’s called?
The answer is, in fact, Say Cheese and Die — Again! I wish they would add “(for some reason)” to the title. Because why the fuck are they say cheesing and dying again???
Matthew says:
You should have a look through the Say Cheese and Die posts from last year, but if you’re too busy doing “other things” (pfft), here’s what you need to catch up to speed: Greg is a kid living in the 90s (this is important), hanging out with his friends Shari, Michael, and Bird (who is called Bird because “he looks like a bird”… somehow) when they break into their town’s haunted house (every town has a haunted house) and find a camera! But all the pictures they take with the camera predict terrible things happening! Greg takes a picture of Michael standing on the stairs, the picture shows him falling off the stairs, and THEN HE FALLS OFF THE STAIRS. Greg takes a picture of his family’s new car, the picture shows the car totaled, and THEN THE CAR IS TOTALED. For some reason Greg continues using this camera to take pictures of his friends and loved ones, and then it causes Shari to DISAPPEAR. But then she comes back.
They decide to the put the camera back where they found it, where they discover the camera’s creator – a man named Spidey whose real name, Dr. Fritz Fredericks, is somehow stupider – made the evil camera to get rich, but then it became super evil (or something) and he tried to hide it from society so it can never hurt anyone ever again, and then he tries to kill Greg. Greg takes Spidey’s picture and it scares Spidey to death (f’reals), so they leave the camera in the haunted house. But then the book ends with them seeing some neighborhood bullies/teenagers walking around town with the camera! AH! Will this cliffhanger bear any relevance on the plot of Say Cheese and Die — Again?
Sourball. That’s what Greg calls his English teacher, Mr. Saur. He’s a real grouch. And now he just gave Greg a big fat “F” on his oral report.He didn’t believe Greg’s story. About the camera Greg found last summer. About the pictures it took. About the evil things that happened.
Poor Greg. He just wanted to prove old Sourball wrong. But now that he’s dug up the camera, bad things are happening. Really bad things. Just like the first time…
Dammit, Greg! Have you learned NOTHING?
I’m so happy to hear you’re doing the “Walking Disaster/Beautiful Disaster” combo pack. I read whichever one is from the guy’s POV (can you tell I tried to forget it immediately post-reading?) and the only reason I didn’t throw it across the room in disgust was because it was a library book.
Also, yay Goosebumps.
I’m only upset that you’re not doing “Chicken, Chicken”. It’s begging to be mocked. It’s pleading to be mocked. It is perhaps the single most mockable book of all time. But then, a sequel to a crappy book DOES have a lot of potential for shittiness, so it’s hard to complain.
We had actually planned the Say Cheese and Die sequel for a while since I actually already had a copy of it and we also forgot it was October until about a week ago.
There’s always the third annual Goosebumps reading!
Oh my goodness! Goosebumps was my entire childhood! I had so many of them and was so proud of them, but somewhere along the way, I decided to give them away… *sigh* Hm, maybe I should take a peak and see how silly they were. However, concepts like Say Cheese and Die (one of the more memorable ones for me) were awesome.
Whooo, can’t wait to read what you guys have to say about BD/WD (I didn’t even bother reading the second one). I was really hoping this would be the next series for you guys to mock (I believe I even went so far as to sneakily suggest it in the comment section half a year or so ago because it was just so damn shitty). The male lead character is almost as much of a dick as Gideon Cross – although no, that’s probably not possible.
You’re probably one of the reasons we’re doing the series then! We remembered it being suggested by a few people on other posts, but couldn’t remember who/where! I’m looking forward to getting to know a whole new set of characters I can mock and hate <3
Can’t wait for Goosebumps! It is honestly about as scary as I can handle! I am a huge wuss when it comes to all things scary. So, thanks!
I went through a box of childhood books this past weekend and found a bunch of Goosebumps books, including thins one. Looks like I’ll be reading along!