The second entry in the Goosebumps series I’ll review, brings strange experiments and science gone amok. Published in 1992.

Synopsis:

Margaret and Casey Brewer’s dad has recently dedicated himself to his work full time at home, almost never leaving the basement. At the start of the novel Margaret and Casey are outside playing frisbee. Casey wants to play with his dad, but his dad says not today when he sees the frisbee and heads inside, slamming the door behind him. This leaves Casey in a mood, but not as much of a mood as Margaret who misses the nicknames her dad used to call her, Princess and Fatso, but she doesn’t like either nickname, so is this really a problem?

Their dad was working at a university lab on plant experiments. He was recently fired from his university job for refusing to stop his experiments. This is the first reference to science gone amok and their dad being a mad scientist. We also learn that the family had recently moved from Michigan to California for this job opportunity.

The kids head back inside and decide to go investigate the basement. Their dad stops them, and drops the title, “Stay out of the basement!” in the first chapter. Also, first time a Goosebumps book title is dropped in the series. They notice their dad’s hand is bleeding as they hurry out of the basement.

Later their mom announces she is going out of town to Tuscon, since her sister is in the hospital and has to have surgery. Casey and Margaret are reminded by their mom to make sure their dad eats, since he gets too preoccupied with work, he forgets to eat. Diane, their neighbor and friend shows up. Somehow Diane shows up throughout this book, and yet she remains unimportant to the plot. You could remove her character, and the core of the plot wouldn’t be changed one bit.

While their dad is dropping their mom off at the airport the children check out the basement. They notice a multitude of plants in the basement coming in all shapes and sizes. Casey takes off his shirt due to the heat of the basement. The odd thing, one of the plants seems to be breathing. Fun fact plants are alive, but they don’t breathe like humans; strange, right? Diane takes this opportunity to crack a joke, “Maybe it has a cold. Maybe its vine is all stuffed up.” Even I’m not that witty.

This wouldn’t be a goosebumps book without a prank. Courtesy of Casey, he pretends to be electrocuted by a door in the basement. After this prank, they get increasingly creeped out by the breathing plants, so they leave the basement. Diane heads home. Casey then realizes he forgot his shirt in the basement, and he heads back for it. In the basement Casey hears someone call his name from the supply closet. Before he can think about that too much, a plant grabs him! Casey gets wrapped up by vines, but luckily Margaret decides to come down and rescue him.

Margaret and Casey are too late running up the stairs. Their dad shows up and gives them an “I’m disappointed” speech. They head to their rooms and their dad goes to the basement.

The next day there’s a lock on the basement door. That’s boring though, so the book skips a week into the future. Margaret and Casey’s dad has been uninvolved with them and has gotten into fashion by beginning to wear a dodger’s hat. He’s also acting weird, with Margaret spotting him eating plant food, a nutritious snack for a growing mad scientist, or for a botanist. Yummy.

Margaret wonders if her dad is turning into a plant, which causes the creation of “Plant Man Vs. Weed Woman” by Casey, it’s too bad Marvel beat him to the punch by 30 years for the name Plantman. While they’re outside having this conversation, they see their dad, so Casey throws a frisbee at him, knocking off their dad’s cap. The shocking part, their dad is growing plants out of his head, even more shocking, according to their dad it’s all good man.

He explains to Margaret and Casey after this incident that his new plant hair is a side effect and that he’s experimenting on plant-animal hybrids. He experiments by beaming matter from one glass box into another. This line is reminiscent of The Fly. Mad scientist much?

That night, Margaret can’t sleep. She decides to go and see what her dad is up to and finds him in the bathroom bleeding green blood from a cut on his hand. She freaks out after she thinks he sees her. Margaret still isn’t able to sleep so she heads to kitchen and gets glass of water. While she gets her water, she’s jump scared by her brother sneaking up on her. There’s also moaning coming from the basement. She’ll never sleep now, oh wait, she does.

The next morning Margaret goes into her dad’s room and finds dirt and insects in his bed. I am aware that plants need dirt to grow, but I don’t get what Dr. Brewer is doing with the dirt, it’s not like he has roots, or if he does, where? All in all, this sounds like an awful mess to clean.

During lunch time their dad makes them lunch, problem is he isn’t much of a cook as he serves them a big helping of green plant food stuff. The kids refuse to eat it, but Dr. Brewer is quite insistent they’ll like it and refers to them as his guinea pigs. Weird. Margaret and Casey are saved by the doorbell, as Mr. Martinez; Dr. Brewer’s old boss arrives. After some talk, they head to the basement, where Mr. Martinez isn’t seen again.

Later in the book, their dad heads to help out a neighbor, which creates a perfect opportunity for Margaret and Casey to investigate the basement some more. The Problem is the door is locked. But all Casey needs to unlock the door is a paperclip. This creates evidence that Casey may be a young LockPickingLawyer.

The basement has become overgrown with plants. Casey is grabbed again, but not by a plant, instead a squirrel. Please note, squirrels don’t normally grab humans like this. This causes Casey to chase the squirrel, an odd bit of comedic relief that seems strangely injected into the story.

As they search through the basement, they find Mr. Martinez’s jacket and tie. Before they can search anymore, they hear their dad returning upstairs. Margaret and Casey sneak out of the basement’s window and circle around to come back inside. Dr. Brewer’s eyes are working, and he notices that the door has been opened. After the kids confront him about the clothing in the basement, their dad explains that Martinez was hot and forgot the clothing, a likely story. Dr. Brewer warns Margaret and Casey about the basement again.

The next Saturday their mother is finally returning home, and Margaret seems excited. When their dad heads out, Margaret and Casey head to the basement to find their kites. As they’re looking, they find more of Martinez’s clothing, including his pants with his wallet in them. It must be pretty hot in that basement.

Margaret and Casey hear a loud noise coming from the supply closet and assume that Mr. Martinez must be in there. However, what they don’t expect to find is both their dad and Mr. Martinez in the closet, and unfortunately neither of them can get out of the closet without help. I think there’s a pretty clear allegory here, or maybe I’m reading into it too much.

After freeing them from the basement Margaret and Casey have some questions about having two dads and which one is the real one. Their dad from the closet, upon being freed grabs an axe. This is when cap dad arrives with Margaret and Casey’s mom.

Margaret steals the axe and can’t decide who her real dad is, until closet dad calls her princess. Margaret in response asks Casey to grab her a knife. She then stabs closet dad in the arm with the knife! Wild for a Goosebumps book. Closet dad’s blood is red. Margaret now knows who her real dad is through a test similar to the one in The Thing. Closet dad grabs the axe and cuts cap dad in half! Goosebumps is getting even more wild. Turns out cap dad was a plant this whole time.

Later they all have dinner, and Margaret believes everything is returning back to normal. Dr. Brewer also gets his job back. A surprising part at the end of the novel is that both Dr. Brewer and Mr. Martinez are relatively chill about being locked in a closet for almost a week. Their dad from the closet also has plants for hair, but he assures them his normal hair will be back soon. Dr. Brewer destroys most of the remaining plant hybrids in the following days, he sees them as being in pain.

Everything is back to normal, until we get a ridiculous twist, some flowers start to whisper to Margaret that they are her dad. The book ends.

Review:

There is a lot to like about this book. First, there is the mad scientist dad, Dr. Brewer. Then there is a lot of isolation in the house with just the kids and their oddly acting dad. The ending is crazy, and I think it works well. There are also a lot fewer question mark sections than the first book, and I think the story flows better overall. This isn’t to say the story is perfect.

There’s a continuity issue early on, when Casey is in the basement, he hears someone call his name from the supply closet. Now, at this point, it doesn’t seem the plant clone has shown up, and Dr. Brewer still has his hair, which means that Dr. Brewer must be keeping the plant clone down there, either that or Stine put that section too early in the book. The most ridiculous part in the book is the Looney Tunes type section of Casey being hugged by a squirrel and then chasing it around. Overall, this book is a bit better than the first in the series.

My rating is 8/10, which could be subject to change as I read more Goosebumps books. A solid read, and a great ending, with a bit of a dumb twist.

Twist Ending:

All of the plants are Dr. Brewer. The kids will never have to worry about having too few dads, however only one can play frisbee.

Memorable Line:

“There’s got to be some law against being a mad scientist,” I don’t think there is.

Memorable moment, cliffhanger, etc:

You’re my guinea pigs, now eat this green goop. Eat, eat, eat. Honestly, one of the more frightening moments for Margaret and Casey. This is also the part where we learn why the dad forgets to eat. It’s not because he’s too busy, he just doesn’t know how to cook.

Bad parenting:

This is an easy choice, the dad, Dr. Brewer, the whole book he’s either uninvolved, angry, disappointed, or actively a villain.

Random References:

Arnold Schwarzenegger, People Magazine, Sassy, Robocop, Frankenstein, Dodger’s, and Nintendo, now you’re reading with power!

Tropes in this book:

Sibling pair, just moved, twist ending, crazy cliffhangers, pranks, slightly annoying sibling, and staying up all night. Two of these tropes are new. I expect to see these tropes show up a lot with the future books, with the books having a sibling pair or having a character stay up late to an unreasonable point because a character is afraid.

Television tie-in:

The episode for Stay Out of the Basement is pretty faithful to the source material. If anything, elements of the story are cut, instead of new elements added. First, the character of Diane is not in the episode, which is fine, since she didn’t do much in the book. The dad is even more strict in the episode, with Margaret and Casey eventually being restricted to just their rooms. Dr. Martinez is now Dr. Marik in the episode, which means he has a lot of free hugs to offer. Dr. Brewer doesn’t wear a Dodger’s hat in the episode, but instead a knock off Supreme hat.

In the episode the kids’ excuses are changed for going into the basement. With fewer characters, it also means that the dad has fewer excuses for leaving the basement, so the show plays with that a bit. The basement in this episode looks like Dr. Brewer is creating an army of Swamp Thing’s. The ending is changed with Margaret and Casey using weedkiller instead of an axe to take care of plant dad. We get a scene where the kids can’t decide who to spray with the weedkiller, however this shouldn’t be an issue, just spray both of the Dr. Brewers. The remaining parts are almost the same, including the flower twist.

Memorable episode line:

“Stay out of the basement!” He said the line!

I’ll give the episode a 7/10. It’s above average, however the book is better than the episode. A good addition to the Goosebumps series.

Come back soon for more reviews and Goosebumps fun

To read the last review: #1 Welcome to Dead House – goosebumpsblogger

Cover Gallery