Gooseblog: Goosebumps #61: I Live In Your Basement!

It's the penultimate edition of Goosebumps' original 62, and definitely one of the strangest. And with some of the books we've perused, that's saying something. It's I Live In Your Basement! AKA ... What?

COVER STORY

This is one of those covers I generally forget about when I think about Goosebumps covers. That's not a knock on it as I love everything from the perspective to the colors, not to mention the grisly detail on the monster. But I dunno, i feels like I've seen this kind of cover countless times with Goosebumps. Maybe that's why it doesn't resonate as well as other books. Regardless, it's still some quality Jacobus art.

STORY

Our protagonist is Marco. He's a regular kid, but has one nagging issue. His mother constantly nags him, warning him not to do things lest he get hurt or sick. Regardless of that, Marco still likes to play softball with his friends Jeremy, Lauren and Gwynnie, which Marco mentions is a big and loud kid. As they set up a game, Marco runs over to Gwynnie, who accidentally cracks him over the head with a baseball bat. One chapter in and we already have child head trauma. What did I say about these last few books being pretty hardcore?

Marco eventually wakes up at home, his head bandaged up, and suffering from a concussion. After his mother nags him for playing softball, Marco hears the living room phone ring. On the other line is what sounds to be a kid talking to him. The voice introduces himself as Keith, and Marco has to take care of him. Because Keith lives in Marco's basement. Marco hangs up the phone and tells his mom about the phone call, but she tells him that he must be mistaken. There's no phone in the living room.

Marco wakes up the next day feeling great. No more pain from the softball incident, despite still having a giant bump on the head. Jeremy shows up and the kids go to play pool in the basement. But Marco is at first hesitant, remembering the words of Keith from earlier. They play for a bit until Marco hears a strange scratching noise. He goes to investigate, but gets attacked!... by a squirrel. After fighting off the squirrel and getting it out of the house, Jeremy eventually leaves. That night however, Marco sees the basement door is open. That's when he hears noises, and the voice of Keith telling him again that Marco has to take care of him. After trying to get his mom to believe him, he eventually gives up and goes to bed.

A few days pass, Marco is finally ready to go back to school. He shows off his bruise to his classmates, then his teacher Miss Mosely asks about his hospital stay. He doesn't remember even being at the hospital, so he declines. She says that maybe it's a case of amnesia and the memories will come back later. Later that day, Marco thinks he sees Gwynnie chasing after him and swinging her bat, causing him to panic and hurry back home. He enters his room, but sees a boy sitting on his bed. It's Keith. He goes to get his mom, but when they come back, it's only Tyler, Marco's dog, sitting on the bed. They later head to see Dr. Bailey, a chubby man with  a bald head who checks on the damage to Marco's head. He then says that clearly the only way to heal Marco is to cut his head open and remove his brain! And no, he doesn't immediately pull a "just kidding" next chapter, he's dead serious. And even mom seems fine with it. What the hell is this book?

That night Marco begins work on an assignment about seeing things from someone else's perspective. Keep that in your pocket until later. Suddenly, the screen changes and Keith's face pops up. Before he can process that, Gwynnie sneaks up behind him and apologizes for scaring the hell out of him with the bat. Marco tries to tell her about Keith on his computer screen, but she winds up confused. The computer isn't even turned on. Regardless, the two kids head down to the basement to see if there is any Keith down there. They don't find anything and Gwynnie makes a few jokes at Marco's expense.

Oh, and then she opens her mouth and pulls out her insides out. WHAT THE HELL IS THIS BOOK!? 

Before Marco can process this, a white light flashes and he's now in a hospital bed. It was all a dream. Gwynnie then starts to come after him, and he panics again. But mom asks why he's afraid of his own sister. Yes, suddenly Gwynnie is now Marco's sister. Gwynnie then tells Marco that it was Jeremy that swung the bat, not her. Mom and Gwynnie leave. giving Marco a chance to finally relax. However, he's soon visited by a tan young man with blue eyes and wavy blonde hair claiming to be Dr. Bailey. He checks on Marco, then opens Marco's mouth and starts to pull at his tongue, pulling it out more and more, as the tongue stretches longer and longer. A really creepy scene... that is kneecapped by some clunky chapter end/start stuff with the first one ending with "It wasn't a dream!", only to immediately start the next chapter with "And then I woke up". Come on, Jovial Bob.

Marco wakes up in the hospital bed again and is visited by a seven foot tall man also calling himself Dr. Bailey. He tries to calm Marco down and hands him a note. It's from Keith, and he's waiting for him back home. He tries to tell his mom about the note, but Dr. Bailey is confused as he never gave him a note. He heads home and it seems that everything's back to normal. Well, normal for this world with a Gwynnie sister at least. However, Marco's calm is broken when Keith shows up again. This time, he doesn't disappear when Marco tries to look away. Marco tries to escape, but Keith pounces on him. In the scuffle, Marco smashes Keith over the head with an owl paperweight, knocking him out.

But then Keith's head falls into his shoulders and starts to transform into some sort of ooze monster. WHAT THE HELL IS THIS BOOK? 

The Keith monster grabs at Marco, trying to suck him into his ooze, but Marco escapes into the kitchen. However, the monster catches up to him and sucks him inside his body. But before he suffocates, Marco's mom wakes him up, confused as to why he's laying on the floor. When Margo gets to his feet however, Mom is gone, and human Keith is back. He tells Marco that they're going to be spending the rest of their lives together. Literally. Marco gives up and tells Keith that he's won. Keith tells Marco that he's returning to the basement to make a list of what Marco has to do for him, then turns his body inside out again.

TWIST ENDING

Keith wakes up, and is greeted by his mom who was concerned about him. He tells her about all the weird nightmares after Marco got hit by the bat. She corrects him, saying that it was Keith that got hit by the bat.  So yeah, Keith and his mom are actual basement monsters that live in Marco's basement. He also has the power to turn into a human, and went to play ball with the other kids, only to be the one getting smashed over the head. Mom panics, warning Keith to never play with humans ever again, before slipping back into the shadows. Keith turns himself inside out, back to his monster form and goes to join her, but stops when he sees Marco staring at him in horror from upstairs. Keith panics and tells Marco that this is only a dream.

CONCLUSION

R.L Stine tries his hand at a more psychological story with Goosebumps and the result is going to be one that I think most people will either really appreciate or just generally dislike for being "too weird". Stine weaves together a mixture of dream sequences where you never quite know how bizarre the world is going to be from one awakening to the next. Essentially how Don't Go To Sleep! should have been executed. Twisting reality more and more as things go with far more frightening outcomes every time with no pointless reality police stuff. And while the ending with Keith turning into the protagonist will obviously be confusing, the book mentioning the whole "seeing things from someone else's point of view" in the middle does forgive it. This is also one of the most brutal books in a while with its gore and violence. Within we get descriptive visuals of people pulling their guts out, two incidents of kids being bashed over the head, a scene with a kid getting his tongue pulled out, a doctor suggesting a kid get his head sawed open. This really feels like Stine's last hurrah in terms of being dark with the original 62.

In the end, I have to recommend this one. This book feels a lot like Stine's attempt at a David Lynch style story that's just kid friendly enough. It's so genuinely bizarre that it has to almost be seen to be believed. It's well paced, is a genuinely intriguing thriller, and it actually works to make for a refreshingly unique Goosebumps book so late in the game of the original 62. And considering it's a book that apparently a lot of people missed (and has yet to get a re-release of any kind), I definitely say it's a true hidden gem for Goosebumps. I give I Live In Your Basement an A+.

Boy, these last few books have been amazing. It's like Stine has his groove back. Well, one last book. I wonder what it could b...