Gooseblog: Goosebumps #14: The Werewolf of Fever Swamp

It's time to howl at the moon with this, the fourteenth Goosebumps book. It's The Werewolf of Fever Swamp AKA An American Werewolf in Goosebumps.

COVER STORY

This cover is gorgeous. One of Jacobus' finest outings. So much detail from the strewn about clothes, the moonlight reflection off the green swamp water, the fog gathering behind the beautiful looking wolf on the cover. Everything works. There's no wasted space, every inch of the cover is well used. It's an engaging piece of art that is amazing enough on its own, but especially works for selling Goosebumps.

STORY

Grady Tucker is our protagonist in this tale. He and his family move to Florida. Specifically the location of Fever Swamp. The reason being that his parents are scientists who test animals to see how they take to unique habitats. In this case it's seeing how swamp deer from South America take to Florida swamp weather. Grady and his older sister Emily decide to look around and end up quickly getting lost in the bog. They search around until they find an old shack. Inside is an old man with long, white hair who looks at them menacingly. Before they can even talk to him, the kids instead run away. They eventually lose the old man and manage to find their way back home. Well that's convenient.

They tell their dad about the old man, but dad isn't all that worried about it. It's just the local swamp hermit, who is known to be harmless. Later on, Grady plays outside, until we get our standard "someone grabbed me from behind!" scare. This time, it's a kid named Will Blake. It's here that we get an explanation for why it's called Fever Swamp. About a hundred years ago, everyone in the swamp's vicinity caught a horrible fever. Many people died, but the survivors all began acting strangely. Will leaves, and Grady becomes concerned that maybe he's contracted the swamp fever. That night, he also hears howling outside, along with the sound of scratching at the door. He checks, but finds nothing, so everyone just blames it on him being sick with the fever.

The next day, before he goes to see Will, Grady gets tackled by a big dog. With it looking like a stray, Grady immediately wants to keep it as a pet, despite his parents concerns. They allow him to keep the dog until they can find out if it has an owner. Grady chooses to name the dog "Wolf" because it looks like a wolf. Really flowing those creative juices there. Later on, Grady, Will and Wolf are in the bog and once again catch a glimpse of the hermit. This time carrying a sack, and his shirt covered in blood. They first think that maybe he murdered a guy, but instead they soon find the shredded remains of a heron. So, they feel somehow less frightened. Later that night, Wolf is in a panic to get outside, so Grady opens the door to let him out for the night. It seems to be connected with the moonlight somehow.

Despite that, Grady still hears more howls throughout the night, so he goes out to investigate. He instead finds a rabbit that's been torn to pieces. So, with no other alibi, the rest of the family accuse Wolf of being responsible, and consider getting rid of the dog, but they allow Grady to keep him so long as other incidents don't occur. Later, Will tells Grady that there's been stories of residents disappearing. This is confirmed by Will's friend Cassie, who begins to speak of a werewolf in the area. Will seems particularly shaken by this and tells her to stop talking about it. The kids catch sight of the hermit again, and Cassie accuses him of being the werewolf. The hermit seems to confirm this by saying "I'm the Werewolf!" as the kids run away. Well, that confirms that, and in good time to.  I guess we can wrap this book up- Oh wait there's still a good chunk of book left.

Grady gets cornered by the hermit who warns him about Wolf, saying that he should stay away from him, but leaves in just enough time to make that vague. As Grady leaves, he ends up bitten by a snake. It's just a grass snake, so it isn't poisonous though, but that does work for a scare. When he gets home, he asks his parents about werewolves, but since they're people of science, they don't believe in all that supernatural mumbo jumbo. However, the levity is broken when later that evening Grady discovers one of the swamp deer has been murdered. The family once again blame Wolf for it, and this time are sending the dog to the pound to be destroyed. I'd expect no less from Jovial Bob at this point.

Grady manages to get Wolf to run away, and everything seems fine. Until once again he hears noises in the night. However, when he investigates this time, he discovers Will outside. He leads Grady into the woods, but then disappears, only for Grady to find him again, only this time turned into a wolflike human. Yep, it was Will who is our titular werewolf. Will starts attacking Grady, but Wolf appears and starts chasing Will off. Grady passes out, but awakens at home later. Apparently the hermit helped bring him home. He's still sick with a fever, but everything seems to be just fine. Will has completely disappeared, and the parents change their mind on Wolf, allowing Grady to keep him. Happy ending.

TWIST ENDING

A month has passed in fever swamp, but Grady and Wolf have been enjoying it. Especially now that since Will attacked him, he passed on the werewolf curse. So every night Grady and Wolf head out into the swamp, ready for their next hunt. Happy... ending?

CONCLUSION

The Werewolf Of Fever Swamp is an interesting concept, but ultimately a mediocre execution. It does do some cool stuff, especially with Stine doing a great job detailing the look and feel of the swamp. But everything else seems rushed and lacking off any real energy. Everything feels like it moves at too quick a pace, never giving us any time to build to the mystery. We just get a bunch of animal deaths, some blaming of Wolf, and then we just end with Will as the werewolf for a few sentences. I would have preferred seeing a story build with more stuff involving Will other than what we got. Even the fever that they talk so much about in the book really doesn't feel like it amounts to anything in the end. It's far from a bad book, and has one of the best covers in the series, but the content within is pretty forgettable. A real shame. The Werewolf Of Fever Swamp gets a C-.