Gooseblog: Goosebumps Series 2000 #23: Slappy's Nightmare

We have covered Almost 100 Goosebumps books at this point. At this point, I'm surprised I haven't gone insane, or at least more so. We know the structure at this point. Books about 12 year olds in peril. But what if I told you that there was a Goosebumps book that not only didn't focus on a 12 year old, but the protagonist was one of Goosebumps' most enduring villains? That's right, we're dealing with a book starring our old wooden child slavery fan, Slappy. Sleep with one eye open, it's time for Slappy's Nightmare.

COVER STORY

This is a great cover. While Slappy's design has been cutened up a lot since his infamous debut, and this is definitely him at his least scariest, his horrified expression, including the bloodshot eyes, is still a creepy image. Also sheep. Lots of sheep. And somehow Tim made the sheep kind of creepy looking. Great stuff as usual.

STORY

We open the book as once again Slappy is working with Jimmy O'James, making this the first recurring character in the dummy series that isn't, you know, a dummy. Things however aren't all rosy in this pairing as Jimmy still can't control Slappy, who still loves to hurl insults at the ventriloquist. Then, they decide to call up a member of the audience to meet Slappy. A large, round boy volunteers and Slappy pulls a Tyson-Holyfield and bites the kid's ear. The kid and the audience begin to panic, while Slappy keeps his jaw locked on the kid's lobe. After the show, Jimmy is pissed and throws Slappy around the dressing room, saying that his career is over. The dummy laughs it off, until Jimmy warns that Slappy's days are done as well. Because he just conveniently got a hold of a new dummy that looks exactly like Slappy named Wally.

Jimmy tells Slappy that Wally was also made by the evil wizard toymaker that made Slappy (and Mr. Wood, but you know, he's in limbo). He's going to use Wally while putting Slappy back to permanent sleep. Slappy isn't a fan of this proposal and grabs Wally and starts wrestling with the lifeless dummy. Remember WWF Wrestling Buddies? I just imagine that going on in this scene. Slappy throws Wally around and knocks the dummy's head off. Then in a rage, starts to strangle Jimmy. That is, until two girls named Georgia and Stella Boonshoft show up. Georgia admires the work of Jimmy, while Stella continues to complain and mock Georgia for her weight.

The two kids are shooed off and Jimmy gets the upper hand on Slappy. He begins to read a spell which makes Slappy feel weird. Slappy, in a panic, suggests a truce. Jimmy, obviously a bit pissed that he got choked by Slappy, says that he'll agree to let Slappy live on one condition. You see, the spell he put on Slappy was a curse. Due to Slappy's years of being an evil little creep with child slave aspirations, he is now tasked with finally doing good deeds. He needs to do three good deeds in one week or else he'll fall asleep forever. Jimmy also promises to keep an eye on Slappy, making sure he follows through. He then gives Slappy to Georgia, while Stella whines.

Georgia practices with Slappy while her sister annoys her. Their mother, Mrs. Boonshoft comes into her room pissed over the state of her room. A mess from wall to wall. She tells Georgia to clean her room, and despite some pleas, she agrees to. Or at least she barely tries, then just goes to sleep. Slappy, seeing this as his first good deed, cleans the room up for her. The next day however, the room is completely destroyed. Both Slappy and Georgia come to the same conclusion and blame Stella for this. The two kids argue while Mrs. Boonshoft is just annoyed at the whole situation. When alone with Stella, Slappy warns her about the room. That's when Mrs. Boonshoft catches her with the dummy and scolds her some more about lying. The next day while talking to Georgia, she brings up that she doesn't mean to be so harsh to her kids, but after their father died, she just wants peace in the house. Oh my god, a rational Goosebumps parent!

Mrs. Boonshoft suggests that Georgia should take Slappy to the Kramer family home to entertain their daughter Maggie, who is in a wheelchair after breaking her hip in a water skiing accident. Something I noticed upon reading this, there are a lot of Kramers in Goosebumps. There was the other Kramer family from Night of the Living Dummy II, Mr. Kramer and Kramer's Photo Mart in Say Cheese and Die - Again!, the Kramer family in this book, and probably more I haven't thought of. Methinks Jovial Bob's a Seinfeld fan. Georgia's jokes to Maggie seem to go well. Then as she goes to set Slappy down to get the phone, the book almost goes full on Mac and Me as Maggie's wheelchair starts rolling down a hill, through traffic, almost hitting a blue van until it hits the curb, sending Maggie flying out of the wheelchair and on to the pavement in a heap. She survives, but now has a broken arm to go with a broken hip. Stella claims that Slappy did it, but Slappy was still on the ground. Slappy, realizing that Stella is going to keep ruining his chances to do good deeds, has to do something to get rid of her once and for all.

That night, he enacts his plan. After a messy fall off Georgia's bookshelf, he makes his way to Stella's room. And then Stella, brandishing an axe, starts to chop Slappy to pieces. But then Slappy wakes up, still in the pile of books he knocked over. He then makes his way to Stella's room for real, only to still get knocked out. He wakes up as the Boonshoft family are again arguing about Stella and if she took Slappy into her room and broke him. It turns out that Stella did crack him open, but not with an ax, but a metal baseball bat. Well, it's smarter than throwing him in a well.

The next day, Georgia is tasked with babysitting a two year old boy named Robby. Despite the kid being a brat and being scared of Slappy, she gets him to bed. Later that night, Slappy hears the kid choking and notices his blanket caught around his neck. Slappy fixes the blanket, feeling that should count as good deed #2. Unfortunately, not long after, Robby's parents come home and see their child tangled in the drapes. Georgia gets blamed for it, but Slappy notices muddy footprints leaving the house. He deduces that once again it must be Stella. Georgia returns home, trembling in fear and, biggest damn shocker I've had yet, her mother doesn't blame her for the incident. Oh, but she does blame Stella. Mrs. Boonshoft suggests maybe having Slappy here must have set Stella off, so she suggests locking him in the closet. Slappy's not having any of that and treks back to Stellas' room, intent on KILLING her. Like legit trying to kill her by either smothering or strangling her. What the hell is this book?

But his plans hit a snag as he ends up caught by Stella, who snaps a photo of him moving on his own. Slappy leaps at Stella and the two wrestle until Georgia and their mother show up. Stella shows them the photo, but it's just a blurry shot of Slappy by her bed, so yet again they don't believe her. Stella tries to get him to move, but it's the old Michigan J. Frog routine again. Mrs. Boonshoft tells Georgia to lock him up, but she can't since she's taking Slappy to school tomorrow. She takes him to school and performs at lunchtime, to a mostly apathetic crowd. Slappy then notices a purple hat, similar to what Georgia usually wears. But when he confronts her, it turns out that it's not Stella, but Wally, the dummy Jimmy O'James was planning to replace him with. Wally reveals that he was the one who was sabotaging Slappy this entire time. The two begin to brawl in the cafeteria to the screams of the teachers and other students. Georgia, now realizing Stella was telling the truth, grabs both dummies, then throws them both into the trash compactor.

TWIST ENDING

Slappy wakes up and sees that he's still in Jimmy O'James' dressing room. The whole thing was just a nightmare. He's happy to still be alive, but doesn't listen to Jimmy who tries to tell him something. Suddenly, a crate is brought into the dressing room. They open it up and Wally is inside. Slappy panics, but Jimmy says that some nightmares do come true, while he starts to read the curse.

CONCLUSION

It finally happened. After many previous attempts with the dummy books, I've finally found one I can honestly say is one of my favorite Goosebumps books of all time. There's a lot to take in with Slappy's Nightmare. It breaks from the norm of a regular Goosebumps book with Slappy as the protagonist, but somehow still manages to maintain the formula of a dummy book. Kids get Slappy, mischief ensues, kids get blamed for it, etc. Georgia and Stella feel a lot like the Kris and Lindy dynamic of the first book. Constantly at each other's throats. Only they're side characters to the focus of the book, which is Slappy himself, who finally feels more like a character. He isn't written with extreme depth, but his character is easier to understand, and surprisingly easy to pity given his situation in the story. Actually trying to do good only to be foiled. As previously stated, you kind of pity the little guy, which given his past actions, is surprising. Also no kid slave talk in this one, hurrah!

This book is also surprisingly violent. One of the most violent books we've seen, even in Series 2000. Slappy strangles Jimmy, the whole wheelchair incident, the axe nightmare, Slappy getting beaned with the bat, the brawl with Slappy and Wally, right down to both being destroyed in a garbage disposal. Oh, and Slappy contemplating murdering a child. Damn, where was all this in the other dummy books? The misdirect does seem a bit obvious with how much Stella gets blamed, but it still works nonetheless. And the book does end with "it was all a dream", but the title of the book is Slappy's Nightmare, so you have to expect that was the route the book was going to go. Series 2000 has been, surprisingly to me, some of my favorite books in the whole Goosebumps series, and while both Dummy outings were great, this one is genuinely one of my favorite Goosebumps books ever. I can see people who don't like such a drastic shift from the norm, but after all these books, I welcome it with arms wide open. Take a bow, blockhead! Slappy's Nightmare gets an A+.