Why I’m Afraid of Bees by R. L. Stine is Goosebumps book number 17 in the original order. This book is filled with bees the first sentence warns. The story is a take on The Fly meets It’s a Wonderful Life where two people try to switch bodies but a bee gets in the mix. This story is the most twilight zone like, and the only Goosebumps book with a truly happy ending. The story is pretty focused the jump scares are rare and not too bad when happen. The story sometimes felt a bit too informational, and not enough about the scares. This story has a little elements of horror, but more science fiction than horror.

The Plot: Gary Lutz is tired of being “Lutz the Klutz”. He wants a change. everybody picks on him, his younger sister, her mean cat, the neighbor next door who’s a beekeeper, Bees in general, and neighborhood kids. Gary gets the opportunity of a life time, the chance to switch bodies with a cooler kid in the same grade Dirk Davis. The experiment was going perfect until a bee got in the way, the Dirk Davis becomes Gary, Gary becomes a bee, and the bee is in the mind of Dirk Davis. Gary want the experiment over, but Dirk doesn’t want to switch . What’s Gary to do become a bee the rest of his life,? Or do something drastic to his own body?

What I Liked: This book flows pretty well, not to many boring parts. The bee puns are bad but funny bad. I like the only way Gary can speak mostly through microphones. I love the character who runs Person to Person, body switching store. The ending was happy, yet still pretty perfect for this story. I loved the way the Bee acted in Dirk’s body.

What I Disliked: When Gary is a Bee amongst the hive, it wasn’t scary, it felt like an old animal documentary that is really corny and not all that interesting.

Recommendations: There’s some okay moments but the story overall I can not recommend. It is not the worst but far from the best. I’m not afraid of bees and maybe people who are would enjoy this story a more. I rated Why I’m Afraid of Bees by R. L. Stine 3 out of 5 stars.Here’s my full ranking of the 17 Goosebumps books that I have read in order to my favorite to least favorite:Stay Out of the Basement, Piano Lessons Can Be Murder, The Haunted Mask, One Day At Horrorland, Night of the Living Dummy, Welcome to Camp Nightmare, The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb, Say Cheese and Die, Let’s Get Invisible, Welcome to Dead House, The Girl who Cried Monster, The Ghost Next Door, Be Careful What You Wish For… ,Why I’m Afraid of Bees, The Werewolf of Fever Swamp, Monster Blood And You Can’t Scare Me!.