Goosebumps – Night of the Living Dummy 2 by R.L. Stine is filled with more dummy action than the first one and Slappy is now introduced. Night of the Living Dummy 2 is book 31 in the original Goosebumps series order, this is the half way point on my quest to read them all since there is 62 books in the original series. This novel is actually the one developed for the television episode called Night of the Living Dummy. Wooden dummies creep me out and this book has some good scares. The scariest moment is when Slappy grabs a little girls finger and will not stop squeezing and also find his head is full of worms. I liked that the curse is back. The final twist was good and doesn’t end with a joke, but end with did what I think just happened, happen. This book did have interesting pop culture references with the lead Amy listing to Bob Marley and the Beatles. The pace is pretty good and the story stays pretty focused, for parents that read to their kids this does have the longest chapter in a goosebumps story so far and it is the opener, on the kindle it was 17% of the book. I think this was the best family so far, Stine has written good sibling relationships but this was my favorite family so far. Night of Living Dummy 2 will be part of the new Goosebumps show on Disney+.

Plot Summary: Amy is the middle child and dealing with that issue. Her family has it’s own talent show at which Amy preforms with her dummy Dennis, but Dennis is old and falls apart as she is performing, she ask her dad for a new dummy. He comes through and gets her Slappy that he bought used, the first time Amy uses Slappy she freaks out as she feels like she’s touching his brain which happens to be and old wormy sandwich. She cleans up Slappy and performs but something happens and Amy ends up bringing up all of families insecurities. Amy swears it was her but Slappy. Amy is constantly getting blamed messing with her older sister’s paints, she pretty sure it is her bratty little brother until she notices paint on Slappy’s shoes. Will Amy’s family ever believe it is Slappy and not her?

What I Liked: The dummy Jokes are kind of funny when they are not knock knock jokes. I liked the family dynamic, a lot of times the parents are just there and this novel Stine gave them more to do and I liked the way the family came together in the end. The worm in the dummy’s head was one of the scariest bits, as a reader I could fell the gross parts on my fingers. I liked the family talent show idea. I like the way both Slappy and Dennis were described. I liked the final twist ending. I liked the super tense scene with slappy and the finger crushing of the little girl.

What I Disliked: Slappy agenda, he sometimes wanted slaves then he sometimes just wanted to prank Amy’s older sister with paint, it was very inconsistent, if he wanted Amy for a slave why did he keep getting her in trouble where it pointed to her.

Recommandation: The story is okay, it is the first appearance of Slappy. I liked the first Night of the Living Dummy more. I will barely recommend this one, there’s some nice little scares. I rated Night of the Living Dummy 2 3 out of 5 stars.Here’s my full ranking of the 31 Goosebumps books that I have read in order to my favorite to least favorite: 1) A Night in Terror Tower, 2) Stay Out of the Basement, 3) Ghost Beach, 4) Piano Lessons Can Be Murder, 5) The Haunted Mask, 6) One Day At Horrorland, 7) Night of the Living Dummy, 8) Welcome to Camp Nightmare, 9) The Phantom of the Auditorium, 10) It Came From Beneath the Sink, 11) The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb, 12) Say Cheese and Die, 13) Let’s Get Invisible, 14) The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight, 15) Welcome to Dead House, 16) Monster Blood II, 17) The Girl who Cried Monster, 18)Deep Trouble, 19) The Ghost Next Door, 20)Night of the Living Dummy 2 21) My Hairiest Adventure, 22) Be Careful What You Wish For… , 23) Return of the Mummy, 24) Why I’m Afraid of Bees, 25)Attack of the Mutant, 26) Go Eat Worms!, 27) The Werewolf of Fever Swamp, 28) Cuckoo Clock of Doom, 29) Monster Blood, 39) You Can’t Scare Me! and 31) Monster Blood III.