Goosebumps – Don’t Go to Sleep! by R.L. Stine is a unique horror about a boy whose reality changes every time he sleeps. The horror is in not knowing what the next day will be and can he stop it. Sometimes he wakes as older, sometimes as younger, sometimes as an animal, and once as a monster. The premise for this story is great and Stine has a lot of fun with it. The story heads in a weird direction with reality cops that are teenagers. I could have gone without them but they did add a ticking clock to the story. The pace is pretty good the setup took a little too long but it was pretty good compared to the the 50 other Goosebumps I’ve read. The ending was a little exciting. The final twist worked well with the story you see it going that way and was delivered decently. The horror of the story was not knowing what was going on which was written well. Don’t Go to Sleep! Is Goosebumps book 54 in the original series order? Don’t Go to Sleep! Was first published on April 1, 1997.

Plot Summary: Matt lives in the smallest room in the house as he is tormented by his 2 older siblings, and his mom works too much to notice. He has been begging his mom to switch to the guest bedroom but she has said no. Matt needs piece after being tormented by everyone even the dog so he decides to sleep in the guest bedroom piece when he wakes up he feels taller and his older siblings are shorter and look younger. Matt finds out that he has somehow switched ages with his siblings and no one notices. His first day of High school is rough and wants everything to go back to normal, but when wakes up again he does not even have the same family. Can Matt find a back to his original family? Or is he stuck living a different reality each day?

What I Liked: The creativity used in crafting the story. I liked the lion tamer plot line and the monster. The pace after Matt wakes up is very fast and hard to put down. The ending was intense, clever, and a lot of fun. I liked that after Matt figured out the magic of sleep he was able to use it to his advantage. I liked the mention of Star Trek at the beginning.

What I Disliked: The reality police angle did not work for me. I know why it was added to give Matt a time tale to fix his situation, but it needed something else. Why were the Reality police children?

Recommendation: Don’t Go to Sleep! Was fun not too scary but made it up in fun. The story was very inventive and different from most other Goosebumps books. The story structure follows that of Say Cheese and Die! The pace of the story made it easy to keep turning the pages. I recommend Don’t Go to Sleep! to my followers.

Rating: I rated Goosebumps – Don’t Go to Sleep! by R.L. Stine 3.9 out of 5 stars.

Here’s my full ranking of the 54 Goosebumps books that I have read in order from my favorite to least favorite: 1) A Night in Terror Tower, 2) Stay Out of the Basement, 3) The Headless Ghost, 4) Ghost Beach, 5) Piano Lessons Can Be Murder, 6) The Haunted Mask, 7) Ghost Camp, 8) The Horror at Camp Jellyjam, 9) One Day At Horrorland, 10) Night of the Living Dummy, 11) Welcome to Camp Nightmare, 12) A Shocker on Shock Street, 13) The Phantom of the Auditorium, 14) Beware, the Snowman, 15) It Came From Beneath the Sink, 16) Attack of the Jack-O’-Lanterns, 17) The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb, 18) Don’t Go to Sleep!, 19) Say Cheese and Die, 20) Let’s Get Invisible, 21) The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight, 22) Welcome to Dead House, 23) Monster Blood II, 24) The Beast From the East, 25) The Girl who Cried Monster, 26)Deep Trouble, 27) The Ghost Next Door, 28) Say Cheese and Die – Again! 29) Night of the Living Dummy 2, 30) Chicken, Chicken, 31) My Hairiest Adventure, 32) Be Careful What You Wish For…, 33) Return of the Mummy, 34) Why I’m Afraid of Bees, 35) The Haunted Mask II, 36)How I Got My Shrunken Head, 37) How to Kill a Monster, 38) Attack of the Mutant, 39) Go Eat Worms!, 40) Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes, 41) The Werewolf of Fever Swamp, 42) Bad Hare Day, 43) Cuckoo Clock of Doom, 44) Vampire Breath, 45) How I Learned to Fly, 46) Monster Blood, 47) Night of the Living Dummy III, 48) The Barking Ghost, 49) Egg Monsters from Mars, 50) The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena, 51) You Can’t Scare Me!, 52) Legend of the Lost Legend, 53) Calling All Creeps! and 54) Monster Blood III.