3 stars
| As I’ve said in other reviews, I was a pretty fearful child so Goosebumps books were not my jam. This is the third one I’ve read as an adult and it’s the first one I picked that didn’t turn out to be more sad that scary (Hide and Shriek, Phantom of the Auditorium– I don’t know why I’m always drawn to the sad ones). The concept of a cursed camera was very cool and it was presented in a way that that was suspenseful but not gruesomely scary. I think suspenseful is a good way to describe this one. There are some creepy bits, but it’s not overly scary. Overall, the writing was good. It was simple enough for young readers and allowed for easy reading. As an adult, I flew through this in one night, probably in part because of all the cliffhangers at the end of chapters (well played, Mr. Stine). My only comment is that I’m noticing a strange correlation in these books between homeless men and creepiness. Phantom of the Auditorium also had a “scary” homeless man. Not necessarily a critique, just an observation. I understand these are from children’s points of views who may see these men as creepy, but such representations in literature aren’t doing anything to counter beliefs of homelessness. This was written in the 90s so maybe the representation of homeless people wasn’t such a concern, but just wanted to bring it up for modern readers. On the whole, this was a good read. The fearful part of me liked that it used more suspense than gruesomeness and gore. While reading, I was really interested as to how it would wrap up. An explanation is provided, perhaps one that would be more satisfying to children rather than adults. It was a fine explanation, but was pretty vague and I mostly wanted more backstory than was provided. Overall though, a good suspenseful read. Goodreads |