A look back at the horror series through a modern (adult) feminist, queer lens.
My Goosebumps Challenge
Goosebumps Reviews: The Full Collection
Revisit my favorite 90’s horror novels!
What is the Goosebumps Challenge?
It’s a personal reading challenge in which I read through my physical collection of the original Goosebumps series (62 books in total), and write a critical review for each using an approach of feminist and queer analysis.
GOOSEBUMPS FAQ
Answers to frequently asked questions about the Goosebumps reviews and moodboards on LitCobb.
-
Goosebumps is a series of children’s horror books written by R.L. Stine that were popular in the 1990s. The original Goosebumps series ran from 1992 to 1997, with an accompanying TV series that ran on Fox for four seasons.
After the original set of 62 books, there were additional spin-off book series, along with various TV and film productions, including the 2015 movie starring Jack Black and two seasons of a modern adaptation on Disney+, which began streaming in 2023 and 2025.
-
There are 62 in the original book series, which is the set I have and am focusing on for the Goosebumps reviews, collages, and essays on LitCobb. However, in total, there are currently around 250 Goosebumps books if you include the spin-off collections, of which there are 13 plus a few one-off stories.
-
Well, the honest answer is: we don’t know! Scholastic, the publisher, has never publicly released the sales numbers for the individual books.
What we do know is that the Goosebumps series has sold over 400 million books total with at least two selling over 2 million a piece. But which two? While I couldn’t find an exact source, I’d put money on one of them being “Night of the Living Dummy”. Not only is it the book that introduces one of the most famous Goosebumps monsters (Slappy), but it’s also the one that people seem to bring up the most frequently whenever I reference the series. That creepy little dummy still freaks me out.
-
I’ve loved horror since I was a kid, and the Goosebumps series was a regular staple for me. I suppose the series started because I was feeling nostalgic, desperately trying to reclaim some of the comfort of youth.
But that pesky ol’ English Lit degree can’t let me enjoy anything without a critical lens. So, instead of simply rereading the series, I decided to review them as an adult, approaching the subject matter using a modern, feminist critique—my natural baseline.
As a lesbian, I have also noticed that the LGBTQ+ community collectively seems drawn to horror, and for millennials in my generation, Goosebumps was often an early introduction to the genre and still holds comfort and joy for us. As a result, I’m also considering the texts through a queer lens to determine whether we were all so intrigued by the work because it was horror or are there particular elements that speak to a queer audience even if they’re not intentionally writen so.
-
Okay, the concept started out simply: try to read one Goosebumps book a week until I made it through the entire original series, which would take just over a year.
Well, that was 2023…
I’ve only managed to make it through four total books, and only the first three in order. It’s not that the books aren’t an easy read, but because I know I’m reviewing them, I can’t just knock them out and be done. Instead, I have to choose all my annotation supplies, put on my critical analysis hat, and take detailed notes as I go.
So, naturally, it’s taken longer than I’ve anticipated, and I tend to only pick them up when I’m in the mood to read them. I will eventually get through them all!
-
Totally scratching an aesthetic itch! I love collages, moodboards, and zines, so I like to make one for all of my book reviews, including the Goosebumps series. Basically, if a book was a visual medium, what would it look like.
If you’re a reader that likes aesthetic immersion, then you may enjoy the reading moodboards/journals, too.