The Girl Who Cried Monster

Goosebumps #8

by R.L. Stine

They're baa-ack! Make way for the bestselling children's series of all time! With a fresh new look, GOOSEBUMPS is set to scare a whole new generation of kids. So reader beware—you're in for a scare! She's telling the truth...but no one believes her! Lucy likes to tell monster stories. She's told so many that her friends and family are sick of it. Then one day, Lucy discovers a real, live monster: the librarian in charge of the summer reading program. Too bad Lucy's told so many monster tall tales. Too bad no on believes a word she says. Too bad the monster knows who she is...and is coming after her next.

Genres: Horror, Childrens, Fiction, Middle Grade, Young Adult, Fantasy, Mystery

144 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1993

About the author

Robert Lawrence Stine known as R. L. Stine and Jovial Bob Stine, is an American novelist and writer, well known for targeting younger audiences. Stine, who is often called the Stephen King of children's literature, is the author of dozens of popular horror fiction novellas, including the books in the Goosebumps, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, The Nightmare Room and Fear Street series.

R. L. Stine began his writing career when he was nine years old, and today he has achieved the position of the bestselling children's author in history. In the early 1990s, Stine was catapulted to fame when he wrote the unprecedented, bestselling Goosebumps® series, which sold more than 250 million copies and became a worldwide multimedia phenomenon. His other major series, Fear Street, has over 80 million copies sold.

Stine has received numerous awards of recognition, including several Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards and Disney Adventures Kids' Choice Awards, and he has been selected by kids as one of their favorite authors in the NEA's Read Across America program. He lives in New York, NY.

http://us.macmillan.com/itsthefirstda...

Reviews

[La loca de los libros · Rating 4 out of 5]

¡Hoy les traigo otra reseña de la siempre recomendable colección de Pesadillas!

👻👻👻👻👻

Leer a Stine y volver a ser esos pequeños llenos de miedos que miran debajo de la cama antes de acostarse siempre es un placer.
Un terrorífico placer.
Y qué mejor momento para volver a esa época que retomando esta colección con nuestra mayor de ocho añitos, la mejor compañía 🖤🖤
Han sido muchas noches arrebujadas bajo una manta con la única compañía de una luz muy tenue para crear un buen ambiente, algo primordial en este tipo de historias.

En esta ocasión, tenemos a Lucy, una chica que no para de gastarle bromas a su hermano Randy, bromas relacionadas con la visión de monstruos en cada parte de la casa o allí donde estén.
El hecho de estar todo el santo día contando historias de monstruos (hecho que llegado a un punto se torna repetitivo) y asustando a su hermano con dichas historias, el día menos pensado le pasará factura.
Y así es, y no es en otro lugar, tal como el título de este volumen indica, que en el interior de la biblioteca del pueblo, donde pasa varios días a la semana en un club de jóvenes lectores.
Como es lógico, nadie la creerá, así que tendrá que hacer todo lo posible llegando incluso a arriesgar su vida para demostrar que lo que dice, en esta ocasión, es cierto.

El señor Mortman, el bibliotecario, es un hombre raro, con esos jerseys de cuello alto, sus ojos saltones casi ocultos tras unas gafas de montura ancha y esa vocecilla estridente que te hace replantearte con qué tipo de persona estás hablando.
¿Y por qué guarda, en ese cuarto donde pasa la mayor parte del tiempo, un tarro lleno de moscas? ¿Seguro que son para alimentar a sus tortugas? Es un tanto estrafalario en cada uno de sus actos, especialmente a la hora de dirigirse a Lucy.
Su mirada delata que quizás ella sabe la verdad, esa que oculta cuando todo el mundo regresa a sus casas y la biblioteca no es más que un lugar sombrío y solitario.
Armándose de valor Lucy se animará a esperar a que todo el mundo se vaya, esconderse tras unas estanterías y aguardar a que el verdadero rostro del señor Mortman aflore 😱

🔝👌🏻Ha sido una lectura muy sorprendente y divertida, final incluido. Con alguna que otra escena que nos ha hecho poner cara de asco 🤢🤮🤣🤣🤣
Stine tiene una prosa ágil, sencilla y directa que hace que el rato que estás metido en la historia la vivas completamente, especialmente si tienes entre 8 y 12 años, la edad perfecta para disfrutar de esta serie de terror y misterio.
Lo hemos pasado en grande poniendo voz al bibliotecario, principalmente llegando a la parte final, y al resto de personajes que iban haciendo su aparición.

Así que ya saben, si les gusta un terror más light y son seguidores del autor no duden en hacerse con la colección.
Los que me hayan leído anteriormente saben que es de las mejores inversiones que he hecho 🤩

https://m.facebook.com/profile.php/?i... 📖🖤

[✨Bean's Books✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

#8 "She's got the monster of all problems!"
Lucy is the girl who cried wolf... or monster rather. She always loved freaking out her younger brother with tales of monsters, but when she sees the library and acting rather funny one day she gets a monster scare of her own. And this time it's for real. The problem is, nobody believes her! The ending of this book was great! LMAO 😂😂

[Tyler Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 That ending!!💜

[Briar's Reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ahhh... This book SMELLS like my childhood. Well, not really.

I remember this book way back in my elementary school days. I plowed through so many books in that library (I can still remember the exact layout of that beautiful place...) and the Goosebumps series was one of them. Recently, I decided that I wanted to read more books from my childhood! Goosebumps was at the top of my list (especially since I did not read every single book in that series as a kid. That library was beautiful but lacking). At a local thrift store I found five books from this series and this was one of my epic finds!

I love these books because they are simple, spooky and amusing (they were scarier when I was kid. As an adult, I've seen too many horror movies and real life horrors to be scared by a man eating flies... forgive me). They are so simple to read but also introduce the reader to some new terminology along the way.

This story felt like it was just a little too long. Our lead, Lucy, goes after the monster librarian over and over and over... it was nice to see the typical trope of one fail and one win broken, but it was getting tiring. The premise of the book is absolutely wonderful despite this small flaw. And on top of that, the characters were fun and believable. Who didn't want to scare their friends and siblings with monsters? And didn't everyone feel like their parents didn't enjoy their hobbies?

The one thing that really does stand out about this book... the ending. It was an M. Night Shamalan-esque ending. Seriously, I doubt ANYONE sees that ending coming.

Overall, this book was cute and fun! I liked taking a break from longer, more serious books to dive into a funny, spooky tale.

Three out of five stars!

[☾❀Miriam✩ ⋆｡˚ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dinnertime, my timid friends.



This story has to be my favourite of the series. Or at least top three. It has everything I love in Goosebumps: the trusted person that turns out to be creepy, the weird siblings, the plot twist... the plot twist in this one was especially good. And, of course, my favourite thing of all: I remember how creeped out I was by this story as a kid! A classic.

[Jason Harlow · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always liked the TV episode version of this but just now got around to checking out the book. The story follows Lucy, a girl who loves scaring her little brother and has quite the imagination when it comes to monsters. She soon discovers that her librarian is actually a monster himself, and when she tells her parents they dismiss her claims. (hence the title) I had a lot of fun with this and thought it was pretty hardcore for a Goosebumps book. I definitely put a lot of stock in a book's ending, and I loved the ending of this one. A recommended read to people who enjoy things like this, and even people who don't like this type of stuff can probably find some enjoyment in it. This was originally a 4/5 for me, but it has too many of the typical Goosebumps clichés and drags at times, so 3/5 seems best.

[Imaydahjr · Rating 3 out of 5]

اتمام
۲۶/بهمن/۰۱
14:58

آخرش..🍃

[Carmen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lucy Dark loves monster stories. Her favorite pastime is scaring her little brother, Randy, with crazy monster tales she's concocted. But Randy's not the only one! She tells her crazy monster tall tales to her best friend Aaron, and her parents, too! Randy's the only one who ever even half believes her - after all, he's only 6!

Lucy goes to the library for her Reading Rangers program. Mr. Mortman is the kindly librarian.

The thing all of us kids hated the most about him was that his hands always seemed to be wet. He would smile at you with those beady little black eyes of his lighting up on his plump, bald head. He would reach out and shake your hand. And his hand was always SOPPING! When he turned the pages of books, he'd leave wet fingerprints on the corners. His desktop always had small puddles on the top, moist handprints on the leather desk protector.

Anyway, he seems like a nice guy - if a little strange. He keeps pet turtles in the library and loves reading.

But one day, Lucy forgets her rollerblades and goes back to the library to get them. It's then that she sees a horrifying sight: Mr. Mortman is a monster!

As he struggled to unscrew the jar lid, Mr. Mortman's face began to change. His head floated up from his turtleneck and started to expand, like a balloon being inflated. I uttered a silent gasp as I saw his tiny eyes poke out of his head. The eyes bulged bigger and bigger, until they were as big as doorknobs. ... Mr. Mortman continued to hum, even as his head bobbed and throbbed above his shoulders and his eyes bulged out as if on stems, poking straight up like insect antennae.
And then his mouth began to twist and grow. It opened wide, like a gaping black hole on the enormous, bobbing head.

Lucy makes a run for it, bursting with the need to tell everyone what she's seen. But no one will believe her. After all, she is monster-obsessed.

What Lucy needs is proof. Can she get it without being caught?
...

I enjoyed this, the 8th installment in the Goosebumps series. I especially liked the surprise ending. Lucy's family is a family of monsters, and at the end of the book they devour Mr. Mortman alive.

R.L. Stine impressed me with his descriptions here. I liked how he described the monster, and the whole monster design was pretty cool and freaky. You can feel Lucy's disgust and horror as Mortman chows down on living turtles, or slurps up eels from an aquarium like spaghetti.

[Fuzaila · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the first Goosebumps book I ever read. It was well over six years ago, but I still remember how I finished reading it in one-sitting, one hefty afternoon when my cousin had come over. He was talking to my sister, and by the time I’d finished, they were still talking! Anyway, this book is nowhere as good as how it appeared to me back then. But still, you have to give Stine some credit. That guy has some serious creepy-book-writing talent.

Lucy is twelve always cooks up monster stories to scare her 6-yo brother. She’s usually obsessed over monsters, and it’s easy to scare her brother Randy and even her best friend Aaron. But one day, she happens to witness their town librarian Mr. Mortman turning into an actual monster and eating yucky moths and flies. Turns out, nobody believes her. Her mother thinks it’s just another monster story she made up to keep away from the library. But Lucy is determined to have them believe her, she’s going to show them proof. And meanwhile, she needs to make sure the monster doesn’t realize she knows his secret, or she’d be his next meal instead of the flies!

It’s amazing how easily Stine comes up with such believable characters and cooks up such ridiculously creepy stories. But they’re entertaining and easy to read. I didn’t particularly like Lucy because she was stupid, and never treated her best friend Aaron, right. Neither did he, for that matter. Though that’s understandable because they’re kids. The ending was a big twist I didn’t see coming. Lucy’s whole family actually feed on monsters and have fangs!

For a goosebumps book, it was pretty good thrill. But it’s still childish and sometimes even a bit predictable. Otherwise though, a quick easy scare!

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Το κορίτσι και το τέρας, ο μικρός αδερφός και το τέρας, ο ψεύτης βοσκός και το τέρας!
Το υποψήφιο τέρας είναι ο βιβλιοθηκάριος (γιατί άραγε όλοι να τα βάζουν με αυτούς ��ους καημένους??)
Μια πολύ ενδιαφέρουσα περιπέτεια, με απρόβλεπτο φινάλε!

[Grim Rainbow (Leslye) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: 4.5

Okay, admittedly I was getting a bit bored and rolling my eyes in the beginning. Then, towards the middle, I got more invested and had all of these theories about the monster. But, that twist? I was NOT expecting that at all, and it made the book for me. Seriously. I loved this book solely for that twist. It was a goofy ending that had me snorting because of the dialog, but my jaw dropped when it first got revealed.

If this is a clue as to how the rest of my reads through Goosebumps is going to go, I'm so very excited. I got wary in the beginning after Welcome to Dead House and then several fails, but now? The writing is getting more solid (for a middle grade book) and the twisty endings are getting better. On to the next one!

[Irma Pérez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buf, no sabéis el miedo que me daba este libro. La primera vez que lo leí —antes de hacerme hardcore fan de Pesadillas y del grandísimo R.L. Stine, el Stephen King de la literatura infantil— lo cogí de la biblioteca, porque me llamaron la atención los colores y la ilustración de la portada. Si no me falla la memoria, creo que fue mi primera novela de la colección y yo no sabía dónde me estaba metiendo... El caso es que cuando fui a devolverlo me daba pánico el bibliotecario y tardé bastante en volver a confiar en él. ¿Y si él también era un monstruo que devoraba pececitos y niñas rata de biblioteca como yo? Mirad, los pelos de punta...

[Gavin Hetherington · Rating 3 out of 5]

I spent a month re-reading all 62 original Goosebumps books to see if they still hold up today, you can check out my 3.5 hour vlog here: https://youtu.be/2C73xc1FS5o

You can also check out my entire ranking of the original Goosebumps books from worst to best here: https://youtu.be/lBfaxCOwAnA

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Title:The Girl Who Cried Monster

What I thought about this book as a kid:So we're already here.I was honestly going to this one towards the end because I feel like I remembered ninty percent of this one and wanted to read the ones that I didn't have a ton of memory for first,but my girlfriend bought me a nice hardcover edition of this book for valentines day.Our one year of our first date is this month so I decided this one would be themed pretty well.Oh yeah let's talk about nostalgia.The Girl Who Cried Monster is probably my definition of nostalgia.This is the book i read that made me really want my own library.For years I've said this was my favorite out of all of them and that was mostly for nostalgia.I remember when I was a kid my dad knew I was trying to get my hands on all of the Goosebumps books.He recommended me one day going to the public library and getting some more.I remember having this thing where I wanted to own all the books I read.When I went to the library I remember seeing this book and I want to say I checked out ,this and Attack Of The Mutant.I didn't really know at the time how libraries worked so I asked the lady how many books I could check out and I rememberd being a little nervous because what if I didn't like the book? What if I accidentally damaged the book.I also want to say the book didn't have a back summary so I didn't really know what the book was about, so when I started reading it and found out it was about a monster librarian,my mind was blown.This was the book that made me want to own my own library and maybe the one book I was most exited to see adapted to an episode.I was so curious to see what Mr.Mortman looked like.When I got into Goosebumps, the show was long gone and I didn't have internet so my imagination drew Mortman for myself.When I saw the episode years later I was very happy because it is one of my favorites.

Plot: The story follows Lucy,a girl who loves scaring her little brother randy with scary monster stories.She first tells him a story about the Timberland toe bitter,a monster that takes people's toes.She sticks her toes in the dirt scaring him.He runs away and tattles.Her parents scold her about this but this doesn't stop her for another monster story.This time she tells Randy about monsters in the trees.When he goes outside she knocks down an old bird nest.Her mom calls Lucy inside and tell her she needs to go to Reading Rangers ,a summer reading program where you have to read alot of books and the winner gets a new book.I would love this.At the Reading Rangers we have Mr.Mortman a weird,overweight guy that loves his library and always has wet hands.He has pet turtles inside this library and flies in jars.Lucy gets ready to leave but forgets her rollerblades.She goes back inside and sees Mr.Mortman.He reaches inside the fly jar and pulls out a handful and puts them inside his mouth,eating them.He then transforms into a monster with bulging eyes,a huge head and a snake like tongue.Lucy can't belive it.She leaves and goes to tell her parents,but Lucy has told way to many monster stories so nobody believes her.She actually doesn't belive herself so she goes back and hides inside a bookshelf when the library closes.She of course sees him transform agian ,this time he eats a turtle,shell and all.Lucy tries to get someone to belive her and that's the basic premise of the story.

What I thought of this book as an adult: I really tried not letting nostalgia get in the way of this book but I'll admit it was very hard.I rememberd ninty percent of this book, so nothing was really shocking to me.With that being said,the library setting and Mr.Mortman himself was enough to really love this book agian.The atmosphere and tension throughout was really good.The scenes with Mr.mortman coming to Lucy's house and him locking her in the library were very scary.I also really loved the card catalog thing.It added a little humor to the story.The only complaints I had would be maybe the pacing was a little off at times and the ending was very abrupt.This still didn't take away from me loving this book all over agian.I give The Girl Who Cried Monster a perfect five out of five stars.

[Ignacio · Rating 3 out of 5]

El primero de los –lamento decir– muchos libros de este autor que leí. Es otra iteración de la misma y efectiva fórmula: une protagonista, adolescente o preadolescente, descubre algo monstruoso sobre un adulto (a veces, más ampliamente, descubre algo monstruoso sobre el mundo), pero nadie le cree, y entonces se expone a una serie de peligros absurdos para tratar de probarlo o para luchar a solas contra la monstruosidad. Las portadas también eran muy atractivas. Narrativamente, siempre capítulos cortos, llenos de cliffhangers, y algún enrevesado plot twist que resulta casi imposible anticipar, ya que Stine no es de los autores que siembran indicios. En el caso de La niña y el monstruo, el giro final es espantoso en más de un sentido, ya que si bien el bibliotecario resulta efectivamente ser un monstruo, también lo son la niña protagonista y su familia. El hecho de que ella se olvidara de este dato fundamental durante casi toda la historia es casi insultante para el lector; cuando lo leí, sin embargo, me pareció que esa amnesia selectiva le sumaba mucho más horror a la conclusión. Prácticamente me dejó traumado.

[Zoey De Leon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I mostly tend to love the earlier books in the Goosebumps series like this one and shows how they're more greatly written, more intriguing and more creepy than what the later in the series will become.
I loved the setting where it's mostly set in the library which is my comfort zone in real life and how the monster presented in here is like a Jekyll and Hyde type of creature which is my type of stories in most horror media.
One of the earlier ones where Stine really takes risk and doesn't hold back with how gross and violent this book was. there is one twist that may be predictable but what happens is what you mostly not see in most Goosebumps books anymore in the sense that it is graphic in a fast paced way of writing.


This book along with Welcome to Dead House is definetly my Top 2 favorites in the OG62.

[A · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one ranks as average on the Goosebumps scale. I loved the library setting which was pretty creepy at closing time. Mr Mortman was a great character, very well described to the point you could almost here his scratchy voice saying 'dinnertime my timid friends'! The ending was a bit naff and let it down for me a little.

[Hazel · Rating 1 out of 5]

The first thing I said when I finished this book is what the @#$!$@^#%$&%*%(^$#**$%@$%

[Akasha Moon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ya sea en inglés o en su traducción en español las narraciónes en las series de R.L. Stine nos dan nostalgicas aventuras.

[Vimaroba · Rating 4 out of 5]

wait the end really pulled it together

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Im traumatized by the turtle eating scene. TRAUMATIZED

[jenny✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

after all these years, i STILL CALLED THAT ENDING

just goes to show how long-lasting R.L. Stine stories are (and how surprisingly, memorably twisty they can be)

[Austin Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ahh, The Girl Who Cried Monster.
I remember being in love with this book when I was younger. After my re-read through of it, I
discovered I didn't enjoy it quite as much, though I still think it's a great entry in the series.
It's not uncommon for Stine's twist endings to leave a foul taste in your mouth, but somehow
this one seems to fit just right, and works perfect with the story. I can see how this one might be a bit boring to some people. Essentially, our protagonist spends most of the book spying on the librarian, suspecting he is a monster. A lot of time is spent with her hiding in the library, trying not to get spotted, thinking she is seen, running away, rinse and repeat, etc.
Unlike (*cough*) Number 5 in the series (*cough*) the payoff this time, is actually worth it, at least in my opinion. Maybe not one of the best books in the series, but a solid entry at the least.
I give this one a 4 / 5

[Katrina G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well that ending was quite unexpected lol.

This is about on par for the creepiness I remembered from when I was a kid. I did find all the characters to be annoying. I mean Lucy tells 3 different monster stories in the first 2 chapters alone, and then wonders why nobody will believe her when she finally sees a real monster. Like. She legitimately doesn't understand. And that's annoying. With that said, I don't know if I would have been so annoyed if I was actually the demographic age this book is meant for.

Honestly the plot twist caught me off guard. It's been at least 15 years since I've read a Goosebumps. Do they all have twists and turns like this one? Because I gotta say, the last 5 pages alone turned this 2 star read into a 3 star. I guess I'll find out as I continue to work my way through the series (not in any particular order, just as I find the books lol)

[Darcy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading through this series, I get the feeling M. Night Shyamalan was deeply inspired by Goosebumps. This book (and the next one especially) exemplify his classic twist ending hullabaloo.

Girl Who Cried Monster is about a girl named Lucy, who talks a lot about monsters (imagine that). She just loves scaring her younger brother Randy with stories about toe-biting monsters and the like. She talks about it so much that her family and friends are frankly tired of her shit, but she still insists on making up ridiculous stories. This becomes a big problem for Lucy when she actually witnesses a REAL monster, and nobody will believe her.

Let me explain. See Lucy hangs around all summer doing nothing (like kids should) and her parents have strong armed her into becoming a "Reading Ranger". This is a reading program where kids have to read a book every week and the meet with the creepy librarian to discuss it and get a big gold star. Some of the selected titles include Huck Finn, Frankenstein, and Anne of Green Gables (some of that is pretty impressive 12 year old reading). The librarian Mr. Mortman is described like a suspected pederast, a sweaty balding fat man who just loves wearing turtlenecks. One fateful day, Lucy forgets her Rollerblades (capitalized much like the Dumpster of book 7), and returns to the library after hours. Here she witnesses Mr. Mortman turn into a monster, and eat some flies (scary!)

She bails out of there, and runs to tell her parents who of course don't buy that crap. Lucy tries to enlist her friend Aaron to prove Mr. Mortman is a monster, but despite Lucy witnessing Mr. Mortman's scary monster transformation again, nobody believes her. She decides to try to get a picture of him as a monster, but forgets about her camera having a flash and alerts him to her presence. Luckily he's blinded and she manages to run away again. When Lucy gets home she begs her parents to let her develop her film so they can see the Mr. Monsterman, but of course he doesn't appear in the photo (classic monster!).

Fed up, Lucy decides to stalk poor Mr. Mortman to his house, along with Aaron. She climbs up into a wheelbarrow so she can spy through his window, and proceeds to fall out of it and get banged up. Mr. Mortman catches her at his house, but she manages to come up with a great excuse ("I was looking through your window because I didn't think you were home!"), because knocking on someone's door isn't the first thing you do when you arrive at somebody's house. Aaron of course bailed long ago, and is basically useless as he didn't actually witness the monstering.

Lucy's parents insist that she continue Reading Rangering, and of course she refuses because Mr. Mortman is a super scary monster when she's in that empty dark library. Maybe this book is a metaphor. No dice for Lucy, and she goes to talk about her latest book when Mr. Mortman locks her in the library. He reveals he knows she knows his secret, and is going to fuck up her shit. This leads to a chase sequence, culminating in one of the greatest sequences in literary history presented here without alteration.

"In that moment of terror, I remembered the one thing that librarians hate most: having cards from the card catalogue spilled on the floor! Mr. Mortman was a monster- but he was also a librarian".

Pretty heavy stuff. Saved due to card catalogue, Lucy runs into Aaron who fortunately was hiding in the library too. Instead of asking why he didn't help her not get killed, Lucy is excited to have someone else to back her up on the whole monster thing with her parents. They rush to her house, and reveal Mr. Mortman is a monster, to which her parents finally believe them and decide the best course of action is to invite him over for dinner (naturally).

Lucy is terrified, and a few days later Mr. Mortman shows up dressed like a used car salesman ("lime-green trousers, bright yellow short-sleeved sport shirt"). He gives them some flowers, and after a few bon mots from Lucy's parents Mr. Mortman asks what's for dinner. They explain that he is, and proceed to eat him in less than a minute, "bones and all". Unfortunately Lucy and Randy couldn't join in, as they don't have their fangs yet. Thus concludes another crazy adventure.

Random Thoughts: Wait, what? Where the hell did that come from? I like to think that Mr. Stine was going for the whole "man is the real monster" allegory thing here, considering the references to Frankenstein but I feel like that's giving him a lot of credit. There's no clue of any kind regarding the ending, just boom we've gone from suburbanites having tea to full on homicide/cannibalism. And yes it's cannibalism since technically they're both monsters. Apparently they didn't want another monster moving in on their turf, so they iced him.

Lucy is pretty obnoxious as per usual GB main character, and I feel bad for her brother who gets a lot of abuse from her. As a kid I don't remember liking this one too much, and the ending soured me then as well.

Overall this book is pretty boring for the most part, though it has a ridiculous intro with a few great lines

"I don't know why it's called Timberland Falls. There are a few forests outside of town, but no one cuts the trees down for timber. And there aren't any falls. So why Timberland Falls? It's a mystery".

"I guess that's why no one believed me until it was too late, and the monster was right in my own house. But I'd better not tell the ending of my story at the beginning".

I wish you had Lucy, then it would have saved me several hours of my life.

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even at a young age I knew this was a spin on 'The Boy who Cried Wolf'

The girl Lucy, is so obsessed about monsters and creates such elaborate stories to the point that no-one seems to believe her when she sees one.

It's a nice simple premise that makes it a quick fun read.
There's some great gruesome descriptions especially as Mr Mortman snacks on turtles.
Whilst some 90's throwbacks to Rollerblades, Old Style Cameras and Super Nintendo.
I liked the who idea of reading rangers too.

This also has another good 'Goosebumps' twist ending aswell.

[Amy Noelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ending is goofy but I think this is a fun one

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Rounded up to 4 because my kid and I both enjoyed the twist at the end. I had forgotten all about it.

[Josiah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Experimental narrative gambits were key to keeping the original Goosebumps series from going stale, and R.L. Stine employed at least one in The Girl Who Cried Monster. Twelve-year-old Lucy Dark enjoys dreaming up monster stories to torment her six-year-old brother Randy. Monsters in the trees, living next door, coming after kids…Lucy doesn’t hold back. Her parents get mad, but she's too amused to stop teasing Randy. Unwittingly, she has set herself up for a crisis.

Lucy's mother insisted on signing her up for Reading Rangers at the library this summer. Lucy doesn't dislike Mr. Mortman, the librarian who runs the program, though his perpetually sweaty hands and nasal voice are off-putting. Her apathy morphs into horror one day when she spies Mr. Mortman after closing time in the library. His head transforms into a nightmarish visage, and he gobbles live houseflies from a jar like raisins. After all Lucy's monster stories, she's found a real one. She has to alert her parents.

Too many monster tales have conditioned Lucy’s mom and dad not to listen when she gives her account about Mr. Mortman. Even Randy doesn't believe. Lucy's best friend, redheaded Aaron Messer, is only marginally more inclined to take her seriously. She sneaks back to the library to gather evidence, but nearly gets caught. In his monster form, Mr. Mortman eats small turtles as well as flies; if he catches Lucy would he eat her? Lucy's only hope is to convince someone what a danger he poses. Can she do it before Mr. Mortman targets her for elimination?

I like the theme of The Girl Who Cried Monster, a revisitation of Aesop's "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" fable. Even as a kid, actions have consequences; if you earn a reputation for telling tall tales, you can't blame responsible people for not believing you when an emergency arrives. Maintaining a trustworthy name is a chore to be vigilant about; when calamity comes you'll be glad you did. This book is the first in which R.L. Stine totally subverts the premise at the end, a hint of the Twilight Zone style that would dominate later Goosebumps. I'm not sure it really works in this case though. The Girl Who Cried Monster is entertaining, but Mr. Mortman doesn't come across as menacing enough, since he does nothing worse than eat flies and turtles. The story falls a bit short.

[David Santos · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will try to review this book as best as I can. ADD started to kick in big time while reading this book, so I don't remember much.

Some inconsistencies in the story. The book says the girl has black hair, but on the cover her hair is blonde. The book also says the librarian wears a ring on his finger, but the librarian on the cover doesn't have a ring....Just thought I'd point that out. makes no difference to the story but still.

I found myself skipping parts of the book. For some reason it just didn't interest me. Maybe it's because I've heard so many similar stories about someone crying wolf that it made this book seem predictable.

I guess this book is great for the early 1990's but to read it now after seeing so many similar movies, it wasn't that exciting.

The ending was just terrible. It adds a twist to the story but it's a dumb twist. R.L. should have just left that sucker corked!