Trapped in the Circus of Fear

Give Yourself Goosebumps Special Edition #3

by R.L. Stine

After a week at circus camp, the reader is invited to join a real circus for a week, but life under the big top becomes a nightmare as an evil ringmaster plots to transform normal children into horrible sideshow freaks

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Gamebooks, Childrens, Middle Grade, Novels, Choose Your Own Adventure

144 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1998

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

[Tiffany Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trapped in the Circus of Fear (Updated)
There are a couple of good endings for this one. One of them ends with It was all a dream. It was all a dream just seems like “lazy writing” to me. So, lets try the other one. Then we’ll try some -or one- “bad ending” I find interesting from the choices.

“Good Ending”
It says after a week at circus camp, you and your friend Richie have been selected to spend a week as guest performers in a real-life circus. But we’re warned this is no ordinary circus. This is a circus of doom. It says we get to choose three things to take with us. You choose the (chocolate bar, camera, and mirror). You get dropped off by your mom and at first sight can’t help noticing how dark and eerie and empty the tent looks. Your greeted by Barbara but she says in here her name is Mistress Barbarous.

She used to seem sweet. Not today! She announces “to let the fun begin” and in rides a man on a horse with a knife coming straight at you. The man rides past. Mistress tells you to stand on the white board so the knife thrower can practice. Do you run after your mom or obey Mistress? We decide to do what she says (33). The knife thrower warns you not to move. He aims his knife straight at your heart. Should you leap out of the way or stand still? You decide to leap out of the way (75). The knife pierces the wooden target and stabs it through the heart.

You and Richie race for the exit. Mistress yells to catch you. You’re almost run down by a clown car. A swarm of clowns get out and one pushes Richie to the ground face down and puts his shoe in his back. A green clown with black teeth heads straight toward you. His arms are outstretched. His arms start to grow and then you feel them wrap around your throat. Then you notice a little clown that says his name is Mr. Peepers. He says if you have something to eat he’ll help you. D o you give him the chocolate, the peanuts, or the bananas, or do you not have anything? You give him the chocolate (105).

The little clown takes out a mallet and wacks the bad clown in the knee. It lets go of you. Mr. Peepers tells you to follow him. You wanna save Richie but the clown is extending its arms again. So, y ou follows the little clown and you and he hide in a lions cage. He asks for his chocolate but you’ve left your backpack in the main tent. He offers to go get the backpack. When he returns you give him all three chocolate bars. You tell him you have to go get your friend, but ask him before he leaves why everyone there is trying to kill you. He says Mistress Barbarous and her whole family are evil. He’s telling you (they have magic powers. Barbarous, Morton the Knife Thrower, Geyorg the Clown, the Great Bostini, who is the lion tamer, and Mistress Barbarous’s two sisters. All of them. She gets her power from) but before he can tell you where she appears and says GOT YOU!

You can either run the way you and Mr. Peepers came from or through another flap that says SIDESHOW. You choose SIDESHOW (116). You run. She trips. When you go through the flap, you first notice a foul smell and then you see these exhibits “The Lizard Boy” “The Girl with Five Tongues” “The Bearded Girl” and “The Kid with Fotten Flesh” “Lizard Boy” looks familiar and you recognize him from camp last year (Danny Mendleson). He was the winner. He whispers to be careful and don’t get caught or you’ll end up there forever like him.

It's not long before we hear Mistress coming and we have to decide should we run of hide. We decide to hide (39). Danny lets you hide in his cage and covers you in straw. The footsteps come closer. You try to stay still and not to sneeze. Its Bostini the lion tamer and he smells human flesh. He quickly discovers where your hidden and you see his teeth are razor sharp and scream. You look into your backpack to see if you have anything to fight the lion tamer. Should you use the camera? The talcum powder? Or do you even have anything at all? We have the camera (100). Bostini screams and lets go of you. You start to run but he says if you show him the picture, he’ll help you. Do we trust him or keep running?

We decide to keep running (30). You can’t risk trusting him. You head to the backstage tent. Richie is no where to be seen. Maybe someone can tell you where he is but who should you trust? You meet Sara the snake charmer. She offers to show you some cool tricks on the trapeze. You agree to go with her but she could be leading you to Barbara. If you brought your snake you probably trust her. If you didn’t well. And we didn’t (73).

You turn down her offer. She says whatever then you see her forked tongue. Wise decision. You find the clown’s makeup area. No Richie. Barbara makes a announcement the guest are missing and to bring them to her if they’re spotted. You have 3 choices. Keep looking for Richine, disguise yourself as a clow, or hide somewhere else. You decide to keep searching for Richie (11). Behind the clown’s area is a dark tent and there’s a gypsy inside playing a violin. He tells you that your friend isn’t there. Then you hear something behind you. Its Mistress Barbara and a lion. She gives the command to kill you and it leaps. The gypsy puts the lion to sleep with her violin. Barbara tells him he’ll be sorry and reaches for the cord around her neck.

On the cord is a jade pendant carved to resemble a face. a beam of purple light shoot from the pendant face in the mirror to Mistress Barbarous’s eyes. Her eyes turn purple and purple energy bolts shot from her eyes. The violin player starts to play faster and faster. The bow in the gypsy’s hand starts to grow longer. Thena sharp blade comes out the tip. Ramon cant stop playing. She commands you to dance and you do. If you have a mirror with you, maybe you can try to catch the reflection of Barbarous’s pendant and aim it into your own eyes. Or if you have the bullwhip, you might be able to whip the violin out of the gypsy’s hands. We have the mirror (15).

It works, the holt shots into your eyes and you feel intense power. You think I don’t want to dance anymore and then you stop. You look at Mistress Barbara and think you don’t belong in a circus. You belong in a zoo and she turns into a ape. You take the pendant from the ape’s hand. You don’t quite know what to do with it and wonder if its powers will still work with out Barbara. The gypsy says it will. It works for everyone in her family. But if they don’t have it their normal. This gives you an idea.

Using the pendant you turn Danny back into a normal boy. You turn all the rest of the kids back. Then you see one that’s a milking substance. It’s Richie. You turn him back. Now you decide to do what you came there to do. Put on a show! You, Richie, and everyone from the sideshow all now run the circus and have an elephant step on the pendant for good measure

“Bad Ending” (This one sounded interesting because it involves food).

After the knife thrower tells you to hold still you leap out of the way (75). Clowns come straight at you in a clown car. They jump out the car. One holds Richie down with his shoe. One extends its arms to grab you. Its about to strangle you but you see a little clown (Mr.Peepers) who asks if you have food. You didn’t bring any (113). You tell him you don’t have any and he shrugs and starts to walk away. In desperation you tell him you have money and you’ll buy him something. So, he pulls out a seltzer bottle and squirts the clown in the face. His makeup starts to run and he has … no face underneath.

Mr. Peepers leads you away and says that when he puts his face back on he’ll be after you. So he takes you to the food tent with hotdogs, nachos, cotton candy, peanuts, and popcorn. Mr. Peepers says he wants cotton candy. Noone is in the tent. You tell him that but he doesn’t care and tells you to figure it out or he’ll tell the mean clown where you are. You kinda know how from having watched it being done but you don’t see any paper cones. He tells you to use your hands, but it’s going faster and faster.

Should you use your hands or refuse? You decide to use your hands (8). You hold out your fist to him but then Mistress Barbara appears and her eyes are flashing purple. She then turns your fingers into five tufts of cotton candy. You scream NOOO! You plead with her to turn them back. Mr. Peepers then says he’s hungry and eats your left pinky. But the cotton candy grows back. Richie shows up. He has five sticks of butter for fingers. Mistress Barbara says you’ll both work in the food tent for the rest of your lives and be the “special attractions” to get kids to buy more candy and popcorn.

“Bad Ending” (It says that one of the endings is the most gruesome of any in the whole series. I think it’s this one)

After the knife thrower tells you to hold still you leap out of the way (75). Clowns come straight at you in a clown car. They jump out the car. One holds Richie down with his shoe. One extends its arms to grab you. Its about to strangle you but you see a little clown (Mr. Peepers) who asks if you have food. You tell him you have chocolate (105). Mr. Peepers hits him in the knee with a wooden mallet and Mr. Peepers gets you out of there. You crawl under a lions cage and escape but then you realize you left your backpack so Peepers offers to go back and get it. You give him the chocolate but tell him you have to go get Richie.

You ask what’s up with the circus and he tells you about Barbara and her evil family. Then she appears and says she’s caught you. She’s blocking the exit. You can run to the flap that says SIDE SHOW or back into the big tent. You run into the one that says SIDE SHOW (116). You see some of the other freaks. One a boy you recognize from camp named Danny. He warns you not to get caught or you’ll be there forever like him and the rest of the freaks that use to be normal kids.

You hear someone coming. You decide to hide (39). Danny hides you in his cage under the straw. You hear someone coming closer. It’s Bostini with his sharp, pointed, teeth. You reach inside your backpack for something to save you but you don’t have anything (119). It hints very strongly that you die a gruesome death. He devours you!

My Thoughts:
This was an interesting concept that a lot *could* have been done with but the truth is I have been searching and searching and searching for over a year for books with a good story of a horror themed circus and maybe I just haven’t read the right books but they’ve all fallen short. Most of them have been very forgettable to the point where I can’t even tell you a half way decent one I’ve read.

As endings go, the first one was “ok”. It was a good ending. The circus mistress gets defeated, the necklace gets destroyed, and you get to be over the circus. But there just wasn’t anything *special* about it. It kinda feels like you’ve heard it before. The second, I thought would be interesting because it involved food. It was … different but not particularly scary. The last one was scary but it was way too short. It need a little more… As a bad ending it had the potential to be even better than the good ending with a little more detail.

Rating: 5

[Billie Pritchett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trapped in the Circus of Fear by R.L. Stine is a pretty fun choose-your-own-adventure book, and one that I am sure will make some readers angry. This is because the book begins where you and a buddy are about to go away to a circus, and you need to bring three items with you. If you choose incorrectly, when you hit key points in the book, then you will have a bad ending. Now, there are at least a few right answers as to what objects you need depending on how you move through the book. But still, there are some objects more crucial than others.

I've played through the book a few times and not gotten to the end. But I'm pretty sure I know now what objects I would need to make it to the end. So I'll choose those next time I read through it. And I understand why all of this is frustrating to some readers: choosing the correct objects means, if you chose incorrectly, having to go back and start from scratch, if you're playing fair. But I think it allows for multiple readings of the book, which is not a bad idea.

A book like this is perfect to read on a long trip when you've got nothing else going on, and even more fun to read with a friend or significant other. My advice is to load up your Kindle with these kinds of books and then embark on your road trip. That is, if you like this sort of thing.

[Jimma Totesora · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has to be one of my favorite books when I was a kid! It packs a hell lot of scary scenarios you'd never expect children to read. Or even understand. But I did, thanks to R.L. Stine's captivating writing and imagination.

I also made a habit of listing down page numbers before turning, in case I get a dead end. Ah, memories!

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A month ago or so I watched Terrifier 2, which is an incredible movie and I highly recommend it.But as I was watching it, I noticed that the clown kind of reminded me of a Goosebumps book that I haven't read yet. This is of course Trapped In The Circus Of Fear. One of the better covers of the newer black spine era of the Give Yourself Goosebumps.This story has the item thing where you can bring three items with you like bananas, chocolate bars ,whips and other things. The actual story starts off with you and your friend Richie going to a circus.You guys just done really good at circus camp and this circus invited you to come along. Immediately when you get there you're placed inside a ring with this guy running around on a horse throwing knives at you.The leader of the circus named Mistress Barbarous tells you to stand in one spot and let Mr. Morton throw knives at you.She also informs you that he has very bad aim. So of course you don't want to do this. So you can either run and try to find your mom to get out of this place, or stand still.This leads to a number of options you can run away through the circus and have to deal with lions, a lion tamer with the mouth of a lion, two trapeze artists that are the sisters of Mistress barbaros ,or an evil clown that has the ability to stretch his arms. But don't worry you do have help. You have this little bitty small chubby clown named Mr. Peepers and if you give him food depending on what you have, he'll help you. Or there's a gypsy guy that plays a violin.He has songs and stuff to put the lions to sleep. This book was really fun.I enjoyed a lot of it. This book had a lot of decent body horror. There's an ending dealing with you becoming a Siamese twin connected at the stomach.There's quite a few freak show attraction people like a lizard guy,a girl that's half dog ,half human and a girl with four tongues.The only complaints that I had about this book would be it was a little too complicated ,but not to get good endings. I got the first good ending with just two items.I also wished we learned more about this evil family.Going back to the endings,all of the endings were very unique and not repetitive. In fact this book made me contradict myself, because there is a dream sequence ending in here but I still really enjoyed it. there's also one ending that really spoke to me in general. Basically you just run away from the circus you go home and you take a nap, and you don't save your friends because you forget about them. That's easily the most introvert ending in all of Goosebumps.But yeah I really enjoyed Trapped In The Circus of fear .I give it probably a four out of five stars.

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 2 out of 5]

Heya, kiddos *honks clown nose*! For my 40th Give Yourself Goosebumps read, I decided to delve into another unpopular story from the series. Sadly, I didn’t find this one all-too good. There’s some nice power play elements here involving using items to progress, assuming you have the right ones, and it felt deserving of the special edition title (not by a lot though). The setting—a circus, duh—was alright and utilized well enough. There’s like three or four decent endings, including the great “good ending” as advertised, and a particular moment within the… actually neither arc is definable, but the arc where… shit, yeah, I’ve got nothing there. But no less: said moment is a 25-ish page battle sequence against everyone at the circus, and it’s really good. Okay, now I can wipe away this makeup and dunk on this book. The entire thing was supremely bland and lacked much of a personality. Circus freaks—check. Circus master—check. Lions—check. Elephants—not there but would’ve been a massive CH-HECK. It’s by-the-numbers circus stuff and nothing really stood out. The endings all-round are bland as well, as most of them you don’t even die (weirdly enough) and instead get integrated in the circus in some unfunny, dumb way. They’re all mid or shit. I hinted at it earlier, the but paths blend together so much. There’s no defining ideas for either of them, and that isn’t good in the long-run and truly cements itself as a bland, dull GYG. All-in-all, the weakness here is just being super forgettable. Also, cum jar scene. Yikes. Overall, 5/10. This was insanely dull with merely a few good moments saving it, and is (again) very forgettable… wait, what am I typing about? I forgot.

[Bahman Bahman · Rating 2 out of 5]

به حدی بترس که همه موهای بدنت سیخ شوند دلت می‌خواهد با تاب سیرکی پرواز کنی؟ دلت می‌خواهد یکی از نمایش‌های بخش جنبی سیرک را اجرا کنی؟ نمایشی عجیب و غریب و غیر عادی و وحشتناک... دلت می خواهد خودت را مثل دلقک‌ گریم کنی؟ گریمی که هیچ‌ وقت پاک نمی‌شود؟ هر ماجرایی که انتخاب می‌کنی، بهتر است ابزار قدرت درست و مناسبی با خودت برداری... اگر دلت می‌خواهد از این سیرک پلید و شیطانی جان سالم به در ببری، بهتر است این کار را بکنی.

[Weathervane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shares similarities to the first Give Yourself Goosebumps, Escape from the Carnival of Horrors, except this one isn't as inventive and doesn't include fun references to other Goosebumps stories. Your knowledge of the lore isn't going to help you here, but what will is dumb luck. Despite the "Special Edition" conceit which allows you to pick three items from a list in the intro, a chance of successfully completing this book using your wits is not on offer. You have no inkling on your first read-through of which of these silly items might help you -- peanuts or your lucky cap, which is the choice of the cunning adventurer? (Neither -- should've gone with chocolate.) -- and "winning" the book becomes a matter of simple trial-and-error, as it is in so many gamebooks that don't play "fair" by giving you clues and by rewarding logical decisions.

Unfortunately there's not much creativity to redeem this bare-bones story, either. The solution to defeat the Ringmistress is as arbitrary and, frankly, weird as you've come to expect from this spin-off series. The other villains are mostly uninspired. The main takeaways are perhaps these two nuggets of wisdom carefully and lovingly placed at the calamitous ends of two plot branches: always carry a bar of chocolate with you, and never trust someone who drools.

The chocolate bit I agree with, but why Stine included that shot at me I will never know.

This one is very skippable and probably more like two and a half stars.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

i was always a big fan of Goosebumps and other type of child/teen thriller and horror book series growing up. RL Stine was SK before I knew who SK was. Choosing your own adventure was even more exhilarating. Love that I found some online as an adult. I had a lot of fun navigating through this circus of horrors. Yes, I "died" numerous times but its always fun reading the grisly and creative endings. I made it out eventually. Very Fun

[Mercedes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solamente quiero decir que por momentos necesité salir corriendo para algún lado.

Nunca fui al circo, nunca me cayeron muy bien los payasos, y las historias alla Elige tu Propia Aventura siempre me desesperaron. Como me pasó con el Silent Hill: The Room cuando lo jugué el año pasado, los finales tristes me ponen de pelos.

[Sumaiya · Rating 3 out of 5]

lama dah baca.hua3.form2.tp buku ni seram sket2 je.tak sgt pon.wakaka

[Sang · Rating 3 out of 5]

i once owned this book. finish reading it a long time ago when i was a kid. but now i cant remember where i kept it, haha

[Nat Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is dark, and fun. And one of the best Give Yourself Goosebumps I’ve ever read! ❤️

[Jake Jeffries · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh, it is ok. I'm not the biggest fan of circus stories. I read this because of the 2019 Popsugar Reading Challenge. It was an easily obtainable e-book from my local library. I did kind of like the choose-your-own-adventure aspect and I remember enjoying some of the older Goosebumps stories as a child. This one is just average. It makes me want to continue making different choices while watching Bandersnatch more than anything.

[Griffin C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very fun book, power play is implemented well, the villains are great, the setting is great, and the main good ending is pretty satisfying. 10/10

[H.A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I DIED BECAUSE I DIDN’T BRING ANY FUCKING CHOCOLATE??? I THOUGHT THAT THE CHOCOLATE WAS LIKE A THROWAWAY ITEM TO TRICK DUMB KIDS.

[fanboyriot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my favorite but I liked the circus vibes in this one. Some of the endings I got weren’t really what was expected, even the “good” ending.

[Josiah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the first that I read in the newer series of Give Yourself Goosebumps Power Play Special Editions, gamebooks written with some extra features that are somewhat closer in scope to the Lone Wolf odyssey penned by Joe Dever.
In Trapped in the Circus of Fear, you are allowed to pick three objects from a list; objects that you think might help you at some point in your adventure. This is an interesting new twist for R.L. Stine as he continually tried to keep things fresh in his gamebook writing.
Some really odd things happen in this book, but there are a lot of good stories. I, for one, enjoy reading it.