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Ghosts of Fear Street #23
Why I'm Not Afraid of Ghosts (Ghosts of Fear Stree
Oliver Brown doesn’t believe in ghosts. Even though he lives in a house on Fear Street that’s chock full of them! Robbie should know—he’s one of the ghosts. And his new neighbor doesn’t scare easy—even though he’s tried everything he can think of to send Oliver screaming. Robbie’s got one trick left up his sleeve. And it has to work. If it doesn’t, he’ll have to give up the ghost business forever.
128 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 1, 1997
4 people are currently reading
406 people want to read
About the author
Nina Kiriki Hoffman
304 books344 followersNina Kiriki Hoffman’s first solo novel, The Thread That Binds the Bones (1993), won the Bram Stoker Award for first novel; her second novel, The Silent Strength of Stones (1995) was a finalist for the Nebula and World Fantasy Awards. A Red Heart of Memories (1999, part of her “Matt Black” series), nominated for a World Fantasy Award, was followed by sequel Past the Size of Dreaming in 2001. Much of her work to date is short fiction, including “Matt Black” novella “Unmasking” (1992), nominated for a World Fantasy Award; and “Matt Black” novelette “Home for Christmas” (1995), nominated for the Nebula, World Fantasy, and Sturgeon awards. In addition to writing, Hoffman has taught, worked part-time at a B. Dalton bookstore, and done production work on The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. An accomplished fiddle player, she has played regularly at various granges near her home in Eugene, Oregon.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 21, 2021
Ich hab das Buch (zusammen mit ein paar anderen Fear Street Büchern) neulich bei meinen Eltern wiedergefunden und dachte mir Wie passend so kurz vor Halloween!
Natürlich musste ichs aus Nostalgie wieder lesen.
Und wie mit jedem übersetztem Buch hat man gewisse Stellen, an denen es etwas hapert. Ich kann mich leider nicht erinnern, ob mich das als Kind gestört hatte, aber das hat diesmal etwas die Freude gekostet. Aber vermutlich liegts daran, dass meine Ansprüche etwas gestiegen sind... :D
Die Geschichten an sich sind trotzdem spannend und gut!
Natürlich musste ichs aus Nostalgie wieder lesen.
Und wie mit jedem übersetztem Buch hat man gewisse Stellen, an denen es etwas hapert. Ich kann mich leider nicht erinnern, ob mich das als Kind gestört hatte, aber das hat diesmal etwas die Freude gekostet. Aber vermutlich liegts daran, dass meine Ansprüche etwas gestiegen sind... :D
Die Geschichten an sich sind trotzdem spannend und gut!
September 21, 2025
Nina Kirki Hoffman—as far as I know—has only done three entries for this series, and this is one of them. Out of those three, this is her only dud. This book tried to do a lot of things, and some of it landed well—whilst some of it didn’t at all. I must praise the idea for this book; it’s an already explored idea for horror, with it being from the perspective of the ghost, but it’s a nice switch up for this series, and the perspective changes added a nice flair to this story. There’s some decent moments: the introductory scene to the ghosts, the lab scene (I laughed my ass off), and the reveal involving Shawn. Said reveal was an interesting direction for the book that I called from PAGE TWO but was shocked by anyways since it waited to long to drop it on the reader. It’s neat, but nothing ground-breaking. There’s some ideas at the very end that are interesting and I’d like to see it explored further, however the delivery on it was shit. Now for the bashing: the ending. It’s a mixed bag to say the absolute least, and takes you on a roller coaster for six pages straight, and it involves a huge recontextulization, ghostbusters, vampires, a big turning-of-leaf moment, and a take-back of one of the prior, and also giving the read an aneurism. I don’t even wanna go over it, but it was WAY too much. Good ideas in there, I guess, but all delivered way too quickly and in an excessive quantity. Jesus. The entire book is also a snooze fest, though it picks up hella in the final fifteen or so pages. Most of it is just the repetitive stuff one would expect here: the ghosts try (and fail) to scare Oliver, a stubborn unbeliever as we’re led to believe. It never even goes anywhere, there’s no payoff, and it’s depressingly similar to the biggest issue found in books like You Can’t Scare Me! and such. The ghost kids are also the most irritating characters. Bickering is fine, but it was excessive, almost to the point I was just pissed off reading it. Seriously Nina, don’t make your characters annoying, bickering, arguing, mean-spirited brats—because you’re too good at it. And, the book exceeds what it rightfully warranted page-wise. This should’ve just been a short story, whether it be in the Tales to Give You Goosebumps series or another kids horror anthology collection. Way too long for what we got for about 85 pages of it—the repetitive bs. Overall, 4.5/10. It’s not terrible, but definitely a light bad. The lab scene was literally that one SpongeBob scene where SB was watching the Flying Dutchman unveil astral horrors beyond our comprehension—with a blank, dead face. LMAO.
January 6, 2026
Five days into 2026 and I'm already resorting to R.L. Stine chapter books. This could be a rough one.
Given that Stine's titles usually reference or lampoon some pre-existing horror title formula (It Came From Beneath the Sink, Night of the Living Dummy, Little Shop of Hamsters), it's curiously navel-gazing to hearken back to his own Why I'm Afraid of Bees for the 23rd book in the Ghosts of Fear Street series, Why I'm Not Afraid of Ghosts. The story of the latter has nothing in common with the former, but that's par for the course with his title "homages"--they're always just springboards in the first place.
The story revolves around the ghosts of two children who make it their mission to scare away any new inhabitants of the house in which they died. The challenge comes in the form of a new boy named Oliver, a skeptic who seems impervious to supernatural frights. Naturally, being siblings, Robbie and Dora make it a contest between themselves to see who can scare Oliver first. But Oliver might prove to have a few secrets of his own.
The book is ghostwritten by Nina Kiriki Hoffman (is the thing to say...), who mimics Stine's minimalist voice while finding some fresh angles for a haunted house story. I had a certain idea of what I thought the twist was going to be, but ultimately I was proven incorrect--or at least only partially correct. The book is a fun ride, with some decent set pieces (including one in which a ghost invades a video game, which I wished for back when I read Goosebumps 2000's Ghost in the Mirror), but a fatal flaw is that the "tricks" to which Robbie and Dora resort in scaring Oliver cross the line fairly quickly from fun ghostly pranks to outright cruelty, at which point you stop rooting for them. Also, while I'd usually rather gloss over plot holes that don't matter than spend valuable storytelling time patching them up, I could have used at least a token explanation as to why Robbie and Dora are hanging around their old house a century after they died rather than passing on. Robbie complains a few times about how boring it is to be a ghost, but the ending seems to imply they are remaining by choice.
I like to think that, while all the preteens on Fear Street are engaging in harmless shenanigans, their older siblings are constantly getting killed or traumatized just a few blocks over.
Given that Stine's titles usually reference or lampoon some pre-existing horror title formula (It Came From Beneath the Sink, Night of the Living Dummy, Little Shop of Hamsters), it's curiously navel-gazing to hearken back to his own Why I'm Afraid of Bees for the 23rd book in the Ghosts of Fear Street series, Why I'm Not Afraid of Ghosts. The story of the latter has nothing in common with the former, but that's par for the course with his title "homages"--they're always just springboards in the first place.
The story revolves around the ghosts of two children who make it their mission to scare away any new inhabitants of the house in which they died. The challenge comes in the form of a new boy named Oliver, a skeptic who seems impervious to supernatural frights. Naturally, being siblings, Robbie and Dora make it a contest between themselves to see who can scare Oliver first. But Oliver might prove to have a few secrets of his own.
The book is ghostwritten by Nina Kiriki Hoffman (is the thing to say...), who mimics Stine's minimalist voice while finding some fresh angles for a haunted house story. I had a certain idea of what I thought the twist was going to be, but ultimately I was proven incorrect--or at least only partially correct. The book is a fun ride, with some decent set pieces (including one in which a ghost invades a video game, which I wished for back when I read Goosebumps 2000's Ghost in the Mirror), but a fatal flaw is that the "tricks" to which Robbie and Dora resort in scaring Oliver cross the line fairly quickly from fun ghostly pranks to outright cruelty, at which point you stop rooting for them. Also, while I'd usually rather gloss over plot holes that don't matter than spend valuable storytelling time patching them up, I could have used at least a token explanation as to why Robbie and Dora are hanging around their old house a century after they died rather than passing on. Robbie complains a few times about how boring it is to be a ghost, but the ending seems to imply they are remaining by choice.
I like to think that, while all the preteens on Fear Street are engaging in harmless shenanigans, their older siblings are constantly getting killed or traumatized just a few blocks over.
May 29, 2019
I read this book 15-20 years ago. I remember the highlights of this book, but my memory is hazy through most of it. I do remember that the twist ending was so ridiculous that it was hilarious. The character even comments on how ridiculous it was. It was the first Ghosts of Fear Street book I read, and I remember wanting to read more.
Book Summary:
Robbie and Dora are siblings who haunt a house. Robbie died wearing a sailor's outfit he hates, so he focuses on making spooky sounds and not revealing himself. I don't remember what Dora looks like. They try scaring Oliver, but nothing works out. Oliver's best friend keeps warning him about ghosts, but Oliver ignores him. Eventually they plan some big scare. I don't remember the details. at the end:
Book Summary:
Robbie and Dora are siblings who haunt a house. Robbie died wearing a sailor's outfit he hates, so he focuses on making spooky sounds and not revealing himself. I don't remember what Dora looks like. They try scaring Oliver, but nothing works out. Oliver's best friend keeps warning him about ghosts, but Oliver ignores him. Eventually they plan some big scare. I don't remember the details. at the end:
March 22, 2025
Before I say anything else this the twists at the end of this book remind me of slappys nightmare. Started this book a week or two ago and buddy read it with my good book friend @pulp_fiction_books (check his review out as well!). This book follows two ghosts who haunt a house and are trying to scare the new kid who moves in. So this book is the most repetitive, no new idea, filler book I have seen in a while 😂. The ghosts just try and scare this kid in different ways and fail each time, this repeats for the ENTIRE book. I think if they went in the direction of trying to scare him and maybe going into there backstory or any sort of mix up with the story then this book could have been better. And don’t get me started on the triple twist ending that is totally unnecessary. (A twist on the last 2 pages which is stupid) 1.5/5 only for the good body horror and scare descriptions.
March 20, 2025
This had a great concept as we have dual pov's and one half of them that we're following are ghosts. Unfortunately the book never capitalises on its unique premise and ends up being very repetitive. There was nothing scary or even spooky about this, it had moments of good body horror imagry but even they didn't hit as they were all undercut by being portrayed in a silly comedic fashion rather than used as moments of horror. There's also two reveals late on, the first was extremely obvious and the second was absolutely ridiculous and completely out of left field.
August 22, 2023
Oliver and family have just moved onto Fear Street. Into a supposedly haunted house, but he's having none of that, Oliver doesn't believe in ghosts. Dora and Robbie are going to make sure he's scared. They make a point of haunting Oliver, but he shrugs it off as the wind or something. The frustrations of the ghosts are humorous, but it just makes them more determined.
Quick, fun, humorous. Nice twists. 4.5 stars.
Quick, fun, humorous. Nice twists. 4.5 stars.
February 21, 2021
I tried putting on my nostalgia goggles for this book .It still didn't work. The writing was a little off for me .I did enjoy the first twist, but it didn't make sense. Luckily it wasn't the real twist .the real twist made more sense, but the overall book was just kinda bland, not my favorite of the series. 2 out of five stars for me.
January 2, 2021
3.5/5. Great plot, fun times. Nostalgia.
January 10, 2021
3.5
Cộng nửa điểm vì tính em Oliver giống mình ban đêm nghe tiếng động lạ điều đầu tiên là ngủ tiếp ai gảnh đâu tìm coi có ma không =)))
Cộng nửa điểm vì tính em Oliver giống mình ban đêm nghe tiếng động lạ điều đầu tiên là ngủ tiếp ai gảnh đâu tìm coi có ma không =)))
January 14, 2024
Mi primera impresión al leer la contraportada fue: "Jesus, un retelling juvenil de "El Fantasma de Canterville" de Oscar Wilde... paso". Muchos años después, acá estoy, y al contrario de lo que creía, me dejo un buen gusto de boca.
Es considerablemente divertido. Tiene las descripciones justas y esos giros finales a los que R L Stine nos tiene acostumbrados. No es una de sus obras más originales, ya que es como la parte de "El Fantasma de Canterville" en la que el susodicho espectro no logra asustar a los niños durante poco más de cien páginas pero en un contexto juvenil noventero en Estados Unidos, honestamente, se deja disfrutar. Es un libro para despejarse y entretenerse sin más pretensiones. Lo banco, aunque tampoco sea lo mejor del autor.
Es considerablemente divertido. Tiene las descripciones justas y esos giros finales a los que R L Stine nos tiene acostumbrados. No es una de sus obras más originales, ya que es como la parte de "El Fantasma de Canterville" en la que el susodicho espectro no logra asustar a los niños durante poco más de cien páginas pero en un contexto juvenil noventero en Estados Unidos, honestamente, se deja disfrutar. Es un libro para despejarse y entretenerse sin más pretensiones. Lo banco, aunque tampoco sea lo mejor del autor.
December 25, 2012
Muchas veces, viendo y leyendo Goosebumps u otras cosas de Stine, solía anticipar lo que iba a pasar. Este no fue uno de esos casos.
Me llamó mucho la atención el uso de spooky beings en este libro. Los intentos de Robbie y Dora son tragicómicos, y Oliver. Aw. Mah. Gawd.
Me llamó mucho la atención el uso de spooky beings en este libro. Los intentos de Robbie y Dora son tragicómicos, y Oliver. Aw. Mah. Gawd.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews