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Will the Klutz can't believe it when popular Chad Muller tells him he has a body-switching time machine and wants to switch bodies. Will decides to try it--and it works. Will loves being Chad until he finds out Chad's horrible secret--and realizes he's trapped in Chad's body forever.

125 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1996

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About the author

R.L. Stine

1,680 books18.7k followers
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.

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5 stars
54 (32%)
4 stars
41 (24%)
3 stars
44 (26%)
2 stars
25 (14%)
1 star
4 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
Profile Image for Diz.
1,863 reviews138 followers
February 11, 2024
This was hilarious. A kid gets tricked into switching bodies with an alien, and then he reacts to the crazy things that he sees in the aliens' house. His internal dialogue is always at maximum volume (there are a lot of exclamation points used). I couldn't help imagining that his eyes were almost popping out of his head while the aliens not involved in the switch are oblivious to it.
Profile Image for Austin Smith.
722 reviews66 followers
February 17, 2025
I think these Ghosts of Fear Street books could have been stronger had the ghost writers not been so restricted to their outlines and formulas. Page space is certainly a factor as well, with most of these clocking in at around 110 pages or less; shorter even than the already brisk and concise Goosebumps books.

This one certainly had some interesting ideas with a sci-fi/alien take on the body switching concept and some themes of wanting a better life / perceiving the grass to be greener on the other side - but it's all just surface level and further buried underneath the silliness of the alien characters and a lack of convincing conflict and sense of horror.

As tends to be the case with more fantastical/sci-fi concepts in this franchise, logic and reasoning are mostly absent and the reader won't benefit from asking too many questions about the plot points.

All in all this is a fine, average entry in the series. There's some mild fun to be had here, but like much of this series, just feels too constrained and by the numbers.

2.5⭐ rounded down.
27 reviews
October 16, 2014
This book was about a kid named Will. He is very clumsy. His feet do not get together with him and he trips all the time. Chad, the coolest kid in school, offers to switch bodies with Will. Will totally wants to do it but the problem is that Chad is an alien from outer space. So this is like one of their weapons or something. He did agree to switch but then Chad wouldn't let him switch back. Chad was leaving Earth forever so will had to stop him and force him to switch back. Will ended up having to shrink Chad and his whole family with a shrink ray. I liked this book.
Profile Image for Lelouch.
432 reviews28 followers
May 29, 2019
I read this 15-20 years ago. I don't remember the ending, but I remember the middle-twist.

Clumsy Will is very envious of Chad who's physically perfect. Chad says his father has a body-switching machine and they swap bodies. At first Will (in chad's body) is thrilled. Chad warned him that his parents are weird and force him to eat gross food. When will tries eating normal food, he immediately gets sick. Chad heals him by giving him some kind of bug looking food.
Profile Image for Simon Deimel.
37 reviews
November 27, 2012
Even in the age of 36 years I felt entertained. Of course the fantastic elements may appear a bit abstruse in the eyes of someone who has left his or her childhood behind (or in my case, should have). But again, kool kids will like this.
Profile Image for Greg Kerestan.
1,287 reviews19 followers
August 4, 2017
The better a Stine book appears to be, the more likely it was a ghostwriter. This one does not break that tradition, with a fairly solid tweenage sci-fi adventure. There's not a lot of horror, or even lip-service to horror, in this one. It's an alien story, and one that is vaguely amusing today due to its use of "touch" technology as something otherworldly and futuristic. I remember reading this in elementary school and thinking, "man, that could never happen!" Today I re-read this book from twenty years ago on my iPhone 7 Plus. Time flies.
Profile Image for ♡ sam ♡.
167 reviews7 followers
December 14, 2019
This was a typical 4 star goosebumps book for me !!!! It did not blow my mind but atleast it wasn't bad bad !! I liked it and it was ONE creepy hell of a book. The ending was happy finally !!!! After such a long time lmao. If u wanna read it then do coz right now there r only 10 reviews of this book so...... Anyways pick it up if u want u won't regret it 😘
Profile Image for Constance.
93 reviews29 followers
January 1, 2015
He always hits the mark when it comes to scifi. Horror not so much.
Profile Image for John Loyd.
1,389 reviews30 followers
July 17, 2023
Ghosts of Fear Street #14 From reading this one I assume they are independent, stand alone, stories.

Chad, the cool kid, calls Will over to his table and says his dad has a machine that will allow people to switch bodies. Will thinks it's a joke, but he meets Chad after school and they go back to his house where there is a cool laboratory shed in the back yard. Chad gets the equipment ready for the one hour switch and it works. Will is so thrilled to know what it's like to really be athletic. If only some of that coordination would have stuck with him after they switched back. He could stop being "Will the Spill." He begs Chad for one more chance to switch, after it is reluctantly granted, Will finds Chad's home life isn't normal.

The science and aliens are cartoon level, so when Will gets in a predicament he still has a fighting chance of saving himself. Super fast read, fun, I didn't cringe, 4.5 stars. The cover scene never appears in the book, the aliens were never depicted in anything other than human form.
Profile Image for Julia.
388 reviews8 followers
July 11, 2023
It's pretty amazing how actually-immersive this is given how fun and goofy the premise is. I gobbled these books up as a kid and re-reading this one as an adult, I still found myself totally swept away in the chaos.

There are some legitimately excellent, well-described, spooky scenes that are respectful and challenging to young readers and takes them seriously.

Good stuff!!
Profile Image for Yeon.
524 reviews154 followers
January 6, 2021
Mình khá là thích ý tưởng của tập này ấy, làm mình nhớ đến Vật chủ và tập phim "Bất khả tư nghị" trong một series kinh dị học đường của Thái Lan.
Profile Image for Alex.
6,650 reviews1 follower
March 7, 2021
I surprisingly loved this book!
Profile Image for Alejandro Joseph.
464 reviews1 follower
October 2, 2025
A great read with a fun plot, but suffers from the worst writing fuck ups I’ve ever read. The are words missing periodically and I noticed how weird some stuff it worded. It’s a little hard to read. The writing style is just so inconsistent. There is also issues with stuff addressed for no reason, like the crawling scene that sets in motion the climax. It drags on for a page with new rooms and environmental stuff, but goes fucking nowhere. And there’s other instances of just filler and stuff being put in for no reason. HOWEVER, the story is top notch alien shenanigans and I really liked Chad’s character. The ending is really darn good and the boo is generally really neat and fun. The plot is cool, the pacing is exceptional, and the weirdness of it all is rather nice. It suffers from some small issues that really bug me, but it’s still a great read. I’d give it a 9/10.
Profile Image for Risa Maeda.
13 reviews
December 25, 2012
It was overall I will say it was another good book... I think one of the best parts of the book is when he starts figuring out who the person he switched bodies with really is. This was another ending I didn't really care for either. I taught it could have been different... Or stop the book with out that last part.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews

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