Beware the Shopping Mall

Bone Chillers #1

by Betsy Haynes

Strange rumors about the Wonderland Mall, including the reported disappearance of a teen there, prompt Robin and her friends to investigate, but their trip to the mall could force them to shop until they drop

Genres: Horror, Middle Grade, Childrens, Young Adult

134 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 1994

About the author

ABOUT ME

Maybe it's because my feisty grandma chased tarantulas around with a broom when we lived on an oil lease property when I was a baby that made me love danger and adventure. And maybe it was my father's spending nights as a trombonist with the bands of his day and his days spent drawing sketches that sparked my artistic side. Do you suppose that because my mother stood only four feet ten inches tall that I feel like a giant at five feet? And I'm sure my FBI (Full Blooded Italian) step-father, his seven brothers and sisters and their families are responsible for my LOVE of Italian food. That's who I am. Who are you?

My First Book, Peppy The Frog That I Wrote In The 2nd Grade

I'll always be a child at heart. Whenever I close my eyes, wonderful, funny, awful, embarrassing memories of middle school/​junior high come flooding back to fill the pages of my contemporary novels. My childhood friendships and rivalries with old enemies all find their way into my books. I've even spied on my own kids for story ideas.

Unlike most kids who can't wait to grow up, I've gotten younger--at least my stories have. I've stepped into the world of 7 to 10 year olds.

I and my husband, Jim, live in Texas on Lake Lewisville north of Dallas. We are owned by our greyhound, Miller. Our favorite things to do are traveling the world and boating.

Reviews

[Josiah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Of the many juvenile horror book series in the 1990s, Bone Chillers was one of the best options aside from R.L. Stine's Goosebumps, and Beware the Shopping Mall set the tone right from book one. Most everyone in the town of Meadowdale shows up at Wonderland Mall the morning of its grand opening. The mall is elaborately decorated and filled with stores catering to all tastes and budgets. Robin Fagin and her friends Lisa Karl, Eric Sandifer, and Shannon Markoff meet by the front doors at eight A.M., but Jamie England, the last member of their group, seems to be running late. Judging by the crowds waiting to enter as soon as the doors open, it could take a while for Robin and her friends to get inside...unless they sneak through an unguarded Employees Only entrance. The four kids don't know they're about to get a sneak preview of the horror ahead.

Wonderland Mall was built on Mournful Swamp, a location with an infamous past. A generation ago three teens went missing there and were presumed dead, giving the swamp a dark reputation. During construction of Wonderland Mall, a large crack opened in the basement floor above the old swamp, and Robin and her friends observe the repaired crack up close as they wander in the bowels of the mall. Not wanting to lose any more time, they backtrack out to the main entrance and start their day of shopping.

The mall is huge: three floors of vendors selling state-of-the-art technology, chic clothing, and myriad culinary options in the food court. Jamie still hasn't met up with Robin and her friends, but they're having fun without her until Robin walks off alone and sees a mannequin in a store window that looks like Jamie. Robin tries to shake off the eerie feeling, but it increases as she spots other mannequins around the mall that look like kids she knows, including Eric. Unfortunately, the mannequins are gone by the time Robin drags Lisa and Shannon over to show them. Believing she's delusional, Lisa and Shannon do their best to calm Robin, but then Lisa witnesses Shannon morphing into a mannequin inside a western-wear store. Robin suspects a trio of employees she has spotted at stores all across the mall are causing the horror. The mall is still crowded, so the three employees can't chase Robin and Lisa, but will the girls make it out before they are turned into lifeless mannequins forever?

Most horror books for kids lack atmosphere, but Beware the Shopping Mall maintains a decently scary feel. Wonderland Mall provides a variety of settings, and the fear factor climbs as evening closes in and the number of customers dwindles. Do Robin and Lisa have the courage to resist their tormentors and escape to freedom? The book also subtly questions the nature of villainy: is a ghost evil because the person they were died young and wants to reclaim their life at the expense of others, or are they mostly a victim of tragic circumstance? Beware the Shopping Mall is a solid start to the Bone Chillers series; part of me wants to consider rating it two and a half stars. You won't find many better series designed to appeal to Goosebumps fans.

[Horror Sickness · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5*

Honestly this one was a lot more fun than I expected. Such an interesting horror story in a shopping mall. Since the book is short there is not too much I can tell you without spoiling it.

However if you love fast paced, short horror stories that get really creepy and potentially involve mannequins ;) you need to grab this one.

[Shadyside Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Felt like I was reading a well written goosebumps book with less humor and more “horror”. Unique and fun concept that really takes off the second half of the book!

[Grace Chan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ooh! Pretty dang creepy for a middle grade book. This is what "Secrets of the Mall" by Richard Peck SHOULD have been like.

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I figured it would be fun to do a mall themed book,because Christmas is almost here and it's time to shop even though I've already done all of mine.I picked Beware ,The Shopping Mall from the Bone Chillers series.The story starts off with a family going to the grand opening of Wonderland Mall.The store is just opening and our main protagonist,Robin is meeting some friends there.The reason everyone is so excited is because the Mall is having a drawing for trips to Hawaii.Robin gets out of the car because she can't wait to be inside and runs off.We learn that the mall has a weird history.It was built on top of a swamp,where apparently a few years ago these kids went missing.Robin meets her friends and is eager to get inside with everyone else but the line is long.One of the friends suggest sneaking inside through a employee's only door.They are also waiting on a friend to show up.They eventually sneak in anyway and find themselves in this room with mannequins surrounding them and a Crack in the floor where Robin hears whispers saying her last name.They roam around the mall for a while and Robin sees a mannequin that looks like her friend that didn't show up.They see these three main teenagers that work at the mall that pop up in places like upstairs and downstairs seconds after seeing them in differentplaces.The story gets pretty repetitive when a character disapears and reappears as a mannequin look alike.We see first hand when a character gets turned into a mannequin when a mall worker stares at a character and the workers eyes turn red.We get to the climax and it's really good but I'll be honest.This wasn't my favorite book.I felt myself being pretty bored with most of it and really repetitive.I did love the ending though.I'd Give Beware,The Shopping Mall a three out of five stars.

[Caro · Rating 2 out of 5]

Como mencioné en El Profe Espeluznante, este también es de los primeros libros de “terror” que compré en una de las primeras ferias de libro a las que fui. Por entonces yo sabía muy poco sobre libros de terror, por lo que en realidad compraba cualquier cosa que sonara lo bastante “tétrica” para convencerme de llevármelo. He ahí la razón de porque compré este libro en particular.

También como mencioné en el otro libro, lo re-leí no hace mucho y en este caso siento un poco de vergüenza porque la historia (ahora) me parece realmente absurda, aunque claro está a mis 10 añitos por supuesto que me dio miedo (o al menos me puso muy nerviosa).

Otro libro infanti-juvenil de “miedo” rápido de leer y que seguramente tendrá entretenidos a los pequeños (9-11 años) que todavía disfruten leer más que estar pegados a una pantalla.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderland shopping mall has just opened, but it was built on top of an old swamp, where three teenagers disappeared. For a long time, everyone thought the land was haunted and refused to come near it. During construction, there were lots of accidents too.
But Robin doesn't care about those stories, she's just excited to go shopping with her four best friends. Only three friends show up though, and later on, Robin sees a mannequin in a shop window that looks exactly like her missing friend. As the day goes on, she sees more and more mannequins that look like her classmates, not to mention the weird, pushy employees that look identical.
Something doesn't want Robin and her friends to leave the mall alive. Something wants to keep them there forever. Can they make it out in time?

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a fun blast from the past!

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

So our ripoff ends this time with some Bone Chillers. Man this one felt quick. I decided to go with the very first entry in the series. First entries have been tricky for us, with them being on the weaker end for the series. Galaxy of Fear and Shivers of all things managed to escape this.

This one was interesting as Bone Chillers was the first major ripoff series meaning this book has a place in history of the start of the ripoff era. Our last couple were ghostwritten but it was time to go back to Betsy to see how she started. The cover makes a good first impression, it’s a classic Tim Jacobus piece right there. But how does the plot stack up?

Robin Fagin is excited for the opening of a new mall. Sure, there were accidents during the building of it, on the top of a swamp where there were rumored deaths. But eh let’s ignore that and get hyped for capitalism! Robin and her friends explore this new mall when odd things start happening. Some people vanish and oddly similar mannequins appear in their place. And some of the shop people are acting a bit odd…

So this did have that first book flavor to it, but it was better than I expected in some regards. It's good. It is fairly basic and doesn’t go as crazy as others in the series would. There’s nothing too deep here and it has some weirdness. It’s first person, which is rare for Bone Chillers, and it has a few more Goosebumpy elements. There’s fake outs from a prankster here.

It has a few unexplored/unexplained elements like how the villains can do what they are doing and how this crush Robin has on this Eric guy doesn’t quite add up to much. She’s too busy calling basically every girl pretty/beautiful, geez. That said, it has a solid pace to it and allows for a fair bit of tension.

There’s an aspect of the kids being picked off which adds some suspense to it. It allows for some creepy bits, which you should expect with mannequins involved. Robin is a standard protag and the rest are similar. They do have a mostly okay bond, so you get that Betsy Haynes nature seeping in.

There is a mild emotional element with Robin breaking down about everything a couple times, and a somewhat sympathetic backstory for the villains. It’s not deep at all but it’s at least there. It can be repetitive early on here and there, and it feels abrupt at the end. It’s like they had just a couple pages left and were forced to rush the defeat and end point.

Still, you get a lot of action as it goes which kept me going. It can get to be a bit much, being a bit exhausting by the end. Not too bad but still worth noting. Overall, it's reasonably solid for a first attempt. A tad rough in places but has some confidence to it with some creepy bits, more so than I expected.

It is on the weaker end for these, keeping that curse alive but not to a terrible extent. Bone Chillers is odd in that it’s not Strange Matter levels good for me, but it’s fairly reliable with all of them so far being fairly fun, even if with some notable flaws in some.

I’d read this as your first, as you will like it more if you don’t compare it to others. Have it be one of your first but either way it has enough to make it good enough for what it is. Has room for improvements but it’s better than I expected to some extent and being the first makes it easy to forgive. I’ll say that much.

The writing has some oddly flowery moments which might be trying too hard but I appreciate it. Writing is fine otherwise.

Not a whole more to say, fairly simple that’s what a lot of these this round have been. This was the round of “Middle ground” stuff, although in some cases that’s due to the bar that some of these set. So there ya go, fun times.

That ends that round. I won't tease any next read as I have no idea. I hope to get myself to read some Misc stuff eventually. You'll just have to see I guess.

See ya then.

[Owen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thought it was alright. It wasn't the best storyline for a shopping mall. Wow, Maniquns are so scary!
Would recommend it, if you want to read.

[Paula Greenfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought it was a fast read and very enjoyable. The story kept you involved and you liked the characters and wanted to know what happened to them. It was a good read.

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bone Chillers debut book was a bizarre attempt at mannequin kids horror that could’ve been great, but was held back by some things. First, the good: the book wastes no time, which I like; it gets straight to the shopping mall, and not to mention the setting is dope already (and the entire book is set there). The plot is enticing and I did enjoy some of the darker/creepier imagery and elements of this one. The reveals are good, not quite excellent but good, and the book is very well paced. Now, the bad: the story is repetitive. I wish there was a bit more going on, because it’s a lot of running in circles until the very end where we get the revelations of what’s happening. Not the best progression. There’s a bit too many characters to put names to faces, like maybe eight kids that are recurring. It’s a bit of a daunting cast for a 114 page book (not counting blanks [ew]). The villains are also kind of stupid; their defeat is lazy and makes them seem like utter retards, not to mention there’s little to no explanation for why they loved to chant the main’s last name (I was expecting some destiny/bloodline crap but it’s never explained), how they did anything they did throughout the whole book, and the significance of their… how do I say it?… genocidal plan (or in other words, why so many people?). It’s under-explored and their choice near the end that leads them to their death was D-tier writing. There’s also that video game foreshadowed by one of the threats that is literally never brought up again, and I can’t tell if it was supposed to mean something or if they were just tryna lure the main into a trap. No less, it felt kind of important, so that only left me confused. Still, I enjoyed the book even with its good few missteps. Overall, 7/10. A decent premiere for the Bone Chillers saga and one of the better books of the series that I’ve read. Robin FAGin > Wonderland Mall > Robin Buckley (who is gay) > Starcourt Mall > Stranger Things. I need a life. Ha.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed several of these books as a kid so I thought it might be fun to revisit this one. This one is new-to-me. These books are very similar to the Goosebumps series.

This story was a fun one and something I’d hoped to get from another book I’ve read that disappointed me, Night of the Mannequins. I thought the tension was well done. The setting is also fun, especially when you take in account that this book was written and set in the 90s.

I would have liked to see a little more character development from the main character, Robin, but for the most part enjoyed her and her friend group. There is one part in which Robin makes a realization based on how mannequins aren’t fat and short that irked me.

The climax was good, though the ending felt a little rushed. Overall, this was a fun read, but not as good as some of the others in the series that I’ve read.

3.5 stars!

[Chen Pink · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book quote: “All sales are final!”

“I liked the fact that the author’s grandma chased tarantulas around with a broom, and this made Betsy Haynes love danger and adventure.” ~ Chen Pink, reviewer of ‘Beware the Shopping Mall’

I’m going to review this book based on what I remember from today. With my first read based on the 1994 paperback edition and many re-reads through my kid, teen, and adult periods, I still remembered the scene in the story where the mall was at its closing time, and the characters who were school friends saw some movements of the mannequins, which one of them was the promoter who spoke to them during their shopping hours. Were they able to escape from the mall? Grab this book if you haven’t!

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book to start the series! Very creepy and such a great premise. The mall itself is a creepy location but what's happening to all the shoppers is insane and I just love this book. Very easy read, kept the pages turning and couldn't stop. Great book

[Devri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book when I was 9, and I remember being so obsessed with the mall setting. Bone Chillers and Goosebumps books were great gateways to Fear Street and Stephen King.
Mannequins are universally creepy, so I feel like this one will get to a lot of people.

[Juliane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember reading this book several as a kid! I was lucky enough to find a copy online and I had to buy it. Finished it in an hour and it brought back so many memories. I used to love Bone Chillers and Goosebumps as a kid, and it was a really fun and nostalgic read.

[Jodi Comeaux · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read all of the Bone Chillers over and over again when I was young from about 2006-2009 and this one has always been my favorite. It's perfect for spooky kids that are new to chapter books and need a LITTLE more horror than Goosebumps.

[Erica Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creepy fun and we get a gruesome scene at the end.

[Christian Nava · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the premise and writing style

Cool premise and nice writing style. Too bad the third act is a bit rushed and messy. With bit more oomph, it could have been amazing.

[Linus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it

[Alison Viktorin · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books

5 stars, you can really imagine this book like its a movie! It has an amazing story line, I highly recommend this amazing book.

[Shiv (The Horrorlander) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t expect much going into this but wow this was a fun kids horror read. The first half of the book takes a bit to build up, but the creepy atmosphere and disturbing scenes start ramping up in the second half.

Story is about a group of friends going to the grand opening of a new big mall, which was built on the foundations of an urban legend, regarding a swamp where some victims went missing. There are some tales about haunted occurrences involved with the building of this mall. But it’s just a legend right?…

If mannequins freak you out, get ready some for some cool yet creepy scenes and body horror.

[Bella · Rating 4 out of 5]

I use this site to track all the books I can ever recall reading, and I liked these books a lot as a kid and forgot to add them. So these ratings are recalling to, you know, way back in the day...