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Mostly Ghostly #8

Don't Close Your Eyes!

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In a terrifying episode, Inkweed, the evil “Ghost of the Black Sleep,” has inhabited Max. The ghost has come to put Nicky and Tara to sleep forever!
Inkweed is waiting, hoping for the moment when Max falls asleep— that’s when he can bring his crushing, evil powers to life.
Nicky and Tara work frantically to keep Max awake. But they’re running out of ideas and after a few days of no sleep, Max is desperate. He’s going crazy! But if he closes his eyes, it will mean the end of them all!
Can Nicky and Tara keep Max awake long enough to banish Inkweed?
Don’t close your eyes, Max!

144 pages, Hardcover

First published January 10, 2006

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About the author

R.L. Stine

1,731 books19k 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.

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

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5 stars
66 (38%)
4 stars
32 (18%)
3 stars
51 (29%)
2 stars
19 (10%)
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5 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
Profile Image for Jay.
192 reviews2 followers
September 6, 2019
Rather than review this book, I’ll review the series as a whole. Overall, it was really good. Unlike the Goosebumps books, which are independent stories with no connections (outside a few sequels), Mostly Ghostly is an 8-book series. It tells the story of a young boy named Max who is the only one who can see a brother and sister pair of ghosts who used to live in his home. A normal kid is suddenly thrust into a world of ghosts, ghouls, demons, and monsters.

The series is entertaining. It is a bit creepier than the original Goosebumps books and has a bit more humor as well. It also has the cliches that’s we’ve come to know and love, specifically cliffhangers and bad parents. The Doyle parents have to be the worst in the history of R.L. Stine books. The father is a terrible bully and the mother is a completely oblivious moron.

Max is kind of dumb too. Throughout the books, he speaks to the ghosts, even in the presence of other people. After about the fifth time getting in trouble for adults thinking he’s telling them to shut up when he’s really speaking to the ghosts, you’d think he’d get a clue. But I guess not. The ghosts are pretty dumb too. They try to help Max in various tasks. Partly because of Max’s hesitance but also their own stupidity, it usually fails.

Unfortunately, the series takes a giant hit with the last book. The series is mostly about Max helping the ghosts find their parents and determine how they became ghosts. But in Don’t Close Your Eyes, a new ghost is introduced and the book is about Max trying to defeat him. Then it ends. No talk about the ghosts’ parents. No resolution to how they became ghosts. No answer to whether or not the parents were able to find a way to bring them back to life. It just ends. And as it has been 13 years since this book was published, there probably never will be.
Profile Image for X~Bubble Tea~X.
29 reviews11 followers
April 11, 2022
The series is about Max (main character) who is the only one who could see his ghost friends, Nicky and Tara whom used to live in his home. It's mostly about Max helping the ghosts find their parents and determine how they became ghosts.
Apparently this is the last book in the series. A new ghost was introduced and Max tries to get rid of him. Then it ends. No more talk about Nicky and Tara's parents. No reason why Nicky and Tara became ghosts. No answer to whenever or not whoever would bring them back to life. It just ends on a basic unexplained ghost story.
Profile Image for Robbi Leah  Freeman.
465 reviews8 followers
September 22, 2013
Little spoilers
I'm a mother of a nine year old son and he read this book for school. I read it also to make sure his report would be right. It didn't really keep his attention but he said he liked it. I thought it was okay but really should be for 12+ my kids aren't great with scary stories. Basically this is about Inkweed an evil ghost who comes out of a book that Tara one of Max's (main character) ghosts was reading. And they spend whole book keeping Max Awake to get rid of Inkweed. Maybe you have to read series to understand all of this because yes book does end, even though you are left knowing more to come. Max's dad only likes Max's brother Colin because he is good at phys Ed and swimming. Dad even lets Colin beat on Max and encourages it to make him a man?? Max is really smart but all dad cares about is his phys Ed grade and mom doesn't say much. At one point Max throws up ink, mom takes to doctor and doctor sees nothing wrong tells him to go rest and mom takes him home then goes to work???? Really??? So basically just a basic, not explained, ghost story (you never learn who Inkweed is, just here is problem and here is solution, with extras that author thinks kids will enjoy and they might at 12+ age. I did give it two stars because there were several cute jokes I liked even though my 9 year old didn't really get all of them.
Profile Image for Brian Barnett.
Author 95 books43 followers
June 2, 2014
Too bad the library only has this book (number 8 in the series). It was a fun read and it seems as if the characters have had seven other adventures together before this one. I'd like to find the others.
1 review
December 10, 2019
Don’t Close Your Eyes!

The book talk about a story of a boy. The name is Max. Max is in six grade. In the story Max talk about his last tow days without sleeping and who the ghost got inside him. The book go through these two days in detail. The in the end the book cover how Max got the ghost out of his body.

In my opinion, it really good book with a lot of details. Some part of the book so boring but in general it’s great. Also, I think it’s good for children more than adults but science I’m trying to learn English and try to learn a new words it help me with that. I highly recommend children and people to enjoy reading this book.
Profile Image for Katy Lovejoy.
11.7k reviews10 followers
June 10, 2021
It's not scary it's just stupid. I need to stop reading r l stines books
Profile Image for Andrew kutz.
440 reviews
September 1, 2019
I have mixed feelings about this book because max as a character was one of the only people I liked in the hole series. the rest were just so annoying, I at times didn't even know it was suppose to be funny. and thats another problem I had with this book the humor felt very forced, and felt like it was mostly when max was getting in trouble which almost made me more sad then want to laugh, because he was getting in trouble for dumb things, and thats only at the school, his home life is even worse he has the worst parents ever who reword his psycho brother who can beat him up so much that he can't breath and yet max gets in trouble for it, and the mom doesn't do anything about it. I could go on, but I also want to talk about the endings, I don't think there was really one of the endings that I liked, the fifth books ending was actually the best of the entire series, and it wasn’t even good. not to even speak of the end of the series. there was so much he could have done, but no it ended in one of the worst ways ever. I won't tell you just incase you decide to read them, but let me just tell you they end with a lot of unanswered questions. over all I did enjoy reading them, they were fast and max was a grate character, but I found myself almost throwing it agents the wall because of how horrible the other characters were. if you like r.l. stine you will more then likely like this series. I did like them but that doesn’t mean they have some flaws.
Profile Image for Conan Tigard.
1,134 reviews4 followers
November 13, 2015
R.L. Stine is an excellent writer of spooky stories for young readers. Although the stories are a little scary, they are not scary enough to cause nightmares, or anything. Actually, there is quite a bit of humor in his stories. I enjoyed it greatly when the bullies were picking on Max and black ink started gushing out of his mouth and totally covered the bullies. Priceless. Everybody hates bullies . . . well, except bullies, that is.

Nicky and Tara are up to their usual antics getting Max in trouble, which always brings a smile to my face. What I also like about these books is the large text that helps young readers. We never really get to know much about Inkwell, but I imagined that he was from the Wild West. I may be wrong, but it is a nice thought.

Overall, Don't Close Your Eyes by R.L. Stine is another excellent book in the awesome Mostly Ghostly series and I highly recommend it. There doesn't seem to be another book in this series, but there better because I sure need to find out more about Nicky and Tara.

I rated this book a 9 out of 10.
Profile Image for Alex.
6,803 reviews1 follower
October 16, 2014
Another fun book in this cute little series. I'm confused, though - that was the last book? There was absolutely no closure on Nicky and Tara, and it didn't seem like a "last book" at all.

I have to believe that R.L. Stine didn't intend to end it that way, and maybe had to stop the series early. Otherwise, it was a very bizarre ending.
Profile Image for Noob.
14 reviews
April 23, 2008
these series of books i read all of them they were very interesting especially when some are in peoples dream they were eaxciting.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews