Mother.GAMER.Writer

Originally Reviewed At: Mother/Gamer/WriterRating: DNF Review Source: ARC From PublisherReviewer: MeWell, I am completely at a loss for words… Growing up as an avid horror fanatic, I fell in love with the genuine writing of R.L. Stine and how he seemed to scare me senseless with his Goosebumps and Fear Street novels. I loved diving into those books in the middle of the night and living in the crazy worlds he created. My all time favorite being Night of the Living Dummy. If Chucky had an evil brother, this would be him. There was something special about Stine and his ability to capture the fear in children and teens. Sadly, and it pains me to my soul to say this, A Midsummer Night’s Scream did NOT live up to my expectations of the classic R.L. Stine. Now, I am not familiar with the play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. So I cannot compare any similarities between Stine’s novel and Shakespeare. All I can do is talk about Stine’s latest body of work which to me, is…how can I put this nicely…god awful !!! I am truly going to have to re-read some of my favorite Stine books because I honestly don’t remember his characters being so one dimensional! I could not relate to a single character, much less care about what was happening to them in the story. Halfway through, I was even rooting for someone to get chopped up and die – especially the main character. UGH. I absolutely HATED Claire and Delia! Every time one of them opened their mouths to talk I wanted to scream or vomit. Who in the world names everything they own by the name brand? Girls, we know you’re rich, so why shove it in our faces? To me, they didn’t talk or act like real teenagers –or teenagers with common sense for that matter. I don’t know how many times I wanted to throw the book across the room because of something stupid they said. They were naïve airheads or maybe even one of those little bobblehead dolls. I think Claire was supposed to have some sort of paranormal ability. WTF does that have to do with anything? She spends the majority of her time drooling over some boy instead of being scared of a “haunted studio”, which is what the story is about. Right? I have no clue actually. Her reactions to situations were so unrealistic. If you are terrified and seeing people being murdered, would you really have time to be drooling over a guy or trying to use a love potion? Yes, there were some potions involved. *side eye* Overall, I DNF’ed this book midway through. First off, it wasn’t scary! Secondly, it wasn’t the Stine I remembered. Third, it was just really, really, really, REALLY bad!!! And I hate…HATE writing this review. But I can’t in good conscience tell anyone to read it because there is some serious WTFery going on in A Midsummer Night’s Scream. If you have a clear picture in your mind about R.L. Stine and all his work from back in his Goosebumps or Fear Street days, then don’t read this because your image will be forever tainted!!! This is a tremendous let down and the novel has left me both angry and severely heartbroken. *head desk*