As well as the large lack of logic in Red Rain , we're also provided with a Lack of originality Come on, how often has the 'creepy children or, if you want to make it even more of a shitty B-horror movie, creepy twins do creepy things creepily while being creeps because they're creepy, watch out' trope been used?
Whoever says that Red Rain is original is either a lying, or b lying. There's no escaping it. And, adding to the things that make up a good novel of which Red Rain lacks is a Lack of good writing You know what? Screw a lack of good writing. I would have taken decent writing, as opposed to the shit excuse for writing we were provided with in Red Rain. Honestly, if you handed me this book, telling me to read a few pages, while giving me absolutely no background information as to who the author is, I would have taken a guess that this book is written by an extremely inexperienced high-school student.
Yes, you read that correctly. An extremely inexperienced high school student. I would have never guessed that this book was written by a very experienced writer of over twenty years.
This is not a good thing. But wait, there's more! You read that in Billy Mays' voice, didn't you? Lack of scary elements Red Rain is not scary. At all.
It's more laughable than scary, actually. If it weren't for the swearing or the sex scenes, I would've sworn this book was a young-adult novel, or even less than that, being a new edition to the Goosebumps series.
A series for children. If I mistake your adult horror novel for being a new edition in your children's series, something is very, very wrong. One more 'lack' coming your way! Lack of anything good No, seriously. I'm struggling to find positives when it comes to Red Rain , and, honestly, I really don't think there are any positives to be found in this book.
Unless, of course, you enjoy reading extremely cliche and predictable adult horror novels that could easily be mistaken for a children's novel if it weren't for sex scenes and swearing. However, if those characteristics in a novel don't apply to your likings, and you want to read this because you, too, were a childhood fan of the Goosebumps series, then run. Run far, far away. Because, truth be told, the only thing scary about Red Rain is its quality.
You can read this review and others on my blog, Finding Bliss in Books. View all 38 comments. Oct 22, Justin Tate rated it really liked it. Stine has written exactly two novels for adults--Red Rain and Superstitious Technically there's also The Sitter and Eye Candy , but with young protagonists in both they really are teen books too.
Actually, Superstitious also has a young protag. The result? Pretty okay! There's a lot of negative reviews for this book and they aren't wrong. It's certainly not fi Stine has written exactly two novels for adults--Red Rain and Superstitious It's certainly not fine literature. But Stine, as always, writes a compulsively readable adventure where you can't help but turn the page no matter how ridiculous it gets.
And yes, it does get ridiculous. If you think Stine would challenge himself to write a carefully crafted plot, or people it with well-developed adult characters, you are sorely mistaken.
The leading man is introduced as a child psychologist with a controversial perspective on parenting--that a minimalistic approach to child-rearing creates the best results. It seems like a stark character trait, one that would certainly come up in the narrative. Never does, though. Like Goosebumps characters, Red Rain characters seem intentionally vague, someone for the reader to identify with rather than someone with a distinct personality. And admittedly it does work.
By minimizing inner development, the emphasis is placed squarely on the high-stakes drama. We don't feel for the characters on a personal level, but we understand them enough to be carried along for the ride.
Some of the more interesting moments occur during the sex scenes. There's only 1. On one hand it's fascinating to read--who knew Stine could be dirty?! Like suddenly realizing that your mom isn't a virgin.
Overall, by no means top-tier horror, but nowhere near bottom of the barrel either. For the true Stine fan looking for Goosebumps with gruesome deaths and even a few bedroom moments, it won't let you down. View all 3 comments. Sep 22, Julia rated it it was ok. Exactly what I expected. This is a goosebumps book with boobs in it. View all 7 comments. Feb 18, SimitudeSims rated it it was amazing. Stine freaked my kids out, and now, he's freaked me out.
Great spooky story. Dec 28, Hazel rated it it was amazing. It sucks. It's glorious. It takes so many horror cliches - so, so many - and, like a dog in horse shit, rolls around I have been debating whether I was going to give this one star or five stars: whether I acknowledged that this is a bad book, or whether I said, "This is a bad book, AND HOW!
It takes so many horror cliches - so, so many - and, like a dog in horse shit, rolls around in them, smearing them all over the place and then looking at you with its disgusting, stinking face and going, "Look! Look what I did! This is like Goosebumps, but with a bit of sex and graphic violence thrown in. Oh man, they suck. Self-sacrificing martyr Leah, Mark the tremendous asshole, the improbably named Autumn Holiday who, even more improbably, throws herself at Mark. And, of course, Daniel and Samuel, who talk like tiny psychopath Dick Van Dykes, who are going to murder the shit out of you, don't you know?
Of course the twins are evil, of course St Leah was going to sacrifice herself to kill them even if she'd been dead all along and of course Mark was going to get away scot-free with knobbing his assistant. This book sucked, and I loved it. View 1 comment. As someone who grew up on Goosebumps as a kid I was excited when I found this book at a local store. A horror novel targeted to adults by R. But I didn't take into consideration how uncomfortable that could actually be when it came to adult parts.
So yea, this book had some uncomfortable parts for me, it just felt to much like a Goosebumps book for adults. All in all though I did enjoy this book, I thought it was good and had a really interesting concept to it.
I did have a few pr As someone who grew up on Goosebumps as a kid I was excited when I found this book at a local store. I did have a few problems with it besides it just being uncomfortable though.
Some characters went through certain things that was never brought up, questioned, or discussed and as a reader you're suppose to just accept it and go on with the story. I really hated that, plus It would get boring at times and I thought about giving it up but I was so intrigued to find out how it ends and already so far into it I just couldn't dnf it. So I finished it and, well, was it a good book? Yea it was ok, not his best work but then again he writes scary stories targeted to children, so how good would a book target to adults really be from a child author?
For it being his second adult horror though I'll give this book a 3. Dec 11, Kris Irvin rated it did not like it Shelves: bad-books. Guys, this book is so sad. I have never read such a tragedy in my life. Oh wait, no. It's not sad-sad, it's sad because it's so awful. When I heard that R. Stine was coming out with a new book, I about wet myself. Goosebumps was the second series I was ever involved in first being Boxcar Children!
I still have every single Goosebumps novel ever written packed in my closet - I'm saving them for my own kids. That said, as an adult I recognize that Stine's not the best writer to Guys, this book is so sad. That said, as an adult I recognize that Stine's not the best writer to grace children's fiction. But, you know, nostalgia and stuff.
Anyway, this book is just so awful. Did Stine devolve as a writer, is he not cut out for adult fiction, or is it all because I grew up? The writing was just bad. The story itself isn't awful, especially since Stine specifically states in the acknowledgements that his story is based on horror movies so he's giving credit where it's due.
But the writing itself Lots of ellipses. Lots of very bad, oddly place ellipses. Like: "the leg That's not writing! There were also lots of unnecessary fragments. He lost. He lost his mind. Then Ira turns out to be the name of a main character. Why would you use that same name twice? It confused me at first. The main male character also tells a story about a boy named Sammy, and then one of the other main characters is named Samuel.
Do not recycle names like that! It's weird and unnecessary! It's also like Stine could only think of one or two adjectives. As a side note, I wish I was creamy white. I'm more of a radioactive, ghostly glowing white.
The only thing that made this an adult horror novel is the addition of gore, extreme language and sex. The F word runs rampant throughout the novel in so many random moments. It reminded me of The Casual Vacancy by J. Rowling - Stine's proving he can write for adults by adding as many swear words as possible. The sex wasn't as bad, but it was present and graphic. The gore was very graphic, and not well written. Some people can write gore.
Stine can't. I hold out hope that maybe he'll improve as he "grows up. As one of Stine's biggest fans in childhood, this was a serious letdown. I'm sorry, Mr. I still hold fond memories of your books, but I'm just going to try and forget this one.
View 2 comments. Like most kids of my generation, Goosebumps books were part of my formation as a reader. What elementary school kid didn't pick up at least a few of them on library trips. Stine was a freaking genius of horror to my childhood self. In fact, his books terrified me to the degree that I could only handle reading the Choose Your Own Adventure books, which, ironically, scared me less even though it was purportedly me dying over and over again, since I invariably made all the wrong choices.
The Like most kids of my generation, Goosebumps books were part of my formation as a reader. The other ones, though, I just did not have the mettle for at the time.
Because of my childhood fear of his books, I just could not pass up the opportunity to review his adult horror novel when the opportunity appeared in my inbox. Even at the time, I knew it was probably a bad idea, back before I started to see the negative reviews rolling in, but my inner child just had to see for itself what frightened me so much back in the day.
As feared, Red Rain was not a good book, however it was thankfully bad enough to be highly entertaining in parts, which was pretty much its only saving grace.
For one thing, Stine's bread and butter has been writing for children, young ones, and he's been doing it since the s. I remember the children's books of those days, because I read them for a while, before shifting to adult novels pretty young. The standards for children's literature were just not as high writing-wise as I feel they are today. I found the writing in Red Rain rather juvenile, though certainly there are plenty of successful authors of adult novels who make good careers on that.
This style of writing does not appeal to me, however. The biggest issue with the way he chose to write this novel, though, was that he set a lot of the action off-screen.
He would be ramping up to something scary and would then the chapter would end and we would be stuck again with the mundane family drama. He did this to build suspense I think, as to who was committing the series of brutal murders, but, unfortunately, this was insanely obvious all along, so all that it did was take away a possibly terrifying scene.
All told, there are only a few horror scenes in the whole book, and they take place in the last hundred pages or so. Rather than giving the audience any actual action, he tries to keep them on the edge of their seats with suspense by constantly foreshadowing the horrors to come. This method can work, but its handled here with the subtlety of a brick through a window. For instance, Lea, a travel blogger, decides to go to the mysterious and creepy island off the coast of South Carolina, Cape Le Chat Noir.
Oooh, the Cape of the Black Cat. Oh no, black cats are bad luck! There are also comments like this one from Lea in regards to the island ritual where people are purportedly killed and brought back to life: "'I always think these rituals are a hoot, don't you?
They're almost always like from a bad horror movie. Hope I don't burst out laughing'" That deftly sums up the whole book, and, spoiler alert, I totally did bust out laughing. For those of you that fear spoilers, now is probably about the time to duck out; you have been warned. During all those other pages where you're waiting for Stine to finally admit to the insanely obvious twist about what precisely is occurring here, you get to enjoy a lot of time with the characters.
Sadly, the characters lack depth and a lot of things happen for no apparent reason. Mark, the father of the family, cheats on his wife with his assistant, but nothing ever comes of this at all.
As the blurb mentions, the family adopts blond twins from Cape Le Chat Noir. Let's disregard the fact that the adoption process does not take just a couple of days and focus on the twins, Daniel and Samuel.
Yes, these kids are rather creepy, and I am terrified by creepy children. They could have been super scary, I imagine, but I wanted to kill them not so much for being evil but for being incredibly annoying. These kids, though they're from an island off the coast of South Carolina, speak in some weird accent that seems like some combination of Irish and Cockney English, constantly calling people 'bruvver' and 'boyo.
Daniel and Samuel aim to take over the world middle school. Yup, that's their grand evil aim: "to rule the school. I mean, damn, middle school is like the worst part of life and they are welcome to it. Also, their scheme for domination involves painting blue arrows on the cheeks of themselves and their comrades, like demented Avatar rejects. Then there's the big showdown, which is where I totally lost it. Seriously, I was sitting in my house, reading about the cops arriving to confront the kids that had taken over the middle school and I was cackling like a mad woman.
Inside, the kids have gotten the kitchen staff to cook for them, bacon and eggs, because school food is so incredibly delicious. The boys then go outside and totally dominate the police force with their powers though Daniel's power is merely making Samuel use his really. Also, Sam's power? He shoots laser beams out of his eyes.
He's a poor kid's Cyclops, basically. Despite the superiority of laser eyes, the kids are taken out by the supremely lame action moves of Mark. Then there's the tear-inducingly hilarious reveal of the final twist and the final destruction of the twins. Now, since this is running through classic horror territory, it can't just end that way, so there has to be one more final twist, leaving room for another hilariously awful book: the powers have moved to someone else, even though it makes no sense whatsoever even by the book's own logic.
Probably I should rate this lower than I have, but I'm giving it bonus points for giving me some good laughter. I didn't have enjoy it in the way I was supposed to, but I did get entertainment from it. If only I could believe this was intended to be a parody. View all 9 comments. I just can't anymore. It's such a hot mess. I say this as a fan of R. This was painful. Obviously one can write whatever they wish.
But if Stine writes another adult novel I think i'll pass. Internet Archive's 25th Anniversary Logo. Search icon An illustration of a magnifying glass. User icon An illustration of a person's head and chest. Sign up Log in. Web icon An illustration of a computer application window Wayback Machine Texts icon An illustration of an open book.
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Audio Software icon An illustration of a 3. Now it's our turn About the Author R. Stine invented the teen horror genre with Fear Street, the bestselling teen horror series of all time. By Susan Tunis The pop culture reference above has probably already alerted you to the fact that I'm a good decade older than the kids who grew up reading R. Stine--which is not to say that I haven't read his kid lit.
I'm that kind of adult. And let me put out there that I have nothing but respect for this talented author, so youthful Stine fans, please don't beat me up for the following review. Yes, it's critical, but I'll support my criticism.
Stine's latest foray into writing for adults is of limited success. First, a brief synopsis: After a prologue, we follow the exploits of "adventure travel blogger" Lea Harmon Sutton as she visits the mysterious Cape Le Chat Noir off the coast of South Carolina.
It's a beautiful part of the country, but apparently no one visits due to the island's spooky reputation. Says Lea in a blog post: "I've saved the best or worst for last.
Here's the most interesting historical detail--and it's definitely creepy. Especially with frightening forecasts of a big hurricane heading this way. I don't want to talk about the hurricane now. I'm pretending it's not going to happen. You see, Le Chat Noir was devastated by one of the most powerful storms in hurricane history. It was the Labor Day Hurricane of And I have every finger crossed that history is not going to repeat itself now.
In short, you'll be shocked to learn that the hurricane hits. At this point, we are introduced to Lea's husband Mark, a child psychologist who is just wrapping up the book tour for his best-selling if controversial book about child rearing. He gets a panicked call from Lea in the hurricane while he's on stage at a book signing. He can't wait to wrap things up and head home to Sag Harbor and their two kids and his single mother sister to await further news from Lea.
Back to Le Chat Noir The devastation is complete and Lea is traumatized. In the midst of the "horror," Lea encounters two angelic blonde year-old twins, Daniel and Samuel. They tell her that they've lost their parents and home in the hurricane. Lea is instantly smitten with these two kids and decides on the spot that she's going to "adopt" them in the completely illegal sense of the word and take them back to New York: "Later Martha warned her that she was being too hasty.
You are acting on pure emotion. You need to wait till you can think about it clearly. Do some research. Try to find out something about them.
Lea proceeds over the strenuous objections of her husband. And I guess what I have to say about the novel is: There isn't enough willing suspension of disbelief in the world. Let's return to that first quote I pulled. A few observations Visiting a spooky island is considered adventure travel? And the fact that there was once a terrible hurricane is "the most interesting historical detail" a travel writer can come up with about the place?
Meanwhile, with the island's history, another major storm is forecast and there isn't a single mention of evacuating in advance of it? And then, if you're an adventure writer who went into this scenario with your eyes wide open, to completely lose your mind in the aftermath? Finally, a past hurricane is considered "definitely creepy"? That will give you an idea of the level of horror in the novel. Throughout the novel, I had big, big problems with believability of events and characters' actions, and that was before the supernatural even came into it.
But there were many other problems. As noted above, this is supposedly a horror novel, and I am admittedly the biggest wimp alive.
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