The Monstrous Body of Works from R. L. Stine

Welcome welcome all to this bonus post, or perhaps I should just say post since this is the first post of the week. However, this will serve as a precursor to this week's review. We are welcoming a new series that will sometimes serve as the weekly review and will sometimes just be a bonus post.

If you'll recall I had mentioned an ill-fated project of mine. I was going to read and review every single work by R. L. Stine and post it all to BookTok. It was a great idea until it occurred to me that if I spent every single day for a year reading just one R. L. Stine book, I would still be reading over a year later. If I included the books written under his other pen names it would take me about two years minimum. The project was indefinitely on hold, however, I still want to share these stories.

When we think of prolific writers our minds tend to immediately wander to the likes of James Patterson and Stephen King. I will not here share my opinions on either of them. You'll just have to wait for a blog post about them. However, in terms of works published and writer credits (including movies and TV shows) R. L. Stine needs to be on that list. I felt like, as a super fan of the vastly underrated Fear Street series, it was a good idea for me to be the one to highlight his works. Of course, guaranteeing my life's work to read only R. L . Stine is by no means practical.

So this is the start of this new series from that old idea. I will read and review as many R. L. Stine books as possible. I have no promise for the timeline, nor do I have any promises that I will manage to hunt down every single book he's written. After all, he's written under pen names before, and not all of his books are still in print or widely available. I will try however to review as many as (in)humanly possible.

Some of you may just be left with the question "Why would you do this". To which I say that is an excellent question. I grew up in a house with regular story times. Books were always readily available and both of my parents enjoyed reading books to me. However, when my school granted my class library access I was finally the one choosing books. My mother always picked cutesy sentimental children's books that appealed to the parents more than anything. My father liked reading high fantasy and complex science fiction to me which often went over my head. When I was able to choose I was drawn to the strange. I've already discussed the hold Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark had on me, but I remember to this day, in the center of the library on its own little shelf Goosebumps books stood proud. I was immediately entranced and was frequently checking out the 15 titles my school had.

From those elementary school days, I progressed to reading his young adult series, Fear Street. My parents would search every used bookstore they could to get me as many of them as they could find. By high school, I had whole sections of my bookshelves dedicated to just R. L. Stine. I tore through piles of these books in no time at all. One day when the power went out I had read three whole Fear Street books from sunrise to sunset. I've invested a lot of time in reading his work and exploring the world of it all. I am excited to explore more and share more.

With all that being said You can now anticipate some new posts in addition to the reviews. Welcome to the fold, "A Review of The Monstrous Works of R. L. Stine". The first review will go live tomorrow, so be on the lookout. Comment below if you have any favorite works from R. L. Stine I should review next.