Goosebumps 3 – Monster Blood

R. L. Stine's Monster Blood is a gooey, creepy Goosebumps story for 8 year olds about a boy who buys a can of green slime that seems to keep growing.

What happens

Evan is twelve. His parents are flying to Atlanta to find a new house, so they leave him with Great-aunt Kathryn for a couple of weeks. He hasn't seen her since he was two.

She opens the front door holding a kitchen knife dripping with blood. (She was slicing beef, but still!) She's deaf, she won't use sign language, and she jokes about putting his dog in a pie.

So Evan spends as much time out of the house as he can. He meets Andy, a girl with a red BMX and a soft spot for stupid names, and she takes him to an old toy shop in town. Right at the back there's a heavy blue can with a faded label. The grumpy owner says it's too old and not for sale. He sells it anyway, for two dollars.

The green stuff inside glows in the dark, bounces like a ball and leaves a stain on the wall. Then Trigger, Evan's old cocker spaniel, swallows a lump of it.

The scares creep up slowly. Is Aunt Kathryn a witch? Why does she keep calling her black cat evil? And why is the can still nearly full after Trigger has eaten some? Evan and Andy tease each other all the way through, which keeps it fun.

It's worth knowing that the dog is in danger. A few chapters in, Evan finds Trigger choking because his collar has suddenly got far too tight. There are bullies too. Two older twins shove Andy off her bike and ride away on it, and she hits her head on the kerb.

If your reader is very attached to dogs, that bit may be hard going. If they love a gross-out mystery (slime and all), they'll want to know where all that goo is heading.

What to read next

For a Goosebumps story where a camera causes the trouble, try Say Cheese and Die. Greg finds one hidden in an empty house, and every photo it takes shows something terrible that hasn't happened yet.