The Nightmare Room 03 – My Name is Evil

R. L. Stine's My Name is Evil is a creepy birthday story for 11 year olds about a girl who's told she brings evil wherever she goes.

What happens

Maggie has just turned thirteen and she's decided it's makeover time. No more shy, serious Maggie. No more being treated like the baby of the class (she skipped a year, so she's always been the youngest).

Her three best friends are triplets, Jackie, Judy and Jilly. For her birthday they drag her down to the carnival on the pier. There's a roller coaster, a very mean prank in a tattoo parlour and then a small black tent where a fortune-teller sits waiting.

Miss Elizabeth gets everything right about the triplets. Jilly's dancing. Judy's love of animals. Then she takes Maggie's hand, gasps, knocks her chair flying and screams at her to get OUT.

Is it a set-up? Jackie does love a joke, after all. But then Judy's lazy old cat goes for Maggie's face. A lawnmower seems to take on a life of its own. And when Maggie creeps back to the pier near midnight for an explanation, the tent's been wrecked and the crystal ball is smashed to bits.

Maggie tells it herself, so you're right there as she argues with herself. One minute she's sure it's a silly act. The next she's staring at her palm on the walk home. That back and forth is what keeps the pages turning as the odd little accidents pile up.

There's plenty of ordinary thirteen-year-old stuff in here too. A crush on Glen, who mows the lawns on her street. A ballet audition where she'll be up against her own best friend. A mum who works shifts as a nurse and a dad in Seattle who's forgotten her birthday again.

One thing to know before you hand it over. Maggie's pet canary dies partway through, just after she's shouted at it in a temper, and she can't shake the feeling it was her fault. A soft-hearted animal lover may find that bit hard. If your reader likes a proper shiver and a mystery they can try to crack before Maggie does, it's a real page-turner.

What to read next

She's mad about magic tricks, by the way. So if they want more, try Don't Forget Me, where a big sister's jokes about making her annoying little brother disappear start to feel a lot less funny.