Childhood Favorite

Do you feel like reading 100+ pages of a middle-schooler becoming morbidly obese? How about if no one takes him seriously and his teacher and classmates mock him? How about you slog through all of that just for an insanely anti-climactic ending that discounts the continuity of the previous book? The first Say Cheese and Die! book is actually one of the better books in this series and one that managed a fair amount of suspense. This incredibly-unnecessary sequel brings back the evil camera and totally wastes it. This was absolute garbage. A terrible excuse for a story.

Who doesn't love a good throwback? Especially one from the master, R.L. Stine. I loved Goosebumps as a kid and I still love them now. They are the ultimate throwback and totally brightens my day. Sure, these books don't scare as good as they used to but I still love the thrills along the way. Greg and his buddies, Bird, Michael and Shari, find a magical camera. Except, this camera isn't the good kind of magic - it's the evil kind. When they take pictures with it, the developed pictures show evil, horrible, no good things. Crashed cars and scary scenes, and the worst part? They all become real. Suddenly Greg and his friends need to find a way to save the city and themselves from this potential disaster. A while back I watched the first season of the television series and specifically watched this episode (Baby Ryan Gosling folks!) and it does not equate to this book. The book is way, way, way better and the show doesn't do it justice. I'm glad I read this book after to see how great it actually was! Don't judge the book by the television episode. I don't think this book will hold up as well, mostly because it involves a Polaroid camera. I think only the hipster kids will have any idea what it is. Either way, these middle grade novels are the best for introducing kids and readers to horror. It's super fun and spooky, but not absolutely horrifying. Along the way I was chuckling at all of the thrills, knowing full well as a kid I would have been shaking in my boots. The ending happened very quickly and suddenly, speeding up like a really fast car. I enjoyed it, but some readers may not. This is definitely one of the better ones in the Goosebumps collection, so if you're looking for fun horror or a good old fashioned throwback, grab this book! It's a real delight! Four out of five stars!

this was a lil spooky? but also so boring

The nostalgia is real. Reading this took me back to staying up past my bedtime reading these and then having the hardest time falling asleep! Of course, I'm not the age bracket for these books so I wasn't wowed (plus I'm pretty sure I read this one already) but all in all, I enjoyed it.

Say Cheese and Die is certainly creepy, but it suffers from some weak writing choices. In this story, Greg and his friends find a mysterious camera hidden in an abandoned home. Greg figures out pretty quickly that the camera takes photos of horrible future events, but the rest of his friends refuse to believe him and want to use the camera at a party. When one of their closest friends disappears after her photo is taken, Greg tries to take the camera back to its hiding place. There he is cornered by the man who has been guarding the camera for years. In a fight to escape, the camera accidentally goes off and takes a photo of the man, resulting in him dying in fear over what it would show. Greg stashes the camera back in its hiding place, but the book ends with two new kids finding the evil device. The characters in this novel are dumb as empty film canisters, and the story itself is rather silly when you think about it. However, as a children’s horror book, as long as your suspension of disbelief is high, it can offer the reader a fair number of chills and gasps. The fact that terrible futures in the photos often did not happen instantaneously added to the suspense, though most of the time I was distracted by the desire to throttle the kids for all being so thoughtless.

For me, R.L. Stine and Goosebumps induce a nostalgic feeling; I’m transported back to my preteen years where I had to secretly buy these cuz my parents didn’t approve of scary books (and they were right to as I ended up spooling their sleep too) I will always have time for a quick Goosebumps read for that occasional spook I need in between random bouts of nostalgia. This one especially was a fun read, not in the SPINE CHILLING category but still spooky enough.

In Arabic it was the cursed camera and this books made me fall for horror...

Reread! Childhood favorites