Name: Maggie Gordon's review of Piano Lessons Can Be Murder by R. L. Stine
Item: Piano Lessons Can Be Murder
Rating: 2
Author: Maggie Gordon

R. L. Stine

Convinced that there is something creepy about his new piano teacher, Jerry soon hears terrifying stories about Dr. Shreek's music school and students who never completed their lessons alive.

Piano Lessons Can Be Murder

Maggie Gordon

When Jerry and his family move into a new house, they find a beautiful, old piano that was left behind by the previous owners. Jerry becomes quite fascinated with this instrument when he discovers that it is haunted; however, his parents take this interest as a cue to enroll him in piano lessons with the strange and hand-obsessed Dr. Shreek. Jerry is spooked into quitting after a schoolmate tells him about how all the other music students have disappeared. He goes to his last lesson and discovers that the janitor of the music school is actually an expert robotician who built Dr. Shreek to help him harvest hands, the one body part he can’t properly reproduce. Jerry is almost cornered by this villain when the ghost from his house appears and saves him from a terrible, handless fate!

Piano Lessons Can Be Murder is filled with ghosts, scary robots, and a piano teacher who wants to cut off his student’s hands. It’s a creepy read, particularly for young readers who also find themselves trooping off to run-down music schools with strange teachers. However, the story isn’t one of the most memorable ones in the Goosebumps series. If the narrative had been constructed without the ghost story, it would have felt less cluttered, and there would have been more time to build-up Shreek and Toggle the robotician as antagonist. It’s a fun read, but nothing particularly special.

Calista

Convinced that there is something creepy about his new piano teacher, Jerry soon hears terrifying stories about Dr. Shreek's music school and students who never completed their lesson alive. Original.

Maggie Gordon &
Piano Lessons Can Be Murder by R. L. Stine

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Piano Lessons Can Be Murder by R. L. Stine