History Literature / Goosebumps

## ''Literature/HauntingWithTheStar'' (releasing June 2022)

%%# ''Literature/JudyAndTheBeast'' (releasing September 2021)
%%# ''Literature/SlappyInDreamland'' (releasing March 2022)

* AndIMustScream: Often the nasty implications of the [[CruelTwistEndings]] but the biggest examples would have to be [[Literature/TalesToGiveYouGoosebumps Mike getting frozen in place and put in a museum]], [[Literature/LetsGetInvisible people getting phased into another demension forever after using the invisibility mirror too much while their counterparts take over their life]] and [[Literature/TheHauntedSchool The Class of 1947 getting trapped in Greyworld, a place where you don't age and lose all your color]].

It was ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' for pre-adolescents, with a twist at the end of every book (sometimes {{cruel|TwistEnding}}, sometimes not, sometimes non-existent, [[MetaTwist which is a twist in and of itself given the series]]). Stine cites ''ComicBook/TalesFromTheCrypt'' published by Creator/ECComics as a source of inspiration though the series isn't nearly as gory and violent as the comics.

* NiceGuy: Although there's a [[Jerkass]] in almost every book, the protagonists are surprisingly reallt nice and friendly for their ages. Special mentions go out to [[Literature/{{TheHauntedMask}} Carly Beth Caldwell]], [[Literature/{{WelcomeToCampNightmare}} Billy Harlan]], [[Literature/{{ANightInTerrorTower}} Eddie Morgan]] and (debatable)[[Literature/{{TheCuckooClockOfDoom}} Michael Webster]] and [[Literature/{{SayCheeseAndDie}} Greg Banks]].

* NiceGuy: Although there's a [[Jerkass]] in almost every book, the protagonists are surprisingly reallt nice and friendly for their ages. Special mentions go out to [[Literature/{{TheHauntedMask}} Carly Beth Caldwell]], [[Literature/{{WelcomeToCampNightmare}} Billy Harlan]], [[Literature/{{Eddie Morgan}}]] and (debatable)[[Literature/{{TheCuckooClockerOfDoom Michael Webster]] and [[Literature/{{SayCheeseAndDie}} Greg Banks]].

* RandomEventsPlot: Quite a few of the stories, such as ''Literature/LegendOfTheLostLegend'' and ''Literature/TheBeastFromTheEast'' largley consist of a bunch of weird setpieces loosely tied together.

* AliensAndMonsters: Across the series, if it's anything but a normal human or animal, it's almost always hostile, with few exceptions.

* FoulFox: In "Return to Ghost Camp", the child-killing spirit the Snatcher primarily takes the form of a fox and uses this form when killing its victims.

%%* MostWritersAreAdults

* NotWhereTheyThought: In a choose-your-own-adventure book, titled "Tick Tock, You're Dead", the [[NoNameGiven nameless]] protagonist thinks [[AmbiguousGender they]] are on a plane at one point when really they're on a spaceship.

%%# ''Literature/FifthGradeZombies'' (releasing July 2021)

* ''Literature/WantedTheHauntedMask''

* CoversAlwaysLie: This could be a big problem, particularly for the revived ''Literature/GoosebumpsHorrorLand'' series.

* HorrorComedy: The books are often a combination of a scary and goofy at the same time. Although in some cases this is more due to {{Narm}} than a deliberate stylistic choice.

[[folder:A]]
* AdultsAreUseless: Either that (with the grandparents in How To Kill A Monster being arguably the best example of this), or in on the conspiracy (as seen in such stories as ''My Hairiest Adventure'', ''Welcome to Camp Nightmare'', and ''The Horror at Camp Jellyjam'').

** ''Stay Out Of The Bathroom'', which is labeled as Book 2 1/2, is a parody of ''Stay Out Of The Basement'' concerning aliens switching people through highly advanced toilet bowls.
** ''Eat Cheese And Barf!'', which is labeled as Book 4 1/2, is a parody of both ''Say Cheese And Die!'' and ''Monster Blood'', concerning a cottage cheese monster and vast amounts of ToiletHumour.
* AllThereInTheManual: Some of the [=HorrorLand=] books, the ''Classic Goosebumps'' reprints, and HorrorLand Survival Guide have information about certain monsters that isn't mentioned in the actual books.
* AlphaBitch: Courtney in ''You Can't Scare Me!'', Tasha in ''Calling All Creeps!'', Judith in ''Be Careful What You Wish For'', Adele in ''The Lizard of Oz'', and Rosa in ''It's Alive! It's Alive!''
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The [=HorrorLand=] monsters, who run a [[AmusementParkOfDoom deadly amusement park]] to kill families for fun. They may act welcoming and friendly at times, but don't let this fool you -- [[FauxAffablyEvil it's an act]]. They'd serve you up for lunch as soon as amuse you. And their idea of "amusing people" is to scare them to death or put them in lethal traps.
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: A lot of the Goosebumps stories usually have the antagonist as someone who is better than the protagonist at almost everything. (ex: Judith in ''Be Careful What You Wish For'', Sari in ''The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb''/''Return of the Mummy'', Courtney in ''You Can't Scare Me!'', Wilson in ''How I Learned To Fly'')
* AmbiguousDisorder: While not stated outright, some of the characters show signs of having some sort of disorder. Examples include Dana from ''Egg Monsters From Mars'', Mindy from ''Revenge Of The Lawn Gnomes'' and Nicole from ''The Abominable Snowman Of Pasedena''. A notable one is Peter in ''The Five Masks of Doctor Screem'', as Monica states that "some kids take pills to slow down to normal speed" but their parents simply,think he has "energy".
* {{Animorphism}}: ''The Barking Ghost'', ''Chicken Chicken'', and the Goosebumps 2000 books ''Cry of the Cat'' and ''Full Moon Fever'' base entire plots around this. Other books deal with it in passing (''Don't Go to Sleep'', for example). [[spoiler:Inverted with ''My Hairiest Adventure'', in which three characters ''started'' as dogs but were turned into humans, and are now reverting because the effects of the serum used on them are wearing off.]]
* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: It would be easier to list the siblings who don't fall under the this trope but notable examples include Letty in ''Let's Get Invisible'' Luke in ''One Day at [=HorrorLand=]'', Ginny in ''Bad Hare Day'', Ernie in ''Dr. Maniac Will See You Now'', with the most infamous example being [[TheSociopath Tara]] in ''The Cuckoo Clock of Doom''.
* AntiVillain: Quite a few of the villains, such as the Dark Falls Residents, Dr. Brewer, Spidey, and Della have relatively sympathetic motivations.
* ArtifactOfDoom: The black ring from ''Horrors Of The Black Ring'', which houses an evil spirit that acts as TheCorruptor and eventually full-on DemonicPossession of its host.
* AssholeVictim: Many, not just limited to the protagonists. Examples include the three kids in ''The House of No Return'', Steve Boswell in ''The Haunted Mask 2'', Alexander in ''Deep Trouble'', Todd in ''Go Eat Worms'', Brandon in ''Headless Halloween'', and the Beymer twins in ''Monster Blood''.
* AttackOfTheKillerWhatever: Some of the monsters include Lawn Gnomes, a giant worm, and a sponge.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:B]]
* BadassAdorable: Any protagonist who learns to fight back will be this to some degree. Special mention goes to the two Billies from ''Welcome To Camp Nightmare'' and ''Deep Trouble'', Margaret from ''Stay Out Of The Basement'', Hannah from ''Ghost Next Door'', Mark from ''How I Got My Shrunken Head'' and Wendy from ''The Horror At Camp Jellyjam''.
* TheBadGuyWins: Being a horror series, this happens every so often but the most notable example is ''Calling All Creeps!'' which ends with the protagonist performing a FaceHeelTurn to become the villains' overlord and leading the lizard monsters to victory. Considering the [[KidsAreCruel nature]] of their [[AssholeVictim human victims]], though, this might not be a bad thing.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor:
** The actual, verbatim title of the 12th book of the series, which dealt with wishes gone bad.
** In a similar manner to that one is ''Brain Juice'', where two kids want to be smart but find that it makes them cocky and everyone is either afraid of them or wants to take advantage of them.
* BigBrotherBully: Repeatedly. Kevin to Eddie in ''You Can't Scare Me'', Mickey to Cooper in ''The Barking Ghost'', Greg and Pam to Matt in ''Don't Go To Sleep'', Eugene to Max in ''The Wish'', Claudia to Jason in ''Ghost in the Mirror'', though none of them holds a candle to Wade's brother Micah in ''Revenge R Us''.
* BlessedWithSuck: A lot of the books start off with the protagonist finding some kind of supremely powerful magical object that is awesome for about five minutes before terrible things start to happen.
* BlobMonster: The eponymous villains of the ''Monster Blood'' series, ''Egg Monsters from Mars'', ''The Blob that Ate Everyone'' and ''The Horror of Camp Jellyjam'' (King Jellyjam).
* BloodierAndGorier: The 2000 series were a bit more brutal in terms of violence and horror.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Most of the monsters and creatures legitimately don't see anything wrong with their bizarre, horrifying antics. This makes the protagonists' situation even worse, since it's nigh impossible to reason with them.
* BodyHorror: ''Why I'm Afraid of Bees'', ''Attack of the Mutant'', ''Egg Monsters from Mars'', ''Chicken, Chicken'', and ''My Hairiest Adventure'' all feature this in varying degrees of horror, with ''Chicken Chicken'' as probably the most graphic and ''My Hairiest Adventure'' and ''Why I'm Afraid of Bees'' tied for the least.
** Taken to ''EXTREME'' in ''I Live in Your Basement'', in which one of the characters actually turn ''inside out!'' Needless to say, it's rather disturbing even for a Goosebumps book, and it's taken this trope to a whole new level.
* {{Bowdlerise}}: Some of the reprints of the original series have removed elements that [[UnfortunateImplications have not aged well]], such as Slappy's physical abuse of his victims.
* TheBully: There's quite a few of them, with the most notable examples including Conan in the ''Monster Blood'' series, Judith in 'Be Careful What You Wish For...', and Corey Calder in ''The Revenge''
* ButtMonkey: Many ''Goosebumps'' protagonists have lives miserable enough to qualify them as this. Special mentions go to Gary from ''Why I'm Afraid of Bees'', Ricky from ''Calling All Creeps!'', Matt from ''Don't Go to Sleep!'', Samantha from ''Be Careful What You Wish For'', Sarah from ''The Curse of Camp Cold Lake'', Crystal and Cole from ''Chicken Chicken'', Richard from ''Dr. Maniac Will See you Now'' and Evan from the ''Monster Blood'' series.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:C]]
* CanonDiscontinuity: Several in the ''[=HorrorLand=]'' spinoff.
** The ''Horrorland'' series continues the stories of Carly Beth, the Haunted Mask, and the Deep Siblings, but the events of the sequels are never mentioned, and the characters are the same age as they were in the originals.
** The evil camera from ''Literature/{{Say Cheese and Die}}!'' only returns, and not Greg or Shari. In fact, the camera's backstory is rewritten so that it was originally created specifically for a movie called ''Say Cheese and Die Screaming'' that was scrapped because of unexplained accidents that kept occurring on set.
** ''Monster Blood'' is the only exception to this since it focuses on the substance and not Evan Ross.
* CaptainObvious: A lot of chapters tend to end with a dramatic statement that is obvious to the reader. The TagLine for ''Attack of the Mutant'' is "He's not a superhero, He's a supervillain!" Well duh! A ''horror'' story about a super''hero'' wouldn't be very scary.
* CatScare: A rat scare in the adaptation of ''The Phantom of the Auditorium''.
** This happens at least once per book, though it's sometimes subverted. One of the most frequent examples has a character (usually the parents) claiming to believe the protagonist about what's happening, or even to be in on it themselves, only for the next chapter to immediately reveal that they were just joking, much to the protagonist's chagrin.
* CatsAreMean: Many books and stories, like ''The Cat's Tale'', ''Cry of the Cat'', ''Claws'' and ''Night of a Thousand Claws'' have supernatural, evil cats as the villains. Normal cats are usually depicted as lazy and mean towards the protagonists (Bonkers from ''Piano Lessons Can Be Murder'' being especially nasty). Stine himself said in an interview: "I've always been a dog person. You can tell I don't like cats--because I've written so many books with evil cats. It's much harder to imagine an evil dog."
* ChekhovsGun:
** This is oddly subverted in some books, with some seemingly important thing being given a lot of detail, such as Lucy's friend in ''The Girl Who Cried Monster'' having some fictional frisbee like toy which is given several pages of description, leading the reader to believe it will be somehow important to fighting the monster, only for it to never be brought up again. Whether this is deliberate or just bad writing is anyone's guess.
* ChekhovsHobby: A common thing in some of the books is that a character will have some sort of quirk that becomes important later, such as Luke's pinching in ''One Day at Horrorland'' or Eddie's pickpocketing in ''A Night in Terror Tower''.
* TheChewToy: Fairly common in the series, which had several protagonists that get beaten up by bullies a lot and whose misery is at least partly treated as a source of amusement for the reader -- such as Gary in ''Why I'm Afraid of Bees'' and Michael in ''The Cuckoo Clock of Doom''. A later example is Ian in ''Slappy Birthday to You'', who's regularly subject to violence from his cousins and younger sister.
* ChildEater: [[spoiler:King Jellyjam]], the monster in ''How To Kill A Monster'', Mr. Mortman, Cuddles the hamster, and the beasts in ''The Beast From The East''.
* ChildHater: Several books have these, including ''The Ghost Next Door'' (a postman who ''threatens kids with a shotgun''), ''The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena'' (Arthur), and ''The Blob That Ate Everyone''. Also, Otto in the TV episode of ''The Headless Ghost''.
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Thanks to ''Goosebumps Horrorland'', many of the human characters from the original series don't reappear alongside the enemies they fought.
** The cast of the first four ''Monster Blood'' books are completely replaced with brand new characters in ''Monster Blood for Breakfast''. Considering how widely disliked the majority of the old cast was (except for Andy), the use of this trope isn't too surprising.
* CloudCuckoolander: Doctor Maniac in all of his books.
* CompetitionFreak: Zack in ''Let's Get Invisible!'' Wilson Schlame in ''How I Learned To Fly'', Sari Hassad in ''The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb'', and Elliot in ''The Horror at Camp Jellyjam''.
* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: ''Return of the Mummy'' and ''Creep from the Deep'' both have supernatural antagonists, while their previous books had just immoral humans.
* CoolTeacher: One of the first times that trope is played straight, wherein the teacher is not an idiot, a loser, or evil, is in ''Headless Halloween''. Mr. Benson, the science teacher, is regarded as cool by most of his students, save for Brandon, the {{Jerkass}} protagonist who is always being lectured and punished by Benson for how cruel he acts towards his cousin and other students.
** Also, Miss Gold in ''Horrors of the Black Ring'' who is beloved by pretty much everyone, which is why it's so horrifying when it turns out she was the one trying to wreck the carnival due to the influence of the Black Ring.
** There's a handful in the later series, such as as in ''Son of Slappy'' and ''How I Met My Monster''.
** Samantha in ''Be Careful What You Wish For'' attends a very laid-back school where teachers dress casually and are addressed by their given names.
* CoolUncle: Uncle Billy in ''Attack of the Christmas Present" who travels around the world and always gets Jack and his brother cool presents for Christmas.
* CoversAlwaysLie:
** As mentioned above, this could be a big problem, particularly for the revived ''[=HorrorLand=]'' series.
** ''How I Learned to Fly'' also applies. The back cover blurb summary heavily implies that the magic mixture the protagonist, Jack, uses to make himself fly was cursed or had some sort of supernatural consequence, but the problems he really faces are more based in reality.
** ''Deep Trouble'' shows a threatening shark on the cover which would suggest a ''Film/{{Jaws}}''-inspired story, but has a story about friendly mermaids instead, with the shark only appearing in a small portion of the book.
** [[http://goosebumps.wikia.com/wiki/Be_Careful_What_You_Wish_For...?file=1270367_100516131628_be_careful_1.jpg The UK cover of ''Be Careful What You Wish For'']] shows a shattered crystal ball with Samantha's face reflected in it. There is a crystal ball in the story, but it never breaks. The picture could also be interpreted as Samantha being trapped in the crystal ball, which doesn't happen either. The ''other'' notable thing about the cover is a major spoiler.
** Sometimes, people anticipating that the cover is fake works in the book's favor. In the TV version of ''Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns'', [[spoiler: the main bad guys aren't the beings with the Pumpkin heads on the cover... which is expected. However, the aliens who save the kids from the monsters ''were'' the Pumpkin-headed beings]].
** The famous cover of ''The Curse of Camp Cold Lake'' features a red-eyed skull with no nose rising out of the water. This creature never shows up in the book, and instead the antagonist is a ghost girl who, despite being partly transparent, is normal enough that Sarah doesn't immediately realize she's even a ghost.
** The ''Horrorland'' books do this fairly consistently. The cover to ''Monster Blood for Breakfast'' for example features (presumably) the protagonist engulfed in the eponymous BlobMonster, while the main section of the book actually deals with BodyHorror. ''Who's Your Mummy'' features a mummy ringing a doorbell; the only stereotypical mummies in the book are immobile.
** The ghost on the cover of ''The Haunter'' is nowhere to be seen in the story, as the ghost is [[spoiler: just a kid]].
** The ''Most Wanted'' series falls victim to this a lot. It's hard to believe their claim of the series containing the "most wanted" monsters when they are often not the ones depicted on the cover. The worst offender is ''Frankenstein's Dog'' which is actually about [[spoiler: evil robots, and the dog never becomes a monster.]]
** The cover for ''Son of Slappy'' makes it seem like the title will be literal, with Slappy somehow having an offspring. Instead, [[spoiler: the '"son" is the protagonist, who is being controlled by Slappy.]]
** The [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/goosebumps/images/4/46/Don%27t_Go_to_Sleep%21_%28Cover%29.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/339?cb=20170620234133 cover]] of ''Don't go to Sleep!'' shows the hand of a monster emerging from under the bed about to reach a sleeping boy, implying that the story is about a monster that lurks under the main character's bed and will attack/kill him if he falls asleep. Again, no such monster appears, and the story is about the main character waking up in different versions of reality whenever he goes to sleep.
** Not even the back cover blurb's are exempt. The blurb for ''Go Eat Wormns'' mentions Todd finding worms in his spahgehtti. This never actually happens. Someone asked [[WordOfGod Stine]] about this and he simply said it was an error.

* CreepyBasement: ''Stay Out Of The Basement'', ''Vampire Breath'' and ''I Live In Your Basement''.
* CrisisCrossover: The ''[=HorrorLand=]'' books, which are bringing together classic Goosebumps villains (and the odd protagonist) into a single storyline for the first time (the stage show doesn't count).
* CryptidEpisode: ''The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena'', which is about a yeti, and ''Deep Trouble'', which is about mermaids.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:D]]
* DarkerAndEdgier: The Goosebumps 2000 series. Also, ''Welcome to Dead House'', ''Stay Out of the Basement'', ''A Night in Terror Tower'', ''The Headless Ghost'', and ''I Live in Your Basement'' are exceptionally [[LudicrousGibs scarier and gorier]] than the rest of the original series.
* DarkIsNotEvil: Often, the supposed "monster" of the story turns out to be rather benevolent, while the true villains are [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters just sick, amoral people.]]
* DeadAllAlong: ''The Ghost Next Door'', the short story ''The Haunted House Game'' and ''Bad Dog''.

* DisproportionateRetribution:
** A WickedWitch in ''Chicken Chicken'' transformed kids into [[BalefulPolymorph literal chickens]] because they knocked over her groceries in the street and then ran away without apologizing. (One kid who stammered out an apology before running off was apparently forgiven.)
** ''Full Moon Fever'' provides an equally extreme example. The protagonists are turned into wolf-like monsters by Mrs. Eakins, their [[CrankyNeighbor grouchy neighbor]]. Their crime? Kicking a soccer ball through her living room window.
** Mr. Grimsley in ''The Chalk Closet'' [[spoiler: sends failing/misbehaving students into a room where they'll spend the rest of eternity listening to the screech of chalk on a board, even after they've died.]]
** In ''The Curse of Camp Cold Lake'', Sarah's bunkmates Briana, Meg and Jan all indulge in this. First, Sarah nearly has a panic attack at the thought of sleeping next to a screen-less window and bugs getting in, so she convinces a counselor to switch Briana to the empty bed so Sarah can have the bed Briana was occupying, infuriating Briana and Meg because they wanted to share bunk beds. Annoying? Yes, but the girls still share the same cabin and Briana and Meg are still sleeping within mere feet of each other. Then Sarah accidentally offends Meg about her height but doesn’t really insult her, as Meg was the one who complained about her shortness in the first place and rudely snapped at Sarah when she tried to insert herself into the conversation, and then got mad when Sarah tried to agree with her. Sarah then reveals to everyone that Jan has asthma, and it was an honest accident as well, plus even if accidental, it was the right thing to do anyway, as Jan hiding her condition could've very easily put her health at risk. The three girls react to these rather annoying yet minor offenses that Sarah apologized for by shunning and bullying her, including pretending to be friendly so they can slip a snake down her back, and Jan even ''tips the canoe'' as revenge, knowing that Sarah's a bad swimmer, and then tells the counselor that Sarah did it. Fortunately, they realize they went too far after Sarah nearly drowns.
** In ''Night of the Giant Everything'', Stephen accidentally breaks an egg in Ava's kitchen. Her and Courtney respond by ''mixing up chemicals in the lab and putting it in his water to ruin his magic trick''. [[spoiler:However, downplayed as it turned out they lied and just put vinegar in.]]
** In ''Nutcracker Nightmare'', Mrs. Boren magically ages ''everyone in the audience'' at a performance of ''The Nutcracker'' (with the implication that at least some of them will die of old age) all because Sam complained of being bored.
* DistantPrologue: ''The Horror at Chiller House'', ''Wanted: The Haunted Mask'', ''Zombie Halloween'', ''The 12 Screams of Christmas'' and ''I Am Slappy's Evil Twin'' all begin with prologues set some decades prior to set up the backstory.
* DownerEnding:
** ''Werewolf Skin'': [[spoiler:The hero's friend turns out to be a werewolf and bites him, either cursing or outright killing him.]]
** ''How to Kill a Monster'': [[spoiler:The protagonists somewhat unintentionally kill a monster and end up trapped in the swamps surrounded by the monster's relatives.]]
** ''The Curse of Camp Cold Lake'': [[spoiler: The story ends with Sarah's imminent death by snakebite at Briana's hands, so they can be ghost buddies forever. Considering how miserable her life was, she might not mind...]]
** ''The Haunted School'': [[spoiler: The protagonists escape Grayworld with help from Thalia, but can't save her and the other trapped students. They return to the school dance in time for a class picture, where they discover ''way'' too late that the photographer is the same one who sent the class of 1947 to Grayworld. He snaps the picture, presumably trapping them for good and stealing Bellwood's children all over again.]]
** ''Son of Slappy'': Jackson is [[spoiler: unable to defeat Slappy and he gets banned from the Youth Center he works for. And then he finds out his sister was working for Slappy the whole time and the book ends with Slappy taking control over him again.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:E]]
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first 20 or so novels feel very subdued compared with later entries. There are scares and supernatural elements, but Stine typically spends a good amount of time establishing character and atmosphere before moving on to the horror. Because of this, some of the early books (notably ''The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb'' and ''Welcome to Camp Nightmare'') are uncharacteristically long (130+ pages, as opposed to the average of 110-120).
** Several of the early books were written in limited third-person narration, including books 2, 3, 4, 7, 10 and 11. Most (though not all) books after this point were written in first-person narration, similar to the first book in the series.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: Some of the books do end with legitimate happy endings:
** In ''Why I'm Afraid of Bees'', [[spoiler: perennial loser Gary Lutz goes through quite an ordeal in the body of a bee, but manages to go back into his original body, and after all he went through, things change for him, becoming much more well liked and making friends for the first time ever. He still kept some traits from the bee he was stuck in, but it's shown to be pretty harmless]].
** ''Beware the Snowman'' ends with [[spoiler: local hermit Conrad using his magical powers to direct an army of snowmen to attack and seal the evil monster that was about to kill the protagonist, Jaclyn, after it tricked her into releasing him, then Jaclyn's aunt Greta reveals that Konrad and Jaclyn are father and daughter, and they're thrilled to finally meet each other]].
** In ''How I Learned to Fly'', [[spoiler:during a huge televised flying race, Jack pretends to lose his ability to fly so he can finally retreat from the spotlight and spend time with the girl he secretly loves while Wilson is forced to spend the rest of his life with the heavy burden of fame]].
* EvilDetectingDog:
** Subverted in the short story ''Bad Dog''. [[spoiler:The dog in question is bothering two ghost children who go to school in order to act like they're still alive and are afraid of being exposed by the dog's antics.]]
** Played straight in ''It Came from Beneath the Sink''.
** In ''Ghost Beach'', dogs are killed by ghosts because they reveal their nature, and in the ending [[spoiler: the protagonists' dog gives it away that their aunt and uncle are ghosts too.]]
** In ''Phantom of the Auditorium'' a dog barks at [[spoiler: Brian]], who is later revealed to [[spoiler: be a ghost]], though not evil.
** In ''Welcome To The Dead House'' the protagonists dog Petey barks at everyone in the town because [[spoiler: they are zombies. He gets killed by them eventually.]]
* EvilIsHammy: The Masked Mutant and Slappy come to mind, especially in the TV show. Also, Dr. Maniac and Purple Rage.
* ExactWords:
** ''The Curse of Camp Cold Lake'' has the counselors telling Sarah that no camper has ever drowned while mentioning that Sarah was the exception, but is looking shifty. She's convinced they're lying. [[spoiler:Della admits that the counselors were right; she didn't ''drown'', a snake bit her when she tried to run away through the woods]].
** In ''Santa's Helpers'', a pair of older siblings enjoy telling their little sister she isn't related to them because she doesn't resemble them or their parents. [[spoiler: When the siblings are mistaken for a pair of Santa's elves (they're short, have red hair, and were wearing red-and-green clothes that could easily let someone mistake them for elves) and taken to the North Pole, they try to get their sister to vouch for them. And she says "but you always told me I wasn't really your sister. You always said I wasn't related to you at all." The siblings are dragged away as their sister asks for them to make sure Santa doesn't forget her]].
** ''Bad Hare Day'' has Tim being promised by Amaz-O that he can be a part of the legendary magician's act...[[spoiler: [[BalefulPolymoprh by being his rabbit]]]].

** However, in a [[https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1p32dl/im_rl_stine_and_its_my_job_to_terrify_kids_ask_me/ccy88rw Reddit Q&A]], R.L. Stine asserts that he wrote every single Goosebumps book. Although some of the spinoffs such as a couple of the ''Tales to give you Goosebumps'' stories have been confirmed to be ghost-written.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:F]]
* FateWorseThanDeath: Often the implication (overt or covert) of the TwistEnding. Examples include [[spoiler: ''Let's Get Invisible'' (phased into a mirror dimension forever), ''The Barking Ghost'' (trapped in the body of a squirrel), ''Bad Hare Day'' (transformed into a magician's rabbit), ''Ghost Camp''(possessed by one of the ghostly campers), ''The Haunted School'' (trapped in an alternate dimension with no color, where you never age)]].
* FluffyTheTerrible: One book revolves around aliens that hug people, literally called Body Squeezers. Harmless, right? Except that this is how they reproduce... oh, and they grow sharp claws to stab into the backs of their victims, it's really more like an angry bearhug tackle if they can't trick you into a hug, and they're hell-bent on murder and world domination.
* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Sarah and Aaron in ''The Curse of Camp Cold Lake'', Billy and Sheena in ''Deep Trouble'', Josh and Amanda in ''Welcome to Dead House'', Luke and Lizzy in ''One Day at Horrorland'', Joe and Mindy in ''Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes'' and Freddy and Kate in ''The Lizard of Oz'', with the foolish and responsible respectively.
* ForegoneConclusion: Subverted. It seems clear that if the book is told in first-person, then the protagonist must make it out okay, but that's not always the case. Among others, you have to wonder ''how'' [[spoiler: Samantha Byrd of ''Be Careful What You Wish For...'' or Sarah Maas of ''The Curse of Camp Cold Lake'']] are telling their stories, or to ''who'', given the situations they end their books in [[spoiler: (The former's ends with her turning into a bird and the latter's ends with her about to be bitten by a venemous snake with no hope of rescue or help)]].
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** In ''Be Careful What You Wish For'', [[spoiler: Judith's taunt, "Why don't you fly away, Byrd?" ends up being this. Samantha does just that at the end, after she turns into an actual bird. ]]
** Early on in ''Calling All Creeps'', Wart pins Ricky to the ground, and Iris shouts at him to let him up. Wart seems confused for a moment, like he's unsure what to do, and oddly enough, he obeys. Also, some of the dialogue from him, Jared, David and Brenda in the early chapters is a little "off" considering they're human teenagers. It turns out that they aren't human, but aliens who are posing as human bullies.
** Early in ''The Curse of Camp Cold Lake, Sarah keeps emphasizing that she is a terrible swimmer. When she gets the idea to pretend to drown and scare her cabin mates, she ends up nearly drowning for real and attracts the attention of a ghost named Della. It's only because a counselor gives her CPR that she lives.
** ''A Shocker on Shock Street'' has a few bits of it, such as Mr. Wright telling Mary not to blow a fuse. [[spoiler: Because he's a robot]].
* ForScience: In ''Deep Trouble'', this is Dr. Deep's only justification for kidnapping a mermaid and he needs the money. In ''I Am Your Evil Twin'', the villain actually begins his MotiveRant with the proclamation "I am a scientist!"
* TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou: ''Attack of the Mutant'' and ''The Blob that Ate Everyone''. The Horrorland book ''Doctor Maniac vs Robby Schwartz'' can be called a mashup of these two.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:G]]
* GangOfBullies: Wart, Jared, David, and Brenda in ''Calling All Creeps'', who not only like to make fun of Ricky (as does everyone else), they even try to ''injure'' him ForTheEvulz and humiliate him in front of his only friend, Barry, Marv and Karl in ''Why I'm Afraid of Bees'', who beat up Gary together, and to a lesser extent, Sarah's bunkmates Jan, Meg and Briana, who at least had an excuse, if a flimsy one, for disliking Sarah, but still bully, shun and play cruel pranks on her for very little reason, though they apologize and become friends with her later in the book.
* GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion: The ''Classic Goosebumps'' reprints and later the ebooks made changes to update/remove some of the technology and pop culture references.
* GenderBlenderName: Far too many to count, perhaps to assist with the PurelyAestheticGender. Notable examples are:
* GenreAnthology: The ''Tales to Give You Goosebumps'' short-story books, the "Triple Header" novellas, and the Goosebumps TV show.
Every ghost in the series has their own mission, be it to find someone who can be their friend in death, or to carry out some unfinished business.
* GreaterScopeVillain:
** In ''The Werewolf of Fever Swamp'' the eponymous werewolf is the main villain. The swamp itself however, comes off as this.
** ''The Haunted School'' has Mr. Chameleon, the sinister photographer who sent the children to Grayworld in the first place. Even worse,[[spoiler: he's still alive in the present day.]]
** Jimmy Steranko, The Masked Mutant's comic creator... possibly.
** Alexander's unseen criminal employer from ''Deep Trouble''.
** ''The Headless Ghost'' has the ghostly sea captain who decapitated Andrew, although he's slightly more sympathetic than other examples.
* GreyAndGrayMorality: Surprisingly. Quite a few of the protagonists (Evan, Sarah, Greg, Todd, etc.) can be insufferably selfish assholes, while some of the monsters and antagonists have sympathetic motivations for their evil.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:H]]
* HandWaved: ''Frequent'', usually because having pre-adolescent heroes means often ignoring basic common sense provisions so that they can get into the required dangerous situations. Great example being ''Why I'm Afraid of Bees''; you'd think an 11 year old kid would need parental consent to be the subject of a strange medical experiment like that. Also why there's apparently no money involved.

* HereWeGoAgain: A great many of the twist endings, notably ''Say Cheese and Die'', ''The Haunted Mask'', and ''Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes''. ''Invasion of the Body Squeezers'' sees the invasion averted... only for the protagonist to see red aliens arrive on meteorites similar to the Body Squeezers.
** This is actually defied for once at the end of ''Broken Dolls''. [[spoiler: Someone sends Tamara a doll that resembles the creepy doll maker, but instead of ending the story there, Tamara decides to goad her brother into breaking the doll before anything can happen.]]
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Uncle Ben in the ''Mummy'' books, and Dr. Deep in ''Deep Trouble''.
* HorrorComedy: The books are often a combination of a scary and goofy at the same time. Although in some cases this is more due to {{Narm}} than a deliberate stylistic choice. However, R.L. Stine has said that he often includes comedy so that things never get too real.
* HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday: There have been several stories set around various holidays
** ChristmasEpisode: ''[[DidIMentionItsChristmas The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb]]'', ''More & More & More Tales to Give You Goosebumps'', and ''The 12 Screams of Christmas''.
** HalloweenEpisode:
*** General: All of ''The Haunted Mask'' stories, as well as ''Still More Tales to Give You Goosebumps''.
*** ''Goosebumps:'' ''Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns'' and ''Werewolf Skin''
*** ''Literature/GiveYourselfGoosebumps:'' ''One Night in Payne House'' and ''Trick or... Trapped!''
*** ''Haunted Library:'' "The Halloween Game"
*** ''Goosebumps Series 2000:'' ''Headless Halloween'' and ''Full Moon Fever''
*** ''[=HorrorLand=]:'' ''Weirdo Halloween''
*** ''Hall of Horrors:'' ''The Five Masks of Dr. Screem''
*** ''Most Wanted:'' ''Zombie Halloween'', ''Trick or Trap'', and ''The Haunter''
** NewYearHasCome: ''Slappy New Year!''
** Easter: ''Egg Monsters From Mars''
* HorrorHunger: ''Full Moon Fever''. The protagonists [[BalefulPolymorph turn into wolf-like monsters]] who are constantly hungry, eating anything they come across.
* HumanAliens: Used as TwistEnding in ''Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns'', ''My Best Friend is Invisible'', and ''Welcome to Camp Nightmare''. Also, the ''Tales'' story ''Aliens in the Garden''.
* HumansAreCthulhu: Utilized as part of the twist ending of ''[[spoiler:My Best Friend Is Invisible]]''. [[spoiler:Brent is revealed to be a human, much to the disgust of Sammy and his family, who find what we consider to be normal features absolutely abhorrent]].
* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: A surprisingly recurring theme. Examples include ''Deep Trouble'', ''Egg Monsters From Mars'', ''How I Got My Shrunken Head'', and ''How I Learned To Fly''.
* HumanityEnsues: ''Why I'm Afraid of Bees'', ''Stay Out of the Basement'', and ''My Hairiest Adventure''.
* HuntingTheMostDangerousGame: ''The Horror at Chiller House'' has Jonathan Chiller and his hunters hunting for kids under the guise of a scavenger hunt.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:I]]
* InMediasRes: ''Calling All Creeps'', ''Revenge of the Living Dummy'', ''My Friends Call Me Monster'', and ''The Haunter'' all start this way.
* InstructionalTitle: ''How to Kill a Monster''
* InsufferableGenius: Courtney in ''You Can't Scare Me!'', Kermit in the ''Monster Blood'' series, Sara in ''Night of the Living Dummy II'', and Nicole in ''The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena''.
** Nicole eventually turns out to be a [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold fairly good person]] as she even shows compassion for the eponymous snowman when it goes on a rampage, as think of it from his point of view:[[CryForTheDevil he's been kidnapped, is likely very hot and uncomfortable, and is just desperately looking for a way home.]]
** The protagonists of ''Brain Juice'' become this after ingesting the eponymous juice.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:J]]

* {{Jerkass}}: A good number of these types of characters can be found in pretty much all these books. Special mention goes to [[SadistTeacher Mr. Saur]] from ''Say Cheese and Die -- Again'', [[LackOfEmpathy Larry]] from ''Welcome To Camp Nightmare'', [[AlphaBitch Judith]] from ''Be Careful What You Wish For...'', [[JerkJock Conan]] and [[MadScientist Kermit]] from the ''Monster Blood'' series, [[AssholeVictim Todd]] from ''Go Eat Worms'', [[BigBrotherBully Mickey]] from ''The Barking Ghost'', [[ThoseTwoGuys Chuck and Steve]] from ''The Haunted Mask'' series, and practically ''[[WorldOfJerkass everyone]]'' who isn't Ricky or Iris in ''Calling All Creeps'', most notoriously [[GangOfBullies Wart, Jared, David, and Brenda]].

[[/folder]]

[[folder:K]]

* KidHero: Unfortunately, the protagonists don't always aspire to this. The closest examples are probably Hannah from ''The Ghost Next Door'', Skipper from ''Attack of the Mutant'', and both Billies from ''Welcome To Camp Nightmare'' and ''Deep Trouble''.
* KidsAreCruel: Oh, so many. Several books contain bullies the same age as the main character (most of whom are 12 years of age) who display absolutely no redeeming qualities and are defined solely for their nasty, bullying ways. Examples include Conan Barber from the ''Monster Blood'' books, Judith from ''Be Careful What You Wish For'', and Brandon (a unique instance of a bully being the main character) and his best friend Cal from ''Headless Halloween''.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:L]]

* LackOfEmpathy: Many of the parents and adults, but special nods go towards Tara Webster, Brandon Plush, Mr. Saur, Conan, Micah, Judith, the counselors at Camp Nightmoon, and the Horrorland Horrors.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:M]]

* MadScientist: Almost too many to count; Margaret and Casey's dad (and the clones he made) in ''Stay Out of the Basement'', Evan's cousin Kermit in ''Monster Blood III'', Larry's "doctor"[[note]]who turns out to be a scientist who tried to make a serum that turns dogs into kids, only to find that it's a failure[[/note]] in ''My Hairiest Adventure'', Sam's parents in ''My Best Friend is Invisible'', and Erin's father in ''A Shocker on Shock Street''. Often the mad scientist (or some sort of researcher who, if not specifically "Mad", is at least a jerk who does his job due to promises of money and prestige) will prove to the ''real'' villain of the story instead of the comparably harmless "monster". See: ''Curse of the Mummy's Tomb'', ''How I Got My Shrunken Head'', ''Deep Trouble'' (parts one and two and the TV version that had part two's plot and part one's title), and ''Egg Monsters from Mars''.
* MagicAIsMagicA: Apparently, the magical raven from ''Revenge 'R' Us'' has an arbitrary rule attached: [[spoiler:if you use it to cast three curses in one day, the 4th one affects you as well as your target]].
* MagicHair: In ''Who's Your Mummy?'', Abby and Peter's hair [[spoiler:contains a rare protein that keeps mummies alive.]]
* MagicalCamera:
** ''The Haunted School'' has a camera that acts as a portal to another dimension.
* MagicMirror: ''Let's Get Invisible'', ''Ghost In The Mirror'', and ''Mirror Mirror On The Wall''. ''Goosebumps Horrorland'' made it a plot point that mirrors could be used as a gateway from Horrorland to Panic Park.
* MalevolentMaskedMen: Kind of inverted in with The Lord High Executioner and The Masked Mutant. [[spoiler: When the former shows up in Terror Tower, he instead appears as a quiet man in a black cape and hat -- though the TV version has him as a more sinister man who doesn't wear a mask. The latter spends most of his book in the form of a twelve year old girl. Neither show their masks until their true nature is revealed.]]
* MamaBear[=/=]PapaWolf:
** After Lucy's parents actually ''know'' that Mr. Mortman is a monster who's trying to eat their daughter, their solution to the problem is to eat him alive. They also did this because too many monsters at one place endangers TheMasquerade to humans.
** The [[spoiler:giant worm]] in ''Go Eat Worms'' that attacks Todd for his experiments with her babies.

** The most infamous one is ''My Hairiest Adventure'', which ends with the revelation that [[spoiler:most of the kids were actually dogs, who were transformed into humans by a doctor who wanted couples to have children, but the serum he injected them with wasn't stable enough to keep the dogs as kids forever.]]
** ''Welcome To Camp Nightmare'', which [[spoiler:takes place on an alien planet, mentioned in the final sentences.]]
** ''Vampire Breath'', in which Cara and Freddy [[spoiler:find a bottle of "Werewolf Sweat".]]
** ''My Best Friend is Invisible'', in which every character except Brent is [[spoiler:a multi-headed creature with more than two eyes and suction cups on their head who have taken over the Earth and have found the last human, who was seen as invisible so the aliens wouldn't spot him.]]
* MentalTimeTravel: ''Stuck in 1957'' is about a girl who finds a pair of glasses that send her to the eponymous year. Only for some reason the girl appears to have a completely separate life in this year, including another family, so it's more like she's been sent into another universe.
* MediumAwareness: The Masked Mutant. He also uses this to lure Skipper into a trap, since the boy reads all his stories.
* MiddleChildSyndrome: Robby's brother Sam in ''Dr. Maniac Vs Robby Shwartz''. This becomes his motivation for [[spoiler: becoming Dr. Maniac.]]
* MindScrew: ''I Live in Your Basement'' is this... and then some.
* MirrorMonster:
** ''Lets Get Invisible'' features a mirror that turns you invisible, but [[spoiler: if you stay invisible too long, your reflection forces you to switch places with it.]]
** The final ''Series 2000'' book, ''Ghost in the Mirror'', which has a mirror doubling as a portal to a dimension of bodysnatching crab people.
* MostWritersAreAdults
* {{Mundanger}}: It's ''very'' rare to encounter a ''Goosebumps'' book that doesn't feature fantasy or supernatural elements. The ''Series 2000'' books ''Are You Terrified Yet?'' and ''Scream School'' are among the few that qualify.
* MutagenicFood: Guess what eating the carrot in Amaz-O's magic hat in ''Bad Hare Day'' turns you into.
* MyBelovedSmother: Marco's mother in ''I Live In Your Basement'' is incredibly overprotective of him, even going as far to prevent Marco from sharpening his pencils because she believes he'll poke his eye, much to Marco's annoyance.
* MyMasterRightOrWrong: The Lord High Executioner may or may not have been loyal to the former king and queen. But when the siblings' usurper uncle ordered their death, the executioner intends to do so without question.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:N]]

* NailsOnABlackboard: This is what anyone banished to the ''The Chalk Closet'' is forced to listen to for all eternity.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Tara the Terrible. She really lives up to it.
** In ''Earth Geeks Must Go'', the protagonist is offered the opportunity to [[spoiler:return to earth]] in a spaceship invented by someone known as "Crazy Ol' Phil." [[spoiler:This ends about as well as you would expect.]]

** In the ending of ''Deep Trouble'', Billy is attacked by a sea monster. In ''Deep Trouble II'' he's alive and well with no mention of what happened in the previous book.
* {{Nephewism}}: It's very common for the books to feature a visit to aunts / uncles with little or no mention of parents; or an orphaned protagonist that lives with an aunt / uncle. Special mention goes to Alex in ''Werewolf Skin'', whose parents leave him with his aunt and uncle apparently indefinitely and he starts going to school there.
* NervousWreck: Shep Mooney in ''The Ghost of Slappy'' is pretty much constantly in a state of panic even before Slappy comes along. This is largely because he's frightened of the ghost in his basement, but he's nervous and twitchy even when he is nowhere near her.
* NeverTrustATitle: Often, the eponymous ghost/monster/whatever isn't the real enemy. Examples include ''Curse of the Mummy's Tomb'', ''The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena'' and ''Frankenstein's Dog''.
** ''The Haunter'' does not feature any ghost that goes under that name, and he is no more of a haunter than any other ghost in the series.
** ''The Birthday Party of No Return'' has only one scene taking place at a birthday party, which is just used for a dramatic setting for the climax of the story and doesn't intrinsically have anything to do with the problem at hand [[spoiler:(the protagonist being affected by a cursed artefact.)]]
** ''The Haunted Mask'' and ''The Haunted School'' don't involve ghosts of any kind.
* NewHouseNewProblems: A common setup for the books is the protagnist moving to a new house, only for it to contain some sort of evil. Notable examples include''Welcome to Dead House'', in which the house is in a town full of living dead, and ''It Came From Beneath the Sink'', where the house is home to a monster that causes bad luck.

* NightmareFace:
** The covers of ''The Haunted Mask'' and its sequel, which both depict horrific-looking masks looking directly at you.
** The evil, snarling, [[RedEyesTakeWarning red-eyed]] dog on the cover of ''The Barking Ghost''.
** The skeletal girl on the cover of ''Curse of Camp Cold Lake''. The all-the-way-open and unblinking eyes don't help.
** The ''Creature Teacher'': bug-eyed, baring several rows of sharp teeth, and practically ''screaming at you''.
** ''Return to Ghost Camp''. Is that skeleton ghost even human, or is it far too twisted and gnarled to even be human?
* NoAntagonist: One instance is ''The Headless Ghost'', where the bulk of the story is just Duane and Stephanie looking for said ghost's head. The ghost himself,Andrew, doesn't appear until the end and wants nothing more than to be complete so he can leave for the afterlife. The other spirits are fairly harmless, two of them acting as tour guides of Hill House, while another just plays pranks on guests. The closest thing to a villainous ghost is the Sea Captain, and he's gone long before the events of the book.
* NoLongerWithUs: This happens in ''Be Careful What You Wish For''. When Samantha asks why Judith and her friend aren't at school, the nurse tells her, "They're gone." Samantha panics for a moment, but the nurse clarifies that they weren't well enough to come to class and had to see the doctor.
* NonindicativeName:
** In ''The Girl Who Cried Monster'', Lucy's family lives in the town of Timberland Falls. But its name is this trope -- as Lucy herself puts it, "There are a few forests outside of town, but nobody cuts the trees down for timber. And there aren't any falls. So, why Timberland Falls?"
** You'd expect ''Series 2000'' to start at the turn of the millennium, right? Well, it actually debuted at the start of 1998 and ironically ended at the start of 2000.
** The book ''Revenge Of The Lawn Gnomes'' never explains exactly what the gnomes are getting revenge ''for''. Same goes for Slappy in ''Revenge of the Living Dummy''
* NonMaliciousMonster: Most of the various ghosts in the stories turn out to be this, but [[FriendlyGhost friendly]]. There's also the eponymous ''Egg Monsters From Mars''.
* NothingIsScarier:
** ''Ghost Camp''. [[spoiler: We're told the entirety of Camp Spirit Moon except for the Altmans are ghosts, killed untold years ago by a black fog. But it's never explained ''how'' the fog actually killed them nor ''why'' it happened in the first place. At least with ''Welcome To Dead House'' we know where the gas leak came from, but with ''Ghost Camp'' there were so many unanswered questions about what really happened to Camp Spirit Moon. Even worse, it's implied the fog contains trapped spirits that tried to leave the camp on their own, and we're never told how the other campers discovered this.]]
** Mr. Chameleon from ''The Haunted School'' is, judging by the impact of his actions, one of the most horrific characters in the series. We never actually meet him, or learn who or what he is or why he's sending children to the Grayworld.
* NotSoImaginaryFriend:
** ''My Best Friend is Invisible''. [[spoiler:The invisible friend is the last survivor of an alien invasion of the Earth. The main character and his parents are actually alien abominations.]]
** Subverted with ''Good Friends''. [[spoiler: It turns out that the main character's best friend and bratty sister, who has an imaginary friend herself, ''are'' in fact imaginary themselves.]]
** In ''The Ghost of Slappy'', others assume Annalee is Shep's "imaginary friend", not believing him when he says she is a ghost and really exists.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:O]]

* OddlyNamedSequel: Some of the ''[=HorrorLand=]'' books serve as sequels to the classic books -- but with extremely strange names. ''Monster Blood for Breakfast!'' is perhaps a notable example.
* OurGnomesAreWeirder: ''Revenge Of The Lawn Gnomes'' tells us that lawn gnomes (and presumably other ornaments) are actually living creatures taken from a mystical forest and forced to pose as garden decorations.
** The gnomes in ''Planet of the Lawn Gnomes'' [[spoiler: populate the entire planet and the protagonist is one of the robots they created to take care of it during the day]]
* OurMonstersAreWeird: Mr. Mortman, King Jellyjam, the Grool, the Beasts and many others.


[[/folder]]

[[folder:P]]

* ParanormalMundaneItem: The books contain ''lots'' of those:
** ''Full Moon Fever'' has chocolate bars called "Best" (actually "Beast"; turns people into werewolves) and "Cure" (actually "Curse"; makes people shrink in size) that look like your everyday shop merchandise.
* ParentalBonus: In ''Bad Hare Day'', Tim complains that his mom takes his sister's karate lessons more seriously than his magic hobby because "girls need to know how to defend themselves". He may feel like TheUnfavorite in the family, but his mom does have a point.
* ParentalFavoritism: Seen to sickening effect in ''Bad Hare Day'', ''Egg Monsters from Mars'', ''Don't Go to Sleep'', ''Dr. Maniac Will See You Now'' and especially ''The Cuckoo Clock of Doom''.
** ''Son of Slappy'' is notable for having the protagonist be the favorite while his sister is generally dumped on by the parents.
* ParentalNeglect
** Jack's parents in ''How I learned To Fly'', they do love him but they refuse to take notice of how miserable they're making their son's life after they find out he can fly and start using up all his time to film tv commercials and won't even let him leave the house unless he's wearing the cheesy superhero costume that he wears when filming commercials.
** Crystal and Cole's parents in ''Chicken Chicken'' are this to the point that they don't even notice their children mutating into humanoid chickens.
** In the short story ''The Werewolf's First Night'', Brian's parents take him to a "summer camp" without counselors (all the campers' parents are staying at a nearby resort) -- basically leaving him at the mercy of the other kids. When Brian tries to tell them about what is going on, Dad thinks it might be just a prank but still does nothing, saying Brian should toughen up.
** The parents in ''An Old Story'' are so busy that they often leave their kids at home alone, which gives Dahlia the chance to come in pretending to be their aunt and enact her plan. Unlike some of the other examples, they do at least show regret once they figure out what happend.

* PlatonicLifePartners: The series features ''many'' story lines where the main characters are a boy and girl who are best friends who are inseparable but have absolutely no romantic interest in each other. A few of them even use ShesNotMyGirlfriend and ''mean'' it. As most of the characters are children who aren't thinking about romance in the first place, this is [[JustifiedTrope Justified]]. Completely averted in ''How I Learned To Fly''.
* PoliceAreUseless: In ''Dr. Maniac Vs Robby Shwartz'', some officers are searching for Robby's little brother Sam, and take a random kid assuming it's him, even while he insists he's not Sam.
* ThePrankster: Many characters often venture towards this, more likely the [[AnnoyingYoungerSibling Annoying Younger Siblings]], [[BigBrotherBully the older siblings]], and [[VitriolicBestBuds even some of the protagonists' friends]]. Special mention goes to Jed from ''Night of the Living Dummy II'' (who often shares his pranks for Family Sharing Night and never seems to take it seriously), Mickey from ''The Barking Ghost'' (who takes advantage of Cooper being easily scared), Chuck and Steve from ''The Haunted Mask'' (who also take advantage of Carly Beth being easily scared despite [[WithFriendsLikeThese supposedly being her friends]]), and even Gary's adult neighbor, Mr. Andretti from ''Why I'm Afraid of Bees'' (who loves to scare him with [[BeeAfraid bees]], knowing he's afraid of them).
* PresentTenseNarrative: ''Earth Geeks Must Go!'' is written this way.
* ProductPlacement: American Girl dolls are mentioned by name in ''Egg Monsters from Mars''. Pepsi/Frito Lay did a merchandising tie-in with Goosebumps in the late '90s, leading to Pepsi products turning up in several books like ''Calling All Creeps''. ''How I Got My Shrunken Head'' and the short story ''Don't Sit on the Gronk'' both feature characters that collect Kooshballs.

* PuppyLove: As noted above, the books almost always featured a [[PlatonicLifePartners strictly platonic Boy-Girl hero setup]] without any consideration of potential romance between the two, which makes sense given their age or that they were sometimes siblings. There are a few exceptions, though...
** Steve and Carly-Beth in ''The Haunted Mask'', though any romantic tension between the two is at best distantly implied in the book but [[AdaptationExpansion made into a major plot point in the TV series]].
** ''How I Learned to Fly'', the rare instance a love triangle (between Jack, his rival Wilson and their crush Mia) features prominently into a ''Goosebumps'' book.
** Gary in ''Why I'm Afraid of Bees'' has a big crush on Kaitlin and agrees to go through with the body-switch in order to impress her.
** Audra is a love interest for Spencer in ''Attack of the Graveyard Ghouls''.
** Larry in ''My Hairiest Adventure'' often comments on how attractive he finds Lily, especially her eyes. [[spoiler: This becomes a plot point when he meets a dog with her distinctive heterochromia and realizes it's her.]]
** Harry and Lucy in ''Ghost Camp'', particularly with the revelation that [[spoiler:she intends to possess his body in order to be able to leave the camp.]]
** Sammy Baker from ''The Haunter'' has a crush on a girl named Summer and wants to impress her.
** Ricky in ''Calling All Creeps'' has a thing for Iris and gets really excited when she asks him to help her get things ready for a bake sale.

[[folder:Q]]

* QuestioningTitle: ''Are You Terrified Yet?'' and ''Who's Your Mummy?''

[[folder:R]]

* RealityEnsues: "The Curse of Camp Cold Lake" has Sarah admitting she can't swim but she can hold her breath, and due to a few days of bullying she convinces her counselor to let her swim alone. No one is wearing lifejackets, and the water isn't buoyant. Cue Sarah diving to the bottom of the lake, holding her breath...and she drowns for real because remember, she can't swim. The counselor was fortunately on the ball and pulled her out while administering CPR. This, plus Sarah forcibly running from an afterlife version of camp, saved her, for the time being at least.
* RedHerring: A frequent occurrence as often the books' twist endings rendered what the characters had believed most of the time to be the cause of the strange events to be completely irrelevant. The best example is probably ''My Hairiest Adventure'' when for most of the book, Larry believes that the fur growing on his hands and body is from expired tanning lotion and could be behind the disappearances of his friends and why there are a lot of dogs in the neighborhood. Turns out the expired tanning lotion had nothing to do with it, and the fur, disappearing friends, and influx of dogs was from a local doctor's dog-to-human serum wearing off.
* ReedRichardsIsUseless: This comes up quite a lot, given a lot of the stories about science gone wrong.
** In ''Deep Trouble'', Dr. Deep tries to sell the captive mermaid to a zoo for 1 million dollars. His assistant betrays him and tries to sell the creature to an underground organization for 3 million. When confronted with this, he points out [[VillainHasAPoint that a discovery as great as this would be worth far more than what the Zoo had to offer.]]
** Mr. Toogle in ''Piano Lessons Can Be Murder'' has created a robot that easily fooled a family into thinking it's human, and can program severed hands to move on their own. And he uses all this to play "perfect music".
** Mr. Wright in ''A Shocker on Shock Street'', much like Mr. Toggle, has created robots that not only easily fool people, but have the capacity to feel emotion. And he uses them to [[spoiler: test theme park rides.]]
* RevengeOfTheSequel: ''Revenge of the Living Dummy'', as well as ''Bride of the Living Dummy'' and ''Son of Slappy''

[[folder:S]]
* SadistTeacher: A few examples, including Mr. Murphy from ''Monster Blood II'' (whose hamster devours the eponymous blood and grows to massive proportions) and Mr. Saur from ''Say Cheese and Die-Again!''. To [[UpToEleven take it to the extreme,]] Mrs. Maaargh from ''Creature Teacher''.
* ShoutOut:
** Some of the titles, such as ''[[Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968 Night of the Living Dummy]]'', ''[[Franchise/ThePhantomOfTheOpera Phantom of the Auditorium]]'' and ''[[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet A Shocker on Shock Street]]''. The second Horrorland arc contains ''[[Theatre/LittleShopOfHorrors Little Shop of Hamsters]]''. The "Most Wanted" series' third book is ''[[Series/HowIMetYourMother How I Met My Monster]]''.
** Let's hear the plot of ''Why I'm Afraid of Bees''. A male character tries to use a machine only for an insect to get in the way and cause the character to turn into a human-insect hybrid. [[Film/TheFly Sound familiar]]?
** In ''The Curse of Camp Cold Lake'', Della's supposed backstory strongly resembles that of [[Franchise/FridayThe13th Jason Voorhees.]]
** ''A Shocker on Shock Street'' is a blatant shout-out to ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet''. In fact, one of the movies mentioned is ''A Nightmare on Shock Street''.
** R.B. Farraday from ''Fright Camp'' is believed to be an AffectionateParody of Creator/WilliamCastle.
** In ''The Barking Ghost'', the protagonist is nervous about moving to his wooded Maine home because [[Creator/StephenKing he's only read two horror novels, both of which take place in the woods of Maine.]]
** The cover art to "Deep Trouble," which as mentioned above depicts a menacing hammerhead shark despite barely featuring one in the story itself, includes the tagline "Just when you thought it was safe." No points for guessing what that's a reference to.
** The eponymous zombie school in ''Why I Quit Zombie School'' is called [[Creator/GeorgeARomero Romero]] Academy.
** ''Zombie Halloween'' features a TV show called [[Series/TheWalkingDead The Walking Zombies]].
** Two members of the reailty police in ''Don't Go to Sleep!'' are named [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Bruce and Wayne]].
** If the inspiration for the ''Say Cheese and Die'' books wasn't clear enough, someone in ''Say Cheese-And Die Screaming!'' says "it's a very...[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E46AMostUnusualCamera unusual camera"]].
* ShowWithinAShow:
** ''A Shocker on Shock Street'' and ''Fright Camp'' focusing on kids who are fans of an extensive film series and a veteran horror director respectively, and elements from both types of films feature deeply into the book's plot.
** ''Tune in Tomorrow'' and ''The Halloween Game'' end with the reveals that [[spoiler: the former is about a girl watching a TV show called "Life with Elizabeth" and the latter is the protagonist for a Halloween-themed video game.]]
** In ''One Day at Horrorland'' Lizzy and her family end up being captured by the Horrors and put on a TV game show for monsters, intended to end with them being killed for the audience's amusement.
* ShrunkenHead: In ''How I Got My Shrunken Head'', the protagonist receives a shrunken head from his aunt, who's a scientist researching the island of Baladora. He later finds out that it glows because he possesses "Jungle Magic".
* SlaveRace: The eponymous characters of ''Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes''. [[spoiler: Or at least, that's what they claim to be.]]
* SlidingScaleOfComedyAndHorror: Varies a lot between books. Some are pretty far toward the comedy end (''Attack Of The Mutant'' being a good example) while others are rather dark and have few funny moments (''Curse Of The Mummy's Tomb'' probably being the darkest.)
* SmugSnake: Wilson in ''How I Learned To Fly'', Courtney in ''You Can't Scare Me!'' and the beasts in ''The Beast From The East''.
* SnakePeople: Mr. Blankenship in ''Teacher's Pet'' and Dr. Crawler in ''Welcome to Camp Slither''.
* {{Snowlems}}: ''Beware, The Snowman''.
* TheSociopath:
** Tara Webster, who never shows any signs of compassion or kindness. Considering her age and how long she's been vindictively tormenting her older brother, it's likely she's never going to develop a conscience. [[spoiler:Then again, she is erased from existence at the end of the book.]]
** Brandon from ''Headless Halloween'' is a very rare case in that he's the main character of the book and is without a doubt rotten to the core. He basically lives his life tormenting kids just for kicks, especially younger kids, and he gets off on seeing them be frightened and suffer. It gets to a point that when his mother (who clearly dislikes her son's behavior) forces him to accompany his little sister, cousin and two of his sister's friends to go trick-or-treating on Halloween, he ditches the three girls by leaving them all alone on a dark street and then locks his scared cousin in an abandoned house, all so he can then go scare other kids and steal their candy, then sneaks into his teacher's house to vandalize it and downright abandons his best friend (a bully himself) when they find that there are guard dogs who have caught on to them.
** Judith from ''Be Careful What You Wish For'', who comes across as downright sadistic in her hatred of Samantha, using basically every waking moment to torment her, never once showing any redeeming characteristics or even the slightest sign that she's not just downright nasty.
** Micah, Wade's teenage brother in ''Revenge R Us'' is basically a teenage male version of the above mentioned Tara Webster, existing solely to make his little sister's life a living hell just because he feels like it.
* SomethingCompletelyDifferent:
** ''You Can't Scare Me'': Even though this story does have and mention monsters (the mud monsters said to be the corpses of the town's original settlers who died in a mudslide), most of the focus of the story is on four friends playing scary pranks on a girl named Courtney, who claims that she's not scared of anything, to prove her wrong -- [[HilarityEnsues with comic results]].
** ''How I Learned to Fly'': Despite implications that the flying formula had supernatural powers from the back cover blurb, the story is scary in a real-world sense, showing that talent is often exploited by the greedy (Jack's father is an agent who puts his son in cheesy car commercials when he learns that his son can fly while Jack's rival, Wilson, has his own tv show), how celebrities can be "trapped" because of constant media attention and obsessed fans, and the government wanting to know the secrets of AppliedPhlebotinum for the good of the country (allegedly). It plays out more like a supernatural satire on the burden of being a celebrity and American's society obsession with success and being famous.
** ''Deep Trouble'' is another example. Most books before it dealt with clumsy, generic kids stumbling into adventures with gross monsters. The protagonist here is a dangerously overconfident kid who seeks out adventure and discovers a mermaid on a trip to the Caribbean. The real conflict comes from him debating whether to go along with his uncle's plans to sell her to a zoo, or do the right thing and return her home. Also, the villains, rather than being monsters or mad scientists, are greedy thieves looking to exploit the mermaid for their own intentions. And the shark on the cover barely appears at all, ruining any expectations of this book being like a kids' version of ''Jaws''. There ''is'' a genuine monster, but its role is relatively small.
** The Series 2000 books ''Are You Terrified Yet?'' and ''Scream School'' have ''no'' supernatural events at all (and the monsters are revealed to be people in elaborate costumes playing a prank on someone), and takes place in the "real" world.
** ''Fright Camp'' is also another example of this, as it turns out all the supernatural elements are staged since it's set at a fantasy summer camp run by a famous horror movie director. The short story ''Thumbprint of Doom'' also ends up lacking supernatural elements, as well as ''The Mummy With My Face''.
** ''The Mummy Walks'' from the ''Goosebumps 2000'' series is nothing like ''The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb'' or ''The Return of the Mummy'' from the original Goosebumps series. Instead, it has more adventure and international intrigue (in the book, the main character, who thinks he's going to Florida on vacation, is actually the orphaned prince of a Middle Eastern country who needs to be sent back so he can retrieve a mummy and stop the country's current civil war).
** ''Slappy's Nightmare'' is [[VillainEpisode focused on Slappy]] rather than the kid who gets him, and serves as a subversion of the typical Slappy book formula.
* SpiritualSuccessor: The series has had direct sequels, sequels that share only the same villain, and sequels that have merely the same ''kind'' of villain. The latter are arguably {{spiritual sequel}}s, and include ''Return to Ghost Camp'' (has nothing in common with ''Ghost Camp'', except for the fact that the campers and counselors are ghosts and forever trapped in the summer camp), and ''Who's Your Mummy?''
* SpoiledBrat: Tara in ''The Cuckoo Clock of Doom'', Brandy in ''Egg Monsters From Mars'' and Kermit in the ''Monster Blood'' series.
* StrippingTheScarecrow: ''The Scarecrow'', a short story about three kids who discover a mysterious scarecrow set up in front of an abandoned house has got articles of clothing they all want. Two of the kids take things off the scarecrow, but strange things start happening to them, leaving the third kid scared something will happen to her while trying to fight back the temptation of taking the scarecrow's gloves for herself. It turns out it was all a prank set up by the other two kids, but that doesn't explain why [[spoiler: the scarecrow is suddenly smiling at the end.]]
* SummerCampy:
** ''Welcome to Camp Nightmare''.
** ''Ghost Camp''.
** ''The Curse of Camp Cold Lake''.
** ''Fright Camp''.
** ''Return to Ghost Camp''.
** ''Escape from Camp Run-For-Your-Life'' from the Give Yourself Goosebumps series.
** ''Welcome to Camp Slither'' from the Horrorland series.
** The short stories ''P.S. Don't Write Back'', ''The Werewolf's First Night'' and ''Poison Ivy''.
** Most Wanted gives us ''Creature Teacher: The Final Exam''.
* SurprisinglyHappyEnding: This occasionally happens, with some twists actually rendering the entire story happier (or, in the case of ''The Ghost Next Door'', [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]]) in hindsight. The best example is in ''A Night in Terror Tower'', [[spoiler: in which the protagonists escape the executioner and travel to the future with Morgred, apparently with no strings attached.]]
** A fairly common ending is the result of a TomatoSurprise, resulting in an EsotericHappyEnding with intentional ProtagonistCenteredMorality in play (for example, ''The Girl Who Cried Monster'' [[spoiler: ends with the protagonist's parents revealing that their entire family consists of monsters, morbidly eating the librarian she thought was the monster, and telling her that they can't have too many monsters around, or else the humans will get suspicious]].)
* SwampsAreEvil:
** ''Here Comes The Shaggedy'' features one that has a monster that becomes your slave when summoned, and has another, more dangerous but similar looking monster .
[[/folder]]

[[folder:T]]
* TakeOverTheWorld: The goal of the Masked Mutant, The Creeps, and Hyborg-Xrxuz/[[spoiler: Mrs. Hardesty]] in ''My Friends Call Me Monster''.
* TeensAreMonsters: With a few exceptions, teenagers are usually portrayed as completely condescending or just downright nasty KickTheDog bullies to the main characters and their friends (who are almost always 11-12 in the novels), which could make sense since their most often the older siblings of the protagonist and being portrayed through the younger kid's most likely somewhat biased point-of-view. Special mention, of course, goes to the Beymer twins in ''Monster Blood'', Mickey in ''The Barking Ghost'', Greg and Pam in ''Don't Go To Sleep'', Micah in ''Revenge R Us'', and, in both a figurative and literal sense, the Creeps in ''Calling All Creeps''.
* {{Telepathy}}: The power Jillian gains in ''Help! We Have Strange Powers!''
* ThatsNoMoon: ''Ghost Camp'' has "WHY ARE YOU STANDING ON MY HEART?"
* TheatrePhantom: In ''The Phantom of the Auditorium'', Brooke Rogers and Zeke Matthews are chosen to play Esmeralda and The Phantom in their school's version of ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'', but a chain of accidents impede production and threaten to have Zeke kicked off the cast.
* ThemeTwinNaming: Kyle and Kara, the twin bullies who live next door to the protagonist in ''The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena'', Ginger's younger twin brothers Nat and Pat in ''The Beast from the East'', Shane and Shana in ''Attack of the Jack O' Lanterns'', Slappy and Snappy in ''I Am Slappy's Evil Twin'', and the protagonists of ''Help! We Have Strange Powers!'', Jackson and Jillian.
* ThisLoserIsYou: Goosebumps protagonists tended to be nonathletic, dorky, social outcast bully magnets. Very rarely, if ever, was the protagonist of a book tough or popular. Steve Boswell from The Haunted Mask 2 is an exception as he was the main bully in the first book.
* ThreeWishes: ''Be Careful What You Wish For''. First Samantha Byrd wishes that she would be the strongest member of the basketball team, but everyone else becomes weak. Then she wishes for Judith to stop bugging her, but everyone disappears. After Samantha resets the wishes, Judith accidentally wishes "Byrd, why don't you fly away?", turning her into a bird. Wade also ends up getting three wishes in ''Revenge R Us''
* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: ''I Live In Your Basement'' and, when put into proper context ''A Shocker on Shock Street''.
* TitleDrop: [[TitleDrop/{{Goosebumps}} Some happen]] in the indivual books but Slappy does for the whole franchise in [[spoiler: the very end of The Street of Panic Park]]. He also drops the name of ''Slappyworld'' in the first entry.
* TimeTravelEpisode: ''The Cuckoo Clock of Doom'', ''A Night in Terror Tower'', ''Heads, You Lose!'' and the short story ''Stuck in 1957''.
* TomatoInTheMirror:
** ''A Shocker On Shock Street'': [[spoiler: Erin and Marty [[RoboticReveal are robots]], and are deactivated by their creator.]]
** ''Vampire Breath'': [[spoiler: Count Nightwing is Freddy's grandfather, meaning that he is a vampire himself.]]
** ''My Hairiest Adventure'': [[spoiler: Larry is a dog who was turned into a human, and he reverts back to his real form.]]
** ''Planet of the Lawn Gnomes'': [[spoiler:A double whammy where they are all robots on an alien planet.]]
** ''How I Met My Monster'': [[spoiler: Noah is a monster, as is everyone in his apartment building.]]
** ''The Lizard of Oz'': [[spoiler:Kate and her family are shape shifting lizards and her getting bitten by the lizard they bought from Australia did nothing to make her transform. She was turning already.]]
** ''The Werewolf's First Night'' from ''More Tales to Give You Goosebumps'': [[spoiler:While the other kids were just pretending to be werewolves to prank him, Brian discovers he's a genuine werewolf, and proceeds to chase all the others in revenge for the prank.]]
* TomatoSurprise:
** ''The Girl Who Cried Monster'': [[spoiler: Not only is the librarian a monster, so is Lucy and her whole family]]
** ''My Best Friend Is Invisible'': [[spoiler: Sammy and his family are actually members of a hostile species of alien who invaded the Earth years ago and replaced humanity, and his invisible friend is really a young human boy who managed to hide by remaining invisible.]]
** ''Welcome To Camp Nightmare'': [[spoiler: Billy is a HumanAlien, the camp is not on Earth, and the events are his last test before he is sent to infiltrate human society.]]
** ''Something Strange About Marci'' from ''More & More Tales to Give You Goosebumps'': [[spoiler: The narrator spends the whole story wonder what's up with Marci, why she carries around a strange briefcase, and why she doesn't look like any of his friends. The twist is that Marci is a human scientist and the narrator and his friends are orangutans.]]
** ''A Vampire in the Neighborhood'': [[spoiler: Helga isn't a vampire, but the main kids are.]]
** ''Planet of the Lawn Gnomes'': [[spoiler: All the humans are actually all alien robots.]]
** ''Spin The Wheel Of Horror'': '[[spoiler: The family turns out to be all real monsters, and they eat the host of the game show.]]
** ''Aliens in the Garden'': [[spoiler: The story is actually set on another planet and the titular aliens were actually humans]].
** ''Marshmellow Surprise'': [[spoiler: The kids are actually werewolves and eat the mean neighbor woman.]]
* {{Troperiffic}}: Inevitable, considering how long it's run.
* TwistEnding: Usually on the last page, maybe even last paragraph, of almost every book. Many variations, including TomatoInTheMirror, HereWeGoAgain, DeadAllAlong, TheBadGuyWins, FromBadToWorse, and the occasional KarmicTwistEnding. Many of them were also {{Cruel Twist Ending}}s.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:U]]

* UndeadChild: Just about ''every single ghost story'' has these.
* TheUnfavorite: Amy in ''Night of the Living Dummy II'', Michael in ''The Cuckoo Clock of Doom'', Wade in ''Revenge R Us'', Matt in ''Don't Go to Sleep'', Dana in ''Egg Monsters from Mars'', Tim in ''Bad Hare Day'', and Richard Dreezer in ''Dr. Maniac Will See You Now''
* UnreliableNarrator: [[spoiler: ''A Shocker On Shock Street'']] and [[spoiler: ''Planet of the Lawn Gnomes'']]
* UntranslatedTitle: When four of the most books were rereleased in Sweden in 2015, the series was called ''Goosebumps'', just like the movie released the same year.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:V]]

* VomitIndiscretionShot: The ''Goosebumps 2000'' series loved this trope.
* VillainBasedFranchise: With Slappy, especially with the Slappy World series.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:W]]

* WhamLine: A lot of the twist endings are presented in this manner; doubly so if it's the last sentence of the book.
** ''Welcome to Camp Nightmare'': [[spoiler:[[TomatoSurprise "It's a very strange planet called Earth."]]]]
* WhatCliffhanger: Practically every other chapter.
* WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong: This verbatim quote, and numerous variations of it, is often uttered by characters who are about to do a task that usually will end in disastrous results later on.
* WhosLaughingNow: Ricky at the end of ''Calling All Creeps'', when he decides to [[spoiler: become the Creep Commander for real, and all of his bullies will end up being his slaves.]]
* WithFriendsLikeThese: Given that a lot of the protagonists are {{Straw Loser}}s, often enough their friends turn out to be total dicks who will sell them out, turn on them, or abandon them in their time of need. Especially terrible friends include Chuck and Steve from ''The Haunted Mask'', Roxanne from ''My Best Friend Is Invisible'' and Adam from ''The Blob That Ate Everyone''.
* WorldOfJerkass: Every book has at least one jerk. But the one that fits this trope the best out of all of them is easily ''Calling All Creeps'', in which everyone, except Ricky and Iris, are all assholes.
* WorthlessYellowRocks: In one of the strangest cases of this, considering that the U.K. has a Finders Keepers law about finding ancient coins and treasures in real life, [[spoiler:a cab driver doesn't recognize the money that Eddie and Sue pay him as gold. While it may be plausible for him to think they're playing a joke on him, the U.K. values such treasures]].
* WorthyOpponent: The Masked Mutant considers Skipper this, because he knows everything about him and no other superheroes were able to defeat him.
* WouldHurtAChild: By virtue of the protagonists always being kids or preteens, nearly all the villains are perfectly willing to harm children -- some even make them their primary targets.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Y]]

* YouHaveToBelieveMe: A ''very'' common staple of the series is the protagonist discovering the book's main villainous threat, telling people, and having them dismiss them. One of the short stories is even called ''Ya Gotta Believe Me!''

[[/folder]]

%%# ''Literature/FifthGradeZombies''
%%# ''Literature/JudyAndTheBeast''
%%# ''Literature/SlappyInDreamland''

* PuppetPermutation: This happens to the protagonist of ''Night of the Puppet People''

* AbusiveParents:
** Downplayed, but Ian Barker's father in ''Slappy Birthday To You'' drives him out to an abandoned museum in the middle of nowhere as a birthday "surprise" and hires actors to scare him -- then laughs at Ian's resulting distress -- though it was not out of pure malice. His parents also tell him and his sister to be nice to their cousins, because his cousins are going through tough times, even when they know that their cousins are being downright to mean to them. It is worse for Ian though, because no one believes him when Slappy comes alive and starts doing all the mean things in front of everyone, his father, sister, and cousins eventually believe him though.

* AIIsACrapshoot: The premise of ''Frankenstein's Dog''.

* UndercoverCopReveal: In ''Here Comes the Shaggedy'', [[spoiler: Saul, a supposed Swamp Hermit, turns out to be an FBI agent who has come to investigate the eponymous monster.]]