The Goosebumps Series 2000 book where graveyard ghouls attack.
Spencer Kassimir lives in Highgrave, home to a cemetery supposedly populated by the living dead. One night, he and his friend Audra visit the cemetery and discover the legends are real... and the Graveyard Ghouls are out to steal the bodies of the living.
It was reissued in the Classic Goosebumps line in 2015 as a tie-in to the first movie.
This book provides examples of:
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Downplayed with Jason as this applies more to Remy and Charlotte, who tend to fight during dinner.
- The Bully: Frank Foreman and Buddy Tanner, who go as far as to tie Spencer to a grave, which allows Oswald take over.
- Covers Always Lie: The cover depicts the ghouls as zombies, but they are closer to ghosts.
- Darker and Edgier: The Ghouls get pretty intense with their actions, such as lighting houses on fire and threatening people with axes.
- Foreshadowing: During dinner, Jason asks what metamorphosis is. When it is explained to him, he thinks it would be cool if their cat Duke could change into something else. While it's not quite a transformation, Duke is later possessed by Spencer, and thus he now has the spirit of a human inside him.
- At one point, the ghouls dance around Spencer. This hints at the reveal that dancing defeats Oswald and Martin
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: After defeating the ghouls, Spencer and Audra accidentally possess each other's bodies.
- Foodfight!: Spencer's younger siblings Remy and Charlotte have a tendency to partake in these, which means he has to duck a lot during dinner.
- Grand Theft Me: The plot involves some ghouls stealing Spencer's body.
- Here We Go Again!: Spencer and Audra defeat the ghouls, but they accidentally end up in each others' bodies.
- Meaningful Name: The town of Highgrave, so named for the graveyard on on a hill that overlooks the town.
- Puppy Love: Audra is a love interest for Spencer.
- Weaksauce Weakness: The ghouls are defeated by just dancing around them.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Oswald plans to destroy Spencer's body once he is done with it.
