The Goosebumps Most Wanted book where a kid gets forced by Slappy to do evil.
Jackson Stander is a good kid. He's every parent's dream, much to the annoyance of his troublemaker sister Rachel. One week they visit their grandfather, who collects all sorts of oddities. One of them is our old pal Slappy, who Jackson ends up taking home by accident. Soon after, he finds himself being compelled to go against his nature and do evil things. And he starts to enjoy it! Can he figure out his behind all this? And why does Slappy start calling Jackson his son?
This book provides examples of:
- Always Second Best: Rachel seems to feel this way, as she is always being told to act more like Jackson, which she resents.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Rachel, who is always making fun of Jackson for being a goody two shoes and trying to put things on him.
- Butt-Monkey: Poor Jackson just can't seem to catch a break.
- Chekhov's Gun: Jackson likes playing a game on his phone, and it is later discovered that the chirp that comes from the game is what Slappy uses to control him.
- Cool Teacher: Mrs. Hathaway, who is well liked by the kids due to being pretty with good fashion sense.
- Covers Always Lie: The cover makes it seem like the title will be literal, with Slappy somehow having an offspring. Instead, the '"son" is the protagonist, who is being controlled by Slappy.
- Downer Ending: Jackson is 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.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: This is the first Slappy book since Slappy's Nightmare to do something different with the formula. In this case it's the fact that it's about Slappy controlling someone instead of doing the bad deeds himself.
- Grounded Forever: At the end of the book, Jackson is grounded for the rest of the school year.
- In-Series Nickname: Rachel calls Jackson "Robot" due to how perfect he seemingly is.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Slappy now has the power to control people with the sound of a chirp.
- Parental Favoritism: Unlike most examples in the franchise, this book the protagonist be the favorite while his sister is generally dumped on by the parents.
- Revenge of the Sequel: The title Son of Slappy, which again isn't numbered.
- Rule of Three: Jackson gets grounded not one, not two but three times.
- Saving the Orphanage: The protagonist works for a Youth Center which is on the verge of shutting down and he has to help raise money for it. The show he was going to put on for it goes wrong and we never find out if they managed to raise the money.
- Shout-Out: The game Chirping Chickens is a clear parody of Angry Birds.
- Trigger Phrase: Slappy's mind control turns out to be activated by a chirp sound. At first it seems to be only the chirp from a game, but it turns out any chirp will do.
