History Literature / ShiversMDSpenser

* ReducedToDust: [[spoiler:How the Orco's finally defeated; after being overpowered and failing to capture Paul and Anthony before midnight, it then crumbles into dust for good]]. How ''that'' works isn't really explained.

* WasOnceAMan: [[spoiler:It turns out the Orco used to be a human pirate in the 16th Century, seeking a magical FountainOfYouth in Pinzolo. He murdered all his men to keep the fountain's powers for himself, only to be cursed into becoming a monster called the Orco and can only feast on the flesh of the innocents]].

** For an artist example, cover illustrator Eddie Rosebloom obviously has a skeleton fetish. Besides the numerous cover art depicting [[CoversAlwaysLie nonexistant animated skeletons]], Rosebloom also sees fit to include skeleton motifs on random books, like the lock of "The Locked Room" or a lantern's flames on "The Secret of Fern Island". You can even play "find the hidden skull" on covers of "The Awful Apple Orchard", "The Haunting House", "The Animal Rebellion", "The Thing in Room 601" and "Your Momma's a Werewolf".

* BaitAndSwitch: [[spoiler:Nicole discovered the truth of the Fowler family's curse that their members were transformed into dolls before their deaths, and realized her sister Casey had suddenly gone missing. Then, Nicole finds a doll that looks ''like Casey'' on the attic's floor... rushing out, Nicole realized it's too late as she stumbled across a previously-undiscovered tombstone bearing Casey's name. CueTheRain, as Nicole begins to collapse in tears over losing her sister to the Fowler's doll curse and regretting every mean thing she had said to Casey in the past. Eventually the rain stops, and then a still-human and very-much ''alive'' Casey suddenly shows up asking what is Nicole doing out in the rain]].

* BatScare: The bird variety, Nicole and Casey was briefly swarmed by a flock of barn swallows when opening one of the attic's doors, but then the birds heads out through a nearby open window.

* CobwebOfDisuse: The passage leading to the long-abandoned attic is filled with spiderwebs, considering it's been hidden from public view ever since UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar (there's a dusty, moldy American flag with less than 50 stars on it). Nicole and Casey's attempts at exploring got themselves covered in dust and cobwebs, and looking quite untidy when their mother calls them for lunch.

* LivingToys: [[spoiler:The toys in the attic come to life and loiter around the attic when nobody's around, with Nicole and Casey coming back and surprised to see the toys have moved since where they left them]]. Turns out to be a ghostly example akin to a twisted, supernatural version of ''Toy Story'' -- those toys used to be deceased humans.

* OutlivingOnesOffspring: [[spoiler:What the tragic backstory of the new house's former owner, Franklin Fowler, amounts to be -- losing his wife, children, ''grandchildren'', unable to bear with the pain, Franklin then travels to Salem to seek assistance of a witch, to keep his family alive forever as dolls]].
* SecretRoom: The titular location is sealed off from the public, and can only be accessed by finding a hidden passageway -- which leads to a locked door anyways. Nicole and Casey tries picking the lock, but eventually has to give up when their mother calls them for dinner, and when the sisters brought it up their father claims the house ''doesn't'' have an attic.
* SpookyPainting: The new house has a study with a huge portrait of its former owner behind the main desk, glaring at anyone who enters with an expression that's equally angry, ferocious and sad. It freaks Nicole out when she first saw it, and said portrait is painted in such a way that Nicole could feel it ''watching her'' even as she's exploring the study.
* ToyTransmutation: [[spoiler:The dolls who are actually spirits of dead people that were turned into dolls after a the house's owner, Franklin Fowler, begged a witch to keep his dead loved ones with him somehow]].

* AllMythsAreTrue: As Jason and Snake Eyes are on their way out of the Florida bayou, the former having accidentally lost his way (while trying to flee from Snake Eyes whom he mistook to be a murderer) Snake Eyes then narrates an old Indian legend about a pair of Seminole Indians who entered the Everglades and disturbed an old Indian Curse about the forest coming to life and were later found dead with vines around their necks. While historians are baffled as to how they actually died, Snake Eyes claims the Everglades' plants is ''alive'' and the Seminoles must've disturbed the local vegetation. Turns out Snake Eyes was ''right'', the plants are indeed sentient and ''royally pissed'' that Jason's botanist mother is intending to convert the Everglades into a fertilizer research facility.

* ChekhovsGun: Early in the story, Jason's mother tells him a bunch of facts about several plants in the Glades, including some trivia about how traveler's palms will store water in their fronds. Naturally her stories bores Jason, but later when Jason is stuck to some plant goo and surrounded by killer plants, he recognized one of them as a traveler's palm, where he then remember his mother's anecdotes and breaks part of its fronds for the water to free himself.

* GreenAesop: Jason's botanist mother, whose experiments leads to all the mess in the story, eventually learn not to destroy the environment for money.
* IWantMyMommy: Jason's kid brother, Timmy, said this in-verbatim several times when he's pursued by the Everglades' killer plants. Then again, he is a kid stuck in a forest trying to kill him.

* MinimalistCast: The entire story is set in the thick Florida rainforest, with Jason and his brother Timmy trying to survive on their own. The hermit Snake-Eyes shows up sporadically, while the boys' mother dissappears halfway through before coming back in the last chapter.
* RedHerring: Most of the story seems to mislead Jason -- and the readers -- that the creepy one-eyed hermit, Snake Eyes, who lives in a cabin at the edge of the forest and is often seen [[MacheteMayhem with a machete]] is a murderer out to get Jason's family. Nope -- Snake Eyes is a good man, and it's the plants which want them dead for destroying the environment.

* NeverSmileAtACrocodile: Besides killer plants, Jason and his brother also have to contend with crocodiles in the Florida bayou, with a MortonsFork moment when the two boys are chased by plants and reaching a river full of crocodiles. They escaped by hopping over the crocodile's backs, somehow.

* ShoutOut: The book references ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' at multiple points. Jason and his family are from Kansas, and at several points lines from the film is quoted in-verbatim, like Jason telling his mother "I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore" early on. It gets really blatant with Jason's narration in the final page: "As Dorothy would've said, ''There's no place like home''!"
* StabTheScorpion: When Jason sees Snake Eyes for the second time -- as he is ''fleeing from him'' (believing Snake Eyes to be a murderer after his family) Snake Eyes have a machete with him, which he swings at Jason... past his ear, killing a poisonous snake about to bite Jason and pulling him away. At this point Jason realize Snake Eyes is actually an ally.
* StickySituation: An instance ''not'' played for comedy, but the living plants tend to leave behind sticky green goop everywhere their vines touch. Initially it's some gunk on Jason's dresser when some plants stole his lucky rock, but later the plants attack en masse covering most of the family cabin in green goo. Jason at one point got his foot stuck on some of the goo and was nearly devoured by the plants until he broke a traveler's palm for water in the fronds.
* VineTentacles: The living plants uses these to assault Jason and his family, trying to grab them for their intrusion, and the final battle have Snake Eyes hacking those vines aside while saving them.

* AgonyOfTheFeet: Amber had a splinter running into her big toe while showing her new friend Kelly around the house. Luckily, Kelly comes prepared with a first-aid kit.

* FloorboardFailure: Amber and David realize the new house the moved into isn't all that neat when David stepped through a broken floorboard on the staircase.
* FullNameUltimatum: Whenever Mrs. Elliston calls Amber "Amber Elliston", Amber knew she's going to be in trouble.
* GhostlyGoals: [[spoiler:The ghost of Helen [=McAfee=], who discreetly reveals herself to Amber and haunts her. And in the process, get Amber to reveal the truth behind Helen's death -- that she's not killed by her sister, Hannah, like the rumours claimed, but by her own crush]].

* MurderTheHypotenuse: This ''seems'' to be the backstory leading to the death of Helen [=McAfee=], who shares a crush with Hannah with a student named Jim, leading to Hannah pushing Helen into a river and MakeItLookLikeAnAccident. [[spoiler:But it was subverted by the ending revelation when the now-elderly crush, Jim, shows up -- it turns out ''he'' was the one who killed her in an AccidentalMurder moment, and is afraid to reveal the truth before going into hiding. Hannah gets the blame but was unable to be acquitted due to lack of evidence, and Helen's goal is to clear ''her sister's'' name]].

* ScaryFlashlightFace: Amber's kid brother, David, pranks her when they moved into their new house by sneaking through a back door and suddenly appearing to his sister in the dark, shinning his flashlight up his face while smiling at her. Amber is NOT amused.

** Though not referred by title, Amber turns out to be easily scared, where she's even afraid of [[Film/JurassicPark1993 that movie where a girl is trapped in a kitchen with some dinosaurs]]. David makes fun of her over it.

* AccidentalTruth: Early in the story, Brad and Uncle Bob pranks Winston that the farm is haunted and full of restless animal spirits, before telling him "Gotcha!" -- a day before the farm starts running amok due to a cursed video game.

* CityMouse: The protagonist Winston is a Chicago kid spending the weekends at his Uncle Bob's farm. Naturally he thought it'd be boring, until his cousin Brad shows him there's a computer containing numerous video games he never heard of. He even sounds like a stereotypical 90s city mouse!

* CryingWolf: Because of Brad and Uncle Bob repeatedly pranking Winston when he first checked into their farm, when Brad gets attacked by Demon (a horse) and had his arm chewed badly, Winston's first reaction is telling Brad to cut it out. Until he noticed his cousin's arm is badly bleeding.
* DeathbringerTheAdorable: Subverted with the farm's horse, "Demon", whom Brad claims is a sweet, tame, gentle animal... only for Demon to suddenly go crazy and attack Brad, biting his hand with enough force to draw blood. It turns out the curse game console had something to do woith Demon's misbehaviour, but otherwise Demon's perfectly fine.

* LovableJock: Brad, who often plays rough with Winston and likes pranking his nerdy cousin, but turns out to be a rather chill guy Winston easily gets along with, even carrying Winston to safety during the animal assault when the latter trips and hit his head on a table. They liked calling each other "Jockhead" and "Geekhead" affectionately just for fun.
* TheMostDangerousVideoGame: The book features a cursed (...or something, it's never really explained) computer game that causes all animals in the immediate vicinity to go violently insane. In order to reverse the effects of the game (which was purposely {{Unwinnable}}, being the kind where you just have try and survive for as long as possible) Brad and Winston had to wipe it from the hard drive and destroy the physical copy.

* PostFinalBoss: Given how a cursed video game catridge figures into the plot, the supposedly benevolent horse named "Demon" serves this role. After Winston incinerates the game's physical copy, the chickens, goats, cows and other livestock reverts to normalcy, but as Brad and Winston comes out their hiding-place they're suddenly attacked by the still-hostile Demon, chasing them across the house. Turns out Demon is still under the game's control, and Winston needs to uninstall it from Brad's computer before deleting all virtual saved files to finally stop the rebellion.
* ScaryShadowFakeout: Winston gets spooked on his second night in the farm by a silohoutte of an ax-wielding madman in the yard, which turns out to be some bushes and a piece of farming tool left unkept in the branches.
* ShoutOut:

* SwarmOfRats: As a sign that it's not ''just'' domesticated animals affected by the curse, Brad and Winston managed to flee from the legions of animals overunning the hall into the attic... only to be assaulted by the dozens of rodents living in there, forcing Brad and Winston to escape to the roof.
* {{Tuckerization}}: M.D. Spenser dedicated the book to someone named "Bob", whom shares a name with Winston's Uncle Bob.

* ZergRush: When the crazy farm animals begins assaulting the house en masse, the first to get in are the chickens (thanks to the goats eating away the fence). Who then tries overwhelming Brad and Winston through numbers.

* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: The first of ''many'' instances in ''Shivers'', and Brittany's brother Eric might be one of the ''worst'' examples. His EstablishingCharacterMoment sees him stealing his sister's locket, containing the photo of their biological father whom Brittany is attached to, to annoy his sister before throwing it into an airplane's trash bag when Brittany demands him to return it. He does mellow out later in the story.
* BerserkButton: Bill unexpectedly lose his cool, calm demeanor and suddenly lashes out at Eric, when Eric curiously tries picking up one of the keys in Bill's many rooms. Specifically, the huge bronze one -- [[spoiler:because that's where he kept the portraits of his previous, murdered wives]]. Bill's sudden reaction and unprovoked raising of his voice causes Brittany to do a SpitTake with her lemonade.

* BrotherSisterTeam: Towards the ending, Brittany and Eric went from annoying each other to [[spoiler:working together to expose Bill Beard's dark secrets to their mother, and teaming up to attack Bill when he found out the truth]]. In the final chapter both Brittany and Eric are having a ball together at their Uncle Ian's place.

* TheDogBitesBack: [[spoiler:Unlocking the titular room and revealing the portrait's of Bill's murdered wives somehow also release their spirits. When Bill finds out Brittany had exposed the truth, he tries chasing her down only for his past wives' ghosts to swarm over him]].
* EvidenceDungeon: The titular locked room contains the portraits of Bill's past wives -- his ''victims''. Each portrait having a single golden wedding ring dangling underneath, attached by a [[CreepySouvenir long rope made of the victim's hair]].

* MirrorScare: The ghost of Bill Beard's first wife makes herself known to Brittany via a mirror, causing Brittany to suddenly jump. And it happens again when Brittany tricks Bill into entering her room and looking under her bed -- when Bill stood up next to the room's mirror, Brittany catches several ghosts of Bill's past wives reflected upon.

* SpookyPhotographs: Before moving into Bill's house, Brittany looked upon her precious locket with the photo of her father and mother from their younger days. A supernatural warning then occurs, with Brittany's mother on the photo suddenly having a red mark drawn across her neck before quickly turning to normal. [[spoiler:At the end of the story, Brittany and Eric's parents have reconciled, and Brittany looks at her locket again... only to see Bill Beard -- supposedly killed by his ghost-wives -- appearing in the locket's photos. Which makes her decide to throw away the damn thing for good]].
* TragicKeepsake: The not-yet-dead variant. Brittany keeps a locket containing the photo of her biological father, whom she was close to, everywhere she goes. Her brother, Eric, who preferred their mother actually tries ''throwing'' the locket away early on.
* WickedStepmother: Bill Beard is a Wicked ''Stepfather'' to Brittany and Eric, and a family exterminator who claimed at least six past families.

* CryingWolf: Lynne, the prank-loving younger sister, repeatedly play tricks on Caitlin (like fooling Caitlin into believing she fell down a pit and making Caitlin think there's a giant monster in their new house's dusty floor) that when Lynne starts crying as a drawer spookily shuts on her finger, Caitlin thinks it's another one of her pranks. But then Caitlin realize Lynne's finger is [[{{Fingore}} swollen and throbbing]], and ''something'' is not right with their new house.

* MagicAIsMagicA: The house has clearly defined rules about what it can and can't do: It can't use the owners' belongings for violence, but it can make them move. Anything that's part of the house is fair game as a weapon.

* BigBrotherInstinct: Sara visibly freaks out when realizing something's amiss in the orchard. Daniel merely assures her that if anything else happens, he will be there to protect her. Much later in the story, Daniel saw his sister stuck in a large basket full of apples, on a conveyer belt leading to the pulping machine's gears, and risks his life to save her. [[spoiler:Which is great and all, too bad it's not enough to keep them both alive for the entire story]].

* ConveyorBeltODoom: Sara was unexpectedly caught in one of these after falling into a barrel of apples, leading towards the factory's cider-making machine, with Daniel leaping on the belt trying to grab and pull her to safety. It ''appears'' to have worked and both siblings escapes from the machine, [[spoiler:until the final chapter's revelation]].

* GhostlyChill: [[spoiler:The last chapter where Daniel takes Sarah's hand have him realizing how weirdly cold her hand is. Then he reach the orchard and finds out they're ghosts]].

* InvisibleToAdults: How the pranks from the orchard's ghosts works; Daniel and Sara can see their family car loaded with apples, that the cider has somehow turned to blood, and the car is somehow ''invisible'', but their parents couldn't see a damn thing. Daniel instead decides to tell Sara it's not worth trying to convince their parents and deal with the ghosts themselves, [[spoiler:which bites them back ''hard'' in the ass in the end]].
* OutlivingOnesOffspring: [[spoiler:Daniel and Sara's parents, Bob and Mary. With both their children pulped alive by the orchard's cider plant, they'll be quite curious as to where their children dissappeared in the dead of night before their corpses are presumably discovered by the plant's workers the following morning]].

--> "But if I had known what was going to happen at that old cider mill, I would have been glad to just stay at home and go to school. At least the school doesn’t have ghosts that try to kill people."

** Daniel got separated from Sara while the two are exploring the orchard, only to find her in the cider plant, observing how the machines work with fascination. Daniel reacts with disgust at apples getting graphically squashed in the crusher and drags Sara away, causing Sara to call him a jerk for spoiling her fun, making Daniel remark he "wouldn't care Sara is his sister and [[spoiler:it's fine with him of the plant's machinery wants to grind her up, flesh and bones and all]]."
** It gets really blatant in the picnic scene, with the father telling Daniel and Sara the orchard's alleged backstory; the ghosts are supposedly kids around their age, who died from falling into the cider-making plant.

* TemptingFate: For most of the story's first half before everything goes wrong, the parents would jokingly warn Daniel and Sara to "Watch out for ghosts!" and "The orchard might be haunted!" when the duo tried exploring the cider mill by themselves. It turns out the prchard really ''is'' haunted, and it ends in the ''worst'' outcome possible.

* YankTheDogsChain: The second-to-last chapter ends with Daniel successfully rescuing Sarah from being pulped by the factory's machines, and escaping back to their parents, where they then had a celebratory dinner for surviving their vacation. [[spoiler:Then, the last chapter have Sarah waking Daniel in the dead of night, to tell him she discovered ''something else'' and asks him to follow her to the mill. Where their bodies are located, having failed to escape the mill after all]].
* YouCanSeeThatRight: When Daniel comes back to his family's car and saw that it's somehow loaded with apples, he asks Sara this question.

* AreWeThereYet: Asked by Paul in the first chapter, on the drive from Milan airport to Pinzolo. Neither his dad or Uncle Frederico answered.
* BigEater: Paul had quite an appetite, which makes him carsick after having too many sandwiches at the airport. It does help when he reached the Albertis' ancestral home in Pinzolo though, since they make ''huge'' meals of local Italian food for lunch and dinner daily.
* BlindingCameraFlash: Meeting the Orco face-to-face, a desperate Paul realize the only thing he had is his camera. Luckily, the flash still works, which scares away the Orco.
* BreatherEpisode: For readers who wants to check out ''Shivers'' in numerical order, this is a relatively light-hearted adventure without any genuinely horrifying moments, and the Orco is a ''mildly'' scary encounter near the end. It's appropriately sandwiched between two unnecessarily dark and gory entries, ''The Awful Apple Orchard'' and ''The Curse of the New Kid''.
* CassandraTruth: Paul meets a hairy humanoid creature who's presumably the Orco early on, only for his Italian extended family to dismiss him as meeting a local, hairy wild-man. He eventually managed to convince his cousin Anthony of the Orco's existence, but failed to obtain any actual evidence (while getting himself and Anthony into trouble for losing his grandmother's prized ring in the process). Finally, ''finally'', Paul and Anthony confronts the Orco, Paul having his camera along which works well enough to drive the creature away thanks to the flash... only for Paul to find out he forgot to load the film.

* CountryCousin: Paul's Italian cousin and the book's secondary character, Anthony. They spend most of the story arguing which is better, the big city (which Anthony thinks is awesome) or the rural countryside (which Paul prefers).

* DisneyVillainDeath: The Orco was defeated by falling off a snow-covered peak. In ''summer''. But then the same creature returns in ''Shriek Home Chicago''.
* DreamIntro: The first chapter ends with Paul, his father, and Uncle Frederico driving off a cliff. The second begins with Paul's father waking him up, because they arrived at Uncle Frederico's place.
* HairTriggerAvalanche: Near the end before the Orco shows itself, Paul and Anthony somehow triggered an avalanche by ''arguing''. Despite the story being set in summer.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: A skinny, oft-bullied little boy named Timmy visits a carnival mystic who can grant him "any wish he wants". He asks for SuperStrength, which the mystic asks him to reconsider; when Timmy persists anyway the mystic grants his requests, but then things goes wrong.

* DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength: After gaining his new strength, Timmy tests it out by picking on his regular bullies, uses it to impress the audience around a Hi-Striker, excel himself at sports for once and enjoy being the school's center of attraction. But his strength causes him to accidentally break the local arcade's wrestling game and rip a hole in the school cafeteria's juice fountain.

* GangOfBullies: Hank Wilson and his two cronies, Jason and Duane, who delights in picking on smaller kids. As Timmy is the skinniest in class, it makes him a perfect target. Their EstablishingCharacterMoment sees them mugging Timmy ''publicly'' for arcade money.
* MagicMisfire: Timmy at the end of the story tries seeking the mystic who gave him his strength for it to be removed. Unfortunately, said mystic has left, but her daughter, a novice sorceress, could still help Timmy out. She did manage to remove Timmy's strength but [[spoiler:accidentally gives Timmy the mind of a wolf in the process, which Timmy doesn't find out until a day after]].

* YankTheDogsChain: Timmy decides his excessive strength is too much for him, making him an outcast among his peers and his parents upset, and so decides to visit the same mystic to have his strength removed. Alas, the mystic left ahead of time, with the mystic's daughter -- a novice sorceress -- the only person capable of undoing the spell. The novice sorceress warns Timmy that while she ''could'' cast a reversal spell, but it might come with the side-effects of giving a person animalistic traits. Timmy decides to take the risk and surprisingly, the reversal spell works, and Timmy's normal again [[spoiler:but then he starts howling in class]].

* AllJustADream: [[spoiler:What this entire mess of a story ultimately turns out to be -- a nervous, oft-bullied kid named Lucas was about to transfer into John F. Kennedy Middle School, and wonders what would happen if he's bullied in his new school as well. And then dreamt he had powers to give bad luck to everyone around him leading to all sorts of chaos]]. Interestingly, there's another chapter halfway through where Lucas had a DreamWithinADream attending the funeral of two people he killed with misfortune.

** A bully named Billy picks on Lucas on the bus for no reason, just as Lucas' bad luck powers started developing. So Billy gets his entire left hand snagged and snapped by the bus' doors, which mysteriously slams close before he can get out -- as always, M.D. Spenser doesn't shy away on graphically describing the details. "His arm hung from his body like some useless rag..."
** Lucas' regular bully, Huff, had both his legs and arms mangled after Lucas caught Huff attempting to force himself upon Ruby.
* BadLuckCharm: Lucas Lytle is a ''living'' example of this trope, who can cause accidents and mishaps to bullies around him. And then Lucas' power goes over his head and he begins threatening people who did nothing wrong to him or offends him in incredibly minor ways...
* BaitAndSwitch: After the gym incident where Lucas' bad luck caused another student named Ralph to fall on Coach Collins, the next chapter is a ''funeral'' attended by the whole class. Before everyone decides Lucas is indeed the cause of every accident so far, and decides to go TorchesAndPitchforks on him... then the following chapter sees Lucas jumping up from a CatapultNightmare, revealing the funeral part is AllJustADream. [[spoiler:In the last chapter, the ''whole'' story turns out to be a nervous, nerdy Lucas imagining all kinds of awful things that ''could'' happen when transferring into John F. Kennedy Middle School, making the funeral bit a DreamWithinADream]].

* TheDogBitesBack: Comes along with a story that's practically a ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'' homage. Everyone who picked on Lucas ends up suffering in increasingly horrible ways, the moment Lucas realize he can literally create misfortune and inflict it on his bullies and hated teachers. By the last few chapters, he's practically the King of the Students, with Billy -- the ''first'' bully who suffered the effects of Lucas' powers, but incidentally one whose body is in one piece -- carrying Lucas' bag for him using one good arm.
* {{Fingore}}: Miss Swimmer, another teacher who's nasty to Lucas, had her fingers burnt off and fused together when she tries grabbing Lucas for not paying attention.
* TheFoodPoisoningIncident: The supernatural version; Lucas made an entire cafeteria's worth of kids suffer from food poisoning (''loads of graphic vomiting included'') because some nerds made fun of him. By the next lesson, gym class, there are only six students present due to everyone else getting hospitalized.
* GangOfBullies: Literally ''every'' male character with a name is out to pick on Lucas, including the geeks and bespectacled nerds. Even the girls indulged in making fun of Lucas, notably when four bullies (Jason, Greg, Dylan and Pete) tries ganging upon Lucas in front of their cheerleader girlfriends who simply laughs.
* GettingSuspendedIsAwesome: After Principal Peterson's alleged "suicide", Lucas, being the prime suspect (as everything terrible that happened the past few days occurred on his bullies and despised teacher) receives a two-week suspension from school. It turns out to be a bit of {{unishment}} since he can play video games and watch television all day -- besides smoking in his room, which his parents didn't know about.

* OnlyChildSyndrome: Lucas wonders if life would be different if he had a brother, commenting that he doesn't like being an only child and is outnumbered by parents by default. The only perks is that he gets his own room.

* PsychicAssistedSuicide: Suffered by Lucas' last victim, Principal Peterson. Who jumps off his office's window after Lucas messed with his mind.

** Principle Peterson when interrogating Lucas after the locker incident, which sees Huff hospitalized.

* TiedTogetherShoelaceTrip: A bully named Leon who tripped Lucas over suffers this fate when Lucas' bad luck powers cause his shoelaces to mysteriously entangle, causing Leon to fall. Unlike Lucas who's unharmed by his fall, Leon on the other hand lands his head against a desk corner. And as usual, M.D. Spender spares no details ("blood was squirting in the air before his head hits the floor...")
* VomitChainReaction: Two bullies, Arnold and Wanda, makes fun of Lucas in the cafeteria, oblivious of Lucas' powers (this was ''after'' the incident with Billy and Leon by the way). So Lucas' powers causes Arnold to throw up on Wanda. And ''then'', the other nerds hanging out with Arnold suffers the same fate -- cue every remaining kid in the cafeteria making a run for the exit.

* FatteningTheVictim: The Studervant cannibals have done this to any skinnier victims they lured into their house, with Josh finding his maths teacher, Mrs. Warner, who mysteriously dissappeared from the school some time ago locked in a cage in the Studervant basement, surrounded by plates of uneaten food.

* ImprovisedLockpick: For the second time since the very first book, ''The Enchanted Attic'', a barrette (this one belonging to Josh's sister Megan) is used to pick a lock, specifically the door of the cage the Studervants locked Josh in. This time it works.

* SmartPeoplePlayChess: Michael, the brains to Josh's brawn, is introduced playing chess ''by himself''. Josh tries joining him and the duo starts hanging out, and later on Michael would constantly reference his chess skills in conversation.
* TitleDrop: At the end of the eleventh chapter, and from Michael's shrill, overly-loud sister Gladys. It ends with an exclaimation point instead of a question mark though.

* BatScare: As Kenny, Steph and everyone tries leaving the lighthouse after getting freaked out by the spooky gramophone, they stepped into a dark corridor which turns out to be filled with bats. Cue everyone fleeing from a thick flock of bats.
* CruelTwistEnding: [[spoiler:Kenny, Steph and Steph's sisters managed to escape the lighthouse and cross the bridge leading out of Fern Island. Once they made it to the other end, they realize the ghost-boy stalking them had followed the gang, all the way, and doesn't want them to leave Fern Island]]. The story ends right there, resulting in an UncertainDoom situation.

* HostileWeather: After crossing the bridge leading to Fern Island's lighthouse, and unexpected weather storm strands Kenny and Steph on said island. Which just happened to be haunted by a ghost-boy.
* LighthousePoint: The plot is kicked off when the daredevil protagonist Kenny and his tomboy best friend, Steph, decides to challenge each other to investigate an abandoned lighthouse on the edge of the titular island, reputedly haunted by a young boy who drowned while fishing years ago, accessible only by riding their bikes over a pier. And then a storm hits and strands them inside that lighthouse.
* NewspaperBackstory: While investigating the abandoned lighthouse, Kenny and Steph comes across a bunch of old newspaper clippings reporting of the missing boy.
* OminousMusicBoxTune: The lighthouse has a gramophone that serves this purpose. When Kenny, Steph and gang tries looking for clues, the gramophone, supposedly unused for ages, suddenly starts playing creepy music scaring everyone -- and then Steph deduces it's trying to communicate with them.
* PrefersGoingBarefoot: One of Stephanie's younger sisters, Becky, has the habit of removing her shoes every time she's indoors, just to "feel the floor of a new environment". Even if said indoors happens to be a dusty, junk-filled room of an abandoned lighthouse untouched for decades. It gets the gang into trouble when they realize something's amiss and attempts to flee -- but Becky whines that she left her shoes behind and need to go back.

* AllWebbedUp: After slaughtering well over fifty spiders (revealed in the spider court as ''53'') in the attic, Freddy goes to the kitchen for a snack only to be attacked by a human-sized arachnid. Who proceeds to web Freddy up and carry him to the titular Kingdom to be trialed for the spider massacre. It turns out Lumpy's ''already'' there.
* AlternateCompanyEquivalent: Has one in the ''Literature/BoneChillers'' novella, "Attack of the Killer Ants", considering both series are ''Goosebumps'' knockoffs made in the 90s. Two bullies and a victim are dragged underground by giant insects (spiders here instead of ants) who wants them to suffer for killing their regular-sized counterparts, and must figure a way out. The characters here aren't related by blood though (whereas one of the trio from "Ants" is a BigBrotherBully) and unlike the ants, the spiders happens to be sentient.
* AllJustADream: [[spoiler:The story ends with Freddy and Lumpy barely escaping the spiders... before Freddy suddenly wakes up, having dozed off while watching a documentary about spiders]]. But the next day, [[OrWasItADream Freddy noticed a marked change in Lumpy's personality]].

* BullyAndWimpPairing: The two main characters, protagonist Freddy and his supposed "best friend" Lumpy shares this dynamic, with Lumpy occasionally playing rough on Freddy for no reason.

* GettingSuspendedIsAwesome: Freddy and Lumpy both received a three-day suspension at the story's start. They didn't care the least since they can watch all the television they want, though Freddy is punished by his mother to clean the spiders-filled attic.
* GiantSpider: Freddy and his friend Lumpy gets captured alive by sentient, gigantic talking spiders who decide to teach the boys a lesson after they saw Lumpy killing one of their (ordinary-sized) brethren by pulling out its legs.
* IdioticPartnerConfession: The story begins with Freddy and Lumpy at the principal's office, having gotten into trouble for throwing firecrackers around in school. Both deny, but when the principal said there are younger student witnesses, Lumpy immediately threatens to beat up whomever ratted him out. Cue Freddy commenting under his breath, "Nice going, Lumpy."
* ReformedBully: Freddy is implied to have become one by the story's conclusion, stopping Lumpy from picking on Tommy Malloy -- despite ''partaking'' in the bullying at the story's start. He even made sure "Lumpy doesn't pick on anyone when he's around".
* SociopathicHero: Both Freddy and Lumpy are easily the ''worst'' protagonists featured in any ''Shivers'' books. Besides playing potentially harmful pranks on other students and regularly beating up a wimpier classmate, they also liked sneaking out their houses into construction sites to steal building materials and graffiti their names on walls, having pilfered enough planks to build their own tree-house. Freddy even ''celebrates'' him slaughtering over fifty spiders with a snack and commenting it's been quite a day, killing spiders and beating up wimps.
* SpidersAreScary: Freddy would like to remind the reader how much he despise spiders for "being creepy". When realizing the attic -- which his mother asks him to clean for her -- is filled with arachnids, Freddy immediately goes on a spider-killing massacre using tons of bug spray.
* TalkingAnimal: The giant spiders who abducted Freddy and Lumpy ''can'' talk, and condemns the two for killing a normal-sized spider in front of a jury filled with giant arachnids.

* AesopAmnesia: After Harry returned the Mayan King's skull and lifted the titular curse, he then decides to steal a Mayan necklace.

* CreepySouvenir: The story is kicked off by the protagonist, Harry, finding the skull of an ancient Mayan King (depicted on the cover art) while trekking across the jungles of South America, and decides to keep it. And then triggers a centuries-old curse.

** Laura starts the story being sick of the chatter on the bus returning from swim camp before internally monologuing how much she hates crowds. And then she gets left in the back when all the girls rushes down the bus, and is the last one to get down, easily establishing her as a meek, quiet introvert.

* PirateParrot: The Massey's neighbor, Miss Pincher, owns a parrot who allegedly belongs to a sailor. And is naturally a FowlMouthedParrot due to being the pet of a rough seaman and spends most of it's days in and out of bars. It's in fact introduced greeting the main characters with a "Hold it right there, buddy, or I'm gonna kill you!"
* ProneToTears: Besides being a scaredy-cat? Laura cries a ''lot'', for no reason.

* ShoutOut: Befitting the "haunted new pool" theme, Laura and Matt watched a rerun of ''Film/{{Jaws}}'' at one point. [[KidsShouldntWatchHorrorFilms Laura stopped watching when the shark starts eating people]].
* TokenMinority: Matt's friend, Martin Littlefeather, introduced around one-third into the story and is the token Native American.

* HostileWeather: Alec and Mary were stranded in the arcade belonging to Alec's Uncle Louie, thanks to an unexpected hurricane hitting the coast of New Jersey's (fictional) Seaport City making it dangerous for them to run across the beach. And then they realize some unknown elemental monster is emerging from the seas.
* MonsterDelay: The literary equivalent. For most of the story it seems like Alec and Mary is stalked by some elemental entities from the seas who wants them dead, but it took 80 pages (in a 122-page novella!) before the titular beast finally makes an appearance. And even then, the book's description of the beast is somewhat vague (face in the water, liquid hands made of waves, etc).
* MurderWater: The titular beast turns out to be sentient ocean waves which can assume a monstrous form or manifesting as a face in the ocean's waves, and instead of originating from beneath the boardwalk like the title claims, actually hails from the seas. It can even sprout tiny hands made of water to attack Alec and Mary.

* EekAMouse: Samantha gets spooked by what she thought was a mouse when checking into her cabin, which leads to her bunk-mates Jill and Melissa screaming as well. And then Satin came over and reveals the mouse is an oversized dust ball.
* {{Goth}}: Satin which [[DarknessVonGothickname may or may not be her real name]]. Despite being a preadolescent, she is described as being unhealthily pale, with dark mascara and lipstick, multiple piercings in both ears, and BoyishShortHair that is dyed jet black. She also claims to be [[GothGirlsKnowMagic proficient in magic]], but her attempt at using it left a lot to be desired.

* MoodWhiplash: The final chapter has a darkly funny one. [[spoiler:The ghosts of Camp Wil-He-Waha has finally moved on to the afterlife, with Samantha waving goodbye to the camp. It's all warm and fuzzy... until Samantha's brother Rex suddenly pranked her. Cue Samantha commenting ''someday she's gonna kill that pest''.]]
* QuietingTheUnquietDead: [[spoiler:Towards the ending, the ghosts of the puritans haunting Camp Wil-He-Waha finally appears to Samantha in person, where they revealed the truth that ''they'' are responsible for the Natives' massacre. And are BarredFromTheAfterlife because of their crimes, until they found a living soul to confess the facts. Once Samantha got the rest of the camp to perform a forgiveness ritual, the ghosts may then move on in peace]].

* BaitAndSwitch: The story implies that Iggy's mother, over fifty percent through her werewolf transformation process, had devoured Iggy's new dog, what with Iggy finding the kennel destroyed and a bloodied, torn collar that belonged to said dog. [[spoiler:In the final chapter after Iggy successfully fed his werewolf-mom the potion that reverts her to human, Mole and Jesco then shows up, bringing with them Iggy's dog, still quite alive]].
* DreamingOfThingsToCome: Iggy had a nightmare where he sees a werewolf wearing his mother's clothing bursting into his room and attacking him, the night after his mother gets bitten by a wolf. Upon waking up, he caught his mother feasting on raw bacon... turns out his mother's human-to-werewolf conversion has started.
* EasyAmnesia: [[spoiler:After Iggy's mother returned back to normal, she conveniently forgot everything that happened when she was turning into a werewolf, including feasting on raw bacon, trying to eat Iggy's dog, attempting to maul her son and destroying most of their cabin's interior. Which is probably a good thing]].
* FindTheCure: The protagonist, Iggy, and his bestie Mole needs to find a method to reverse the lycanthropic virus affecting the former's mother before she permanently becomes a were-animal. Said cure involves hunting down the very wolf that bit her, boiling it's fur in water for a potion, and forcing Iggy's mother to drink it. [[spoiler:Apparently splashing a few drops down the throat would suffice]].
* InconvenientItch: When Iggy and Mole gets cornered by a wolf, for some baffling reason Iggy suggests they stand still, and the wolf would ignore them. Somehow it works, until a random mosquito lands on Iggy's nose.

* KidsDrivingCars: After Iggy's mother loses control of herself and becomes feral, attacking everyone in sight, Iggy and Mole makes a run for it by driving away in the Rockwell's family car. Unfortunately Iggy have never driven before and crashes shortly down the road, but luckily he then meets Jesco.

* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Like the title states, werewolves figures into the plot, when Iggy's mother gets bitten by a wolf who turns out to carry a lycanthropic virus. Her conversion from human to werewolf comes under the SlowTransformation variety, and it's up to Iggy and his friend Mole to figure out how to reverse the process -- turns out they need to track down the wolf that bit her, mix it's hair with water, and ''force'' Iggy's mother to drink the concoction before her transformation becomes permanent.
* OutOfCharacterAlert: Iggy's usually calm, level-headed rockstar mother suddenly raises her voice on him and Mole for trying to show concern over her wounded arm foreshadows her turning into a werewolf.

* SlowTransformation: How the werewolf virus affecting Iggy's mother works. A day after she's bitten, Iggy catches her eating raw bacon, shaving mysterious hair that started sprouting all over her face, and then she starts developing a mood swing and shouting at her son for showing concern over her, at which point Iggy and Mole realize something's wrong. [[spoiler:She's close to becoming an actual werewolf by the last few chapters, but luckily the potion Iggy and Mole brewed in the last minute works]].

* BreadEggsBreadedEggs: Before the mother leaves Liam and Diane alone in Hotel Marlowe for three days, but promises she will call every night to check on them.

* MrExposition: Prior to the last few chapters, Liam and Diane runs into a random, unnamed bellboy supposedly tasked with cleaning their room, only for him to narrate the backstory of the allegedly haunted Room 601 (to two kids he didn't even know?) before leaving. Said character never reappears for the rest of the story and is just some plot device for the characters to know what's going on, especially considering the ''very next'' chapter after the bellboy left has the hotel's ghost suddenly appearing and trying to attack Liam and Diane.
* PeekABooCorpse: Subverted -- Liam getss spooked by what he thought was an actual human skull falling out a box when snooping through the hotel's storeroom. His (much more level-headed) sister Diane picks it up, and shows Liam it's a ''candy'' skull made of sugar, a leftover from a recent ''el Día de los Muertos'' festival. (Somehow all this takes up '''six''' pages).
* UndeadChild: The ghosts haunting the titular room consists of two children, around Liam and Diane's age.

* BigFancyHouse: Both the Killer Mob and the Muscle Gang have their headquarters in gigantic mansions, and the book's climax is a massive shootout in the latter's. Joey-as-Babyface lampshades on "why does gang leaders always prefer tacky, oversized mansions as residences".

* ImpostorExposingTest: Joey-as-Babyface is subjected to one by the Killer Mob after they suspect something is amiss about their getaway driver, by quizzing Babyface what's his favorite drink. Joey made a lucky guess, "Root Beer", and that turns out to be correct.

* MobWar: The Killer Mob and Muscle Gang appears to be in one involving territorial dispute over control of Miami, with the kid protagonist Joey ''trying'' to get himself involved.

* VillainInAWhiteSuit: While Joey is in his "Babyface" persona, he meets the bosses of both the Killer Mob and Muscle Gang, both of them which are described as wearing white suits. Their underlings in comparison either wears black or casual outfits.

* CassandraTruth: Martin's repeated attempts at convincing his mother that he didn't trash the house, empty peanut butter all over the fridge and slash her tires doesn't work ''at all'', since his father is nowhere around and Martin's kid brother Farley is too young to cause such destruction. [[spoiler:Turns out Martin ''technically'' did made all the mess -- albeit in the form of a werebeast-like creature when he fell asleep, before reverting to human form afterwards without his memory]].

* FallGuy: In an interesting inversion of the AnnoyingYoungerSibling trope that keeps popping up in 90s defanged horror books, Martin's kid brother Farley would repeatedly take the blame for any mistakes his older brother did, with Martin apologizing to Farley after the act for taking the blame. But when Farley took the blame for the peanut butter incident, despite being ''deathly allergic'' to peanuts, the mother suspect something's amiss.
* GrayRainOfDepression: It started raining the morning after Martin, his brother Farley and his mother prepares to go to the beach... and realize someone had slashed and punctured their family car's tires with a Swiss Army Knife. And that Martin is to blame as the most plausible suspect because his knife went missing as well. The family did ''not'' have a good day to say the least.

* MinimalistCast: Consisting of Martin, his brother Farley, his parents (the father who doesn't appear in person until near the end of the story) and the local sheriff Johnson. Most of the stroy revolves around Martin with his brother and mother around, although there are some unnamed cops appearing as randos in the end when [[spoiler:the police managed to figure out a way to cure Martin of his condition]].
* MirrorScare: [[spoiler:Martin finally comes face-to-face with the monster terrorizing his family when he looked into a bathroom mirror late at night -- because he ''is'' the monster. This was the moment his Cholera Metamorphosis begins worsening and taking over himself]]...
* NetGun: [[spoiler:In the final confrontation, the police uses a net launcher to capture the fully-hulked-out Martin before bringing him before a tall mirror]].

* RageAgainstTheReflection: [[spoiler:How Martin is cured of his Cholera Metamorphosis -- the police brings him before a tall mirror where he sees himself, goes berserk, and attacks his own reflection. Having destroyed "himself", Martin then calms down and reverts to human form]].

* VisitByDivorcedDad: Martin and his kid brother Farley comes from a family where the parents are divorced and the brothers lived with the mother; the father's impending visit is portrayed as a big deal for the siblings. [[spoiler:In fact, it was Martin's father who took actions to protect the family, in contrast to the ignorant mother -- right up to coming up with the plan to uncover and cure Martin's monstrous transformation]].

* AdultsAreUseless: Averted to hell and back where the protagonists' parents [[spoiler: immediately went to the police when their kids went missing and were instrumental in taking down the kidnappers running the amusement park for good.]]
* AllPartOfTheShow: Bill and Barbara were narrowly run over by an out-of-control tractor in Dreamland's entrance, only for the tractor to be revealed as a harmless {{hologram}}. Later on a revolver-wielding outlaw robot draws a gun on them, but that turns out to be a BangFlagGun.
* AmusementParkOfDoom: Dreamland is home to where park attendants are [[spoiler: kidnapped and sealed inside robotic shells so they can perform the same task perfectly over and over again.]]
* BeardOfEvil: Alex's main henchman and the leader of the Dreamland goons has a thick beard, and is the one leading his mooks in kidnapping people for the parks' UnwillingRoboticization. He's in fact referred the entire story as "bearded man".
* TheCavalry: [[spoiler:In the last chapter, Bill and Barbara managed to escape Dreamland's animatronics facility and made their way to the parking lot, only for the villains to catch up. But then, the sound of police choppers suddenly beats down into the area]].

* NeverTrustATitle: No, the main characters Bill and Barbara didn't get themselves trapped in a literal DreamLand. The titular location is an AmusementParkOfDoom.
* ExactEavesdropping: Bill and Barbara managed to infiltrate Dreamland's secret lab, and conveniently overhears a conversation on how the amusement park needed ''twins''. Which is, of course, ''them''.
* HoldingTheFloor: After Bill and Barbara are taken in by the Dreamland thugs, before they're taken to meet Dreamland's founder Alex, Bill attempts to pull this off, spouting nonsense and going on an off-topic ramble that he might die of diabetes during the wait... while his sister Barbara tries pickpocketing the lead goon. [[spoiler:It doesn't work, the twins were caught on the spot and would've been killed if Alex didn't specify his minions that he wanted fresh twins ''[[IWantThemAlive alive]]'']].
* OutgrowingTheChildishName: Barbara doesn't like being called "Babs", and a RunningGag is her parents or brother calling her that leading to Barbara correcting them.

* RecordedSplicedConversation: Bill and Barbara -- using one of Barbara's ideas -- managed to fool Dreamland security [[spoiler:before they're converted to music-playing robots]] by claiming they're rusty and needed to practice their instruments, and with a tape recorder stolen by Barbara, makes the villains believe they're still stuck in a recording booth, playing their instruments in a loop. Meanwhile, the twins found an escape via AirVentPassageway.
* ReedRichardsIsUseless: Alex and his goons discovered a way to perfectly convert organic matter into animatronics (and it's even reversible), and what use do they have with this scientific breakthrough? [[spoiler:Abducting humans and converting them into robots for his own amusement park, of course]].

* AreWeThereYet: The first chapter has Nathaniel's kid sister Amanda asking this question on the drive to Camp Spotlight. And then playing word games with her brother when he replied there's still some way to go. She's insisting on one last game, but they've arrived.

* CoverDrop: When Nathaniel finally comes face-to-face with the Goat-Boy, staring into his tent with glowing red eyes and blood dripping from it's mouth, as depicted on the cover art. Which predictably has Nathaniel fleeing in terror. [[spoiler:And then, it turns out it's a taxidermied head Austin and Andrew are using to prank the juniors]].

* GhostStory: Inevitable, given the story's camp setting. The Goat Boy legend is notably the subject of one such story made up by the seniors to scare campers, but things quickly goes out of hand.
* KidsAreCruel: Used as part of the Goat Boy's (allegedly true) backstory; a young boy named Kenny was bullied and rejected by his fellow campers in Camp Spotlight that he tries retaliating by setting the camp on fire, only to accidentally kill a junior magician and earn him a curse transforming him into a Goat-Boy.

* CurseCutShort: The PG-version happens during Samantha's dinner with the DImswells.

* IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace: The titular location, Devil's Marsh. According to Adam, allegedly people who ventured in it doesn't make it out alive -- either dragged off by ghosts, or chomped by alligators.

* KnockKnockJoke: Samantha and Adam has a brief exchange like this when Adam barged into Samantha's room without knocking. In all fairness, said room uses a drape as a door.

* MagicalNegro: Nadina is able to sense Sam has the power to see ghosts and tells her how to exorcise Nana's spirit.
* MyBelovedSmother: Nana was a grandmother with an abandonment complex. She tried to keep her grandchildren, Sylvie and Sam's dad, with her even as adults and pretty much disowned them when they left to have lives and families of their own. Not helped in that she raised them from childhood and pretty much was their only mother figure.
* NeverSmileAtACrocodile: Besides the supernatural, Devil's Marsh is also infested with alligators who sometimes venture out the marsh. Adam recalls an incident a few years ago when a stray gator devoured a baby right in front of the mother; later when Samantha explores Devil's Marsh with her cousins they ''do'' get attacked by another gator, which is implied to be controlled by the marsh's spirits.
* TomboyishName: Samantha would prefer to be addressed as "Sammy", correcting any other characters who called her otherwise.

* WillOTheWisp: Samantha is spooked by a mysterious fire that flared from the ground while exploring Devil's Marsh, making her freak out and leave. When she tells Adam about it, Adam narrates an old ghost story about a car accident occuring within the marsh and the ghostly fire is supposedly a supernatural reenactment of the incident.

* MonsterRoommate: While initially spooked by Carly, Virginia later realized Carly is a FriendlyGhost who only wants company, and so plays with Carly every night, befitting the title.
* NewHouseNewProblems: The story begins with the main characters moving from Alabama to New York, and then the protagonist Virginia realize there's ''something'' in her bedroom. Something supernatural, who wants to play with her.

* OurGhostsAreDifferent: The little ghost-girl, Carly, could only communicate with Virginia due to being InvisibleToAdults, and displays the ability to shift from ghostly to solid form. She looks like a transparent human in the former, while her latter looks ghoulish and horrifying; incidentally she can only physically interact with Virginia in her solid form.

* QuietingTheUnquietDead: [[spoiler:Carly the titular ghost was actually Virginia's deceased sister, unable to rest due to absence of a proper funeral after being stillborn. Virginia, and her parents, decides to hold another funeral, allowing Carly to move into the afterlife]].
* RichesToRags: Virginia's parents used to be wealthy socialites, but after some bad financial decisions it turns out the entire family is running on inheritance money which will dry up soon -- hence the parents' decision to move from uptown Alabama to a cramped New York apartment. [[spoiler:After Virginia and her family managed to pacify Carly, allowing her to rest in peace, Virginia's father made a massive breakthrough in the medical industry with a new invention that saves ''stillborn'' babies, earning millions and making the family wealthy again]].

* BaitAndSwitch: One chapter ends with "Bubbie falling into a bottomless black pit..." (after stepping through the doors of a long-abandoned WWII bunker) only for the next to start with Bubbie getting out of a shallow pit, barely a meter deep, unharmed. Turns out she fainted in shock when she slipped and ''thought'' she's caught in a deep fall.

* FreeRangeChildren: Exaggerated to the point of being a ''parody'', but Bubbie's parents leaves her with her two-year-old toddler brother, ''alone'', in the middle of France shortly after they moved in. Patrick narrowly escapes death when he's nearly hit by a train, and Bubbie's parents somehow had the gall to [[NeverMyFault punish]] ''[[NeverMyFault her]]'' [[NeverMyFault for the accident]].
* FullBoarAction: Bubbie and Jean-Luc gets attacked by a wild boar while in the French mountains. They escaped, but Jean-Luc gets gored in the leg in the process.

* GypsyCurse: The book's main antagonistic force is a ghostly gypsy woman named Elena, who's entombed alive during World War II and escaped imprisonment. Most of her powers are gypsy tricks that causes accidents or materializing objects from nowhere to taunt her victims.
* HereWeGoAgain: [[spoiler:Bubbie managed to defeat the ghost-gypsy whose curse leads to all the mess throughout the story. When she got home, she finds out her parents are moving again, to Germany this time, next to a ''haunted'' castle.]]

* BlindWithoutEm: Molly, like every stereotypical school nerd, wears NerdGlasses and couldn't see a thing when she dropped them. It was brought up precisely ''once'' in the story however and seems to be an InformedFlaw, when Jane won over Molly's friendship by helping the nerd retrieve her glasses; it was never brought up again during their misadventures in the mine shaft despite the drama that could happen like losing glasses at the worst possible time.

* FireForgedFriends: While the protagonist, Jane and her bestie Lindsey are already besties who "thinks like sisters" right at the start, they're grouped together in camp with two other girls, the timid Molly and the bully Chelsea, both whom they didn't want to have anything to do with. Until they ventured into a haunted mine shaft and are forced to co-operate before emerging as pals.
* FriendlyGhost: [[spoiler:As it turns out, the Armonds -- the couple who haunted the mines -- are quite chummy ''as long as'' their treasures are untouched. They even saved Lindsey from falling down a deep pit by levitating her to safety]].
* RollercoasterMine: The four girls managed to escape the mine shaft using one of these, which can somehow function after being unused and collecting rust for five decades.
* SatelliteCharacter: Jane's bestie, Lindsey, who literally doesn't interact with anyone else in the story or have any independent personalities of her own. Her only characterization is "MC's best friend to hang out with" and a reminder that the book has more than one named recurring character.
* TreasureMap: Jane procures one leading into an abandoned mine supposedly containing treasure of the wealthy Armond Family, but it was unfortunately ruined when Chelsea spilled her nail polish over it. They do manage to deduce where the entrance is though.

* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Literal example, but the timid, gawky Molly is deathly afraid of snakes. Chelsea, being Molly's main bully, takes advantage of her phobia by pranking Molly with a wire hanger making the latter thought she's stalked by snakes. It eventually leads to a moment when Molly needs to [[FaceYourFears overcome her phobia]] when the group runs across the mine's floors covered in snakes.
* WorthlessTreasureTwist: Jane and friends eventually locates the mine's treasure, only to be trapped in the mines and stalked by the Armonds, the couple whom the treasure used to belong. They're forced to leave it in order to secure an escape.

* CoversAlwaysLie: The pill-spawned monsters comes in a variety of forms, but none of them resembles the gremlins-like green creature on the cover art, though it could be assumed there's at least one gremlin spawned off-page that the protagonists doesn't encounter.

* MonsterMash: From a mummy to a vampire and a Frankenstein's creature and a Creature of the Black Lagoon-expy. All of them are hostile and intends to devour Philip and friends.

** Right in the first chapter, the book establishes Philip as a nerd by introducing him reading ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' and claims he's a fan of classic novels like ''Literature/MobyDick'' and ''Literature/TheGrapesOfWrath''. Wait a minute, [[EntertainmentAboveTheirAge a 12-year-old enjoying The Grapes of Wrath?]]
* One that crosses into WholePlotReference: A bunch of ragtag kid led by a protagonist who's a monster nerd must do battle with creatures lifted straight from old-school Hammer Horror films. ''Film/TheMonsterSquad'', anyone?

* TooDumbToLive: Taken to the extreme with Philip, who knew the pills can turn into monsters upon contact with water, after seeing a pill transforming into a mummy. So what does he do? Attempt to bring the pills elsewhere while riding his bicycle, ''in the rain''. A bunch of pills fell out his shirt pocket in the process, and chaos ensues. NiceJobBreakingItHero at its finest.

* AbusiveParents: The two protagonists, Patricia and Sam, learns that their dad and aunt grew up with a physically abusive stepfather.

* BerserkButton: Dolores completely loses it and snaps at her niece and nephew when they brought up her stepfather, after their first time-travel and a glimpse of the 60s. Given the stepfather is an abusive douchebag, it's entirely justified.

* BigSisterInstinct: [[spoiler:Dolores Carson -- the elder sister of Mr. Carson, the protagonists' father -- sacrifices ''everything'' she has so that her younger brother can go to college to study law. Mr. Carson became a successful lawyer after graduation and has a happy family, but Dolores lives the rest of her life alone in her hometown and in poverty. In fact, when Patricia and Sam unintentionally witnesses the past and saw their father and aunt as children, Dolores back then was already protective of her brother]].

* DownerBeginning: The story begins with Patricia and Sam having breakfast in the weekend, during heavy rain with only their housekeeper around. Before receiving bad news that their parents were caught in a horrible car accident and they're being sent off to their Aunt Dolores whom they barely knew.

* GranolaGirl: Patricia and Sam travels to the past and is surprised to find out their wizened Aunt Dolores used to be one, way back in the 70s, where she's partaking in a rally protesting against the Vietnam War.
* MentalTimeTravel: Patricia and Sam finds a wardrobe containing their Aunt Dolores' old clothes, dating back to the 50s, 60s and so on. They decide to play around dressing up at random, only to realize putting on era-specific clothes will bring them back to said era and re-live the past (including an era ''before'' they're born), though they're only capable of observing how the past unfolds unable to interact with the events.

** Anthony is freaked out by a furry brown hand suddenly clapping his shoulder, thinking it's the Orco but turns out to be someone's gloved hand. Something similar happened to Paul in the previous book, where the hand actually belonged to a shaggy mountain-man.

* ChildEater: The Orco ''especially'' delights in feasting on children, a trait unseen in the previous book. When re-encountering Paul for the first time the Orco even said how much he's going to enjoy eating Paul.

* DreamIntro: Just like in ''Troll'', the first chapter have Paul suddenly seeing the Orco hiding in his closet before he realize it's a dream.
* InvisibleToAdults: This sequel finally reveals why couldn't any of the adult characters see the Orco in the previous book's CassandraTruth moments; he could only be seen by kids around Paul and Anthony's age.
* NotAfraidOfYouAnymore: [[spoiler:In the climax, Paul and Anthony, cornered by the Orco, finally decides to fight back with whatever they have, starting with Anthony using a hidden pocketknife, and later a rolling pin. At which point the Orco is revealed to be a DirtyCoward and begins fleeing from the boys]].

* ReducedToDust: [[spoiler:How the Orco's finally defeated; after being overpowered and failing to capture Paul and Anthony before midnight, it then crumbles into dust for good]]. How ''that'' work isn't really explained.
* ReturningBigBad: The Orco is back, and while the previous book made it ambiguous whether the Orco is aware of it's actions or merely an animal behaving according to instincts, in this one it turns out the Orco is perfectly sentient.

* StupidEvil: Basically, the Orco. The monster is quite content in it's home on the Italian mountains, and in the previous book it survives falling off a cliff while stalking Paul and Anthony, two kids ''fleeing'' from it that the Orco barely knew. Rather than staying put in Italy, somehow the Orco feels the need to stalk the duo by sneaking aboard Anthony's flight to Chicago, and hunt down the two in a big city it's unfamiliar with. [[spoiler:Of course this gets the Orco killed at the end]].

* CassandraTruth: Julie and Lucy fought off the Bog Girl the first time, only for Julie's father to walk in and realize the room's covered in mud caused by the Bog Girl's prints. Julie's attempts at explaining "the Bog Girl did it" earns her a grounding.

* DismembermentIsCheap: While chased by the Bog Girl, Julie briefly splashed the contents of a teapot on the Bog Girl, which somehow causes the creature's entire arm to melt off. Julie thought she did found the Bog Girl's weakness, only for the creature to regrow another longer arm as a replacement. [[spoiler:Later on Lucy saved Julie as the Bog Girl is about to smother Julie alive by whacking the creature's ''entire'' head off with a huge stick. The Bog Girl promptly regrows a new cranium]].
* EyeOfNewt: Julie and Lucy decides to attempt luring away the Bog Girl with an ancient Gullah ritual, which requires ingredients like chilli, sulfur, shells of a rotten egg, feathers of a chicken killed on a Sunday, and ''pain''. The last one makes Julie grow wide-eyed.

* OurGhostsAreDifferent: The Bog Girl is a ghost made of ''mud''. Who can't leave the bog unless she's inhabiting a body made of swamp slime. According to the native Gullah girl Lucy, ''all'' Gullah ghosts works on the same principle as the Bog Girl -- powered by the swamp's waters, and becomes increasingly stronger in the presence of rain.

* QuicksandSucks: How the Bog Girl became who she currently is; when alive, she's a spoiled child named Eugenie who drowned in the swamp's quicksand pits. Julie managed to convince her new friend Lucy to explore the Bog Girl's swamp, only to lose a shoe to a sudden quicksand pit that appears out of nowhere.
* ShoutOut: When searching through Eugenie's old stuff, Julie and Eugenie randomly decides to re-enact a few scenes straight out of ''Film/GoneWithTheWind''. Julie even name-drops Scarlett O'Hara.

* SweetBaker: Julie's new friend, Lucy, is a baker and the nicest character in the book. Becoming chums easily with Julie, when Julie takes leave with her newly-bought loaf of bread Lucy eagerly sneaks a few ginger cookies as token of friendship.
* TemptingFate: Julie had so much fun looking through Eugenie's stuff that she wished her little guest (the Bog Girl, duh) "doesn't show". She ''did''.

* CatScare: Nico gets one from a ''ghost'' cat in the farmhouse. Which he assumes to be a normal cat, but that was before Nico and Anna enters and discovered they're stuck with the cabin's spooky inhabitants.

* HoldingTheFloor: When Nico is separated from Anna and cornered by the ghosts, he attempts to buy time by talking, firstly reminding the ghosts "You're dead!" and telling them "Maybe I'm the one who killed you!" He did his best buying time while reaching for the ghosts' shotgun, discarded aside. His one-sided conversation somehow lasts for ''five'' pages, [[spoiler:only for the ghosts to grab the shotgun anyway, but then Anna arrives on her horse and pulls a BigDamnHeroes moment]].
* JacobMarleyApparel: How the ghosts in the farmhouse are described, having the same injuries they sustained while alive in ghost forms. The house's owner notably had half a face missing and still capable of speech, the ghost-boy Daniel is incapable of speech due to being killed by having his throat ripped off, whilst his sister Sara is missing a brain from a hole behind her head.
* MinimalistCast: Consisting of Nico and his sister Anna, and a farmhouse haunted by four ghosts (five if the cat counts).
* MysteriousMist: The titular farmhouse makes an appearance when the protagonists, Nico and Ana, rode into a fog that appeared out of nowhere before stumbling into a mysterious, haunted old farmhouse.

* AlliterativeTitle: A triple "W" in '''W'''eirdo '''W'''aldo's '''W'''ax Museum

* RisingWaterRisingTension: Variant in the climax: [[spoiler:The Misers, the last family not entombed by the Keeper, are stuck in a room filling with wax. It seems like they're done for, but then Billy realize the ''walls' are made of wax, too, and they can punch their way out]].

* SpottingTheThread: When the tour's visitors start visiting, one family at a time, Billy realize something's amiss, despite his miser father's persistence to finish the tour. It was then Billy looked at some of the exhibits, and realize there's something ''familiar'' about the [[WaxMuseumMorgue wax sculptures]].

* WardrobeWound: While escaping the wax museum, Billy briefly stops to complain his favourite "Rude Dudes" punk rocker T-shirt has been ruined by the wax.

* AllMythsAreTrue: Earlier in the story before things goes wrong, Tom tells Frank the rumours from his class that the mall is supposedly haunted because it was built atop an animal graveyard, and that restless animal souls stalks the building after the sun sets. Frank predictably scoffs at the stories, but once Frank unintentionally got him and Tom trapped in said mall they realize they're cornered by hordes of undead animals.

* BigBrotherInstinct: Frank, the elder brother protagonist, towards Tom, after they're trapped in a closed shopping mall filled with malfunctioning escalators, acid-filled fountains, and hostile animal spirits.

* CoversAlwaysLie: It's already the last book of the series, you wouldn't expect illustrator Eddie Rosebloom to miss out sticking some animated skeletons that doesn't appear at any point of the story on it's cover, do you?

* EverythingTryingToKillYou: The mall's animal spirits can only be escaped by playing through a possessed video game console, and naturally every animal that appears are hostile -- including the hamsters, snapping turtles and canaries.
* ExtremelyShortTimespan: The main events occured from late evening to before midnight.

* IntimacyViaHorror: One of the positive things Frank have to say about the Slasher Film, ''Revenge of the Savages'': his date, Deanna, spends most of the runtime burying her face into his shoulders!
* KidsShouldntWatchHorrorFilms: Tom realize his brother Frank is going on a movie date, and wanted to come along. Frank complies (even though he really shouldn't, but doesn't want to miss his date with Deanna), and it turns out the movie is so scary and gorntastic that Tom spends most of the movie comically covering his eyes. That was right before they're locked in the mall and stalked by animal spirits...
* IKnowMortalKombat: Tom's favourite video game is a fictional one called ''Animal Pursuit'', a game where the player flees from killer animals and survive as long as possible. Somehow, his skills in playing said game turns out handy when guiding his brother Frank out of the building. Gets even weirder when Tom realize he can ''control'' and move his brother like a video game character!

* TheMall: The story is set in one that's haunted, due to being built atop a pet cemetery. Brothers Frank and Tom (more of Frank dragging Tom along since he's babysitting the latter and doesn't want to miss out a date) sneaks out to watch a movie in said mall late at night, only to be trapped when the building closes and realize they're stalked by restless animal spirits.
* MissionControl: Frank and Tom comes across a video console where they could see the mall's interiors via cameras. Frank decides that being the older brother who unintentionally dragged Tom into all this mess, he'll find a way out to get help while staying in contact with Tom using stolen walkie-talkies, with Tom informing Frank where to go while watching him.
* TheMostDangerousVideoGame: Somehow, the mall's animal spirits managed to possess a control panel, turning it into a video game console playing Tom's favourite game, "Animal Pursuit". Frank and Tom eventually found that console, and realize the animals wants them to play their way out to escape.
* OrWasItADream: The closing chapter. Frank wondered if the entire episode at the mall is just some bizarre hallucination, until he realized a pair of scissors he was carrying -- and briefly used to defend himself against a ghost-cat -- is inexplicably covered in blood.
* RaisingTheSteaks: The mall in the story is haunted by undead animals roaming the floors after dawn. Frank and Tom needs to survive an entire night after getting locked in the building.

* ShowWithinAShow: Frank and his date, Deanna (and Frank's brother Tom, whom he's supposed to be babysitting but eventually dragged along for the ride) watches an R-Rated movie called ''Revenge of the Savages'', late at night when his parents expects him to be at home. Based on the description, it appears to be some 80s SplatterHorror homage.
* {{Tuckerization}}: The opening dedication said the book is "For Lindsay and Frank". It's unknown who Lindsay is [[note]]probably someone related to M.D. Spenser, as there's a different Lindsey in ''Camp Fear''[[/note]], but Frank is the book's MC.
* YouJustHadToSayIt: The brothers got themselves stuck in a dark, spooky mall, and Tom remarks "It's almost like the mall is..." before Frank stops him from finishing with "haunted". Then cue the undead animal spirits.

%%Folders for books without individual tropes exist on the page, but have been commented out until tropes are added to them.

* ExtremelyShortTimespan: Mostly averted, since majority of the stories occurs within the course of several days, but there's a few (see the individual folders) where the main story happens in a single day - or sometimes just an evening. Some of the AllJustADream books ''might'' count, too, since the protagonist couldn't have been unconscious or asleep for too long but the main story feels a few days long.

* AccidentalTruth: Early in the story, Brad and Uncle Bob pranks Winston that the farm is haunted and full of restless animal spirits, before telling him "Gotcha!" - a day before the farm starts running amok due to a cursed video game.
* AscendedToCarnivorism: The first sign something's wrong with the farm? The horses suddenly developing a taste for blood and biting people. Followed by roosters and sheeps.

* HealthyInHeaven: [[spoiler:This appears to be the case with Sara in the final chapters; despite spraining her ankle while fleeing the orchard, unable to walk without Daniel's assistance and barely able to pedal back alive, when she wakes Daniel in the dead of night to re-visit the plant she can walk and run just fine. Then it turns out both Daniel and Sara had died in the pulping room - it seems like Sara's leg injury is offset the moment she realized she's a ghost]].

* EvidenceDungeon: Josh's discovery of a hall loaded with portraits and photographs - some of them black-and-white dating to the Civil War - indicates how long the Studervant family has been cannibalizing on their guests. Right up to Josh seeing a picture of himself taken from a football game a year ago, and the revelation that he's been stalked for ''quite a while''.

* GoodNewsBadNews: Before checking into the hotel, Liam and Diane's mother presents them with two different news, asking them which they'd like to hear. The siblings both reacts differently - Diane asking for the good news, Liam asks for the bad. Then the bad news turns out to be good because their mother needs to visit their Aunt Carol and the two can have the hotel all to themselves for three days.

* PeekABooCorpse: Subverted - Liam getss spooked by what he thought was an actual human skull falling out a box when snooping through the hotel's storeroom. His (much more level-headed) sister Diane picks it up, and shows Liam it's a ''candy'' skull made of sugar, a leftover from a recent ''el Día de los Muertos'' festival. (Somehow all this takes up '''six''' pages).

* CassandraTruth: Martin's repeated attempts at convincing his mother that he didn't trash the house, empty peanut butter all over the fridge and slash her tires doesn't work ''at all'', since his father is nowhere around and Martin's kid brother Farley is too young to cause such destruction. [[spoiler:Turns out Martin ''technically'' did made all the mess - albeit in the form of a werebeast-like creature when he fell asleep, before reverting to human form afterwards without his memory]].

* MirrorScare: [[spoiler:Martin finally comes face-to-face with the monster terrorizing his family when he looked into a bathroom mirror late at night - because he ''is'' the monster. This was the moment his Cholera Metamorphosis begins worsening and taking over himself]]...

* VisitByDivorcedDad: Martin and his kid brother Farley comes from a family where the parents are divorced and the brothers lived with the mother; the father's impending visit is portrayed as a big deal for the siblings. [[spoiler:In fact, it was Martin's father who took actions to protect the family, in contrast to the ignorant mother - right up to coming up with the plan to uncover and cure Martin's monstrous transformation]].

* RecordedSplicedConversation: Bill and Barbara - using one of Barbara's ideas - managed to fool Dreamland security [[spoiler:before they're converted to music-playing robots]] by claiming they're rusty and needed to practice their instruments, and with a tape recorder stolen by Barbara, makes the villains believe they're still stuck in a recording booth, playing their instruments in a loop. Meanwhile, the twins found an escape via AirVentPassageway.

* BloodOath: Downplayed version, but Adam tries sharing his secrets about the allegedly haunted Devil's Marsh with Samantha while insisting they make a blood swear. He then borrows a needle from his mother's sewing kit - cue Samantha and Adam rubbing their fingertips and mixing two drops of their blood together.

* CreepyCemetery: The titular marsh also doubles as an ancient cemetery where Bart Island used to bury the dead. It's now long-abandoned and allegedly haunted - of course Samantha and her cousins ends up exploring that place.

* IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace: The titular location, Devil's Marsh. According to Adam, allegedly people who ventured in it doesn't make it out alive - either dragged off by ghosts, or chomped by alligators.

'''Samantha''': Maybe you could just say it. Like, you know - ''knock knock''.\\

* KillItWithFire: [[spoiler:Turns out the monsters'weakness - all of them - is fire, which reverts them back to pill forms. Though it does make sense considering the monsters are grown in a lab]].

* BigSisterInstinct: [[spoiler:Dolores Carson - the elder sister of Mr. Carson, the protagonists' father - sacrifices ''everything'' she has so that her younger brother can go to college to study law. Mr. Carson became a successful lawyer after graduation and has a happy family, but Dolores lives the rest of her life alone in her hometown and in poverty. In fact, when Patricia and Sam unintentionally witnesses the past and saw their father and aunt as children, Dolores back then was already protective of her brother]].

* HellHotel: An interesting case as the hotel itself is mostly fine, the protagonist's mother has even been there before. The danger comes from the titular room, where a hotel maid murdered their children and their ghost haunts the room.
* WholePlotReference: The book takes clear inspiration from ''Literature/TheShining'', with there being someone driven crazy and attempting to murder their family.

* FreeRangeChildren: Deconstructed version, but Daniel and Sara (respectively twelve and eleven) are free to explore the huge orchard, whose facilities includes various gift shops, miles and miles of apple farms without fences, and a factory with pulping machines for making cider in a plant whose entrance is unchecked. It's dangerous even ''without'' taking the ghosts allegedly haunting said orchard into account, yet the parents allow both Daniel and Sara to wander about without raising an eyebrow. [[spoiler:This naturally results in both Daniel and Sara getting minced by the grinding machine after wandering a little too far]].

* CoversAlwaysLie: The RiseFromYourGrave moment depicted on the cover? Nowhere in the book.

* AndThenJohnWasAZombie: [[spoiler:And then Daniel and Sara are the orchard's new resident ghosts, having been killed in the cider room. They end the story plotting to play pranks on the next family that visits said orchard in the same way they were pranked by the orchards' previous ghosts, with Daniel hoping "they have kids too"]].

* {{Foreshadowing}}: One of the first chapters have Daniel delivering this line, which speaks ''massive'' volumes [[spoiler:once you got to the final chapter]].
--> "But if I had known what was going to happen at that old cider mill, I would have been glad to just stay at home and go to school. At least the school doesn’t have ghosts that try to kill people."

--> ''Mi-''chael''! I've got a ''bone'' to pick with you!"

* SpellingForEmphasis: Laura's overly-environmental conscious brother, Matt, chides her for ''not'' dropping an empty Coke can in the recycling bin using this method. [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Caps included.

* ShoutOut: Befitting the "haunted new pool" theme, Laura and Matt watched a rerun of ''Film/{{Jaws}}'' at one point. [[KidsShouldntWatchHorrorFilms Laura stopped watching when the shark starts eating people though]].