History Literature / Spinetinglers

* AICronym: The scientists in ''Gimme Back My Brain'' like to give these kind of names to their creations. In the past they made PIG (Position In [=GeoSync=]) and MOUSE (Motorized Universally Sensitive Equipment). The creation at the center of the plot is ARTHUR, which means "[=ARtificial=] life form created on [=THURsday=]".
* AndThenWhat: ''We Wish You A Scary Christmas'' has Shad and Virgil trying to help Emery Slagel when Emery tells them his parents have someone trapped in their basement. When the two boys realize someone really ''is'' in Emery's basement, they debate what to do. Shad figures they should call the police and have Emery's parents arrested, but stops to think about where that'll leave Emery. Shad eventually figures that if the Slagels really are holding someone prisoner in their basement, then Emery deserves better parents and would probably be better off in a foster home.
* AnotherDimension: The four insectoid races are crossing over to Earth from one in ''My Teacher's a Bug'', in order to claim the planet for themselves.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Max in ''Gimme Back My Brain'' fantasizes of having a robot body so can use the strength to become a superhero. He gets a robot body via an accidentally but it's hard to enjoy the robot powers when he also has to deal with how everyone is afraid of him, on top of other dangers.
** Debbi in ''Snow Day'' wants a snow day so she can get out of a test. She gets it but it's not announced until after she's on the bus. They get stuck and it spirals from there.
* BecomingTheCostume: The concept of ''Wear and Scare'', where kids buy some costumes from a mysterious shop, and eventually they turn into the creatures they are dressed as.
* ChristmasEpisode: ''We Wish You A Scary Christmas'', where some kids discover someone is possibly holding an amnesiac Santa hostage.
* CruelCheerleader: ''Curse of the Cheerleaders'' is about a group of elementary school cheerleaders with the power to make anything they cheer come true. [[spoiler:It's actually their uniforms that gives them this power]]. Naturally, the leader of the group wants to use this power to get whatever she wants while the protagonist and newest recruit is horrified and tries to stop her before someone dies. Interestingly, the book avoids going for the expected popularity-based drama with Diane, the main character, expressing her belief cheerleaders should only worry about having fun instead of arbitrary things like popularity and social status.
* DidIMentionItsChristmas:
** ''Billy Baker's Dog Won't Stay Buried'' is set on Christmas, but it's only relevant in one scene and it's not mentioned too much otherwise.
** ''Snow Day'' is set in the days leading up to Christmas, with the kids hoping the schools will be closed due to the weather and their Christmas break starts earlier than usual.
* DirtyCop: In ''Billy Baker's Dog Won't Stay Buried'', one of the cops is part of a religious cult and uses his police powers to block people from leaving town, forcing them to join the church.
* FreakyFridayFlip: ''Gimme Back My Brain'' has scientists creating a robot, and a machine that is meant to copy the protagonists brain into the robot. However, it ends up switching their bodies, and because they don't think anything went wrong, they think the robot is just being weird when it claims to be the real Max. [[spoiler: The twist reveals that it went as planned and the copied brain just assumed it was the real Max.]]
* TheEndingChangesEverything: For most of ''Gimme Back My Brain'', the protagonist has switched bodies with a robot, while the scientists that made it believe that the robot is confused and just believes it is Max. Seems pretty basic but the ending reveals that [[spoiler: they were actually right, and this whole time we were following the robot who believed they were Max, and not Max himself. This puts the rest of the story in a different light, as the robot was powering down as the story went on, all for nothing.]]
* TheGamePlaysYou: ''Your Turn-To scream!'' involves a board game where everything that happens in it also happens in real life.
* HalloweenEpisode: ''Wear and Scare'', where kids are putting together a haunted house for Halloween, and get some eerily realistic costumes. Sam and his family are noted as being very into Halloween.
* HauntedHouse: Played with. The Muhlzae Maze Manor in ''Snow Day'' is designed to look and feel like one, only for Debi to realize that it's more like a carnival fun house.
* HereWeGoAgain: At the end of ''My Teacher's a Bug'', the invading insectoids have all been eliminated or returned to their native dimension. Then Ryan sees another group among the politicians listening to the president making a speech, and thinks the trope name to himself.
* NeverTrustATitle: ''Gimme Back My Brain'' technically revolves a body being taken, not a brain. The protagonist switches bodies with a robot, and thus says "Gimme back my Body" a few times instead.
* TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday: Mr. Slithern's shop in ''Wear and Scare'', which Sam stumbles upon. At the end, [[spoiler: it vanishes when Slithern is defeated.]]
* OhCrap: ''Snow Day'' ends on this note when Debi has a terrifying realization. [[spoiler:What if her freedom from the Maze Manor was the dream she most wanted?]]
* PrehistoricMonster: ''Camp Crocodile'' revolves around a camp being terrorized by a prehistoric crocodile.

* ShoutOut:
** The tagline for ''Substitute Creature'' is [[Film/{{Casablanca}} "Here's looking at you, kid!]]"
** The tagline for ''Check It Out-And Die!'' says that "you'll get more than Literature/{{goosebumps}} when you read this book!"

* ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight: ''Boogey's Back for Blood'' features the Boogeyman who in this book is trapped in a book and is unleashed by saying magic words. He goes around kidnapping people who are releated to a man who trapped him many years ago.
* UnreliableNarrator: It seems like the entirety of ''Gimme Back My Brain'' is narrated by the protagonist, Max, who gets his brain stuck in a robot's body. It turns out [[spoiler: the robot just believed he was Max's brain, and the story actually swapped narrators, and not even the robot knew it. Then after it switches to the real Max, it's hinted that some of what we read didn't actually happen and Arthur, the robot, was lying.]]

* BackFromTheDead: The premise of ''Billy Baker's Dog Won't Stay Buried'', where a kid's dog is put to sleep but returns...along with many other dead pets.

* ScamReligion: The Church of the Kingdom of Resurrected Pet's in ''Billy Baker's Dog Won't Stay Buried'' is an example where the leader doesn't seem to be seeking to scam people, but doesn't really help either. The office mention above however just uses it as a way to scam money out of people, claiming it is for the good for the church.

* DidIMentionItsChristmas: ''Billy Baker's Dog Won't Stay Buried'' is set on Christmas, but it's only relevant in one scene and it's not mentioned too much otherwise.

* TheCheerleader: ''Curse of the Cheerleaders'' is about a group of elementary school cheerleaders with the power to make anything they cheer come true. [[spoiler:It's actually their uniforms that gives them this power]]. Naturally, the leader of the group wants to use this power to get whatever she wants while the protagonist and newest recruit is horrified and tries to stop her before someone dies. Interestingly, the book avoids going for the expected popularity-based drama with Diane, the main character, expressing her belief cheerleaders should only worry about having fun instead of arbitrary things like popularity and social status.

* AICronym: The scientists in ''Gimme Back My Brain'' like to give these kind of names to their creations. In the past they made PIG (Position In GeoSync) and MOUSE (Motorized Universally Sensitive Equipment. The creation at the center of the plot is ARTHUR, which means "ARtificial life form created on THURsday".

%% * HalloweenEpisode: ''Wear and Scare''

* TheGamePlaysYou: ''Your Turn-To scream!'' involves a board game where everything that happens in also happens in real life.

* FreakyFridayFlip: ''Gimme Back My Brain'' has scientist creating a robot, and a machine that is meant to copy the protagonists brain into the robot. However, it ends up switching their bodies, and because they don't think anything went wrong, they think the robot is just being weird when it claims to be the real Max. [[spoiler: The twist reveals that it went as planned and the copied brain just assumed it was the real Max.]]

%% * ChristmasEpisode: ''We Wish You A Scary Christmas'', as well as ''Billy's Baker Won't Stay Buried''.

* TheGamePlaysYou: ''Your Turn-to scream!'' involves a board game where everything that happens in also happens in real life.

* AdultsAreUseless: Averted in ''Billy Baker's Dog Won't Stay Buried''. Billy's mom is there for the horror and shows concern the whole way through and the family vet helps out when things go down.

* MilitariesAreUseless: Averted in ''Camp Crocodile''. It's established the camp has military connections and in the end [[spoiler: some military people storm in to kill the croc]].

* PoliceAreUseless: In ''Billy Baker's Dog Won't Stay Buried'', one of the cops is part of a religious cult and uses his police powers to block people from leaving town, forcing them to join the church.

* StrugglingSingleMother: Billy's mom in ''Billy Baker's Dog Won't Stay Buried''. Dad died a few years back her has been struggling to keep the family financially afloat.

* ChristmasEpisode: ''We Wish You A Scary Christmas'', as well as ''Billy's Baker Won't Stay Buried''.

* HalloweenEpisode: ''Wear and Scare''

* BackFromTheDead: The premise of ''Billy's Dog Won't Stay Buried'', where a kid's dog is put to sleep but returns...along with many other dead pets.

* DidIMentionItsChristmas: ''Billy's Baker Won't Stay Buried'' is set on Christmas, but it's only relevant in one scene and it's not mentioned too much otherwise.

* StrugglingSingleMother: Billy's mom in ''Billy Baker's Dog Won't Stay Buried''. Dad died a few years back her has been struggling to keep the family financially afloat.

* ShoutOut: The tagline for ''Substitute Creature'' is [[Film/{{Casablanca}} "Here's looking at you, kid!]]"
** The tagline for ''Check It Out-And Die!'' says that "you'll get more than goosebumps when you read this book!"

!!The series contain examples of