You're trick-or-treating in a rich area of town, and are told that a mansion's owner will give you the best candy. But to get to it, you have to make your way through the five houses blocking the way, each of which has its own monsters and challenges that can only be survived if you make the right choices.
Not to be confused with the Goosebumps main series entry, Trick or Trap.
Trick or... Trapped! provides examples of:
- Bad Santa: A possible ending is that you end up in a sleigh with an evil version of Santa, who pushes you out of the sleigh to your death.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The class nerd Nathan which you meet in the first page shows up much later (after you've been through between one to three other houses trick-or-treating) as the host of the last house in the street... and he's trying to kill you at the end of Halloween Night for not being his friend.
- Covers Always Lie: Despite what the cover implies, at no point does a giant shaved orange gorilla offer you candy in the story. Although there is a scenario in the Orange House where you encounter a Mad Scientist's pet gorilla.
- Depraved Dentist: The host of the Orange House, Dr. Bilington, which you don't find out until he abducts you while you're waiting for candy on his doorstep. If you can't escape from his house, one of the worst endings have you strapped on a dentist's chair in his office with him waving an electric drill at your face — use your imagination on what's going to happen next.
- Disproportionate Retribution:
- Nathan lures the reader to a mansion so he can set a monster (known as "The Thing") that he created himself on him/her. The reader's crime? Not being Nathan's friend. Even the narrative lampshades this is an overreaction.
- You might get into a fight with a pirate during the haunted house party, where the pirate is more than eager to slice you up in public with his cutlass. Your crime? Becoming too friendly with the pirate's pet ghost.
- Elevator Escape: In one of the bad endings, you try to escape The Thing by heading for a closing elevator in Nathan's mansion. But alas, the doors doesn't close on time, the Thing made his way through and you're now trapped in a confined elevator with a monster ready to eviscerate you. Sweet dreams!
- Food as Bribe:
- While you're trapped underneath a tomb, you may encounter a talking mouse who claims he knows a way out, and will show you the way if you give him a piece of liquorice. If you don't have a piece of liquorice (or you don't want to give it to the mouse), you'll then reach a bad ending.
- Subverted in another instance. The pirate at the Halloween party who decides to murder you for becoming too friendly with his pet ghost claims that he will spare your life if you give him an apple, which is his favorite food. If you do have the apple and give it to him, the vindictive, child murdering jerk goes back on his word and kills you anyway.
- Force Feeding: One bad ending has you allowed to eat as much candy as you want, but you aren't allowed to ever stop eating and you die from the sugar overload.
- Gainax Ending: One of the weirdest endings in the book has you believing the whole thing to be All Just a Dream (after narrowly surviving an encounter with Nathan's pet monster, the Thing) and finding yourself in your bedroom. But then, the Thing wakes up right next to you... the narration actually tells you to make up your mind on whether this is just another dream or a bad ending, because the writers are going trick-or-treating.
- Halloween Episode: The book is set on Halloween, as the reader goes trick-or-treating and has to choose between five houses which are all full of dangers to stop at.
- Heel–Face Turn: You can actually convert Nathan's Pet Monstrosity, called "The Thing", to your side, by playing catch with it or playing a piano to sooth its rampage. Turns out the monster is just lonely and wanted friends, so the monster ends up on your side and escorts you out of Nathan's house after growling at its master.
- Inventory Management Puzzle: This book has you searching for items throughout your quest and using them for the appropriate time. Unfortunately, the inventory system is so poorly implemented into the book, it doesn't enhance the experience.
- Jerkass: The pirate at the Halloween party, who gets angry at you for getting too friendly with his pet ghost and threatens to kill you (a child) if you don't have an apple for him, only to kill you anyway even if you do.
- Morton's Fork: During the Halloween party, you might end up getting into a fight against what you assumed to be someone dressed as a pirate, only to find out he's a real pirate (and he's not kidding when he says he wants your guts). If you can't offer him his favorite food, which is an apple, he'll kill you on the spot. If you do have an apple, you can bribe him with it — but he still kills you.
- Music Soothes the Savage Beast: In this book you can try this trope on The Thing (and it's even called by name), and you are given a choice of instruments.
- No Ending: Even by the standard of GYG, the book have some of the most baffling Non-Standard Game Over scenarios. For instance, getting cornered by two real vampires (which you assumed to be costumed party-goers) where they bare their fangs at you... then steal your candy. The narration then lets out a Big "NO!" and the story just ends there.
- No Fair Cheating: This book, which uses an inventory puzzle, has an ending that punished you if you claim to have picked up an item that it's not possible for you to have acquired.
- Not a Mask: While entering a house full of costumed party-goers, you comment on how disgustingly hideous a guy's goblin mask is as a compliment. You are actually offered a choice to tug at his mask, only to find out — in horror — that's his real face.
- Quicksand Sucks: Entering Nathan's house — the White House at the end of the street — have you realizing the house actually contains an indoor jungle. With a quicksand, that drowns you.
- Random Events Plot: This book is noted for this. The premise of the book is that you choose which house to visit while trick-or-treating and then have to survive whatever's inside, but the houses tend to lead you into random and unrelated situations (such as being teleported to the North Pole or a jungle.)
- Taken for Granite: Confronting the monster known as "The Thing" in Nathan's house, you can defeat it by tricking it into looking at its reflection, at which point the Thing will inexplicably turn into stone.
