YMMV / The Curse of the Blue Figurine

• Complete Monster: The titular Grinning Ghost from Wrath of the Grinning Ghost, Nyarlat-Hotep, is a cunning, eldritch spirit walking among humanity who sunk Atlantis to bask in the fear and agony of a million dying souls and cut through swathes of human lives as the demon pirate Damon Boudron before being seemingly killed. Bringing himself back to life through the horrible sacrifice of twelve people, Nyarlat-Hotep kidnaps the soul of Johnny's father and tortures him into insanity, luring Johnny himself to do even worse to him in front of his father's eyes unless he submits. Nyarlat-Hotep attempts to regain physical form and eradicate the entire human race, as prelude to ruling the realm of spirits as a tyrant forevermore.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Late in The Mummy, the Will and the Crypt, Johnny learns that his missing father (who'd been shot down over North Korea) had been found, and that his grandmother has recovered fully from her operation to remove a brain tumor. The heartwarming part comes when Professor Childermass confesses to Johnny that if Johnny had lost his father and grandparents, the professor would try to adopt Johnny, if they'd let him. Johnny doesn't get a chance to reply to this statement, but still, it shows how much the professor cares about him. Doubly heartwarming considering Johnny had earlier thought the professor wouldn't be willing to do so, seeing as how he'd mentioned more than once in their friendship that he enjoyed living alone.
  • In the same book, Johnny's happy reunion with his father, back from Korea for a time, in the last page or two.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In The Curse of the Blue Figurine the rock formation called The Hag is clearly an Expy of New Hampshire's The Old Man of the Mountain. The book ends with the Hag being destroyed in an earthquake caused by the villain's destruction, and the sheriff who rescues Johnny and the Professor wondering what people will come up to see now it's gone. The Professor silently notes all the natural non-hag-shaped beauty around him, and sarcastically mentions another tourist trap described earlier. In 2003, the Old Man on the Mountain collapsed, leaving a lot of orphaned tourist attractions.
• Narm: "The Eyes of the Killer Robot"? ...Seriously?? Either Bellairs was poking fun at his own genre with that title, or his editor was asleep at the switch. (The story itself is better than that title—or the "baseball-playing robot" premise—suggests, but even younger readers might write it off as "too silly." ... unless they're also looking at the accompanying Edward Gorey illustration.)
• Nightmare Fuel: The fate of the mummy's victims in The Mummy, The Will, and the Crypt - the life sucked out of them, leaving them as dried-out husks.
  • The dog's death in The Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost is unpleasant as well: the Windrows' familiar spirit sucks the skin and flesh off of its skull. Worse, Fergie and Professor Childermass hear its barking turn to whining, and then silence.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: It's pretty clear at what point the new books really cease being 'based on' any notes from Bellairs, and for fans who grew up on Bellairs's books alone, the changes can feel wrong and jarring, to the point it feels like a typical ghostwritten YA series. (Most notably, Strickland doesn't seem to have the handle on the late Forties-early Fifties slang and references Bellairs did, making many of them feel shoehorned.)
  • Speaking of shoehorned references, Strickland's Shout Outs to authors like Lovecraft and James tend to be a lot less subtle than Bellairs'.