#too late i was always a kid intrigued by / seeking out horror materials....john bellairs books which got pretty wild....

[unproduciblesmackdown]

though i eventually got to read some, in earlier years goosebumps books would be the kind of series where i'd just ponder the cover art, and i always liked the drama of the monster blood illustration (the lighting/colors....sure nothing's happening in it but i felt it evoked the drama of "what if you're downstairs and something's upstairs" much like "what if you're upstairs and something's downstairs") like well too bad i guess i never got around to reading i at the time. but as of a recap yesterday i'm surprised to now be at least 90% sure i read part if not all of it, and thinking i hadn't may be due to how kind of nothing happens in it

#absolutely nothing familiar until ''there's a dog named trigger & the kid at one point has to rescue trigger from choking'' like Aha #for sure still remember various Events & Details from gb books i Know i've read.... #welcome to dead house; the ghost next door maybe my most well absorbed ones lol. lot going on in those definitely #let's get invisible. some choose your own adventure varieties. calling all creeps. oh the haunted mask ofc; all time classic.... #definitely hadn't read the phantom of the auditorium; reading it as an adult was a delight #things on the other side or the middle of the stairs it's just like skinamarink heck for real #itself like well that's absolutely the horror of being kids if not ''kids' horror'' lol #but that aspect is always inherently present in kids' horror...always surrounded by mysteries & lack of power/autonomy & fairly isolated... #anyways had a parent whose Disapproval Mode could be set off by various media available to kids my age so that was a minefield #(same parent thought it was inappropriate for some tv 14 rated programs to be available in a house solely ft. adults so there you are) #at least at first was of the ''horror for children?? inappropriate'' approach about it. i didn't check the books out of libraries ever #but eventually must've calmed down abt that b/c we Did own some & that's how i read most of ones i did #too late i was always a kid intrigued by / seeking out horror materials....john bellairs books which got pretty wild.... #much less so as an adult b/c horror gets worse (& not in any good way) aimed for teens / adults like lord. You Do Not Get It #anyways turns out monster blood is probably riffing off the blob mostly but it's like not thee blob until way later #so most of the book wouldn't really be that memorable if it's 80% ''and then here was another weird thing abt the gunk'' #but i would remember like oh no the dog is in mortal peril :( nooo trigger (trigger was fine) #sure didn't misremember that in welcome to dead house the dog went missing & was implicitly killed over Sensing The Deadness #appreciated that element in phantom of the auditorium where they're hanging out at zeke's & he has a dog #& secret but really just chilling painting sets & very corporeal ghost brian is like ''aw cmon...'' at that dog Not Liking Him #which is some barking & not being enthused abt brian's efforts to play fetch w/a ball lmao #but only to a mild degree like yeah he's not doing anything. brooke & zeke witnessing this simply like lol lmao #that trio is sooo funny. ghost just hanging out; So nervous; ending up dragged into the friend duo absolute menaces hellions lmao.... #the paint on his shirt bit. just the way the whole back & forth of 4 ppl goes; it kills Me....