STINETINGLERS 2

A second gathering of fresh chillers under a title the author must have been waiting his whole life to use.

The 10 short tales are vintage Stine, dishing out twists that are creepy or comical in turn—such as “Lucky Me,” which serves up a reminder that there are two kinds of luck, and “The Stopwatch,” about a timepiece that allows a bullied lad to exact revenge by freezing his tormenters (until, that is, the watch stem breaks). There are encounters with a ghost and a werewolf, not to mention tentacled aliens and a hostile clan of secretive, red-capped “zoo gnomes.” Some of his young characters deserve what they get, but most are victims of either chance or circumstance and so are likely to elicit sympathy as well as schadenfreude from readers. Aiming for the younger end of his fan base, the author keeps the explicit ick and ichor to a minimum and makes personal connections with introductory notes confiding some of the fears or incidents that inspired each story. The atmospheric headpiece vignettes set properly ominous tones; figures in the latter and names in the narratives cue some racial diversity in the cast, though most of the middle school–aged victims read white.

Easily digestible doses of terror featuring deserts both just and otherwise.