"A Nightmare on Clown Street" by R.L. Stine

A review of Scholastic book by famed children's horror author. *Some Spoilers may be included."

     "Average Joe reader" will be the first to add comments to any Stephen King YouTube video question asking if the author, himself, was ever scared of clowns as a young boy. The assumed notion, without really caring about the actual answer to that question, is that even authors of horror/mystery/thriller books are, or were, scared of the material they write about. Or, an indirect result of their works is that they are trying to scare someone else as a result of something traumatic that happened to them when they were younger. Or something along those lines. 

     "Joe's" comments will be along the lines of 'the author must have been scared of what they wrote about...' with blah-blah-blah added on afterwards. That's pretty standard for the video-sharing website, regardless the number of views.

     Whether R.L. Stine shares that presumed notion or not is not why I'm writing this. I do not know R.L. Stine personally and have never obsessed over his interviews; thus, I cannot assume I know what his deepest, darkest fears are exactly. However, he did author "A Nightmare on Clown Street", published by Scholastic, as another of his several Goosebumps books (to his resume.) 

     On that particular book's front cover, ladies and gentlemen, is none other than a picture of a rather fowl-looking clown, with two axes wedged into a star-looking piece of aqua-painted circular wood and some blood spurted above and behind the clown's somewhat bald head, its arms in a sort-of Nazi-like pose. It is dressed in a red, fur-ball-buttoned outfit and two patches of hair spitting out the sides of its head. The clown figure, however gruesome and intimidating and fowl-looking, is the front cover.

     According to the back cover, R.L. Stine describes our young protagonist Ray Gordon as adventurous, somewhat illogical in his decision-making and an overall very curious young boy with an appetite for wanting to discover things in the realms of mischief without knowing the full effects of his decisions. Several "Goosebumps" readers may relate to the Ray's of the world. Or not. 

     Both covers set the tone for the intended 8-year-old kid reader without going into too much scenic detail about the actual story. And they do the job, generally-speaking. 

     But that's where the story becomes unique. It is not merely another "predictable" sort of story from Stine. Yes, it follows the necessary skeletal framework: beginning, middle, twist, end. At least, that's the way Stine would describe the life of a story.

     But it feels like more than that. Ray isn't just some ordinary adventurous kid. He is brave and daring and finds the strength, along the way, to stand up for himself and his family, whether he really cares for his relative, Uncle Theo, or not. Of course, Stine pulls these feats off by presenting us with the "first" Ray: presumed misfit whose parents are looking for a way to keep him monitored due to schoolwork. Slowly, though, the "second" Ray, the one we actually read about throughout the majority of the 140-pages evolves into a mini hero. He becomes the sort of kid you wouldn't figure to be a heroic type, at least not upfront. Stine shows us how he was born to put these sorts of characters on the page for all of us to enjoy.

Deanna is another interesting character--the only young girl at Koko's Klown Academy, she is the bosses daughter. She seems alluring and inviting. Only, Ray's intuition picks up on the fact that she, along with most of the clowns at the summer circus, are hiding something to which they are not able to speak. It is something that Stine keeps the reader unaware of until, nearly, the ending, an accomplishment in itself, and an incredible foreshadowing cliffhanger as the pages feel like they constantly turn. Which they do. 

     Not saying I would need to, but meeting the actor-version of Mr. HaHaFace, the scary boss of the Academy, would be something to live through, I will say. Even as a guy in his young 30's writing, HaHaFace came across as the sort of boss...fellow...that you hope you never have to run into but forces you to either be honest or brave because of his mere demeanor, specifically, the presence he is described to carry. "Everybody is scared of him" is the quoted notion among all the clowns, for various reasons, narrated by the few clown characters noted here and there.

     Unlike some of Stine's other works, Nightmare on Clown Street felt like an eight-page introduction phase with another 120 pages of middle story line that followed. The twists came at the end of each little Chapter towards the last-half of the whole book. The story definitely had a gripping feeling as a result. However, there was no "grand" twist that I was expecting to come--a children's horror book may not have some shocking twist other than a mere mini-plot event to keep it interesting. Though the twist of events Stine provided his readers was one I would not have imagined to have taken place for the better or worse until it hit near the end AND around the last line of the book. It was clever and unforeseen, yes, in that regard, just not something I would have anticipated until that little thought itself actually came to mind as I was preparing to finish going cover to cover.

     As the tale progressed from 20 to 30 and 50 to 90 and 120, so forth, the "battle" between our protagonist and antagonist, Ray and Mr. HaHaFace, was not so much a physical duel as it felt a race for survival and fear. As a reader, I was left constantly wondering if or when the two, representing a form of good and a twisted, dark side of evil, respectively, would bash it out or leave it to some other form of creative "final showdown" whereupon they would meet face-to-face and outwit and outdo the other. It almost felt like a classic showdown between Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort, only on a much smaller, less grand stage. Almost. And for being a simple, classic feeling of a Goosebumps tale, it delivered in the ways I've come to expect from the author of attention-getting, creative horror tales. 

     All in all, from the quick-paced dialogue to the development of the simple clown characters and the way they are presented throughout, A Nightmare on Clown Street was a good read. It kept my always reading-hungry mind hooked on the turning pages routine and made me want to continue with the other book I'm just getting into: Some Kind of Happiness by Claire Legrand. That's another good one--and I'm only about 10 pages in!!

     See you all on the flip side of Happiness, no pun intended. 

Author's Note

What do you think of the story elements covered? How could this be better?