Review of R.L. Stine's "Goosebumps" Books Eric Buehrer If you are looking for a powerful argument against the rash of shock fiction such as R. L. Stine's Goosebumps and Fear Street series being foisted on school children you'll find it in an insightful review by Diana West. After reading 30 Stine books, West concludes that Stine and his imitators have created a new genre: shock fiction for the young. "In this literary landscape, narrative exists solely to support a series of shocks occurring at absurdly frequent intervals. Push-button characters serve as disposable inserts to advance the narrative, shock to shock," she writes. For those parents and educators who reason that at least young students are eager to read, West offers this excellent point: "Shock fiction launches a beginning reader, pinball style, into a vapid quest for actual physical gratification, a bodily experience of accelerated pulse rates and queasy stomachs. The desired effect is something scientists call the 'fight or flight' response, in which hormones surge and the blood pressure rises as a stress-induced panic takes over the autonomic nervous system." Listen to how one young Stine fan describes the sensation: "I like how the creepy feelings and shivers go through your body." West comments, "And so, reading becomes a crude tool for physical stimulation, wholly devoid of mental, emotional, and spiritual engagement." She observes that in shock fiction nothing more than "a catalogue of horrors and grotesqueries is used -- not interpreted, not stylized, not in any way transformed by a writer for good or bad -- to charge the nerve endings of young readers." West's review includes some particularly galling quotes from Stine's books. It is a good article to give to educators, administrators and librarians. You can obtain a copy of her article, "The Horror of R.L. Stine," in the Fall 1995 issue of American Educator, or in the September 25, 1995 issue of the Weekly Standard. © 1998, Eric Buehrer