Name: Stay Out of the Basement
ISBN: 9780439568456

R. L. Stine

With their father conducting strange experiments with plants in the basement, Margaret and Casey begin to investigate and soon discover that their father has begun to resemble a plant.

Stay Out of the Basement

When Margaret and Casey see their father become weedy while working on his botany experiments, they worry that his plant-testing may not be entirely harmless.

Wynter

What is the creepiest place you probably have to brave regularly? Basement of course. The dim, cramped room full of dark corners and dusty old things bound to make even an adult feel uncomfortable. Are you being watched from somewhere just beyond the corner of the eye? No wonder the second Goosebumps book chooses its setting to be in the basement. I love how every volume ends on a happy note, but with a sneaky little “or did they?”. Perfect scary tingles guaranteed.

This thriller series is especially designed to appeal to middle-grade readers. Margaret and Casey go down to their basement to peek at their father's new experiments, discover some very human-like plants, and realize that their father is starting to look more like a plant.

Maggie Gordon

In another sibling team-up, Margaret and Casey Brewer are confronted with a chlorophyll-filled nightmare when their father’s experimentations get out of hand in the basement of the family house. After their father was fired from his research position at a biology department, he brought his experiments home, and became a hostile hermit who rarely came up for sunlight or air. He forbids the kids from going to see his lab, but of course they disobey these orders and discover that their father is up to strange and possibly evil things. However, it turns out that their father is not responsible for these terrible acts, but a plant duplicate of him! 

Stay Out of the Basement is an example of a really well constructed Goosebumps novel. The mystery is slowly revealed through creepy and disturbing observations and realizations. The kids are confronted with a difficult choice as to how to figure out who is their real father is when they have two identical duplicates, leading to a suspenseful climax. I was particularly happy to see that mom was not completely oblivious in this story as it’s hard to explain how a wife manages to not notice that her husband has become a terrible, plant monster. The twist ending was also enjoyable, and not nearly as absurd as some of the other Goosebumps novels get. Overall, Stay out of the Basement is probably one of the stronger stories of the series.