Book 17: Why I’m Afraid of Bees
This wasn’t a particularly good book but it was certainly better than You Can’t Scare Me. For starters it actually has a supernatural aspect to it earlier than the last two pages. But all in all the book didn’t sit well with me.
You see this is one of the least original books R.L. Stine wrote. This isn’t new though, I mean Welcome to Camp Nightmare is basically the plot line of 2 or 3 Twilight Zone episodes. But this book there’s a bigger issue.
You see the book is about Gary Lutz. He’s terrified of bees and gets picked on MERCILESSLY. I mean this kid should be in that recent documentary Bully. However one day he sees an ad for a company that will switch your body with someone else. Deciding any body is better than his own he signs up for one week.
However there is a mix up with the machine and instead of being switched with the cool kid Dirk Davis a bee gets mixed into the machine causing Davis to get Gary’s body, a Bee to get Davis’ body and Gary to be trapped as a bee.
Gary is able to communicate with a few people through the help of a microphone (I’ll suspend disbelief because it sped up the story) and a telepathic connection with Davis (because some bee stuff got mixed in probably as Davis puts in). However Davis refuses to switch bodies which forces Gary to sting him in rage and as he dies he wakes up in his back lawn back in his normal body.
The book is basically a combination of The Fly and a bad after school special since Gary is constantly being remained what a great life he has by various people. I almost feel like someone paid Stine to write a book with a positive message.
THE BAD: There’s a few too many logic laws throughout the story. The one that bugged me the most is when the person in charge of the body switching company tells Gary (while he’s a bee) that she can’t switch him back because Dirk Davis likes Gary’s life and has decided to keep it. She literally says “My hands are tied”. This woman has no control over her company.
THE GOOD: I enjoyed the language in this particular book. It’s one of Stine’s best ‘writing in the voice of his audience’ books thus far. It actually made the book an interesting read despite the book itself not being that interesting. If anything it’s more educational than entertaining (seriously there’s like 10 bee facts in it).
THE TV SHOW EPISODE: None Made For This Episode (Not Shocked)
<--------- Book 16. One Day At Horrorland
Book 18 ------>
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