31 Days of Goosebumps Part 1: 21. Go Eat Worms

Book 21: Go Eat Worms

I don’t think this was anyone’s favorite Goosebumps book. Not that it was a particularly bad book just not a very good one. It had a lot of problems that worked against it. 

The story is about Todd. He’s obsessed with worms. He collects them, experiments with them, uses them to gross out his sister and uses them for his science project. It seems as though the worms have had enough. Worms keep popping up everywhere in his life. In his bed, hidden in his food. He’s convinced that it’s his sister but she seems completely clueless to the events... of course around page 110 of the 120 page book we find out that yes it was his sister.

The next day Todd is digging for worms when a giant worm appears to attach him. Luckily his sister is carrying a giant paper robin she made for the science fair and scares the worm off. TOdd gives up collecting worms and focuses on butterflies instead; until a giant butterfly attacks him.

THE BAD: My issue with this book is almost exactly the same as my problem with Night of the Living Dummy. First off the lead character is obnoxious and deserves all the bad that he has coming to him. Secondly the first 110 pages are basically a moot point as they were a giant prank on Todd. That being said I genuinely believe the worms were seeking vengence and was really digging the story, so the ‘all a prank’ thing was a big let down.

THE GOOD: Let’s face it, worms are gross. People biting into worms is really fucking foul so the book definitely caused me to have the desired reaction. That being said not excited to watch a child eat a worm in the TV episode.

THE TV SHOW EPISODE: The episode didn’t disappoint in being gross. It’s not a very accurate adaptation of the book but it actually works for the better because it. They introduce the giant worm in the middle of the episode instead of saving it for the very end and don’t reveal the worm attacks to be all part of an elaborate prank. All in all I preferred this over the actual source material. Also I recommend all my readers skip to the end of the episode at the very least so they can watch the most unintentionally funny ending to a goosebumps episode where a boy is "fished" by a fish who's bait is a sandwich with a hook and string inside it.

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Book 22 ------>