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A Midsummer Night's Scream
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A Midsummer Night's Scream
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A Midsummer Night's Scream
Ebook215 pages3 hours

A Midsummer Night's Scream

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

2.5/5

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Currently unavailable

About this ebook

In R.L. Stine's A Midsummer Night's Scream, the Master of Horror takes on the Master of Theatre!

Oh, what fools these actors be!

It was a horror movie that turned into real horror--three young actors lost their lives while the camera rolled. Production stopped, and people claimed that the movie was cursed.

Sixty years later, new actors are venturing onto the haunted set. In a desperate attempt to revive their failing studio, Claire's dad has green-lit a remake of Mayhem Manor—and Claire and her friends are dying to be involved.

At first, Claire laughs at Jake's talk of ghosts and curses. He's been too busy crushing on her best friend Delia to notice that she's practically been throwing herself at him. What does he know? And anyway, this is her big chance to be a star!

When shooting starts, though, the set is plagued by a series of horrible accidents—could history be repeating itself?

LanguageEnglish
Release dateJul 2, 2013
ISBN9781250042446
Author

R. L. Stine

R. L. Stine is an American writer. Best known as the author of the GOOSEBUMPS and FEAR STREET series, he is often referred to as the 'Stephen King of children's literature.' Stine's books have sold hundreds of millions of copies worldwide.

Read more from R. L. Stine

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Reviews for A Midsummer Night's Scream

Rating: 2.4782608695652173 out of 5 stars
2.5/5

23 ratings5 reviews

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    2 stars with an extra .5 for nostalgia sake, rounded up to 3.

    The first 3 chapters of this were horrible. The writing was driving me crazy. I stuck with it for a reading challenge and because I knew it would go fast. I loved reading R.L. Stine and the like when I was in jr high. This didn't have quite the same feel for me, but it was still similar. I didn't really like the addition of the magic stuff - I would have prefered it as a pure horror. I think it detracted a lot from the story and I thought it left the ending in a bad place. Who wants to be left thinking you can only get someone to like you if you force them? Maybe it's not meant to be. And who would want to be with someone when they only like you because you made them? It left me very unsatisfied.

    Overall teens may like this, but I don't think I will be recommending it much.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I grew up reading Goosebumps and Fear Street. RL Stine's books are cheesy and don't make that much sense, but holy GOD was this book bad. This is like a terrible bad movie, where you watch it drunk or high and laugh at it.

    I don't want to give spoilers, but there is no way a movie that had actual actors' deaths in it would be released. No chance in HELL. The most disturbing thing about this book was Claire and Delia's handling of the deaths in the end. "Yeah, so sad people died. But we're STARS now! So who cares, amirite?" WTF.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Junior high me, the one who loved books by Christopher Pike, would have loved this book. Unfortunately it was published about fifteen years too late to get that kind of reception for me. This book started off promising, getting a storyline going about a supposedly cursed movie set, where a horror movie is being resurrected-to much hesitation considering the previous time anyone attempted to film the script, three actors died for real. Then unfortunately the book veers towards the ridiculous, with a silly romance plot trying to mimic William Shakespeare's classic A Midsummer Night's Dream. It also does seem ridiculous that filming would continue on this second version of the movie with all the bloody "accidents" that start occurring, especially considering the narrator is starring in it and she is the daughter of the film's producers.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Even the kids this book is marketed for should say to themselves "This book is nuts." The premise is this - In 1960 a horror movie is being made in which three of the actors die in gruesome manners on the set. The movie is never finished. Fast forward to the present. The owner of a nearly bankrupt studio with a daughter and her friend who he will use as actresses decides to remake the old movie and you will never guess what happens - Actors start to die on the set including a boy whose head is described in a grisly manner singed to a crisp in a microwave. Not sure who you do that. Do they question production of the movie? No way. In spite of all the financial problems the studio owner throw a mega birthday party for his daughter and gives her brand new car for a gift. That makes sense. Then there is this hairy little evil man who appears out of nowhere and has access to a wide variety of potions - love, aging etc. I don't know what the Goosebump books were like but this defies reason and I think insults a kid's intelligence.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    If you are expecting a horror like no other, where you’ll have trouble sleeping and you’re constantly looking over your shoulder. Then this isn’t the book for you. But if you’re willing to not take a book seriously and simply enjoy where Stine takes you, then you’ll find this to be a campy good time.

    Even though I like Shakespeare, I’ve never read a Midsummer’s Night Dream. In fact, the only Shakespeare plays that I’ve read were the ones that were required of me in school. So whether this novel does a good job in paying homage to the original work or if it had nothing to do with it, I honestly wouldn’t know. I think if I knew of the original work, my opinion of this novel might have changed slightly, but who knows. I don’t, so let’s not dwell on it.

    Back in the 60s, a director tried to film the ultimate horror movie. Only, it was never finished because three of its stars ended up getting brutally murdered, while in character…and in scene. This was the start of the Mayhem Manor curse. Fast forward to modern times, and a studio has decided to remake the movie, because Hollywood is running out of ideas. Seriously, they are, just look at the new crop of movies coming out.

    For Claire, this is her big break. She’s wanted to be a star since FOREVER! And since her dad is the president of the studio, she’s begged and pleaded to be cast in a show of his. He’s relented, until now. So she, along with her best friend Delia, auditioned and landed the roles in the movie. However, once the camera’s start rolling, actors start to drop one by one. The studio can’t afford for this movie to stop like the last one, but with more and more people dying, can they really afford to continue on?

    Claire is worried about the movie, because she wants to be a star, but she’s more worried because her best guy friend, Jake, is pining over Delia and not her. However, Delia doesn’t like Jake, she likes his best friend Shawn, but it seems like Shawn likes Claire more. Yes, folks. Instead of a normal love triangle, we’ve reached a square….that never ends. Claire is determined to make Jake fall for her, so when she meets Puckerman she decides to use his potions to make Jake hers, but love isn’t always that easy. Or is it?

    Dun dun dunnnnnnnnn

    Now, I want to start off by saying that this isn’t a good book. The writing isn’t the greatest. It feels like I was reading the Goosebumps novels, which I loved as a kid, but in order to make it more YA, scenes of drinking, making out, slut-shaming, and general teen mischief was sprinkled on in. I’m not going to lie; it sounded and felt really weird. It almost seemed inappropriate, because I kept picturing kids drinking, making out, slut-shaming, and getting involved in general teen mischief, instead of teens doing this. However, as time went on, I slowly got use to this writing style and saw it more as tongue-in-cheek than anything else.

    When it comes to the characters, they were pretty one note and clichéd. This is usually a horrible thing when it comes to books. Unforgiveable sometimes, but here, it reminded me of those bad B-movies that you can’t help but like. You know those movies where the writing isn’t all that great, the characters are not fully fleshed out, and the general setting is kind of stupid, but somehow, somehow you just love it. It’s just so campy that you simply enjoy your time watching it.

    And that’s how I felt when I read A Midsummer’s Night Scream. It wasn’t the greatest book, not by a long shot, but it was kind of fun once you stopped taking it so seriously. I mean really. After two people die a smart studio would count their losses and stop production, but not this studio. They just keep trucking along even though the president’s daughter is one of the cast members. I mean, how can you take that seriously? You can’t, so why bother? I know I didn’t and I enjoyed the book a lot more for that reason.

    If you are nostalgic for Goosebumps and want more than similar writing, the ending is classic Stine. It will have you questioning the morals of the characters in this novel and whether they are worse or better than the main villain.

    Overall: Like I said before, this isn’t the greatest book in the world and it’s not going to be in my top favourite books, but it’s campy, it’s fun, and I don’t think you’re meant to take it seriously. Once you do that, you’ll kick back and laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. It’s bonkers, but in a fun kind of way.

    Review can also be found at BookingRehab