The Werewolf in the Living Room
The Werewolf in the Living Room
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Book information
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Tell the werewolf to scooch over. Now, take a seat, because you're about to get homeschooled...
Transcript[edit | edit source]
Front Tagline: Home sweet horror [sic]
By now, all regular readers of the site should be old hands at tackling a Goosebumps book involving werewolves. So I have no qualms about issuing a pop quiz. Clear your desks!
the Werewolf in the Living Room Pop Quiz
01 The book employs what unusual (for Goosebumps at least) literary device?
A. Use of highly theoretical fourth-person narration
B. Non-chronological sentences
C. Division of the text into two parts
D. Entire story is told in MadLib fashion,[1] with someone at Scholastic having already filled in the title's "(Monster Everyone Is Tired Of)" slot
02 Despite being about werewolves, the book does stray from Goosebumps convention by making Aaron, its protagonist,
A. Intelligent
B. Really intelligent[Note 1]
C. Eleven years old
D. Really eleven years old
03 Aaron's dad has a strange dual occupation. What are his jobs?
A. Ghost buster and Caddy shacker[2]
B. Fairy flosser and Dental hygienist[3]
C. Werewolf hunter and Town sheriff
D. Executive in charge of keeping peanut butter out of chocolate and Executive in charge of keeping chocolate out of peanut butter[4]
04 In search of the creatures, Aaron's dad drags his son to the made-up European country of
A. LilSmoki[5]
B. Kielbasah[6]
C. Bratvia[7]
D. Hotdogonabun[8]
05 Within like five pages, the protagonist both has a dream sequence and
A. Has another dream sequence about the first dream sequence and it's all like whoa, so deep
B. Wakes up with his pillow missing
C. Gets bitten by a werewolf
D. Dreams he got bitten by a pillow and wakes up to find his werewolf missing
06 The werewolf comes back to visit Aaron and gives him
A. A written apology
B. A punchcard good for one free sub after his tenth werewolf attack
C. A wolf-tooth necklace
D. What for, the rite bastid
07 Ever the canon-changer, RL Stine presents yet more new ways to stop a werewolf in this, his eighteenth book about werewolves. Which of the following new methods actually appears in the novel?
A. Slapping the werewolf in the forehead three times
B. Saying the werewolf's name
C. Both A and B
D. Not D
08 Aaron visits with a hag in the forest who kicks him out of her cabin after she sees his
A. Boy Scout merit badge for cabin-disrupting
B. Eyes measuring the distance between her and the oven[9]
C. Wolf-tooth necklace
D. Xeroxed list of herbal websites
09 Aaron's dad catches what he believes to be a werewolf. The only problem is that the werewolf has taken the form of
A. Golden-Age Werewolf[10]
B. Wendell Willkie[11]
C. A small, mild-mannered bald man named Ben
D. Two werewolves
10 Aaron's dad kidnaps the man, who insists he is not a werewolf, and ships him back to America in a crate. He also gives the werewolf what annoying moniker?
A. There Wolf
B. Werey
C. Wolfie
D. Ben, Werewolf-Style[12]
11 While sailing to America, Ben breaks free from his chains just in time to
A. Avoid paying membership dues to the Being-Held-In-Chains Organization of Greater Bratvia
B. Make it to the post office before they close
C. Save Aaron from drowning
D. Have the refrain of "Chain of Fools" play over his actions in the movie trailer, complete with the sound of a needle being pulled from the record when the werewolf poorly attempts to dance in a fashionable manner[13]
12 Aaron's dad keeps Ben locked in a cage in his living room, despite the fact that Ben insists
A. The room he's being held in is technically the den
B. He's pretty sure it's still considered kidnapping even if you think the person you're kidnapping is a mythical creature
C. He's not a werewolf
D. His predicament would make for a lousy book title
13 Aaron's best friend Ashlee takes her fashion cues from what popular Goosebumps character?
A. Evan from Monster Blood
B. Monster Blood from Monster Blood
C. Andy from Monster Blood
D. Monster Blood from Monster Blood III
14 Ashlee comes to see the caged man in Aaron's living room and
A. Tells a joke-- Q: What kind of milk does Ben drink? A: Werewolf Skim[14]
B. Makes Ben an escape cake with a vampire baked inside[15]
C. Takes pity on Ben, giving him a candy bar to eat
D. Advises him not to say or transform into anything until his legal counsel arrives
15 Feeling sure his dad has made a mistake about Ben, Aaron does what?
A. Writes to his congressman about passing the Aaron's Dad Is Like Totally Wrong Bill
B. Offers to hold magical body-switching stone at the same time as Ben
C. Takes pity on Ben, giving him a candy bar to eat
D. Offers to describe the outside world in "very vivid detail" if Ben agrees to stay incarcerated
16 Aaron does ultimately let Ben loose, only to realize his mistake when
A. Ben says "Oh by the way, I'm a werewolf" on his way out the door
B. Ben says "Oh by the way, I'm not a werewolf-- PSYCH!" on his way out the door
C. Ben turns into a werewolf and maims three people immediately following his release
D. Ben writes him a letter and signs it as "Ben the Werewolf," with "the Werewolf" scribbled over a few times
17 Aaron soon realizes that the werewolf terrorizing the town is actually
A. Ben. What a twist!
B. An overly-intricate PETA protest[16]
C. Himself
D. One of the fifty other werewolves from these books
18 Aaron feels nauseated once he realizes that during his werewolf rampage, he ate
A. At Applebee's
B. Nine. Oh no, he's not a werewolf, he's a Seven![17]
C. Ashlee's French poodle
D. Off his friend's plate even though he said he wasn't hungry and didn't order anything
19 Aaron's dad almost kills his werewolf son. What stops him?
A. Killing children still illegal in all fifty states
B. Guiltily realizes "Aren't we all a little bit werewolfish at times?"
C. Notices the werewolf's wolf-tooth necklace
D. The sudden realization that there's no such job as "Werewolf hunter"
20 Aaron saves Werewolf Ben from being shot, only to discover that Aaron's dad
A. Forgot to put bullets in his weapon. The werewolf then easily ducks the unloaded gun after Aaron's dad throws it at his head
B. Is an undercover werewolf who is in too deep to blow his cover
C. Is willing to turn both werewolves over to the proper science authorities, which I guess is something which exists in this book
D. Doesn't really care about werewolves anymore. He's more into Transformers now. And dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are neat!
EXTRA CREDIT What is Aaron's solution to all of his problems?
A. Wait them out. The book ends on the next page, what could possibly happen at the last moment to completely alter the circumstances of the previous 115 pages?
B. Cut a bitch
C. Bite his dad, forming a Werewolf Trio
D. Bite nineteen other people, forming a Werewolf Orchestra
the Platonic Boy-Girl Relationship:
Aaron and his best pal Ashlee, who appears halfway through the novel.
Questionable Parenting:
I sure hope Aaron's dad never tries to lecture his son about not kidnapping people, because he's certainly blown his ability to pass judgment on that.
Memorable Cliffhanger Chapter Ending:
Ch. 6/7:
Aaron's dad screams out for his son to hurry outside and... eat some eggs! I hope you enjoyed that, as it was the most thrilling part of the book.
Great Prose Alert:
I ate my best friend's dog!
Conclusions:
Does a werewolf hunter count as a scientist?
Comments[edit | edit source]
An annotated list of blog comments that received official replies can be found here.
Notes[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Answers A and B for question 2 originally used the word "gay" instead of "intelligent". (Bonus fact: The IDW comic series would introduce a gay Goosebumps protagonist in the late 2010s.)
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Mad Libs are word templates. Readers are instructed to choose words in order to complete a story — without knowing the context of the words they're choosing.
- ↑ Ghostbusters and Caddyshack are both beloved 80's comedies mostly starring Saturday Night Live alumni. Both star Bill Murray in a pivotal role.
- ↑ As whimsical as it sounds, "fairy floss" refers to cotton candy. (Since a "Dental hygienist" cleans teeth, a "Fairy flosser" presumably does the opposite.)
- ↑ A reference to a famous commercial for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, where two guys separately eating chocolate and peanut butter collide. They yell at each other for splattering the foodstuffs together, then taste it and find that it's actually not bad.
- ↑ A regional name for a specific type of hot dog.
- ↑ A thick type of Polish/Ukrainian sausage.
- ↑ While this is the correct answer, it does sound a bit like the German blood sausage "bratwurst".
- ↑ By now it should be obvious that every answer here relates to sausages in some way.
- ↑ Several versions of the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel have the titular siblings pushing a witch planning to cook them into her own oven.
- ↑ Possibly a reference to the creatively-named "Werewolf" from the Golden Age of Comic Books.
- ↑ Republican candidate for president in 1940. He lost to FDR. Theories for why he's being namedropped:
- Willkie was a famous dark horse candidate, so he has a history of appearing unexpectedly.
- He rose to prominence around the time of the aforementioned Golden Age of Comic Books.
- The name Wendell / Willkie has the letter "W" twice, just like werewolf.
- It's a complete non sequitur.
- ↑ Likely intended to evoke the 70's vignette series Love, American Style. Snowclones of this name became a minor fad in the 60's, not long before the show premiered.
- ↑ A rather unclear reference: the reference guide hesitantly guesses that it could be referring to 1996's Michael, where the titular character dances to the song in a roadhouse. Any help would be appreciated!
- ↑ A pun on the older Goosebumps book Werewolf Skin.
- ↑ "Escape cakes" are cakes that contain tools hidden within them. These smuggled tools can help prisoners escape. (In true Goosebumps fashion, Troy introduces an unrelated mythical creature in a humorous plot twist.)
- ↑ People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The group is known for engaging in controversial forms of protest. (They strongly oppose humans wearing fur, which is perhaps why they were on Troy's mind.)
- ↑ An old joke: "Why was six afraid of seven? Because seven ate (eight) nine!"
