Horror is a genre that younger kids are curious about, but too afraid to read while teens are crazy about it and want more of it.

The Goosebumps series has been around for years and is very popular with both the younger and a little older readers, serving as introductory books to this genre where the horror is just enough to give readers some goose bumps without gory details.

Don’t Go To Sleep! by R. L. Stine, is the 54th book in the Goosebumps series, and with enough in the plot to make one afraid of going to bed.

Matt is an unhappy kid, his older brother and sister bully him and he hates his home life in general, especially his very small bedroom. He asks his mother to give him the guest bedroom as it is bigger and better, but she refuses as it is for guests. Matt takes matters in his own hands and decides to sneak into the guestroom and sleep one night. He wakes up to find himself in an alternate reality, where he and the world around him have changed — for the worst.

The first day, Matt finds that he is no more 12, but a 16-year-old. Then after he goes to sleep again, he becomes an eight-year-old with a circus family, then 12 again, but in a different family, then an old man, a huge monster and a squirrel.

Each time Matt sleeps, he wakes up as a new person in a new situation, but with two bad guys chasing him in all these alternate worlds.

Why they are after Matt and does he manages to shake off this strange time wrap he is caught up in and escapes is something best left for readers to discover themselves.

The plot is interesting, the style is easy to follow and the twist and turns surprising enough to keep one hooked till the end.

Published in Dawn, Young World, June 30th, 2018