Amanda Benson

Amanda Benson is one of the main protagonist in the first Goosebumps novel Welcome to Dead House.

Welcome to Dead House
Amanda and her family move to an unknown town called Dark Falls, much to her and her brother Josh's displeasure. During the beginning she had begun get a very odd feeling about the town and the house. When she had begun to explore the house she had been startled to find Mr. Dawes the realtor 'resting' in a dark corner by surprise. The family dog Petey soon began to bark uncontrollably at the sight of Mr. Dawes.

During the walkthrough of the house, Amanda watches with amazement as a boy appears suddenly in the doorway of her new bedroom and disappears suddenly. Amanda feels much better after seeing her bedroom. She goes outside to tell Josh about it, but he is gone. She finds him a little while later in the cemetery... being chased by someone. Amanda keeps seeing other children in her home and hearing strange sounds. Also, the friends she makes all seem a little different. It is later revealed that the children are all dead, having been murdered when they lived in that house. Once a year, they must have the blood from a freshly killed person to sustain their "living dead" existence for another year.

One of the undead children, Ray, attacks Amanda in the cemetery, while her brother, Josh, is still looking for the dog. Josh saves her at the last moment, when he shines his light on Ray’s face. This results in Ray disintegrating and becoming a pile of bones. Amanda and Josh run home but when they arrive, they are attacked by the dead children who explain that there is no dead great uncle and that the letter sent to their parents was a trick to bring the Benson family to Dark Falls. “This is the dead house...Once a year, you see, we need new blood," the dead children say, as they move forward to kill Amanda and Josh. Suddenly Mr. Dawes, the real estate agent, appears at the door and the dead children vanish. He tells them that he has already saved their parents from the dead people and that he will take them to join their parents. As the family is leaving the dead house, they meet on the driveway a new family coming to move to the house. Only someone too familiar is there, and Amanda is sure it's Mr. Dawes.

Appearance
Amanda is described as being unusually tall for a girl at the age of twelve. She is described as having inherited the chestnut brown hair and dark brown eyes from her father. She has her hair cut at a boy's length and is decribed as having a "stern face".

Books
Welcome to Dead House

Television Appearances

 * Season 2 - Welcome to Dead House Part 1 and Welcome to Dead House Part 2

Actor

 * Amy Stewart (Television Series)

Trivia

 * Amanda is the first female protagonist in the beginning of the Goosebumps series.
 * She is the first protagonist to have a sibling and a pet.
 * She was the one to figure out that the one thing to stop the citizens of Dark Falls was sunlight (in the film) and light (in the book).
 * She appears to have a steady and healthy relationship with her younger brother Josh.