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. 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. A gravestone however, reveals Mr. Dawes is also dead. Amanda and Josh manage to escape Mr. Dawes after Josh hits him on the head with his flashlight. It turns out the dead children are zombies that crumble under light, and they knock down a tree to kill all of the living dead. Their parents saw everything. 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.

Personality
Amanda is very mature, patient and sensible and always tries to be a follower to her family. She usually tries to get Josh to cooperate when he is being his stubborn self, often reminding him that they have to give some changes a chance, though she does not like some of them either. And there has been moments when Amanda was stubborn herself, but not as stubborn as Josh and she would always pay her brother back if he played any tricks on her. Amanda does have a bit humor as well and she usually has a laugh with her family and there has been moments where she had some agreements with Josh. Amanda also loved Petey because of how lovely he is and she can always tell him to shape up if he was being uptight. Amanda can also be a worrier, but she tries to be as strong as she possibly could and would try not to make a scene of it and she would get pretty hurt and cross if no one listened to her. Amanda has a good relationship with Kathy and she always tries to help her out by slipping her the answers in math - it was the wrong answers, but it was the thought that counted. Amanda can get pretty excited when she sees something that catches her interest and she is always willing to try it out, depending on what it is. Amanda is very kind and thoughtful and is really close to her family no matter what.

Appearance
Amanda is twelve years old, Caucasian, tall and thin with curly brown hair, dark brown eyes and a serious face.

Books
It is unknown if Amanda was going to appear in the Goosebumps Gold book, Happy Holidays from Dead House due to the expiration of R. L. Stine's contract with Scholastic.
 * Goosebumps
 * Welcome to Dead House
 * Classic Goosebumps
 * Welcome to Dead House

Television and Film

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

Actress

 * Amy Stewart (television series)

Trivia

 * Amanda is the first character of many things:
 * She had the honor of being one of the first characters introduced in the series.
 * She is the first female protagonist in the beginning of the Goosebumps series.
 * She is the first female protagonist to narrate her own story. In fact, she is the first protagonist in general to do so.
 * 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 Benson.
 * In the book, Amanda had curly brown hair, but in the television series, her hair was straight and it was at a boy's length.