Diary of a Mad Mummy was the tenth book in the Give Yourself Goosebumps gamebook series. It was preceded by The Knight in Screaming Armor and followed by Deep in the Jungle of Doom.
The cover illustration consisted of a mummy standing next to a wooden table, with green liquid, books, and scientific equipment on it. The mummy is looking away from his diary, when he's writing in it with his left hand, and is holding a science tube, filled with the green liquid, in his right hand. The mummy is also wearing glasses and has gray hair sticking out from underneath his bandages at the top of his head. The tagline was, "All wrapped up and no place to go..."
It was released in October 1996 and was 136 pages long.
Plot
You are on vacation in San Fransisco, California, and are extremely bored. With you on your vacation are your parents, your five-year-old sister, Susie, and your fourteen-year-old brother, Derek. One day, your family decide to visit a new skyscraper that is modeled after Ancient Egyptian pyramids. As part of the grand opening, there is a special limited edition Ancient Egyptian mummy exhibit, featuring the ancient pharaoh, King Buthramaman. You continue to look around in the exhibit and find a diary that seems to have been written by the corpse. When the security guard isn't looking, you quickly put the ancient book under your shirt so you can read it. However, the diary has some tricks up its sleeve and it illustrates the mummy's plans to come to life during the night.
In one choice in the book, the phrase Klaatu Barada Nikto is used, referencing the 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still. There are also several illustrations in the book including humorous hieroglyphics and a somewhat unconventional maze.
Bad Endings
- You push the mummy off of Coit Tower and defeat him. But you and Derek both turn into dust. The wind blows your dusty remains all the way to Egypt.
- Sinking in the La Brea Tar Pits as your body decays so badly.
- Drinking a sleeping potion, you're knocked out cold, and the diary is stolen.
- Derek finds you in the basement and brings you to your mom and dad. They're so angry that you left Susie alone, they ground you for a month.
- While yanking away from the mummy, he pulls off your arm.
- As a mummy, George gives you another coin to flip, and it lands on tails. George and another guard toss you overboard into the waters. The worst part is, the waters are infested with sharks and it's implied the sharks eat you.
- Web Woolly and some cohorts grab the camel you are using and leave you stranded in the middle of the desert.
- A movie star writes his autograph, with a marker, completely covering hieroglyphics you wanted him to decipher.
- You find your way to the elevator and enter it, but when the doors open, the mummy is standing in the doorway. The mummy is angry with you for stealing his diary and entering his tomb uninvited and it's implied that he kills you.
- You decide to let the mummy take Susie, instead of yourself. The mummy calls you a jerk, before taking Susie away with him. Then Susie helps the mummy come back to life and now she has fame and fortune. But you're left with nothing.
- You try to get past a crocodile to water. It is implied that you are eaten by the crocodile.
- The museum director keeps you as a mummy and puts you in a storage locker, wanting to make you part of the exhibition.
- You switch bodies with the mummy again and he is sent back to his sarcophagus. But he plans to escape again soon and get revenge.
- After saying the wrong chant, the mummy scolds you, saying you're a know-nothing. It is implied that the mummy will follow you forever to try and learn more secrets about restoring youth.
- Tired of being a famous scientific wonder, as a mummy, you write your captor a note. Only your writing is in hieroglyphics now.
- You run out of Fruity Bites to give to a crocodile. It sees you as a fruity bite and it's implied that you are eaten by the crocodile.
- You drink a sleeping potion and end up not being a secret agent.
Good Endings
- Finding the mummy's treasure.
- You and Derek turn the mummy back to his former self. After he goes into the city, you and Derek make it back to the hotel. But the mummy display is no longer there.
- The police arrive on the scene. They think your father is vandalizing an exhibit and try to arrest your father. Even though you have been mummified, your mother still recognizes you. It's implied that you switch bodies with the mummy again.
- The hieroglyphics in the diary are reviews for restaurants in Egypt.
- The mummy turns out to be an animatronic. You get to control him. You also get to be part of a publicity stunt.
- Derek plays a prank on you and you go on vacation around San Francisco.
Trivia
- There are seventeen bad endings and six good endings.
- The picture used on a Hieroglyphic does not have to do with a message. Each unique picture on Hieroglyphics are symbols representing letters and numbers.
- Illinois Smith is a parody of Indiana Jones.
- Some of the pages have decisions that both lead to a dead-end.
- It has been out of print for some time.