Escape from Horror House is the thirty-seventh book in the Give Yourself Goosebumps gamebook series. It was published in 1999.
The cover illustration depicts a run-down house. The house has twisted and warped into features that seem to form a monstrous face.
Blurb[]
HOME IS WHERE THE HORROR IS!
Strange things have been happening at your house all week. Chairs are overturned. Pictures are hung upside down. Weird messages are appearing on the walls. Your parents are convinced you are responsible. But you know the truth. Poltergeists have moved into your house!
Can you get rid of the evil spirits with just a little help from your friends? Or will you need the help of a trained professional like the creepy medium Madame Matilda?
The choice is yours in this scary GOOSEBUMPS adventure that's packed with over 20 super-spooky endings!
Plot[]
Strange incidents of vandalism are happening at your home, and your mother refuses to believe that you didn't do it. She orders you to clean up, then leaves you at home alone. Your friend Bobby's words make you think that perhaps there is a poltergeist in your house, and indeed it turns out there is. It writes a message to you, saying that it's going to take over your body. At this point the doorbell rings, and a woman called Madame Matilda appears. She says she can help you get rid of the poltergeist, and the reader must decide whether or not to trust her.
Story A[]
You trust Matilda and let her into the house. Together you hold a séance and summon the poltergeist. Another ghost hunter called Marvin appears at your door, but he and Matilda hate each other and won't work together. The reader must then decide whether to work with Matilda or Marvin to get rid of the poltergeist.
Story B[]
You shut the door in Matilda's face and refuse to let her in. Rather than face the poltergeist by yourself, you decide to ask your friends Bobby and Lisa for help, so you go down to the basement to email them. There, you discover ghostly faces in the walls. The faces tell you that there are multiple poltergeists in your home, and that the poltergeists feed on negative emotion. You have to find a way to stop them and make sure that no one around you is expressing fear or anger...
Side story C[]
From story B, you get trapped in the basement, and have to convince the ghostly faces (who, in this storyline, are the poltergeists) to let you out. They will agree to release you only if you promise to find bodies for them to inhabit. When your friends arrive, the three of you have to work together to find animal bodies that the poltergeists can use.
List of endings[]
There are eighteen bad endings and eight good endings.
Bad endings[]
| Ending | Paths |
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The poltergeist tricks you into scaring Matilda away, whereafter it kills you. |
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Poltergeists lock you in Jen's toy box with Marvin where you are transported to the poltergeist's world. Then, they eat you and Marvin. |
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You find that your sister Jen was the reason weird things happen because she is now telekinetic. However, she constantly gets you into trouble, leaving you wondering if a poltergeist would have been easier to deal with. |
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Marvin and Matilda fail to defend you from an orange blob monster before it gulps you. |
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The poltergeist drains the life force out of you forever. |
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Your head explodes. |
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The poltergeists take over the whole town. |
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The poltergeists and Zak (who is now a poltergeist) combine together to bring you down. |
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You return home and find out that your family — except you — has been turned into hideous, horrifying monsters after the poltergeists possessed them all while you were gone away. |
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Your face melts off. |
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You, Bobby, and Lisa are turned into ghosts by the poltergeists. |
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Your mother feeds the poltergeists with enough anger, and they possess your body and you become just as evil and mean as they are. |
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The poltergeists transformed the ground into soft mud and waves from a nearby lake and drown you, Bobby, and Lisa. |
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The dolls who are possessed by poltergeists will tear you into pieces. |
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When you accidentally crash the lawnmower into a tree, dolls that are possessed by the poltergeists kill you. |
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The poltergeists possessed the ants in your ant farm and one of them is hungry, so it decides to eat you up. |
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The poltergeists literally tickle you to death. |
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Good endings[]
| Ending | Paths |
|---|---|
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The poltergeist scares Matilda into surrendering herself to the police. |
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You find out that you have telekinetic powers and you are the reason weird things happen. There aren't really any poltergeists and you're happy that your levitating abilities will make things much easier. |
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The poltergeist's mother takes it away from the human world. |
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You, Bobby, and Lisa neutralize the poltergeist with magnets. You are now helped by your favorite school teacher, Ms. Peters. |
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You don't let the poltergeists feed on anything that makes them strong. They evaporate and are gone forever. |
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Your sister Jen has control over the poltergeists. The bad thing is that you should never fight with her unless the poltergeists wake again. |
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The poltergeists decide to stay in the dump and leave you alone forever. |
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The poltergeists were joking. They don't mean to take over you. You, Bobby, and Lisa play with them and then they go away to find another house to haunt. |
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Page map[]
International releases[]
| No. | Book | Country/Language | Translated title | Release date | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | Im Haus der Poltergeister  |
Germany
German |
In the House of Poltergeist | December 14, 2001 | Omnibus Verlag |
Artwork[]
Trivia[]
- Prior to this book's release, one online source claimed the book's title would be They're After You, suggesting this was the working title.[1]
- This book employed little of the type of humor characteristic of the series.
- The title of the book is a misnomer, as this story does not actually focus on the reader escaping their house. Instead, it is all about the reader attempting to get rid of the poltergeist taking over their house and managing their fear. The cover art is also misleading, as the reader's house doesn't actually twist and warp to form the monstrous face.
- The house featured in the 2006 film, Monster House, bears a striking resemblance to the house on the cover of this book.
- Page 59 contains three erroneous sentences in the last two paragraphs: "Your flesh bubbles, then melts down your face as the inhuman energy spreads though your muscles. Your limbs. You heart thumps faster and faster. [...] You weren't using exactly using your head!"
- Page 124 refers to the reader as male (when Madame Matilda addresses the reader as "he").