Escape from the Carnival of Horrors is the first book in the Give Yourself Goosebumps gamebook series, and is the first book in the Carnival of Horrors saga. It was published in 1995, and was later followed-up by the twenty-second book, Return to the Carnival of Horrors.
The cover illustration features a purple alligator breaking out of its leafy cage.
Blurb[]
TAKE A RIDE IF YOU DARE...
Late one night you and your friends visit the old fairgrounds. They're putting up rides and booths for the annual carnival. But this year things look really different. Really odd. Really scary.
The place is lit up by a hundred fiery torches. And spooky music is coming from the main tent. Then you meet Big Al, the creepy carnival manager. He's invited you in to test some of the rides.
Will you brave the terrifying Supersonic Space Coaster? Risk the horrors of the Reptile Petting Zoo? Slice through the oily waters of Booger Bog? Or confront the evil Snake Lady? The choice is your in this scary GOOSEBUMPS adventure that's packed with over 20 super spooky endings.
Plot[]
You sneak into the closed annual carnival with your friends, Patty and Brad. But then you need to escape, because the carnival is evil. It is owned by a man who traps you and your friends inside the carnival. He forces you all to "test" out the rides, before the carnival opens and traps the entire city's population inside. The reader can decide to fight the monster of Booger Bog, face the psychotic carnival's freak, the evil Snake Lady, brave the Supersonic Space Coaster, risk the attack of every reptile in the Petting Zoo, become slaves to Slappy or Mr. Wood, or ride the Doom Slide.
Story A[]
You decide to try out the carnival's rides. Having been separated from Patty and Brad (which happens no matter what choice you make), you then have to find them and escape the carnival.
Story B[]
You visit the sideshows, and are told that you have to play carnival games. But if you lose, you'll pay with your life...
Side story C[]
From Story B, you get involved with the freak show, whose inhabitants are being held prisoner by an evil fortune-teller. You try to save the freaks as well as finding a way for you and your friends to escape.
List of endings[]
There are twenty-three bad endings, one ambiguous ending, and two good endings.
Bad endings[]
| Ending | Paths |
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You, Patty, and Brad get trapped in a "Reptile's Petting Zoo", but it turns out the petting zoo is for the reptile. You all become an alligator's new pets. |
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The Wheel of Chance lands on NO CHANCE. |
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You are immobilized by perfume and taken away by carnival workers as a dummy for a space display. |
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You go back in time to when you first happened upon the Carnival of Horrors. Patty and Brad remember nothing, but you do, and now you're going to have to go through it all over again... |
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After playing "Guess Your Weight on Mars", you lose and get blasted off to Mars for 20 years (with a chance of either 10 more or less years). The game determined that you are the perfect weight to be sent to Mars. |
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You are falling towards jagged rocks and try to grab onto the side of the bridge above, but miss. It is implied you die. |
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Two of Dr. Frank N. Stone's monsters use you as a volleyball in their game. |
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You're caught and presumably eaten by a swamp monster. |
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You are riding forever on the Doom Slide for the rest of your natural life. |
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You and your friends become the slaves to Slappy (or Mr. Wood) after saying the mystic words "Karru Marri Odonna Loma Molonu Karrano". (You're given a chance to escape if you ran into the fortune teller before, but that only leads to another bad ending). |
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Alternatively to the prior ending, you say the wrong magic words and get turned into a chicken. |
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A giant crane scoops you up and dumps you into the log flume. The log goes over a waterfall and sinks; you end up drowning. |
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Whilst riding on a train, you dodge a ghost in front of you, but fail to notice that another one has come up behind you. The ghost eats you and you turn into a ghost too. |
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You are dropped from a great height onto a giant trampoline, and bounce up and down forever. |
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You try to pull off a monster's head, thinking he might be an animatronic. But he turns out to be an actual monster, and he rips your head off instead. |
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After you decide not to trust her, Patty turns into a monster and eats you as she doesn't want you ruining her plans. |
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A giant slams you into a wall so forcefully that you crash through and fly far out of the carnival, killing you. |
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You get saved by a man in a boat. But he turns out to be a monster who saves you for a midnight snack. |
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You're cannoned into outer space and seen as a small speck on NASA's radar screen. |
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You're stuck together with Brad and Patty by some glue-like substance forever. Now you are the "Siamese Triplets" — a new addition to the Freak Show. |
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A giant vulture drops you into a nest for its babies to eat. But you fall out of the nest to your death. |
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You're trapped with a bunch of demented elves with axes. Since you're in a horse-drawn cart, you try to make the horse move faster. But it won't move, and the elves decapitate you. |
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You're stuck in the mirrored hallways after going left, perpetually turning between two pages. |
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Ambiguous endings[]
| Ending | Paths |
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The Giant, the Fat Lady, and the Three-Headed Man from the Freak Show follow you home, in gratitude for you freeing them. While you make it home intact, you're worried about how much they will eat. |
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Good endings[]
| Ending | Paths |
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You ride on a choo-choo train for little children, and go through a tunnel. The Carnival of Horrors is replaced with the same boring old carnival that's always been there before. But you and your friends appreciate it and deem it to be fun. |
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You escape from the carnival with the help of Monster Blood. After you're outside, the whole carnival vanishes. All that's left is a spooky silver mist. |
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International releases[]
Merchandise[]
Advertisement[]
Artwork[]
.jpg "Escape from the Carnival of Horrors (Full Art).jpg (1.38 MB)")
Trivia[]
- This is the only book in the Give Yourself Goosebumps series to receive a direct sequel.
- There is an ending that involves the reader getting stuck turning between two pages, unable to get out of the Hall of Mirrors. This is the only time Give Yourself Goosebumps had an ending like this.
- One choice tests your reflexes by asking whether you can throw a ball into the air and clap three times before catching it. Oddly, being able to do this gets you punished, even though you would need good reflexes to escape the situation you're in.
- The cover was not illustrated by Mark Nagata, who illustrated many of the Give Yourself Goosebumps books covers. It was actually illustrated by Tim Jacobus, the artist who illustrated Goosebumps and Goosebumps Series 2000. His signature is obscured on the front cover illustration by a sticker that says CHOOSE FROM OVER 20 DIFFERENT SCARY ENDINGS! However, it is visible on the back, on a brick to the lower right hand side of the alligator.
- This book references multiple pieces of popular culture:
- This book quizzes readers on their knowledge of the main Goosebumps series. (Many later books in this series would do the same.) Night of the Living Dummy, One Day at HorrorLand, and Monster Blood are referenced in this book, with Slappy the Dummy, the Doom Slide, and Monster Blood appearing in some storylines.
- This book references the 1971 movie adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
- One of the rides is called the Hall of the Mountain King, a reference to "In the Hall of the Mountain King".
- This book quizzes readers on their knowledge of the main Goosebumps series. (Many later books in this series would do the same.) Night of the Living Dummy, One Day at HorrorLand, and Monster Blood are referenced in this book, with Slappy the Dummy, the Doom Slide, and Monster Blood appearing in some storylines.
- While this book has two good endings, Return to the Carnival of Horrors assumes that only one of them (riding the little kid's choo-choo train and the carnival becoming normal again) happened. This presumes that you followed the "rides" storyline, since the other good ending comes from successfully completing the "sideshows" storyline. However, Return to the Carnival of Horrors also states that "you" encountered certain things in the sideshows storyline as well, which would be impossible from this book.
References in other Goosebumps media[]
- The Snake Lady also appears as a background monster in the Goosebumps film.
- The main event questline in Goosebumps HorrorTown's HorrorLand Carnival event is called "The Carnival of Horrors", likely a reference to this book.