Friiight Night is the nineteenth and final book in the Goosebumps SlappyWorld book series.[1] It was released in July 4, 2023.
The cover illustration features a gigantic green four red-eyed monster (which is probably Skwerm) with white polka-dots in a room filled with balloons, streamers and candles and a banner that reads "Friiight Night."
Blurb[]
Kelly Crosby is the new kid in school. So far, it’s not going so well. He’s already gotten lost, had trouble making friends, and annoyed the monster that lives in the school basement. That’s right. This new school has a monster. All the area schools do. Every year, at a party called Friiight Night, one (un)lucky kid is chosen to be the monster’s special guest of honor. Guess whose luck is about to run out?
Plot[]
Kelly Crosby has moved from the small town of Little Hills Village, New Hampshire to Great Newton, Massachusetts. On the way to his new school of Adams Prep, he calls his friend Charlene who tells him this is a good chance to start over with a bold new personality. When he arrives, he soon gets lost and hears strange animal noises coming from the school basement. A boy named Gordo helps him get to class, and tells him he got here just in time for "Friiight Night". He leaves before telling him what that is.
The teacher Mrs. Waxman turns out to be a nice woman who cracks jokes as she introduces Kelly to the class. She gives them an assignment and mentions the upcoming Friiight Night, but tells Kelly he can ask about it later. That Saturday at home, he is visited by Gordo and two other kids, who tell him it's time to meet the monster. They take him to school to meet a monster in the basement named Skwerm. In the basement, Kelly comes face to face with the monster Skwerm, a large green creature with four eyes, a gorilla head and blue warts on it. He gets scared runs off. The other kids catch up to him and say that was a bad idea.
They inform him that they assumed every school has a monster. Skwerm is ranked as one of the top 5 school monsters every year, and a rival school brags about how much better their monster is. They assumed Kelly already knew all this and say he could be the monster's date for Friiight Night, which won't end well. He goes home to tell his parents, but they say they heard about the monster and say "You get to have so many exciting new experiences in a big school". Kelly goes online to look up school monsters and discovers that every large school in the state has a monster in the school. It's to keep the boilers running all winter and act as guards.
They allow the monsters to leave the basement once a year in the spring, for a party called Friiight Night. A kid is picked to be the monster's date and keep them happy. While most kids are safe, 10% of the time the monster eats its date. Kelly visits Gordo and says he wants to get Skwerm a gift so he can be in a good mod and not eat him if he becomes his date. Gordo suggests giving him eggs, as he loves them. He brings the monster some eggs but spills some on the floor. Skwerm gets upsets, picks them up and puts them on his head. Kelly runs away and bumps into Gordo. After being told what happened, Gordo reveals he was mistaken and the monster is actually allergic.
Kelly assumes Gordo lied to him on purpose, to get ahead and not be picked as the date. He tries to talk to his parents about this again, but they think it's an "honor" to be picked as the monster's date, even if they would miss him if the chance that he is eaten comes up. At school the next day, the monster's date is picked and it's not Kelly, but a girl named Erin Barnard. However, she will be on vacation during the week of Friight Night so instead the date will be Kelly.
Mrs. Waxman takes him to a freezer where she gives him an outfit made out of meat. Sometimes the monsters gets the nibbles so this is to give him something to eat instead of Kelly. They visit Skwerm briefly and it seems like it really hates Kelly, as Waxman says the meat suit may not work. At home, he talks to Charlene who tries to think of it from Skwem's point of lovely, as he must be lonely. This gives Kelly an idea.
Back in Little Hills, Charlene tries to get her mom to visit Kelly and help him. She knows about the monsters and how their town is too small to have one. She saw a video about them which said they don't eat kids and even if Kelly is going to get eaten, there's not much they can do about it. She assures her Kelly will be fine.
Sometime later with Kelly, the school is getting things ready for the big night. Kelly and Erin sneak out and go to Madison Academy, the rival school. They plan to kidnap their monster and have it meet Skwerm. when they get to the basement, Erin gets scared and runs away, leaving only Kelly to meat their monster, Burrrph, with the hope that they can be their dates and spare the kids. A hand grabs him which turns out to be Charlene, who convinced her mom to drive her here to save him. Charlene hears his big idea and says it just be dumb enough to work.
They meet Burrph, who looks like a stingray. Kelly didn't plan how to take him to their school, and he starts to strangle Charlene. On instinct, Kelly pulls out some balls and starts juggling them, as he juggles to calm himself. This distracts the monster, who laughs him Kelly drops one. He tells it to let Charlene but it doesn't listen. He throws a ball at Buurph who catches it, letting Charlene go. He starts juggling again and the monster is so entranced by it that he follows Kelly as he juggles.
They all leave for Adams Prep, but they loose Burrph on the way. They can't find him so they go home, where they see a news report mentioning that the Madison Academy monster is missing. Gordo shows up and asks Charlene what she plans to do while in town. He suggests bowling which gives Kelly an idea. They were near a bowling alley when they lost Burrph, so he assumes it went there as the glowing balls on the sign there could have distracted him. They go there and his suspicions are confirmed, as Burrph is causing chaos.
Kelly tells Gordo he can step up and be a hero, saying that singing "Row Your Boat" will stop the monster. This is a lie and Gordo gets eaten. He decides to save him and eventually he is spit out after Kelly hits Burrph with a ball. Gordon runs away, and Kelly uses his juggling to make the monster follow him. The schools are closed so their only choice is to take it to Kelly's basement. The next day, Friiight Night has arrived so they bring Buurph to the party.
Mrs. Waxman is delighted that Kelly did something so bold, as she finds his plan to be brilliant. Skwerm is brought out, and at first it seems like they starting fighting but it turns out to be hugging. Everything is well and Waxman proclaims this to be the best Friight Night in history. The next day, Charlene leaves and Waxman asks Kelly to meet her before class starts. He does so and she congratulates him on saving the day. But now he has to prepare for "Scaaary Saturday", their next party, and meet the monster in the music room.
Audiobook[]
| Audiobook | Release date | Length | Narrated by | Published by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
July 4, 2023 | 2 hours, 49 minutes | Joe Fria, Mark Turetsky, Tara Sands | Scholastic Inc. |
Trivia[]
- This book's title is similar to the title of the 80s horror movie series Fright Night.
- The title is also similar to the title of the seventh book in the Ghosts of Fear Street book series, Fright Knight.
- The book shares a similar plot to the eleventh book in the The Nightmare Room book series, Scare School.
- This is the final book to use the 2008 version of the Goosebumps logo.
- This is the final book to feature cover artwork from Brandon Dorman.
- Despite being the last book in Goosebumps Slappyworld, Slappy still tells the reader that he’ll come back with another story.
- According to Stine, when writing the book based on the outline, the book turned out short by at least half of the planned pages, leading to Stine having to pad out the rest of the pages.[2]
- The use of three i's in the word "Friiight" is reminiscent of the spelling of Mrs. Maaargh's name from the Creature Teacher books.
- This and the Creature Teacher books also share the concept of having a single student selected each year for something special with a monster in a school. A similar concept was also used in the Nightmare Room book Scare School.
- This book references Google Maps, the iPhone, FaceTime, Space Invaders, Google, King Kong, and Star Wars.
- Kelly's mom is mentioned by name in this book: Anna Crosby.
- This is one of few Goosebumps books to change perspectives at some point.