Goblin Monday is the second book in the Goosebumps House of Shivers book series. It was released in March of 2024.[1]
The cover illustration depicts a band of furry green goblins in a snowy forest breaking out of their stone prisons.
Blurb[]
DON'T GO OUT IN THE WOODS TODAY.
Mario is spending winter break with his neighbors, Todd and Jewel, on their family vacation to Vermont. He is excited to see snow for the first time and meet his friends' beloved grandparents. But Todd and Jewel’s grandparents turn out to be a little odd. They love telling tall tales of goblins, elves, and trolls. When Mario spots a blur of green fur in the garden, he wonders if the stories could be real. He’s determined to find out what's going on, but the truth might be more dangerous than fiction.
Plot[]
Mario Galagos is excited to be going to snowy Vermont. Being a Florida native his entire life, he's never actually seen real snow. He's visiting the grandparents of his friends Todd and Jewel Simms. Mario is even bringing a leaf blower, to help make snow sculptures. Grandma Alba, called MomMom, is always full of life and sings a lot while Harlan, called Gandpa Tweety, is a bestselling author, who wrote The Big Book of Imps & Trolls and Fairies, Sprites & Elves That I Have Known. He's called Grandpa Tweety because he can make bird calls of any kind and he has a giant birdcage filled with birds.
They arrive at Grandpa Tweety and MomMom's place and Mario is introduced to the birdcage including a pair of lovebirds. Mario is still stoked and hopes to take pictures in the woods because he brought a camera along with the leaf blower. They notice that their cat Firefly is in a panic. Mario asks why, to which Grandpa Tweety mentions it's probably the goblin in the garden.
He claims there is a goblin roaming around in the garden and says just leave it alone, even giving everyone pendants filled with nutmeg, which wards away the goblins. He then tells the story about meeting an Imp in the laundry room. The Imp was taking a bath in the washing machine and when Tweety caught him the imp leapt out, took his clothes, and ran. Tweety keeps swearing all his stories are true, while the kids think it’s all a weird joke. To prove he’s not lying, he takes them to the laundry room to show them a jacket he said the imp left behind.
Later that night, they are outside when the kids spot a rabbit on the ground in a pool of blood. Dead.. Mario has a hard time sleeping later due to what he saw. He goes downstairs, only to see Grandpa Tweety in his birdcage with the lovebirds. Mario asks about this the next day, and he says he just had to feed them.
Mario, Todd and Jewel head out to the woods to look at the birds. Mario notices a shadowy creature leap into the bushes. He thinks it's a goblin, but Todd and Jewel don't believe him and they move on. But before they return home, Mario encounters a small creature with green fur, pointy ears, horns on its head and catlike eyes. It goes to attack Mario, but Mario knocks it down with his camera bag and takes a picture.
When Todd and Jewel arrive, there's no goblin in Mario's picture. The siblings chalk it up to being a raccoon and move on. But when Mario returns to the house, he sees Firefly in a panic. Mario tells Grandpa Tweety about this, who says he believes. They notice that Todd and Jewel’s parents are gone. MomMom and Grandpa Tweety aren't all concerned, saying they went for a walk earlier.
They check the room they were staying in, and notice Dad left his phone there. The kids go outside to find them, thinking they shouldn’t be still out here while a snowstorm is starting up. After a few minutes of looking, they go back outside so as to not make the grandparents worried.
That night, an Imp shows up in Mario’s room who says he’s in his Imp bed. When he wakes up however, there's no imp, just Todd and Jewel. The kids explore the house and Jewel shows Mario one of the rooms in the house which is covered in bird feet. It’s a room Tweety calls his Memory Room, as when one of Grandpa Tweety's birds die, he cuts their feet off and hangs them in the room as a way to remember them. They then head to MomMom's knitting room where they find a whole bunch of tiny clothing with holes in the back, perhaps for a tail. MomMom appears and says she just likes to knit, and doesn’t always buy enough for bigger clothes.
Todd and Jewel brush it all off as her being a bad knitter. They then find a photo album which has pictures of goblins in the clothing that MomMom knitted. They show Grandpa Tweety, but he says it's all just photoshopped images of Goblins that his fans sent him. They loved his book so much, especially the goblin stuff that they sent art in an album and titled it "A Goblin Gathering".
Mario isn’t sure about this, because it feels like a story and questions how fans would know about the outfits. The next day, there is still no sign of Mr. and Mrs. Simms. Mario goes out to the woods and spots Grandpa Tweety observing the birds, writing into a black book. He puts some birdseed in his hand and a bird lands in it. Mario then has to watch in horror as Grandpa Tweety eats the bird.
Mario then follows Grandpa Tweety, who bumps into the goblin. They actually act friendly to each other, with Tweety giving the goblin one of the outfits from MomMom. Mario tries to take a picture, but the goblin chases him and destroys his camera. He escapes to the house, where he tells Todd and Jewel about the latest attack. However, they still don’t believe him.
When Mario spots the birdcage, he notices the lovebirds are missing, which Tweety then says there weren't any lovebirds. The kids soon go sledding as Todd and Jewel claim they don’t remember any lovebirds. They sled a bit when suddenly Todd slips off his sled and crashes into a rock, cracking his skull. Jewel and Mario are concerned, but Todd recovers like nothing happened.
The next day, Mario wakes Todd and Jewel up early so they can spy on Grandpa Tweety and catch him in the act. They see Grandpa Tweety with a pheasant, and he indeed eats it, but Todd and Jewel were busy watching some turkeys instead so they didn’t catch it. Later, Grandpa Tweety tells everyone about an encounter with a Gremlin in his truck when he was younger. After that, Mario heads to bed and sees a tiny green glove on his pillow, similar to the gremlin in Tweety’s story.
That Monday, Mario finds the goblin in Tweety’s shed, and manages to grab it, throwing it in the closet.He finally gets everyone to see it, to which Tweety panics, saying that the goblin has friends. Sure enough, more goblins show up, ready to attack.
Tweety and MomMom say they cant help…as they transform into goblins. Mrs. Simms finally show up but are also goblins. They reveal they were trapped in the snow and the goblins helped them out.Mario, Todd and Jewel panic, especially when the goblins send them into the birdcage, as the kids know too much.
Mario grabs the pendant of nutmeg, but the goblins tell them that it's actually cinnamon instead and Tweety was messing with him. Mario manages to escape and grabs the leaf blower, which he had filled with nutmeg. He blasts everyone, which works in making them weaker. He doesn't blast the Simms, as he needs them to drive him home. Mario reveals he is a goblin hunter working for United Goblin Hunters. He had assigned to hunt goblins in Vermont; as his first job and got lucky.
On the way home, Mario says he called other agents to collect the goblins. The United States has strict laws against goblins. The Simms will be captured after he gets home. However, Todd and Jewel reveal themselves to be goblins too. They transform and attack Mario, sinking teeth into his chest. Proclaiming this is the best vacation ever, they laugh.
Audiobook[]
| Audiobook | Release date | Length | Narrated by | Published by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
March 5, 2024 | 2 Hours, 39 Minutes | Ramón de Ocampo | Scholastic Inc. |
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The original synopsis for the book differs significantly from the final release. In the original synopsis, Mario finds a stone goblin in the woods and brings it inside where the chaos begins. This is exemplified in the cover art depicting the gremlins breaking from stone shells. The final book features no mention of goblins in stone shells.
- This is Ramón de Ocampo's third audiobook narration, following The Werewolf of Fever Swamp and Revenge of the Invisible Boy.
- The book features an error on page 22 with Grandma Alba being referred to as Alma.
- This book references the iPad and YouTube.
- The back tagline "Don't go out in the woods today" is a likely reference to a line from the song "Teddy Bear's Picnic".