- "The villains you want to have. The books you have to read!"
- ―The series' tagline
Goosebumps Most Wanted is a series of Goosebumps books written by R.L. Stine. It started off in 2012 as a special standalone book titled Goosebumps Wanted: The Haunted Mask before becoming a full-fledged series later that year. It ended its run in 2016, with ten main series books, four special edition books, and a standalone novel.
Similar to the previous series, most of the books contain an introductory section. In this series, Stine introduces the main villain of the book in the "Welcome. You Are Most Wanted." section.
The cover art for the books feature the main villain or notable character of that book with a colored background behind them, suggesting that it is some kind of "Wanted" poster for them. The cover art is also generally more detailed and realistic compared to Hall of Horrors and Goosebumps HorrorLand 's book covers, which had a more cartoony art style.
Books[]
No. | Book | Publish date | Pages | |
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0 | Wanted: The Haunted Mask | June 2012 | 240 | |
1 | Planet of the Lawn Gnomes | October 2012 | 125 | |
2 | Son of Slappy | January 2013 | 134 | |
3 | How I Met My Monster | April 2013 | 140 | |
4 | Frankenstein's Dog | July 2013 | 136 | |
5 | Dr. Maniac Will See You Now | September 2013 | 136 | |
6 | Creature Teacher: The Final Exam | February 2014 | 133 | |
7 | A Nightmare on Clown Street | February 2015 | 148 | |
8 | Night of the Puppet People | September 2015 | 136 | |
9 | Here Comes the Shaggedy | February 2016 | 140 | |
10 | The Lizard of Oz | September 2016 | 135 | |
1 | Zombie Halloween | June 2014 | 174 | |
2 | The 12 Screams of Christmas | September 2014 | 174 | |
3 | Trick or Trap | July 2015 | 166 | |
4 | The Haunter | July 2016 | 175 |
Special Edition
Goosebumps Most Wanted: Special Edition[]
Goosebumps Most Wanted: Special Edition is a mini-series of special edition books that ran from 2014 to 2016. Despite being a part of Most Wanted, the books feature notable differences compared to the regular books. Notably, the covers are no longer in the style of a "wanted" poster spotlighting the villain/major character in the story. Rather, they feature scenery and more background detail, with a mysterious house in the background of each cover.
The books themselves are roughly 40 pages longer and the story is divided into three sections, with all of them taking place on Halloween with the exception of The 12 Screams of Christmas. Only two of the books feature the "Welcome. You Are Most Wanted." section, with The 12 Screams of Christmas and Trick or Trap omitting it altogether. Zombie Halloween and The 12 Screams of Christmas are also the only books in the series to have unique back cover taglines.
List of characters[]
Villains/Most Wanted[]
Regular[]
Special Edition[]
Other Villains[]
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Children/Protagonists[]
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Other characters[]
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Trivia[]
- There are several characters on the back cover of Wanted: The Haunted Mask making comments on its story. One of them is a character called The Invisible Man, who ended up not making the cast in Goosebumps Most Wanted. It is unknown if The Invisible Man was Brent Green making a returning appearance or a new character introduced in the series.
- Some of the characters on the "Most Wanted" list aren't actually the antagonists of the story, such as Murder the Clown, Poochie, and The Shaggedy.
- Three of the ten Most Wanted villains are from past books: Slappy from the Living Dummy books, Dr. Maniac from Dr. Maniac vs. Robby Schwartz, and Mrs. Maaargh from Creature Teacher.
- Almost every book in this series has its title referencing something:
- Planet of the Lawn Gnomes is referencing Planet of the Apes.
- Son of Slappy is referencing Seed of Chucky.
- How I Met My Monster is referencing How I Met Your Mother.
- Frankenstein's Dog is referencing Frankenstein's monster.
- Dr. Maniac Will See You Now is referencing the phrase, "the doctor will see you now".
- A Nightmare on Clown Street is referencing A Nightmare on Elm Street.
- Night of the Puppet People is referencing Night of the Living Dead and possibly Attack of the Puppet People.
- Here Comes the Shaggedy could be a reference to Here Comes the Devil.
- The Lizard of Oz is referencing The Wizard of Oz.
- The 12 Screams of Christmas is referencing the song The 12 Days of Christmas.
- Trick or Trap is referencing the phrase, "trick or treat". Its title also resembles the title of the Give Yourself Goosebumps book Trick or...Trapped!
- In the France editions, the series title is changed to Monsterland.
- The Special Edition books are referred to as Saison 2, or Season 2 in English.
References in other Goosebumps media[]
- Murder the Clown is the only character in this series that appears in the film Goosebumps.
- Murder and the Shaggedy appear in Goosebumps HorrorTown.
Goosebumps series | ||
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Main series | Original series • Series 2000 • HorrorLand • Hall of Horrors • Most Wanted • SlappyWorld | |
Spin-off series | Tales to Give You Goosebumps • Give Yourself Goosebumps • Goosebumps Presents • Triple Header | |
Other series | Collector's Caps books • Goosebumps Gold • Classic Goosebumps • Goosebumps film books |