Lost in Stinkeye Swamp is the twenty-fourth book in the Give Yourself Goosebumps gamebook series. It was published in 1997, and is the last cover to be illustrated by Mark Nagata.
The cover artwork features a giant Venus Fly-trap standing in a swampland. Two alligators are seen swimming in the background.
Blurb
Home Swamp Home.
Welcome to Swamp House—your new home. It's ugly, run-down, and haunted by a ghost named Annabelle. That's bad. But there's treasure hidden on the grounds. That’s good—if you can survive long enough to find it.
In the basement you'll find a magic telescope and Annabelle’s two-hundred-year-old diary. Can a telescope help you strike it rich? Only if you make it through a swamp full of deadly gators and giant meat-eating pod plants. What? You're dying to read Annabelle’s diary? Well, let's hope Annabelle doesn’t mind. Because she’s watching you...
The choice is yours in this scary GOOSEBUMPS adventure that's packed with over 20 super-spooky endings!
Plot
You move to a new house called Swamp House. It is ugly, run-down, and reported to be haunted, but there is treasure hidden on the grounds. You have also been told that "Annabelle" has cursed the swamp. While exploring the basement with your new friend Zeke, you find a telescope and a two-hundred-year-old diary. Whether you take the telescope or look in the diary determines what happens in the story.
Story A
You read the diary, which belonged to "Annabelle." You realize that she must have something to do with the curse. The diary says that the house has a secret tunnel created by smugglers. You surmise that the smugglers were looking for the treasure, and the tunnel will lead you there. You find the tunnel, and decide to explore, but hidden dangers lurk along the way.
Story B
You take the telescope. It turns out to be magical and show you things you could not see before. You go out into the swamp, where a mysterious man tells you about the Annabelle, a boat whose crew were all drowned. There is treasure on board the wreckage, and you decide to use the telescope to help you find it, ignoring the man's warnings...
Side story C
From story B, instead of the mysterious man, you meet up with a guy who claims to be a park ranger. He's not, and clues from him lead you to a witch named Annabelle who lives in the swamp.
List of endings
There are twenty-one bad endings and four good endings.
Bad endings
- Zeke and you decide to stay out of the swamp water and take a path of logs across. You tread on what you think is a log. But it turns out to be an alligator. The alligator then flips you off of his back, and he eats you.
- A giant Venus Fly-Trap catches you and Zeke. Then it eats you both.
- Falling into a giant pit, you try to solve Carl's riddle. You agree with the answer Zeke comes up with, but Carl says it's wrong and leaves you both down there. Then you see that the walls are crawling with hordes of scorpions, and the both of you are about to get stung.
- When you plunge into icy cold water, you grab onto a tree root hanging above you to save your life. But the tree gives way beneath your weight, and you're swept away with the current. As you're swept away, you curse your rotten luck and decide never to hug another tree again.
- By grabbing the red jewel, you end up getting turned into a ghost. Also, you're sort of scolded that you didn't actually bother to solve the puzzle.
- Pulling the handle on the ship's clock, you end up becoming a ghost. After the transformation, you notice the words "Time flies" inscribed on the clock's face, explaining your transformation.
- While swimming to the other end of a pool to escape ghastly fish, your pet goldfish (whom you neglected to take care of) suddenly turns up. For a moment, you're happy to see him again. But he turns on you and starts taking bites out of you.
- Zeke and you get trapped in the secret room forever. The both of you hope that someday, the diary will be found once again. But now you're about to be bored to death.
- Not wanting to go deeper underground, you go through a door and slip on the wet floor. You fall down a chute and land in a pile of sewage on a machine's conveyor belt. You're about to end up as ground fertilizer. Before you die, you realize that the color-coded markings meant that this was the wrong choice.
- When you draw the ace of hearts, you take Zeke's position as lookout on the wheelhouse. Zeke tells you that you should never gamble with an old riverboat hand.
- The cup in the center holds apple juice. Unfortunately, drinking from it results in you and Zeke getting turned into babies. Annabelle decides to adopt you, since she's always wanted children of her own.
- When you drink from the cup on the right, you're amazed to find that it's a banana shake. However, you and Zeke end up getting turned into monkeys. Everything you say comes out as a screech.
- Getting stuck on the sticky sap of the strangler vines, you and Zeke start pleading Billings to help you get free. But Billings decides to ditch you and leave you to your fate while he starts searching for the treasure all by himself.
- When you come home late at night, your mom asks you where you've been. When you try to tell her the story, she doesn't believe you, and she sends you to your room while she thinks up your punishment. You get a feeling you'd have been better off taking your chances with the strangler vines.
- Believing that the key is hidden somewhere inside the treasure room, you decide to look inside. But Annabelle thinks you're only after the treasure and punishes you by sealing you up inside the treasure room.
- Zeke decides to have you take his position on the boat.
- Playing the Midnight Waltz on the music box results in Annabelle getting angry, since she never got to dance with Hubert. She then decides to waltz around with you forever.
- Zeke tricks you and leaves you trapped in the caverns. He says that he's angry at you for trying to turn Annabelle against him. You're trapped, but you decide to plot revenge.
- Using a guide to the sewer system, you attempt to navigate your way out of the sewers. But you soon find the map is out of date after you find out you've wound up inside a gorilla's cage at the city zoo. It's implied that the gorilla probably decides to play around with you when it notices you.
- After you decide not to pick up the jewel on the floor, as you are drawn forward to the door to your basement. You and Zeke try to open the door, but it doesn't budge. Angered by your failure, Annabelle decides to bring the cavern down on top of you. A giant piece of granite comes down, crushing you and Zeke.
- Ed the ghoul drags you to his old working site in the sewers. Wanting to defend yourself, you grab a crowbar and try to hit Ed, but he easily grabs it and snatches it away from you, saying he uses it as a toothpick. Then he proceeds to feast upon you.
Good endings
- By playing the Come-Back Tango on the music box, you end up summoning Annabelle's lover, Hubert. Before the ghosts depart, you and Zeke are rewarded with treasure.
- Drawing the ace of spades, you win a game with Zeke, and he has to reward you. You open a safe and find out it's filled with gold bricks. Zeke sounds saddened, but you allow him to visit now and then. You even allow him to play your video games with you.
- Picking up the strange gem on the floor, you find out that it's the missing doorknob. By inserting the knob into the right spot and opening the door, you manage to lift the curse. When Annabelle tells you that only her brother can open the door to the treasury, you find that Zeke is Annabelle's brother. You claim your reward and the ghosts take off. The house is no longer haunted anymore.
- You manage to free Zeke from his restless wandering in Stinkeye Swamp. As a reward, he gives you two sacks of gold. Before Zeke moves on, you tell him that you actually might like living in Swamp House, and that the treasure could be put to good use to fix the place up.
International releases
Gallery
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Artwork
.jpg "Lost in Stinkeye Swamp (Full Art).jpg (210 KB)")
Trivia
- This is the last cover in the series to be illustrated by Mark Nagata. After this book, Craig White became the main series illustrator.
- In an interview, Mark Nagata stated that Craig White did "a great job" illustrating for the series.[1]
- One page shows a word search with a sentence above it. What you have to do is find each of the words in the sentence hidden in the word search.
- In both Story A and Story B there is a plot twist concerning Zeke, providing you do everything right (and in some cases, it still happens if you do things wrong). The origins of what happened to him change between scenarios, but the twist is ultimately the same.
References in other Goosebumps media
- Although no monsters from this book appeared in the Goosebumps film, the cover of this book is shown during the end credits of the film. The Venus Fly Trap on the cover is acting like E. Ville Creeper's Plants, since the cover art for You're Plant Food! didn't feature them.