Welcome to Dead House

Welcome to Dead House was published in 1992 and was the first book in the Goosebumps series, the children's horror line R. L. Stine wrote for Scholastic. The series went on to sell in enormous numbers through school book clubs and fairs, and its formula was fixed from this first volume: a family in a new place, a brother and sister who notice what the adults do not, a short chapter ending on a jolt, and a resolution that leaves one detail unexplained.

The book is written for readers of about eight to twelve, which shapes everything about it. The scares are social rather than gory, the danger is that the new friends want something from the children, and the parents' refusal to believe what is happening is the mechanism that keeps the children isolated. Dark Falls is presented as a normal small town with a secret in its history, and Amanda's job is to work out what the town is doing before the town finishes doing it to her family.

Stine had already written horror and humour for teenagers before this, and Goosebumps became the series he is best known for, running to more than sixty books and a long list of adaptations. The first volume is the one that establishes the rules, and it is still the standard introduction to the series for a reader who has not tried it.

The book's scares are built out of what children actually worry about: a new town, parents who will not listen, and friends who are a little too keen for you to stay. Dark Falls is also one of the Goosebumps books that adults and children read differently, which is part of the reason it has lasted.