User Reviews

I grew up with Goosebumps books and watched the TV show regularly growing up, but I never watched the Ghost Next Door until just recently, and MY GOODNESS is it one of the best and most heartbreaking episodes ever.

One of the few Goosebumps stories that lacks real scare moments, but it does an excellent job in pulling you into the story and the main characters are really great for kids, around 10- 12 years old I'm guessing.

There will be some spoilers, as previously warned, so here is the story:

A girl named Hannah wakes up from a nightmare of being in a fire, to find out that it didn't happen and is haunted by an apparition outside as she tries to call 911. She runs into a new kid who just moved in across the street named Danny, whom she thinks is a ghost because of his weird behavior, his house that apparently hasn't been lived in in years, his haunted basement, and how he disappears to places. However, as it turns out, they read an article together that says the house Hannah lived in burned down 3 years ago and everyone in the house died, including Hannah.

SO Hannah learns she is a ghost, and the spirit that had been haunting her had been trying to teach her how to be a ghost.

HOWEVER, in another plot twist, the ghost was actually trying to get Danny killed so he could be Danny's ghost. Because Danny was "supposed" to die that day, is why he can see and hear Hannah. However, Hannah realized this and realized that she was sent back as a ghost to save Danny's life. So by using her quick thinking and determination she saves Danny's life in the end and gets rid of he spirit. Then she goes back to live with her family and disappears.

For a 2-part, 40 minute episode, it manages to create a very believable back and forth between Hannah and Danny, and in contrast to the usual Goosebumps format, the twist is actually revealed along the way, as opposed to at the end of the episode.

Maybe as someone who has experienced loss in the past and never got the chance to know someone in my family, I am especially drawn to this story about a girl who doesn't want to be dead and who just wants to be normal and have a friend, and in the end she gets the friend she wanted, with one of the most satisfying (I don't care how cliché) endings ever. I highly recommend it, if only to see a Goosebumps actually have a happy ending.