[Book Review] Say Cheese and Die! by R.L. Stine

Say Cheese and Die! by R.L. Stine is a tale about a group of kids who go into an abandoned house and find a camera. But it’s not just any old camera… this is an evil camera.

This is a book with a pretty simple premise, but to this day, it’s still one that has stuck with me ever since the first time I read it!

When I saw a copy at my local Goodwill, I just had to snag it so I could re-read it. While some of the story is a bit outdated, I still really enjoyed the re-read!

Let’s dive in!

My Thoughts on Say Cheese and Die! by R.L. Stine –

Like I had said above, the premise was rather simple; a group of kids are bored one day and decide to go into an abandoned house. Once inside, they wind up in the basement where one of the kids discovers a camera hidden in a cabinet. He feels that the camera is hidden for a reason, but can’t resist.

To test it out, the boy who found the camera tells another boy to pose. After the flash goes off, the camera spits out an instant print. Excited to get back downstairs to see it, the boy who had posed leaned on the railing on the stairs, but the railing gave way and he fell to the ground.

When they hear someone walking upstairs, the kids escape the house, taking the camera with them.

Later, when they are safe again, they remember the photo. When they look at it, they immediately see that something is wrong. The photo, while it was taken when the boy was posing, shows the boy mid-air as he was falling from the stairs.

They try to brush this off as just an odd occurrence, but each new photo that is taken ends up coming true! But is the camera predicting the future, or causing the bad luck?

At the very beginning of the book, I thought, “Oh boy… this is not going to be as amazing as my first read…” This was simply because some of this is rather outdated now. However, the story quickly picked up and I was totally sucked in.

I love how realistic the banter between the kids was. They really seemed like a group of kids in the 90’s just hanging out, looking for something interesting to do in a small, boring town. Complete with the sarcasm, pushing each other’s buttons, and light picking on one another.

The plot, while predictable, was still so much fun! I mean, how eerie is an evil camera that either predicts or causes accidents and other bad things to happen?!

My Final Thoughts on Say Cheese and Die!

I had so much fun re-reading this one! If you were a fan of the Goosebumps series as a kid, I definitely recommend giving this one another go! It’s a very quick read, which could be awesome for a readathon! It’s not a very deep, or super-developed tale. But it is a tale that will suck you right in as you breeze through the story.

I’d also recommend this one to the targeted age range. While the creep factor was much lower on this read-through for me, I still remember how scary I found it the first time around. This is such a great tale to introduce younger readers to creepier reads!

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