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Larry finds a bottle of tanning lotion which makes him grow spikey dark hair on hands and face.

#26 "It keeps growing... and growing... and growing..."
Larry is a boy picked on by not only the kids in the neighborhood but the dogs as well. One day he finds a can of instant spray tan in the trash and takes it to his friends for all of them to try. When Larry starts to chicken out saying that the can is terribly expired his friends start to mock him until he finally tries it on. Suddenly Larry has hair growing out of his hands and face. The hair comes back after every shave. What in the world is Larry to do? ( )

This Goosebump book is infamous for its utterly ridiculous ending.

Yes, the ending didn't get any better this read through. Knowing the ending, in fact, only heightened my enjoyment of the book for all the ridiculous hints at it littered throughout. What could have been, and likely was, a massive metaphor for puberty (omg, my hands are hairy, my body is hairy, what is happening to meeeeeee?) became instead just a ridiculous romp through the lovely mind of [a: R.L. Stine|13730|R.L. Stine|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1194380070p2/13730.jpg]. The man just keeps getting better.

Throughout this book you'll be treated to... a band with three guitars and a keyboard but no other instruments, people who can't sweat, people who take strange bottles of lotion out of dumpsters and use them without thinking, the word heterochromia, people with no sweat glands, and other such wonders.

Truly a classic Goosebumps book. Like [b: Why I'm Afraid of Bees|125583|Why I'm Afraid of Bees (Goosebumps, #17)|R.L. Stine|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328866712s/125583.jpg|120948], everyone should read it at least once. ( )

## It keeps growing... and growing... and growing...

After the fun R.L. Stine clearly had creating believable, funny adventures around believable, funny kids in Phantom of the Auditorium and Attack of the Mutant, My Hairiest Adventure feels as run-of-the-mill and shallow as the title suggests.

[N.B. This review includes images, and was formatted for my site, dendrobibliography -- located here.]

It's not a bad yarn by any means -- it's just...uninteresting. 'Hairy' Larry, our protagonist, is uninteresting. His friends and their band are uninteresting. The antagonists, a rival band, are uninteresting. The light-hearted mystery around Larry growing thick, black, greasy hair in unusual places is -- you guessed it -- uninteresting.

Stine's usual stories are surface-level spooks and jokes meant to connect with kids and keep them turning the pages -- this, however, may deserve some credit for branching out a bit to craft a metaphor around puberty and the awful, awful changes that brings. Maybe.

It's a decent, silly story to pass the time, but there are so many better Goosebumps adventures to pick from, whether you want spooky horror (Ghost Beach), or you're more craving R.L. Stine's silly sense of humor (Go Eat Worms!). The problems lie not just in how boring the entire concept is, but that the ending is telegraphed a bit too obviously early on with the neighborhood dogs, and Larry's fixation on a can of tanning lotion is too obviously a red herring. Not one of the better Goosebumps entries, and likely out of print for a reason.

(I still loved it....)

## "Do you think the stuff works?" Jared asked, adjusting his cap and staring at the bottle.
## "It has to," Lily said. "They couldn't sell it if it didn't work."

R.L. Stine's Goosebumps (1992–1997):
#25 Attack of the Mutant | #27 A Night in Terror Tower ( )