It Came from the Internet

Give Yourself Goosebumps #33

by R.L. Stine

You've installed some new web crawling software, and now your computer has a virus... a rather unusual one, at that.

Genres: Horror, Choose Your Own Adventure, Childrens, Fiction, Science Fiction, Gamebooks

144 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1999

About the author

Robert Lawrence Stine known as R. L. Stine and Jovial Bob Stine, is an American novelist and writer, well known for targeting younger audiences. Stine, who is often called the Stephen King of children's literature, is the author of dozens of popular horror fiction novellas, including the books in the Goosebumps, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, The Nightmare Room and Fear Street series.

R. L. Stine began his writing career when he was nine years old, and today he has achieved the position of the bestselling children's author in history. In the early 1990s, Stine was catapulted to fame when he wrote the unprecedented, bestselling Goosebumps® series, which sold more than 250 million copies and became a worldwide multimedia phenomenon. His other major series, Fear Street, has over 80 million copies sold.

Stine has received numerous awards of recognition, including several Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards and Disney Adventures Kids' Choice Awards, and he has been selected by kids as one of their favorite authors in the NEA's Read Across America program. He lives in New York, NY.

http://us.macmillan.com/itsthefirstda...

Reviews

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

It Came From The Internet from the Give Yourself Goosebumps series was a book I waited to read for a special occasion.For people that don't know.I never really had internet until recently.If it was up to me I probably still wouldn't have it ,but that's besides the point.This was also another buddy read,so thanks for that!The story is about you bringing your friend over to show him your computer you tell him you see this weird bump on the screen.You show him and explain about your web browser but in this case its a web crawler that apparently you got for free.Your friend Mark explains that most free things are bad.You guys see a bunch of words popping up with this thing called spyder asking for help.You get your first choice which is either not messing with the virus or trying to help it.I chose to restart the computer my first choice.And basically what happens is you guys see a monster looking thing pop up on the screen and it climbs out of the computer and ends up biting your neck.The monster itself is basically a half spider,half octopus that has yellow slime dripping down its face and it can talk.Slowly you begin to feel sick and losing your memory.You have alot of choices.I am not going to sugarcoat this.I had a hard time of keeping up where I went in which order this book was alot like Night Of A thousand Claws,where it was a more straight forward storyline that branched off into mini storylines.Anyway you have choices to go see a doctor or find this computer expert named rachel.I went with the Rachel storyline first.Basicilly you have choices to either surf the web or find this Spyder in real life if you go in the web you literally get on surf boards and roam around or walk.You go to this place called coffin city where there are zombies and this evil kid with a chain.You get to check emails from a mailbox and help Rachel find her friend who is called The Digit wizard where you Crack word puzzles and different things like that.If you end up doing this outside the web you do get a really cute ending and my personal favorite.One thing I hated about this story line is the fact you can skip the email and the book acts like your already have seen the email.There is this thing about the Digit Wizard where I thought I saw that somewhere but wasn't a hundred percent sure.If you go the other storyline where you go to a doctor you basically run into this mad scientist that wants your blood to find a cure for computers with viruses.In this storyline a certain character ends up being in cahoots with the doctor,that I didn't like.I've said it before.I dislike when a certain character switches sides in one storyline but helps with another.I will give this storyline props though for having some clever and fun endings involving chips like microchips being used as food.Thats pretty neat.I didn't love It Came From The Internet.It had really fun ideas with doing actual scary things happening.Losing your memory is actually pretty scary and sadly a real thing that can happen,but I definitely had my issues with the book.It was again ,hard to navigate.There are a few twists within the book that contradicts other storylines and most of the endings were lackluster.I give It Came From The Internet a three out of five stars.

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

I CURSE THEE, VILE CREATURE, TO GO BACK FROM WHENCE YOU CAME—THE INTERNET! Adorning the most iconic Craig White cover art ever, “It Came from the Internet” is one of the rarest and coolest sounding books in Goosebumps. However, it’s just plain okay. Spyder was an addition I quite liked, serving as the main antagonist of the story (the fucker on the cover for those who haven’t read it). He has a gross design and a particular ending where he… uh… pops, which was the absolute standout here, and he served their role okay-ly. The whole virus thing was on-the-nose as shit but neat with its dementia aspects, and there’s a handful of morbid/melancholic endings that are just really depressing, like the blood donor ending, even with some light-hearted stuff to them, like the rerun ending. Surprised I didn’t say this straight up, but this book is literally ONE GIANT ARC with some tiny branches here and there, of which one loops back in on itself which is dope. Just that alone makes this book standout as one of the most straightforward GYGs ever, and it’s SO unique because of that, opposing the traditional 2 and a half arcs. There’s a whole meta bit near the end where you go to the Goosebumps Website, and I can’t help but love that. Wild stuff like that is why these books are cherished. And, the concept of an internet centered GYG is just good alone. Now for some bashing: the book is a light mess. It’s hard to follow and the plot feels lost at points, which isn’t good for a book—a GYG especially—that has only one story arc, literally or figuratively. There’s a thing involving Spyder and bananas which doesn’t make sense at all, and it could’ve been easily replaced with, say, computer chips or something on-the-nose like this story already does. A lot (like almost 20) of the endings here are really forgettable, which isn’t good when that’s the whole gimmick of this series—an array of different, unique endings/outcomes. And the plot isn’t what I was hoping for and I feel copped out of what could’ve been a more gaming/websurfing/ralphbreaksthefuckinginternet kinda story instead for a “help, I have a virus and lapsing dementia” tale. In general the plot just could’ve been something more/else. Overall, 6.5/10. It’s okay, maybe even good—but didn’t quite deliver plot wise and could’ve had far better endings and better direction. The cover is an actual scene for once, a great one at that.

[Asif Uzzaman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book of Goosebumps series was one of the weakest to serve horror to me, as a kid of course. I still loved the concept of ghost coming from the internet to haunt the protagonist boy. Since every child now is introduced to the internet at a very early age, this kind of story was bound to come from R.L.Stine.

[Manan Manwani · Rating 5 out of 5]

really gave me goosebumps!!!

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

My boyfriend and I read this entire book, but it took us over 2 hours because we wanted to find out each ending and let me tell you, we died a LOT. I don't remember these books being this gruesome, but if you want a happy ending, good luck. Out of all the endings there's only a couple happy or semi happy ones. The story is interesting, but we couldn't wait to get to the code part and the maze part. It took us awhile and we got to the maze near the end. Everyone will get to different parts of the book at different times since it's based off what choices you make, but after reading this we don't want to read anymore of these type of books.

[Souvick Chakraborty · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book from Kolkata international Book fair 2010. I amazed the concept of this book at that time. I tried to complete all the storylines but God knows how much are left 😂. Really liked this at that time.

[Sarah]

A fun read, I couldn't resist picking this up. I love the concept of a monster that crawls out a computer screen.

[Nader Nate · Rating 3 out of 5]

6.5/10

[Griffin C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty killer concept that doesn't disappoint. 10/10

[Aylin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was my first time reading a book where I am the character who made choices to reach the end.

[fanboyriot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wasn’t a big fan of most of this. The beginning and most of the middle were just annoying choices and paths. The ending options were better.

[Josiah · Rating 1 out of 5]

At its high points, this book is actually pretty good. The adventure takes some unexpected turns and leads You to places that You didn't expect to go, taking advantage of the ever-present feeling in gamebooks that You really are the one controlling all of the action. There are also a few intriguing new story devices that enhance the story as it is told.

Taking advantage of a world that at the time of the book's publication (1999) was becoming more and more immersed in the internet experience, R.L. Stine launches the creepy monsters of his story by way of the world wide web. Simply searching the net one day with your friend, Mark, you are met with a strong virus that has infected your computer. You attempt to institute basic measures that should rid your unit of the bug, but it quickly becomes clear that this is no ordinary viral adversary. The enemy that you face is some kind of a living creature that can infect both you and your computer, and once bitten by the thing, your own memory will begin to disappear at an alarming rate. What can you do to capture this awful incarnate virus and get medical help for your brain as it loses vital power?

Use the help of your friends, and be wise in selecting those whom you might trust, and you'll have a shot at making it through your ordeal alive. There are no guarantees that making smart choices will lead you into better situations in this particular gamebook, though; you'll have to hope for the best and see if perhaps a little bit of luck might just come your way.

[Ananya Jain · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I read this book 2 years ago I loved the concept of choosing what to do. It makes reading so much more fun. I read almost all the endings just to know if there was a positive one. It came from the internet is very amazing book but I think if I read more books in this series I will find many books which are better than this one.
I think I will love this series more than any other goosebumps series.

[Kevin Xu · Rating 4 out of 5]

we are know the internet is scary already