Goosebumps/Characters

Notable Protagonists

Billy Deep

The protagonist of Deep Trouble. A budding undersea explorer who regularly visits his marine biologist uncle.

• Adorkable: His constant optimism and awkward attempts to befriend the mermaid make him come off as this.
• Badass Adorable: He can be pretty brave when push comes to shove.
• Badass Family: He, his sister and uncle regularly deal with sea based threats.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The foolish to his sister Sheena's responsible. He's more adventurous and imaginative, while Sheena is more grounded and close-minded.
• Nice Guy: He's certainly one of the more likable protagonists.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Thanks to him, the mermaid was captured.

Craig Morgenstern

The easily scared protagonist of Are You Terrified Yet?

• Butt Monkey: His easily scared persona made him an easy target for pranks and ridicule at his old school.
• Cowardly Lion: He carries through on the dares and challenges he's presented with despite his fears.
• Embarrassing Nickname: The kids at his old school called him "C-C-C-Craig", due to his stutter.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Really, anything scares him.

Evan Ross and Andy

The protagonists of the Monster Blood series.

• Aesop Amnesia: Andy never learns that getting involved with the Monster Blood will lead to nothing but trouble. Evan learns but forgets in the third book.
• Asleep in Class: Evan falls asleep in class at the start of the second book and gets woken by his teacher.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: They seem to have a kid version of this.
• Butt Monkey: Evan is one of, if not the biggest in the series. He cannot catch a break. When he's not being abandoned by his parents with relatives who don't like him or on the receiving end of his Mad Scientist cousin's experiments, he's being bullied, beaten up or just plain treated like crap by his parents or teacher.
• Cassandra Truth: When Evan tells Andy no one at school believed him about the Monster Blood, her response is the equivalent of "no shit, Sherlock".
• Do Not Call Me Paul: Andy hates being called by her real name, Andrea.
• Iron Butt Monkey: Seriously, with all the beatings Evan has taken from Conan during the series, it's a wonder that none of them have put him in hospital yet.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Evan isn't necessarily "feminine" but he is very weak-willed and pessimistic, especially compared to Andy who is a lot more brash, daring and idealistic.
• Parental Neglect: Evan and Andy's parents constantly abandon them with relatives, with Evan's doing so in every book except the second and Andy's constantly making her stay in Atlanta near Evan.

Greg Banks

The protagonist of Say Cheese and Die! and its sequel. He comes across the evil camera that takes photographs that causes horrible things to happen.

• Adaptational Heroism: In the TV adaptation of Say Cheese and Die - Again!, he tries to stop Mr. Saur from taking a picture of himself (not that he doesn't deserve it), as opposed to in the book where he tries to take a picture of him as revenge for his cruelty.
• Aesop Amnesia: In the sequel, he seems to forget all the horrible things the camera caused in the first book and brings it to school just to get a good grade in English so he can visit his cousins for the summer.
• Butt Monkey: Mostly in the sequel due to Mr. Saur and his classmates' treatment of him and what the camera does to him.
• Only Sane Man: He's the most sensible one in his group of friends, which his friends tease him about.
• Revenge Before Reason: He becomes insistent on taking a picture of his teacher in Say Cheese and Die - Again! as revenge for his cruel treatment of him.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: He doesn't show up in the Horrorland sequel Say Cheese - and Die Screaming!, which has a new protagonist and characters, and it's never shown what happens to him or the class after the morbid ending of Say Cheese and Die - Again!

Michael Webster

Long suffering brother of Tara Webster and the protagonist of The Cuckoo Clock of Doom

• A Birthday, Not a Break: Tara sees to it that his birthday is as miserable as possible.
• Butt Monkey: His sister does everything in her power to make his life miserable and his parents do nothing to stop her from doing so.
• Humiliation Conga: His birthday party which gets ruined by Tara.
• The Unfavorite: His parents clearly favor Tara and let her bully him while calling him a liar when he tries to defend himself.

Ricky Beamer

The nerdy, bullied protagonist of Calling All Creeps!

• All of the Other Reindeer: Everyone at school regularly bullies him.
• Butt Monkey: He's constantly bullied and humiliated, especially by a gang of four who keeps ruining his chances with Tasha of writing for the school newspaper.
• Embarrassing Nickname: "Sicky Ricky" and "Ricky Rat".
• Face Heel Turn: At the end of the book, he decides to let the kids at school who bully him eat the cookies with seeds that will turn them into creeps once he hears how they'll be his slaves forever.
• Freudian Excuse: For his FaceHeelTurn. The relentless bullying he faced from his classmates led to him letting them suffer and joining the Creeps.
• Who's Laughing Now?: When he does his FaceHeelTurn.

Samantha Byrd

The protagonist of Be Careful What You Wish For..., a bullied girl who meets a witch named Clarissa who grants her three wishes that inevitably all go wrong.

• All of the Other Reindeer: She's bullied by the basketball team, particularly Judith.
• Baleful Polymorph: She uses her last wish to wish that Judith had met Clarissa instead of her. Judith wishes Samantha would "fly away", causing her to get turned into a bird.
• Butt Monkey: Her life was miserable even before she met Clarissa.
• Meaningful Name: Eventually gets turned into a bird.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When everyone on the basketball team gets severely ill as a result of her first wish, she's horrified.
• Nice Girl: Has moments of anger, but is one of the nice protagonists, even showing concern for her bully when she gets sick.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: When she helps Clarissa find her way to her destination, she rewards Samantha by offering her three wishes, only for all of them to backfire horribly and make Sam's life even more miserable than it was before.
• Skewed Priorities: When everyone else on earth disappears as a result of her second wish, she wonders if it's still a crime to steal food from the store.

Sarah Maas

The protagonist of The Curse of Camp Cold Lake. An extremely awkward and shy girl who fails to make friends at Camp Cold Lake and pretends to drown to win sympathy from the other campers. That's when she meets Della, who becomes determined to make her her buddy and keeps stalking and trying to kill her.

• All of the Other Reindeer: She struggled to make friends even before arriving at Camp Cold Lake. At camp, she's bullied and shunned to the point where she has to eat breakfast alone and no one is willing to be her partner for canoeing class.
• Butt Monkey: Mostly because she's so awkward and bad at interacting with people that it's hard for her to not get the short end of the stick. She quickly becomes the town laughingstock.
• Death by Irony: She pretends to drown to gain friends. It's heavily implied at the end of the book that she's going to die for real, at the hands of a ghost who wants to be friends with her.
• Fish Out of Water: Her parents force her to attend a water sports camp, where most of the activities don't appeal to her due to disliking sports and being a weak swimmer.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The foolish to her brother Aaron's responsible. Despite being younger, Aaron is much more mature and social than her.
• Innocently Insensitive: When she accidentally insults Meg's height due to speaking without thinking.
• Killed Off for Real: The end of the book has Briana about to kill her with a snake, with no seeming way for her to escape.
• Nice Girl: Aside from her awkwardness, she's rather nice and forgiving.
• No Social Skills: Her awkwardness gets her off to a bad start with her bunkmates in the first few chapters, forcing Briana to trade bunks with her, unintentionally insulting Meg's height and accidentally revealing Jan has asthma.
• Not So Different: Sarah and Della are both desperate to have friends and do crazy things to gain them, and are shunned by the people they try to make friends with. Sarah pretends to drown to win sympathy and friendship from the other campers and Della tries to kill Sarah to make her her buddy. They also both dislike the camp, with Della getting homesick and trying to run away when she was still alive.
• Too Dumb to Live: Her plan of guilt tripping the campers into feeling sorry for her by fake drowning - you can guess how well that turned out.

Todd Barstow

The protagonist of Go Eat Worms! A worm enthusiast whose object of interest turns on him.

• Aesop Amnesia: Even after nearly getting killed by a giant worm intent on avenging the cruel way he treated others of its species, he just switches to harming another species of animals. Unsurprisingly, this doesn't end well for him.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Heavily implied at the end of the book when a giant butterfly shows up with a pin, intending to kill him with it for his animal cruelty.
• Hate Sink: It's clear Todd was never intended to be likable.
• Jerkass: Aside from abusing animals, he's very nasty to his sister and her friend.
• Lack of Empathy: He shows very little to the animals he tortures.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Even when he stops harming worms, he just switches to killing butterflies, leading to a giant one coming to murder him with a pin.
• The Sociopath: He comes off as this due to his disturbing interest in harming and killing animals, which is considered one of the early signs of sociopathy.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: He's way too interested in how much pain he can cause animals, whether they be worms or butterflies.

Wade Brill

A girl with a horrible brother who seeks revenge on him with the help of the titular company, Revenge R Us.

• Baleful Polymorph: She gets turned into a frog along with Micah.
• Butt Monkey: Her brother makes her life miserable by doing things like wearing her underwear on his head in front of her friends and crush and reading her diary over the loudspeaker at a public swimming pool.
• Everyone Has Standards: She wants Micah to suffer, but doesn't want him dead.
• Gender Blender Name: Wade?
• My God, What Have I Done?: When she thinks she deleted Micah from existence, she finds herself actually missing him despite his abusive behavior towards her. It turns out he was just hiding to mess around with her more.
• The Unfavorite: How else could her brother get away with all the horrible things he does to her?
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Seriously, Wade?
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Even when she finally gets her revenge on Micah, Iris reveals that any wishes she makes after the third will also happens to her and transforms her into a frog along with her brother.

Villains and Monsters

Conan Barber

The secondary antagonist of the Monster Blood series. A bully whose main victim is Evan.

• Adaptational Heroism: In the TV episode More Monster Blood, he becomes much nicer at the end and even helps save the day.
• The Bully: He relentlessly bullies Evan and does so even after he saves his life.
• Dirty Coward: He's not so tough when facing heights or giant hamsters.
• Disproportionate Retribution: When Evan told him about the Monster Blood when first meeting him, he responded by beating him up.
• Hidden Depths: When Evan and Andy break into Conan's house, they see that he sleeps with a teddy bear.
• In-Series Nickname: "Conan the Barbarian", unsurprisingly.
• Jerkass: Bullies and beats up Evan even when he did nothing to him.
• Jerk Jock: At one point in the second book, he dunks Evan through a basketball hoop.
• Misplaced Retribution: Every time Kermit's experiments backfire on him, he takes it out on Evan.
• Shout-Out: If his name isn't obvious enough, he's even nicknamed "Conan the Barbarian".
• Spoiled Brat: Implied.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Even after Evan saves him from getting eaten by Cuddles the hamster in the second book, he still uses him as a punching bag and bullies him at every opportunity.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: He's afraid of heights.
• Would Not Hit a Girl: Since he doesn't hit girls, he hangs Andy to a tall tree after beating up Evan.

The Creeps

The villains of Calling All Creeps!, a group of monsters who want to take over the world and mistakenly think the kid they bully in their human form, Ricky, is their commander.

• Aerith and Bob: Jared, Brenda, David...Wart?
• The Bad Guy Wins: One of the rare examples that FaceHeelTurn benefits the protagonist.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Of Calling All Creeps!
• Evil Phone: They use one to contact Ricky.
• Gang of Bullies: As humans, they exist solely to make Ricky miserable.
• Jerkass: They take every opportunity to bully Ricky in their human forms.
• The Ladette: Brenda, who is just as vicious as the male Creeps.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When they think Ricky their Commander, they are horrified and apologize profusely for their bullying of him.
• Take Over the World: Their goal with feeding all the kids in school cookies packed with Identity Seeds to turn them into Creeps as well.

Della Raver

The villain of The Curse of Camp Cold Lake, she used to be a normal camper at Camp Cold Lake who got lonely and homesick and tried to escape the camp by swimming through the lake, but drowned. Her ghost now haunts the camp and she needs a buddy to proceed to the afterlife with. She actually died when she tried to run away through the woods and got bitten by a snake. She pretended she drowned to make Sarah Maas fear the lake so she'd also try to run away through the woods and get bit by a snake, so Della could then make her her buddy.

• Anti-Villain: A little girl who is willing to do anything to gain a friend, even murder.
• Ax Crazy: Veers into this with her attempts to kill Sarah after she rejects her offer to be her buddy. At one point, she attempts to decapitate her head with the propellors of a boat.
• Big Bad: Of The Curse of Camp Cold Lake.
• Cute Ghost Girl: When she's not trying to stalk or murder you, she's actually rather friendly, offering Sarah a coat when she's cold.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: More specifically, she wants a "buddy" to proceed to the afterlife with.
• Manipulative Bitch: She lies to Sarah that she died by drowning in the lake to make her afraid of it so she'd get sick of Della's constant attempts to kill her and try to escape camp by running through the woods and get bitten by a snake, like how Della actually died, so she could then be Della's buddy.
• Tragic Villain: She resents her existence and will do anything to escape it.
• Yandere: Brushing off her affections is a very bad idea.

Sarabeth

The villain of the first Monster Blood book, a witch who originally cursed the Monster Blood and pretended to be Aunt Kathryn's cat.

• Bigger Bad: She was the one who put a curse on the Monster Blood in the first place. Without her, it was just a normal toy.

• Cats Are Mean: She takes the form of Aunt Kathryn's cat and turns out to be evil.
• Evil Redhead: In her human form, she has fiery red hair.
• Wicked Witch: She enslaves Aunt Kathryn and makes her deaf as well as cursing the Monster Blood to be evil.

Tara Webster

Michael's terror of a sister in The Cuckoo Clock of Doom.

• Annoying Younger Sibling: Jesus Christ.
• Asshole Victim: She gets deleted from existence. Only Michael knows, and he's in no rush to bring her back.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Though just simply "bratty" may be too tame of a classification.
• Creepy Child: The pleasure she takes in tormenting her brother is rather disturbing. Even more so when it's implied she's been like this all her life when Michael goes back in time, even as an infant.
• For the Evulz: She makes her brother miserable just because she can.
• Hate Sink: There's absolutely nothing redeemable about this girl.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: It really says something that a seven-year-old girl is considered one of the vilest characters in the series.
• Jerkass: She torments Michael endlessly and with no remorse whatsoever.
• Karma Houdini: Her parents never punish her for all the horrible things she does to her brother. Totally subverted in the ending, where she gets accidentally deleted from existence by Michael, who is in no rush to bring her back.
• Lack of Empathy: She never shows any remorse for the things she does to her brother.
• Laser-Guided Karma: At the end of the book, she disappears from existence due to Michael accidentally deleting the year of her birth in the cuckoo clock. Michael says that he'll get her back someday... maybe. It's really, really hard to feel sorry for her.
• Manipulative Bitch: She's very good at convincing her parents she's completely innocent. In fact, pretty much everyone except Michael think she's incapable of doing any wrong.
• Parental Favoritism: Her parents clearly favor her, believing everything she says about Michael lying about her behavior towards him.
• The Sociopath: She comes across as this with the way she delights in making her brother's life a misery with no remorse whatsoever.
• Spoiled Brat: Her parents dote on her and let her get away with everything she does to Michael while turning a blind eye to her horrendous behavior.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: She spends way too much time making her brother's life a misery. The book also shows her torturing the family cat at an early age.

Other Characters

Kermit Majors

Evan's bratty younger cousin that he's forced to babysit. He appears in the third and fourth Monster Blood books.

• Bratty Half-Pint: He gets Evan in trouble and lies to his mother.
• Child Prodigy: Of the Mad Scientist variety. However, this is more of an Informed Ability, as his inventions rarely work.
• Consummate Liar: He goads Conan Barber into beating up Evan, and then tells his mother Evan was picking a fight.
• Hate Sink: Has no qualities outside of being a hateful, malicious brat who only exists to make Evan's life even more miserable.
• Jerkass: His only role in the story is to torment Evan and get him in trouble.
• Karma Houdini: Never gets punished for all the things he does to get Evan in trouble.
• Mad Scientist: A kid one. Frequently tests his inventions and concoctions on Evan.
• Manipulative Bastard: He's very good at manipulating his mother into thinking he can do no wrong.
• Pet the Dog: Him helping Evan shrink back to his normal size in the third book.
• The Sociopath: He loves torturing Evan with no remorse or hesitation, as well as effortlessly lying to and manipulating his mother.
• Spoiled Brat: His mother believes everything he says and lets him torment Evan.

Sara and Jed Kramer

The older sister and younger brother of Amy Kramer in Night of the Living Dummy II. The former is a talented artist while the latter is an obnoxious prankster.

• The Ace: Sara, who is an amazing painter and straight-A student.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Jed due to his love of pranks, though more to Amy than Sara. Sara doesn't seem to mind him much unless he tampers with her paintings, which he does at the start of the book.
• Brainy Brunette: Sara is described as having straight black hair and is a straight-A student.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Jed, who likes pranking and taunting his older sisters. Amy says she sometimes spells his name B-R-A-T.
• Broken Ace: Sara becomes this when she admits that she uses her talent to garner attention and hide her jealousy of Amy.
• Cool Big Sis: Sara becomes this when she reveals that she knew Slappy was alive and helps Amy defeat him.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Jed's reason for pranking Amy by putting her dummy head on her window was because she didn't stick up for him when their parents admonished him for ruining Sara's painting.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Jed is the foolish, bratty prankster to Sara's responsible, diligent artist.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Part of the reason Sara didn't speak up when she knew Amy was being tormented by Slappy was because she was jealous of her sister due to her natural sense of humor and how easily she made friends, while Sara had to focus on painting to gain attention.
• Insufferable Genius: Sara shows off her perfect report card to the family and takes her paintings very seriously, even causing Amy to lose sympathy for her when she calls one of them a "work of art" after Jed ruins it.
• The Prankster: Jed frequently shares his pranks on Family Sharing Night.
• Stepford Smiler: Sara, who needs to paint to impress everyone because she's jealous that Amy has it so much easier than her.