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A Letter to R.L. Stine

From: 

Farah Meher-Homji, 

(TYBA - English, 2020-21)


22nd April, 2021.


To:

Mr. R. L. Stine.


Beloved Sir,

       

As a child, I was utterly unaware of the fun and emotions a human being could experience through mere words printed on blank sheets of paper. I always thought books would be boring and burdensome, but little did I know that pages had the power of conjuring a formerly non-existent imagination. One where you are transported to in every way, be it seeing a white figure of a dead girl in the middle of an elusive hallway or actually being able to hear the thudding of ominous footsteps on the wooden floor of a desolate building approaching you from behind, or the sheer touch of breath that you feel behind your ear which gives you a shiver and actual goose bumps all over your body. Each turn of a page could be a turn of events which could turn your life into something you've never experienced before. Getting into the skin of characters and living their lives, seeing, listening and feeling what they do, and most importantly, the feeling of being helpless in a different world even while harnessing the power of closing the book and snapping back to 'reality' were the new-found joys that I discovered when I started reading, and that start was marked by  your "The Night of the Living Dummy II". 


It was my very first work of fiction that I had completed reading from start to finish for the first time in my life at the age of eleven. I still remember the green and pink vertical stripes with Slappy loosely sitting on a wooden plank with his head tilted, looking straight into my eyes every time I looked at the cover. The power of that book was enchanting, like the magic that brought the evil puppet in the story to life. I remember each incident, each cliff-hanger at the end of chapters that kept me thrilled and kept me filled with a perpetual urge to grab that book and continue reading it more, even though I was tired or petrified. That book became a part of me. I had never enjoyed so much before as my imagination came to life with every new word that I read. It was the first time in my life that I got multiple nightmares based on events from a mere book. Several aspects of the characters within the book were eerily similar to people in my life, like the protagonist, a girl named Amy, which is also the name of my mother, and the uncanny similarity of Slappy's face on the cover with an old man in my building who I always feared and moreover, who had coincidentally passed away the same week I had begun reading the book. I had multiple nightmares with regard to the old man and my mother as a teenager, hence reliving the chilling experiences of the novel even in my sleep, rendering you a master of the children's horror genre. 


What made the book so special was the last few lines in the end. Your formulaic beginning, middle and a twist in the end, whether of a chapter or a book, never failed to leave my mind and always lead me to re-read, reinterpret and question the events that I had experienced a certain way throughout the book, which had changed with a new meaning revealed last. This technique helped me with my own imaginative projects and endeavours and I am ever grateful to you and your works where I learned to think out-of-the-box and improve my creative skills, be it in acting, writing, or general cognition of events or information. 


"Say Cheese and Die!", "Piano Lessons Can be Murder", "The Ghost Next Door", and "Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns" are the unforgettable masterpieces which will always remain a special part of my childhood experiences and personality, for these were the books that made me feel so thrilled, scared, excited, happy, and even sad. Reading these books helped me grow emotionally and intellectually and still do, for even at the age of 20 I read two more of your books and will gladly move on to read still more, for though the language may have become childish and easier and I may read the book in a day instead of weeks, I still enjoy the narration and intrigue of the lavishly described setting and emotions of the world of the book that I still get sucked into, and feel those emotions that I used to when I was younger.


Writing this letter to you at about 2 a.m. in the dark has me remembering all the chilling experiences from your books and it thrills me, and although I am grown up now, your monsters still flash in my mind's eye and I genuinely hope they don't haunt my dreams tonight, because the twist of my story is that although I love your books, I am still scared of them, and maybe, someday, I will be able to write of my nightmares and dedicate those works to you. 


It is indeed a surreal experience each time one of your book ends. I read the last word of the last chapter and close the book, staring at the cover; reading what I am left feeling every time...goose bumps.


Your sincerely thrilled reader,


Farah Meher-Homji.


P. S.- Thank you for an amazing reading experience. I am glad yours was my first book. 

This letter was one of the top ten entries in the P.S. I Love Literature Letter Writing Competition of The Novel Room, our Book Discussion Club. Students wrote letters to characters, writers, poets, books as part of a creative review and response activity, and these were read out in the session on April 29, 2021.

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