I Live in Your Basement!

infobox Book | | name = I Live In Your Basement!
orig title =
translator =


author = R.L. Stine
cover_artist = Tim Jacobus
country = United States
language = English
series =
classification = Fiction
genre = Horror, Children's literature
publisher = Harcourt
release_date = November 1997
media_type = Paperback
pages = 111
isbn = 0-590-39986-1
preceded_by = Werewolf Skin
followed_by = Monster Blood IV

"I Live in Your Basement!" is book number 61 in R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series. It is the penultimate book in the original "Goosebumps" series.

ummary

While walking from school, Marco Ongstad talks to his best friend Jeremy Goodman about how annoying his mom is about safety. Marco goes to his house, gets dressed, and sneaks off to a softball game at the playground while his mom is out shopping. Marco arrives at the playground and meets up with Jeremy and some other kids, including a giant, tough girl named Gwynnie Evans. Just when the game starts, Gwynnie accidentally hits Marco in the head with a baseball bat.

Marco wakes up in his house with his mom and his dog, Tyler. Just when Marco's mom leaves the room, the phone rings. Marco answers it and the caller says his name is Keith and he lives in Marco's basement. Marco tells his mom about the call but she doesn't believe him because there's no phone in the room. The next day, Jeremy visits Marco to keep him company while the bump on Marco's head heals. They go down to the basement to play pool when a gray squirrel suddenly jumps on Marco. The boys try to get it so they can dissect it, but it jumps out of the basement window.

Later that night, Marco gets up for a midnight snack when he notices the basement door is open. He looks at it when he hears Keith calling him from the basement. Marco's mom comes and still doesn't believe Marco about Keith. The next day, Marco comes back to school and his classmates ask him what the hospital was like, but Marco doesn't remember anything about going to the hospital. After school, Marco notices Gwynnie chasing him with a bat, as if she was going to hit him again. She really wanted to apologize to him. Marco then realizes he has four bumps on his head. When he arrives back at his house, Marco finds "Keith" in his room watching TV. Marco locks the room, gets his mom, and when he opens the door again, only Tyler is found on Marco's bed watching TV.

Marco is taken to the local doctor, Dr. Bailey, because his mom thinks he's crazy. When Marco finishes telling Dr. Bailey the story about Keith, Dr. Bailey asks if he could remove Marco's brain and examine it. Marco does not want that, so his mom schedules the de-braining process. Marco's brain ends up getting swapped with a dog's.

After that Marco types his creative writing assignment about a dog's point of view. Jeremy calls Marco, and when they finish talking, his words on his computer disappear and Keith's face shows on the screen. Gwynnie arrives and Marco insists on going to the basement to find Keith. After a search all over the basement, Gwynnie suggests to Marco that he's just trying to scare her for hitting him in the head with a baseball bat. As she climbs up the banister, she says she wants to show Marco something. Then, she turns inside-out, triggering a long, shrill, girly scream from Marco. Marco was crying his eyes out all night after that.

Then a bright, white light comes and Marco finds himself in a hospital room. Then all of a sudden he finds Gwynnie sitting and watching him. He turns inside out and screams.

In a twist ending, it turns out that Marco is the monster in the basement, Keith is a human boy who lives upstairs, and everything that happened to Marco was a nightmare.

Tagline

Talk about a MONSTER nightmare!

References

*cite book
title=I Live in Your Basement!
author=R.L. Stine
date=November 1997
publisher=Scholastic
id=ISBN 0-590-39986-1