Horrors of the Black Ring

infobox Book | | name = Horrors of the Black Ring
orig title =
translator =


author = R. L. Stine
cover_artist = Tim Jacobus
country = United States
language = English
series =
classification = fiction
genre = Horror fiction, Children's literature
publisher = Scholastic
release_date = June 1999
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages = 108 p.
isbn =
preceded_by = The Werewolf in the Living Room
followed_by = Return to Ghost Camp

"Horrors of the Black Ring" is the eighteenth book in the , about a strange ring that brings out the evil in whoever wears it.

About the Book

The book is about a girl named Beth Mullings who has an annoying sister named Amanda and is often annoyed by a boy at school called Anthony Grant. Her teacher is a kind lady named Melanie Gold, who has a black ring with a face on it on her finger that she is unable to get off. One day before school, Anthony is about to crush a baby bird with his bike, but Beth saves it at the last second. She takes it home and names it 'Chirpy'. After a series of attacks and finding a note that says the carnival is doomed, nobody believes it. Beth, following some clues, decides it was Anthony. Later she gets a call to tell her to put off the carnival, then she finds Amanda on the phone. However, more attacks are made, including putting worms in the brownies and boiling the water in the dunking tank. Beth and the others, Danny Jacobs, Tina Crawford, Elizabeth, Gordon, Oliver Steward, David Kelly, and the others start to believe the warnings, but the carnival goes ahead as planned anyway. It seems fine until everyone goes into the gym, when a fast, superhuman masked figure tries to kidnap Amanda. The police arrive and take away the kidnapper, who is actually... Melanie! As she is dragged away, her ring falls off and Beth puts it on, but then she is unable to get it off. She starts feeling violent and after destroying her pillow, Anthony's bike and sunglasses and locking a 5th grader in a locker, she decides it is the ring's fault. She goes home to try and get it off and discovers the dead body of Chirpy. The ring tells her she can't get it off, but she tries anyway and the spirit inside the ring escapes and tries to take her over. At the last second, she finally gets the ring off and puts it on the dead Chirpy's leg. The spirit is sucked into the ring and is apparently vanquished. She thinks it's all over, when Amanda comes back from the shop and says she found a new black ring just like Beth's- and it even has a face on it!

Tagline

Ring around the creature.