This book is rather recent and I spoil it to show how to improve it, so beware.

So I've done every mainline series so far, except for Slappyworld. Time to tackle one I've been sitting on for a bit. I do feel weird doing the really new ones for some reason but here we are. Ghost of Slappy is a promising concept, but naturally it got screwed up. It has some elements that you think would matter but don't and in the end it ends up feeling weirdly cruel for Shep, the protagonist. I'll explain more about that was go on. The Ghost Slappy stuff was okay but ended up not being as fun as I wanted and some of it was standard Slappy stuff except not no one can see or hear him at all. So yeah, let's get into it.

Part of the setup is that Shep has a ghost in his basement named Annalee that has been bugging him, and of course his family doesn't believe him about her. She mostly just floats in the background until the very end, where we find out she was a cruel kid in life and needs to do a good deed to move. However, Shep had been scared of her and didn't do anything to help her so instead she backstabs her and tears of the words that can put Slappy to sleep. For some reason the powers that be this see this as good and she moves on, and the book ends with Slappy ganging up on Shep. Yeah, that was really dumb and cruel for no reason reason. I mean, I can at least see why Shep wasn't super welcoming to her and he apologizes and yet he gets screwed over anyway?

Another weird thing is that it earlier, Shep mentions having a lucky silver charm that he wears on his neck that his grandpa gave him, and he died soon after. You'd think that connect to what Annalee wants or at least be important...but nope, it never comes up again. You can guess how I'm going to fix that so let's into the other thing we'll do something with. The book had Slappy first being owned by Shep's teacher, Mr. Benson, who used Slappy for a prank and had said the words after finding them, thinking nothing of it. Slappy actually comes alive in front of him and whole class while on a school camping trip. Yep, other people, including an adult, know of Slappy...and it doesn't factor into much once they get him and Shep finds Slappy in his stuff, after some bully puts him there, after Slappy is put to sleep. It becomes far more standard after that setup.

So yeah, let's put all this into a more interesting package. We'll start with them visiting the Grandpa, who has been rather distant for as long as Shep has known. He's gotten sick so they are visiting him out of concern and while he isn't a jerk, he does weirdly sad on-top of being sick. He gives Shep the charm, telling him it will bring him luck and that you should hold onto it, and never let go. They go home where we are Annalee is still a thing has been for a while, but here she was just a voice Shep kept hearing, he wasn't sure what it was. After getting home, he goes to the basement to get a thing and sees her properly for the first time. In the book, she's a little girl but in this version she was be an older woman. She reaches him but seems to only be strong enough to touch his charm, hint hint.

He has no time to worry too hard about this as he goes on the camping trip while things while play out like they did before. But now after putting Slappy to sleep, Shep will get the idea to burn him on their campfire so that he doesn't bother anyone ever again. The bully still thinks this is just a joke from the teacher so he says the words again as a joke. They thankfully burn him before he can do anything but this gives Slappy a chance to look at Shep, knowing he came up with the idea, and swear revenge before he dies.

After failing to get good sleep due to hearing some noises outside and fearing Slappy somehow came back, they go home sometime later and try to move on like normal. However, soon the Ghost of Slappy shows up and starts haunting the class, causing all kinds of havoc, and worst of all, interrupting their learning. So now they will be more involved and the plot and try to see if they can figure a way out of this. We'll have Slappy doing his thing but on a bigger scale now that he has ghostly powers on his side. The book had a creepy scene where Slappy almost kills Shep, let's lean more into that to show he's especially pissed now.

Annalee will still be a thing and at one point she will say something about "Simon", Grandpa;s name. (This is directly mentioned in the book, the semi flashback in weirdly detailed for something so pointless). So he will try to visit him to discover more, only to at that moment, get a call informing the family that he has passed away. During his grieving, Shep asks dad more about Grandpa and he reveals that when he was younger, Simon's wife, and Shep's grandma,, left him after a big fight due to Simon starting to focus more on his work than her and all that. He got more distant after that not even Shep's dad had much luck getting through to him more.

Shep realizes that Annelee must be his Simon's ex wife and decides that he, and his classmates since backup is always good must confront her and settle this. They head down to the basement and she shows up. Before Shep can say anything, Slappy's ghost shows up, not only to do his thing but because he views Annalee as competition that must be stopped. They get into a ghost fight but before a victor can be clear, Shep's Grandpa's ghost shows up!

Annalee reveals that she is indeed the ghost of his former beloved. It turns out that the charm was something he gave to her when they first met and was the main thing he had to remember her by when she left. Sometime after she did, he realizes just how awful he was being and wanted to possibly make amends, only to discover she had died of natural causes. This left him pretty sad, hence him being distant saying that Shep should never let go of the charm, he was very subtly referring to his ex. Turns out Shep was living in the house she moved into and died in.

She could sense that Shep had the charm and wanted it, assuming it would help her move on. Simon and her have a nice moment as she sees that he see the error of his ways and still truly loved her. . Okay, I should back up and mention that Shep repaired Slappy's body which caused the spirit to return to it, as he figured he can say the words after that to put him to sleep, making for an easy defeat. I say this as I can work this into here too, perhaps he wanted to do that before caught up in the Annalee stuff. Perhaps Shep has a classmate fix Slappy's body while they are in the basement. After that nice moment, Slappy barges in as a ghost and then suddenly gets put into his body during a ghostly fight between the spirits. He barges in, being a (night of the) living dummy again. Annalee manages to say find the words and say them to put him to sleep.

Since they know that destroying him doesn't work, they just hope they can keep him asleep this time. Simon and Annalee have a heartfelt goodbye, as this managed to close out their unfinished business and they move on to the afterlife. Shep and his pals are happy now that everything is finally all settled. As for our twist ending...eh, Shep's sister, who exists and is about as pointless in the actual book for the most part, shows up, finds the words and says them. Yeah, it's basic as hell but it functions at least.

And there ya go. Perhaps the dead grandpa stuff is a bit dark and not quite in tone with the series but you get the idea, the charm belonged to Annalee and they are connected. As long that concept, along with her helping stop Slappy is kept, you can tweak this as much as you want. I just wanted to add some slightly deeper stuff to beef it up. Might need work but I think I have something here, using the pieces Stine laid out for me. This one easy to put together, just had to decided on if I wanted to use the Grandpa opening or just leave it as a backstory like in the book. Either can work fine.

So ends another round of fixing a kids book, huzzah. See ya next time for more re-writing fun.