Goosebumps meets Alfred Hitchcock meets the Scooby Gang meets family drama in Just Beyond: Monstrosity by R. L. Stine, Irene Flores and Joana Lafuente. This is a fun story of a brother and sister (Ruthie and Ezra Dillon) whose father and uncle have purchased an old horror movie studio. But strange occurrences are happening and the hauntings might be more than just movie magic. Split between the point of view of Now and the original 1950s studio (but mostly now) this is a cute, little spooky, graphic novel for at atleast ages 10 to 13. However, younger people could read/be read to if not spooked easily as there are monsters and “intense moments” of action situations. A mixture of realism and magic, this graphic novel is fun, but nothing we haven’t seen before, especially from R. L. Sine. One of the biggest issues I had was that people keep saying or hinting at the problems that happened “back in the day” but that are not explored. Such as supposedly the studio was haunted, which is one reason it shut down, but we never really see it. In fact, the one magical element from that time could easily be explained by science. Therefore, the story itself is not fully fleshed out (like how did the amulet that causes all the trouble in the first place come into the possession of the man who made the movie monsters?), but still I enjoyed it and can see this as either an animated 30-45 minute cartoon or a live action Nickelodeon TV series (though it looks like Disney beat them to it), each week exploring another thing in the studio or another story altogether.
Some of the questions and flow issues I had might be answered because I realized after researching more about this title, there are other graphic novels with Ruthie and Ezra, but also other children as well which come before the action of this book. Therefore, it looks like Just Beyond: The Scare School might be the first of the Just Beyond series, but at least Just Beyond: Monstrosity is a stand alone.
