Remember that one Goosebumps story where like, the kid was getting progressively hairier and it just ended up with his parents telling him, “Oh you’re actually a dog, like we couldn’t have kids so we gave a dog these experimental shots or something and it morphed into you but I guess the shots are wearing off now and we can’t get more.” and the kid was just… “I’m a dog. This is fine.”
R.L Stine vs. Franz Kafka FIGHT!!!!
Plagiarism jokes aside, I’m, like, twelve or eleven. After a few tense chapters, while I’m eagerly waiting for the reveal that the main character is a werewolf (how cool!), was maybe bitten etc… The mom just goes - deep breath - : “Larry, you are a dog.” My whole brain froze. I nearly peed my pants. I still think about that from time to time. Like, for a long moment my whole world tilted sideways and my pre-adolescent mind went “what if *I*’ve been a dog this whole time…??” cause I was almost the boy’s age, and like…. there’s super gory modern horror pulp that can’t even hope to measure up to that reveal, in all honesty….