Goosebumps Horrorland #2: Creep from the Deep

Blurb
Billy and his sister, Sheena, unwittingly dive into a terrifying mystery when they accept a surprise invitation to HorrorLand, the amusement park that always lives up to its name. But first Billy and Sheena must sink or swim aboard a doomed ship that happens to be underwater, with a captain who happens to be dead. At least he used to be!

Plot
Billy and Sheena Deep have once again been stuck on a boat with their uncle, Dr D, for summer vacation. Have these kids never done anything else over the summer? This time, they're assisting Dr D with his search for a sunken pirate ship, which is something marine biologists usually look for. The ship, called the Scarlet Skull, allegedly vanished in 1780 upon encountering an odd black mist, taking with it millions of dollars worth of gold and jewels. Thinking about it, how are they going to sell said gold and jewels? Do they just take it down to Cash 4 Gold and the employees just give them the money, no questions asked?

The 3 are exploring the ocean in search of the ship in their submarine, which they now have apparently (why have they never used it until now?). But then, they pass into a black cloud, meaning the sub loses it's power for a bit. Then Dr D vanishes, and Billy and Sheena crash into the Scarlet Skull. This paragraph seems to be one convenience after another. They are promptly attacked by zombie pirates. Let's take a moment to go over the Deep Trouble books. The first was about mermaids, the second was about giant fish, and the third is about zombie pirates!

Billy and Sheena make it back to the surface and swim to a nearby island. Unfortunately, in the sub Billy injured his leg, so he uses a piece of driftwood as a crutch. But then they meet the zombie pirates again and fall in a pit. I miss when these books were about people trying to sell mermaids to Sea World. Luckily, they escape using Billy's "crutch", but unluckily, the pirates capture them and take them to their Captain, Ben One-leg. I guess his first mate, Jim Hook-for-a-hand, is off sick, because he's not mentioned. It turns out that he kidnapped Dr D, and he also demands that Billy and Sheena return what is his. He doesn't say what, so for all we know, it could be his family tree so he can find his actual, less stupid surname (says Charlie Valentine).

Unlike me, though, Billy and Sheena assume he means the treasure, so they set off after it. They run into a pair of people who claim to be photographers, called Roger Baldry and Goldy Munroe. Well, nice to see that not everyone in this place has a dumb surname. The 2 photographers help them get the treasure up to the surface, only to reveal that they too are zombies. They are, in fact, the original owners of the treasure that the pirates stole, and they followed them into the black cloud in order to get it back. I think we've found the children's equivalent of the original pilots of the plane in The Langoliers. Now they have their treasure again, they go to open it, but Roger touches a red skull shaped jewel on the chest and the 2 zombies are turned to ash. How convenient.

Billy and Sheena return to the Cassandra (Dr D's boat) with the treasure, and then the Scarlet Skull shows up. They give Captain Ben Dumbname the treasure, but it turns out he's looking for his leg. Y'know, he could've just said that. Also, why is he after his leg? He'll have to change all his buisness cards if he gets it back! It turns out that Ben's leg is the driftwood Billy's been carrying around.

Billy gives him back the leg by throwing it like a spear at Captain ben, knocking him overboard. You know, Billy could've just given it to him, not use it to try and kill him! The Scarlet Skull, without a captain, falls apart. What? I don't think that's how ships work.

Dr D, now free of the clutches of the pirates, climbs aboard the Cassandra and explains that the black cloud transported them to the dead zone. Oh, of course! How naive of me not to have guessed! They drive the boat back to the black cloud, and end up back in the normal world. Unfortunately, the chest disappeared, leaving behind only the red jewel. Dr D tries to radio to a nearby ship, but they only hear zombie pirates chanting, fulfilling the requirement that nearly every horrorland book must have a mundane twist ending.

Enter Horrorland
Billy and Sheena receive an invitation to Horrorland, and they decide to go. Well, to be fair, it sounds a lot more fun than just spending 2 months on your uncle's boat.

They spend the morning strolling through the park, then go back to the Stagger Inn (every time I type that, I feel some unknown, horrible emotion). In the lobby, they meet 2 girls, who happen to be Britney Crosby and Molly Molloy, the protagonists from Revenge of the Living Dummy. The girls tell Billy and Sheena that their parents have gone, and Billy and Sheena reveal the same thing has happened (although to be honest, this might mean they can spend more time on Dr D's boat, so that's a plus), but they overheard a horror saying that their parents had been sent to a different hotel to scare them. That sounds incredibly irresponsible and stupid, although maybe the horrors want to get the park its 1,000,000th lawsuit. Britney is still confused about the picture of Slappy she found in their parents' hotel room, but it's disappeared. Just like my interest in the horrorland books whenever the twist ending shows up.

Billy, Sheena, Britney and Molly Molloy (god, I love typing that) decide to explore the park, and end up in the black lagoon water park. They go to quicksand beach (probably lawsuit #476924), a beach of quicksand where you get quicksand resistant shoes. Except they aren't quicksand resistant at all, you still sink into the quicksand anyway. Which is what the kids do. Luckily, there are water slides under the quicksand. So far, this seems to be the horrorland equivalent of Attack of the Mutant Penguins (google it). Billy and Sheena come out at a different bit of the park, but Britney and Molly Molloy are nowhere to be found.

They start looking for the 2 girls, and end up in the play pen. What a terrifying name for your arcade. They meet a boy with a grey card, which allows him to win every game. Because that is how theme parks work. Said boy is spotted by the monster police (because theme parks usually have there own law enforcers), but he gives the card to Billy and escapes.

Later back at the Stagger Inn, Billy and Sheena meet the boy with the card, who introduces himself as Matt Daniels. Beyond that, we don't know that much about him until book 3, which I'll get to later. He says that a horror gave him the card (as theme park employees do).  They decide to go look for Britney and Molly Molloy, and eventually come across them in a locked cafe. Matt uses his magic let'smovetheplotalong card to open it, but upon entering, the girls are gone. And also, when they look in a mirror, it turns out Sheena is invisible.

Extras 
What the hell is that on the cover? It doesn't contribute to anything, it isn't related to either of the plots, and it doesn't even tie in with the franchise.

Conclusion
Creep from the Deep is pretty bland. Nothing really makes it stand out; it doesn't have the enjoyability of Ghost Camp, the terribleness of Chicken Chicken or the hilarious ridiculousness of My Hairiest Adventure. Overall, not really worth checking out unless you want to move the story arc along.