The Ghost Next Door

infobox Book | | name = The Ghost Next Door
orig title =
translator =


author = R. L. Stine
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = Goosebumps
classification = fiction
genre = Horror fiction, Children's literature
publisher = Scholastic
release_date = August 1993
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages = 124 p.
isbn = ISBN 0-590-49445-7
preceded_by = Welcome To Camp Nightmare
followed_by = The Haunted Mask

"The Ghost Next Door" is the 10th novel of the R. L. Stine's "Goosebumps" series.

In the book a girl named Hannah Fairchild wonders if her new neighbor is, in fact, a ghost, after waking up from a nightmare in which she and her family died in a house fire.

While Hannah is outside, she meets a boy named Danny Anderson. After Danny survives many dangers, (for example, a high fall), she starts to suspect that he is a ghost. Meanwhile, Hannah is being followed by a strange shadow person with demonic glowing red eyes.

Hannah discovers the truth from a conversation between two old women Beth and Molly -- Hannah and her family actually died in the house fire (due to a poorly put out camp fire Hannah and her two younger twin brothers set up). Hannah thought that was a dream and explained why her friend never wrote back (which she keeps writing to through the rest of the story). She also finds out that Danny's mom was actually deaf and that was why she would not answer the door. When Danny and the other kids, Alan Miller and Fred Drake, set fire to Mr. Chesney, the mailman's house, Danny is trapped inside, unable for him to escape. As Hannah tries to rescue Danny from the fire, she is shocked and horrified to learn that the Shadow Man who has been following her since the start of the story is really Danny's ghost from the Shadow World who is plotting Danny's death so he can be born on Earth. Hannah manages to save Danny from the burning house after overcoming her fears of burning in the fire herself as she often goes from being able to feel pain to being able to walk right through other people. Danny is then taken to the hospital where he recovers in spite of a few burns and some smoke inhalation. It is then he finds out from the same two old women that Hannah died in a house fire five years ago. In an emotionally bittersweet moment, Hannah hears her mother's voice, telling her to "come home". Her last tearful words to Danny (although it is unclear as to whether or not Danny was able to hear her) are to remember her always, and is reunited with her family in the afterlife.

TV Adaptation

The television version of this story has two changes to it:
*Hannah finds out from the Shadow Man that she died in a house fire and is now a ghost (the old women, Molly and Beth, are not in the story at all)
*Danny doesn't end up in the hospital after Hannah saves him from the fire.
*Her family was never seen until the end. Hannah believed they were at her brother's traveling soccer game.
*This time Danny was able to see her (Hannah) leave with her family and say goodbye.