Mistress Barbarous (briefly mistaken as Mistress Barbara) is a villain in the Goosebumps franchise, serving as the chief antagonist of the third Give Yourself Goosebumps Special Edition book, Trapped in the Circus of Fear.
Biography[]
A woman whose past is almost completely shrouded in mystery, Barbarous is the ringmaster of the Circus of Fear and at some point, gained a magic pendant that gave her power. It's unknown how she came by this power or if it was before or after she became a ringmaster.
With the help of her family, Mistress Barbarous started gradually kidnapping children from different towns and cities to serve as new attractions for the circus and, to ensure that they would never be able to leave, used her magic to transform them into freaks. She also plans to trap the reader into a jar of goop.
Their list of victims would eventually grow to include Danny Mendleson and Merrill Thornbush, both of whom would become the Lizard Boy and the Girl with Five Tongues.
Personality[]
As sadistic as her name suggests, Barbarous erases evidence of the children's existence after transforming them. She also appears to be a cannibal, as one ending implies that she eats the reader. In the best ending, she is turned into a chimpanzee, while the reader and the other kids take control of the circus. The reader also has an elephant step on the pendant, (presumably) ensuring that she'll stay a chimpanzee forever.
Appearance[]
Mistress Barbarous wears black leather pants, a red satin blouse, and a snug black vest.
