Attack of the Killer Ants

Bone Chillers #9

by Betsy Haynes

Once again bestselling author Betsy Haynes (The Fabulous Five series) has unleashed her prolific pen, this time to delightfully horrifying good use. Bone Chillers is an entertaining collection of grotesqueries that are especially twisted for the minds of young readers. Grounded in the familiar terrain of school, shopping malls, or family affairs, each fantasia exposes a macabre world of demons and monsters lurking just below the mundane surface of everyday life.

In Attack of the Killer Ants, a pair of bullies are gleefully torturing insects at the annual end-of-school picnic. But their mocking laughter turns to screams of fear when they're carried off by a colony of giant exoskeletal guests bent on revenge!

Overflowing with buckets of gore and more than a little vomitus, Bone Chillers aren't for the squeamish. But there's a moral hidden in this madness and, in the end, the good guys usually come out on top--even if they are covered in some kind of slime. --George Laney

Genres: Horror

144 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 15, 1996

About the author

ABOUT ME

Maybe it's because my feisty grandma chased tarantulas around with a broom when we lived on an oil lease property when I was a baby that made me love danger and adventure. And maybe it was my father's spending nights as a trombonist with the bands of his day and his days spent drawing sketches that sparked my artistic side. Do you suppose that because my mother stood only four feet ten inches tall that I feel like a giant at five feet? And I'm sure my FBI (Full Blooded Italian) step-father, his seven brothers and sisters and their families are responsible for my LOVE of Italian food. That's who I am. Who are you?

My First Book, Peppy The Frog That I Wrote In The 2nd Grade

I'll always be a child at heart. Whenever I close my eyes, wonderful, funny, awful, embarrassing memories of middle school/​junior high come flooding back to fill the pages of my contemporary novels. My childhood friendships and rivalries with old enemies all find their way into my books. I've even spied on my own kids for story ideas.

Unlike most kids who can't wait to grow up, I've gotten younger--at least my stories have. I've stepped into the world of 7 to 10 year olds.

I and my husband, Jim, live in Texas on Lake Lewisville north of Dallas. We are owned by our greyhound, Miller. Our favorite things to do are traveling the world and boating.

Reviews

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was feeling antsy tonight to get to a book AFTER this one, so I decided to blast through this Bone Chillers… with probably one of the worst covers of the series and Jacobus’ portfolio. Let’s not endlessly glaze that dude; he has some awful art, especially in this series, but this might take the cake. But cover aside, how is this one? It’s was decent. Attack of the Killer Ants take a story basis that I rarely see in kids’ horror, the only instance I can think of right now beinf The Spider Kingdom (Shivers), where the characters are put in an ironic torture fantasy (as crude as that sounds). Think Christmas Carol ‘cept Scrooge is physically calloused. I enjoy these in concept and the execution here was acceptable. The ants served as a fine threat, and there was some slight character development which is sorta rare, so nice. Also something I found odd but I’m indifferent on is the complete lack of an explanation. I don’t think it hurts the book here, as it’s not even remotely the focus as they never even seem to question it much, but still, little surprised that the characters aren’t questioning whether they’re on acid or not. And… yeah, most of the book is actually just the characters being mistreated by the ants in a very unsubtle karma metaphor. I enjoyed it, but by page a hundred I think I could safely say the book exercised most it could do. So what bugged me (ha) was that it got pretty old by the time the climax rolled around. And the climax itself takes an unnecessary turn involving the queen ant, which could’ve just… you know, not have happened? It’s less like padding or more of just a weird decision on the characters’ parts that somehow worked out pretty well for them. Forced writing for a mandatory encounter with the queen. I would’ve preferred an ant invasion story honestly, though that’s more American/Michigan Chillers’ tempo, even if I do enjoy this story template. Just felt drug on, and by the end I was super tired of it. Overall, 7.5/10. It’s good for what it is, just should’ve either been shorter to not tire the idea or had more on the table. Perhaps different giant insects or lore? Maybe an invasion in the colony? Whatever. Maybe I should watch Ant Bully again….

[Austin Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

After torturing and killing some ants, a couple of kids go searching for their friend who randomly decides to run off in the woods.
They are then beseiged by (giant?) ants (or the kids are shrunk down? It's never explained), where the kids are then taken inside the ant colony.
The ants proceed to toss the kids around, beat them up, force them to dig (slave labor), and force them to clean the ant eggs.
The kids use their spit to make the eggs all clean and shiny and then their mouths get dry and they worry about running out of spit. This is an actual scene in the book.

The kids mindlessly traverse the ant colony, trying to figure out how to escape. Their eventual plan involves holding the queen hostage.
Minor spoiler notice - it turns out one of the kids had a bottle of ant spray/poison in his pocket the ENTIRE TIME and just realizes it at the end, where they use it to kill the (giant?) ants and they can make their escape.

This book was terrible. Truly, truly awful. Looking back at my ratings, I gave Killer Clown of King's County, a later book in the series, a flat 1⭐ rating. I was leaning towards a 1.5 initially for this one, but idk, this one is nearly just as, if not as bad.
Not recommended.

[Daleena Pray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kept me on edge! I wasn't sure how they were going to escape! Just when I thought they could.....nope! I also learned a lot about ants!

[Rock · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reading this made me sick. I get it was meant for middle grade readers but its sick how they portrayed middle school kids killing ants was ok. They played it for jokes then they had to escape a large anthill and kill the ant with a tomahawk? Then kill the ants with spray by choice when the kid could escape?
It felt more like a sick killjoy having dream come true, killing both small and large ants. Not meant for kids who might have the idea killing ants were fine.