Slime Time

Bone Chillers #10

by Betsy Haynes

Letting out a particularly messy sneeze in the school cafeteria, Jeremy Wilson and his classmates are horrified when his mucous particles stick together and grow into a tremendous glob that threatens to consume the whole town. Original.

Genres: Horror

144 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 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

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked Slime Time from the Bone Chillers series,because I was very sick a week or so ago,infact I still have a cough.I went to the doctor and was told it was just a summer cold.I thought this book would be a perfect read for being sick.The storry follows our main protagonist Jeremy.He is sick.He is sneezing and all the gross stuff.He takes medicine but takes three pills instead of two,and that's where the trouble starts.He's at school and is sneezing all over the place including on other school mates.One of his sneezes forms a ball of snot.Jeremy,or Germ as the other kids are calling him now sees his snot start moving on its own.He ends up going to the bathroom and tries to throw the snot away and notices it begins to eat napkins and stuff.His friend pops up and Jeremy tells him reluctantly about what's going on.They end up taking the snot and throwing it in a dumpster near the school.The next day the kids find out something got into the school and ate all of the cafeteria food.This book is mostly just running around trying to find ways to get rid of the snot for the first forty pages and I didn't have alot of hope for it.Things change though,as they see on the local news channel that this girl from the boys class point out that the two boys were near the dumpster.She even tells them their name and this leads to something I didn't quite expect.There is a manhunt for the two boys and the slime is taking over the town.There is army tanks and helicopters and all kinds of stuff trying to stop this snot and it's actually really fun.The ending is very anticlimactic.Im no health expert,but the solution to this was something I didn't expect.I thought Slime Time was pretty meandering for the first part but the second half had me really enjoying it.I thought this was for sure going to be one of those certain type of books where it turns out to be something else but I was wrong.I give Slime Time a three out of five stars.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sick and sneezing uncontrollably, Jeremy Wilson finds three bottles of cold medicine in his cabinet - each with only one pill left in them. He takes all three, hoping to kill this cold.
Later at school, in the cafeteria, Jeremy sneezes and watches as the droplets from his sneezes gather together to form a larger drop. It keeps growing and moving, and it reaches up and snatches Jeremy's hamburger! He has no idea what's happening, but figures it must be from mixing the medicine.
He quickly grabs it and runs from the room before anyone can see it; he throws it away, thinking that's the end of it - but it's not. Not even close. Within minutes it's bursting from the bathroom trash.
Jeremy confides in his best friend, Luke and together, the two boys must figure out a way to stop the mutant mucus from taking over the entire city.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

We reach the end of this ripoff round but it’s not the only thing that ends here, sort of. This is the last Bone Chillers book I have access to, making this the 3rd series I’ve hit the end of. Like Deadtime Stories, there are some left (3, Attack of the Killer Ants, Night Squaker, and Blowtorch@pyscho.com) that I don’t have and when they pop up, I will review them. If something happens by the time of the next round, I will let you know.

The entry we have here was the last one written by Betsy Haynes before handing things off to ghostwriters. This is one with no ghost credit (Dog ate my homework) but who knows if she still did it so I count this as the end for her. The cover and concept looked like…something so how is it?

Jeremy Wilson has allergies and one day he takes 3 pills from 2 different allergy medicines instead of just the 1 per day. He sneezes and some of the snot turns into the ball. This ball starts growing until it becomes a blob monster, eating everything in its path. Now Jeremy and his pal Luke must put a stop to it.

Yes, that’s the plot. It’s Monster Blood but with snot. You’d think this would be a mislead or they would explain that there are some chemicals mixed in to create the snot monster. Nope. The medication is literally all we get, they find this odd but don’t question it further. And it gets started right away, the opening scene has him taking the medicine and the snot is created right after.

While Betsy may have credit, this has a somewhat ghost-written feel. There’s been odd ideas before but the explanation is so slight and mundane. I like that it at least sticks to the snot theme, as that plays into how they stop it. I just wish there was some sort of add on to make it at least a little supernatural to explain it better.

As it is, the book is still enjoyable. It does start way too quickly so it does feel rushed early on. But as it goes on, it’s able to have more suspense with solid scenes of them wondering when the slime will strike next. Jeremy is mostly just there he has a couple decent moments as time goes on.

I like the large scale of it, as even the national guard gets involved. There’s nothing too special here, being a typical monster story where it happens to be snot. But it is novel to have this large scale plot and it moves at a solid clip. Climax is fine but the ending is abrupt with a cornball ending.

Otherwise, it’s just a fun time. Rushed in some areas and the logic is just weird. But if you get past that, it’s a fun time and the better version of every Monster Blood story + Blob that Ate Everyone. Weird but mostly a solid enough read, especially given at 133 pages, it is on the longer end.

So there ya go, not a bad place for Betsy to kind of end things. Not a bad place for me to end things either. Again, I hope to get those 3 buggers someday. Maybe I’ll do a bigger wrapup for Bone Chillers someday but in short, it’s easily been one of the most consistent. At least of the ones that keep the anthology format.

The tone is generally mixed well most of the time, and a majority of these are solid. Just one fell below good but I could see that changing in those last 3. My ranking will be below as well as a link to that doc I do. Bone Chillers is often but usually fares fairly well, so hopefully those last 3 keep it up.

So there ya go, 1 less series to do in these rounds, at least for now. Remember that as far as the blatant ripoff series go, this was out first out the gate, not a bad legacy. Guess I gotta watch more of the tv show now lol

That should do it for this. I might have one more misc thing before I do my summer project, we’ll see. See ya then.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1W...

BONE CHILLERS RANKED:

DECENT:

Killer Clown of King’s Country: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

GOOD:

Beware the Shopping Mall: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Slime Time: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Toilet Terror https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Teacher Creature https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Welcome to Alien Inn: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Tiki Doll of Doom: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Here Comes Sandy Claws: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Night of the Living Clay: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Queen of the Gargoyles: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Dog Ate My Homework https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Little Pet Shop of Horrors https://spongey444.wordpress.com/2020...

Strange Brew: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Romeo and Ghoulette: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

VERY GOOD:

A Terminal Case of the Uglies: https://x.com/Spongey445/status/17234...

Frankenturkey II: https://spongey444.wordpress.com/2021...

Back to School: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Frankenturkey https://spongey444.wordpress.com/2020...

Scare Bear: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Why I Quit the Baby-Sitters Club: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bone Chillers has proven to be a series of inconsistent quality (of the four I’ve read now), as are most of these kids horror series with exceptions like Nightmare Room and Strange Matter, and a good chunk of earlier Goosebumps. Having read this one, this series is also going to be a nightmare to settle on for scores, as I can’t tell whether I love or hate this one. Back to 𝔀𝓱𝓪𝓽𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓯𝓾𝓬𝓴—my god, what was this entry? One of the most apparent things this book swings and hits with is the main character. They’re a really good kid, taking responsibility for the absolute chaos going on and actually trying to help save the day. He’s likable and actually has some level of depth in regards of personality, which I appreciate. The back-half’s absolute absurdity is where I am conflicted: I love it, honestly, and it’s extremely fun, but damn is this just a stupid scenario. Getting past the snot deal, which I think I can, this book legitimately slapped in the back-half and was a complete roller coaster of slime mayhem. The pacing is on point, without a single dull moment, and I felt the scale of the book is something that I’ve only been able to appreciate in series like Spinetinglers (specifically George Stanley’s books from that series [Dead Kid Did It, Billy Baker’s Dog, etc.]). The book goes places you wouldn’t expect just from the blurb when it comes to scale, and I really appreciated that. With that light glaze thrown out there, I’ve got two glaring flaws to point out: snot and more snot. Need I say more? The whole idea of snot is just hard to get past, and whilst I think I can forgive this juvenile concept, I can’t get past gross-out imagery. Bathroom humor, garbage, food/snot imagery and all of the sort are present in the first half, and I legit almost can’t stand that stuff. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth and makes me want to read other, less visually gagging stories. Legit, this story was only missing drool imagery—and if it had it I might’ve puked. Also, the book feels really straightforward, and most of the other characters didn’t really match the quality of our main. Not to mention the mediocre writing. But overall, 7.5/10. It’s approaching great, but I can hardly take it seriously, let alone I wasn’t big on that first half. But legit not a terrible book in my eyes, but WHY SNOT 😭? 𝓘 𝔀𝓪𝓷𝓷𝓪 𝓬𝓸𝓶𝓶𝓲𝓽 𝓪𝓻𝓼𝓸𝓷.

[Alonso Montero · Rating 3 out of 5]

???

[Kelsi - Slime and Slashers · Rating 4 out of 5]

The premise of this vintage Goosebumps knock-off was incredibly absurd and ridiculous, but that doesn't mean it wasn't also super fun!