Iron Insects Invade Indiana

American Chillers #9

by Johnathan Rand

When Travis Kramer and Mandy McKinley find a strange, metal insect at a nearby park, they have a lot of questions. Where did it come from? Are there more? And most importantly...are they dangerous?

They're about to find out.

And what they discover is more horrifying than they would ever imagine. Thousands of iron insects are about to descend upon the city of Elkhart, Indiana...and these metal monsters mean business!

It's a race against the clock as Travis and Mandy try to uncover the secret of the bizarre bugs, and stop the savage swarm before the iron insects terrorize the entire city!

Genres: Middle Grade, Horror, Fantasy, Childrens

240 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2003

About the author

Christopher Wright is the author of dozens of horror fiction books for children and young adults. He writes under the pseudonyms Johnathan Rand and Christopher Knight. Almost all of Wright's books (save American Chillers) take place in his home state of Michigan.

Reviews

[Josiah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Indiana, the "Crossroads of America", is stop number nine on the American Chillers tour. Fifth-graders Travis Kramer and Mandy McKinley live in the city of Elkhart. It's a warm summer day, so Travis goes for a swim, but his plan takes a weird turn when he spots a metallic locust by the river. The locust flies off after a minute, but Travis knows he witnessed something extraordinary. A few days later he sees a metallic grasshopper near his house. Wanting proof, he captures the grasshopper in a jar to show his friend Mandy tomorrow, but by morning it has chewed through the lid, plus the screen on Travis's bedroom window, and escaped. Will he ever see another of these bugs?

That same morning, a metallic beetle shows up in Mandy's yard along with the silver grasshopper, and the beetle demonstrates the damage it can do with its sawlike pincers. Travis and Mandy barely evade a direct attack. Travis disables the beetle by swatting it out of the air with a tennis racquet, and a close inspection reveals the letters "BTC" printed under its wing. A bit of research reveals this is probably the Boogaloo Toy Company, headquartered in Elkhart until the factory abruptly shut down years ago. Is the company secretly making metal insects? A phone call to a BTC representative lets Travis and Mandy know that the factory is slated for a return to business soon, but when Mandy mentions the metallic insects they found, the voice on the line asks them to come to the factory immediately to discuss the matter with the company president. Why would a busy executive set aside time for a pair of kids?

Entering the factory complex is an unsettling experience. The huge, run-down building and its extensive parcel of land appear deserted, but someone requested Travis and Mandy meet the company president here. The front doors close and lock behind them, sealing the two inside the factory. They wander through the vast building, then take an elevator deep underground where they encounter metallic insects similar to the ones from before. It turns out there's a technology war at Boogaloo Toy Company. The founder wants to create state-of-the-art children's toys, but a former employee sees the iron insects as a means to world domination. With millions of metallic bugs sweeping the globe as soldiers, who could stop this rogue employee from taking over? It's up to Travis and Mandy to infiltrate his base of operations and install a Trojan horse computer override so the founder of Boogaloo Toy Company can dismantle his rival's evil plan. Are Travis and Mandy ready to fight hordes of deadly iron insects to get the job done?

The plot of Iron Insects Invade Indiana lacks originality, and the writing is awkward and unprofessional, but this is still one of the more enjoyable early American Chillers. The narrative atmosphere is decently evocative, an area of strength for Johnathan Rand in his best books. I rate Iron Insects Invade Indiana one and a half stars, but I'll round to two; the story makes better sense than most of the first nine American Chillers. This book falls well short of what R.L. Stine's Goosebumps offers, but it's a passable diversion for fans of middle-grade horror.

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book and finished it a while ago but this book wasnt really scary, just scary. This book is about how Mandy and Travis find this weird little funny looking like bug. So they got curious and decided to head on over there. But something was strange about that insect, it bit Travis's nose? Mandy saw something awkward, like it was some kind of metal robot bug. when Mandy got a close look at it she realized it was from the famous toy store. Well when Travis and Mary called the company they said it wasn't them who created those things. so he invited them over to talk about what's going on. 2 days later Travis and Mary biked to the company and reached it like 5 minutes later. When I pictured in my mind i saw like this Nuclear Plant that seemed ditched a long time ago. Travis and Mary headed on inside and found the guy who answered their phone call. I forgot his name but i think it was like adriene or something like that. Let's just call him Adriene. Anyways Adriene said that his brother Eddie ade them and wanted to take over Indiana. So the kids, Travis and Mary sprinted off to stop Eddie from taking over Indiana. When they reached to the lab that Eddie was in they were immediately. you could say he was smart, but he didnt know was that Travis betrayed his friend and ditched her. Oh yeah she seemed mad all right. After Eddie explained what he was doing which seemed "cool" Travis was looking around being amazed. Then all of a sudden he dashes out with his friend and ran like they've got a swarm of iron bees after them. Mary was confused but Travis said he put in a hard drive into the computer to make the swarm of bees under Adriene's control. Mary was surprised but they kept running. After a while they reached the toy factory and made it safe. Adriene thanked them by rewarding them a giant iron beetle that can only fly and nothing else. They had a lot of fun with it and told absolutely no ne about their epic adventure.

[Brady]

This book I loved. This book kept me on my toes the whole time even from the begining. My favorite part of this book was when they were in the lab and they made a big friendly insect so it would defeat all the other gang of insects. This book was scary at times. I liked the scary times in the book because every time one of these moments comes up I want to read more and more. I will definitley bread more of these books because I love scary books. Mandy played a key part in this book because she was the one who caught the bug in the glass jar. Then once she caught it she was smart enough to look at the bottom of the bug, the bug said Boogaloo toy company. So Mandy went there and they saw no one there but once they went down the elavator, they saw a professor who helped them over come the bugs and kill them all.

[Max Higgins · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was hoping the author would use his millions from all the billions of copies he sold to write a book about the use of insect drones by the government to spy on us.

He could've used his trillions from the millions he sold to infiltrate the government and study how it's done exactly to bring to our awareness in this book how bad it is. That should be the goal of all forms of art...to better humanity.

Instead we got a book about a toy factory that makes iron insects. And the book ends exactly the same way the last one does. Rand doesn't give his books dark endings or twists like RL Stine does.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go read a Goosebumps book where the character actually dies at the end.

[Gabe Dulecki · Rating 3 out of 5]

stop I’m cracking up this was so goofy!!! I loved these as a kid and thought about them recently for the first time in forever so naturally I put a few on hold!!! I think it’s time for a trip to chillermania!!!!

[Sophia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very good but the kids showed Eddie the iron insect toy at the very end. The book was chilling.

[Jesse]

great

[Kenneth BLANCK · Rating 5 out of 5]

WHAT A THRILLER!!!!! AWOSME

[Wolverinefactor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would have been a 4 but that ending was weak. The entire bully subplot could have been removed to tighten the book up as it’s too long

[Dr.funtime (ide1) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was okay. I thought this book was a tad weird just like all of the other books in this series. I have not read many other books from the American Chillers series, I thought that is would be interesting book because it would be a different book that I would read lately. I felt like this book had to many things going on at once that's why I felt like this book was okay. I don't know what the other books are like so i might go check out the other books. There is a possibility that this book might have not been a good one too read out of this series. If you like books with weird things happening then i would recommend this book to you.

[Anita · Rating 4 out of 5]

My son LOVED this book! It had just the right mix of scary and suspense. Every chapter (all 39 of them) was a cliffhanger, which resulted in him wanting to hear what was going to happen next. The final chapter leaves the reader with an interest in the next book in the series.
This book is by no means a literary classic, but it does have the makings of a fabulous read aloud. I also see this being a series that could be very attractive to resistant readers, especially boys-short chapters, cliffhangers, danger and wildlife.

[Molly Gore · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was alright, if not a little corny at times. However, its a nice sort of action like fantasy for kids. Plus, its also done in a way that can teach some basic geography. This book took place in Elkhart Indiana and talked about local landmarks like the St. Joe river. Also, I noticed that the book actively defined larger words through the dialogue of the characters.

[Andrew Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book because it was scary and I also hate bugs. This book was a action pact horror story,and had a lot of parts about bugs chasing people.

I think this book was a pretty cool book because in the end Teresa and her friend destroy the bugs.

I think this book is for everyone who like horror stories and there is a series of the American Chillers.

[Kam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought that this book was very weird and interesting. Most of all though it was weird. It had some action and adventure. The insects were strange made out of metal. Also when they went to the toy factory it was abandoned when they said it just reopened I think that was strange.So I think you should read this book if you like all of the above things and that is what I think.

[Bryan Gonzalez · Rating 4 out of 5]

To start off i would recommend this book to people that like mystery.The book was about iron insects trying to invade Indiana.This guys evil brother stole the idea of making iron insects.At the end these 2 kids had 2 stop the evil brother.I really like this book because i like mystery.

[Sexy · Rating 3 out of 5]

ok

[Rishindra Chinta · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this years ago and thought it was awesome.

[Netta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad. More creepy than chilling. It has a good solid plot and an good racing adventure.

[Kevyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book that I started and finished in 1 day!

[Rachel P]

this was soooooooooooo wierd

[Areet Cazares · Rating 5 out of 5]

it was a good book