Dead on Its Tracks

Strange Matter #12

by Marty M. Engle, Johnny Ray Barnes

Time's running out for Elizabeth. She and her friend Jacob went to a movie they've been dying to see, but it's sold out. Instead of going home, they decide to spend some time nosing around the train depot, and sneaking on board the Fairfield Express. At first, its just a harmless diversion, but after Elizabeth and Jacob are mistakenly locked in, the engine begins to move. Right before their eyes, the train transforms into a chilling, haunted, death ride. The two kids find themselves confronting the gruesome engineer, a ghoul who supposedly wrecked the engine over a hundred years ago. He explains to the kids that the story is wrong, and the real culprit is an unknown saboteur, hiding somewhere on the train! Now the two adventurers must find the saboteur before the train crashes again, just as it does every time its haunted wheels take to the tracks. But this time the train carries two living passengers, Elizabeth and Jacob, who don't want to end up . . .dead on its tracks.

Genres: Horror

Audio CD

First published May 1, 1996

Reviews

[Alex Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Train themed kids’ horror is a rarity. Like an EXTREME rarity. There’s a Shadow Zone entry, Secret Agent Grandma, a short story from Bites!, and… that’s all I can think of—besides this little Strange Matter. Twains (pardon the autism accent) have potential in this genre, and this takes the trope of whodunnits set on trains as well, which should make a wonderful kids’ horror book… yet this is another of the weaker Strange Matters, I feel. The train setting is handled well and provides that unique flair to this book, as well the actual plot being great: two kids have to save the spirits of a train by figuring out who REALLY made it crash many years ago. Writing is series standard (good) too, and there’s plenty of good, tense scenes and ghost/ghoul designs.. whatever these things even are. And the main character duo was sweet. But hitting the brakes now, there’s some large issues with this one. A personal one to get out of the way is there’s too much action for my taste; it makes the book confusing and chaotic to read, and it really ramps up towards the end. But besides that, the twists this one has just… don’t land. I like the direness, don’t get me wrong, and the tone of this story is great as well. But there’s not enough time for them to land, let alone they come out of left field. Could’ve been handled better. Odd John… oh boy. Why set him up the way they did if the author(s) were just gonna throw that out the window at the end? Fucking dumb shit, morally retarded character. Anywho. There’s some characters we meet who just kinda get completely dropped at the climax from the story, which makes this book feel incomplete, especially with the particular ghost of a girl that felt like was setting something important up, but didn’t amount to much plot wise. Even if she were an info dump character or served a narrative purpose (maybe she’s the reason the train got wrecked instead?), I would’ve preferred that. The story meanders a bit too, but that’s about it. Writing just kinda goes off track in the final third, even I chugged along with it fine. Okay, I’ll shut up with the train puns. Overall, 7/10. It’s fun, and the first half is super good, plus there’s some great stuff sprinkled all throughout. But we lose the plot a bit nearing the end, and some characters aren’t handled well. I think it’s time for an update on me and my wife, Strange Matter: Rilo is fixed (not like a dog), and he likes Mars Volta now; we’re starting a cult, without mormon crap.

[King Jellyjam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I give this a 58/100.
It's about two kids who go to see a train-themed horror movie, but the movie has been sold out, so they decide to check out the local train station after talking about "Odd John", a man who was the train conductor long ago but purposefully caused the train to crash. They go there and then become locked in one of the old trains, which becomes a ghostly train full of ghouls, skeletons, and various types of undead.

It sounds great, but overall it's just an okay book. The novel starts fairly strong and quickly becomes a mess of random events.

POSITIVES: I really like how it leans into the supernatural with a mix of ghosts, ghouls, and undead. Dead On Its Tracks is a gruesome middle-grade horror novel with some really disgusting monsters.

NEGATIVES: The novel starts with a bit of a mystery (figuring out who crashed the train), but it quickly drops that plot point and focuses more on Elizabeth and Jacob meeting the various ghouls on the train. Dead On Its Tracks really lacks detail, especially in engaging the five senses, and many moment-to-moment actions are poorly described. The ending was very flat with a minimal twist, at best.

RECOMMENDED FOR: If you love trains, novels that blend the line between "ghost" and "undead", action in your horror novel, or you are looking for a middle-grade horror novel that has some gruesome monsters (ghouls with just eye sockets, a person who was completely flattened by the train crash, etc).

[Shiv (The Horrorlander) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had a great setup, and parts sprinkled in like a ghoul attack scene + intense parts of the climax that had the potential to be amazing...

And then it turned into some absolutely random, weird ass, Courage The Cowardly dog episode subplots. The story completely derails (no pun intended) and a dude comes out with a suicide vest in one scene???? The past two Strange Matter books I read were perfect for one, very good for the other. This one was a miss

3/5 Stars Okay