Welcome to Alien Inn

Bone Chillers #8

by Betsy Haynes

Stranded at an inn during a blizzard, Matt enjoys the snow and the time off from school, until he learns that the innkeeper and all the other guests are really aliens who have come to Earth to study human life. Original.

Genres: Horror, Childrens, Young Adult

128 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 26, 1995

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

[Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

9.5/10

Absolutely amazing read, my only complaint is that the ending felt relatively rushed.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Welcome To Alien Inn begins with the Meyers family driving through a blizzard .The family cconsists of Matt his mother and father his twin sisters and their dog.They have no choice but to pull over because the storm is not letting up.They spot this inn appropriately named Snowed Inn. Once entering inside this place they immediately run into this guy who's wearing a sweater and he says his name is Mr Rogers. The boy named Matt points out that he looks a lot like Mr Rogers from the TV show Mr Rogers Neighborhood .Yeah I know.They also meet these kids in this gaming room.And end up playing a few arcade games and one of them is about killing a plyomith,a type of alien warrior.In the game you get to choose a weapon but the alien attacks before you can even start.Matt gets a little frustrated with the games but that's the least of his worries.He notices the furniture isn't facing the fire place,the beds are made backwards and the other tenants are oddly named Bart, Maggie and Lisa,which Matt points out are the names of the kids from The Simpsons. I am ashamed to say I didn't catch this until it was pointed out. They eventually learn from these kids that they don't know what a lot of common things are like beaches and malls,and they even question what is their dog. When they go to eat, all of the menus are even spelled weird. Mr Rogers informs them that they spell it weird on purpose,so that the kids can point it out and spell it right like some kind of game. One night Matt hears these noises coming from this room that's next to the game room and inside this room he hears these noises and his dog ends up missing and. He ends up getting dog out and the dog has these two shaved spots on the side of his ears and a half moon on its foot.This is where things begin to take off every family member ends up being taken behind the door beside the game room and when they come back they change,not wanting to go home and being ok with everything,reading books upside down.So Matt has to figure out what is going on.How is he going to escape from this place?One thing I loved about this book was the fact it got pretty dark. When these things explain what they plan to do with the family after their done.It was very sad.I enjoyed some of the technology and different alien things I have not seen in these kinds of books.One thing in particular is cyrogenetics,freezing yourself to travel through time.I thought that was fascinating.The negatives start with the title.If this book didn't have "Alien"written in the title I don't think I would've automatically jumped to thinking these guys were aliens.In my opinion this was a missed opportunity to make this book that much more mysterious.Their is also a few scenes that bugged me a little bit.It kinda has to do with what these aliens can do based on looking like somebody else.But I kinda understand some of the logic now, so I'll let that slide.Welcome To Alien Inn was really great.Its not better then Frankenturkey.But it's really good.Id say it's definitely better then A Terminal Case Of The Uglies.It also has one of the best lines at the end of the book that is so darn cute.I give Welcome To Alien Inn a four out of five stars.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was this ridiculous? Yes. Was it for kids? Also yes. But was it exactly what I needed after the disappointment of Husband Material? YES.

I wouldn’t normally have read this, but the family get snowed in at an inn in the middle of nowhere, which I love. A lot of this was unintentionally hilarious, too? The aliens’ names, the clueless parents. Of course, it’s a kids’ book so unbelievable and trite come with the territory.

But fun!

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off, I ruthlessly FEIN for aliens and winter in kids horror stories. That’s why, of all Bone Chillers books I could’ve asked for my birthday, I chose this one, a snow-centered book about an alien infiltrated hotel. And, wouldn’t you know, I got it for my birthday. Now having read it as my ultimate Christmas read of 2023, I have to say—yeah, it’s a banger. The aliens: they made reading this book comparable to SEX. They scratch that itch, ya know? The motives, concepts, ideas, and general fear derived from them is great, but not the best alien experience ever. The setting is decent, it’s a nice switch up. The main character is really good and very smart for his age, let alone he actually cares for his family. The book has good writing and some funny dialogue bits. I quite liked the ending, and I especially love the reveal of the planned fate of the main characters after all is done and over with (it’s an absurd but scary one-liner). As for any negatives, there was a teeny bit of you gotta believe me stuff thrown in for about 20 pages but got resolved quickly. There’s semi-frequent typos which bug me, but that’s just a nitpick. Also, there’s a cooperation between the main character and the villain(s) toward the end that directly results in something bad happening for the opposing side, which could’ve been easily avoided. And whilst the book isn’t gonna blow you away in its quality, it’s definitely worth a read. Overall, 8.5/10. This was a certified extra-terrestrial classic. Never thought I’d see Tim Jacobus depict alien ass… dayum…

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s time for our 3rd ripoff round for the year. I did the last one late so the gap was short this time. Hyped to read some more of this stuff, i’m able to fit these in easily enough. First we have Bone Chillers. After this, I just have 2 left that I have access to so here’s hoping more pop up. This is from the Betsy Haynes era, close to the end of that though, she did one more after this before ghostwriters started.

It’s about Matt Meyers, as his family is coming back from a ski trip. They get lost in a snow storm and make a stop at the Snowed Inn, cute. It’s quaint but charming enough. The owners are an odd couple with the man being named Mr. Rogers. Yes. The scant few people here act strange and soon odd things happen. And it’s connected to a room where people are dragged. What is going on and how can Matt stop it?

This is a solid one, one of the better I’ve read as of late. It is basic in terms of the structure, being predictable in some regards. Matt is standard and there isn’t a lot to the characters overall. But it makes up for it with solid enough pacing. It gets into it quickly, so the trade off is you can tell too early what is going on and gotta wait for the pin to drop.

You got some pop culture weird-ness as the aliens picked up some tv signals and model themselves after certain characters, so yes the Mr Rogers thing is on purpose.Then you have kids named Bart, Lisa and Maggie. Don’t worry, the book spells that out for us lol. (Shame they didn’t get Single Female Lawyer). The aliens are solid threads and we get a good meaty explanation that makes enough sense.

There is solid horror, as the humans start to get assimilated. It builds to a decent climax and ending. It’s rushed but satisfying enough. Compared to others, there is more of a creepy idea here which made it more fun than others I’ve read this year. Nothing too incredible, we’ve had better but it works as a solid and fun alien story. Worth checking out, not a lot more to say on this one.

Next, we got my beloved Strange Matter. I’m going with a later entry I know little about, see ya then.

[Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would have given this book a 5 stars, believe it or not, if it weren't for the quick ending. This was a perfect book for winter season 👌 atmosphere was great. The best part about the book was that the dog knew danger before they entered the UFO 🛸 I mean, Snow Inn, lol. The dog helped a lot for the main character to progress throughout the nightmare.
Recommend this book! (Perfect for winter days)*

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun little read jam packed with action. I felt like the story didn't have any dead spots for the most part and had a lot of story packed into it's short 115 pages. I liked the classic horror vibes, and I thought it was pretty good overall. Had some Shining vibes, and some fun alien ideas.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this one!

[Joseph]

Funny story: when I was a kid, I was super into Goosebumps. I bought this at a book fair, presumably because it's similar to Goosebumps, but then promptly decided that, out of brand loyalty, I would not read it. I held on for it for a few years before I finally gave in, and was surprised to see that hey, it was actually as good as a Goosebumps book! I mean, I'm sure this series was published to capitalize on its popularity, but apparently "knockoff" doesn't automatically equal "bad."

Anyway, this was circa twenty years ago, so I couldn't tell you much about the book's quality, but it satisfied young me so I assume that kids will like it.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very atmospheric and it held my attention really well. Very easy read and it kept the pages turning. It could get a little corny but that’s also what I love about books like these. The ending was a bit rushed and the resolution was cleared stated before the ending but altogether I loved it. And I loved that dog too! And this was such a creative idea for a kids book too.