The Human Flytrap

Scream #1

by Jack Heath

The murky shadows shifted again. Before Josh’s eyes, they solidified into something with arms and legs and a huge bulbous head ... Josh lives in Axe Falls—a town of mysterious disappearances, terrifying visions, and unusual events. When his family moves to a spooky, run-down old ruin, and he meets a strange neighbour telling him to GET OUT, Josh thinks his life is weird enough. But when his best friend’s science experiment goes horribly wrong, and he finds himself running for his life, Josh starts to wonder ... What is really going on in Axe Falls? And will anyone survive long enough to find out?

Genres: Novella, Horror

Kindle Edition

First published April 27, 2015

About the author

Jack Heath wrote his debut novel, The Lab, in secondary school and sent it to a publisher at age seventeen. He's now the award-winning author of forty novels for adults and children, including the international bestsellers Hangman, The Wife Swap and 300 Minutes of Danger. His books have been translated into ten languages, optioned for TV and adapted for film. He lives on Ngunnawal/Ngambri country in Canberra, Australia, with his wife, their children, several chickens, a few fish and a possum named Oreo.

Reviews

[Paula Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad Goosebumps-style scary story in which Josh and his family move to a new house in Axe Falls, where strange things are known to happen. Josh finds this new house spooky, having seen a floating head outside his window, and hearing strange scratching at the windows. Meanwhile, at school, a science class involving Venus flytraps reveals that one of them is much bigger than normal...

This was a bit slow to get started, because the book's title gives away what the story is going to be about. I got tired of too much of the Josh-sees-something-and-nobody-believes-him cliches, and wanted to get to the stuff involving what I assumed to be man-eating plants. It's not until we're well close to halfway through the book that the story finally abandons the endless nobody-believes-Josh nonsense and silly cliffhanger chapter endings (a la R.L. Stine) and gets to the meat of the story, which is entertaining and handled well. By the end, I wanted more of it. This is very short, at less than 140 pages.

This was another op shop find that I thought the niece/nephew might like, and if I find more in this "Scream" series, I'll pick them up. The conspiracy hinted at in the last pages certainly piqued my interest!

[Sue Gerhardt Griffiths · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 ⭐️s

SpookTober read 2025


The Timothy Blake series was a blast, now I get to try out a different one. The first book in the Scream series was a deliciously creepy and captivating story. Fantastic fun for primary school children, YA, and can be enjoyed by adults too.


Audiobook via BorrowBox
Published by Bolinda audio
Read by Ben Smalley
Duration: 10 hrs 44 min. 1.25x Speed

[Aliya · Rating 3 out of 5]

SCREAM~
SCREAM is a gripping book, all throughout the book Josh finds out more and more that will reveal the killer monster in the end; each page you read is a clue, will you find out who is the monster before it is revealed in the book? The biggest tip I can give you is add up all of the facts, and look with bigger eyes, will you out smart Josh, or will he out smart you? Overlook on the book, Josh is a 13 year old boy who moves into a big house but something isn’t right... The neighbor from next door warns him, will he take it? For she is speaking only what she has seen, those deep sad eyes don’t lie.” GET OUT” her voice echoes in his wide ears. Josh escapes with his life, but he might not be so lucky next time as the risks increase, and death grows near is he about to run in fear?
Lily, Josh’s friend’s dad is killed by the monster, will Josh be next?
Watch out because its all about to go out in flames.

[Jon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love a good pun so as soon as I read the main character lives in 'Axe Falls' I had to give it a go!!

Loved it, even as a 22 year old, and am going to send a copy over to my cousins (who are more in the "recommended" age category for the series).

Got that Goosebumps feeling back!!

[Dimity Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. All types of whacky scary wonderful. Highly recommended. Can't wait to devour the rest of the Scream series.

[whatbooknext · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having to move isn't fun for Josh and his family, but their landlord wants their home back. Josh is even less impressed when they arrive at their new home. It's a large run-down, two storied house with cobwebs hanging from chandeliers and creaky floorboards underfoot.

It's closer to school, so at least that doesn't change, but Josh is uneasy the moment he steps inside. It didn't help running into an old lady who was probably their neighbour. She isn't the bring over cookies type of neighbour either. Shrieking at Josh to GET OUT! GET OUT! doesn't help Josh's state of mind, and he tries to forget her bizarre behaviour.

Another shock on his first night in his room, unnerves him further, especially as no one believes him. Sleep isn't easy, even after a big day moving boxes.

Axe Falls is well known for a magnificent waterfall, but also known for many strange disappearances from the area. Josh goes to school as normal and catches up with his friends. It's only when he learns a local went missing from his new home, that he begins to understand what his crazy neighbour meant when they moved in.

Add that knowledge to a very strange Science project gone wrong, and he finally realises the true terror of his new home. Something is eating the residents of Axe Falls.


I never read these the first time they were published and have just discovered the Black Editions. I have read both adult and middle-grade books by Jack Heath, and enjoyed them all, so I knew Scream - The Human Flytrap wouldn't disappoint.

This series is very 'Goosebumps', but better written. The font is a good size and the chapters on the shorter side to encourage more reading. You know the feeling... "Just one more chapter." I like horror in any format, and this first book in the Scream series is pleasantly frightening, with authentic characters. Sure, they could be much more developed, but that's not the point of this series. It's entertaining, easy to read, fast-paced and freaky for ages 8+

I'll be looking forward to more in the Scream - Black Editions.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an odd book; on first glance it kind of made me think it was Goosebumps in another skin. The premise is similar, but there's way too much work put into it. Josh is a sympathetic, sane character, and honestly I think development potential is hamstrung by the wordcount. Double (or more) the length of the book and you'd cut the strain on my willing suspension of disbelief over a monster like this in half and have room to explore the people and their relationships - the brother/sister dynamic seemed fairly real to me but was a bit short. I love the whole "The Rest of Us Just Live Here" aspect and think that also could have been explored or explained more.

I do have quibbles.

* Where are the insane gung-ho people who get off on this stuff?
* Not sure about the appendix I reckon it could be taken out? Or... it felt like it was shoehorned in there?
* I feel like it would have been better to omit the common names and leave the scientific names
* Why 'Human' flytrap? Because they're human-like? Like it could have been The Venus Humantrap or idk... the original common name was 'tipitiwitchet' (what a great word) or if you go into the original Native American Renape "titipiwitshik", like there's potential there. This is one of the things that kind of made me think about Goosebumps; Stine obviously never spent long thinking about the names.
* Corporations are always bad, it almost seems like tipping your hand to call something "-Corp".

My first thought was "Why don't people move?" but they never move do they, that's fairly true to life.

[Adhyan Daga · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was Superb! I have read the second book of the series as well, and they are both brilliant!

The only thing that I would highly recommend to the author is to make this book as scary as the other one. The spider army book really gave me the chills, but this book didn't really frighten me as much as the other book.

I still liked the detail the timing that the author decided to bring in the characters, though.

Overall, this book is great and must be read by all young people between the ages of 8 and 11!

[Kerryn Lawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Searching for a scary book at the request of some primary school students I picked up this book. Well written, wth good pacing and just the right amount of suspense. Perfect for the target audience.

[Maddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Omg amazing book, I listened to it and was hooked from the start, what a roller coaster of emotions, I was in shock one second then laughing the next. You need to read this when you can.

[Calista · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my first Jack Heath book and it certainly won't be my last. He got me, he got me good.

Jack Heath’s 'Scream' series (published by Scholastic) is perfect for children who love RL Stine’s short and spooky stories. 'The Human Flytrap' is the first book in the series. For middle to upper primary school students, the books aim to get your heart pumping, your spine tingling and your skin prickling with goosebumps. 'The Human Flytrap' certainly does that. There were a few times where the hairs on the back of my neck were standing so much on end, I had to close the book.

A good read.

[Siobhan (Bookish Vibes) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goosebumps style horror story for tweens/ya.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

A worthy rival of RL Stine’s Goodebumps series.

[Helen.Styan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A YA version of Day of the Triffids. Well done as always, Jack. Loved the characters and the story too.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Human Flytrap is a novel by Jack Heath. It features the story of a family who have come to live in a house that the parents got cheap. However, it has a bit of a sad past, because of some weird stuff happening there. The entire town, Axe Falls, has some odd stuff going on. Josh is the main character. He and his classmates are working on a fly trap science experiment in class, but one student’s fly trap has some abnormalities…

A few weeks ago, I was browsing books on BorrowBox and came across this story. This is the first book in the “Scream” series. I am reading the “Black Edition” version, which was released in 2024. There is another edition of the book, which was originally released in 2015. I’ll be honest and say that I don’t know how much the versions differ and what has changed in between releases. Regardless of that, my first thought is that I think it's fun.

I think the author has done well in creating a lot of suspense for the story. There’s talk of characters disappearing, strange stuff happening, and things that characters can’t quite explain. There’s little bits of mystery, with characters mentioning the weird stuff they’ve seen/ heard about. Admittedly, there are aspects of this that aren’t explained by the end of the book. But I think that’s part of the intrigue of the series; it gives us a bit of a lead into the next book; readers will be interested in learning what else happens throughout the series.

I think that the characters are quite alright. I like that Josh is curious about things in life around himself. Such as wondering things about stuff going on with his parents, the new house, etc. It feels very reminiscent of the way actual children and teenagers have such thoughts/ talk; thinking about the reasons for why things are happening (such as bad things), and what could cause such things. Because they don’t always understand the entirety of the scenario, especially if adults won’t tell them the full story. The characters felt like they had an innocent curiosity to them. It has good pacing, in my opinion. I do enjoy that there’s a decent ending, and everything comes out reasonably well for the main family of characters.

Overall, I think it was pretty good. I am interested in reading more of the series. So, I might come back to this author later. I recommend giving the book a read, if you enjoy horror fiction. (Though, it might be a bit too scary for some younger readers.)

[Today We Did · Rating 4 out of 5]

Today We Did

Some very odd things happen in Axe Falls, the beach-side town where Josh and his sister Yvette live. There have been unexplained disappearances, and strange occurrences, but things are about to get even stranger for Josh when his parents move them into a spooky old house. Their new neighbour seems to be a crazy old lady screaming at them to leave, there are weird noises, and he’s sure he’s seeing impossible things out of his window. Combined with his best friend, Dale’s out of control science project, Josh is having a rather unusual and confusing week, but it’s about to get a lot worse!

The Human Flytrap is the first book in a new and exciting series called Scream for middle to upper primary school students. These books aim to get your heart pumping, your spine tingling and your skin prickling with goosebumps! For maximum effect, try reading these at night (stormy or windy if possible), under the covers with a torch when the rest of the household is asleep! This was how I read the Goosebumps series when I was a child, and if was great at getting me in the right mood for a fright!

I read this book quite quickly and really enjoyed it. It was an engaging and exciting read. The characters are well developed, and I really got a sense for Josh especially. He is very brave and empathetic. I liked all of the main characters actually. They are all good kids experiencing a crazy situation, but helping each other through. We will probably get to know them even better through the series. Some of the teachers at the high school are pretty strange and intimidating though. I think they might be involved in the funny happenings in town, perhaps they are even relics of the old asylum building that houses the school. I’ll have to keep reading to find out.

As an adult I wasn’t too scared, though reading about the giant sized flytrap did have me glancing over to my baby venus flytrap a bit more often than normal! My third grader is enjoying reading the Scream series. She says that she wasn’t too scared while reading The Human Flytrap, it is “fun scary”. Younger readers might find it too frightening, but it really depends on the individual child as to how they will react to books like these.

[Emily Meldrum · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun, sorry I meant scary, book! The cover was quirky, the layout different and the story just carried me along.

Please find my review at:
http://readingtime.com.au/the-human-f...