Michigan Mega-Monsters

American Chillers #1

by Johnathan Rand

Summer camp is supposed to be fun. It's supposed to be games and swimming and hot dogs and campfires and silly pranks. It's supposed to be. But not this year. Not at Camp Willow. What I went through at Camp Willow was one of the most horrifying experiences of my life.

Genres: Horror, Childrens, Fantasy, Fiction, Middle Grade, Science Fiction, Young Adult

174 pages, Unknown Binding

First published December 1, 2001

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 1 out of 5]

Christopher Wright (who writes the American Chillers and Michigan Chillers series under the pen name Johnathan Rand) has a great story of rising to commercial literary relevance from humble origins. When publishers declined to buy his initial Michigan Chillers manuscripts, he went the self-publication route, acting as an entrepreneur in hand-selling his own books to hotels across the state of Michigan in hopes young readers staying at the hotels would pick the books up and get hooked on them. The strategy worked smashingly, better than Wright could have reasonably expected. Young tourists from states other than Michigan were loving the Michigan Chillers, too, creating demand for regional stories about other states and the alliterative monsters that might live there. Thus American Chillers was born, and Christopher Wright became a self-made success in the book market. I have much respect for what he's accomplished.

When Rick Owens goes off to Camp Willow in Michigan for the summer, he's expecting fun times, camaraderie with a new friend or two, and pleasantly eerie nights beside the campfire with kids and counselors scaring one another with made-up horror stories. The horror seems to visit Rick's cabin door for real the first night at camp, however, when he awakens from a realistic nightmare with the unsettling sensation that a wild creature has been lurking outside his window. The next night after hearing heavy, insistent scratching on the cabin door, Rick investigates to find deep scratches in the wooden door, gashes no ordinary animal could have made. One camper is so afraid he elects to head home right away, and Rick is frightened, too, but he doesn't want to give up his camping experience for the whole summer without at least learning what's out there to fear. With the help of two girls he met since arriving at camp, Leah and Sandy, Rick slips away during a free period to hunt down whatever animal is prowling around Camp Willow and terrorizing the kids. Rumors among the lead counselors suggest horrible swamp mutants are on the loose around the camp, and no one has been able to stop them, but could that be true? Can Rick and his newfound friends discover a rational explanation for the claw marks on the cabin door...or is the answer even more sinister than Rick has been led to believe?

"Some things are just too strange to understand."

—The Michigan Mega-Monsters, PP. 171-172

Probably the best thing about The Michigan Mega-Monsters is how the story connects to a couple of the books in the Michigan Chillers series, in ways I won't reveal here in the interest of not spoiling the surprise. Readers of that other series will likely be satisfied with the tie-ins; I was happy with it, and I hadn't even read any of the Michigan Chillers before trying this first American Chillers offering. These aren't just knockoffs of R.L. Stine's Goosebumps, either; The Michigan Mega-Monsters has its own style and appeal, and worked well for me. I do wonder if the author served as his own editor, at least in early editions of the book. The writing is noticeably less streamlined than most major series, and usage and grammar aren't always perfect. These are errors a professional editor should have caught, though I don't blame Christopher Wright if he chose not to go to the expense of hiring one for the early editions of an experimental self-published series. Also, the copy of the book I read has "The" before Michigan Mega-Monsters in the title, when the title works just as well and is more compact without the definite article. Perhaps on the advice of an editor, later editions were simply titled Michigan Mega-Monsters. I'm giving this book one and a half stars, but I enjoyed myself with it, and will continue not only with the series, but the Michigan Chillers, too. There's a lot more excitement to come, and I look forward to being part of it.

[Siiri · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I read these as a kid I loved this series. I loved the cliff hangers and I flew through the stories. I recently reread them to see if I would still enjoy them and they were alright. Compared to some of the other books out now the storytelling in this series isn't as strong. The storyline is often very obvious that when the chapter is coming to an end something new will go wrong to leave you on another cliffhanger. However, this wasn't as obvious to me as a child. Some books in the series are definitely better than others. Some are just so out there they have stopped being spooky. This one in particular added a sci-fi element which I thought was pretty cool. This one also connects the Michigan chillers series altogether in a really cool way. I would recommend these books to any child that can read on their own but is a reluctant reader or never wants to read the full amount of time for homework. The cliffhangers will make them want to keep reading but as an adult might drive you insane if you are reading it aloud together.

[Austin Berry]

The first book of the American Chillers series, “The Michigan Mega-Monsters” is about Rick Owens and his “great” experience at a nationally recognized camp just outside of the Rochester Hills, in Michigan. When he arrives at Camp Willow he expects to have a great time, even if he didn’t know that many people. But as he gets settled in he meets two new friends, Sandy Johnson and Leah Warner. But what they think a fun week of camp, is actually going to turn into one of their worst nightmares. Rick begins to have these nightmares about these creatures and these big red eyes, and with that they see footprints around their cabin, AND they also here of a legend of the “The Mega-Monsters” that live by the swamp and come out and night. But soon, they will find out that these legends aren’t really legends. They have to find out how to stop them, and to find out who is behind this big mess!
This book is a great first book for this series. It get’s the reader’s attention and really wants to make you keep on flipping the page to see what will happen next. I particularly like this book because it starts off in Michigan, which is where the author is from and where the whole series began. Great first book for a great series!

[Tricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

My 8 year old has been reading books from the Michigan Chillers series at school, and then brought this one home so we could read it at bedtime. It's not great for that purpose, not because it's scary, but because almost every single chapter ends as a cliffhanger!! And who wants to go to sleep on a cliffhanger? I didn't mind how dumb the storyline was until it got so dang repetitively perilous. The kids (2 girls, 1 boy) would spend a couple of minutes getting out of one scrape and assume they were done, only to turn around and face something ELSE (usually worse). This happened for chapter after chapter after chapter. He can keep reading Michigan and American Chiller books at school (he wants to read the Mackinac Island and Saginaw ones to find out how the girls got their strange powers), but I'm done with them!

(oh yeah, and arachno-sapiens? give me a break. that doesn't even follow zoological naming conventions, although perhaps it follows cryptozoological conventions...)

[Brynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was about a boy named Rick who went to Camp Willow near Rochester Hills. There are rumors about Michigan Mega Monsters by Camp Willow's swamp... Rick and his friends go to investigate around the swamp and find one!! They almost get killed by it and they then go to a lake that isn't on the camp. There was an island with a castle on it, so they rowed over to it with a canoe... they found out that the camp director, Mr.Williams had made the Mega Monsters accidentally.
They figure out a way to get rid of them but it doesnt work so they just escape the castle and run back to camp.

[Cole · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book that I read was called michigan mega monsters. It is about a boy named rick owens and he is going on a big camping trip waiting to meet new friends in michigan on his trip. Finally once he gets there he meets new friends named Sandy Johnson and Leah Warner. They start doing fun activities until they see wired foot prints all around there camp. They want to go investigate but they do not know if they should. Once night hit they were bye the camp fire and they kept hearing wired sounds. Owen in the book is the static charter because he dose not really changed and he stays curious of finding out what the wired footsteps are. Sandy is the dynamic character because she changes throughout the story Because she has two different sides of what they should do. I rated this book a 3 out of 5 because sometimes in the book it is really boring and in the other there is lots of action. Find out what happens next on reading Michigan Mega Monsters.

[Connor higgins · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's about a dude named Rick, Rick is excited for camp. At camps he meets two girls named Leah and Sandy. The camp councilor was telling a campfire story about the monsters but nobody believed the counsilers. The kids later that night looked for the monsters and they found the monsters home. The kid thought that the monsters where actually the camp Councillors. the Councillor solved the problem by making a potion to make the monsters crayfish.
The book gave me a good vision in my head while reading. This book was one of the few books iv ever read that made sense to me. The book wasn't that scary to me in my opinion, i wish the books were scarier. The book didn't have any pictures either which wasn't that cool to me. The book also didn't have any hard words in it either. This book would be a 5 star if it had pictures and harder words.

[Wade B]

i think this is a good book and i think that rick owen is very brave he goes to a summer camp and there is mega mosters from mighigan and i really liked the book and i would rate it 7/10 the moster come out of the one of his new friend from the summer came sandy and leah find out about these moster the camp name is called camp willow about a week of fun for every kid around the camp` i think this is a very good book . in some part of the book they where frozen with fear with the mega moster helpless mr wiilaim a nother charter in the book

[Dakota Stein · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Fun book to pick up as a quick read. These books are still great and charming even as an adult. The cliff hanger endings of the chapters do feel a bit different then they once did they don't pack as much of a punch as they used to probably because of the increase in speed and compression now then as a kid. Still it's kinda fun to mix up your reading with something quick and easy when reading something a bit dense or whatever.

[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m giving this book a five star rating because that’s what 10 year old me would have given it the first time I read it. Rand was always one of my favorite authors because he wrote for kids and the settings of his books were always places that I knew and had been to.

Adult me gives it a 2/5 because the sentences are short, often use repetitive language, and the story is resolved far too easily.

Again, I’m not the intended audience so I can’t be overly critical of it. Past me liked it a lot.

[Cadetastic · Rating 4 out of 5]

great book . i remember i went to goodwill one day a few years back and i got this book . really good book and series and i even managed to go meet the author who has a store called chillermania in michagan . if you havent read it yet than you should go to your local half price books or something andd get it

[Art · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a terrific author! I wish he had been available when I was teaching. I definitely recommend this for the average YA reader, advanced elementary readers, and parents who want to read chapter books to and with their pre-teens and teens.

[Cortney Guysinger-Demint · Rating 5 out of 5]

My oldest son got this book for Christmas and he loves it. He has already moved on to the second, which he is also loving. I just read this to my younger son & he also loved it. I enjoyed reading it to him as well.

[Max Higgins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is super helpful.

Whenever my boss bitches at me at work, I whip out my fresh new copy of an American Chillers book and throw it in front of me.

Then my boss screams, "No! Anything but that! Keep it away from me! It's so bad!"

Thanks Rand!

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adore this series. I used to read all of these books over and over again as a kid, they helped spark my love for reading. I decided to get back into them for the first time after 15+ years and the nostalgia is real ❤️

[Hedy Harper (Erin Hanton) · Rating 2 out of 5]

TLDR; Goosebumps are better.

MEH. The language is overly simple, even for the age group, and the plot is overly complicated. Too many monsters, basically. It doesn’t build tension successfully, so it never got my heart beating faster the way a horror novel should, even those for younger readers.

[Abbie Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5: I’ve read Jonathan Rand before as an adult and I don’t remember it being written so poorly. It started off realistic, but then became far-fetched halfway through. My students really liked it, but I cackled the whole book.

[Jonah Zimmerman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Genre - Horror Fiction/Fantasy
Grade Level - 4-5
Unique - Each state is represented in this series. However, I do not find the writing to be a particularly good set of standards for students.

[Belzam Cruz · Rating 5 out of 5]

nice

[Lucas Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

gud book read it

[Jordan Niemann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this a very long time ago, but I still can remember various scenes throughout the book. It was a great book that I had trouble putting down.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the latest book I read with my 9 yo. The writing was a bit rough, but it was lots of fun to read with him, plus we're from Michigan. On to Ohio!

[Robert Zzstu Kennicott · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a very interesting story that takes place in my home state I would recommend

[Jason Stoffels]

good

[Ryan]

I really thought that some of his books where better ( probably because it was his first) but other than that it was very exciting.

[Wolverinefactor · Rating 1 out of 5]

Warning: the entire Michigan and American series are connected..

This story was ok at first but it just nose dived once they reach the lake. It becomes really dumb with plot devices

[Rachel McDonell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book but, I felt like it was crazy😜, and so many twists and turns, I could barely keep up!

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read with Isaac! Jonathan Rand is the king of cliff hangers for kids!!! Isaac is hooked on this series, along with Michigan Chillers.

[Boston Barnett]

It was pretty good not the best from the series though.

[Bebopally · Rating 5 out of 5]

my dog ate this book when i was a kid and we had to buy a new one for the school library