Step on a Crack

Spinetinglers #9

by M.T. Coffin

As he walks to school one morning, Billy Carne discovers a mysterious crack in the sidewalk that is growing and threatens to swallow someone alive.

152 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Austin Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is about an ancient, evil entity/monster of some kind living under the surface of the earth (and other planets) and feasting upon its inhabitants by sucking them down through holes and cracks in the ground.
Holy crap.

This was surprisingly fun, intense and action packed for a kids book.
The story was well written, there is actually a sense of tension and suspense as our main character, 10-year old Billy tries to survive against and somehow defeat the mysterious creature. There is some ambiguity surrounding the origins of the monster/villain, and what is revealed about it gives off vague Lovecraftian vibes which I absolutely loved.
The resolution was a bit abrupt and it left me wanting more, but only because the rest (especially the prologue) was so good.
I would love to see an expanded, more adult version of this story.
Even as it is, this gets a solid 3⭐ from me. One of the coolest Goosebumps knockoff books I've read.

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Come back read from being sick for a week, was excited for this ‘Tingler, holy crap it’s Friday the 13th today wtf, and lowk I thought this was gonna be a Tremors parody but was a weird beast of its own. Sorry for that incoherent start; formality is now of utmost concern… what the hell is this thing? Footfall on a Crevice has gotta be the strangest Spinetingler I’ve read, and it’s kinda great, but kinda hard to say so. The best thing this book had was the fan-fuck-tastic climax: absolute peak children’s fiction, whilst also delivering on some unfired guns. The main character was superb, the threat was basically The Big P (Pennywise) in a lot of ways (even in defeat but we’ll get to that in a sec) and I really enjoyed everthing they brought to the table, namely their dynamic with Billy, and the writing—guiltily belonging to C.J. Henderson—was, whilst a bit iffy, won me over as there was definite talent and care here. The way Redmaw (dope name, better semi-shortened) was killed is honestly hilarious with context of the modern internet culture term “rage-baiting,” because it basically boils down to that with plenty of extra steps. Loved it; might sound dumb on paper but it works so freaking well. The ending is great, the lore behind Redmaw is simple but works, there’s some crazy scenes in here e.x. the scene outside the church where some dude just up and DIES lmao and the encounter that lands the main’s mom and him in the hospital. Great, great shit here. There’s some little things holding this book back for me though, like the… say it with me… “ya gotta believe me” stuff. There’s some rather not good exposition in here with the rope stuff in chapter two and the bizarrely built up presence of the monster that turned my off from the story a little bit, and there’s some kid characters in here that are relatively useless additions that could’ve had plenty more to do than drive forward the main’s insanity—which now brings me to the most random issue I felt: why tf was the backyard encounter between Redmaw and Billy so overdramatized in longterm? The fallout of that scene is ridiculous and hard to believe even for this genre, as basically every person in Billy’s general five mile radius thinks he belongs in the funny house. Da phuc is up with that? It was overdone and bothered me a lot. Anywho. Overall, 8/10. Really darn good, held back by some.. uh, random issues that nagged on me + YGBM trope. In case anyone was wondering: Billy’s mom’s back is fine, only damage to here was a cranial injury lmao. Step on a Crack 2: Aftershocks. Someone catch this ball.

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Step On A Crack, from the Spinetinglers series is a book that I've heard nothing but good things about, so I was excited to read it. I figured it was somewhat fitting for Mother's Day month, because of the slogan step on the back ,break your mother's back and literally that's like the first line in the book, or after the prologue. Speaking of the prologue ,this is awesome. The story starts off with these native Americans running away from this thing under the ground.This leader of the tribe basically sacrifices himself to get rid of this monster.This happened 650 years ago. There's blood and all kinds of cool stuff. This thing actually speaks and says that it's getting ready to feed again. We cut to the actual story and we're introduced to Billy Carne. He's walking with some of his friends and there's four of them Danny being his best friend and overweight kid named Malcomb and two others who arent super important. They're talking about this teacher named Mr.Knisbaum, saying how scary he is and how Billy is getting ready to ask this girl out who is the teacher's daughter. They're talking about this rope climbing thing at school that they're all really nervous about ,because that teacher also is pretty scary ,but not as scary as Mr.Knisbaum .The first two chapters are basically these kids trying to climb this rope and we're getting to know the characters. It doesn't take long for us to learn that something is not quite right .Billy starts smelling this burning smell, seeing the grass move when there's no wind and eventually start hearing this voice talk to him, trying to scare him.One day while at Danny's house the two kids are hanging out.Billy flips out over this.And the whole neighborhood basically thinks Billy is crazy.Billy is trying to convince his friends that something is not quite right and something is going on.So he runs into the scary teacher named Mr.Knisbaum and he actually helps him and says that he thinks he should do some research about what's going on instead of just trying to hide from it. And I thought this was actually really sweet.Billy runs to the library and picks up a book and he finds a history of their town and learns that a long time ago, there was this legend that this thing called Redmawnachu attacked these Indians and killed the whole tribe. Somehow it got stopped and trapped in this construction site that the kids are loving going and seeing getting progress done.We actually cut back a couple of chapters from the monsters point of view and it's really intense. We learn that it eats a dog that goes missing and it wants Billy ,because Billy he knows is going to be in his way.And that's honestly the plot of this book Billy is basically trying to prove to everybody that there's something going on and nobody believing him I know that sounds repetitive but the book didn't feel that way.This book was really really good and it definitely lived up to the hype the ending sequences were very intense. The monster was very fascinating and this book flew by .I really enjoyed this one and it's definitely one of my favorites in the series.There's even a death scene where a guy has a heart attack ,but it's really caused by Redmawnachu. I highly recommend Step On A Crack from the Spinetinglers series. If I had to complain about anything it would be I don't think I learned enough about the monster .We did learn a lot though. It can travel through planets and eat different things and then travel to a different planet. It must rest to build up its energy and it can't use all of his energy on one person or thing that it eats. I also wasn't a big fan of what it looked like.But that's really it .I easily give step on a crack a five out of five stars.