The Thing Under the Bed

Bone Chillers #13

by Daniel Ehrenhaft

After Otis finishes eating under his covers, he throws his garbage under his bed, but when it begins to stink, makes weird noises, and something slimy slithers across his floor and slides back under the bed, Otis worries that he may be the thing's next meal. Original.

Genres: Horror

144 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 11, 1996

About the author

Daniel Ehrenhaft is the author of several dozen books for children and young adults—so many books, in fact, that he has lost count. He has often written under the pseudonym Daniel Parker (his middle name, which is easier to spell and pronounce than his last), and occasionally Erin Haft. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Jessica, as well as a scruffy dog named Gibby and a psychotic cat named Bootsy. When he isn't writing, he tirelessly travels the globe on a doomed mission to achieve rock stardom. As of this date, his musical credits include the composition of bluegrass soundtrack numbers for the epic straight-to-video B movie The Grave, a brief stint playing live rap music to baffled Filipino audiences in Hong Kong, and scoring the still-picture montage Election Trip. He once worked in a cheese shop. He was fired.

Reviews

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Thing Under The Bed from the Bone Chillers series is a book I've been looking forward to reading for a while.Im a sucker for book covers with a monster you can kind of see but kind of not.The story however isn't bad but its pretty straightforward.The story starts our main protagonist Ottis who is really gross. He stuffs food and all kinds of trash under his bed which is named The Ocean Of Motion,a waterbed that his parents bought for him two years ago.Ottis thinks he hears some strange noises coming from under his bed, but ignores it.Ottis doesn't only throw trash under his bed but he also throws trash inside his backpack.One day while at school he is forced to open his backpack and is basically forced to go home because it stinks so bad.He gets home and his mom tells him he has to clean his room because his rooms also smells really bad.We cut to Ottis giving his backpack to the groundskeeper for him to clean because earlier when he reached into it he felt something that scared him.The groundskeeper finds worms inside the backpack and tells him multiple times "you can never be to careful with worms."When Ottis gets home that day he goes up to his room and sees alot of it has been cleaned and he's surprised. He's even more surprised when his friend Tony comes over and leaves his bookbag on his bed and when he returns he sees something pulling the backpack under the bed.This is where we know that something is up.This book was really basic.It's honestly just a monster story with a decent message about cleaning up behind yourself. I only really had one complaint and that's the twist.It was painfully obvious something was up with a certain character and when we find out where the monster came from, they mention a name that is literally the same as this character.Other then that , I think this book was ok, not as good as alor of the other ones I've read so far but pretty decent I give The Thing Under The Bed a three out of five stars.

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

So after a certain point in the Bonechillers series, Betsy Hanes decided to allow other authors to take the wheel and write some books. This is one of the entries not written by Betsy, this on by Daniel Ehrenhaft. Did he do a good job?…well, it’s passable. His writing was series standard, nothing to say there. The one had some themes and a literal embodiment of one in the form of the Thing that is indeed Under the Bed that I though were good and not forced down your throat, and the monster here was enjoyable. There’s some fun segments and the final act is pretty good, I liked the protagonist (Otis), and the book as a whole is entertaining. Some pretty bland upsides but it hits those basic important beats. But there’s some things that didn’t stick, like the twist ending. It’s not really a twist in the sense that is changes nothing about the book; in fact, it’s more of a useless add-on and loose-end that could’ve just been written out of the story. Not to mention that there’s no impact with the reveal because it’s by far the most predictable ball-drop I have ever seen. Let’s just say there’s two characters who turn out to be the same person, and it’s to the shock of absolutely no one since their names were so similar that I thought they WERE the same name until we re-encountered this character later on. It’s just predictable, useless, and dumb. The book overall isn’t trite, per se, but kinda dull, as not a lot really happens outside of the slow ass progression of trying to kill this monster for most of the book. An easy fix to that would’ve been the doctor character revealing themselves—you know, the useless twist ending character?—earlier on in the book to help the plot progress in a new direction. But nope. And to conclude this, there’s nothing impressive here, outside of the concept which is only mildly cool. Book’s just decent at best. Overall, 6/10. Fun with a good idea but not much else to chew on. Something something something, crusty sock joke, Stranger Things S4, E7 at 30:19 (haha), Skeletalshivers.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, time to finish this ripoff round. I enjoy Bone Chillers so we’ll see if it makes us end this off on a good note. This was an earlier ghostwritten book and the ghostwriter is Daniel Ehrenhaft. He’s a YA author that still does stuff, or at least his website is still up. He has a short story in “Half Minute Horrors” which also has a story by RL Stine. Figures.

Anyway, this book is about Otis Farnsworth, who is not a cow or a professor. He’s a messy kid who puts his trash under his bed and now it has piled up and mom is sick of it. Soon he hears weird noises coming under the bed and wonders if the mess is attracting…something.

This is another good but basic one. I noticed the earlier ghostwritten books feel tamer, compared to the later ones which are way more out there. Feels like the publisher wanted to tone things down a bit before going hog wild. There is a mild moral to it, with him learning to clean up his mess and he even realizes it early on. He’s basic but has good chemistry with his friend.

There’s a good explanation for all this, and Otis’ mess ties into it decently. There is less horror than I would have liked, but near the end it gets more into the thrills. There is gross out but it’s not too bad, just the right amount. It flows well enough, if not amazingly. Climax is solid, if a bit easy. I rather dug the twist, with a certain reveal. I wish it was the climax but it makes for a good cliffhanger ending.

Aside from being a bit too tame, there isn’t much to complain about. There isn’t too much amazing either, so it’s another one of those. Goes on the bottom of my Bone Chillers ranking so far since it doesn't have an extra bit of depth or horror to get it higher. But this series is faring well if my bottom ones are still good enough and more fun than most of its kind.

So there ya go, basic but fun way to end this round. I will get a 3rd one in around November, so a quicker turn around than usual, especially next first round of next year will be like February perhaps.

As for the next read in general, there is a new Stinetinglers out so likely that. October might have at least one Halloween read so yeah, nothing too crazy. See ya then.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Otis receives an awesome new water bed for his birthday, he has no idea there's something else that comes with it - something living underneath it...