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Strange Matter #1
No Substitutions
Curtis and Shelly find their lives in danger when they encounter a sinister substitute teacher hiding a book about werewolves.
- GenresChildrens
120 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 19, 2025
I decided to pick up the first book of the Strange Matter series today specifically since it marks the 30th anniversary of the entire series. I have been really enjoying Strange Matter for the past half-year; this series has some of the best kids horror books that I’ve ever read. That trend continues here, or rather it began here. This book had some grotesque imagery that I quite enjoyed, especially towards the end. The villain—Mr. Calhoun—is full of his own shit in the best way possible, and he’s super enjoyable whenever on-page. The writing is of usual quality (fantastic and good-flowing), the characters are good, this book had some great tension building throughout, and the climax nailed it for me. Also, open-ended yet dark close—gotta love it. This is a by-the-numbers Strange Matter banger, though I do have three little takeaways: Mr. Mayfield and the weird progression. The story feels forced when it comes to getting the ball rolling, and it literally only played out the way it did because our main duo passed a damn note during class. I’m deadass. Mr. Mayfield also didn’t do much for the story; we had a certain dark implication with him that gets retconned (in a good way), and outside of that…? We didn’t get much with him and his inclusion was unnecessary. I wish we also got some lore with the adult characters, as we never really get to know much about their connections with Mr. Calhoun and the whole werewolf stuff with him and his family. Just a bit disappointed there. Overall, 9/10. This story was a great, fun read but did leave a bit to be desired + some forced/odd story progression. Nothing abhorrent though. Update on my relationship status with my wife, Strange Matter: still trying on having a baby named Rilo… starting to think I’m infertile.
February 28, 2021
(Okay first, yes I am doing this on a different day. Basically, got other stuff going on days where I'd usually do this so today I read this, I'll read the new Slappyworld on Tuesday when it comes out, and the next Animorphs this Wednesday, got that?)
I let the randomizer pick if I should do Deadtime Stories or Strange Matter next and thankfully it went with the latter and for the entry it picked the very first one. That's cool, we get to see the series started. I was worried since the first entry is likely to be a weaker one since hey, it's the first one and they gotta get the kinks out.
Thankfully, it's still as solid as the series went on to be but it is the weakest one I've read so far. Not by much though.Our first story revolves around Curtis Chapman and Shelly Miller, who are first happy they are getting a substitute but that sub gets replaced with another (sub-ception?) named Stacy Challhoun.
He used to go to school here and was a big football star, but left soon after causing a bad accident. Now he's back and seems to have a certain power over the class. He's also hairy. Spoilers, here';s a werewolf.
So like the others, this has some solid suspense. It's not afraid to get a bit dark and stays moody and creepy throughout. Stacy is a pretty competent villain, being very threatening. There's also no jokes about him having a feminine name, that's a plus.
The danger is solid here, and generally keeps up a fine pace. The werewolf lore was neat, there's stuff I didn't know, although I'm not sure how much was made up. As for downsides, Curtis was on the bland end as far as protagonists go, especially compared to Shelly to who has more a personality. Given what happens to her at one point, I think she should have been the POV character. There's a reason she does more in Strange Forces.
Speaking of that, there's yet another cool twist ending that was later ignored. I'll let this slide since it was the first one and they likely didn't get the idea yet. Still annoying though.
Stacy's backstory is an interesting one but by the end they don't push it too much further. There's no motive rant from him which is odd given the twist has them finding out he likely had a different reason for coming here. It fares better in this regard than some others, but I notice Marty Engle's entries keep having this problem of not going deep enough into the backstories and such.
Climax was a bit rushed but not horribly so. Overall, a solid start for the series with decent writing, good tension and all that. Just has those first book jitters, and doesn't get quite as interesting as some of the other stories they'd go on to do. For a first book,. it's what you'd expect and is overall simply a solid little werewolf story.
Deadtime is next, won't be til the week after next week most likely, we'll see. Oh and even though there can't be continuity watch as this is book 1, we get our first mention of bully Kyle Banner, although he doesn't fully appear yet.
(Oh and not to harp on this again, but while the CAPS and are such aren't as bad, there's weirdly a different kind of spacing problem where the text isn't fully to the left so it just looks awkward at times,, and the spaces that aren't for scene transitions look even weirder. Sorry I keep bringing this up, just keeps bugging me given this series has arguably the best prose/writing of these series and yet has some awkward stuff like this)
I let the randomizer pick if I should do Deadtime Stories or Strange Matter next and thankfully it went with the latter and for the entry it picked the very first one. That's cool, we get to see the series started. I was worried since the first entry is likely to be a weaker one since hey, it's the first one and they gotta get the kinks out.
Thankfully, it's still as solid as the series went on to be but it is the weakest one I've read so far. Not by much though.Our first story revolves around Curtis Chapman and Shelly Miller, who are first happy they are getting a substitute but that sub gets replaced with another (sub-ception?) named Stacy Challhoun.
He used to go to school here and was a big football star, but left soon after causing a bad accident. Now he's back and seems to have a certain power over the class. He's also hairy. Spoilers, here';s a werewolf.
So like the others, this has some solid suspense. It's not afraid to get a bit dark and stays moody and creepy throughout. Stacy is a pretty competent villain, being very threatening. There's also no jokes about him having a feminine name, that's a plus.
The danger is solid here, and generally keeps up a fine pace. The werewolf lore was neat, there's stuff I didn't know, although I'm not sure how much was made up. As for downsides, Curtis was on the bland end as far as protagonists go, especially compared to Shelly to who has more a personality. Given what happens to her at one point, I think she should have been the POV character. There's a reason she does more in Strange Forces.
Speaking of that, there's yet another cool twist ending that was later ignored. I'll let this slide since it was the first one and they likely didn't get the idea yet. Still annoying though.
Stacy's backstory is an interesting one but by the end they don't push it too much further. There's no motive rant from him which is odd given the twist has them finding out he likely had a different reason for coming here. It fares better in this regard than some others, but I notice Marty Engle's entries keep having this problem of not going deep enough into the backstories and such.
Climax was a bit rushed but not horribly so. Overall, a solid start for the series with decent writing, good tension and all that. Just has those first book jitters, and doesn't get quite as interesting as some of the other stories they'd go on to do. For a first book,. it's what you'd expect and is overall simply a solid little werewolf story.
Deadtime is next, won't be til the week after next week most likely, we'll see. Oh and even though there can't be continuity watch as this is book 1, we get our first mention of bully Kyle Banner, although he doesn't fully appear yet.
(Oh and not to harp on this again, but while the CAPS and are such aren't as bad, there's weirdly a different kind of spacing problem where the text isn't fully to the left so it just looks awkward at times,, and the spaces that aren't for scene transitions look even weirder. Sorry I keep bringing this up, just keeps bugging me given this series has arguably the best prose/writing of these series and yet has some awkward stuff like this)
July 19, 2025
I got a set of these from a friend when I was a kid. Thought it’d be fun to revisit them and see how they read as an adult. It’s an interesting story but nothing too spectacular. I give the authors props for coming up with new and interning lore for the supernatural elements. Characters are very one-dimensional, but I imagine that is so kids reading it can more easily self-insert into the story. I don’t read a lot of books for kids now-a-days, so I assume my perspective on the writing and story is skewed since I read Stephen King and other adult horror now. LoL. It did scratch a little nostalgia button in my brain, which was fun. I loved scary books as a kid, and I’m sad these are out-of-print. I do want to continue with what I have from the series, but I’m reading Goosebumps #1 next!
**UPDATE**
Ok, so after reading just the first chapter of Goosebumps #1, Welcome to Dead House, I’m realizing that this book was just poorly written. Since it’s been a while since I’ve read books targeted at a younger audience. I just assumed the weak writing, characters and such was because it was aimed at kids, but what R. L. Stine crafted in just one chapter was leaps and bounds above this book. So that’s my bad, for making that assumption. No shade on what these authors were trying to do, but this was pretty bad in comparison. We’ll see if the series gets any better going forward.
**UPDATE**
Ok, so after reading just the first chapter of Goosebumps #1, Welcome to Dead House, I’m realizing that this book was just poorly written. Since it’s been a while since I’ve read books targeted at a younger audience. I just assumed the weak writing, characters and such was because it was aimed at kids, but what R. L. Stine crafted in just one chapter was leaps and bounds above this book. So that’s my bad, for making that assumption. No shade on what these authors were trying to do, but this was pretty bad in comparison. We’ll see if the series gets any better going forward.
April 1, 2022
Great story! Less action than I remember or am used to but still good! 🙂
January 23, 2023
A tad bloodier than the usual Goosebumps knockoff, and it features a lot of werewolf lore you wouldn't expect in a children's book.
April 18, 2018
De los primeros libros de terror que compré, en una de las primeras ferias de libros a las que fui. Aunque ahora este libro me da más risa que miedo (lo re-leí no hace mucho), confieso abiertamente que la primera vez que lo leí (poco después de haberlo comprado) sí me asustó. No quiero decir que me aterrara, porque no fue así, si no que me puso a pensar (con mi pequeña mente infantil de entonces, tendría unos 10 años si mal no recuerdo) que seguro que alguno de mis maestros también era un monstruo.
Es un libro de “miedo” infanti-juvenil que si bien no es de los mejores textos del mundo (ni de lejos) es realmente entretenido. Se lee en una sentada.
Es un libro al que le tengo cierto apego sentimental, no por ser de mis favoritos, si no por ser de las primeras historias de terror que leí y con las que me acerqué al genero que hoy en día, tanto amo.
Es un libro de “miedo” infanti-juvenil que si bien no es de los mejores textos del mundo (ni de lejos) es realmente entretenido. Se lee en una sentada.
Es un libro al que le tengo cierto apego sentimental, no por ser de mis favoritos, si no por ser de las primeras historias de terror que leí y con las que me acerqué al genero que hoy en día, tanto amo.
August 29, 2013
Did a pre-read before letting Mike read it. It got a little violent at the end and ended with a cliff hanger, but I think it'll be ok for him. He may need to have a few things explained since it's about 8th graders and he's a 1st grad homeschooled kid, so some of the school stuff may be foreign, but very little of the story had to do with the actual school. This is definitely a fluff book, but sinc ehe likes the Goosebumps books he'll probably like this.
August 30, 2024
Es un libro sin más la verdad. Sé que es un libro infantil, pero siento que el suspense que debería haber en ningún momento consigue tenerlo al 100%.
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January 21, 2009JMAR4-Eng
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews