What do you think?
Rate this book
Spinetinglers #17
The Monster Channel
This edition is out of print. A new updated edition is available from Amazon ( 978-0962685842).
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
28 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 29, 2021
This book has me enamored with the Spinetinglers series as a whole. I was made aware there is an “extended” edition of this book written by the real author of this book, Jim Simon, and I intend on revisiting the story to get the extended version. In case you didn’t know, Spinetinglers is a ghost written series credited to a pen name M.T. Coffin. This one is the only book Jim Simon did in the series, but I’m not complaining, I really loved this one.
The main character moves to a neighborhood off a backwoods highway. It even has a creepy name, Graves Lakes Estates. It is said years ago, a couple went missing and drowned in the nearby lake and ever since eerie supernatural things started happening around the town. The main character shrugs it off, but is revisiting the idea of the town being supernatural when his friendly neighbor alerts him about a scary encounter he had while inside of his house before he moved in. There’s a creature called the Creep who lives in a tv in his attic and currently is in the basement looking for something special to it.
The rest of the book deals with fun and outright disturbing scenes, like a cable guy from the local cable company creeping the ever loving crap out of the reader, and having this weird meta (in universe) reality that adds sufficient layers to the story. The main character goes through hurdles trying to find the truth once the revelation hits that this being living in his new home isn’t down to share its living quarters.
This book is overwhelmingly in the positives for me. It hits everything I look for in kids horror. Relatable protagonist ✔️ scary antagonist ✔️ unique story with unpredictable twists and turns ✔️ evolution of the character throughout the horrifying situation he was put through ✔️ and a great twist and ending to end it on ✔️.
My only complaint is a glaring plot hole in the story, as in there’s no real answer to how characters in the protagonists family start… turning into something they’re not. I know it’s not the most important thing to highlight, but it would’ve helped for it to be stated to make better sense of what happened to them. Also, the story jumps around to different points rather abruptly. It isn’t such a problem for this specific book as it is for the series in general. I didn’t deduct anything on it but I think it’s important to bring up.
Other than those issue, I absolutely loved this book from start to finish. It’s more of a 4.7/5 than a solid 4⭐️ so it’s highly coveted by me and consider it a strong A of a book. I mainly circumvent my reading around reading Goosebumps and this book could easily be a Goosebumps book (a 5/5 on the comparison scale). I could not recommend this book enough. Either track the Spinetinglers version down or take to Amazon to buy the Joe Simon extended version. You won’t be disappointed. Btw, I much prefer the Spinetinglers cover to the extended versions cover. It’s outstanding!
The main character moves to a neighborhood off a backwoods highway. It even has a creepy name, Graves Lakes Estates. It is said years ago, a couple went missing and drowned in the nearby lake and ever since eerie supernatural things started happening around the town. The main character shrugs it off, but is revisiting the idea of the town being supernatural when his friendly neighbor alerts him about a scary encounter he had while inside of his house before he moved in. There’s a creature called the Creep who lives in a tv in his attic and currently is in the basement looking for something special to it.
The rest of the book deals with fun and outright disturbing scenes, like a cable guy from the local cable company creeping the ever loving crap out of the reader, and having this weird meta (in universe) reality that adds sufficient layers to the story. The main character goes through hurdles trying to find the truth once the revelation hits that this being living in his new home isn’t down to share its living quarters.
This book is overwhelmingly in the positives for me. It hits everything I look for in kids horror. Relatable protagonist ✔️ scary antagonist ✔️ unique story with unpredictable twists and turns ✔️ evolution of the character throughout the horrifying situation he was put through ✔️ and a great twist and ending to end it on ✔️.
My only complaint is a glaring plot hole in the story, as in there’s no real answer to how characters in the protagonists family start… turning into something they’re not. I know it’s not the most important thing to highlight, but it would’ve helped for it to be stated to make better sense of what happened to them. Also, the story jumps around to different points rather abruptly. It isn’t such a problem for this specific book as it is for the series in general. I didn’t deduct anything on it but I think it’s important to bring up.
Other than those issue, I absolutely loved this book from start to finish. It’s more of a 4.7/5 than a solid 4⭐️ so it’s highly coveted by me and consider it a strong A of a book. I mainly circumvent my reading around reading Goosebumps and this book could easily be a Goosebumps book (a 5/5 on the comparison scale). I could not recommend this book enough. Either track the Spinetinglers version down or take to Amazon to buy the Joe Simon extended version. You won’t be disappointed. Btw, I much prefer the Spinetinglers cover to the extended versions cover. It’s outstanding!
October 7, 2008
If you liked the Goosebumps series and you can somehow get a copy of this (used, because they don't print it anymore), do it, because this changed my childhood imagination.
After a kid moves to a new house, a weird man comes a sells his family cable. They've got all these cool channels: the Romance Channel, the Mystery Channel, and (of course) the Monster Channel. But now the kid's having nightmares about monsters coming out of the TV. Could it be real? It is! And havoc ensues!
I actually enjoyed this book more than I ever enjoyed the Goosebumps books.
After a kid moves to a new house, a weird man comes a sells his family cable. They've got all these cool channels: the Romance Channel, the Mystery Channel, and (of course) the Monster Channel. But now the kid's having nightmares about monsters coming out of the TV. Could it be real? It is! And havoc ensues!
I actually enjoyed this book more than I ever enjoyed the Goosebumps books.
December 3, 2025
Adjusting signal… tuning into channel… ah, here we go. Yo, there’s a special broadcast on The Monster Channel. This I gotta see!
“Hey everyone. Goosebumps For Dummies here, aka Alejandro. I interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you a special review for a book based off the channel you’re on right now, titled “The Monster Channel.” I am no liar; when I say I like playing drums on my potbelly (bop bah-nop bop and all that), I’m being serious. So know this is my honest opinion: the book kinda sucked. Jim Simon (the author) has a great idea for a kids horror story; I loved the concepts and plot basis for this book, and I feel they could’ve been amazing had they been better executed. The characters—specifically Otto and Charley for them being more fleshed-out—were good, and I liked them all to a degree. The element of mind-control, the mechanics behind The Creep (the central antagonist), and the defeat of The Creep are all of good quality, and this story was a decently entertaining read even if it has a lot of quality pitfalls. The biggest gripe I have about the book is the writing. Paying all my respects to Jim Simon: your style ain’t my thing and I didn’t jive with it. The story was sloppily written and a lot of things felt unnaturally realized, extremely overlooked/underexplained/brushed over (most notably the sister believing her brother about The Creep INSTANTLY, the Cable Guy feeling like a nothing-burger of what was kinda implied to be something more, and the unexplained lore of The Creep [which was even hinted at by the man himself that he may actually be the ghost of a relative of the founder of the cable company in the town this book takes place, who died in a boat accident] that felt almost pointless to bring up since we never got that full dive into it), and the book had a lot of awkward writing moments that made the book inconsistently mediocre. The story feels underwhelming since it never reaches its full potential and we don’t get enough with The Creep to get a scope of his power-scale and threat-level, nor for us to even know WHAT IT IS. I’m fine with ambiguity when done right, but we NEEDED something to latch onto with that… thing. The writing often left me confused at times too. The book was generally kind of a mess of weird decisions on Jim Simon’s part, all blanketing a pretty cool idea that didn’t get the proper treatment. Overall, 4.5/10. I wished I loved it, heck I wished I’d at least liked it, but this book was kind of a disaster from a writing standpoint. Anywho, back to your regularly scheduled program: Harry Potter—in Space!”
Damn, ain’t no one wanna watch Star Wars and the Half-Azkaban Hallows. Adjusting dial… tuning into station… oOoOoH, Buffy’s on The Disney Channel—count me in brotato.
“Hey everyone. Goosebumps For Dummies here, aka Alejandro. I interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you a special review for a book based off the channel you’re on right now, titled “The Monster Channel.” I am no liar; when I say I like playing drums on my potbelly (bop bah-nop bop and all that), I’m being serious. So know this is my honest opinion: the book kinda sucked. Jim Simon (the author) has a great idea for a kids horror story; I loved the concepts and plot basis for this book, and I feel they could’ve been amazing had they been better executed. The characters—specifically Otto and Charley for them being more fleshed-out—were good, and I liked them all to a degree. The element of mind-control, the mechanics behind The Creep (the central antagonist), and the defeat of The Creep are all of good quality, and this story was a decently entertaining read even if it has a lot of quality pitfalls. The biggest gripe I have about the book is the writing. Paying all my respects to Jim Simon: your style ain’t my thing and I didn’t jive with it. The story was sloppily written and a lot of things felt unnaturally realized, extremely overlooked/underexplained/brushed over (most notably the sister believing her brother about The Creep INSTANTLY, the Cable Guy feeling like a nothing-burger of what was kinda implied to be something more, and the unexplained lore of The Creep [which was even hinted at by the man himself that he may actually be the ghost of a relative of the founder of the cable company in the town this book takes place, who died in a boat accident] that felt almost pointless to bring up since we never got that full dive into it), and the book had a lot of awkward writing moments that made the book inconsistently mediocre. The story feels underwhelming since it never reaches its full potential and we don’t get enough with The Creep to get a scope of his power-scale and threat-level, nor for us to even know WHAT IT IS. I’m fine with ambiguity when done right, but we NEEDED something to latch onto with that… thing. The writing often left me confused at times too. The book was generally kind of a mess of weird decisions on Jim Simon’s part, all blanketing a pretty cool idea that didn’t get the proper treatment. Overall, 4.5/10. I wished I loved it, heck I wished I’d at least liked it, but this book was kind of a disaster from a writing standpoint. Anywho, back to your regularly scheduled program: Harry Potter—in Space!”
Damn, ain’t no one wanna watch Star Wars and the Half-Azkaban Hallows. Adjusting dial… tuning into station… oOoOoH, Buffy’s on The Disney Channel—count me in brotato.
August 23, 2025
This is perhaps one of the most disappointing Spinetinglers books, for the concept/premise is really cool - but the execution of the idea coupled with very choppy, very amateur writing really bogs this down. I think I could've written a better story with the premise of this one.
2⭐
2⭐
September 23, 2025
We’re getting close to the end of this round. We go back to Spinetinglers for this one, which sounded interesting. The ghostwriter is a first for us, that being Jim Simon, who has this as his only Spinetinglers credit. It’s such a generic name, I couldn’t find the right one to know what else he has done.
This one actually got a stand alone re-release in the 2010s with an extended ending but we’ll stick with the version we have. So, Charley has moved into a new town with his family. A kid he meets warns him of stories he heard about a creep that will go after you, as well as other tidbits. Charley actually bumps into it fairly early on but then it shifts to them being visited by a cable guy that will get some cool channels for them.
Including a horror channel called The Monster Channel. Soon the family gets a bit into the tv and Charley has to put a stop to this as well as the monster known as The Creep. So I liked this one but it was all over the place.
We get tons of exposition and lore out the gate which feels like too much. Especially it takes its sweet time getting to exploring the monster channel and all that. It’s a case of both too much and too little. It clearly wants to build tension and mystery but telling us so much out the gate makes that hard to pull off.
Logic is all over the place, it makes enough sense but has some issues. The pacing/structure is weird. But the writing is pretty solid and it is able to build suspense pretty well. It kicks into gear later on, as the family is hypnotized by the tv and the creep starts…creeping.
The titular channel isn’t that important which is odd but the concept still works. The climax and ending mostly work, even if it’s a bit weird. The actual ending note is odd but not too bad. Charley is fine but basic. He has a nice friendship with this one kid. The parents are fine and the sister is our superfluous clay.
There are weird quirks and jokes as well. I like how the movies and that get directly name dropped are public domain ones and they have to be vague about the copyrighted ones lol. While this one could be better story wise, there’s enough horror fun to make a mild good. It skirts the line, it’s like a better version of a Kathleen Duey book tbh.
But there ya go, a lesser one but not too much so. Worth a quick read I think. Not much else to add. Next time, we end on Bone Chillers as we have a monster under the bed i guess.
See ya then.
This one actually got a stand alone re-release in the 2010s with an extended ending but we’ll stick with the version we have. So, Charley has moved into a new town with his family. A kid he meets warns him of stories he heard about a creep that will go after you, as well as other tidbits. Charley actually bumps into it fairly early on but then it shifts to them being visited by a cable guy that will get some cool channels for them.
Including a horror channel called The Monster Channel. Soon the family gets a bit into the tv and Charley has to put a stop to this as well as the monster known as The Creep. So I liked this one but it was all over the place.
We get tons of exposition and lore out the gate which feels like too much. Especially it takes its sweet time getting to exploring the monster channel and all that. It’s a case of both too much and too little. It clearly wants to build tension and mystery but telling us so much out the gate makes that hard to pull off.
Logic is all over the place, it makes enough sense but has some issues. The pacing/structure is weird. But the writing is pretty solid and it is able to build suspense pretty well. It kicks into gear later on, as the family is hypnotized by the tv and the creep starts…creeping.
The titular channel isn’t that important which is odd but the concept still works. The climax and ending mostly work, even if it’s a bit weird. The actual ending note is odd but not too bad. Charley is fine but basic. He has a nice friendship with this one kid. The parents are fine and the sister is our superfluous clay.
There are weird quirks and jokes as well. I like how the movies and that get directly name dropped are public domain ones and they have to be vague about the copyrighted ones lol. While this one could be better story wise, there’s enough horror fun to make a mild good. It skirts the line, it’s like a better version of a Kathleen Duey book tbh.
But there ya go, a lesser one but not too much so. Worth a quick read I think. Not much else to add. Next time, we end on Bone Chillers as we have a monster under the bed i guess.
See ya then.
April 2, 2022
This was by far the best of the three Spine Tinglers books I purchased. There were a few of the typical false scare sequences that you could see coming from a mile away, but for the most part this had actual "scares" (albeit for younger readers) and was by far less childish than I was expecting. The protagonists (Charley, Otto and Chrissy) aren't very obnoxious and the villain is way more intense than the other so-called antagonists in this series. Author "MT Coffin" (hilarious pseudonym for the ghostwriters of this series) did a great job building suspense with Charley and the attic, but it dragged a little longer than it needed. I would've given this a 3/5 stars but the twist ending made this book worth reading all the way through. I would recommend this to other horror fans looking for a quick and fun read that doesn't take itself too seriously.
September 2, 2022
Dang. It had a good set up and completely fell apart with the ending. Super confusing and stupid by the end.
Read
December 30, 2011The Monster Channel evokes the scary atmosphere that arises when a family moves to a town where people act strangely and the weird things that happen when an old TV is found in the attic of their house. Recommended!
Read
November 14, 2009Great book! Scary and fun to read! Highly recommended, if you can still find a copy!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews