Monster Mashup

by M.J.A. Ware, M.J. Ware

Now with twelve short stories.Monsters, magic, goblins, zombies, and more. Be prepared to sleep with the lights on. This collection of short stories will have you looking over your shoulder, avoiding mirrors, and jumping at the slightest sound.From fiendish creatures hiding in your bathroom mirror, to Halloween pranks gone deadly wrong. Each story will scare, delight, and surprise. No gore or cursing here, just good ol' spine-chilling fun!Infinite Reflections – When Jessie's sister gets trapped in a haunted mirror, he must figure out how to destroy the creature within. Though, Mom might like it if he gets his sister out first.Bloody Marcy – Mixing a game of Bloody Mary with a practical joke proves to be a deadly combination.Monster in the Mirror - Nate, his little sister, and best buddy Dan, stumble upon a hidden room during a sleep-over. What they find inside is anything but friendly.Death Trap – Mike takes a bet to go inside a haunted house, but will he live long enough to collect?Steven, Space Stowaway – Steven sneaks onboard a spaceship bound for Mars. Just one the Captain has a particularly unpleasant way of dealing with stowaways.The Price of Friendship – How much is a best friend worth? Joey finds out the hard way.Hobgoblin Horror – Jake only volunteered at the retirement home because Shelby works there. So, it's no wonder he's doesn't hear Mr. Fitches' warnings about a local homicidal hobgoblin—too bad for him.Rolling Leprechauns for Change – Leprechauns can have a nasty sense of humor—especially, when they're getting even. Hide-n-Go-Coffin – Playing hide-and-seek in a cemetery is disrespectful. When it happens to be cursed, the results can be deadly, or maybe even worse.Grandpa's Suits – A game of spin-the-bottle with the school pervert isn't a bright idea. Fortunately for Zoey, she's not quite alone.Brother's Keeper – Zack would be wise to spend less time looking for his missing sled and more time worrying about what's lurking outside. And he's not the only one who'll suffer for his single-mindedness.Super Zombie Juice Mega Bomb - When Life gives you lemons, kill zombies. In this special short story that inspired the upcoming novel, Nate and Misty's town is overrun by the undead and they'll need a little luck to squeeze their way out of this sticky mess.These stories are not recommended for kids under 8.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories

53 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 4, 2010

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm on a bit of an MJ Ware read-a-thon this month after noticing (much to my embarrassment) that a free book I downloaded in 2012 by the author still had not been read and reviewed seven years later. Yikes! I need to keep better track of the content on my Kindle! After reading that particular book (enjoyed it too!), I'm continuing on and reading several other books by this author. I love a good spooky story....and MJ Ware's slightly creepy reads for kids are entertaining and fun to read! Even for this 50 year old grandma!

Monster Mashup gathers 12 short stories....all appropriate for kids ages 9+. The tales are spooky, but not graphically so. They remind me a bit of Goosebumps books....a bit of scary, implied gore and weird stuff....but nothing inappropriate for middle grade kids. A couple of these stories also appear in other books by MJ Ware (Bloody Marcy, No Way Out, Hobgoblin Horror, and Steven: Space Stowaway) and Super Zombie Juice Mega Bomb is a short story that inspired the book-length tale by the same name.

The first 3 stories deal with mirrors and monsters. Great stories for any kid (or adult) who has ever seen anything weird in a reflection....or wondered if mirrors could be a portal to someplace else. The rest of the tales deal with various misadventures....investigating an old house, sneaking on a ship to Mars, finding out the real value of your friendship, visiting an old man to hear his war stories, mugging leprechauns for spare change, breaking into a mortuary, putting up with little brothers, and clearing out grandpa's room. The final story, Super Zombie Juice Mega Bomb, was lengthened into a novel. I just read it -- fun read! I highly recommend both versions!

I enjoyed all of the stories in this collection. My favorite is Hobgoblin Horror. :) Two kids visit an old veteran in a nursing home. He's a bit of a curmudgeon, but he tells great stories. The kids don't realize that his latest story is completely true.....and dangerous!

The front cover for this book is just awesome! Halloween has been my favorite holiday since I was a young child....and the cover art looks very very Halloween-y. :) Very colorful and eye-catching!

All in all, a nice collection of slightly spooky tales for kids. A fun, quick read! And I read and reviewed this one within two days of downloading it -- not 7 years! eek!

This book and others by MJ Ware are available for free download on Amazon. Enjoy! Read and review -- support indie authors! :)

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining horror listening 🎶🔰

This is a free novella e-book from Amazon. Oh how I love 💘 those free books 📚!I

Twelve novella stories by the same author. Each story is different with interesting well developed characters lots of action, misdirection, and some violence leading to each conclusion.

I would recommend this novella and author to 👍 readers of horror novels 👍🔰. 2023 😀👒👻🏡

[Amy Eye · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually I give this book three and a half stars, but the rating systems won't allow me to do that, so I am putting it in myself!!

This is a great collection of short stories for your middle school child. I think 3rd grade and above, any younger than that, and I think it may be a bit too much for them.

Some of the stories are true horror stories for younger children. They reminded me of my absolute favorites as a child. Some of them aren't scary at all, but make children think about the consequences of their actions.

Hobgoblin Horror had to be my favorite out of the bunch. It was great from beginning to end, and left you with a great tingly feeling when the story was over. The perfect little horror story for any child. Nothing graphic, nothing gory, but completely scary.

I would recommend this to any child who has an adventurous spirit and likes to get the chills from time to time. One of the better spooky story books for younger children that I have read in a while!

[Morgan Hampton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing.

I chose this rating because you can't stop reading it.One thing I like about this book is you are always on the edge of your seat.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Being startled may not always be a good thing, but getting startled occasionally in the right scenario, such as watching a horror film, can be some entertaining fun; within Monster Mashup: Spooky Short Stories by M.J. Ware, some frightening classic premises are presented for younger readers to experience.

To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.

Collecting together twelve short stories that explore the supernatural, eerie, or just plain spooky, these pages offer some rather brief and reasonably entertaining tales. Ranging from more traditional Halloween or scare-inducing narratives with monsters, such as hobgoblins, leprechauns, and zombies, and haunted houses or objects, like mirrors, suits, and coffins, to an adventure as a stowaway in space to tales that incorporate lore or superstitions, the stories provide a decent amount of variety while maintaining a fairly cohesive atmosphere of creepiness. The brevity of the stories leave them open for imaginative minds to fill in details for the numerous blanks that remain, particularly with more open endings; while there is an accessibility to the more simplistic writing style, there were many grammatical errors that drew my attention out of the stories. Within these short stories are lessons of morality and consequences to actions to help educate a juvenile audience in broader life lessons, as well as remind older readers of versions of these premises they may be familiar with while the tales collected here are more suited toward younger readers, both in the limited graphic portrayal of events and the vocabulary used.

[Cynthia Gutzwiller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is Classic Archie since I was a kid. This is the Summer Splash comic book. It has always been fun to read Archie.
Archie and the gang are going to the beach to play in the sun and rehearse for the Zowie Palooza Tour. Cheryl enjoys her private Pembrooke beach until the oil spill and she had to go to the public beach. She decides to make her own band, Blossom. Are they any good? What mischief does Cheryl cause to the Archies?
This is a free comic book on A!axon for one and all.

[Andrea · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unoriginal and full of errors.

The author appears to have slapped this down on the page and hit submit without checking his work. The spelling and grammatical errors abound in this book. Don't read if you want something that's not totally lame or if spelling and grammar errors bother you.

[Kay Oliver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fantastic, spooky collection from Ware. The nostalgia that these juvinile horror tales bring is abundant. If you have a child or at one point in your life enjoyed the Goosebumps series, I highly recommend this.

[Karen high Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Think of all the scary stories we told when we were kids. I don't know if I will allow my 9yr old daughter to read it, for the very reason I don't want her to try some of these stories because I don't want her to have to sleep in my bed. I was written in a young kids level.

[Thelma Coots · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love

This is one of my favorite authors for teens. These stories are interesting enough to keep them reading. When ever they need a little spooky.

[Jaime Andrews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun

Creative takes on most of the stories tho one or two were pointless. Enjoyed the last one enough I downloaded the full novel!

[Luime · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cute book just to many grammar errors

[Robert Norok · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cool collection of more or less scary stories. They range from whimsical to chilling.

[Nas Dean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Monster Mashup - Spooky Short Story Omnibus - with Bonus Zombie Short

MONSTER MASHUP is a collection of very short stories not really for kids as I also enjoyed reading it!

There are nine mini stories, and one story. a Zombie short, which seems to be a teaser for an upcoming book by this author.

All the stories are well-written and enjoyable. And there is a definite horror aspect to the tales. All in all, the stories are nicely written short horror stories that will provide much entertainment for teens/young adults or adults, who enjoy spooky stories.

The only downside I would say is that the stories are really short and ended very fast. I wanted to know more at the end of each story.

The author did a very good job of spooky tales and I recommend it to all horror story lovers!

[Tracey James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting

I liked the stories because they were short and snappy and they were intense so you always want to know what's happening

[Nitrotitan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spooked me out so much, left me on the brink of spookiness. 😖😖😖😖😖😖