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Bone Chillers #23
Romeo and Ghouliette
Lexi knows there's something weird about Julie, the new girl at Edgar Allen Poe High School. Julie was practically drooling over a worm in biology lab. Then Lexi swears she saw Julie snatch a fly out of the air in homeroom -- and eat it! Now Julie is after Lexi's best friend, Fitz. And Fitz is totally falling for her. He loves everything about Julie -- especially the cookies and candies she brings him. Lexi suspects Julie is fattening Fitz up for a feast -- and that "he's" going to be the main course.
160 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 1, 1998
1 person is currently reading
52 people want to read
About the author
Betsy Haynes
123 books111 followersABOUT ME
Maybe it's because my feisty grandma chased tarantulas around with a broom when we lived on an oil lease property when I was a baby that made me love danger and adventure. And maybe it was my father's spending nights as a trombonist with the bands of his day and his days spent drawing sketches that sparked my artistic side. Do you suppose that because my mother stood only four feet ten inches tall that I feel like a giant at five feet? And I'm sure my FBI (Full Blooded Italian) step-father, his seven brothers and sisters and their families are responsible for my LOVE of Italian food. That's who I am. Who are you?
My First Book, Peppy The Frog That I Wrote In The 2nd Grade
I'll always be a child at heart. Whenever I close my eyes, wonderful, funny, awful, embarrassing memories of middle school/junior high come flooding back to fill the pages of my contemporary novels. My childhood friendships and rivalries with old enemies all find their way into my books. I've even spied on my own kids for story ideas.
Unlike most kids who can't wait to grow up, I've gotten younger--at least my stories have. I've stepped into the world of 7 to 10 year olds.
I and my husband, Jim, live in Texas on Lake Lewisville north of Dallas. We are owned by our greyhound, Miller. Our favorite things to do are traveling the world and boating.
Maybe it's because my feisty grandma chased tarantulas around with a broom when we lived on an oil lease property when I was a baby that made me love danger and adventure. And maybe it was my father's spending nights as a trombonist with the bands of his day and his days spent drawing sketches that sparked my artistic side. Do you suppose that because my mother stood only four feet ten inches tall that I feel like a giant at five feet? And I'm sure my FBI (Full Blooded Italian) step-father, his seven brothers and sisters and their families are responsible for my LOVE of Italian food. That's who I am. Who are you?
My First Book, Peppy The Frog That I Wrote In The 2nd Grade
I'll always be a child at heart. Whenever I close my eyes, wonderful, funny, awful, embarrassing memories of middle school/junior high come flooding back to fill the pages of my contemporary novels. My childhood friendships and rivalries with old enemies all find their way into my books. I've even spied on my own kids for story ideas.
Unlike most kids who can't wait to grow up, I've gotten younger--at least my stories have. I've stepped into the world of 7 to 10 year olds.
I and my husband, Jim, live in Texas on Lake Lewisville north of Dallas. We are owned by our greyhound, Miller. Our favorite things to do are traveling the world and boating.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 22, 2022
We end our ripoff round with a pretty interesting one I've been dying to look at. Bone Chillers had a short lived TV show that ditched the anthology aspect and gave it a central cast and setting. A few stories were from the books but most were home grown. According to the creator Adam Rifkin, Betsy was cool with this to the point where she did these PSA things at the end of each episode. She and the publisher's must have really liked it, or wanted to promte as the final entry in the book series, minus the whole Sandy Claws thing, was based on an episode.
Yep, this is adapted from 7th aired episode of the show, it even says based on the script by _ at the stat. I wonder why this was done, as the series ended in December 1996 and this was April 1998. They don't even advertise the show like in early books. I assume they were just looking for ideas and borrowed from the show.
I've seen the episode and I'll compare but first, how it fares on its own. Our ghostwriter is Ryan Chipman, who is nobody. I found nothing on them, they may not even exist for all I know. It could even be a typo but I doubt it. If you know more, please tell me, I gotta know. Granted they had less of a job this time.
There's a new girl named Julie Tchort at Edgar Allan Poe school and Sarah Moss is suspicious. She's a cool foreign student who everyone wants, especially her friend Fitz Crump. They get pretty chummy. Sarah notices Julie doing lovely things like eating flies and worms when no one is looking.
Something is up with her but Fitz is too horny to notice/care and of course her other friends Brian and Lexi think she's off her rocker. It's up to Sarah to get to the bottom of this. So on its own, this is pretty fun. The plot is nothing great but it's simple and flows well. It gets started soon and is paced decently as we see what is up.
The climax is pretty wild and drawn out, maybe a bit too much. At 147 pages there is mild padding here and there. Julie is a fun enough villain, alongside her parents, although more could have been done with them once we see their true forms. What they plan is kind of dark which is cool. The character interactions are charming, there's nothing deep but I like the banter. This has some funny lines.
Ending is abrupt but works well, still more of a wrapup than usual. It's one of the most fun ones in the series, I think. There are some odd kinks though.They establish Brian as a big horn dog, desperate for the attraction of the "opposite sex". You'd think either A., Julie goes after him, taking advantage of his desperation or B. They'd have Fitz be less of a ladies man and Brian be jealous, causing friction.
Neither, this is established only to never be important. This is setup isn't as clear in the episode so it was added/emphasized for no real reason. Sarah works as our POV character, but she is a bit bland and I have to touch on the episode now. In the show she's this sarcastic goth girl but here is not quite there. She contrasts with the upbeat Lexi but otherwise is more average and slightly emotional. Also a vegan, ew.
The episode is more about Lexi with Sarah not doing a ton on her own. I like this change but she feels lesser. Not a big deal but their dynamic is cute (I ship it) and I wish it was a bit stronger since they make a thing of it early on but it's not as big as we go on. Lexi's nature is charming, seeing the good in everyone and such, but she gets put into the disbelief stuff since there's no parents here.
This expands on the episode, adding a subplot about a school play of Romeo and juliet. It doesn't add a ton but I liked it.They trim a few bits in the latter half and add more build up since they have more space. More sleuthing on Julie and more details. It ends up being better for it, having more story to latch onto. A few things are lesser like Sarah and there's some bits lost in translation but they do a fine job making up for that.
It's a weird read if you're not as familiar with the show. The show's characters are named after the one's from Back to School they were are nothing like them. So them keeping the names here is odd it sticks to the show's setting and has no ties to that book. They introduce things well but it does feel like the 7th entry in a series about these guys and not the first time we meet them. Cuz it is, but putti9ng it in the book series loses a bit of context.
I wanna find someone who read this without knowing much of the show, beyond that it existed. It must feel a bit weirder. It's a cool experiment and while it's not perfectly done, they pull it off alright. It's hard to judge since I saw the episode and can't unsee it.
It's harder to judge among the other books due to all this added context. But as it stands, this is a pretty fun read. Not the most scary or action packed but the basic story works to give us charming interactions. The episode has those over the top antics that a book can't give us but the book is strong due to a stronger story focus.
It's odd but was fun to look at. I'd say read it before watching the episode though. Ryan Chipman may not exist but they adapted it well and added their own flavor. And whew, that's it for this.
See ya on Thursday as the saga goes on, with turkey vore. See ya then.
(Also, this is the 2nd one of these I've read that basically caters to inflation fetishists. That's...weird)
Yep, this is adapted from 7th aired episode of the show, it even says based on the script by _ at the stat. I wonder why this was done, as the series ended in December 1996 and this was April 1998. They don't even advertise the show like in early books. I assume they were just looking for ideas and borrowed from the show.
I've seen the episode and I'll compare but first, how it fares on its own. Our ghostwriter is Ryan Chipman, who is nobody. I found nothing on them, they may not even exist for all I know. It could even be a typo but I doubt it. If you know more, please tell me, I gotta know. Granted they had less of a job this time.
There's a new girl named Julie Tchort at Edgar Allan Poe school and Sarah Moss is suspicious. She's a cool foreign student who everyone wants, especially her friend Fitz Crump. They get pretty chummy. Sarah notices Julie doing lovely things like eating flies and worms when no one is looking.
Something is up with her but Fitz is too horny to notice/care and of course her other friends Brian and Lexi think she's off her rocker. It's up to Sarah to get to the bottom of this. So on its own, this is pretty fun. The plot is nothing great but it's simple and flows well. It gets started soon and is paced decently as we see what is up.
The climax is pretty wild and drawn out, maybe a bit too much. At 147 pages there is mild padding here and there. Julie is a fun enough villain, alongside her parents, although more could have been done with them once we see their true forms. What they plan is kind of dark which is cool. The character interactions are charming, there's nothing deep but I like the banter. This has some funny lines.
Ending is abrupt but works well, still more of a wrapup than usual. It's one of the most fun ones in the series, I think. There are some odd kinks though.They establish Brian as a big horn dog, desperate for the attraction of the "opposite sex". You'd think either A., Julie goes after him, taking advantage of his desperation or B. They'd have Fitz be less of a ladies man and Brian be jealous, causing friction.
Neither, this is established only to never be important. This is setup isn't as clear in the episode so it was added/emphasized for no real reason. Sarah works as our POV character, but she is a bit bland and I have to touch on the episode now. In the show she's this sarcastic goth girl but here is not quite there. She contrasts with the upbeat Lexi but otherwise is more average and slightly emotional. Also a vegan, ew.
The episode is more about Lexi with Sarah not doing a ton on her own. I like this change but she feels lesser. Not a big deal but their dynamic is cute (I ship it) and I wish it was a bit stronger since they make a thing of it early on but it's not as big as we go on. Lexi's nature is charming, seeing the good in everyone and such, but she gets put into the disbelief stuff since there's no parents here.
This expands on the episode, adding a subplot about a school play of Romeo and juliet. It doesn't add a ton but I liked it.They trim a few bits in the latter half and add more build up since they have more space. More sleuthing on Julie and more details. It ends up being better for it, having more story to latch onto. A few things are lesser like Sarah and there's some bits lost in translation but they do a fine job making up for that.
It's a weird read if you're not as familiar with the show. The show's characters are named after the one's from Back to School they were are nothing like them. So them keeping the names here is odd it sticks to the show's setting and has no ties to that book. They introduce things well but it does feel like the 7th entry in a series about these guys and not the first time we meet them. Cuz it is, but putti9ng it in the book series loses a bit of context.
I wanna find someone who read this without knowing much of the show, beyond that it existed. It must feel a bit weirder. It's a cool experiment and while it's not perfectly done, they pull it off alright. It's hard to judge since I saw the episode and can't unsee it.
It's harder to judge among the other books due to all this added context. But as it stands, this is a pretty fun read. Not the most scary or action packed but the basic story works to give us charming interactions. The episode has those over the top antics that a book can't give us but the book is strong due to a stronger story focus.
It's odd but was fun to look at. I'd say read it before watching the episode though. Ryan Chipman may not exist but they adapted it well and added their own flavor. And whew, that's it for this.
See ya on Thursday as the saga goes on, with turkey vore. See ya then.
(Also, this is the 2nd one of these I've read that basically caters to inflation fetishists. That's...weird)
October 30, 2025
The final book in the Bone Chillers series happens to be an adaptation of the episode of the same name. For those who haven't seen the show or the episode, I would imagine this book would feel incredibly awkward. As I was reading it I can't help but picture that show and its cast in my mind, and I think it serves well as a companion piece.
This book perfectly captures the series' vibe as a whole; its absurd and irreverent humor, likable characters and enduring charm. It does lack the scares and coherency of other, more well known kids horror series but Bone Chillers leaves its unique stamp on the field, and is worth checking out for fans of this genre.
Overall this particular book gets a 3 / 5 - Decent.
Far from one of the best but not bad at all.
This book perfectly captures the series' vibe as a whole; its absurd and irreverent humor, likable characters and enduring charm. It does lack the scares and coherency of other, more well known kids horror series but Bone Chillers leaves its unique stamp on the field, and is worth checking out for fans of this genre.
Overall this particular book gets a 3 / 5 - Decent.
Far from one of the best but not bad at all.
March 7, 2024
I just finished one of the more unique books in the Bone Chillers series.This is Romeo and Gholiette.This was a weird one because apparently it was written after the episode or something.And you can definitely tell.I've always liked the few episodes I watched when I was a kid.I had two of the VHS tapes and I always thought they were something.I had a lot of fun with this one mostly because of reasons not really related to the book.I'll explain in a bit The story starts off with Sarah and Lex two friends walking through the hallway of Edgar Allan Poe High school.They see this sight about a Romeo and Juliet play coming up and Sarah wants to play Juliet and she wants her best friend Fitz to play Romeo.But things change when a new girl shows up and all the guys absolutely love her shes georgous and even girls seem to think she's great.This girls name is Julie and she gets the part for Juliet in the play.But things get weird fast when Sarah sees Julie eat a fly.She tries telling her friends but they if course don't believe her.Later in science class they are dicecting a worm and sarah gets paired with Julie and there worm comes up missing.She goes to get answers from whats going on from the school janitor,Arnie.In the show,in order to reach Arnie I remember you have to go through the lockers and it's awesome.In here I think He's just in a basement.When she goes to talk to him she notices that he's upset turns out all of his pet mice are missing and of course Julie is to blame.Sarah agian tries to talk to her friends but it doesn't work.Fitz is getting fed snacks everyday from Julie and nobody seems to notice.I really thought Romeo And Gholiette was a pretty decent book.I did think it was weird in book form though.This felt like the tv show.It honestly felt more like the show then any of the previous books I read this far.I give Romeo And Gholiette a three out of five stars.And what I said about liking this book for other reasons is in the episodes the school,the background and all of that looks really good and has a decent mystery going for it.I was honestly hoping for more exploration.Plus we get spooky streets and stuff.I just thought all of that was very interesting.
May 9, 2025
Not that great. Cannibals from Eastern Europe. There’s a school play. The ending was kind of a cop out.
Read on archive.org
Read on archive.org
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews