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Michigan Chillers #14
Bionic Bats of Bay City
On a dark night in Bay City, MI friends gather to play an innocent game of hide-and-seek. However, just as they begin to play, one of them sees a bat......
- GenresHorror
208 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2007
About the author
Johnathan Rand
119 books309 followersChristopher Wright is the author of dozens of horror fiction books for children and young adults. He writes under the pseudonyms Johnathan Rand and Christopher Knight. Almost all of Wright's books (save American Chillers) take place in his home state of Michigan.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 13, 2018
What could be as bad as aliens trying to conquer Alpena, dinosaurs running loose in Detroit, or gigantic spiders infesting Saginaw? Perhaps bats of alarming size descending on Bay City, another Michigan burg about to be besieged by forces bordering on the supernatural. Twelve-year-old Jamie Butcher and his sister Tori, a year younger, are looking forward to a neighborhood game of hide-and-seek on the evening the trouble starts. Hide-and-seek is fun for the local kids to play in such a large area, but Jamie grows uneasy at claims that a few Bay City residents have reported seeing unnaturally large bats downtown. Jamie's friend Alec Germain knows a lot about bats and assures him the flying mammals are never big enough to threaten humans, but his other friend, Meredith Gaylor, insists she saw a monster bat earlier. The hide-and-seek game proceeds as planned, but is trouble dead ahead for Bay City's preteens?
Jamie decides the bats are just a crazy rumor, until he encounters one on the porch of a house he's hiding on. The furry beast is almost Jamie's size, and bares its razor-sharp teeth as it flies right at him. Screaming, Jamie escapes to the street and stammers out an explanation to the other kids, but only Tori, Alec, Meredith, and a friend named Bobby Reese believe him. They're ready to go home after the others split off to resume hide-and-seek...until a swarm of human-sized bats chases Jamie and his four friends down the street where they take refuge in the dugout of a youth baseball field. By stacking a few loose benches on the lip of the dugout they can keep the screeching bats at bay for now, but how long before they break through the barrier?
Making a run for home isn't likely to work, but Bobby has an idea: a two-story announcer's booth is adjacent to the baseball field, and he knows where the key to it is hidden. Can the five kids leap from the dugout, snatch the key, and escape into the announcer's building before the bats prey on them? It's a harrowing maneuver, but Jamie, Tori, Alec, Meredith, and Bobby make it inside before the bats spill their blood. Huge wings can be heard beating outside as the bats hunt for a way into the building. There's no telephone, so the kids can only wait and hope the authorities find them. Police car sirens pierce the evening darkness constantly, so the bats must have been reported, but the vehicles aren't coming close enough for Jamie and his friends to get their attention. Can they safely evacuate before this turns into a night of tragedy, or are the bats mere moments from crashing their way into the announcer's booth to feast on a quintet of victims?
"Sometimes, when you think the worst and nothing bad happens, you wonder why you ever thought it in the first place."
—Bionic Bats of Bay City, PP. 121-122
Not only is Bionic Bats of Bay City one of the more professionally edited Michigan Chillers, it has more action and atmosphere than most books in the series. Holed up in the announcer's building with bloodthirsty bats outside, we imagine every sound is a bat breaking in. The adventure has more immediacy than most of Johnathan Rand's Chillers. As the author often does, an indirect reference to another of his books—this time Kreepy Klowns of Kalamazoo—is included on page seventy-six. A few plot uncertainties give me some pause about rating Bionic Bats of Bay City the full two stars, but it's a fun story. If you've liked the series so far, make a point of reading this book.
Jamie decides the bats are just a crazy rumor, until he encounters one on the porch of a house he's hiding on. The furry beast is almost Jamie's size, and bares its razor-sharp teeth as it flies right at him. Screaming, Jamie escapes to the street and stammers out an explanation to the other kids, but only Tori, Alec, Meredith, and a friend named Bobby Reese believe him. They're ready to go home after the others split off to resume hide-and-seek...until a swarm of human-sized bats chases Jamie and his four friends down the street where they take refuge in the dugout of a youth baseball field. By stacking a few loose benches on the lip of the dugout they can keep the screeching bats at bay for now, but how long before they break through the barrier?
Making a run for home isn't likely to work, but Bobby has an idea: a two-story announcer's booth is adjacent to the baseball field, and he knows where the key to it is hidden. Can the five kids leap from the dugout, snatch the key, and escape into the announcer's building before the bats prey on them? It's a harrowing maneuver, but Jamie, Tori, Alec, Meredith, and Bobby make it inside before the bats spill their blood. Huge wings can be heard beating outside as the bats hunt for a way into the building. There's no telephone, so the kids can only wait and hope the authorities find them. Police car sirens pierce the evening darkness constantly, so the bats must have been reported, but the vehicles aren't coming close enough for Jamie and his friends to get their attention. Can they safely evacuate before this turns into a night of tragedy, or are the bats mere moments from crashing their way into the announcer's booth to feast on a quintet of victims?
"Sometimes, when you think the worst and nothing bad happens, you wonder why you ever thought it in the first place."
—Bionic Bats of Bay City, PP. 121-122
Not only is Bionic Bats of Bay City one of the more professionally edited Michigan Chillers, it has more action and atmosphere than most books in the series. Holed up in the announcer's building with bloodthirsty bats outside, we imagine every sound is a bat breaking in. The adventure has more immediacy than most of Johnathan Rand's Chillers. As the author often does, an indirect reference to another of his books—this time Kreepy Klowns of Kalamazoo—is included on page seventy-six. A few plot uncertainties give me some pause about rating Bionic Bats of Bay City the full two stars, but it's a fun story. If you've liked the series so far, make a point of reading this book.
June 27, 2026
I REALLY wanted this to be a COVID prequel but instead we got Monster Mosquitoes of Maine, the Second. If you know how I feel on that ‘Chiller, don’t fret—comparing them is night and day… not that this one is great either. Some lukewarm positives I have here is the meat of the story being decently intense, some light character work between the main and his sister, and a city-wide epidemic instead of something confined like usual which allowed for some new air in this series. But besides that, the threat is mediocre and the explanation is impressively bland, especially in its delivery which undermines the horror, if any, with nothing serious coming of the bionic bat bullshit alongside it. Bad ending to put it straight, excluding the postlude we have every book which I’m likely forever indifferent on. The intro sucks, there’s some stupid scares sprinkled throughout, and the book is plainly just a waste of time. 4.5/10. I do not hate it, but I genuinely do not care at all for this trite slop. Ozzy Osbourne joke.
Read
September 16, 2021Being one of the longer Chillers books, Bionic Bats of Bay City is long (but it used to be shorter). Let me explain.
I decided to sit down in the living room with a cup of pudding while I read.
I looked down at my brown pudding and said to my sister, "You know what this reminds me of?"
"Don't say it," she replied.
"It looks like poop!" I said. "It looks like I'm eating shit!" Suddenly, I heard the book's stomach ache. I decided to feed it a spoonful of my pudding and it was getting fatter.
It is now one of the longer American Chillers books, but until it shits out that pudding I fed it, it will continue to be that way.
I decided to sit down in the living room with a cup of pudding while I read.
I looked down at my brown pudding and said to my sister, "You know what this reminds me of?"
"Don't say it," she replied.
"It looks like poop!" I said. "It looks like I'm eating shit!" Suddenly, I heard the book's stomach ache. I decided to feed it a spoonful of my pudding and it was getting fatter.
It is now one of the longer American Chillers books, but until it shits out that pudding I fed it, it will continue to be that way.
June 28, 2025
This read very young, even for a middle grade. It had random details that contributed nothing and repeated facts sentences apart. I was also a little disappointed because I thought it would have more Easter eggs for those that know bay city and the only thing that was mentioned was the sugar beet factories and the location.
Definitely just a buy because of the Michigan rep.
Definitely just a buy because of the Michigan rep.
December 13, 2018
it was cool it got interesting at the end
January 11, 2023
Michigan Chillers are an adorable middle grade read! Great for kids who are starting to get more into chapter books!
January 1, 2011
A good book, it reminds me a lot of the goosebumps books. If you go in knowing the age group they're written for they're not bad for a 1 or 2 hour read, as a 28 yr old that's how long it took for me to get through the entire book.
It was also nice to read a book NOT set in New York or California.
It was also nice to read a book NOT set in New York or California.
January 13, 2013
This book was about how a farmer was trying to get his plants to be huge! But the stuff that he put on them was plant grow that only bats could smell so when the bats ate this it turned them into bionic bats and they could pick up at least 100 pounds
January 15, 2016
Chilling and captivating. The solution was kind of lame. It was a good reason but it didn't seem very chilling for the rest of the story. Creative though.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews