Nightmare on Planet X

Deadtime Stories #11

by A.G. Cascone

When the plane Nicky and his family are flying starts to crash, Nicky is relieved to be rescued until he discovers he has been captured by aliens who want his brain to study

Genres: Middle Grade, Aliens, Horror

128 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1997

About the author

The team of Annette Cascone and Gina Cascone, sisters.

Reviews

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

This absolutely knocked it out of the park in every way I can conceive. To be up front: I didn’t know what to expect going into this, let alone I don’t know the typical quality for this series since I’ve only checked out a single book. This won’t inflate my hopes for this series… but holy crap this was amazing—and trust me, I need to discuss spoilers. As an alien/science fiction freak, I adored all the neat alien details. Now with the unbelievable amount of reworking the ending brings, things aren’t exactly as they seem. However, I got the full effect and didn’t expect the twist, as intended, and I still adored all of the cool things thrown in (of which initially seem to be cool world building) that didn’t really disrupt the story—let alone, they make for an awesome reread/second glance after the twist. The characters have are very well done and I was constantly optimistic about Rachael’s moral compass, which thankfully was good intentioned. Zoe—a typical annoying younger sibling—has a genuine role in the story, acting as a defense mechanism against the aliens, which was way cool. The writing was quite exceptional and there’s vivid yet VERY PECULIARLY LAYED OUT descriptions… which you don’t realize until the best execution of a reversal twist of all fucking time comes into play. Yeah, the final chapter completely blew my mind. I thought I knew every trick a kids horror book could pull, it played a twist that was, whilst done before and infamously in a way later OG62 Goosebumps later, completely and utterly shocking. I’m not kidding when I say this book was very careful when describing things and laying out scene settings & objects that when it was revealed that we were on EARTH—AKA (according to our main character and his species, the true aliens) PLANET FUCKING X. If you’ve ever seen the Twilight Zone episode called To Serve Man, then imagine the huge twist but for just about every damn thing in this book. A huge worm? It was a snake. Weird fuzzy trees? Cacti. Tar-colored ground? Road. It’s an absolute mind-blower—and oh, we’re not done. The main characters are the aliens (no duh) but even the freaking COVER ART hints at the twist—because the twist is that that’s WHAT THEY LOOK LIKE. I can’t even believe I didn’t see a kids horror twist coming, for once… but yeah, amazing work. And I think I made my thoughts clear. Overall, 10/10. One of the best kids horror alien books I’ve ever read and it was straight up my alley. I’m gonna go eat alien guts and alien shit (translation: bacon and nougat).

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I generally don't have to say for this one. It has a kid named Nicky and his family being kidnapped by aliens while on their way to Nicky's grandmothers house. The nice of the main alien villain, Rachael, turns out to be not so bad and Nicky, along with his sister Zoe, team up with her to rescue Nicky's parents who were taken elsewhere on this alien Planet. For the most part, this is a fun sci fi adventure.

It starts out pretty quickly but it doesn't feel too rushed for the most part and is nice and brief, so it doesn't outstay it's welcome. It also doesn't get too repetitive and there's a solid amount of alien fighting action. It's mixed in with some humor, like in one part where they have to sneak into an alien dinner. Some of the humor fails, like how Zoe is fairly annoying with her whining. Although I do like that Nicky is protective of her in spite of how he usually views her.

Rachael was also a solidly likable character. Nicky has his dumb moments though and little bits that show this did drag it down at points. Still, it stays enjoyable but the ending is pretty wonky. There's a sort of twist regarding Nicky that I like the idea but it's not fleshed out at all, so I was fairly confused.

The note it ends on is rather abrupt and cruel with the magnitude of it. I get what it's going for, but it was just an odd note to end. So while it has some bumps like this, it's still mostly a fun adventure. Nothing too unique for this kind of story (Spooksville's Aliens in the Sky has a similar setup but does more with it. Amusingly, there is a Sally in this book) but mostly fine.

I'd say it's better than Tiny Town but lesser than Appleheads.

[House of Goosebumps · Rating 4 out of 5]

8.5/10

Although I had heard good things about this book prior to reading, I still was not expecting much, but I was extremely surprised. This was such a fun and interesting book.

[Kaila · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very predictable and decent. Not too scary for kids which is nice. The story was cute but about confusing at times overall I liked it