Monster Blood
| File:Goosebumps -3 monster blood.jpg | |
| Author | R. L. Stine |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Tim Jacobus |
| Language | English |
| Series | Goosebumps |
| Genre | Horror fiction Children's literature |
| Publisher | Scholastic, Inc. |
Publication date | September 1992 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 128 |
| ISBN | 0-590-45367-X |
| OCLC | 26597229 |
| LC Class | CPB Box no. 2023 vol. 5 |
| Preceded by | Stay Out Of The Basement |
| Followed by | Say Cheese and Die! |
Monster Blood is the third book in R. L. Stine's Goosebumps series.
Plot
 | This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (April 2010) |
The book opens with 12 year old Evan Ross being dropped off at his aunt Kathryn's house for a few weeks while his parents visit Atlanta. Kathryn is an eighty-year old deaf but robust woman who never learned to read lips or use sign language. Evan has brought his cocker spaniel Trigger with him for company. Evan takes Trigger for a walk around the neighborhood and meets a girl his age named Andrea, but he refuses to call her just Andy.
Evan readily accepts Andy's invitation to accompany her into town. In town, Andy reveals that she has to buy a gift for her cousin's birthday, so the two go shopping. In a novelty store, the kids find a metal can labeled "MONSTER BLOOD." The shopkeeper tries to stop the purchase and warns them not to return the item.
Back at Kathryn's house, the kids uncap the tin and discover a strange substance. It bounces, glows green in the dark, and is cool to the touch. The go outside, roll the Monster Blood up into a ball and bounce it back and forth. Trigger eats some of it.
The next morning, Trigger isn't feeling well so Evan takes a walk by himself. The neighborhood bully twins appear and pester Andy, who falls down and scrapes her leg. She runs home to clean the wound. Back home, Evan finds Trigger choking on his collar in the backyard. The collar never seemed this tight before.
Andy and Evan discover the tin of Monster Blood is overflowing. The substance has become disturbingly warm. This is not enough to discourage the kids from playing with it. They are cleaning up afterward when they hear a strange howl. Evan and Andy find that Trigger has doubled in size. The dog escapes from the backyard.
Evan wakes up and realizes he has had a dream. Suddenly he sees that his bed is too small because he has grown to the size of a giant. This is also a dream, and he wakes up again. Evan and Andy take Trigger to the vet. The doc tells them the dog is just having a rare growth spurt and sends them on their way. Andy rushes off to her piano lesson. Left alone, Evan decides to buy himself an ice cream treat at the local market. He leaves Trigger tied up outside. When he returns with his ice cream sandwich,the twins try to take Trigger but, the dog gets angry and chases after the twins. Evan becomes terrified as he remembers how this happened in his dream. Evan worries that he might turn into a monster.
Back home, Evan calls Andy and asks if he can see her. At her house, he shows her his bucket full of Monster Blood. He begs her to take some of the stuff. She agrees to take a coffee can's worth. However, when she scoops the can into the bucket, the Blood scoops back. Andy freaks out as the Blood sucks the can right into the middle of the bucket. When Evan fishes his hands in to retrieve the can, he tells her he can feel the suction, like it's alive. As Evan is leaving Andy's house, the twins surprise him by beating him up. Andy helps Evan scoop the Monster Blood back into the overturned bucket, then they decide to return the Monster Blood to the toy store. Evan sneaks back home and realizes he needs to find a new container for the ever-growing Monster Blood. He empties the bucket into an old bathtub in the garage. Suddenly Sarabeth the cat pounces on him and he falls onto the tub of Monster Blood. Evan narrowly escapes getting sucked into it.
The next morning at breakfast, Evan decides he has to tell someone else about the Monster Blood. He writes Kathryn a brief note on a legal pad and she just laughs at his imagination. Evan calls Andy and the two drag several lawn bags worth of breathing Monster Blood to the toy store, which apparently has closed forever. The two lug the sacks back to Kathryn's house and empty them into a garbage can. As soon as they clamp shut the lid, Kathryn runs out of the house waving a yellow sheet of paper. It is a telegram from Evan's mother saying that she'll be picking him up that day.
Evan is so excited that he runs to tell his dog the good news. When Evan opens the gate, he sees that Trigger has doubled in size. The beast leaps out of the backyard into the street. Evan runs after him but trips and knocks the trash can over. The mass of Monster Blood spills out and tries to swallow him. Evan and Andy run down the street as the large rolling ball of Monster Blood moves quickly after them. They run into the twins, who are swallowed up by the Monster Blood. The kids stop to stare at the still outlines of the twins' bodies inside the giant heap of goop. The kids split up so that at least one of them may escape, but Kathryn sticks her head out of the house, causing the Monster Blood to chase after her.
The kids run into the house to save Kathryn. They spy her trapped in a corner, the huge round blob of Monster Blood about to engulf her. She cries out that she's responsible for the Monster Blood and she'll have to pay with her life. Evan accuses his great-aunt of trying to kill him by casting a spell on the Monster Blood. Kathryn insists it wasn't her who cast the spell. She points towards Sarabeth the cat (after Evan mistakes she is points towards to Andy) and cries out, "It was her." Sarabeth turns into a beautiful young woman wearing a cape. Kathryn explains that twenty years ago, Sarabeth cast a spell on her that made her a slave. She also made her deaf and refused to let her learn sign language or lip-read so she could control her better. Sarabeth didn't allow Kathryn to have visitors, and so when Evan showed up, Sarabeth insisted she cast a spell on the Monster Blood to get rid of him. Kathryn tells Sarabeth that she's going to end the spell by letting the Monster Blood swallow her, thus ending Sarabeth's hold on her. Sarabeth tells her that she's still going to kill the kids. Trigger knocks Sarabeth into the Blood, which engulfs her. Trigger shrinks back to normal. The twins escape. Andy and Evan say their goodbyes to Kathryn then look around for the Monster Blood. All traces of it have vanished.
Properties of Monster Blood
This book marks the introduction of the substance, Monster Blood. It is green in color and slowly expands to a great size when released from its airtight container for the first time. The explanation in the book is of SaraBeth, the cat that transforms into a young girl, forces Kathryn to cast a spell on the can to make the Monster Blood grow, although magic has been implied to be the reason (at least in the TV adaptation). The Monster Blood is also portrayed as a living evil entity, capable of attacking people if they are close enough, similar to the Blob (Evan is almost drowned in the bathtub containing Monster Blood). In addition to its growth properties, any biological creature that consumes Monster Blood will slowly grow to a monstrous size, the main plot point for the following books Monster Blood II, III and lastly Monster Blood IV. Monster Blood is also known to be sold and kept in a plastic egg, just like silly putty. This is known from the third book in the Goosebumps Horrorland series, Monster Blood for Breakfast!. There are three kinds of Monster Blood: One that is only a twenty-four-hour sample of Monster Blood, blue monster blood, and the other is long lasting Monster Blood. Monster Blood is also used and mentioned in the Give Yourself Goosebumps series in the book Escape from the Carnival of Horrors. In the beginning of the Goosebumps 2000 Series book Return to HorrorLand, the protagonist is watching a paranormal TV show featuring Evan talking about the events of Monster Blood.
The Collector's Edition
Since the release of Monster Blood For Breakfast, Scholastic made a remake of the original Monster Blood novel. The book has a slightly different cover where it is raised into a bumpy, dumpy, lumpy, and frumpy texture. The book also has "Behind The Screams" in the back, bonus features (called bonus "Creatures"), and an interview with R.L. Stine.
The Monster Blood cover was used for the DVD cover of Chillogy.
