The Goosebumps book where some kids try to scare a girl. Oh, and there's some mud monsters in there somewhere.
Eddie is constantly being embarrassed by Courtney. She claims to never be afraid of anything and he finds himself looking like a scaredy cat whenever she's around. So one day, he and his friends decide she needs to be knocked down a peg. They cook up various schemes to try to scare her, but each one fails. Perhaps the local legend about some Mud Monsters can help?
It was adapted into the 7th episode of the second season of the 1995 TV series, with a novelization based on the episode being released as book 14 of the Goosebumps Presents series.
It was reissued in the Classic Goosebumps line in 2010 as a companion release to The Wizard of Ooze.
This book provides examples of
- All There in the Manual: The collector's cap book goes into more detail on the Mud Monsters, including a story about someone else who bumped into them once.
- Always Someone Better: Eddie's resentment towards Courtney is implied to be some form of envy due to how much braver she is than him.
- Bee-Bee Gun: During the field trip, Courtney throws two bees at Eddie.
- Beta Bitch: Denise, Courtney's best friend. More like a "Lovable Beta Bitch", as she and Courtney aren't truly malicious.
- Beware of Vicious Dog: Subverted. In one of their attempts to scare Courtney, Eddie and his friends plan on siccing a ferocious dog of theirs named Buttercup, who is usually harmless, but can go ballistic at the sound of whistling. But on the way towards Courtney, they end up losing him in the woods. And while looking for him, Eddie comes across an even scarier dog, and it almost attacks Eddie if Hat hadn't chased it away with a stick. By the time they locate Courtney, she managed to tame both dogs and looked proud of it, much to their frustration.
- Big Brother Bully: Kevin isn't quite as bad as some others in the series but he still certainly is one, with how he looks down on Eddie and makes fun of him.
- Blatant Lies: Eddie constantly does this. When he is scared of something, he denies it immediately afterwards.
- Also, Hat asks Eddie why the forest that they're going to is called Greene Forest. When Eddie tells him, Hat replies that he knew that. Eddie knows he's lying.
- Cat Up a Tree: Eddie's neighbor, Mrs. Rudolph, comes to him one day after school to ask him to rescue her cat who is stuck up a tree. Eddie doesn't want to do that because he is afraid of heights, much to her frustration. But Courtney comes along to save the cat herself. Mrs. Rudolph thanks her and calls her brave, then she scolds Eddie for not being brave himself, much to his humiliation.
- Confronting Your Imposter: At one point, the main characters call their classmate Courtney to get her into the woods, at the tree house. Molly calls claiming to be Denise. Courtney's response:"That's weird. How can you be Denise when Denise is standing here right next to me?"
- Covers Always Lie: Debatable in this case. The cover depicts the Mud Monsters as being monsters made out of mud while in the book they are closer to human zombies, just covered in mud (although they might be covered in so much mud, that they don't appear human-like at all).
- Dogs Hate Squirrels: As Eddie and his friends bring Buttercup along the woods to scare Courtney, a squirrel comes running by. This makes the dog go running after it, and the kids to try to find him.
- Fake Rabies: As part of a scheme to scare Courtney and Denise using Buttercup, Eddie tries to spray shaving cream around the dog's mouth to give him this effect. But the dog runs off before he can apply it to his face.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: Even though this story does have and mention monsters (the mud monsters said to be the corpses of the town's original settlers who died in a mudslide), most of the focus of the story is on four friends playing scary pranks on a girl named Courtney, who claims that she's not scared of anything, to prove her wrong — with comic results.
- Imagine Spot: Eddie has two that involve scaring Courtney.
- In the first one, Courtney is scared by the rubber snake that appeared in her lunch bag. But Eddie simply picks it up and tells her that it's only rubber.
- In the second one, Courtney is terrified of Buttercup charging at her. But Eddie then tells the dog to leave her alone, and assures Courtney he's harmless.
- Let Me Get This Straight...: Kevin says this when Eddie and his friends come to him to ask if he and his friends can dress up as Mud Monsters to scare a girl. This causes the kids to clarify that they are not wanting to scare any girl, they want to scare Courtney.
- Meaningful Name: Greene Forest is called that name because a man with the name Greene owned it, and gave the land to the city when he died.
- No Full Name Given: This is the only book in the franchise where not a single main character is given a last name.
- Pet the Dog: In the TV episode, when Mr. Melvin opens the pranked lunch bag meant for Courtney, not only does he scream at the sight of the rubber snake, but nearly hyperventilates. Courtney takes it upon herself to calm him down, assure him the snake isn't real, and when he admits he has a severe phobia of snakes, gets it away from him.
- Please Keep Your Hat On: Hat (real name: Herbie) keeps his baseball cap on at all times. When finally exposed, his hair is plastered to his head to the point where it looks like wood, much to everyone's disgust. His following comment implies that he never washes it either, which explains a lot about its condition.
- Reverse Psychology: In their final attempt to scare Courtney, which involves Mud Monsters, Molly calls Courtney to tell her to come to the woods at night to see them, as it's a full moon out and Courtney said in school that she believed in Mud Monsters. Courtney is initially suspicious over the phone and tells her that she wouldn't go. But then Molly told her that if she's scared to do it, she shouldn't come. This does the trick, and an angry Courtney changes her mind and says that she will be there.
- Screams Like a Little Girl: When Mr. Melvin, the homeroom teacher, loses his lunch, Courtney offers him her lunch, saying that her mother always packs extra. The lunch bag of hers, by the way, contained the realistic-looking rubber snake that Eddie and his friends put in there to try to scare Courtney. Mr. Melvin opens the bag, pulls the snake out, and let out a high-pitched scream. Later on, Charlene remarks that he had a really funny scream.
- Sham Supernatural: The main character convinces his older brother and his friends to dress up as the Mud Monsters, a local Urban Legend in their town, in order to scare his classmate Courtney.
- Tragic Monster: The Mud Monsters were originally poor settlers forced to live in huts alongside Muddy Creek because the richer citizens of the nearby village wanted nothing to do with them. On the night of a violent storm, the creek was flooded, washed the village away, and the settlers drowned to death.
- What's In It For Me?: When pleading to Kevin for him and his friends to dress up as mud monsters to scare Courtney, Eddie is then asked by him with this phrase. Eddie offers to be his servant for a week, to do every single one of his chores at the time. An intrigued Kevin counters that he wants that time involved to be a MONTH. At first Eddie is taken aback, but eventually agrees, as that would be worth it to scare Courtney.
