History Literature / WickedPaulJennings

A widower with a teenage daughter and a widow with a teenage son are getting married. Much to the distaste of their children, who hate each other and find constant reasons to argue. The fixation that Rory, the boy, has on an "appleman" -- a doll with a head made from a dried out apple -- that is the only thing he has left of his DisappearedDad is an excellent excuse for Dawn (the girl). And then worms emerge from the apple... worms with ''tongues''. That ''suck the guts out of other living creatures''. And then things get really eerie...

* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: How Dawn sees Rory. Not without reason though as he took her precious Milo tin to use as a container for the worm infested Appleman doll.

* StockFootage: The animated series would recycle animation a ''lot'', possibly to save on time and money. It's especially noticeable whenever The Appleman falls into a pile of thorns in an episode and they end up using the same "Appleman pulls thorns out of his face" scene for that episode's ending.

An Australian horror novel series for kids from 1997, coauthored by Creator/PaulJennings and Creator/MorrisGleitzman. The same authors would later go on to write ''Literature/{{Deadly}}'', a similarly-themed series about a family of evil scientists discovering the formula of eternal youth.

An Australian horror novel series for kids from 1997, coauthored by Creator/PaulJennings and Creator/MorrisGleitzman. The same authors would later go on to write ''Deadly!'', a similarly-themed series about a family of evil scientists discovering the formula of eternal youth.

* CoversAlwaysLie: The cover for Part 1 has a colossal demonic-looking face looking down on a cluster of skyscrapers and laughing. No part of the actual story alludes to any of this.

An Australian horror literary series for kids from the mid-1990s, coauthored by Creator/PaulJennings and Creator/MorrisGleitzman. The same authors would later go on to write ''Deadly!'', a similarly-themed series about evil scientists discovering the formula of eternal youth.

** The effects the Virus has on human beings. They grow increasingly ''covered'' in thick white mold, which starts eating away at their ''flesh''. In the animated series, it actually promotes the appleman from "ArtifactOfDoom" to "BigBad" by changing [[spoiler: Rory's dad]] so he's driven insane and develops a head exactly like a half-eaten apple.

* CharacterNarrator: The narration switches from Dawn's to Rory's point of view and viceversa between chapters.

* DisappearedDad: Rory's dad. [[spoiler: It turns out he didn't abandon his family, but left when he realised he was being consumed by the Virus, as he didn't want to infect them.]]

* MentalTimeTravel: When Rory gets infected by the virus, he always [[spoiler: time-travel back to the day of the bus-accident.]]
* MonsterOfTheWeek: The various mutant monsters created by the Appleman's virus in the cartoon.

* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler: Turns out the cartoon version of the Appleman is actually Rory's father.]]

Received an animated adaptation in the early 2000s.

An Australian literary series from the mid-1990s, coauthored by Creator/PaulJennings and Creator/MorrisGleitzman. The same authors would later go on to write ''Deadly!'', a similarly-themed series about evil scientists discovering the formula of eternal youth.

* BlendedFamilyDrama: Dawn and Rory aren't keen on their single parents marrying each other as the two kids hate each other's guts. They grow out of it while working together against the threat of the virus.

An Australian literary series from the mid-1990s, coauthored by Creator/PaulJennings and Creator/MorrisGleitzman. The same authors would later go on to write ''Deadly!'', a similarly-themed series about eternal youth.

[[spoiler: In the cartoon, the virus turns Rory's dad into the BigBad Appleman.]]

!!
Tropes:

* MentalTimeTravel: When Rory gets infected by the virus, he always [[spoiler: time-travel back to the day of the bus-accident.]]

* AttackOfThe50ftWhatever: Frogs infected by the Virus eventually sacrifice themselves to one of their own, to turn him into a monster large enough to swallow ''humans'' whole.

** Subsequent covers also had a habit of depicting events that happened in the ''previous'' book. i.e. Book 3 has one of the killer sheep on the cover when they were only a threat in Book 2 and Book 4 had the giant frog on the front cover when it had died in Book 3. By Book 5 this habit has been kicked.

* EverythingTryingToKillYou: Any animal infected by the Virus becomes a homicidal monster. Worms turn into Slobberers, multi-tongued pack hunting predators that suck the internal organs of their victims out through holes they bite in the skin. Sheep have their wool turn into ''steel wool'' and become smart enough to use tractors. Frogs willingly feed themselves to the biggest frog so he can grow into a man-eating giant. A dried-up appleman becomes the source of a monstrous vine-like weed. You get the point.

An Australian literary series from the mid-1990s, coauthored by Creator/PaulJennings and Creator/MorrisGleitzman. The same authors would later go on to write Deadly!, a similarly themed series.

* HatePlague: What the Virus is, in a rather zigzagging way; it drives those who are infected with it to feel hatred, and grows stronger by feeding off of their hate and rage, which allows it to mutate its victims as they become more [[RunningGag and more]] hate-filled.

* AttackOfThe50ftWhatever: Frogs infected by the Virus eventually sacrifice themselves to one of their own to make him into a monster large enough to swallow humans whole.

** The effects the Virus has on human beings. They grow increasingly ''covered'' in thick mold, which starts eating away at their ''flesh''. In the animated series, it actually promotes the appleman from "ArtifactOfDoom" to "BigBad" by changing [[spoiler: Rory's dad]] so he's driven insane and develops a head like a half-eaten apple.

* EverythingTryingToKillYou: Any animal infected by the Virus becomes a homicidal monster. Worms turn into Slobberers, multi-tongued pack hunting predators that suck the internal organs of their victims out through holes they bite in the skin. Sheep have their wool turn into ''steel wool'' and become smart enough to use tractors. Frogs willingly feed themselves to the biggest frog so he can grow into a maneating giant. A dried-up appleman becomes the source of a monstrous vine-like weed. You get the point.
* HatePlague: What the Virus is, in a zigzagging way; it drives those who are infected with it to feel hatred, and grows stronger by feeding off of their hate and rage, which allows it to mutate its victims as they become more and more hate-filled.

An Australian literary series from the mid-1990s, coauthored by Paul Jennings and Morris Gleitzman. The same authors would later go on to write Deadly!, a similarly themed series.

* BodyHorror: The effects the Virus has on human beings. They grow increasingly ''covered'' in thick mold, which starts eating away at their ''flesh''. [[spoiler: In the animated series, it actually promotes the appleman from "ArtifactOfDoom" to "BigBad" by changing Rory's dad so he's driven insane and develops a head like a half-eaten apple.]]