Extreme Monsters was a book series published by Penny Candy Press and Brighter Minds Media about a group of preteen monsters who enjoyed playing extreme sports. The main group consisted of Val (a skateboarding vampire), Jinx (a street luging witch), Wulf (an in-line skating werewolf), Steiner (a BMX biking Frankenstein monster) and Mumford (a speed climbing mummy), with their coach being a mad scientist named Doc.
Competing against the Extreme Monsters was a rival team called Team Pendant, which was owned by an unscrupulous businessman named Damon Christopher.
Each chapter book had a puzzle at the end of every chapter, the correct answers of which would be used to form a password to unlock games and other features on the books' now defunct official website www.extrememonsters.com
Books in the main series:
- The Blue Moon Effect
- What's With Wulf?
- Meet Mr. Hydeous
- Battling Bigfoot
- Monster Powers for All note
Spin-off books:
- The Extreme Monsters Joke Book
Tropes:
- Ambiguous Gender: One of the members of Team Pendant mentioned in Battling Bigfoot is an ogre who is described as being hard to tell if male or female.
- Animesque: This is a Western book series with illustrations clearly done in an anime style.
- Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti:
- The Extreme Monsters like to hang at Mr. Cool's Ice Cream and Beet Juice Parlor, which is run by a yeti named Mr. Cool.
- The fourth book had the team encountering a tribe of Bigfoot.
- Bumbling Henchmen Duo: Cletus and Clem Sline, a pair of green-skinned brothers who work for Damon Christopher and use their slime powers to cheat in competitions while playing for Team Pendant.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: A recurring theme is that Team Pendant always tries to cheat with the Extreme Monsters winning by never stooping to their level. It most notably comes up in Meet Mr. Hydeous, where Doc's nephew Gerald drinks his uncle's botched diet formula to transform into Mr. Hydeous. When it's revealed that Gerald was Mr. Hydeous and that the mandatory Neutralizer Wristbands that were to dampen monster powers to enable fair play against human athletes had no effect on him, he is promptly disqualified and banned from ever competing in sports again.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Damon Christopher is the greedy owner of Pendant Enterprises who only cares about making profits from his assets and is willing to replace any athlete from his team Team Pendant on a whim.
- Dhampyr: Val is only half-vampire due to having a human mother.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Gerald turning himself into Mr. Hydeous with his uncle Doc's botched diet formula in order to beat the Extreme Monsters in Meet Mr. Hydeous is a clear reference to athletes cheating by using steroids.
- Frankenstein's Monster: Steiner is a Frankenstein monster.
- Fun with Acronyms: The Extreme Monsters and their coach Doc travel around in the Laboratory Utility Vehicle.
- Jekyll & Hyde: The third book introduces Doc's nephew Gerald, a bland geek with no interest in extreme sports who ends up drinking a potion that transforms him into an athletic monster named Mr. Hydeous, who competes against the Extreme Monsters by playing for Team Pendant.
- Kid Hero: The ages of the main characters range from 9 to 12.
- Mad Scientist: The Extreme Monsters' coach Doc, who created Steiner.
- Monster Mash: The premise of the book series is that it's about a group of monster kids who enjoy playing extreme sports. The Extreme Monsters consists of a skateboarding vampire named Val, a street luging witch named Jinx, an in-line skating werewolf named Wulf, a BMX biking Frankenstein monster named Steiner and a speed climbing mummy named Mumford.
- Mummy: Mumford is a mummy.
- Mummy Wrap: Mumford is able to move his wrappings like tentacles and has used them to restrain Damon Christopher and the Slime Brothers in The Blue Moon Effect in addition to rescuing Doc's nephew Gerald in Meet Mr. Hydeous.
- Our Werebeasts Are Different: Battling Bigfoot has a werekitten named Kitty mentioned as a member of Team Pendant.
- Power Limiter: To prevent their powers from giving them an unfair advantage over humans, monster athletes wear Neutralizer Wristbands to weaken their powers.
- The Smurfette Principle: Jinx the Witch is the only female member of the Extreme Monsters.
- Vaudeville Hook: The cover illustration of the Extreme Monsters Joke Book depicts Val telling jokes onstage as a cane is about to yank him away.
- Vegetarian Vampire: Val is a literal example. His character bio states that he doesn't drink blood like his father and instead partakes in a vegetarian diet taught to him by his mother.
- Werewolf Theme Naming: The werewolf of the Extreme Monsters is named Wulf, which is just "wolf" spelled with a U instead of an O.
- Wonderful Werewolf: Wulf is most certainly a nice werewolf and mainly likes to joke around.
