NNtG: Shadow Zone: Alien Under My Bed

It's time to cover yet another non-GB kids horror book from the 90s. One that might be one of the earliest to be out around the same time as Goosebumps. Launching about a year after Goosebumps in 1993 and running until 1995, Shadow Zone was a series of kids horror books written by J.R. Black. However, there is no J.R. Black, but like many of these books, they were written by several different authors. Two of the books would later get movie adaptations, so maybe future fodder for Books on Tape. But for now, let's see what's going with Alien Under My Bed.

COVER STORY

Cover artist for Shadow Zone was Jeffrey Lindberg, and if not for this being so early in the GB era, I'd swear he was taking some inspiration from how Jacobus drew his covers. Airbrushing, some warped perspective, a good use of light and dark. So, it's no surprise I give this cover some high praise. I like the touch of the alien claws reaching out from under the bed. How they look robotic. Even the nice touch of the knocked over pop can. Some really good atmosphere making me really interested in what's to come. 

STORY

Hayley's not having a very good time lately. That's due to her dad, his new wife and her new stepsister. And Hayley lets us know off the top how she doesn't care for her stepmother, Chloe Carlyle nor her daughter Angelique. She mainly hates how perfect they are. Chloe and Angelique originally lived in Denver, but came to California for the show Where the Heart Is, which sounds like a soap opera, but seems to be some kind of "do it yourself" show. Angelique is a snobby cool kid who never interacted with Hayley, well before Hayley's dad and Chloe became an item. So now she has to deal with two people she's not fond of, as well as her room being painted garish green and pink colors. But Hayley's also been noticing strange lights outside. Not like headlights or a spotlight, but weird floating lights. But every time she tries to show Angelique, the lights disappear.

Hayley sees the lights again and goes into her oddly high bed that Chloe got her, and sees something outside that most certainly looks to be a spaceship. She goes out to see, but the ship seemingly disappears. She heads back to bed, only for the events of the cover to occur. A strange metallic hand reaches out of her bed and slashes her pillow. Hayley gets a good look from underneath and the creature looks like a half-human, half-armadillo. Long arms with claws on the end and yellow eyes with black rings around them. 

The creature first speaks to Hayley through thought speak, translated from his native Zabarian tongue to English. The creature says that he's from the planet Zabar and needs Hayley's help. Since it's name is impossible to say in Human tongue, Hayley suggests the name Spock, but ultimately goes with Chuck, named after her since passed dog. Chuck was on a sight-seeing trip when he became separated from his spaceship. So now he has to live with Hayley in what would no doubt be a wonderful Odd Couple-esque situation, only one side has the ability to freeze his victims. Hayley agrees, but asks Chuck to stop reading her mind. He says he will, only to lie and keep doing it minutes later.

The next day, after Hayley observes Chuck's odd exercise routine, Angelique knocks on the door. While Chuck hides, she sees the torn pillow and sheets and assumes that Hayley did it on purpose because she hates Chloe. Angelique doubles down and insults Hayley's dad, saying that he's lucky to have Chloe. However, she stops mid-sentence and also stops moving. Turns out that even Chuck's tired of her spiel and froze her. Hayley panics, but also enjoys mocking Angelique in her frozen state. But before they can un-freeze her, Hayley's dad shows up. But Hayley says that Angelique is just practicing posing. That's enough for him to leave. Chuck hides and unfreezes Angelique.

So that's taken care of, but what about when Hayley goes to school? What of Chuck? Well, turns out that Chuck also has morphing powers and turns into Jeremy Nightingale, a teen heartthrob he saw in a magazine. Hayley tells him that's a bit too conspicuous, so Chuck morphs into a less exact version. Hayley goes to breakfast where she gets chewed out for the torn sheets. But Chloe changes the subject, as she says that she has a new topic for her show. She wants to focus on merging families, or to be more specific, their merging family. Everyone but Hayley is fine with it, but not wanting to spoil things, she agrees as well. But then she learns that Chloe plans to have a TV crew in the house, which might make things hard, especially the whole "hiding an alien" thing. We also see Hayley's dad wanting to bond with Angelique, which also really bothers Hayley. 

Hayley and Angelique go to school and see other girls being really excited. Turns out that Jeremy Nightingale's here. It's Chuck who is in his disguise, which still looks a lot like Jeremy, so he can claim to be Jeremy's stand-in. Every girl but Hayley goes insane for him, even Angelique, which really sickens Hayley. She confronts Chuck later and he tells her that he was kind of lying when he said he was just sightseeing. He came to Earth to study Earth specimens, namely humans. He also tells Hayley about his mind powers, being able to read minds, telekinesis, transformation, freezing others in place, even being able to visit each other's dreams. All in all, Zabarians are a kinder race, unlike the Bellixons. Now they're the evil planet-conquerors.  

Chuck also mentions the Shadow Zone, which isn't just the book title but a realm of infinite possibilities. Zabarians can even speak to deceased relatives through it. Back to the topic of Chuck studying specimens, turns out he needs to take one back with him to Zabar to study, and he's chosen the perfect specimen: Angelique. But before she can try to talk him out of this, other girls show up and take Chuck away for a while. Later, at an assembly, Hayley thinks about the whole Shadow Zone thing and if she can use it to communicate with her mother who passed when Hayley was five. But, she has no luck. However, she does wake up to Angelique screaming. Turns out Chuck cut half of her hair off, but Hayley gets blamed for it because, well, the world seems to hate Hayley. 

Thankfully for Angelique, Chloe manages to get her an appointment to get her hair fixed, so that issue's settled, though she still blames Hayley. Later, Hayley tries to talk Chuck out of abducting Angelique because, while she's no fan of Angelique, and not fond of Chloe, even she knows it wouldn't be right to make Chloe wonder where her daughter went, which is actually a good sign of a good protagonist. Any others would be fine with this, but to have one with actual morals feels so weird. Chuck says it's not all bad. Angelique's just going to, you know, run some mazes, get electrocuted, have her teeth removed, eat bugs, kid gloves stuff, really. And Zabarians are supposed to be the benevolent race.

Hayley is against this, but Chuck tells her that he can also manifest whatever she thinks to life, including her fears. This causes a bunch of spiders to fill the room. But she's saved by the bell as she's called down for the family conference which is being filmed of course. They all speak about the difficulties of this merged family, and every time Hayley has a snarky thought in her head, she ends up blurting it out loud, to the point if she wonders if that was Chuck, or she's getting really bad at saying the quiet part loud and the loud part quiet. Though after getting sent to her room for one snark too many, she learns that it was Chuck, who thought he was doing her a favor since Zabarians speak what they think.

So, back to the whole "not abducting Angelique" issue. Hayley thinks that if she can make Angelique look bad, maybe Chuck won't take her. So at school, she ties Angelique's sneakers together, then dumps a Jell-O up down her back. The class laughs, while Chuck seems to be bothered, possibly changing his mind. Hayley celebrates, but gets caught by the teacher. As she passes by Angelique, Hayley sees she's crying, and for the first time, Hayley kind of realizes "Oh crap. I'm being a bully, aren't I?" Chuck says that it was a nice plan, but doesn't change things. Angelique's still his pick. At detention, Hayley finds some of Angelique's letters that she never sent to her father who left her and her mother. How she likes her father-in-law, but is bothered by how Hayley doesn't like her, and how she wishes she could be with her real father again. To which Hayley realizes "Oh god, I AM the bully". 

Hayley tries to get along with Angelique and Chloe, and it kind of starts to work, until Angelique finds the letter and blames Hayley of being awful to her again. That she's jealous that Angelique has a mother. This sets Hayley into a fit of rage, saying that Angelique can keep Chloe and that maybe she deserves everything she got by being such a snot. And turns out this was a bad idea, not just for, you know, the outburst, but this was being filmed by the camera crew. She runs up to her room, now more embarrassed and frustrated. She tries the mind walking thing again and manages to communicate briefly with her mother. But she's awakened when she sees Chuck is signaling Zabar. The abduction is imminent.

The next day, Hayley's plan is to keep an eye on Angelique so maybe that will stop Chuck. The two go to the grocery store, and things seem fine, until Hayley sees Chuck in disguise. And in the whole kerfuffle, Angelique disappears. Hayley runs home to see if Angelique or Chuck is there, but nope. Chloe stops her and says that she did hope that Hayley would help Angelique get over her father leaving, and that a lot of this stuck up attitude was a defense mechanism given the divorce. Chloe also apologizes for going too fast on this and that she should have listened to Hayley on things. It's here where Hayley finally realizes "Oh, wait. Chloe's actually not that bad." 

Hayley soon finds Angelique outside, frozen again. Hayley manages to use her mind powers, along with Angelique, to unfreeze her before Chuck comes back. And yes, Angelique knows all about what Chuck's planning. They also start to actually get along with Angelique saying that she was always jealous of Hayley being so good at jokes and such. It's actually a nice moment. They hope that maybe Chuck won't find them, then he'll just leave, despite, you know, all of his powers so far. And sure enough, when they return to the set to continue filming, they see Chuck. 

The two joke around, hoping to annoy Chuck, but confuse everyone else. It seems to annoy him enough to freeze everyone but them. He tells Angelique that it's time to go. Suddenly, another figure arrives. We learn it's Chuck's father. He says that Chuck was a problem on Zabar, so he was sent to Earth to promote family harmony, which was actually what he did by pretending to abduct Angelique. He's actually just taking zucchini seeds home instead. Chuck and his father head home, but Chuck leaves one more message about how Hayley visited the Shadow Zone.

TWIST ENDING

Everything from here on in is actually really good. Hayley and Angelique are loving sisters, Hayley gets along with Chloe. They're a happy family. Later, they order a pizza, but when Hayley goes to get it from the delivery man, she sees he has glowing red eyes. She worries if this is one of those Bellixons that Chuck told her about. She gives him the money and he mind speaks, thanking her for the tip.

CONCLUSION

I really liked this one. Probably my favorite Non-GB kids horror book that I've covered so far. And I think the reason I like it so much is because it actually uses the idea of dealing with a step-family in a really well thought out way. We've had a couple step-families in Goosebumps, but Stine rarely does much with it. Case in point with How to Kill a Monster with how Gretchen and Clark get along well enough before the story begins. Here, it's written in a way that feels respectful to kid readers. Maybe it might be too squeaky clean a representation of merged families, but I like the position it takes that maybe the new people in your life aren't so bad. 

Hayley is also a great protagonist. Where GB can give us a lot of blank slate characters, Hayley is written to be an overall good kid who has to deal with so much change in her life that it's made her miserable and at first unwilling to give others a chance. But we also get a character that isn't just willing to let someone be taken away, knowing that it wouldn't be right. Her story arc is well executed, she starts the story disliking everything, but when she finally realizes that Angelique and Chloe aren't that bad, her defenses finally start to come down and she even realizes that she's been just as much the problem than either Chloe or Angelique is. That her unwillingness to attempt to compromise was just as big an issue. A fully faceted character who grows by the end of the story. I sure wish Stine gave us more of those.

Chuck's also a good antagonist. Possibly all-powerful, yet also seems to enjoy toying with Hayley, to mess with her whenever possible. The twist of it actually being for a good reason is a neat touch at least. As for everything else, the twist was actually not bad, the only way to end this book on a twist. Scares are minimal, but the bit with the claws tearing the sheets and pillows, along with Chuck's description of what will happen to Angelique still work. Normally you'd probably want more scares, but when the rest of the book is more focused on the character drama, it's not that big a deal. 

In the end, Alien Under My Bed was a good book. Strong in terms of how it told its story. Strong in giving us a relatable character who we can like and even dislike for her actions, yet still be happy when she succeeds. Strong in just being a good book on the topic of broken homes and merged families. A topic that's tricky to do, and maybe isn't perfectly handled here, but still good enough to feel like it was made with respectful intentions. And ultimately that's all I really ask for. Sometimes I don't need super freaky, kid-friendly Lovecraftian horror. Just give me something that leaves me feeling "Aww, that was nice". Alien Under My Bed gets an A.