It Came from the Pumpkin Patch

The "It Came From..." Series

By: Chris Heinicke, Kate Reedwood

Narrated by: Joe Hempel

It Came from the Pumpkin Patch… and it doesn’t want to go back.

Thirteen-year-old Timmy Mantis hates pumpkins and anything to do with them. Growing up in Harvest Creek, the pumpkin-growing capital of Wisconsin, has been a living hell. Especially at Halloween, when the small town becomes obsessed with everything pumpkin at the annual fall festival.

When an accident happens at the local research laboratory and one of the experiments escapes, Timmy realizes he was right to hate pumpkins. As the festival becomes ground zero for a monstrous invasion of gourds-gone-wild and the body count rises—literally—Timmy must face his greatest fears or become another victim.

Accompanied by a scientist determined to put things right, Timmy uses whatever means he can to save the town and his life. But how do you kill an undead pumpkin that has revenge on its mind?

Pumpkin carving takes on a whole new meaning in this Halloween-themed horror story.

©2024 Chris Heinicke, Kate Reedwood (P)2025 Fright Night Audio

Ratzilla!!

Timmy hates pumpkins even though his family grows them on their farm. When a chemical company moves into the area, things start to go really bad very fast! Timmy and his friends find themselves confronting creeping pumpkin vines, a rat-like creature that grows to the proportion of Godzilla and zombies! All because of pumpkins!!

You have the obligatory jerk supervisor, sympathetic Scientist and shoddy experimental practices. The family dynamics and friendships between the kids are well-written and totally believable.

I enjoyed this book a lot and was reminded of the 1950's Kaiju movies featuring gigantic creatures caused by radioactivity and the later environmental-caused creatures of the 1980's. Most of the main characters were kids/teens and the book read like a YA novel at times. But, the amount of cursing made me think that it was written more for adults (just my opinion).

The narrator is one of my favorites and his performance made this an even better experience. All in all, the perfect Halloween read which might make you think twice about that next piece of pumpkin pie!

More Mutations

Story had some familiar themes, but was enjoyable to listen to. Especially liked the parts as seen through the kids eyes. Liked the expanded mutations. It added to the 'what do we do now' questions. Joel did a great job switching between the different attitudes, keeps you in the story as you understand how each one feels about what is happening to, and around them.