Monster Blood IV

 Monster Blood IV was the sixty-second and final book in the Goosebumps book series. It was preceded by I Live in Your Basement!

It was released in December 1997.

Plot
Evan's parents are going out of town for a week to Tucson, Arizona.? While they are away, Evan is forced to stay his annoying cousin Kermit's house. Kermit begins terrorizing Evan by placing tarantulas on his head. Kermit's mother also puts hot sauce on everything she cooks, including spaghetti that is so hot that Evan's lips swell up like "twin salamis."

Evan accidentally steps on Conan, the school bully's brand new sneakers, and Conan stomps his sneakers on Evan's feet. Conan also pulls on one of Evan's sweater-sleeves. Andy comes over to visit Evan and the three children have a Super-Soaker fight. This is a lot of fun until Kermit sprays Conan's sneakers with water. Conan crosses the yard and sees that Andy has a can of Monster Blood. He forces her to give it to him and he opens the can and paper snakes come out.

Kermit brings his collection of mice out into the yard and sets them free. Evan can't understand why Kermit thinks the mice won't escape, especially since they are escaping. Kermit tells Evan he's installed a wireless electric fence along the perimeter of the yard. Then he realizes that he forgot to turn it on. Evan walks to the edge of the yard and Kermit turns the electric fence on, causing Evan to spastically dance from the shock.

Conan comes over to see what the hubbub is all about and he too gets shocked. He beats up Evan. Kermit is sympathetic to Evan's plight and presents him with the perfect revenge: he's developed a hair-growing formula. Kermit tells Evan that they could put some on Conan's hands, giving him "werewolf hands." Evan thinks giving Conan this is a great idea. Andy shows up at Evan's window in the middle of the night. Andy shows him another can of Monster Blood that she found in the dumpster behind a science lab. She wants Evan to get revenge on Conan by using the new Monster Blood. Kermit shows and opens the new can of Monster Blood. Conan also comes out into his yard and tries to take the Monster Blood, only to be shocked again by the fence. Conan retreats into his house and Andy tries to put the lid back on the Monster Blood, which is blue instead of the usual green.

The liquid Monster Blood has morphed into a small blue creature with black eyes and a big-lipped mouth filled with sharp teeth. Andy thinks the gelatinous creature is cute until it hops across the yard and latches onto the water spout. The creature swells up like a balloon with water until it explodes, sending a wave of blue slime over the children. Where there was one creature there is now two. The creatures continue splitting, with each subsequent pair becoming meaner than the creature that spawned it.

The creatures start attacking the children, trying to suck the water from their bodies. One latches onto Andy's face and another on Evan's shoulder. The children try to force the dozen or so creatures into a plastic garbage sack. Kermit takes the sack into the house to hide it as Kermit's mother comes out to blame Evan for all the damage the creatures have wrought on her yard.

The next morning, Evan asks Kermit where he hid the sack of creatures. Kermit hid the sack of creatures in the spare bathroom. Evan freaks out because the bathroom has four water fixtures and as the two boys make their way towards the bathroom, they can already hear the havoc being wreaked within. That spare bathroom is also where Kermit was hiding his hair growth formula. When the door is finally opened, the two are greeted with the sight of dozens of angry hairy creatures. Slime covers the walls and every few seconds there's another sickening *pop* and wave of slime as new creatures are formed.

Evan decides to round up the creatures and then lead them out into the yard to zap them on the invisible electric fence. Evan is shocked to discover that Kermit forgot to turn the fence on. The horrible little creatures escape into the neighborhood. The first place they head is Conan's house, where Conan has just stepped out into the yard again. The creatures swallow his can of Coke and start multiplying and exploding slime all over him.

Andy shows up and she and Evan track the moving wave of monsters down the street, as they head towards a public park. Along the way the monsters almost kill Kermit's dog and finally engulf Andy and Evan, until they all swarm off and huddle into one big pulsating ball. The monsters are so vile and evil that they've started to attack each other. One by one, they eat each other, until there are no creatures left. The children return to Kermit's house.

A scientist wearing a space suit shows up. He introduces himself as Professor Eric Crane from the Science Institute. He explains that this batch of Monster Blood was the result of ten years and $50 million of investment in the development of an underwater fighting force. He apologizes for being so careless.

Conan comes out into the yard and tells the children that he found that blue candy they were hoarding. He tells them that he can't stop drinking water...and then three other Conans comes out of his house. The four Conans surround the children and the first one tells the children he feels MEANER than usual.

Trivia

 * This is the last appearance of Andy, Kermit, and Conan.
 * There is none of the original Monster Blood in this book. There is only an entirely different type of slime, a scientific military defense experiment. The "blood" seems to resemble slugs or snails more than the actual monster blood. They are small, blue, liquid, have eyestalks, and mouths with sharp teeth.
 * The last three books in the series are out of print. Monster Blood IV, I Live in Your Basement!, Werewolf Skin, and Legend of the Lost Legend, were never reprinted and exists only in first editions.
 * This book was never made into a television episode for the Goosebumps television series.