“Attack of the 50 Foot Wallflower” by Christian McKay Heidicker

Good morning everyone,

Today’s post will analyze “Attack of the 50 Foot Wallflower” by Christian McKay Heidicker. Per his Amazon bio, Heidicker lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. As late as October 2025 he had a website and a social media presence on Facebook and X/Twitter, but as far as I can tell he has since left social media and took down his website. That is a shame because, spoiler alert, this story he wrote is a good one.

His first published work was “Cure for the Common Universe” which appeared in mid-June 2016, his book “Scary Stories for Young Foxes” won a Newbery Honor in 2020, and the latest was “Nightmares of Weirdwood: A William Shivering Tale” in late June 2022.

Simon & Schuster published Heidicker’s Attack of the 50 Foot Wallflower in mid-September 2018. The protagonist is a high school student called Phoebe Lane with unusual parentage. Her mother Loretta Lane is a beautiful actress who became famous after being kidnapped by a giant ape called Ook. Thus, Loretta Lane was an analogue for Ann Darrow from the original 1933 King Kong film. Accordingly, a line of dialogue from Carl Denham to Ann appeared before the first page. Phoebe’s father is an even more unusual character, but let us not discuss him further to avoid spoilers.

The title and the publisher, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, will incline folks to think this was aimed at kids and it was. However, it also dealt with serious topics such as threats from law enforcement as a cop was more interested in sexually assaulting a high schooler than helping find her missing mother, plus there was racism towards African Americans (roller rink had a sign that read “No Coloreds”) and indigenous people (an Army general refused to protect a Navajo tribe from enormous ants), and religious hypocrisy (a reverend condemned Phoebe’s Mom who was actually one of the most loving and moral characters).

For example, parents may be surprised to learn that this had a police officer leering at under-aged girls and trying to take them home.

The officer in question was ultimately unsuccessful, but not for lack of trying. Our heroine had to think fast to escape. She later described the local police department as “useless at best and perverted at worst.“

I have not read anything else by Heidicker, but apparently he also pushed boundaries with terror and gore in his Scary Stories for Young Foxes. Tania Del Rio noted how dark that book was during an interview with Heidicker in early November 2019.

During an early May 2024 public reading in Kimball Junction (part of Snyderville), Utah, Heidicker told a student that if school faculty objected to a book report discussing blood then the student should tell those teachers that he does not “… want to learn any history with blood in it.“

Furthermore, there were nail-biting stressful conflicts such as a time in which an adult told Phoebe to hurt and potentially kill an innocent person to prevent the destruction of the world! That was a horrible position for anyone to find themselves in. This mature aspect to Heidicker’s stories sets them apart from the bland, utterly inoffensive and utterly forgettable, fiction commonly seen in media aimed at young people. It was not inappropriate in Attack of the 50 Foot Wallflower as all the social commentary rang true.

Regaining potential negatives, one wonders if the 1950s setting will be off-putting to modern-day teenagers. Personally, I am 50 years old and even at my advanced age all the mentions of movies like 1954’s “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” 1954’s “Them!”, 1956’s “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” 1958’s “Attack of the 50 Foot Woman,” 1958’s “The Blob,” etc., etc., were callbacks to properties made before my birth. (SIDE NOTE: Why was Godzilla‘s actual name in the text, but King Kong was renamed Emperor Ook? Are Toho’s lawyers less scary than Warner Bros’ lawyers?)

Older people could sympathize if young readers (the intended audience) born after January 1, 2000 (presumably young readers means under 26 years old) prefer references to more recent movies like 2008’s “Cloverfield,” 2009’s “Monsters vs. Aliens,” 2010’s “Troll Hunter,” 2013’s “Pacific Rim,” 2016’s “Colossal,” etc., etc. The point is kids typically choose recent films over old films. They may have actually seen those more contemporary flicks and understandably appreciate monsters which they recognize versus having to research monsters from black and white productions made for previous generations.

Additionally, and without giving away too much, the narrative was quite meta. For instance, there was a lesbian character who was somehow aware of the true nature of their existence and remarked that she was not surprised at her final fate because it was the fifties. So, that character had an awareness beyond the vast majority of her peers. Although, the means by which she gained that knowledge was never clear.

Still, the meta commentary was more enlightening than off-putting. Phoebe is likeable so readers will sympathize with her plight and root for her success. An old-school creature features fan who has already gone back and seen all those flicks might be more suited to enjoy this work than a modern-day kid uninterested in entertainment created for their grandparents or great-grandparents. Nonetheless, a deep understanding of 1950s B-movies was not necessary to follow the plot.

Overall, I highly recommended Attack of the 50 Foot Wallflower. Giantess fans should enjoy this tale of a young lady becoming a 50 foot woman while trying her best to deal with harsh circumstances.

That is it for today folks. Until next time, keep growing!

This review was written by SolomonG and is protected under Fair Use copyright law.

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