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October 3rd, 2009
03:04 pm - CP Book Club - Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger Hunt, written in 1989, is the 5th installment in Christopher Pike's teen horror oeuvre. Despite having gone through four of his spooky suspense stories already, this is the first one that truly feels like horror. It's dark and sinister and slimy, and as you read it, you're not sure if you even trust the main characters as having very good intentions.
As per usual, the story focuses on the lives of a small set of high schoolers. With graduation right around the corner, they're all feeling the pressure of what to make of the rest of their lives. Carl, the main character, is too preoccupied with his guilt over his past to expect much of a future. Almost a year ago, he lost his best friend Joe in a freak flood while they were out hiking in the desert. He knows Joe's death wasn't his fault (he narrowly escaped death himself) but is haunted by the thought that he saved himself before watching his friend drown. So for now, his main motivation in life is to have sex with the class hottie, Cessy.
Cessy and her brother Davey are rich twins who blew into town for senior year and instantly became THE people to be. They befriend Carl and his friend Tom (who hasn't been altogether present since suffering a football injury to the head) and convince them to be on their team for the senior year scavenger hunt. Carl, half-dead inside and only motivated by lust at this point, agrees to go along with it. He only feels a tiny twinge of guilt when he's asked to join another scavenger hunt team -- this one made up of people he was actually friends with at school. Tracie is Carl's former friend/love interest from sophomore year. Rick is the wheelchair-bound genius of the senior class, who has a crush on Tracie. Paula is Rick's sister, Tracie's BF, and ex-girlfriend of Joe, the boy who drowned in the desert. Needless to say, this scavenger hunt group has a bit of a past to them.
The hunt kicks off, led by Mr. Partridge, the weird English Lit teacher who resembles Sheriff Cooley from O Brother Where Art Thou. The teams rush off to find box after box of senior year memorabilia that, when put together, will assemble into something meaningful. Considering the prize for winning the scavenger hunt is a week's vacay in Hawaii, all the teams are going for it. Right from the start, Carl's team and Tracie's team are neck-and-neck, which leads to some seriously awkward conversations. Paula realizes she's kind of attracted to the stony Tom, Davey chatters incessantly to Rick about stories of buried treasure, and Tracie and Cessy size each other up. The teams eventually decide to go their separate ways, disagreeing on the location of the next clue. We get an eerie sense of foreboding (and incest!) when Tracie is the only one to notice siblings Davey and Cessy making out in the car. I mean really, why would Cessy be after Carl if she already had ... her brother? Ewwwww.
The story quickly dissolves into horror and madness from this point on. Carl follows his rag-tag team into the desert, where a shack in the middle of nowhere is full of clippings of high school kids getting murdered. It's also home to a giant lizard, which Cessy easily kills in front of him. He's shocked by her strength, brutality, and the amount of oily blood that flows out of the creature over the porch. Foreshadowing! His spidey sense finally tells him something is wrong, but it's way too late. The other three basically kidnap Carl, and drive him further and further into the bleak desert night. And although he resigns himself to whatever fate the twin lovers and the braindead brute have in store for him, he cowardly leaves his watch behind, hoping Tracie's team will somehow find them and realize what's happened. Nice, right? The guy can't give Tracie the time of day but is happy to have her risk her life to save him. Her, the kid in the wheelchair, and the ex of the friend he killed. That'll work.
Scavenger Hunt gets bloody and creepy. Caves and cesspools and ancient sacrifices are involved. And, oddly enough, it starts to resemble Super Mario Brothers at some point.
Up next ... Gimme A Kiss!
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September 3rd, 2009
02:19 pm - CP Book Club - Chain Letter!
Long overdue, it's time for the 3rd installment of the Christopher Pike book club - Chain Letter! Written by Christopher Pike in 1986.
This is one of my favorites. The fate of seven high-schoolers collides when they accidentally collaborate in doing something dreadful in the desert. Afterwards they split up, most of them assuming that if they don't speak to one another, then it didn't happen.
Sound familiar? That's because it's what I Know What You Did Last Summer should've been. The difference is that Chain Letter is a lot more creative, and also a lot more ... well, realistic.
The group stays largely separate for about a year, until - surprise, surprise - the anniversary of the incident starts looming, and a creepy letter arrives in the mail. The letter includes a heinous task that the first group member, wussy Fran, must perform. Once she does it, she crosses her name off the list, and the next person in line gets tapped to do something awful. And so on. Each task they have to perform is designed to chip away at their reputation and bright, shiny futures -- because the instigator behind the notes assumes they all have big, glowy opportunities after high school.
The group goes along with it, performing increasingly dangerous and ridiculous tasks in the hope that the instigator will keep their past a secret. Again, like Slumber Party, it's interesting to find that the characters are so immersed in guilt that they're almost eager to ruin their reputations and futures. They were just waiting for the chance. Bad girl Joan has no idea what she's going to do with her life once she doesn't have high school to rebel from. Wallflower Fran is terrified of everything, including an art career. Jock Tony is afraid people will finally see that he's not that great. Brenda has no visible talents besides her boobs. Chip might not be as smart once surrounded by MIT classmates. Allison might only be a B-movie actress. And Neil might never make new friends.
I won't ruin the end. Definitely read Chain Letter for the tasks they have to perform, the bitchy banter, the hot tension between Allison and Tony, the creepy empty neighborhood where Allison lives, and the fact that the villain is not a big oaf in a raincoat.
** Oh and a special bonus I found on page 47 - "'Here comes Joany, Queen of the Roller Derby,' Allison whispered." One can only assume Pike's here referring to Joan Weston, legend of old school roller derby. Squeal!
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July 6th, 2009
10:12 am - High School Seniors + Tainted Beer + Mexico = Weekend
Here we are at the 2nd installment in the Christopher Pike Summer Book Club -- Weekend, written by Christopher Pike in 1986.
This fascinating tale is all about snakes, birds, poison, Mexican holy men, and digestive ailments.
Immediately, I noticed that Weekend held a lot of the same traits as Slumber Party – a weekend away from home in an exotic, foreign locale; a group of teens who share a participation in a Past Incident; and naturally, not far into the weekend, hilarity ensues. I'm just kidding. MURDER ENSUES!
This time, the rag-tag group of high school seniors features: Shani, the skinny, well meaning main character with long curly hair and nonstop stomach ailments. Her "friends" Kerry, the jealous, neurotic one who still can't get over the fact the whole school has seen her bare tush; Angie, the boyfriend-stealer; Park, Shani's childhood friend and boyfriend of Angie (but FORMER boyfriend of Robin -- dun dun DUNNNN!); Sol, the hot, dangerous Latino boyfriend of Lena; Flynn, the exchange student from England who Shani drools over, and Bert, the lovable oaf/giant with amazing reflexes. They're all bouncing down the hot desert roads of Mexico to a secluded mansion, owned by the family of Lena and Robin. Lena is the babe-a-licious redhead who not only stole Sol from Kerry, but also may be responsible for Kerry's public bare tush. Robin is Lena’s sister and our tragic character, who is slowly deteriorating from kidney disease.
The motley group is gathering for, of course, a Weekend of supposed fun and sun and sand. But even before we get to the Mexican Mansion, foreboding pops up. The van carrying the boys gets a flat and they're confronted by a Mexican holy man and snake #1. When they all arrive at the house, they discover that Flynn has been secretly hanging out with Robin for several weeks and is very protective of her. There are several awkward conversations when the group is together, revealing what happened in the Past Incident. Apparently, they were all trashed at a party and someone put insect repellant into Robin's beer, ruining her kidneys forever. Nice, right? Now, even though Robin's family is uber-rich, she can't find a suitable donor. Both her and Lena were adopted, so blood relatives are out of the question. Robin tries to nobly deal with her illness, but thoughts of revenge are getting to her, and inspire her to write a fable about a dove, a snake, a raven, and an eagle.
The group plays a form of Charades that ends up insulting Kerry. Robin starts to feel sicker. Shani overhears a phone conversation that makes her think Flynn is up to no good. Bert gets BLOW'D UP in the garage. The phone lines are cut. Shani wanders off to find the Mexican Holy Man and runs into snake #2. The whole gang gets drugged and put in the basement recording studio, where a disembodied voice forces them to relive the night of the poisoning. And yes, there are more snakes.
I have to warn you that the end gets very, very cheesy.
One drink ... it won't kill you. The moral of this story is stay away from peer pressure, kids! And if the beer smells weird, for god's sakes, put it down!
Up next ... one of my faves, Chain Letter!
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June 23rd, 2009
09:41 pm - Slumber Party: Girls + Ski Resort + Revenge = Christopher Pike Goodness
Slumber Party, written in 1985, is Christopher Pike's first foray into teen horror.
All I remembered about this book from when I first read it was that the main character peed on her hands in order to keep warm. She was stuck outside in a blizzard and close to freezing to death. At the time, I was so disgusted by the peeing that I really couldn't decide if I would do the same in her situation.
In Slumber Party, six girls are getting together for a weekend in the mountains. Five of them have been friends since middle school, and one is a new member to the fold. Each girl has her own unique quirks/description that defines her role in the story. Lara, the main character, is short and has a big nose, but she's popular with the guys. Dana, Lara's best friend, mentions often that she's overweight, but also mentions that she's funny. Rachael is the hot bitch. Mindy is dumb in every possible way. Celeste is the virgin, the new member who none of the girls know all too well. And Nell, the resident of the mountain house where they're staying, is guarded and sensitive.
It's not long into the story before we're given clues that this same group of girls, eight years earlier, was involved in a MYSTERIOUS INCIDENT together - with one exception. The original sixth member of the group was a girl named Nicole, who has since died. The new sixth member is sophomore Celeste. It should also be mentioned that Nell usually wears a lot of makeup to cover up her serious burn scars. Spoiler alert!
The girls start their weekend with catty comments at one another. Lara and Rachael are competing Homecoming Queens. Before hitting the slopes, MYSTERIOUS OCCURENCE #1 happens - they discover that the snowman that Rachael and Mindy had built has melted into a pile of ice, as if someone hit it with a fireball. Lara's the only one who really notices and cares. As most of the girls take off to the ski lodge, Nell, who has bouts of illness and Celeste, who has a bad back, stay behind at the house. Suspicious? The skiiers immediately meet suave hunk Percy and his date-rapist friend Cal. They flirt and fight for most of the day, Lara and Rachael fueling their Queen Rage into arguments over who Percy fancies, while Cal molests Dana and makes Mindy jealous. As the day wears on, Rachael cuts Lara off while skiing, causing her to injure her knee and bash her head, but also gaining her some attention from Percy. Even though injured, she's in heaven, and invites he AND date-rapist Cal over to Nell's place for a party that night. Here, it's horrifying to see that Lara tells Percy Dana was just laying hard to get when Cal molested her earlier. Lara is THAT desperate to get laid, that she tells a boy she barely knows that her friend enjoys almost being raped. Nice.
Eventually, Lara gets separated from everyone, including Percy, and decides to make the four-mile trip back to the house by herself. Along the way she runs into Mindy and Rachael, but never finds Dana. All she discovers is MYSTERIOUS OCCURRENCE #2 - Dana has only left behind a single ski and ... a melted patch of snow. Similar to the melted snowman patch? Oh, you betcha.
What follows is suspicious incident followed by big flaming clues that the friends are reunited for less than favorable reasons. Nell is still upset that no one seems to miss her sister, aka Dead Girl Nicole. The girls clamor for the boys' attention and almost set each other on fire. Luckily, Lara partially redeems herself in the friend department by being distracted by the fact that her BFF, fat Dana, is still missing. She makes honest efforts to find her, including calling the ski lodge multiple times. She even goes so far as trekking out after dark to search the scene where she disappeared.
This is just one example of why Christopher Pike books appeal to me so much -- sure there are stereotypical characters, but they can still surprise you. Lara pushes long past pain and physical injury to find out what happened to her friend. Cal, the date-rapist, saves several lives. And Rachael, the hot bitch, proves herself to be the only one worth being around in a crisis. The only question I had is -- why did these girls all decide to reunite for a weekend steeped in bad memories of the MYSTERIOUS INCIDENT? Are they really that dumb that they don't see the parallels? It almost seems as if the characters are so guilty about the past incident that they willingly put themselves into harm's way. That they know that, deep down, they deserve what's coming to them at the Slumber Party. Still, that being said, they sure do put up a good fight.
Slumber Party is teen melty goodness. It's all about ice cold revenge and heated passions. Suffocating memories and chilling fear! Reconstructive surgery and peeing on your hands in a blizzard!!
I highly recommend it.
Up next ... Weekend!
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