REVIEW: Gimme a Kiss (book) by Christopher Pike

Gimme a Kiss is a YA mystery/thriller originally published in 1988. I bought my copy new.

This review includes slight spoilers. 

Review:

Jane Retton is a teenager who uses her diary to imagine a slightly better life for herself. In her diary, when Kirk, her friend Alice's ex-boyfriend, asked her out, it was super-romantic and perfect. She's in the process of writing about their perfect first time having sex (in reality, Jane has never had sex) when she's interrupted. She forgets to put her diary away, which, unfortunately, soon leads to Patty, a cheerleader who hates Jane's guts, getting hold of the most recent entry, making copies of it, and passing it around school.

Jane is deeply humiliated. It doesn't help that Kirk doesn't deny the events mentioned in the diary and adds fuel to the fire by confirming that the handwriting is Jane's. But then Jane has an idea, a way to temporarily get back at both Kirk and Patty. Except something goes horribly wrong. Now Alice, one of Jane's friends, is the only one who can say what really happened. But did she actually know everything, and is she telling the police the full truth?

REVIEW: Scavenger Hunt (book) by Christopher Pike

Scavenger Hunt is a weird blend of YA horror and SFF. It was originally published in 1989. I read it via interlibrary loan.

This review includes some spoilers.

Review:

This book begins with a cryptic scene of a young man running from something, possibly either a demon or a cult. He takes refuge in a church, where he tells the priest his story. Then the book switches over to Carl, a young man living in a nearly dead desert town. His best friend Joe was killed in a freak flood nearly a year ago, and he's basically just been existing since then. The only reason he's at all excited about the scavenger hunt that's about to begin is because Cessy, a sexy newcomer, has asked him to be on her team.

Tracie would have liked to have had Carl on her team, but unfortunately Cessy managed to ask him first. Tracie has had a crush on Carl for a while, but she's shy, and then Joe's death happened, and she and Carl just sort of drifted apart. The scavenger hunt at least gives them one last chance to interact before she leaves for college, although some of their team members make things awkward.

Carl's team consists of Cessy, her brother Davey, and Tom (Carl's brain-injured former football player friend). Tracie's team consists of Paula (Joe's girlfriend, who's been angry since his death), and Rick (Paula's genius younger brother, who's in a wheelchair due to muscular dystrophy). Both teams get off to a strong start, but it isn't long before they become aware that there's something odd about this scavenger hunt.

REVIEW: Monster (book) by Christopher Pike

Monster is YA horror. I got my copy via interlibrary loan.

Review:

Angela is a relative newcomer to the small town of Point. She moved in with her grandfather after her parents went through an ugly divorce. She figures that Point will be quiet and peaceful, but she's wrong. Angela is at a party when Mary, her best friend, bursts in and starts shooting people with a shotgun. It's horrific, but Mary doesn't seem out of control - she seems to have some kind of goal. She tries to make Jim, her own boyfriend, her final victim, but Angela and a police officer manage to stop her.

After the shooting (which is pretty graphic - be aware of this if school shootings and similar situations are an issue for you), Angela tries to find out why Mary did it. All Mary will tell her is that the people she shot were monsters. She warns Angela to stay away from Jim, but Angela feels herself drawn to him. She has secretly been nursing a crush on him, holding back only because he was dating her best friend. But now that Mary is a killer, Jim is fair game, right? Except what if Mary is right? What if Jim really is a monster?

REVIEW: Slumber Party (book) by Christopher Pike

Slumber Party is YA horror, I guess. Or maybe it'd be considered a thriller. Not sure.

Review:

For the first time since their last fateful slumber party when they were all about 9 or 10 years old, Nell, Lara, Rachael, Dana, and Mindy are getting together again. The difference is that this time Nicole, Nell's little sister, won't be there. When everything went horribly wrong all those years ago, Nicole ended up dead and Nell was badly burned. Celeste, a quiet and shy new girl, is with them instead.

Lara is looking forward to skiing, maybe kissing a cute boy, and catching up with her old friend Nell. However, something has her on edge. How did that snowman in the shade manage to melt and refreeze? When one member of their group disappears, leaving behind a single ski and a patch of dirty ice, Lara starts to wonder if there's something supernatural at play.

REVIEW: Chain Letter (book) by Christopher Pike

Chain Letter is YA horror, originally published in 1986. I got it via interlibrary loan.

Review:

Last summer, seven teens from the same high school went to a concert and, for various reasons, ended up riding back together (oh man, that car must have been cramped). They were drunk, rowdy, and stupid and ended up running someone over in the middle of the desert. Although a few of them wanted to talk to the police, in the end they all agreed to just bury the guy and forget about him.

In the book's present, one member of the group, Fran, has just received a creepy chain letter from someone calling themselves "Your Caretaker." The Caretaker says that Fran must perform a task that will be listed in the newspaper classified ads. Then she must cross her name off of the Column I list in her letter, put it at the bottom of Column II, make a copy of her letter, and send it on to the next person in the list, who is another one of the seven people who were in the car when the man was run over. The next person on the list must receive the letter within five days of Fran getting her letter.

The tasks the Caretaker asks them to do are initially relatively painless. Fran has to alter her painting of the school mascot in the gym. Kipp has to flunk an exam. However, the instant someone decides to defy the Caretaker and refuse to do their stated task, the Caretaker makes it clear that they mean business. If these teens want to avoid getting hurt or killed, they'll have to do what the Caretaker wants, no matter how much they'd prefer not to. The only other way out is to figure out who's behind the Caretaker. Is it one of them? Someone outside their group, watching their every move? Or possibly even the man in the desert. What if he wasn't really dead when they buried him?

REVIEW: The Midnight Club (book) by Christopher Pike

The Midnight Club is...something. Realistic YA with an edge of supernatural? I had vague memories of it at least being a mystery, but it isn't that either. It's also not horror, as much as the cover and tagline try to tell you otherwise.

This review contains spoilers.

Review:

Rotterham Home is a hospice for teens with a variety of terminal illnesses. One small group, consisting of Ilonka, Anya, Sandra, Kevin, and Spence, gets together every night at midnight to tell stories. Spence's stories always feature some form of mass murder, Anya's story has more of a supernatural bent, Kevin's is a multi-part story about an angel who becomes a mortal out of love for a young woman. Ilonka, meanwhile, always tells stories based on her memories of her past lives. Although she says she's never met anyone in this life that she's known in her past lives, that's a lie - she recognizes Kevin as someone she's met and loved in all or most of her past lives. Unfortunately, Kevin is currently dating a pretty and healthy cheerleader.

Almost every member of the group has a secret gnawing at them, something they must deal with as best they can in the little time they have.

REVIEW: Fall Into Darkness (book) by Christopher Pike

Fall Into Darkness is a YA mystery/thriller. I checked it out via interlibrary loan.

Review:

Sharon McKay is on trial for her best friend Ann Rice’s murder. Never mind that there’s no body, no real witnesses, and no evidence. Sharon and Ann’s friends saw them hike up to the cliff that night and heard Ann scream “Don’t!” before she either fell or was pushed off the cliff. Everybody seems to be convinced that Sharon killed Ann.

Scenes of the trial from Sharon’s POV alternate between scenes prior to the accident/murder from Ann’s POV. What Sharon didn’t know was that Ann was obsessed. Ann’s brother, Jerry, had loved Sharon and had killed himself after their relationship ended. Ann blamed Sharon and wanted her to suffer. What better way to do that than frame her for murder, thereby ruining her bright future? (I’m sure you can think of better and less risky ways she could have gotten her revenge, but just roll with it.)

REVIEW: Weekend (book) by Christopher Pike

Weekend is a mix of mystery and suspense. It was originally published in 1986.

No read-alikes for this one.

Review:

Lena Carlton invites her classmates to spend the weekend at her family's mansion in Mexico. Lena's gravely ill sister, Robin, is already there. Seven other people arrive: Sol, Lena's boyfriend; Kerry, the girl Sol dumped to be with Lena; Park, Robin's ex-boyfriend; Angie, the girl Park dumped Robin to be with; Flynn, a mysterious new student from England; Shani, Park's childhood friend who's nursing a not-so-secret crush on Flynn; and Bert, an agreeable guy who's either secretly brilliant (according to Shani) or just massively lucky (according to me).

The weekend fun kicks off, as much as possible considering Robin's condition and the volatile combination of attendees, most of whom were also at the fateful party that resulted in Robin's kidney damage. Supposedly everything that happened that night was an accident, but what if it wasn't? Shani, in particular, can't quite banish that thought. What if one of her friends had purposely tried to kill Robin? This becomes an important question when the weekend takes a sudden turn for the worse. The garage blowing up is only the beginning.

REVIEW: Whisper of Death (book) by Christopher Pike

Whisper of Death is YA horror, originally published in 1991. I got it via ILL.

This review includes loads of spoilers. You've been warned. No read-alikes list, because all I could come up with was Stephen King's The Langoliers, and I'm only familiar with the TV movie adaptation.

Review:

I'll start this off with a laundry list of warnings. This book features abortion and treats it as murder. It has multiple references to rape (one instance where the word is used and a few others where it isn't). Also, at one point, the heroine consoles herself after her decision to have an abortion by telling herself that “Our child probably would have been retarded” (22), because both she and the father didn't do very well in school. Oh yes, and there's some fat person stereotyping.

Okay, now on to the summary. Roxanne and Pepper are two high school students in Salem, Arizona who try their best to look cool and unaffected by the world. They start dating, have sex, and Roxanne discovers she's pregnant four weeks or so later. She'd like to keep the baby, but Pepper convinces her to have an abortion. At the clinic, however, Roxanne changes her mind. She and Pepper head back to Salem, at which time things begin to get weird.

The whole town is deserted, and even radios and telephones don't work. The only other people Roxanne and Pepper find are three other teens: Helter, a hothead who believes in shooting first and asking questions later; Leslie, the school beauty; and Stan, the overweight smart kid who's already taking college-level math. It's Stan who figures out the common denominator tying them all together: Betty Sue, a girl at their school who killed herself four weeks ago.

Remember Me (book) by Christopher Pike

Remember Me is a YA supernatural mystery.

This review contains great big spoilers. You've been warned.

Synopsis:

Shari falls four stories to her death while at a birthday party. Did she jump, or was she pushed? Shari, now a ghost, is determined to find out. The suspects include:

• Beth, the big-breasted birthday girl, who may have been trying to steal Shari's boyfriend away from her;
•  Dan, Shari's boyfriend, who seemed a little too interested in Beth's charms;
• Jeff, Beth's boyfriend, who seemed to dislike Shari for some reason;
• Amanda, Shari's brother's girlfriend, who Shari sometimes teased about being poor;
• and Jo, Shari's best friend, who had a crush on Jeff and didn't seem as upset about Shari's death as Shari thought she should be.

Shari's investigation is hampered by two things. One, she's a newbie ghost and has no idea how to even walk through solid objects, much less communicate with the living. And two, if she's not careful, the Shadow will find her and perhaps imprison her for good.

Review:

Christopher Pike was one of my all-time favorite authors when I was a teen, and Remember Me was one of my favorite books by him. This post on Ruth's Book Blog inspired me to reread it for the first time in I-can't-remember-how-long.