Jul 13, 2023
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The Midnight Club by Christopher Pike
"In that minute, Ilonka both found and lost something precious, a friend more dear than all the gems in all the wide world. 'Found' because she had loved him at first sight, and 'lost' because he was obviously a patient and was presumably going to die."
Year Read: before 2006, 2022
Rating: 5/5
About: Rotterdam Hospice is a place for teenagers with terminal illnesses, and it's home to The Midnight Club, where five teens meet at midnight to share scary stories. They make a pact that the first among them to die will try to contact the others from the afterlife. Trigger warnings: character death, child death, suicide, overdose, guns/mass shootings, drug/alcohol use, terminal illnesses, cancer, AIDS, paralysis, amputation, grief, guilt.
Thoughts: This has long been one of my favorite Christopher Pike novels, and I was excited to reread it in preparation for the upcoming Netflix show. It's one of his sadder and less frightening novels, but it's a prime example of the blend of philosophy and spiritualism that permeates his work. It's almost never overtly religious, and neither is The Midnight Club; it's more an examination of possible afterlives, questioned by the people who are most likely to be deeply concerned about that issue: the dying.
Understandably, it's a very sad book, and I spend the second half of it bawling every time I read it. It's difficult to watch Ilonka cling to herbal cures and the hope that she might be getting better. The characters' storytelling takes up as much or more page-time than the actual events, which take place over a very short span of time. In the first half, I felt they were overwhelming the actual characters, and I wanted to spend more time getting to know them. By the second, however, I was grateful for the stories providing some breathing room from the heavy grief of the novel.
Pike is fond of his stories-within-stories, and he's in his element here. While I doubt some of them, like Spence's trigger happy mass shooter on top of the Eiffel Tower, would go over as well with modern audiences, the stories are often insightful looks into the characters' connections and personalities, particularly with Ilonka's and Kevin's. It's like Pike to venture into past lives, and it's a thoughtful, haunting, and ultimately hopeful study on death and afterlives, with a beautiful bit of symbolism at the end that has stayed with me for years. We have the sense that the characters have been here before and will be again, and while that’s never easy, somehow it's okay. It will always be a favorite.
Postcard: Casa de la Libertad, Sucre, Bolivia.
"Patio del claustro con la torre zse las iglesia de San Miguel."
"El edificio conocido como Casa de la Libertad fue el lugar en el que se firmó el Acta de la Independencia del Alto Perú (actualmente Bolivia) en 1825. En este edificio se redactó la primera constitución de Bolivia a partir de ese momento y hasta 1898 se reunió el Congreso Boliviano. Se encuentra ubicada en la Plaza 25 de mayo, en el centro de la ciudad de Sucre, capital de Bolivia."
Fall Into Darkness by Christopher Pike
"That night, she had learned in a way she would never forget what it was like to fall into darkness."
Year Read: before 2006, 2023
Rating: 3/5
About: Ann Rice is dead. Her best friend, Sharon McKay, is on trial for her murder. Nobody saw Sharon push Ann over the cliff. Their friends only heard them arguing, before Ann shouted, "Don't!" and screamed as she fell. Sharon insists she must have committed suicide, but the truth is far more twisted. Trigger warnings: character death, dead body (on page), suicide, severe injury, violence, guns/knives, eye horror, blood, police.
Thoughts: Rereading books I read in high school is always such a ride. I remembered the overall premise of this book but little else about it, including the end. After reading it again, it's pretty clear to me why that happened, since the premise is the strongest thing about it. There's something so compelling about Ann's revenge plot, and I enjoyed the way Pike set it up as a back and forth of court room scenes and the actual night to maximize the suspense. Sharon's lawyer is less a character than a funny, useful device for delivering plot twists, and it works.
Pike does a nice job setting up Sharon and Ann's friendship and motivations. Despite the extremeness of Ann's plan, I always felt like I knew exactly why she was doing what she did, and it makes it easier to suspend disbelief. Unfortunately, this isn't the case for the real villain of the novel. The book hangs on to that surprise for so long that, not only did I not remember who it was, I had no idea why they were doing any of the totally bonkers things they were doing. Well-developed villains are imperative in horror/thrillers for me, but it's a fun ride overall, if a bit silly by the end.
Sweet Valley High: R for Revenge by Francine Pascal
"'What goes around comes around ... But sometimes it takes a long, long time,' Nancy whispered."
Year Read: before 2006, 2022
Rating: 3/5
About: When a new rule goes into place, the Sweet Valley High cheerleading squad is forced to choose a faculty advisor, and co-captains Jessica Wakefield and Heather Mallone are determined to find one who won't interfere too much. When Elizabeth suggests Nancy Swanson, the timid library assistant, they decide she's the perfect choice. Nancy is quiet and awkward, but she attends every game and knows a lot about cheerleading and, best of all, she won't try to be in charge. Meanwhile, Elizabeth is helping out on some research for a magazine article on the past cheerleaders of Sweet Valley High. What she finds is far more tragic and deadly than she could have imagined, and history has a way of repeating itself. Trigger warnings: death, car accidents, drowning, abduction, captivity, guns, illness, bullying, ableism, infidelity.
Thoughts: I always loved Sweet Valley as a kid, and I should have realized that a special fondness for the horror/thriller editions was eventually going to turn into a love for both genres. I have a high bar for both though, so I wouldn't call this terribly thrilling. A good portion of it is given over to Jessica's pursuit of Brad, an especially sleazy love interest who flirts with everyone, including her twin sister. (There are so many reasons Elizabeth was always my favorite Wakefield twin.) He killed a lot of the book for me.
Aside from that, it's a fun plot with plenty of twists. It's creepy when the cheerleaders start disappearing one by one, although there's not much mystery involved. It's clear early on that Nancy is behind it and also that she needs a therapist, not a basement full of dead cheerleaders, but the 90s were a different time for mental health representation (and it's still always not top notch, let's be real). Almost thirty years later, I'm not sure this book would be published, since making the villain of the story a traumatized and disabled victim of bullying is pretty gross. The ending gets a little silly, but it's entertaining overall, if not one of my favorites in the series.
See You Later by Christopher Pike
"It began with a smile, or at least that's what I thought. But then, I didn't think much when I was eighteen. I just longed for things I didn't have, and reacted when they came to me and I no longer wanted them. But love ... I always wanted to be in love, and to have love, and to pretend they were one and the same thing."
Year Read: before 2006, 2022
Rating: 4/5
About: Mark is a high school video game developer who's just fallen in love for the first time. Unfortunately, Becky already has a boyfriend, and Mark is hesitant to pursue her. When he meets Vincent, a quiet man who asks for help in play-testing his own video game, Vincent's beautiful and enigmatic girlfriend takes an interest in Mark's love life. In fact, Kara seems unusually invested in Mark going out with Becky, even to the point of trying to sabotage her current relationship. What Kara's real motivations are, and where she and Vincent truly come from, is more like one of Mark's science fiction games than he ever could have imagined. Spoilers are under the cut. Trigger warnings: character death (graphic, on-page), nuclear war, car accidents, asphyxiation, severe illness, violence, guns, blood, threats, infidelity.
Thoughts: This has always been one of my favorites of Pike's standalone novels, but for various reasons, it didn't quite hit me the same way this time. I love the story that's being told here, though it edges into science fiction territory, but Pike has always been able to make sci-fi more accessible to me. While things like time travel, cryogenic freezing, and nuclear war are all central to the plot, the truth is that they're all too vague to feel like we're truly in a sci-fi novel or to even be sure what really happens, and I'm okay with that. In instances like this one, I even prefer it, since I'm not sure the story works at all if we look at it too closely. And it's such a sad, lovely story.
As always with Pike, the book is really about people, and the small and large roles we play in the universal balance between good and evil. Every small action matters, and what matters most of all is love. As far as messages go, I'm hard pressed to think of a better one, and it's present throughout so many of his novels. Like most of Pike's narrators, Mark is a nerdy teenager with a crush, and I wasn't terribly invested in his relationship with Becky until Kara and Vincent (my love) arrived on the scene. Kara is a variation of Pike's usual mysterious, headstrong blonde, and I love their relationships with kind, quiet Vincent. While the villains aren't often on the page, the novel interrogates whether or not being a villain is a foregone conclusion. If just one thing changes, can the whole world change?
I still love Vincent's video game and the moral message there, and the whole novel comes over emphatically anti-war. What bothered me about it this time was the ending, particularly in the treatment of one of the characters, but more on that after the spoilers. I often find myself reaching for Pike's novels when I'm going through emotional distress, and whatever my thoughts about them, they never fail to comfort me. I need his worlds and his characters to remind me that there is magic and grace in everything, even (and maybe especially) when it doesn't turn out the way we hoped.
Carrie by Stephen King
"This is the girl they keep calling a monster. I want you to keep that firmly in mind. The girl who could be satisfied with a hamburger and a dime root beer after her only school dance so her momma wouldn't be worried..."
Year Read: before 2006, 2020
Rating: 3/5
About: Carrie is the high school outcast, the butt of every joke and the target of every prank since childhood. Crazy, weird, ugly Carrie, with her savagely Christian mother and backward views. When some locker room bullying crosses a line, half the girls senior class is punished for it. Sue Snell is contrite and tries to find a way to make it up to Carrie; Chris Hargensen is livid and vows revenge. Even Carrie is unaware of the power she holds, a telekinetic power she's had since birth, and no one is prepared for what happens when Chris's revenge goes too far. Trigger warnings: death/child death (some graphic), electrocution, abusive households, some gore, fires, severe illness/heart attack, violence, bullying, slut shaming, fat shaming, low self-esteem.
Thoughts: I read this sometime in high school and didn't think much of it, and for once, my past self and I are in perfect agreement. This just isn't one of my favorite King novels. There's no doubt the story has resonance and has made its way indelibly into popular culture, but the book itself is less than spectacular. What everyone remembers about Carrie is the prom scene, but my major takeaway is that there's a hideous amount of bullying leading up to that. At times, the narrative almost invites us to hate Carrie alongside her tormenters, for no particular reason. It certainly doesn't go out of its way to make her likable, though she hardly gets a chance to know herself, much less for us to know her. And that's pretty much it, right there: she never has a chance. It's less a horror novel than a tragedy.
I'm not fond of this early found footage format, where asides from paranormal researchers and newspaper reporters frequently intrude to tell us how to interpret the events. On the one hand, I like having more insight into the context and history of Carrie's abilities. On the other, I can't help feeling there's a more effective way to do this. I'm just not sure what these are meant to accomplish. Given that we have inside looks into Carrie, Sue, and Chris's perspectives, we know the reports sometimes get things wrong. There's a comment there about the difference between reality and media, but it's not emphasized or seemingly relevant to the story so, just... why is it there? Maybe I'm overthinking it. I'm also not crazy about the little parenthetical intrusions of Carrie and Sue's... subconscious? other brain voices? Both of these together add up to one overall impression, and it's that this is a first novel and King got a lot better at it over time.
Sweet Valley Twins: The Carnival Ghost by Francine Pascal
"'I can't believe I won!' Elizabeth exclaimed. 'There are lots of things people don't believe that they should believe, Elizabeth,' Claire said with a smile."
Year Read: before 2006, 2020
Rating: 3/5
About: When a traveling carnival arrives in Sweet Valley over winter break, twins Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield are excited. Elizabeth is looking forward to the haunted house, and Jessica can't wait to visit the fortune teller. When Elizabeth befriends the carnival owner's daughter, Claire, strange things start happening. Elizabeth isn't acting like herself; she skips her chores, snaps at her friends, and insists on spending all her time at the carnival with Claire. Jessica worries that her twin is in danger, and she might be the only one who can stop it. Trigger warnings: death/child death, (possible?) severe injury, threats.
Thoughts: I loved this series when I was a kid, and this was one of my most-read titles, checked out of the library again and again because even in a world of sunny California with perfect twins with perfect lives, I still went for the horror. It doesn't hold up as well as some, but I suspect that's less to do with the series as a whole and more to do with the fact that I'm well outside the middle grade audience now. The story doesn't come to vivid life in my head as well as it did at nine years old, sitting on the stairs for hours with my nose in a Sweet Valley book.
Mainly, it comes down to the writing and the structure, and I can't help feeling the book would have been spookier if more of it were told from Elizabeth's perspective instead of from Jessica's, watching her from the sidelines. The dialogue is also fairly stilted; they say each others' names in conversations well more than ordinary people ever do (I don't think I've ever said someone's name that much in my entire life). It also skates by some things I wish we got to see more of, like Lila's elaborate carnival party. However, there are a handful of moments that stood out vividly in my memory even after twenty years, and some scenes are quite scary, ghosts, skeletons, and melting faces among them. The end confrontation is creepy and compelling, and I enjoyed the ride. Beware the Ferris Wheel.