This book came through on the shelving cart and I picked it up out of overwhelming nostalgia. My best friend in sixth grade, Marnee, and I read every single book that Christopher Pike had written. We were obsessed. I bought her this particular book for her 12th birthday party. I fondly flipped through the first few pages, and then checked it out to myself to read on my lunch hour.

Sharon and Ann are best friends. Sharon is poor and an extremely talented pianist (on her way to Julliard); Ann is an unbelievably wealthy orphan who secretly hates Sharon. Consumed by her fiery hatred, she decides to hurt Sharon as much as she can.

She decides the best way to do this is to fake her own death, to set Sharon up for her own murder. Ann, Sharon, Ann's fiancee Paul, Sharon's boyfriend Fred, and their friend Chad go camping one night...where Ann screams and jumps off a cliff (with a bungee cord tied to her waist), leaving Sharon at the top, the obviously guilty murderer.

But, where's the body? Why did Ann hate Sharon so much? Paul was supposed to be in on the plan - what went wrong? What does Chad know? Why on earth is Sharon dating Fred, who is a total dipshit? Can Sharon's prettyboy lawyer uncover the truth in time for Sharon to go to Julliard?

As with most Christopher Pike novels, the plot is a wee bit unbelievable, the parents are universally absent, the teenagers are completely horny and murderous, and the exotic babes with long black hair are always the evil ones. I wonder if Christopher Pike has an exotic babe with long black hair in his past... ( )

The book starts with Sharon McKay, a high school senior and accomplished pianist, standing trial for the murder of her best friend, the rich and beautiful Ann Rice (yes. Ann Rice. And Pike uses her full name almost every time he mentions her.) Sharon and Ann had been camping up on a ridge with Ann's fiance, Paul, his brother (and Ann's gardener), Chad, and Sharon's newish boyfriend Fred. After the girls went off together for a walk, the boys heard Ann shout "Don't!" and when they got to the edge of the cliff they found Sharon crying that Ann had gone over the side.

But no one could find her body...

The story is told by flipping between flashbacks from the perspective of different friends and the present-day trial and its aftermath. Sharon, who swears she is innocent, is helped through the trial by her seriously creepy court-appointed attorney, John Richmond, who keeps putting his hand on her leg and making very inappropriate sexual banter. So you know that is going to go well.

Of course, nothing is as it seems and the whole thing turns into a vicious circle of double-crossing, lies, misunderstandings, and manipulations. And some seriously fucked up high school students with apparently no parental supervision or interaction with the ordinary world.

The cheesy descriptions may be more compelling than the plot for much of this young adult suspense novel, but Pike does throw in a few twists that I had forgotten, and even though I rolled my eyes through the first half of the novel, I did get caught up in it towards the end.

[full review here: http://spacebeer.blogspot.com/2009/01...] ( )

This is the second Christopher Pike book I've read and again it was a very intricate and twisted story. I can't even imagine teenagers thinking this way, I'm glad I never had friends like these! I had an idea of what the end would be like near the beginning, but there were still surprises. While the end was well-written, I didn't like the way it ended. It was also a very abrupt ending, leaving some questions in the end as to what would happen to Sharon. It was definitely a suspenseful read. ( )