Slumber Party

Once I started reading, a few memories came back. When I read this as a kid (I was probably too young to be reading it) I definitely tried to look up the definition of "hornier". I don't recall if it was in the World Book Dictionary that came with the complete Encyclopedia, but I plan on checking next time I'm home (if my mom still has them...surely she does, she gets rid of nothing).

The mystery was still mysterious three decades later; however, the jokes about eating disorders and all the discussion about dieting was most unwelcome. The 80s/90s were so unkind to women even in books and movies about "strong women".

Atmosphere, Atmosphere, Atmosphere!

I have been a Pike fan since my teens. This little book packs a heck of a demented and creepy punch. Perfect Halloween pick people!

The fact is this is YA Mystery but GOOD and QUALITY YA mystery. Quality makes a difference. So too does atmosphere.

And man oh man have we atmosphere here. The whole book takes place at a ski lodge with a group of girls. Fire and a bit of Pyromania is thrown in. Nell, Lara, Dana, Rachel..are all alone at this ski lodge. It is the first time all the girls have been together since a tragedy in their past.

It is short but really intense. This is a book you read for fun if you want to be a bit creeped out. You will be. It is creepier then many of Pike's earlier stuff.

SPOILERS:

I show more knew (SORT OF) where it was going but that does not mean I was not completely creeped out by the whole Eerie premise including the basement scene where some girls are held captive.

This was a scary little horror tale...I am a Pike fan, of his early stuff and this one should not be missed. 3.5 stars. show less

So I think I've decided that thrillers set before cell phones and Internet research work well. It's a lot easier to accept that someone going missing might just be them out on a walk if they can't be reached by text message. As this book was written in 1986, it makes sense that when, say, one member of the group disappears, it's totally reasonable that she's just gone somewhere else. Or when someone seems suspicious, it makes sense to just feel things out, because you can't exactly Google them to see if their story checks out.

I definitely remember reading this book when I was younger. So it's hard for me to say whether the book is super predictable, or it was predictable because somewhere in my mind I remembered what happened when I show more read it 20 years ago or so. The premise is a bunch of high school 'friends' (in Mr. Pike's world, young women always seem to be more like frenemies than true friends) go to a giant house in a ski area for a weekend away from their parents. Skiing and meeting boys are the two main objectives. Oh, and one other thing - Nell, the one whose parents own the house, was burned during a freak accident about eight years prior, when the same group of girls were together at a sleepover. Nell's younger sister Nicole was killed in that same accident.

Nell's face was pretty badly burned, so there's that underlying issue. And of course her dead sister (although she is apparently rarely discussed). There's Rachel, who is blond and gorgeous (but also mean, because of course); Mindy, Rachel's dim-witted friend who chews a lot of gun (excellent character development); Dawn, who is a bit pudgy (again, that's about all we get); and Lara, whose third person perspective is the view we get in the book. Lara and Dawn are clearly close, as are Mindy and Rachel. Lara also brings along Celeste, a new girl at school who is a couple of years younger than the girls.

Things happen. Lara and Rachel end up interested in the same guy, Percy, who is friends with Cal, a guy who apparently got way too fresh with Dawn when they were alone together. There is a party, there is a disappearance, and there is the fear of murder.

When the twist comes, you will either go DUH, saw it coming from a mile away, or you will smack yourself because you SHOULD have seen it coming a mile away. This is not Shakespeare, it is not deep, there is not any sort of serious character development. But it was fun to read on the elliptical this morning. show less

My first Christopher Pike thriller. Somehow I missed these books as a kid. A shame too as I would have loved this stuff back then. I liked it even now.

A group of six teenage girls meets up for a weekend of skiing. The girls share a tragic past that is casting shadows over this weekend. I can't really say more. The book's synopsis does, but for me it wound up spoiling some of the twists in the story.

I wasn't sure what to expect from a teen horror/suspense novel. I have to admit, the story drew me in. The story started slowly, but the author was skillful at dropping in incongruities and then teasing them out to build suspense.

Also, though the book is twenty-five years old(!) it did not feel dated. The book wisely did not reference any show more current pop culture or make any out-dated references. The frank treatment of sex shocked my old self (not that it was over-done), but would have felt so daring to me as a teenager.

In spite of myself, I did want to know where it was going. Sure, I was well passed the target audience's age and I don't see myself becoming a teen horror junkie, but I wish I knew about those books in my teens. I would have torn through them. show less

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 show more something supernatural at play.

This was incredibly tedious. At least half of the book was Lara and Rachael snapping and growling at each other over something - either over the upcoming homecoming queen vote, or Percy, a cute guy they'd met. Dana was their fat friend (who actually said, out loud, "I wish anorexia was contagious and I knew someone who could infect me." (16)), and Mindy was their stupid friend. For some reason Mindy insisted on fighting with Dana about a second guy, Cal, even though Dana made it clear that she wasn't interested in him. The problem was that Cal was very much interested in Dana, or at least in groping her, whether she was willing or not. Cal was gross, despite Pike's weak efforts to reform him at the end of the book.

The book's big twist was both painfully obvious and more than a little far-fetched. Pike tried to complicate things with the melted snowman and Dana's disappearance, but it didn't work out very well and felt at least as weak as his attempt to make Cal look like a decent person at the end.

I can't remember if I ever read this when I was a teen. It wouldn't surprise me if I had and then immediately forgot about it. It's definitely not one of Pike's better works.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

Fast paced with a cast of sketchy characters that make you think it could be any one of them. I figured out the twist about half way through. Lots of red herrings throughout that make you think twice.

Fast paced with a cast of sketchy characters that make you think it could be any one of them. I figured out the twist about half way through. Lots of red herrings throughout that make you think twice.