Weekend

Christopher Pike excelled in entertaining and swiftly moving thrillers for older young adults who were a bit more worldly. In this early effort from 1986, an involving story-line emerges within a narrative with steady movement. Pike keeps us turning pages to discover not only what happened in the past, but what’s going to happen now. Readers shouldn’t think too hard about this one, or many of Pike’s entertaining thrillers, any more than they should films like Scream, or I Know What You did Last Summer. You just enjoy the fun ride. And that is exactly what Weekend is, a thrill ride.

Robin and Lena Carlton live in a beach house on Point Eugenia in rural Mexico. Their adopted father is a wealthy record mogul. Robin is very ill, with show more failing kidneys. Every one of the young adults headed for Mexico by invitation after graduation, feels guilty about Robin’s situation. It seems they were all at the party where the “accident” involving Robin’s condition happened. Even though police could not prove it was intentional, each of the kids wonders if it was. This includes Shani Tucker, Robin’s best friend; Bert, the affable one; Sol, the barrio wolf among sheep at Hoover High; Lena, who stole Sol from high-strung and sometimes strung-out Kerry Ladd; Park Jacomini, who after the accident, dumped Robin for Angie; and a relative newcomer from England, dreamy Flynn Powers, Shani’s crush.

We get most of the narrative through the eyes of Shani, and Park. It’s fun to “watch” Pike peel back the layers as two separate groups approach Mexico. There was a prank that Kerry feels was perpetrated by the more sophisticated — and bitchy — Lena, who is the polar opposite of her sweet sister, Robin. Tension builds as they arrive, and everyone begins wondering why no one else from class has arrived. Lena may have had the wrong date on the invitations, making them arrive later. But is that true? These are kids with a lot of history, and Pike does a great job with their interactions. Sure, there are some stereotypes, but everyone who went to high school will recognize at least two or three of these personalities, because they ring true.

In chapter five, Pike gives us the flashback we’ve been waiting for, showing us the party from November at the heart of this supposedly dream weekend in Mexico. The author makes the kids real in that they aren’t always likable, and at other times we sympathize with them. It’s not clear who to root for, or even whether any of them can be ruled out as suspects. A couple of things seem obvious, but then is that so obvious that it must be a red herring? Finally there’s an explosion, and one of the group is dead. A tragic accident, or revenge? And still, why hasn’t anyone else arrived? If someone wants revenge, they’ll need to find out who put Robin out of action that night in order to save their own hides. With this group of friends, it may not be so easy.

This was a blast from the past, incredibly entertaining. I couldn’t stop reading, and had great fun. The climax is exciting, and the twist, while not totally unexpected, does add to the wonderfully cheesy but adorably satisfying aftermath. Fun not only for the audience at which it was originally aimed, but also those who like a retro ‘80s blast once in a while, Weekend is a great beach book, or a good one to curl up with on a rainy night. Terrific fun, and highly recommended! show less

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 show more 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.

I read nearly everything Christopher Pike wrote prior to 1996, so I assume I read this too, although I didn't remember one bit of it. I'll count it as a reread anyway.

So, this one actually held up pretty well. I don't know that I'd recommend it to someone who didn't already have the “Christopher Pike nostalgia” baggage, but the combination of characters worked well for me, and I had lots of fun when the action really got going.

There were some disappointing aspects. The supernatural elements were extremely light, limited to a mysterious shaman who told Robin a story that fit her situation eerily well. The book was also incredibly talky – Pike took his sweet time setting the stage, laying out everyone's histories with everyone else and showing how they all interacted. It wasn't until the story was more than halfway over that the action started and, even then, the characters spent a lot of time talking (there was a very long attempt to recreate what happened the night of the party that landed Robin in the hospital). I was able to put up with it because I actually liked all those messy relationships, even though I couldn't quite figure out why some of the characters had agreed to spend the weekend together, considering how much they hated each other.

As for how things worked out in the end, I swear, it read like something out of a made-for-TV thriller. There were lots and lots of snakes, an annoying character who wouldn't stop screaming, and multiple possible villains. Characters were drugged and/or poisoned. It was a mess. And at the same time, not nearly as big of a mess as I expected, in large part due to Pike's decision to turn this into one giant reader fake-out.

I'll confirm one thing as true: yes, Robin's kidneys were damaged, and yes, she was on dialysis. As far as everything else went, it'd seem like you knew the truth and then it was revealed that actually something completely different had been going on. I suppose I should have felt cheated – there was so much fakery that the Carlton mansion might as well have been a Hollywood set – but instead I had a blast. I doubt I'd react so well if I had been able to remember anything from my original reading of it, or if I read another Pike novel soon after this one that did the same thing, but it was a lot of fun this once.

That said, wow was the ending fluffy. Why were any of these people still friends? Most of them should have quietly agreed to keep each other's secrets and then never talked to each other again. Or, you know, called the cops on each other. No matter the motives, the result was still arson and attempted murder. These people win the award for most dysfunctional friends ever.

If you're looking for something completely bonkers, it'd probably be best to read something else, especially if you're interested in Pike's usual supernatural elements. But if you'd like a slightly more grounded level of bonkers and don't mind massive fake-outs, this might be a good one to try.

Rating Note:

I'm probably giving this too high of a rating, but I don't care - it's how I felt immediately after finishing the book.

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

Sorry folks. I really should stop reading these books. But this one was available at the library. I was helpless. And I can’t promise that I won’t be going back to the library for more; apparently there’s a five-book vampire series that came out this century, so I kind of feel obligated to check it out.

But back to this one, brought to you by the year 1986. Same basic premise as Slumber Party – a bunch of friends are getting together for a weekend away, and one of them was seriously injured (poisoned to the point that her kidneys no longer work) at a party a few months prior. This takes place at a beach, not a lodge, and there are guys already part of the group. It is set at a fancy house on the Mexican coast (Mr. Pike seems to show more enjoy his super-rich kids). There are cat-fighting girls. There is a mystical man (one guess as to his described ethnicity). There are snakes.

This one had one twist that I saw about two chapters in; there was another twist that took me maybe four chapters. What I’m saying is that there isn’t a lot left to the imagination. And sometimes the writing is kind of hilarious – Mr. Pike is clearly trying to paint pictures with words. Sometimes he is really successful (I have to say I have no problem conjuring up his worlds in my mind) and sometimes he just goes overboard.

Am I glad I read it? Sure. Can I recommend it? Eh. If you’ve got 90 minutes to kill and want to dive into a little YA fun, you could do worse. show less

3.5 stars

I've always been a big fan of Christopher Pike - as a reading machine teenager I gobbled his stuff up like candy. Most of his stuff still wows me as an adult, but while this was a good book, it doesn't fully hold up to my standards anymore.

A group of young adults go to visit their rich friends for a weekend of fun, drinking, and just joking about orgies that never happen. The two sisters who own the cabin are a blended group - one is a the too-pretty-to-be-true girl who can grab any man she wants, while the other is a sweet and ailing sister who is the victim of a poisoning the last time the friends got together. We have to go through her frequent kidney dialysis, and can I just say that's not a fun thing? Kidneys always bugged show more me, so I can sympathize with anyone who has to go through that.

'Weekend' loved to freak me out with snakes too. Rattlers are everywhere - in the first few chapters, later, and then with the ending in a big way. *Shudder* I HATE snakes, especially vipers. The ending scene was especially bad and nightmare worthy, I can't imagine much that would be worse. I'm not sure Pike was realistic with some of the snakes, though. I don't think they drip brown stuff from fangs, but who knows, they're creepy enough without it.

The first part of the book was almost dull because the gang drives and talks, stands around and talks, gets together and talks, and then is in the cabin awhile...talking. I know Pike wanted to set up the mystery that happened before, show the characters and their connections to each other, set the stage so to speak, but it would have been nice to have something jarring in between to keep the interest. The book got much better when the actual mystery part happened where they were confronted again about that awful party that went oh-so-wrong a year ago.

The ending is a little weak just because it was a bit unrealistic being so happily ever after for the characters. I expect this was because Pike was sticking true to the age level of this novel and needed to have something like that neatly wrapped up, but still it bugged me about one of the characters being let off so easily about the 'big, bad thing' they did.

Overall it's a good book and as usual, Pike shows his creative mental ability to show a twisted story a hand at a time, holding a lot of cards back until he reveals the full flush. His parable with the Dove, Eagle and Snake was also awesome, that small twist he puts in a story that makes it stand out as unique. show less

While this is an overall good book the ending was just not believable to me. It's also very reminiscent of Pike's other book Slumber Party, like he just switched up the names and a few key points. This would have been a 4 star book if the ending wasn't so dissatisfying.

May 7, 2000
Weekend
Christopher Pike

I recently bought this again, because it was one of my hands-down favorite “teen thriller” books of my younger days. Pike is my favorite teen horror author, and this particular book is my favorite out of all his books.

A group of friends are gathering at an isolated beach house in Mexico, the vacation home of one of the girls, who has a very rich father. No parents, no supervision – just a lot of drinking, pool partying, and sexual play. It has all the components of a titillating teen horror story – the good girl who tells the story, the slutty, sexy girl who can only be first cousin to a barracuda (and whose house it is), and the mysterious, sad figure of her younger sister, who is in show more permanent kidney failure from having been poisoned the year before by one of their friends. Everyone there knows it was one of them who spiked Robin’s drink with insect poison, and they’re all just as sure that it was by accident, and someone else was meant to die that day, since Robin is a sweet, harmless, everybody-loves-her girl that nobody would want to harm. Permanently crippled and on dialysis, she’s now slowly dying.
The kids are stranded at this Acapulco paradise when their mode of transportation mysteriously explodes, and it soon becomes clear that somebody wants revenge and answers.

I just loved this book when I first read it, and years later as an adult I still get a great kick out of it. Pike – and this book in particular – was one of my many inspirations for becoming a writer (though I’ve mostly gotten over the desire to write teen horror. Not totally, but mostly…) show less

Interesting enough a book. What irks me was that how come I never saw this book when I was a pre-teen. Certainly back in the days when I was such a C. Pike book collector (with only a pitiful amount of student's allowance to sustain the bookworm I am), I would've seen this book. Now I can only buy it online, as a second hand book. *sigh*

It does feel good to be able to reminisce and think back to a time when I thought that Pike was the greatest horror writer. Alongside this was the realization that I'm now gravitating towards other book genres. Now I find Pike's writing to be a tad supernatural for my taste.

But then, that has always been his style: elements of the everyday occurrences interspersed with the supernatural, beings from show more different planes, of revenge and the twist waiting for the reader at the end.

Book Details:

Title Weekend
Author Christopher Pike
Reviewed By Purplycookie show less