Monster

“She had driven herself within an inch of death, and perhaps the alien organism that flowed in her veins had even helped her so far. But the human part of her couldn’t bear it. She was only eighteen. She didn’t want to die.”


Rarely can you use the terms powerful and poignant about a thriller with science fiction and horror elements aimed at teenagers, but it’s a testament to how good Christopher Pike is that you can with Monster. Don’t let the cover fool you; this is in many ways very adult, and riveting. This is the norm for Pike when he writes stories for those in their late teenage years. This one is from 1992 and it is both involving and somewhat gruesome without becoming too graphic. The young adults in this one — and show more all of Pike’s books — have a worldliness to them; they have sex or want to, and relate to each other in a very real manner emotionally. It gives Monster a grit and heart one might not expect, and makes what happens quite moving, even memorable. How often can you say that about young adult fiction, in any genre?

Monster starts off with a literal bang as pretty Mary Blanc walks into a party and shoots Todd Green and head cheerleader Kathy Baker, before desperately trying to kill her boyfriend, football jock Jim Kline. The newer girl in town, her friend Angela Warner, prevents her from murdering Jim, believing she is doing the right thing. Her belief that her friend has gone insane is only reinforced when the Vietnam veteran cop from the town of Point where they live, Nguyen, allows Angela to get Mary’s story — as he secretly tapes their conversation. And what a story it is, because Mary claims that the kids she murdered were no longer human, but monsters of some kind. She also claims they are murderers; apparently the kind who eat people and dispose of their remains. And she is very insistent that Jim Kline must also be killed, before THEY spread, and it’s too late…

I want to be careful here and not ruin what follows, but it’s very involving, and executed so deftly that after a while you just can’t put it down. As Angela, for the sake of friendship, looks into Mary’s ridiculous claims, and Nguyen keeps an eye on her, something happens which makes the ending both thrilling and poignant. It all has to do with Point Lake, a meteor, and a take on an old trope so fresh you almost won’t recognize it. Pike makes you care about the people involved, especially Angela and the sweet boy named Kevin who is in love with her. But in Angela’s eyes he’s just a good friend. Star quarterback Jim Kline, however, is another matter, and he has a very plausible explanation for Mary’s behavior which, no matter how hard she fights it, thrills Angela’s heart.

An amulet given to Angela by an Indian who knows the lake’s secrets, which has ties to another in Chile, may be all that stands between her and a hunger which begins to swallow her up after she spends time with Jim. No one is safe, not even Angela’s little dog Plastic, and as Nguyen tries to find the warehouse where Mary says Jim and the others murdered people, Angela wages a war within herself. When Mary is finally released on bail, things take an even darker and more gruesome turn. Nguyen doesn’t want to believe Mary’s story, but he knows something is very, very wrong, and takes heed of Angela’s words to him:

“Quit following me. Let me do what I have to do. By the time you know enough to believe what is happening, you’ll already be dead.”

There is a tense and thrilling climax that has you hoping for a way out, followed by an epilog which is sad and resonating. This is absolutely wonderful, even though it is a bit violent and gruesome. It never gets so ugly you want to turn away, but a scene in a basement will certainly tug at the heartstrings. As good as any book in the young adult horror genre you’ll ever read, it has that magic quality of real people thrown into horrific circumstances, making for tremendously terrific entertainment. Don’t hesitate, just pick up this one as quick as you can. So awesome I’d give this ten stars if I could!!! show less

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 show more 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?

I knew going in that I had probably read this before, just because of how familiar the cover looked, but I couldn't remember anything about it. Or at least I thought I couldn't. Early on, I pulled a wild guess as to what was going on with Jim out of thin air. I was right, so maybe I retained more of this book than I realized. And I definitely remembered reading the last few pages before.

I disliked Angela. Some of what she thought and did could have been blamed on Jim's affect on her, but not all of it. Angela's taste in guys was abysmal. Jim was the kind of guy who only cared about himself. At one point, his and Angela's conversations touched on the environment, and Jim made it clear that the world only exists for the pleasure of the current generation. Who cares about future generations and what they'll have to live with? He also dipped into potential rapist territory, as he tried to push Angela into sexual behavior she wasn't 100% comfortable with. When he literally bled all over her during a make-out session, I wanted to shake her in frustration. Even Angela knew, on some level, that was he was doing was worrisome, but she waited far too long before looking into what might be going on and trying to fight it.

There was another character, Kevin, who I suspect readers were supposed to interpret as the "nice guy" right under Angela's nose, who she'd have been better off choosing. Unfortunately, I didn't think Kevin was much better. When readers first met him, he and Angela did some kind of roleplaying inside joke where she pretended he was the "other man" sneaking into her and her husband's house for a quickie. WTF? They were teens. They weren't in a relationship - Kevin was interested, and Angela wasn't. And yet she still did this weird adultery roleplay with him? Who does that?

If you like weird Christopher Pike books, this definitely has weirdness. There are dreams of an alien world, one where blood rains from the sky. There's a so-brief-you-might-miss-it mention of a technologically advanced ancient civilization (humans!), with space travel and ray guns. And bat-like things.

Pike included something I don't see much in current YA: an adult POV character. Nguyen was a local cop and Vietnam War vet. I appreciated that he wasn't an idiot and knew enough to keep an eye on Angela - this was not one of those books where teens repeatedly outsmart supposedly experienced cops (genuine monsters were another issue entirely). I think Nguyen was the only on-page adult in the entire book, however. I still think it's odd that Angela's grandfather never had an on-page moment, not even right after the shooting. Even though he didn't seem to be very much into parenting, you'd think he'd still have been at least the tiniest bit worried about his granddaughter.

I can't say that I liked this, but I didn't dislike it either. Angela was frustrating, and I really could have done without the book's sexual aspects (Angela literally got turned on by oil wells, OMG), but I enjoyed the weirdness and wanted to see how everything was going to turn out. And hey, there's a standoffish collie named Plastic! Who survives, in case I have now worried you.

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

Another re-read from my teenage years. Thankfully I have a crappy memory and forgot everything about the book other than how much I dig the cheesy, colorful cover.

While this one feels a little less complex than most of Pike's other works, Monster still wins in the plotting department. After Angela's friend Mary opens the book by walking in the door and shooting up some popular teens, Angela sets out to investigate why. Well, until she gets sidetracked by cute teenage jocks and weird Indian stories.

There's not much tension other than a scene or two at the end, and it's obvious there's something wrong with some of them from the start so there's little surprise, but finding out exactly what will happen to Angela by the end kept me hooked. show more There's definitely a dark note as deaths touch real close to home and Pike again dares to cross invisible moral boundaries. His writing style keeps it simple in this one, but I don't see myself outgrowing his prose.

It may not be as intricately clever and creative as most of Pike's other books, but it's still definitely worth a read. show less

Short, sweet, to the point classic Pike batshit crazy story.

It is well written and Pike really shows that he can convey a rainbow of emotions with his words. It is also quite a bit more gruesome than most of the other 90s YA horror books I've read, including other books by Pike. It definitely felt aimed more towards older teens. One of my favorites so far.

Thriller about high school teenagers (mostly the ones on the football team and cheerleaders) who are beginning to act strangely. A fellow student (Mary) guns some down at a party, claiming they are monsters. Her best friend Angela thinks Mary is losing her mind, but later on, she starts to believe her.

This was a very captivating and well written book. But I ended up not liking the main character (Angela) and I found her and her attitude annoying, which spoiled my enjoyment of the story. I also wasn’t happy with a lot of characters I liked getting killed. An okay read by Christopher Pike.

Darker and more gruesome than the average Pike book, but otherwise unremarkable.

I love Christopher Pikes books and I have loved them for years. I’m not sure why it took me so long to pick up Monster but I finally have and I have to say I was a little bit let down by it.

I don’t know if it was the plot or the characters that didn’t do it for me but something obviously didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the book, I just didn’t love it.

If you’re like me and are a fan of Christopher Pike but you haven’t read this one yet, I’d say read it. It’s good. However, if you just read his stuff once and awhile or have never read anything by him, I’d say skip it. At least for now. If you ever start running out of things to read by him, than pick it up. It’s not a bad book, it’s just he has much better show more stuff out there than Monster.

Note: This is an older review. So I don’t feel like I can get more into what I liked and disliked about it. Maybe someday I will re-read Monster and do another review. Better reviews (hopefully) in the future. show less