Christopher Pike The Immortal and The Wicked Heart

In The Immortal, Josie vacations in Greece with her father, his girlfriend, and her best friend, Helen.  Josie doesn't get along with her father's girlfriend, and quite often, she doesn't get along with Helen.  Helen wants Josie to stay away from a boy she likes, so Josie meets him privately, gaining his affection.  Later, Josie ends up alone on a sacred island.  She finds an ancient statue of a goddess, which she decides to keep and smuggle out of Greece.  Too late, Josie learns that someone is trying to kill her.

Doesn't Josie sound like a lovely person?  She's awful, and Helen is just as bad.  It's hard to enjoy a book when the protagonists are unlikable, horrible people.  The story is also boring.

I found an old bookmark of mine between pages 96 and 97.   During a reading of this book years ago, I obviously lost interest and quit.  I don't know if that occurred the first time I read the book or upon attempting to read it again.  I remember just about nothing about the story, and I have no idea if I had read the last part of the book before.

This is not a good book.

In The Wicked Heart, Dusty Shame is a high school student and a serial killer.  He has killed three teenage girls already, and a voice in his head compels him to continue killing.  Dusty has to kill to silence the voice, but then the voice starts back up, causing him to continue killing girls.

When Dusty kills Sheila Hardholt's best friend, Sheila begins looking for clues to the identity of the serial killer.  Little does Sheila know that her lab partner, Dusty, is the killer.

On page 79, "Dusty Shame sat in his car down the street from Wendy Bart's house and contemplated dark deeds."  This description makes me think of Dexter.

This is a creepy book.  Near the beginning is the scene in which Dusty kills Sheila's best friend.  It is quite disturbing and bothered me more than it did as a teen.  I have experienced events since then that have changed my perspective and reading about a serial killer actually killing someone is unsettling.

This is a very good book.