The cover art and synopsis of this book are completely misleading. The cover art shows extremely attractive, healthy teens, but in the story, the teens are near death and look quite sick. The synopsis makes the book sound like a horror novel, but it is not that at all. This is a thoughtful novel about teens who are facing death and must come to terms with it. The story is also quite depressing. After all, every character will die.
In Christopher Pike's Tales of Terror #2, Pike remarks, "I still don't understand why my publishers put scary covers on my books. Once I would like to see a beautiful painting under my name."
That would have been more appropriate for this particular book, but it probably would have sold fewer copies.
From page 106:
"Mary had been really popular at school, but lost it. The year before she was a cheerleader and had every guy in school asking her out. But at the end of the year she was at a party and got real drunk. Driving home in her father's huge semi, she smashed into a car holding six guys from the football team—including the quarterback—and wasted them all."Even though the story is in very bad taste, I had to laugh at the absurdity of Mary driving a semi to a party.
"Wait a second," Ilonka said. "Her father loaned her his semi to go to a party?"
"Exactly," Spence said. "He knew about his daughter's drinking. He figured if she crashed into something in his semi she wouldn't get hurt. And she didn't get a scratch, although she did destroy the heart of the football team.
For me, this is a below average Christopher Pike book, mainly because it depressed me.
The body in the woods turns out to be Jenny's best friend, and Jenny is the prime suspect for her murder. Jenny still can't remember anything, but she must find a way to defend herself against a charge of murder for which she hopes she is not guilty.
This is a pretty good book.
1 comment:
This is one of my favorite Christopher Pike books. I was a huge fan of him back in high school (mid to late 90s)and am still a fan today. While everyone is entitled to their own opinions, I find it hard to understand why you'd say a book below average, mainly because it depressed you. Books are supposed to make you feel something, to make you think about the world around you in different ways. I guess that's why I enjoy Pike so much. I found his books under the 'teen thriller' section but they were so much more. I'd never thought about the end of the universe and the remaking of it, but I lived it with Alpha Book aka Page Christian (The Starlight Crystal). I'd never really thought about the complexity of relationships and how easily they can fall apart but I was (and still am) so sad for Poppy Corn and Freedom Jack (Road to Nowhere). And no one (who read this book) can ever forget Betty Sue McCormick and her awesome, yet terrifying, power (Road to Nowhere). All of these reasons and a so many more are what set Christopher Pike apart from a lot of the other 'teen horror' authors of the time. For me, the Midnight Club holds a special place as well. It dealt with the reality of teenagers dying but in a very real way. Oddly, I loved this book so much but couldn't get into the book series that was completely about teens dying from cancer. (I can't remember the name of it but I just remember that was the main plot point of each book.) Like I said, everyone is allowed their own opinions (It would be an awful place if we weren't!) and you, overall, had great things to say about The Midnight Club. I just found that one comment a little odd. I didn't mean to go on a rant about it! xD
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