Category Archives: Book

Horror Novel Review: Friday the 13th Part II by Simon Hawke

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

It’s been five years since Pamela Voorhees’s went on a murderous rampage at Camp Crystal Lake.  Mrs. Voorhees is dead, Camp Crystal Lake has once again been declared off-limits, and the sole survivor of Pamela’s rampage is officially considered to be missing.

Paul Holt, who is renowned for his program that trains summer camp counselors, has opened up a camp on the shores of Crystal Lake.  With the help of his on-and-off again girlfriend, Ginny, Paul is training his counselors on how to handle every situation and also making sure that they all know better than to go wandering around the remains of Camp Crystal Lake.

Of course, Paul assures the counselors that Jason Voorhees is just a myth and he’s not really wandering around the woods, regardless of what the old-timers in town say.  Of course, Paul is wrong.  Jason is out there and he’s not at all happy about having a bunch of rowdy people partying so close to his home.  One night, when most of the counselors head into town, a small group remains at the camp and they soon come face-to-bag with Jason himself.

The novelization of Friday the 13th Part II was published in 1988, a full seven years after the film was first released.  As such, it follows the plot of the film fairly closely, even to the extent of starting with an extended flashback to Alice’s battle with Pamela Voorhees.  The kills happen in the same order and in the same way as they did in the film.

What writer Simon Hawke adds to the story is much the same thing that he added to his novelization of the first film.  He gives each of the character’s a backstory and explores how they feel about being at Camp Crystal Lake.  He makes them a little less generic than they were in the film.  For instance, Terri — who was pretty much just a girl who didn’t wear underwear and liked to skinny dip in the film — is revealed to actually by fiercely intelligent and independent in the novel.  We learn a lot more about Mark’s determination to be seen as being an individual as opposed to just the counselor in the wheelchair.  We learn that Sandra’s older brother once visited the Spahn movie ranch.  Ginny and Paul’s relationship also takes on a bit more depth in the novel than it did in the movie.

That said, for fans of the franchise, the most interesting thing about the novelization will be the passages that take place in Jason’s mind.  Hawke presents Jason as being someone who was shunned even as a child and who only had his mother in his life.  Jason is also revealed to being addicted to murder, needing the rush that he gets from the hunt.  We learn a bit more about how Jason has survived in the woods for all those years and what exactly he was doing in that abandoned cabin.  To be honest, it’s not as if Hawke really brings anything new to Jason’s mentality.  Anyone who has watched the movies knows that Jason is addicted to murder.  But it’s still interesting to see the other characters through Jason’s eyes.

The novelization of Friday the 13th Part 2 is an improvement on the first novelization though, again, it’s probably something for Friday the 13th completists only.  A copy of it can be found on the Internet Archive.

Horror Novel Review: Friday the 13th by Simon Hawke

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In the woods of New Jersey, there sits a summer camp that was abandoned after a child drowned and two counselors were subsequently murdered.  Now, nearly 20 years later, Steve Christy is determined to reopen Camp Crystal Lake, the summer camp that his family started and lost their fortune trying to save.  Steve has a group of young and enthusiastic camp counselors helping him to get the camp ready to go and, as they soon discover, Steve is a tough taskmaster.  He’s so tough that even his occasional girlfriend Alice is thinking about abandoning her job at the camp and returning home.

Of course, it’s not just Steve’s temper that the  counselors have to watch out for.  There’s also someone else lurking around the camp, someone who is determined to kill everyone involved in trying to reopen it.  One-by-one, the counselors fall victim to the killer until finally, only one survivor is left to fight for her life….

Interestingly enough, the novelization of Friday the 13th was first published in 1987, seven years after the film came out.  The novelization follows the plot of the film, with each of the murders happening in the same order and in the same way.  In many places, the dialogue is recreated verbatim.  The same person is the murderer in both the book and the film and the book ends with the same twist as the film.

The most interesting thing about the book — really, the only interesting thing about it — is that the book goes into a bit more detail about everyone’s backstory before they ended up at Crystal Lake.  As such, we witness Mrs. Voorhees actions right after the drowning of her son, Jason, in which she begs the Christy family to rehire her as their cook.  We also learn about the background of each of the victims, who are a bit less generic in this book than in the movie.  We especially learn a lot about Jack and Marcie’s relationship, though I have to say that it’s hard to imagine the confident movie version of Jack having much in common with the more insecure Jack who shows up in the novel.

I was a bit disappointed by the book’s backstory for Steve Christy.  My personal theory has always been that Steve Christy, with his glasses and his mustache and his ascot and his air of superiority, was a former member of the SDS who later became a Weatherman and helped in the abduction of Patty Hearst.  I always assumed that he was working so hard at Camp Crystal Lake because he was on the FBI’s Most Wanted List and he needed a place to hide out.  The book, however, portrays Steve as someone who just feels like he has to redeem his family’s name.  I think my theory was a bit more interesting.

The novelization of Friday the 13th is probably something that will be best appreciated by Friday the 13th completists.  (There’s really not much reason to read it otherwise.)  A copy can be found at the Internet Archive.

Horror Book Review: The Visitor by Christopher Pike

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The 1995 Christopher Pike novel, The Visitor, is a strange one, even by the very strange standards of Christopher Pike.

Mary is a high school student who has taken up smoking and general cynicism in response to the tragic death of her boyfriend Jerry.  Jerry was shot and killed by a school security guard who, it is believed, then shot himself out of guilt for having accidentally killed Jerry.  The truth of the matter is that the security guard came across Mary and Jerry while they were breaking into the school so that they could count the votes for homecoming queen to see whether or not Mary won.  (And, of course, Mary totally won.)  A struggle with the guard led to the guard shooting Jerry and then Mary shooting the guard!  No wonder Mary is struggling with guilt and now spends her time lying, half-undressed, on Jerry’s grave.

An attempt to contact Jerry via a séance goes terribly wrong after a spirit says that Mary has “lived before” and that she used to claim to have God-like powers.  Things get even stranger when Mary meets Tom, the new kid at school who has white-blonde hair and who has secrets of his own, all linking back to Mary’s past.  What are those secrets?  Well, let’s just say that it all links back to aliens and secret powers and there’s some “ancient astronauts as Gods” silliness and eventually, Jerry is brought back to life but he’s kind of whiny and leaking embalming fluid all over the place and Mary has to make a decision about how to deal with all of these weird complications.  But it also turns out that there’s more to Mary’s situation than even Mary originally realized and the entire book ends with a mind-screw that leaves you wondering who killed who and who might be an alien and who might be human….

Seriously, this is one weird book!  There’s a tendency among some to file Christopher Pike and R.L. Stine together but Pike’s books were always a hundred times darker and more macabre than Stine’s.  Whereas Stine’s books usually involved good kids in bad situations, Christopher Pike specialized in writing about bad kids dealing with uniquely Hellish problems.  If Stine’s books usually only featured one or two murders and a lot of misunderstandings, Pike specialized in books in which entire communities were destroyed and people really had absolutely no control over their fates.  In The Visitor, no one escapes unscathed.

The world of Christopher Pike was a dark one and that’s certainly the case with The Visitor.  Does the book always make sense?  Not really.  With its combination of aliens and zombies and ghosts and mysterious white-haired teenagers, the plot plays out like a uniquely demented dream.  It makes for an entertaining read.  And, in the end, the book provides an important lesson.  There’s nothing wrong with waiting a day to find out how the homecoming election went.  Don’t break into the school to count the votes yourself.  Nothing good ever comes from that!

Horror Novel Review: College Weekend by R.L. Stine

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The 1995 YA novel, College Weekend, opens with Tina in a superexcited mood.

She is going to be spending the weekend up at Patterson College, where she’ll finally be reunited with her boyfriend, Josh!  Josh is a year older than Tina and, while she’s finishing up her senior year at Shadyside High, Josh has been busy in college, collecting rocks and studying geology.  Tina is so excited to have the chance to spend the weekend with Josh that she’s even willing to agree to her parents’ demand that she take her boy-crazy cousin Holly with her.

Awwwwwwwwww!  Long distance relationships are so sweet!

Unfortunately, when Tina arrives on campus, she is met not by Josh but instead by Josh’s roommate, Chris.  Chris explains that Josh is up in the mountains on a Geology field trip.  He thought he would be home in time to pick up Tina but apparently, he had car trouble.  Chris volunteers to show Tina and Holly around the campus and Tina agrees, even though she can’t help but feel that there’s something that Chris isn’t telling her.  (This is one of those books that could only have been written in the days when everyone was dependent on landline phones.)  Chris, Tina, Holly, and some others go to a party that night and …. HOLLY DISAPPEARS!

Tina is definitely concerned but Chris tells her not to worry about it.  In fact, having heard that Tina is an aspiring model, Chris explains that he’s related to a famous photographer and that he has his own studio.  In fact, Chris is willing to take some professional-quality pictures of Tina.  He even has some clothes for her to wear, clothes that belonged to a former girlfriend who just happened to look a lot like Tina …. yikes!

You can probably guess where all of this is leading.  Let’s just say that this turns out to be one truly traumatic college weekend and I have a feeling that Tina will probably want to apply to a different university.  That said, this book does a really good job of capturing just exciting visiting a college campus can seem when you’re still in high school and you’re plotting out your future.  My sisters and I visited a lot of campuses, both during their senior years and mine.  I always enjoyed getting to see all of the different campuses and getting to imagine what it would be like to live on each one.  Of course, I eventually ended up at a school that had a boring campus but a fun student body.

In the end, College Weekend is a fast-paced and entertaining trip to the campus of your nightmares.

Horror Novel Review: The Cheater by R.L. Stine

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 1993’s The Cheater, R.L. Stine tells the story of Carter Phillips.

Carter has everything going for her.  Her father is a judge.  Her mother is socialite.  She’s a member of the exclusive Shadyside Country Club, where she and her friend Jill tear it up on the tennis court.  She’s got a sweet and sensitive boyfriend named Dan.  She’s got the type of name that people are definitely going to remember.  There’s just one problem.

Carter sucks at Math.

And if Carter can’t get a decent grade on the big math exam, she’ll never get into Princeton!

Finally, an R.L. Stine book to which I could relate!  Seriously, much like Carter, I was a pretty good student in high school but Math was never my thing.  I would look at those test papers with all of those numbers and symbols and all of those commands to “show your work” and my brain would just shut off.  Fortunately, my sister had been a year ahead of me and she held onto all of her old math tests.  Since our teacher pretty much reused the same tests from year to year, I was lucky enough to have an answer key.

Every test day, I would wear a skirt and, right before class, I would write the answers on my thigh.  If the teacher walked by my desk while I was taking the test, I would just pull down on my skirt.  Fortunately, the teacher was a male so even if he did suspect that I was cheating, it’s not like he could tell me to lift up my skirt or, for that matter, even get caught trying to look down at my legs.

And that’s how I managed to pass algebra without ever paying attention to anything that was said in class.  I know that I should probably feel guilty about cheating but, to be honest, I don’t.  If I had it to do all over again, I would do the exact same thing.

Unfortunately, Carter doesn’t have an older sister and when she suggests that maybe Dan could take the test for her, Dan is so shocked that Carter has to pretend like she was just telling a joke.  However, Adam Messner, who is a rebel who always dressed in black and doesn’t come from as wealthy a family as Carter or Dan, overhears Carter talking to Dan.  He offers to take the test for Carter, on the condition that Carter go on one date with him.

Carter agrees.  Adam gets a good grade on the test and, as a result, Carter is not only Princeton-bound but her father gives her a pair of diamond earrings.  But now there’s the fact that Carter has to go on a date with Adam and the fact that Adam has decided that he wants more than one date….

It’s an intriguing premise but unfortunately, Stine gets bogged down with one of those murder mysteries that ends with a rather silly twist.  Reading this book, it was obvious that it was written in 1993 because the main theme of the book seemed to be that Carter and her friends were totally right to be annoyed with the idea of having to deal with not-rich teenagers who dress in black and who have tattoos.  One gets the feeling that, if this book were written today, the roles would be reversed with Carter being portrayed as the villain and Adam as the misunderstood victim.

That said, I enjoyed The Cheater.  Stine kept the action moving quickly, Adam was actually a fairly well-drawn character, and I could relate to Carter.  Seriously, Math can be difficult!  The Cheater does the right thing and embraces the melodrama.

Horror Novel Review: The Stepbrother by R.L. Stine

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The 1998 novel, The Stepbrother, tells the story of Sondra.

Sondra is a teenager living in Shadyside.  Like many of the town’s teenagers she comes from a broken home but she also has a cute boyfriend named Zach and three close girlfriends, the main one of whom is named Mallory and who somehow is an expert in hypnotism.  Seriously, how does one become an expert in hypnotism before even graduating from high school?  I would think that hypnotism would be one of those things where you would have to spend years in training before you were allowed to even try it out on anyone.  But Mallory is just casually hypnotizing everyone!  I wouldn’t even know where to begin when it comes to hypnotizing people, though I’ve been told that I do know how to cast a spell whenever I enter a room.  I said that with a wink and a smile, by the way.

Sondra also has a new stepfather and a stepbrother named Eric.  Zach is totally jealous of Eric and everyone does keep commenting on the fact that Sondra and Eric do kind of look like they belong together.  Seriously, it’s not like they’re blood-related so why not?  I mean, he is right there!  (I never had a stepbrother in high school but if I did, I can only imagine what would have happened.)  Still, Zach shouldn’t worry because Sondra is too busy freaking out over the possibility of dying in a fire to seriously consider cheating on him.  Sondra keeps having feelings of deja vu.  Mallory suggests that maybe Sondra is the reincarnation of a girl who died in a fire back in the 50s.  And maybe Eric is the reincarnation of the person who was responsible for the fire!

Yeah, okay.  Whatever.  If I’m not very enthusiastic about this book, it’s because I don’t believe in reincarnation and I always find reincarnation stories to be pretty boring.  This one features Sondra flashing back-and-forth from the 80 to the 50s and trying to avoid dying in a second fire but it all felt way too predictable to be effective.  If you’ve seen one movie or read one book about reincarnation, you’ve pretty much seen and read them all.

(That said, if I did believe in reincarnation, I would assume that I was probably Edie Sedgwick in a past life.  Or maybe Alice Roosevelt.  Or perhaps Victoria Woodhull or Evelyn Nesbit.  I once had a dream where I was Mary Kelly, Jack the Ripper’s final victim, in a past life.  One thing I find interesting about reincarnation is that everyone’s past life was always so exciting and melodramatic.  Nobody was ever just some slop in a past life.  Instead, they were a wealthy celebrity who died under the most tragic of circumstances.)

Finally, the whole hypnotism subplot was silly even by the standards of R.L. Stine.  Of course, I have to admit that I’m also not a big believer in hypnotism.  I went to a hypnotism demonstration in college and I’m proud to say that I could not be hypnotized, largely because my ADD and my own stubbornness made it impossible for me to clear my mind.  Everyone else at the demonstration was rather easily hypnotized but not me!  I’ve always taken a good deal of pride in that.

Horror Novel Review: The Bad Girl by R.L. Stine

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 1999’s The Bad Girl, Dawn and Jan are high school students who, while fooling around in the chemistry lab, accidentally create a serum that they subsequently discover can bring the dead back to life.

At first, they just bring a frog back to life.  Then, they bring a dog back to life.  Dawn and Jan are apparently more powerful than God and they’re just in high school!  Still, being all powerful doesn’t make it any easier for Dawn to balance her boyfriend, Clint, with her secret boyfriend, Will.  Nor does it make their classmate Cindy any less annoying.  Cindy is the type who always follows the rules and who is quick to snitch to the teachers if anyone does anything wrong.  Everyone went to school with someone like Cindy and no one could stand her.  Of course, today, the Cindys of the world spend their time on social media, reporting people for violating the terms of service and telling everyone to “wear the damn mask.”

(Remember when the folks on twitter suddenly decided that Nurse Ratched was actually the hero of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest?  We live in a world of Cindys.)

Anyway, Jan and Dawn may not like Cindy but they still feel bad after they accidentally run her over in their car.  So, they usually their special formula to bring Cindy back to life.  Cindy returns but she doesn’t seem to be too happy about that and soon, she’s seeking revenge on everyone who she feels has mistreated her.  It doesn’t help that having been brought back from the dead has not only given Cindy super strength but it has also made her impervious to harm, as Jan and Dawn discover when they continually try to kill her.  Eventually, they do find out that the serum can cause those recently risen to explode but how do they trigger the explosion?  I’m just going to go ahead and be a spoiler and say that the explosions are triggered by ridicule.  So, bullying is the solution, regardless of what Dr. Phil might say.

As far as the Fear Street books are concerned, this was pretty dumb but I did like the fact that Dawn and Jan just happened to accidentally create a serum that can bring the dead back to life.  I mean, what are the chances of just accidentally creating something like that?  I imagine that there are scientists who have spent their whole lives trying to do what Dawn and Jan managed to do in just two minutes of dumping together random chemicals in the chemistry lab.  I mean, this is the equivalent of an episode of Saved By The Bell where Zack and Slater accidentally bring back Becky the Duck and Artie the Chameleon.  The fact that these two idiots can do it just by randomly mixing chemicals together leads me to suspect that maybe I’ll accidentally discover the formula as well someday.  Of course, I’ll be a bit more careful about it than our protagonists were.  Seriously, just because you can do something doesn’t mean that you should!

Horror Novel Review: Dead End by R.L. Stine

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

First published in 1995, Dead End begins with Natalie making what seems like the right decision.

Realizing that her boyfriend, Keith, has had way too much to drink at a party, Natalie refuses to ride home with him.  Instead, she joins her friends Carlo, Gillian, and Todd in getting a ride from their sweet and responsible friend, Randee.  Seriously, Keith has already fallen down a flight of stairs and made the party awkward by throwing up all over the place.  Drunks are so annoying!

Anyway, Randee is driving everyone home when a sudden fogs rolls in and makes it difficult to see the road ahead of her.  Uh-oh!  Better pull over until that fog clears up or your might — AGCK!  Randee smashes into a car!  And then she drives off, without even bothering to get out of the car and make sure that the other driver is okay!  Natalie freaks out but all of her friends explain to her why they can’t run the risk of going to the police.  I mean, Randee wasn’t even supposed to be driving the car!  Someone else has a relative in the hospital!  Todd’s father has just started a new job and it would be really awkward if his son got arrested for being a passenger in a car!  Natalie eventually agrees to keep quiet about the accident.

But then, the next day, she discovers that the car they hit belonged to the mayor’s sister.  And now the mayor’s sister is dead!  Can Natalie and her friends keep the secret, even though there now appears to be someone stalking them and doing stuff like leaving spoiled meat around as a warning that they’re dead meat as well?  Can Natalie figure out who the mysterious stalker is before all of her friends are killed?  And will she be able to work out her relationship issues with Keith?  Seriously, priorities!

If this sounds familiar, it’s because R.L. Stine pretty much just transported the plot of I Know What You Did Last Summer to Shadyside and he really didn’t bother to add any surprising twists or turns.  The end result is one of the more forgettable entries in the Fear Street series.  There is one nicely macabre death scene in which someone basically loses their face but otherwise, this is Stine on autopilot.

In the end, I guess the important thing is that the book reminds its readers not to drink and drive and that’s a good thing.  As well, if a sudden fog rolls in, pull over.  It’s just not worth the risk!

Horror Book Review: Haunted by R.L. Stine

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

First published in 1990, Haunted tells the story of Melissa, a teenager who would seem to have the perfect life.

No only does she come from a wealthy family and live in a nice, big house that is located right in the middle of Fear Street but Melissa is also a popular student at Shadyside High and she has a boyfriend named Buddy.  Plus, she’s just celebrated her birthday and, as a present, she got a brand new car!  The only thing that Melissa really has to worry about is the possibility of her house being broken into by the elusive Fear Street Prowler and the fact that a bitter ghost named Paul keeps materializing in front of her and claiming that she killed him and he’s come back from the dead to get revenge.  Paul is not only a revenge-seeking ghost but he also taunts Melissa for being rich.  Perhaps the only thing worse than being haunted is by being haunted by a ghost from the lower classes.  I mean, seriously, I don’t even want to think about it….

(Usual disclaimer: I do NOT believe in ghosts.)

Melissa is not only annoyed by Paul’s bad manners but also by the fact that he claims that she killed him when she has absolutely no memory of who he is.  In fact, when she does some simple research to see if anyone recently killed Paul, she discovers that no one named Paul has been murdered recently.  Paul himself admits that his memory is a little bit fuzzy, as well.  Accusing someone of murdering you when you’re really not sure isn’t a cool thing to do, Paul.  Stupid ghost.

Then, one night, Melissa sees Paul hanging out with his other less-than-wealthy friends.  Only, this Paul is alive and he’s even more of a jerk than his ghost!  Melissa realizes that Paul’s ghost is from the future and  that therefore, Paul has not died yet but will and apparently, she’s going to be the one responsible!  But how can that be when Ghost Paul is turning out to be not that bad and actually kind of sweet?

(Myself, I’m more concerned with how Living Paul and Ghost Paul both existing at the same time seems like one of those things that would cause the universe to split open or something.  I mean, it just doesn’t seem right.)

This is one of R.L. Stine’s stranger books.  The plot doesn’t really make much sense but you have to kind of admire the fact that Stine just went with it and didn’t even bother to try to make any of it seem plausible.  Sometimes, it’s best just to embrace the silliness of it all and that’s what Stine does here.  The book’s attempts to deal with class differences were fairly shallow but then again, when you’re a teenager, you’re always at you’re most shallow when talking about who is rich and who is poor so, on that level, Stine did a good job writing for his target audience.  The important thing is that Melissa was a relatable and sympathetic character and she definitely deserved a less petulant ghost.

Horror Book Review: Missing by R.L. Stine

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

First published in 1990, Missing tells the story of Mark and Cara Burroughs.  They’re siblings who have just moved to the town of Shadyside.  Along with their parents and their cousin Roger, they live in a house located on Fear Street.  Even though they are new students, they’re already popular enough that Mark is dating Gena and everyone from school shows up to party at their house while their parents are gone for the night.

Now, there’s a lot of negative things that you can say about the town of Shadyside and Fear Street in general.  I mean, it’s kind of a violent town.  How many homicidal maniacs have lived in Shadyside?  Over the years, how many students at Shadyside High have either been murdered or seriously injured?  But, it should be noted that Shadyside High is notably welcoming to new students.  I know that, when I was in high school, the new transfer students were always initially viewed with suspicion.  That was especially true if they were from any other place than Texas.  (Since my family moved around a lot when I was a kid, I knew far too well what it was like to be the new kid at school so I always tried to be nice to everyone, even if they were from up north.)  At Shadyside High, though, new students can go from moving into new home to throwing a huge party in just a matter of weeks.

Anyway, this party comes to an end when a cop shows up, not to complain about the noise but just to ask if Mark and Cara know anything about a nearby burglary.  After all of their guests leave, Mark and Cara realize that their parents have yet to come home.  What has happened to their parents and how is it connected to Roger, Gena, and a strange monkey statue?  And why is a mysterious van parked outside the house?  And what’s happening in Fear Street Woods!?  That’s a lot of questions and fortunately, Mark and Cara decide to solve the case themselves as opposed to going to the police.  (It should be noted that the phones at the house are all dead and, since this book was published in 1990, Mark and Cara are dependent on their landline.  The 90s were a difficult time.)

Missing was the fourth of R.L. Stine’s Fear Street novels and it’s fast-paced with a lot of enjoyably silly melodrama.  This is one of those books where no one is who they originally claim to be, including the parents.  One could argue that all of the plot contrivances don’t hold together under close scrutiny but Stine keeps the plot moving so quickly and fills the book with so many weird moments that it really doesn’t matter.  The book is full of cliffhangers and Stine wisely doesn’t let things like realism get in the way of resolving those cliffhangers.  By the time a major supporting character shows up, from out of nowhere, with a gun in order to save the heroic siblings, I was giggling with joy.  Seriously, does every resident of Shadyside just happen to have a weapon just casually lying around the house?