Release Date: 1996 ( as a collection)
Publisher: Scholastic Children's Books
The Dead Game by A Bates
Find out what happens
when an innocent game gets out of control and the players start...dying...A group of friends decide to plot revenge on those who have wronged them... but things begin to go horribly wrong and the game spirals out of control. Can the friends find out who is behind the game before anyone else gets hurt?
The Dead Game had a mildly scary plot and I really enjoyed
it. It was traditionally Point Horror and offered a group of teenagers who
attempt to change their lives through humiliating people who they think of as ‘fake’.
However, what starts off as a fun game
turns serious when people the friends had targeted begin to get seriously
injured. Who knows about their game and
who has decided to take it to the next level?
The end of this novel was a bit of a shocker. Written in
third person, following the characters as they partake in the ‘game’, the
author leaves out a lot of details that would give the reader a clue to who is
behind the threatening behaviour that haunts the ‘fakes’ of the school. With
the chapters following different characters, I was never bored and this
definitely helped build the climax at the end of the novel.
Overall, a very Point Horror-esque start to the collection.
The Stranger by Caroline B Cooney
Nicoletta’s interest
in the sinister newcomer Jethro is becoming an unhealthy obsession – and soon
she’s in too deep to save herself...
Nicoletta is all alone, her friends have deserted her in favour
of being friends with someone else. So when she meets Jethro, she thinks she
might have found a kindred spirit. But Jethro hides a dangerous secret... will
Nicoletta uncover it before she falls in love?
This was a really odd one and didn’t have a traditional
Point Horror villain. I found it a bit difficult to get through this one as a
lot of the chapters seem repetitive with Nicoletta, Jethro and Christo in some
weird love triangle.
I enjoyed the beginning of the story as Nicoletta begins to
feel withdrawn from her friends as she is cast out of her choir, the Madrigals.
Having to go to art appreciation class instead does not make her feel any
better, until she meets the mysterious Jethro. This opening follows the Point Horror
‘vulnerable teen’ trope and although I like that Cooney offered us something
different with the rest of the novel, I wasn’t overly keen on this story. Maybe
I’m not the sort of reader that likes monsters in dark caves but I was slightly
disappointed by both the imagination and the style of this tale.
Caroline B Cooney is the author of some of my favourite Point
Horror’s, including the Vampire series. She also wrote the Janie Johnson series
which are really good. I have Freeze Tag on my ‘to read’ list so I’ll let you
know what I think of that but I would definitely say she is a brilliant author,
for me, this just wasn’t one of her best.
Not bad, but not fantastic either.
Call Waiting
At first, the sinister
phone calls just seem like a sick joke – but there’s nothing funny about being
scared... to death...Karen is receiving odd phone calls, someone is watching her and that someone wants her dead. Can she find out who is it before things get serious?
As usual, Stine didn't disappoint. His story focuses on unhealthy
romantic obsession and at the end, I didn't really find myself liking any of
the characters! They all possess odd little (or quite big) flaws that make them
unlikeable but I suppose also more like real people. One thing that made this story stand out from
the other two in this collection was Stine’s use of cliffhangers/shocks at the
end of every chapter. This kept me engaged for quite a bit but by the end of
the book I was a bit bored with this as every shock had a simple explanation,
for example, a body in the boot of the car turns out to be a mannequin. The chapters became a little
bit predictable, although I still didn’t guess who was behind the calls and I
think Stine threw in a few good misdirections to throw readers off the scent so
that you find out last, after the protagonist, Karen. Karen’s behaviour becomes a little bit predictable
but the actions of those around her kept me interested.
Not the best Point Horror story (and not Stine’s best story
by far) but in keeping with the genre and genuinely enjoyable.
3.5/5 as a collection but I still do enjoy the simplicity of
a good Point Horror!
