Shigeru

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“Twisted” by R.L. Stine (1987).

Back cover synopsis:

“Twisted sisters.

Abby is a pledge of Tri Gamma, the best sorority on campus. This year, the Tri Gams go a little wild at pledge time. They take Abby and the other pledges away for a weekend. A weekend of murder.

At first Abby thinks the weird stuff they’re doing is just fun…until she finds out how twisted her “sisters” can be.

Abby always used to say she’d die if she didn’t get into Tri Gam. Now she knows she was out of her mind to think that way. She’s not going to die.

She’s just going to go crazy.”

Total pages: 168

Read time was 1 hour 21 minutes and 59 seconds

”Blind Date” by R.L. Stine (1986; his first young adult novel according to the ‘about author’ page) tells the story of a young man who receives a phone call from a young woman who informs him she is his ‘blind date.’

I read this book as part of my personal quest to re-read the books in my Point Horror collection (and to read those I had not read before).

I do not recall having read this title before. I doubt I would have based on the synopsis on the back of the book cover:

“She would kill for him.

Kerry’s had a pretty rough year. First he got into a car accident and his brother disappeared. Next, he broke the leg of the star quarterback on his own football team. Then he started getting weird threats. Things aren’t going too great for Kerry—until the phone call.

’Hi, Kerry,” she said. “I’m your blind date.” She had to be a fox—and Kerry was sure she sounded crazy about him.

Too bad he didn’t know how right he was.”

If you are familiar with both the writing style of the horror/thriller titles geared towards teens in the 80s/90s and R.L. Stine’s work at the same time period then the work will hold no surprises. If the reader is unfamiliar the title, like many in the genre, is easy very to read and the story moves quickly.

The work introduces the main (title) subject in the first chapter, and explains all the “twists” in a straightforward manner by the last chapter (20). The twists themselves are nothing that hasn’t been done before with the first being telegraphed very early on and the last seemingly added on randomly.

The characters themselves are lacklustre. The main character, a young man named Kerry, is a fog of bits and pieces but never seems to become a fully fleshed out person. He’s also not very sympathetic, having a few traits attached to him he spends the majority of the book confused or lying to himself. Any attempts at showing something deeper to the character are rushed in vignettes that are quickly forgotten about. While being a sympathetic main character is not a requirement in any title, I feel for this type of work (re: thriller young adult) to be successful it does help to enjoy the thriller part if one can sympathise with the main character beyond that they’re a person.

The side characters are one note and don’t having a feeling of existing outside their interactions with the main character. The setting isn’t fully formed and is mostly broad strokes that the reader fills in (if they wish to).

The plot itself cannot seem to decide the path it wishes to take, leaving all of them somewhat hollow. New things are tossed in at the beginning of the story as though the reader already knows them, but you only would if you read the synopsis on the back of the book cover (example: that Kerry’s “brother disappeared”). But it is all wrapped up at the end so none of the paths dead end.

This title is not the best example of the Point Horror series, nor is it the worst. I would put it in the bottom half though.

Total pages: 200

Read in 1 hour 34 minutes 43 seconds