Monster by Christopher Pike

No Series
YOUNG ADULT THRILLER

Source: Purchased rating

Mary Blanc walked into the party with a loaded shotgun. In the blink of an eye, she blew two people away. She wanted to kill more, but was stopped by her best friend, Angela Warner, and the police. The next day, when Angela visits Mary at the jail she asks why she did it. Mary responds, "Because they were no longer human." Angela thinks she's crazy. At first.

“Children of the night?’ ‘Believe me, they’re down”

Another re-read from my teenage years. Thankfully I have a crappy memory and forgot everything about the book other than how much I dig the cheesy, colorful cover.

While this one feels a little less complex than most of Pike's other works, Monster still wins in the plotting department. After Angela's friend Mary opens the book by walking in the door and shooting up some popular teens, Angela sets out to investigate why. Well, until she gets sidetracked by cute teenage jocks and weird Indian stories.

There's not much tension other than a scene or two at the end, and it's obvious there's something wrong with some of them from the start so there's little surprise, but finding out exactly what will happen to Angela by the end kept me hooked. There's definitely a dark note as deaths touch real close to home and Pike again dares to cross invisible moral boundaries. His writing style keeps it simple in this one, but I don't see myself outgrowing his prose.

It may not be as intricately clever and creative as most of Pike's other books, but it's still definitely worth a read.




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