Tales Point Horror Book Club – Hit And Run by R L Stine
#PointHorrorBookClub was created by author Juno Dawson in 2013. Juno announced in 2015 that she was no longer able to carry on so, with her blessing, I took over the reins.
So why not grab a copy and join the discussion with this months #PointHorrorBookClub
Hit And Run by R L Stine
Are the Point Horror books we loved as a teenager still our favourites on a re-read? Have they not stood the test of time? After a hit of nostalgia? Or are you new to Point Horror and want to see what its all about?
Want to explore previous #PointHorrorBookClub posts? I’ve got you! Head to the main page here
Beware…….Spoilers Ahead
Four friends go out one night to practise their driving and come home with a terrifying secret. Eddie has hit someone and killed him – or has he?
The Tagline
Look before you leap!
Okay ….so…What’s It All About?
A group of friends are due to take their driving test, the good girl, the joker, the jock and the shy guy and after playing too many practical jokes on one of the group Eddie they decide one night ,when their parents are not around obvs, to take the car out for a spin and some get in some extra practise!
But isn’t that illegal?! What if they got caught?!
Pfft! Chill there’s totally nothing to worry about! Nothing whatsoever….I mean they only run over a guy and leave him for dead on the side of the road! No biggie!
But that’s called a Hit and Run!
Ohhhhhhh now I get why the book is called Hit & Run!
Anyway onwards we must go….
So the four friends try to forget about the poor dead guy, Brandt Tinker (not a joke)…..
*sniggers*
I’m trying to tell a synopsis here!
Anyway….then the phone calls start and the threatening letters turning up….you know the drill, but this time they appear to be from the dead guy, Brandt Tinkers! Could he really be alive and out to get revenge?!
The Girl
With her crimped blonde hair, face full of freckles and lively green eyes I kind of liked Cassie Martin. A normal 16 year old girl who’s short, thin athletic appearance made her look twelve. She hung out with her three best friends and she even had a secret crush on the one, Scott Baldwin. This being said I loved how Cassie always gave us the plus and negative sides to her friends and her inside thoughts ie wishing Winks to be more serious and Scott, her crushes laugh making her teeth itch!
*scratches teeth*
It made me growl a little that her athletic tendencies seemed to be used as an excuse for hanging out with three boys instead of girls. I don’t think this should have been an issue that kept needing to be brought up throughout the book, especially when the three boys were….lets say idiots Point Horror Boys!
Cassie did make me laugh though when she receives a phone call and the operator tells her it’s the supposed dead man they ran over and she accepts the call! I mean would you?!
She wasn’t the worst Point Horror Girl we have come across, but just not the best….
The Love Interest
Scott Bladwin was described as more of a follower than a leader by Cassie. A sheep rather than a tiger.
*growls*.
The big, blonde jock with brawny shoulders, broadneck and brains. He was the full back on the football team, all state wrestler, class representative on the student government, held a solid B Plus Average, held an after school job (that he never seemed to be at throughout the book) and an all round guy who’s picture is in every year book.
I mean wow! Can this guy be any better!
Unfortunately his personality was not the best Point Horror Boy we have ever had. He has no idea Cassie has a crush on him and a really annoying laugh apparently and is described as good looking in a teddy bear sort of way?!!
I mean ….whaaaaaa???
He was the classic red herring!
He did go up in my estimation for that yellow poloroid camera though, that awkward kiss with Cassie and the way he didn’t really care if people took the mickey out of him.
The Gang
Bruce “Winks” Winkleman….upon first description I knew he would have been the boy that 15 year old Chelle would have swooned over. Stringy brown hair down to his shoulders, short pudgy nose, blue denim jacket with his Fathers war medals pinned to it, faded jeans with gaping holes, black rimmed Buddy Holly glasses slightly to big for his slender face, one kind of smile, a devilish grin, the joker and a good guy once you get to know him.
Apparently! Yes I soon changed my mind!
I realised very quickly that he took his “dumb jokes and schemes” way to far and literally would do anything for a laugh. He practically bullies poor Eddie and gets everyone else to join in on the bullying! Was it just me who laughed when he got run over by the “corpse”? I did a little ha you deserved it sucker at my book! 🙂
His eyeball trick was plain gross….even I would have fainted and his car trick with the brakes was really all just about setting him up as the suspect in the story.
Eddie Katz the short, quiet, timid and frightened looking friend with his curly black hair, dark red circles on his cheeks, who wants to be a doctor but appears to not be able to deal with people let alone dead bodies and blood and who blushes far to easily. He is the subject of Wink’s practical jokes and I really felt for him. Everyone plays the jokes on him and he is a good sport about it all…..well that is until he decides to get payback on his “friends”.
It was a little obvious he was the one playing the tricks and who set up the whole hit and run scenario in my opinion.
Brandt Tinkers….the dead guy! Yep that’s right the already dead guy that Eddie “claims” he ran over and killed even though he was already dead! So stiff he could stand up on his own! I mean the poor guy! Not only does he have to suffer the name Brandt Tinkers he gets run over, shoved in and out of different cars and trunks and I do not even want to think about how he must have smelled! OMG!
A little mention to Jerry, Eddies cousin who worked at the morgue and who supplied the eyeball to Winks and a dead body (which I’m pretty sure is illegal) to Eddie all in the name of a practical joke! Tall and broad sholdered, built like a fall back, with long, frizzy blonde hair that fell unbrushed around his micheivious face. He was like a cross between Winks and Scott and completely the opposite to his cousin Eddie. He loved his diamond stud and cowboy boots and although helping Eddie initially with his so called joke it took him far to long to realise that the joke had gone to far!
I want to do a shout out here to the parents in this book too! Oh how they made me laugh! I did fear the worst for the parents when on page three the classic “the parents are out” is mentioned and then as we went on the parents were either at the cinema or in bed or out for dinner, but then something changed! About halfway into this book the most rare thing happened. The parents became involved in their childrens lives and were real people with real personalities. Grounding their children and wearing bath robes and answering the phone at 3am in the morning and actually caring about there child being laid up and left for dead in the hospital! I mean what craziness is this! Yes Mr Stine! Yes!
I especially liked Mrs Katz who just wanted everyone to love her yellow moist cake!
A part of me did wish that they were the evil twist in this book and were playing the pratical jokes on the kids as some type of Point Horror revenge gone wrong!!
*evil laugh*
Fashion Faux Pas
This book mentioned clothing all over the place!
It mentioned pump up sneakers…..a sign of the 90’s for sure!
A Bart Simpson t-shirt….
And best of all Wink’s bright yellow sweater and green corduroys that made him look like a chicken….
Dialogue Disasters
I have to admit I didn’t find many in this one….but these few made me chuckle…
“Cassie has been athletic all her life, playing sports, swimming, bike riding and hanging out with the boys in her neighbourhood”
*coughs*
With an opening sentence like this I thought this was going to be Point Romance!
“We won’t need headlights. Winks can run ahead of us in that sweater”
Lol
“Brandt Tinkers Eddie said staring at his corpse. Brandt Tinkers”
Yep we were all thinking the same….who came up with this name #ClassicPointHorrorName
“Even though it was only seven thirty she was already in a flannel night gown and bathrobe”
I’m normally in mine by 6:30!
“Eddie had pulled into himself like a frightened turtle”
Peek A Boo!
Body Count
A lame one….and even he was already dead! Disappointing to say the least!
Is it scary?
No no no! Not scary at all I’m afraid.
Did the best friend do it?
Well yeah….one of the best friends did do it!
*throws confetti*
Some Mild Peril?
Hmmmmm I guess being run over and left for dead and being told to run for your life whilst a car tries to mow you down classes as mild peril.
Other than that I’m not sure…..
I know one thing for sure definitely not a threatening note written in purple crayon lol
Is it any good?
I actually kind of liked this one…it was like a first version of I Know What You Did Last Summer with a few more plot holes and before they cast Sarah Michelle Geller….I enjoyed it. Okay the twist was guessable and the threats not really that scary, but it was enjoyable.
Also did anyone else notice the obsession with the colour yellow in this book? Yellow food, yellow clothes, yellow camera, yellow cake, yellow lights…….and there was that hospital that was….wait for it….. pea soup green. All green. Green every where ruining my mellow yellow coma that I was in.
Final Thought
Fluffy the cat!
*sniffles*
Cover Wars
Which do you prefer?
Over to you!
As well as your thoughts on the book I’ve added some fun questions to ponder!
- What practical joke would you have played on Winks?
- Were the parents in on it?
- What was Brandt Tinkers back story other than being a poor homeless guys who’s body was used for prank purposes?
- What yellow thing would you have added into the book?
Feel free to pop me a comment using the reply button at the top of the page.
Or
Use the #PointHorrorBookClub on Twitter on Instagram, follow PHBC on Instagram @talespointhorrorbookclub or even follow me @chelleytoy … lets have a good old Point Horror chat!
Want to explore previous #PointHorrorBookClub posts? I’ve got you! Head to the main page here
Thanks for joining in….
Okay, I have been DYING to participate in this since I stumbled across your website last month and now I’m here and I’m kind of intimidated to be commenting, ha. But here goes!
I wondered a LOT about how poor Eddie was planning to get through med school if he couldn’t handle eyeballs, corpses, or being near the morgue. I mean, seriously, med school may not have been the ideal career plan for this kid. Although I really sympathized with him, up until the point where Winks got run over.
I also LOVED how at the end cousin Jerry was all “at least now he’ll get the help he needs” about Eddie. Uh, Jerry? You are a grown-ass adult with a JOB and for some reason you’re loaning out corpses and body parts to teenagers! I don’t think Eddie is the only one in the family in need of some help. (And then REALLY at the end apparently EVERYONE is playing with the poor corpse. It got kind of Weekend at Bernie’s there. For God’s sake someone bury that thing.)
What practical joke would you have played on Winks?
Hmmm. Well, clearly he’s immune to gross body humour, so it would have to be something different. Letters on school stationary convincing him he’s failing? Making him think he failed his driving test?
Were the parents in on it?
I like to think Mrs. Katz was doing some sort of delaying tactic with the moist cake.
What was Brandt Tinkers back story other than being a poor homeless guys who’s body was used for prank purposes?
He was a horrible prankster in real life, like Winks, and the Grim Reaper condemned him to this fate as payback.
What yellow thing would you have added into the book?
A ribbon, tied around the corpse to brighten it up a bit.
Hi Necromommycon! Welcome! Make your self at home and comment away as much as you like 🙂 It’s fab to have you here and thanks so much for joining in!
I completely agree about Eddie….I guess I did feel a bit sorry for him at the beginning as the others were kind of horrible to him….he was basically being bullied! Yes I think I agree…although I had a sneaky suspicion it was him trying to pull a prank he did take it a little too far running Winks over…although he kind of deserved it just a little bit 🙂
Yes! That ending where they were playing with the corpse! I forgot to mention how strange that was so I’m so glad you brought that up! It was strange to say the least.
Also love your comments about Jerry lol And I love your Brandt Tinkers theory!
This is the first Point Horror book I’ve read since I was a teen, that’s about 20 years ago. I quite enjoyed this book. I found it to be a little predictable but you can never be sure with these stories. Not for a minute did I think that Jerry got a corpse from the morgue. I didn’t mind the characters except Scott was a little annoying
Hi Tara! Welcome and thanks for joining in! Yes it was quite a predictable book. I found Scott a bit of a typical Point Horror Boy….and that aukward kiss with Cassie made me giggle!
Yes I agree! I thought it was weird when the police were checking on the house because the car wasn’t there and the door was open! When does that happen?! Only in Point Horror
I’m sure we could do a post called “Only In Point Horror” 🙂
Evening all!
Sorry I’m a little late with my comments, but delighted to see we’ve got some more new additions to the group. Welcome, guys! Necromommycon, I knew I liked the cut of your jib over on Instagram; glad you made it across to the PHBC, even though Hit and Run wasn’t the most… inspiring… PH novel we’ve revisited.
I mean, it’s not terrible. RL Stine always gives us decent dialogue (Cassie makes a crack about inflatable sweatpants at one point which made me genuinely do a lol) and an engaging set-up at the very least, but I have to say I thought this was one of his weaker efforts. Don’t get me wrong, it’s practically Dostoevsky compared to some of the Sinclair Smith garbage we’ve come across lately, but it was kind of pedestrian and predictable, all things considered. I mean, we didn’t even get Stine’s favourite egg-cracking simile shoehorned in, which just smacks of can’t-be-arsed-ness.
Like you guys I had a huge problem with the Weekend at Bernie’s style corpse-based japes. I mean, for how many weeks on end was this cadaver being hauled around town? This just isn’t a thing, no matter how sick in the head you and your mates are. Poor old Brandt Tinkers. Give the man some dignity – lord knows he deserves it after being saddled with that improbable name.
The boys were all morons, sad to say, but Winks in particular was a grade-A tool. From the second that eyeball started being waved around, I was willing someone to come and mow his tedious face into the asphalt. No question, I was fully #TeamEddie on this one. I did enjoy Scott’s random tale of dropping his toothbrush in the toilet, though.
Shout out also to the chapter titles – I think it’s only the second time we’ve seen them in a point horror, and I for one enjoy their cheesy charm.
Questions!
What practical joke would you have played on Winks?
I’d have locked him in one of those morgue drawers with Mr Tinkers overnight. Who’s laughing now, Winks, you witless turd?
Were the parents in on it?
I loved the parents too! But I think the only thing they were in on was swapping the recipe for that delicious-sounding cake.
What was Brandt Tinkers back story other than being a poor homeless guy whose body was used for prank purposes?
He was probably that crazy driving instructor from Driver’s Dead, going by a different name, and doomed to be caught up in car-based high-jinx even in death.
What yellow thing would you have added into the book?
A cameo from Spongebob Squarepants – if anything, he might have lent an air of realism to the whole sorry farce.
Ooh, excellent choices for next month, Chelley. Three authors we haven’t looked at yet! See you all then!
“He was probably that crazy driving instructor from Driver’s Dead”
I literally LOL’d out loud like some kind of maniac. That would be beautiful. Headcanon accepted.
I loled at this too 🙂 Poor Tinkers!
Hi Paul. I must have been too wrapped up in dead bodies to realise there was no egg cracking body. Not even a joke about poor Tinkers egg cracking bones….oh my I actually feel quite devestated at this!
I must be slacking as I totally forgot also about the inflatable sweatpants for my dialouge disasters! And Scotts toothbrush down the toilet!
RE Chapter Titles…..I do have a fave, but I need to check my copy when I get home….they were top notch chapter titles and totally not spoilery at all lol
PS I love how you have renamed Winks as Witless Turd….sounds like a genuine Point Horror name to me 🙂
I quite liked Stine’s early Point Horror efforts, this one included. For one – he actually wrote it! He has a good handle on natural, believable dialogue. I knew in advance who the bad guy was, since I’ve read this before. Funny how I can still remember, considering I first read it more than 20 years ago! Despite that, I appreciated this time around how Stine set up his red herrings, and provided us with a believable motive for all the mayhem.
However, I also couldn’t get past the handling of the corpse issue. Giving away a corpse to a teenage cousin for prank playing? Highly illegal!!! I used to work as a court clerk at the law courts and it’s a very serious charge! That closing chapter made my stomach churn. “We were all nearly killed by our psychotic friend who was playing around with a corpse! Ha ha ha! How awkward! Let’s play some more jokes with this corpse! Ha ha ha!”
And how exactly did Jerry REMOVE A CORPSE FROM A GOVERNMENT BUILDING WITH NOBODY NOTICING in the first place? I didn’t question this when I was 12, but my 36-year-old self finds it a little dubious, to say the least!
What practical joke would I have played on Winks? I would have created a fake prosecution notice and summonsed him to court.
Were the parents in on it? Unless Mrs. Winkleman is just as sadistic as her son and enjoys watching him being run over by a car, I somehow doubt it, lol.
What was Brandt Tinkers back-story? He was a Fear Street ghostwriter who threatened to go public (they’re sworn to secrecy), so Stine just had to take action.
What yellow thing would you have added to the story? Why weren’t the pump-up shoes yellow?
Hi Paul P! I love how we are all horrified about the corpse!
And Brandt Tinkers back story….I’m loving the fact that he was either the driving instructor from Drivers Dead OR a Fear Street ghost writer! All the lol’s!
Paul P, I couldn’t agree more about corpse-desecration-played-for-lolz being a pretty fundamental sticking point for this one. And you raise a super interesting point about the whole murky world of ghost writing. I mean, it’s not surprising that someone as prolific as Stine was farming his work out to jobbing hacks – we’ve seen it with Diane Hoh’s Nightmare Hall too, and I know Francine Pascal had a similar set-up over at Sweet Valley High – but do we know if any of Stine’s Point Horrors were ghostwritten, or just his Fear St series? What about Goosebumps? This is making me question Christopher Pike’s Spooksville series too, though I refuse to believe it of his teen fiction. Refuse!
I find the whole ghost-writing thing fascinating.
R.L. Stine wrote all his own Point Horrors, as far as I can tell. I also believe he did write a majority of the Fear Street books, but it can be hard to tell – his style is easy to imitate. I was shocked when I learnt that “The Thrill Club” was actually written by Tom Perrotta, who has gone on to win Oscars! I’d love a chance to ghost-write a Fear Street book. The relaunch has been pretty dire so far…
I’ve heard that some Goosebumps was also ghost-written. Apparently Point Horror author Carol Ellis did a few.
I don’t know about Spooksville, but I’m fairly certain Christopher Pike’s teen fiction was all his own work. The same themes would always pop up in his work, and he detoured majorly into sci-fi/spiritual stuff as the years went by.
I don’t know why they just can’t admit it when everyone basically already knows. Even when I was 12 I knew Diane Hoh didn’t write “The Roommate” in the Nightmare Hall series. Back then I knew to flip to the copyright page to check!
P.S. Did anybody watch the “Goosebumps” movie? It had a great in-joke where someone says about Stine: “Don’t worry – he’s a really fast writer!”
Paul P – I love your Ghost writing knowledge! And yep I saw that in the Goosebumps movie it made me lol. Also when we did a Q&A with A Bates she mentioned a lot about R L Stine churning all the Point Horror books (and others) out so much so that the others couldn’t keep up and he dominated the genre…. or something like that. The link is on the Point Horror page….she was very honest and we loved her for it!
I read the interviews with A. Bates and Caroline B. Cooney, so informative! I always wondered if the publishers came up with the title and story outline and got the author to work from there, only to find out it was a bit of both! “Mother’s Helper” by Bates is one of my favourites, and I really enjoyed “Freeze Tag” by Cooney when I read it recently. I like her stuff a lot more now than I did when I was a teen.
Other ghost-writing facts!:
L.J. Smith (fired from “The Vampire Diaries” after book 7. Rumour is Alex Bell took over as ghost-writer for the next trilogy).
Virginia Andrews (all written by Andrew Niederman since her death in 1986).
Mary Higgins Clark’s publisher wants to use her name after she passes on, but her kids are opposed to it, though there is speculation ghost-writers are being used already, since she’s nearly 90 and has admitted she forgets the names of her previous books.
I don’t understand it if everybody knows it’s not really the author. As for the author, it could be good – if you turned out a piece of crapola, nobody would know and blame you for it!
Hey guys! Welcome Tara and Necromommycon!
I was quite excited buying this one as I’d never owned it before – I borrowed my cousin’s copy when I read it circa 1994 . All I remembered of it was some weird morgue stuff, which is basically what the story boiled down to. This, I think, is the closest thing to a black comedy PH ever produced. The pranks were almost as unbelievable and incredible as The Boyfriend. The corpse stood up on its own – really? People hauling a corpse around for weeks??
My take on the characters:
Poor Eddie! I thought it was fairly obvious he was the bullied guy who had flipped but I did sympathise with him somewhat.
Cassie was OK as far as PH heroines go! Fairly rational, able to see her friends’ flaws. Other than the friends’ mothers, there was a real lack of other female characters, which made Cassie different to other princessy/bitchy cliquey protaginists and also showed the unusual perspective of boys bullying other boys.
Winks was a total dick, I thought. It annoyed me a bit that he got away with a few broken bones! You get to the end and you don’t think anyone’s really learnt their lesson from Eddie losing the plot because of their poor treatment of him – they’re still messing around with a smelly, old corpse (yet Eddie’s the crazy one – right) and no-one seemed to show much remorse.
Scott was pretty spineless.
OK, so I’m going to confess (don’t judge me!)…the descriptions of fluffy being run over made me giggle…quite a bit. I actually think it might have been a ploy of Stine’s to make the reader implicit in the warped humour regarding death in this book. Or that could just be me trying to justify my reaction to poor fluffly’s demise!
What practical joke would you have played on Winks?
I’d have shaved off his stringy brown hair! Vom!
Were the parents in on it?
No, I don’t think so.
What was Brandt Tinkers back story other than being a poor homeless guys who’s body was used for prank purposes?
Did they even know his name or did they make that up?
What yellow thing would you have added into the book?
A pile of yellow vomit from the smell.of that stinking corpse!
Cazzy! Poor Fluffy!
And yes! I LOVE your point about a role reversal with the book showing boys bullying boys instead of the usual Point Horror girls! Wow…I would love to know if Stine did this on purpose to prove some type of point etc!
Hey Cazzy! Yes, I totally agree that there were shades of The Boyfriend in this one. And you’re right, it works much better as a black comedy than a thriller. Interesting points on the unusual gender mix too – who knew there’d be so many levels to a story with essentially no plot??
Evening all! Sorry I’m late to the party – and my first one as well – Chelley, my apologies for being a terrible guest.
As with some of the other posters, the was my first PH book in about 20 years, and I was filled with nostalgic enthusiasm and anticipation as I waited for my copy of PH Collection No.7 ( The Window, The Train and Hit and Run) to come through the letter box. I started reading straight away, and had to keep reading bits aloud to my husband when I couldn’t contain my sniggers and he wanted to know what was so funny. I LOVED all the awful 90s fashions: Winks’ double denim look, and all those bold yellows and greens – strong look; I cringed at Cassie’s itchy teeth and her crush on practically-perfect-in-every-way, solid B-plus average Jock-of-all-trades, Scott… Come on Cassie, this guy wears a unitard!
Spandex aside, I suppose Scott was the most tolerable of the gang – maybe that’s why Eddie didn’t harass him with creepy calls and packages? Or maybe Cassie wasn’t the only one with a secret crush? The plot thickens… I like this version where Eddie just wants to get the other two out of the way so he can have Scott all to himself! After all he *is* a total Baldwin.
As for Brandt Tinkers, I couldn’t help doing the ‘what your English teacher thinks the author meant’ analysis on the symbolism of this name. Brandt, originally from the Norse, brandr, meaning sword or torch, later developing to mean burn. Could Eddie be using this cadaver to ‘fix’ (tinker with) his friends by scarring (branding/burning) them the way they have scarred him over the years with their relentless ‘pranks’ at his expense? Too deep? Perhaps it’s just a coded warning: play with fire and you’ll get burned – after all, a tinker is also a mischievous child; are Cassie, Winks and Scott therefore all ‘Brandt Tinkers’ for their roles in the persistent and escalating humiliation of Eddie? Probably not, but hey, I had fun researching the names and coming up with a theory.
I too, was reminded of ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ and feel like that’s another trip down memory lane that I will have to treat myself to. The last time I watched that was at a sleepover, where the host’s mum scared the living daylights out of us by switching all the lights out in the living room (where we were supposedly sleeping) and jumping out at us shrouded in an oversized mac and clutching the dough hook from her food mixer! I’m so glad I had her as a model of awesome parenting… Just wait until my two are big enough for sleepovers and horror movies!
I digress… Maybe I should just hurry up and answer the questions:
What practical joke would you have played on Winks?
Obviously, I’d NEVER do this in real life, but as it’s Point Horror and Winks is a douchebag, I’d maybe get some serious ageing make-up with teeth, wig, the works, and camp his bedside until he woke up and then pretend he’d been in a coma for 60 years and that he’d missed out on hoverboards, self-tying trainers etc…
Were the parents in on it?
No, they were too busy having social lives – dinner? Movies? Again, looking forward to the day mine are big enough that going out sans children is a viable lifestyle choice! Although, hopefully they’ll be able to be trusted to not go out driving without a licence, commandeering corpses for practical jokes and attempting to murder their friends. #goals.
What was Brandt Tinkers back story other than being a poor homeless guys who’s body was used for prank purposes?
Maybe he was the guy behind the wheel when poor Fluffy snuffed it? What goes around comes around, my friend.
What yellow thing would you have added into the book?
Scott wrestling in a yellow unitard, obviously.
Thanks everyone, I’ve really enjoyed reading all your comments and taking part in my first phbc!
Hi Samantha! Welcome! I’m so glad you could join in! So wonderful to have you here with us all.
You bring up a valid point ….why didn’t Eddie harrass Scott with the phonecalls etc and just Cassie and Winks! Was this to fool the reader? Another red herring?
I love your story about when you watched I Know What You Did Last Summer….this sounds like something I would do lol
PS Would love to hear your thoughts on The Window which we read a couple of months ago! We are yet to read The Train.
I thought Eddie might have been trying to frame Scott and that was why he left him out of the phone calls etc. What dummy would use their own car in the photo though? Bit of a plot hole…
Oh! I forgot to add this, but I asked my husband, and he says a corpse couldn’t just stand up in the road like that–it could be stiff enough, but balance would be an issue, so you’d need to prop it. (My husband is a pathologist. He’s used to me asking weird questions!)
Also, I like the first cover (with the chalk outline) best.
Hi everyone! Sorry for the late post.
RL Stine was my favourite Point Horror author so I think I read this when I was way too young and impressionable. If ‘Hit and Run’ is anything to go by, his books aren’t quite as great as I remembered.
I enjoyed this a lot more than last month’s read and the dialogue induced less eye rolling. A couple of lines did make me chuckle at their awfulness (the purple crayon! ‘She was wearing an emerald green sweater that matched her eyes and made her blond hair seem to glow.’ etc.)
The characters were a strange mix – I’m with you Chelle, to my mum’s horror teen me would have fallen for Winks, although adult me knows better. Scott had about as much personality as Brandt Tinkers (urgh that name!) and I predicted the ‘twist’ with Eddie pretty early on. Cassie wasn’t bad as far as Point Horror girls go and I found her more relatable than most (I won’t hold the matching eyes and sweater against her!)
I’m still hoping for a Point Horror that scares me; this one just grossed me out at the thought of someone dragging around a decaying corpse for fun. That leads me to my final point – what is it with Point Horror people playing pathetic/ revolting jokes on each other?
This was a quick, enjoyable read but not my favourite by RL Stine.
Arh, well done!
Oooh yes, I also preferred the chalk one.
*Looks left, looks right, looks left again…tentatively crosses the road over to the PHBC*
Hey gang! Nice to be back for another month! Great to see some new inmates for the asylum – grab a strait jacket, sit down nicely and we’ll all get along just fine…
So let’s turn our attention to those crazy kids from Avondale North High – go Bulldogs! Uncle Bob’s ‘homage’ (to be polite) to ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ trips over the doorstep on its way in – Cassie Martin, who’s short, thin and looks 12 ain’t exactly Jennifer Love Hewitt! So we didn’t get off to a great start! Not to mention that the actual phrase “I know what you did last summer” is far cooler than “You can’t run away” YAWN!
You guys have already waded knee deep through what was a pretty shallow story to begin with, so I can only agree with your views. The eyeball – what the actual f*%$?, Scott the sheep wasn’t the baaaaad guy, ewe would be mistaken if you thought he was – he had mutton to do with it! Brandt Tinkers – *shakes head* these names! Parents in PH world must have been huffing some serious stuff back when they had kids!
Kids these days – well, kids in the 90s anyway – just so quick to brush off vehicular manslaughter: “Wait a few days. It’ll all blow over”. Dust off your hands, hose down the car and plan for homecoming. Soulless freaks!
I just couldn’t help but laugh at the fact that they hit Brandt under the Hanson Underpass – all I could think was that the sound when they hit him was HAD to be ‘mmmbop!’
Literary Loves – snaps for the ‘Clueless’ Baldwin reference – Nice! I think Scott may have been a Monet…
Necromommycon – I’m with you on the whole ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ thing! After a month Brandt would have begun liquefying – how the H-E-double hockey sticks are the kids still playing with it?! Is THIS what kids did before cyberbullying? And yes, Jerry is one weird S.O.B – seriously, tickling a dead man’s feet?
Loved your write up as always Chelle – you’ve wrung a lot more blood from this stone that I thought was there. This is probably the worst Stine book I’ve read – lazy, predictable and tasteless.
Question time!
1. Oh no, no, no – you’re not sucking me into this Chelley! I’ve seen what happens to people who play pranks in PH world! I’m not even going to try an April Fools gag! (shout out to RTC!)
2. Nah – one of the dads thought about going up to speak to the kids; but then the commercials finished and he got back into ‘Baywatch’.
3. Brandt was originally the sixth member of *NSYNC, but was kicked out of the band after early market testing showed that tween girls didn’t want to buy cassettes put out by a band called *NSTYNC. Spiraling into post boy band life, he attempted to busk for loose change but wasn’t able to cover all the harmonies by himself. Sad.
4. A yellow butterfly tramp stamp on Cassie’s lower back. Y’know she’s getting one.
So happy to have found this group full of people as irreverent about Point Horror as me while still enjoying it.
What practical joke would you have played on Winks?
I think if they’d done the old “I gave you magic potion” joke you could pull off the “I didn’t really give you magic potion I just gave you self confidence and now you see you were good at things all along” trick. This could have averted the rest of the disaster.
Were the parents in on it?
Too busy making yellow cake.
What was Brandt Tinkers back story other than being a poor homeless guys who’s body was used for prank purposes?
His occupation was making insurance claims by stepping out in front of moving vehicles on purpose. But he drank the money away.
What yellow thing would you have added into the book?
A yellow canary blaring towards Scott in a dream sequence.
I wrote a review of the book on goodreads using my own random Point Horror checklist – https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1624794078?book_show_action=false