Scan barcode
paulabrandon's review against another edition
2.0
Jo Gibson is an alias for Joanne Fluke, who has written that enormously popular food cozy mystery series featuring Hannah Swenson. I haven't read those books, because I'm not a fan of cozy mysteries, but her work in the 90s YA horror realm was pretty underwhelming. She wrote the dreadful "The Crush" and the even worse "The Crush II". She finally got her chance to pen a tale for Scholastic's Thriller line (aka Point Horror), the pinnacle of 90s YA horror at the time. Ironically, it was essentially the last book in the line as well, published in December 1996. By the start of 1997, Point Horror was done. While you can't blame Gibson/Fluke for that, it's sad the line should end with such a silly and yes, underwhelming, story.
Donna Burke listens to the shoe seller tell a story about the cursed shoes, but the girl Donna is with - Tammy - buys the shoes anyway. The story is, they'll gift the wearer with a fantastic talent, only to turn on her later. Indeed, each girl who wears the shoes suddenly discovers she's got skills she never knew existed, only to suffer an unfortunate fate. Our main character Donna never wears the shoes - all she really gets to do is pine over dreamy Steve while they run around after the various girls they think might be wearing the shoes to try and stop the mayhem. It's all a bit dull and very repetitive. It's much like Gibson's other YA tales "Slay Bells" and "My Bloody Valentine", in which the same scenario plays out over and over again through characters who should know better, but do it anyway.
A girl going mad after spending only one night trapped in the attic and another girl dancing herself into exhaustion aren't things I find especially scary or suspenseful. No backstory is given for the cursed shoes (unlike the similarly themed and far superior "Prom Dress"), and the story limps to a close with an assumption the shoes can be stopped by printing Donna's story about them in all the national newspapers. Huh?
Donna Burke listens to the shoe seller tell a story about the cursed shoes, but the girl Donna is with - Tammy - buys the shoes anyway. The story is, they'll gift the wearer with a fantastic talent, only to turn on her later. Indeed, each girl who wears the shoes suddenly discovers she's got skills she never knew existed, only to suffer an unfortunate fate. Our main character Donna never wears the shoes - all she really gets to do is pine over dreamy Steve while they run around after the various girls they think might be wearing the shoes to try and stop the mayhem. It's all a bit dull and very repetitive. It's much like Gibson's other YA tales "Slay Bells" and "My Bloody Valentine", in which the same scenario plays out over and over again through characters who should know better, but do it anyway.
A girl going mad after spending only one night trapped in the attic and another girl dancing herself into exhaustion aren't things I find especially scary or suspenseful. No backstory is given for the cursed shoes (unlike the similarly themed and far superior "Prom Dress"), and the story limps to a close with an assumption the shoes can be stopped by printing Donna's story about them in all the national newspapers. Huh?
comicbookchick25's review
3.0
3/5 stars
This was admittedly a trashy 90s teen horror novel. It was fun and super addictive and at first I didn't think I'd like this at all judging from how silly the premise was. It didn't have much substance, and even the likeable characters were still two dimensional but my gosh I had been in a reading slump for almost a week and I managed to down this in one sitting.
Characters:
Donna and Steve-
Like I said, they didn't have much depth, but they still managed to be very likable and I thought they were very cute together.
I can't remember her name but the friend who works at a diner was very fleshed out and I found I actually connected with her and rooted for her.
Everyone else-
was very frustrating and deserved all of the bad things that happened to them.
Overall-
Fun, but not something that's meant to be taken seriously.
This was admittedly a trashy 90s teen horror novel. It was fun and super addictive and at first I didn't think I'd like this at all judging from how silly the premise was. It didn't have much substance, and even the likeable characters were still two dimensional but my gosh I had been in a reading slump for almost a week and I managed to down this in one sitting.
Characters:
Donna and Steve-
Like I said, they didn't have much depth, but they still managed to be very likable and I thought they were very cute together.
I can't remember her name but the friend who works at a diner was very fleshed out and I found I actually connected with her and rooted for her.
Everyone else-
was very frustrating and deserved all of the bad things that happened to them.
Overall-
Fun, but not something that's meant to be taken seriously.
yche09's review
4.0
I enjoyed reading this. It's like a get-what-you-deserve kind of story. I like it that they were able to still have a good ending. The urban legend of the red dancing shoes was truly interesting! :)
What I'm just bummed about is the mc's attitude at the beginning. She felt like she had to go through heaps and bounds just to be accepted by people in her class. I hope that this isn't the case for students nowadays. :/
What I'm just bummed about is the mc's attitude at the beginning. She felt like she had to go through heaps and bounds just to be accepted by people in her class. I hope that this isn't the case for students nowadays. :/
More...