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sirensaria's review against another edition
2.0
This was a pretty quick and easy read. This seemed to by a psychological thriller that just... Fell flat. It was almost like it was trying too hard. I really didn't entirely find it scary or thrilling. Of course, I'm beginning to think that maybe I've read too many and they just don't have the same scare factor anymore.
The main character, Martha, was rather annoying through most of the book. Seriously, she was the dumb blonde who died at the beginning of the movie… Except for the dying part. Part of me wished she had in a way, simply because she was so annoying. She freaked out over EVERYTHING. Literally. Instead of going from some weird things are happening, to this might be more than just coincidence, to someone is out to get me, the main character skipped the first two steps and went straight for someone is out to get her. Martha was hysterical through most of the book, and when she wasn’t hysterical, she was moaning about how bad her life was. Trust me, she deserved some of the things that happened.
I felt bad for the rest of Martha’s family, like her stepmother who was really trying to reach out to Martha. Martha was just being a bit selfish (sugarcoating here) and kept thinking that no one understood how bad she had it. Frankly, in my opinion, Connor is a frickin’ saint! I have no clue how anyone could have put up with Martha.
The twist was kind of a twist? It was always hinted at, but never really focused on. I mean, the person who did it didn’t honestly surprise me THAT much, but there were a few twists and turns at least. There were also some what-ifs that kept you from really considering who the person was.
I do have to say, some of the stuff that happened was sort of unbelievable. I mean, leaving two teenagers in a house alone for several weeks? Absolutely not. What parent in their right mind would do something like that?! Even if one of them was almost an adult, it still was plain stupid. Personally, I think the book would have benefited from having the parents around. It would have added to the whole "Is this really happening or am I going crazy" bit that the book kept trying to bring up. The fact that Martha kept saying her father would have thought she was overreacting really would have played along nicely with what seemed to be a failed psychological part of the book.
The whole small fire that started on the stove. That was a BIG deal, and it was just brushed off?! Martha, who freaked out just about every five seconds, wrote it off pretty quickly as Connor. That just didn't seem very much in Martha's character. It was like, oh there's a fire, let's go back to bed, then! I'm not kidding, the whole thing was ridiculously downplayed. Ugh… It’s the little things that drive me nuts, I tell you.
All in all, it wasn’t bad, it just could have been a lot better. I’m also probably nitpicking, so these issues are pretty much me. If you can ignore those issues, then the book would be a lot better for you than it was for me.
The main character, Martha, was rather annoying through most of the book. Seriously, she was the dumb blonde who died at the beginning of the movie… Except for the dying part. Part of me wished she had in a way, simply because she was so annoying. She freaked out over EVERYTHING. Literally. Instead of going from some weird things are happening, to this might be more than just coincidence, to someone is out to get me, the main character skipped the first two steps and went straight for someone is out to get her. Martha was hysterical through most of the book, and when she wasn’t hysterical, she was moaning about how bad her life was. Trust me, she deserved some of the things that happened.
I felt bad for the rest of Martha’s family, like her stepmother who was really trying to reach out to Martha. Martha was just being a bit selfish (sugarcoating here) and kept thinking that no one understood how bad she had it. Frankly, in my opinion, Connor is a frickin’ saint! I have no clue how anyone could have put up with Martha.
The twist was kind of a twist? It was always hinted at, but never really focused on. I mean, the person who did it didn’t honestly surprise me THAT much, but there were a few twists and turns at least. There were also some what-ifs that kept you from really considering who the person was.
I do have to say, some of the stuff that happened was sort of unbelievable. I mean, leaving two teenagers in a house alone for several weeks? Absolutely not. What parent in their right mind would do something like that?! Even if one of them was almost an adult, it still was plain stupid. Personally, I think the book would have benefited from having the parents around. It would have added to the whole "Is this really happening or am I going crazy" bit that the book kept trying to bring up. The fact that Martha kept saying her father would have thought she was overreacting really would have played along nicely with what seemed to be a failed psychological part of the book.
The whole small fire that started on the stove. That was a BIG deal, and it was just brushed off?! Martha, who freaked out just about every five seconds, wrote it off pretty quickly as Connor. That just didn't seem very much in Martha's character. It was like, oh there's a fire, let's go back to bed, then! I'm not kidding, the whole thing was ridiculously downplayed. Ugh… It’s the little things that drive me nuts, I tell you.
All in all, it wasn’t bad, it just could have been a lot better. I’m also probably nitpicking, so these issues are pretty much me. If you can ignore those issues, then the book would be a lot better for you than it was for me.
ash_reads14's review against another edition
3.0
Good
This book was good but not great. The main character Martha annoyed me so much. I would recommend this book if you want a quick easy read.
This book was good but not great. The main character Martha annoyed me so much. I would recommend this book if you want a quick easy read.
rjdenney's review against another edition
5.0
I wish they still made audiobooks like this! it felt like was listening to a movie. I listened to "Trick or Treat" on YouTube(link here: http://www.youtube.com/user/WrappedInDarkness/videos) and I was enthralled. I have never listened to an audiobook where nearly 9 different voice actors are included and sound effects such as rain, music, bells, and birds were used. If you love YA Horror, you need to grab a pair of headphones and listen to Trick or Treat now. Richie is a wonderful writer and the actors, though a little cheesy, were believable and kept me wanting to carry on with the story. One thing you have to remember going to these "The Point Horror Tapes" is that they were recorded in the 90's. But I still enjoyed this one. I will be listening to more since there are about five more on that youtube page. I love 90's YA horror, I wish authors still came out with stuff like this, some do, but it's rare. I loved the suspense in this book and the ending was awesome.
-R.D.
-R.D.
theboldbookworm's review against another edition
4.0
This was another fun trip down memory lane and a perfect book for Halloween Eve.
hazzatronica's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Bought a job lot of Point Horror books as it's something I missed as a kid (I went straight from Goosebumps to Stephen King) and wanted to see what the fuss was about. This is a really breezy read, probably quite scary for its intended audience, a surprising bit of profanity (I did not expect to see the word 'shit' in a Scholastic book!) and an entertainingly stupid twist. I wasn't then or now the target audience, but it was fun.
marmarci's review against another edition
3.0
Me introduje en la historia de inmediato. Tiene una atmósfera muy buena y una casa siniestra, con un pasado truculento y unos cuantos secretos (que me gustaron mucho). La protagonista no me encantó, precisamente, pero es todo tan ochentero que tiene su gracia (por supuesto que lo es, se publicó en el 89).
El libro trata de jugar con el lector, haciéndole sospechar de todo el mundo con frases escogidas o trasfondo sesgado para hacerte dudar. A pesar de que el giro más o menos lo ves venir, me estuvo haciendo dudar casi hasta el final.
Se lee en nada, por lo dinámico y por el público juvenil al que está dirigido, y la verdad, lo he disfrutado. Es una lectura ligera, más oscura de lo que parece y con algunos puntos que me han gustado bastante. El final, no tanto; a pesar de ser trepidante, a mí se me ha hecho un poco mediocre aunque los eventos casen.
(Por cierto, lo de "truco o trato" no tiene mucho sentido, pero tampoco molesta particularmente, así que, ok)
El libro trata de jugar con el lector, haciéndole sospechar de todo el mundo con frases escogidas o trasfondo sesgado para hacerte dudar. A pesar de que el giro más o menos lo ves venir, me estuvo haciendo dudar casi hasta el final.
Se lee en nada, por lo dinámico y por el público juvenil al que está dirigido, y la verdad, lo he disfrutado. Es una lectura ligera, más oscura de lo que parece y con algunos puntos que me han gustado bastante. El final, no tanto; a pesar de ser trepidante, a mí se me ha hecho un poco mediocre aunque los eventos casen.
(Por cierto, lo de "truco o trato" no tiene mucho sentido, pero tampoco molesta particularmente, así que, ok)
modernzorker's review against another edition
4.0
Been a while since I tackled a YA Horror book, and I've heard good things about Ms. Cusick, so when I saw Trick or Treat on the shelf of my local secondhand bookstore, I didn't think twice about picking it up. I don't regret doing so in the slightest, and she's absolutely going on my list of "YA Horror Writers to Watch For". Trick or Treat is delightful. You know...for a book where bad things happen to nice teenagers, I mean.
Martha Stevenson's world has flipped completely upside down. Her newly-remarried father has pulled her out of school right at the start of her junior year, uprooting her from their home in Chicago to live in a dilapidated old house on the outskirts of a small Midwestern town. She has a brand new step-mother in Sally, who seems normal enough, and a brand new older step-brother in Conor, who seems remarkably laid back about the whole thing. Moving into a spooky, run-down mansion in the middle of nowhere isn't easy at the best of times, but doing so right before Halloween isn't making things easier.
What's worse, things are happening in and around the house. Things Martha can't explain. Things the rest of the family write off as bad case of nerves, nightmares, and typical October shenanigans. The prank phone calls and altered decorations might be nothing out of the ordinary, but Martha's seeing shadows, convinced someone's visiting her room in the middle of the night, and having trouble sleeping. It doesn't take long for the local high school kids to sour the mood even more: only a year ago, one of the house's previous occupants was found murdered by her friends. Elizabeth was young, pretty, and blonde, just like Martha. The prime suspect in her killing is missing, presumed dead, but his body was never found. Conor doesn't seem concerned, but then again, he's not the one getting the strange phone calls threatening his life. As Halloween inches closer, the anniversary of Elizabeth's murder draws near too. Someone seems intent on making this year just as memorable to Martha...for all the wrong reasons. Does a killer who escaped justice prowl the grounds of Martha's new house, is there a ghost on the loose making trouble for an already-troubled teen, or is it just an end of October prank being taken too seriously? Martha would really like to know before she, like Elizabeth, winds up on the wrong side of somebody's knife.
This is my first encounter with Richie Cusick, and I'm thrilled with what I saw. Trick or Treat is 209 pages of slowly-building tension that blows up into a finale I expected but still did not see coming (if that makes any sense). Cusick's writing is different from other YA Horror scribes like R.L. Stine in that she's clearly not stabbing words out at a breakneck pace from behind her typewriter, or if she is, it's not immediately obvious. Stine's approach to teen horror is spartan and direct: things happen, people react, and more things happen. It's fast reading for people with short attention spans, and he's got it down to an art form. Cusick, on the other hand, isn't afraid to build tensions to a boil more slowly. Her characters in Trick or Treat have plenty of down-time where things aren't happening to ruminate on the mystery at hand, talk to friends, and get more parts of the story as more people open up. The action on the page is almost secondary to the time she takes to make you feel like a third-party observer, and while this is an approach that can backfire when dealing with teens, as an adult reader I found this refreshing.
One of the things I loved about this story is that, just like real life, none of the characters knows exactly what happened surrounding Elizabeth's death, but each one of them paints a slightly different picture of what might have been. Elizabeth's best friend Wynn was the one who stumbled upon Elizabeth's body, but she's suffered a complete mental block when it comes to the memory of it all. She's positive Dennis, Elizabeth's ex-boyfriend, murdered her out of jealousy--Elizabeth, after all, dated someone else for a short time after she broke up with him. Wynn's cousin Blake agrees: he played on the same team with Dennis, and saw what a temper and competitive drive the other boy had. What's more, after Elizabeth's death, Dennis drove his car off a bridge and into the river. Police found his clothing washed up on the shore, and though there was no body, it was impossible to see how anyone could have survived such a thing. Conor, on the other hand, isn't so sure, but he knows if Dennis is still alive, he'd potentially be unhinged enough to come after the people inhabiting Elizabeth's old house. If Dennis isn't alive though, that means someone else wants to kill the new girl at school...maybe the ghost of Elizabeth herself.
Cusick paints a convincing picture of a female protagonist driven to the brink. While some leads in these type of stories seem to waltz from one terrifying scenario to another without being affected, Martha's life rapidly spirals out of her control. Her father and step-mom zip off to Hawaii for their honeymoon, leaving her alone with Conor in the strange new house. Once the pranks start, Martha has trouble falling asleep at night, and even swapping rooms with Conor doesn't put a stop to the agony. Her grades suffer, her guidance counselor takes notice, and most of the other students at the school pull back from the new weirdo, leaving her more isolated than before. It's a nice touch that is mentioned but not harped on, and it lends a nice layer of veritas to the goings-on.
Of course, a story can only maintain questions for so long before the action happens, and Cusick handles this well too. Early goings-on are simple, short affairs: phantom phone calls and pranks at the house. Later ones get more involved: a house fire gets Conor and Martha out of bed in the middle of the night, and my personal favorite revolves Martha's return to school after-hours to retrieve a book from her locker which turns into a chase from hell through the darkened building when a power failure shuts off the lights. This is tense, fun stuff, and Cusick understands very well just how creepy places like a high school can be after everyone goes home and the halls are deserted.
The real pay-off is the end reveal of what everything's all about. Cusick plays her cards very close to her chest, and up until the final couple of chapters, I still wasn't sure if this story would go the supernatural route or if there was a more mundane and rational explanation for everything. I'm not spoiling it either; you deserve to find out the same way I did. I had most of the puzzle sussed out before the final reveal, but suffice it to say Cusick doesn't cheat and all the necessary clues are there.
Bottom line? I'm totally down to read the rest of Cusick's teen horror output. Four carving-knife-stabbed scarecrows out of five.
Martha Stevenson's world has flipped completely upside down. Her newly-remarried father has pulled her out of school right at the start of her junior year, uprooting her from their home in Chicago to live in a dilapidated old house on the outskirts of a small Midwestern town. She has a brand new step-mother in Sally, who seems normal enough, and a brand new older step-brother in Conor, who seems remarkably laid back about the whole thing. Moving into a spooky, run-down mansion in the middle of nowhere isn't easy at the best of times, but doing so right before Halloween isn't making things easier.
What's worse, things are happening in and around the house. Things Martha can't explain. Things the rest of the family write off as bad case of nerves, nightmares, and typical October shenanigans. The prank phone calls and altered decorations might be nothing out of the ordinary, but Martha's seeing shadows, convinced someone's visiting her room in the middle of the night, and having trouble sleeping. It doesn't take long for the local high school kids to sour the mood even more: only a year ago, one of the house's previous occupants was found murdered by her friends. Elizabeth was young, pretty, and blonde, just like Martha. The prime suspect in her killing is missing, presumed dead, but his body was never found. Conor doesn't seem concerned, but then again, he's not the one getting the strange phone calls threatening his life. As Halloween inches closer, the anniversary of Elizabeth's murder draws near too. Someone seems intent on making this year just as memorable to Martha...for all the wrong reasons. Does a killer who escaped justice prowl the grounds of Martha's new house, is there a ghost on the loose making trouble for an already-troubled teen, or is it just an end of October prank being taken too seriously? Martha would really like to know before she, like Elizabeth, winds up on the wrong side of somebody's knife.
This is my first encounter with Richie Cusick, and I'm thrilled with what I saw. Trick or Treat is 209 pages of slowly-building tension that blows up into a finale I expected but still did not see coming (if that makes any sense). Cusick's writing is different from other YA Horror scribes like R.L. Stine in that she's clearly not stabbing words out at a breakneck pace from behind her typewriter, or if she is, it's not immediately obvious. Stine's approach to teen horror is spartan and direct: things happen, people react, and more things happen. It's fast reading for people with short attention spans, and he's got it down to an art form. Cusick, on the other hand, isn't afraid to build tensions to a boil more slowly. Her characters in Trick or Treat have plenty of down-time where things aren't happening to ruminate on the mystery at hand, talk to friends, and get more parts of the story as more people open up. The action on the page is almost secondary to the time she takes to make you feel like a third-party observer, and while this is an approach that can backfire when dealing with teens, as an adult reader I found this refreshing.
One of the things I loved about this story is that, just like real life, none of the characters knows exactly what happened surrounding Elizabeth's death, but each one of them paints a slightly different picture of what might have been. Elizabeth's best friend Wynn was the one who stumbled upon Elizabeth's body, but she's suffered a complete mental block when it comes to the memory of it all. She's positive Dennis, Elizabeth's ex-boyfriend, murdered her out of jealousy--Elizabeth, after all, dated someone else for a short time after she broke up with him. Wynn's cousin Blake agrees: he played on the same team with Dennis, and saw what a temper and competitive drive the other boy had. What's more, after Elizabeth's death, Dennis drove his car off a bridge and into the river. Police found his clothing washed up on the shore, and though there was no body, it was impossible to see how anyone could have survived such a thing. Conor, on the other hand, isn't so sure, but he knows if Dennis is still alive, he'd potentially be unhinged enough to come after the people inhabiting Elizabeth's old house. If Dennis isn't alive though, that means someone else wants to kill the new girl at school...maybe the ghost of Elizabeth herself.
Cusick paints a convincing picture of a female protagonist driven to the brink. While some leads in these type of stories seem to waltz from one terrifying scenario to another without being affected, Martha's life rapidly spirals out of her control. Her father and step-mom zip off to Hawaii for their honeymoon, leaving her alone with Conor in the strange new house. Once the pranks start, Martha has trouble falling asleep at night, and even swapping rooms with Conor doesn't put a stop to the agony. Her grades suffer, her guidance counselor takes notice, and most of the other students at the school pull back from the new weirdo, leaving her more isolated than before. It's a nice touch that is mentioned but not harped on, and it lends a nice layer of veritas to the goings-on.
Of course, a story can only maintain questions for so long before the action happens, and Cusick handles this well too. Early goings-on are simple, short affairs: phantom phone calls and pranks at the house. Later ones get more involved: a house fire gets Conor and Martha out of bed in the middle of the night, and my personal favorite revolves Martha's return to school after-hours to retrieve a book from her locker which turns into a chase from hell through the darkened building when a power failure shuts off the lights. This is tense, fun stuff, and Cusick understands very well just how creepy places like a high school can be after everyone goes home and the halls are deserted.
The real pay-off is the end reveal of what everything's all about. Cusick plays her cards very close to her chest, and up until the final couple of chapters, I still wasn't sure if this story would go the supernatural route or if there was a more mundane and rational explanation for everything. I'm not spoiling it either; you deserve to find out the same way I did. I had most of the puzzle sussed out before the final reveal, but suffice it to say Cusick doesn't cheat and all the necessary clues are there.
Bottom line? I'm totally down to read the rest of Cusick's teen horror output. Four carving-knife-stabbed scarecrows out of five.
themelaniewaite's review against another edition
3.0
It was... okay. Maybe I’m too old for it, and that’s why I found it a bit bland to get through. Once the scary antics begin, the pace picks up and so did my interest in it. Granted this book is as old as I am, so some of the dialogue feels a little outdated, but overall it was an okay story, with a fun twist. Just write for a quick read over the spooky season.