Reviews

One of my first thoughts, when I sat back reading this book, was god this is like watching a cheesy 80’s slasher film. The opening scenes, it’s peaceful, six girls meeting up at a ski resort for a girl’s slumber party, all day skiing and then an evening of fun, seriously what could go wrong! Cue all the cheesy happy music you can think of, the odd old man known as “The Colonel” who takes their keys and moves the cars, the mysterious melting snowman….I mean seriously nothing could go wrong could it!

Well you would be wrong about that wouldn’t you, I mean come on! You have 6 six girls on holiday, 3 seemed to be permanently on heat! So far you get the picture, the pretty vixen one, the quiet one, the funny one, the “chubby” one, the normal one, the clingy one. Cue some “hot” boys, well two of them, and the bitch fest starts with Lara and Rachael who both want the same guy. Random things happen, a friend disappears, people are shifty, but all they care about is a paaarrrrttttyyyyyyyyyyy! Yeah, that is right, your BEST FRIEND IS MISSING BUT YOU JUST TALK ABOUT WANTING TO KISS THE BOY YOU FANCY! Duh! How these girls became friends I will never know, with the sly remarks, the digs about homecoming queen, they seem to not like each other!

Don’t get me wrong, this was 128 pages of escapism, reliving a youth I am so glad I didn’t have. I loved that it was set in a ski resort, to add to the tension, the isolation, the coldness contrasting to the fire. Now the fire plays a HUGE part in this book, melting snowman anyone, but you do not realise how much it plays until the past has been revealed. God, this was actually a sad and heartbreaking tale of Nicole, Nell’s sister, the one missing from this happy reunion. The wedge that broke these friends before their reunion.

For the first book in our readathon was good fun. Was it the best book I ever read…erm no, but it was a lot of fun to read. A lot of eye-rolling and ‘seriously’ due to the behaviour of some of the girls, a couple of comments about anorexia was said which in this day and age you would never get away with, all just shows how the world has changed since the ’80s.

As a debut, it is a great start for Pike and his dark world. He is showing how much of an impact he can make in those short pages. Thrusting a crazy situation with a bit of a love story, a bit of intensity, how will it all play out? Will it be all pillow fights and giggles? Or will it something far more sinister? Just be worried if you find yourself at a slumber party and the snowman you made melts……RUN

sharron_joy_reads's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Lara is looking forward to a weekend ski trip with her old friends, Nell, Dana, Rachel Mindy and her new friend, Celeste. This is the first trip since a dreadful accident when they were children and Lara hopes they can reconcile.

But at the Lodge owned by Nell’s family strange things start to happen, a weird melted snowman, the strange man who says he’s a ranger, the strange overheard phone call and the off limits basement. As the storm closes in Lara realises someone’s intentions are deadly.

My first Christopher Pike and it was fun but crazy! The girls relationships with each other are not just tenuous but downright combative, there is so much resentment and bubbling anger her, everyone is suspicious and they all seem to hate each other! And who goes to a ski lodge when a major storm is forecast, crazy! The conclusion was obvious but well written and suitably explosive. All in all I’m not sure I enjoyed it or not, the characters were all larger than life but, again, where were their parents, such a strange tale!