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A review by paulabrandon
Dance of Death by Jo Gibson
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?