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A review by stephbookshine
Slumber Party by Christopher Pike
3.0
I hadn’t read Slumber Party in my teens, but many of the beloved tropes that I remember so well are present here: there are no parents or other authority figure around that the girls can turn to; the location is isolated, and this is exacerbated by the weather; the main character has a secret in her past, and so does every other character; EVERYONE is a suspect!
One of the obvious observations, which I suspect will crop up more than once during the course of this feature, is that these books were written in a different time. The flippant jokes about issues like anorexia or disability were unremarkable in the fiction of 30+ years ago, but I just cannot imagine some of the attitudes in modern teen fiction and it actually felt a little shocking how much this dated the character interactions and dialogue.
The plot is straightforward and easy-to-follow (if the motivations are a little vague!). Six girls head up the snowy mountains for a girl’s weekend skiing and hanging out. Almost immediately odd events start to stack up, and everyone begins to act strangely, except for Lara – our main character – who is merely suspiciously calm about the whole thing! It soon becomes clear that the girls’ past has returned to haunt them, as someone is out for some rough justice… but who?
The six girls can be easily split into pairs for descriptive purposes: Lara and Dana are the ‘normal’ girls that the reader is supposed to identify with; Rachael and Mindy are the stereotypical Mean Girls (think Regina and Karen and you wouldn’t be too far wrong!) and Nell and Celeste are the studious, quiet, ‘good girls’ that act as the voice of conscience/reason. Of course, these are first impressions and EVERYONE has secrets!
It’s fascinating, again as a modern, adult reader, to note how obsessed the girls are with boys, to the extent of ignoring obvious warning signs because… paaaarty! Still, well, hormones are a thing. Even more interesting was how little this group of ‘best friends’ like each other. They have little in common, don’t enjoy each other’s company, and actively despise each others values and behaviours. I have no idea why they even thought it would be a good idea to speak to each other, let alone head off on a rural break!
That said, I did get a slight frisson during the climactic reveal, despite having sussed who the ‘villain’ was, and it was a nice, easy read. I would class this as a reasonable start to the series, which introduces the mild level of fear and some of the real-life teen concerns covered.
“When we were nine years old,” Lara began, “Nell had an accident.”
“It was nobody’s fault,” Dana interjected.
“She got burned,” Lara continued. “Her face and hands. She had to have extensive plastic surgery, which was very painful. She looks okay now, but it’s always there between us. You see, the accident that burned her – each one of us contributed to it.” Lara tried to smile to relieve the tension. “I guess you would call it our deep, dark secret.”
“Was anyone else hurt?” Celeste asked, stooping down to make a snowball.
Obviously she did not notice how badly the topic disturbed them.
“No.” Dana said quickly.
Do not talk about it. Do not remember.
“No one else,” Lara echoed weakly; not exactly a lie. Nicole hadn’t really been hurt.
Nicole had died.
– Christopher Pike, Slumber Party
Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog
One of the obvious observations, which I suspect will crop up more than once during the course of this feature, is that these books were written in a different time. The flippant jokes about issues like anorexia or disability were unremarkable in the fiction of 30+ years ago, but I just cannot imagine some of the attitudes in modern teen fiction and it actually felt a little shocking how much this dated the character interactions and dialogue.
The plot is straightforward and easy-to-follow (if the motivations are a little vague!). Six girls head up the snowy mountains for a girl’s weekend skiing and hanging out. Almost immediately odd events start to stack up, and everyone begins to act strangely, except for Lara – our main character – who is merely suspiciously calm about the whole thing! It soon becomes clear that the girls’ past has returned to haunt them, as someone is out for some rough justice… but who?
The six girls can be easily split into pairs for descriptive purposes: Lara and Dana are the ‘normal’ girls that the reader is supposed to identify with; Rachael and Mindy are the stereotypical Mean Girls (think Regina and Karen and you wouldn’t be too far wrong!) and Nell and Celeste are the studious, quiet, ‘good girls’ that act as the voice of conscience/reason. Of course, these are first impressions and EVERYONE has secrets!
It’s fascinating, again as a modern, adult reader, to note how obsessed the girls are with boys, to the extent of ignoring obvious warning signs because… paaaarty! Still, well, hormones are a thing. Even more interesting was how little this group of ‘best friends’ like each other. They have little in common, don’t enjoy each other’s company, and actively despise each others values and behaviours. I have no idea why they even thought it would be a good idea to speak to each other, let alone head off on a rural break!
That said, I did get a slight frisson during the climactic reveal, despite having sussed who the ‘villain’ was, and it was a nice, easy read. I would class this as a reasonable start to the series, which introduces the mild level of fear and some of the real-life teen concerns covered.
“When we were nine years old,” Lara began, “Nell had an accident.”
“It was nobody’s fault,” Dana interjected.
“She got burned,” Lara continued. “Her face and hands. She had to have extensive plastic surgery, which was very painful. She looks okay now, but it’s always there between us. You see, the accident that burned her – each one of us contributed to it.” Lara tried to smile to relieve the tension. “I guess you would call it our deep, dark secret.”
“Was anyone else hurt?” Celeste asked, stooping down to make a snowball.
Obviously she did not notice how badly the topic disturbed them.
“No.” Dana said quickly.
Do not talk about it. Do not remember.
“No one else,” Lara echoed weakly; not exactly a lie. Nicole hadn’t really been hurt.
Nicole had died.
– Christopher Pike, Slumber Party
Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog