| Dead -- Juvenile fiction. |
| Friendship -- Juvenile fiction |
| Horror tales |
| Cadavers |
| Corpses |
| Deceased |
| Human remains |
| Remains, Human |
| Horror -- Fiction |
| Horror -- Juvenile fiction |
| Horror fiction |
| Horror stories |
| Horror tales -- Fiction |
| Horror tales -- Juvenile fiction |
| Scary stories |
| Scary tales |
| Tales, Horror |
| Terror -- Fiction |
| Terror -- Juvenile fiction |
| Terror tales |
Available:
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Searching... Beckwith Middle School | FIC PEC | HORROR | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Dighton Public Library | YA PECK | YOUNG ADULT FICTION | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... East Bridgewater Jr/Sr High School | PEC | FICTION | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Foxboro - Boyden Library | YA FIC PECK | YOUNG ADULT FICTION | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Seekonk - Hurley Middle School | PECK | FICTION | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Sophomore loner Kerry is overjoyed when three popular senior girls pick her to be in their clique until the seniors die in a car crash, return from the dead, and insist that Kerry help them exact revenge on a disloyal classmate.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 6-10-Richard Peck takes the theme of an outsider longing to fit in and be part of the popular crowd in a chilling new direction in this compelling novel (Dial, 2010). Carrie is introduced through a pleading question, "What do you do when you're 15 and not in the loop?" As the narrator, Carrie has an underlying recognition that it is not in her best interest when she's welcomed by Tanya, Natalie, and MacKenzie, part of the high school in-crowd. She knows that she's being manipulated, but she's just desperate enough to go along with even their worst behaviors. The voices of Carrie's friends reflect their self-centeredness, bossiness, and lack of empathy. Even after the three girls are killed in a car crash, Tanya is not one to be denied and demands that Carrie do her bidding. The description of the dead girls, roller skating in the penthouse of a New York luxury apartment building, is vividly frightening. Ariadne Meyers' narration is spot-on, reflecting the girls' self-centeredness, bossiness, and lack of empathy. She perfectly voices Tanya's imperious nature. Listeners may get impatient with Carrie's reluctance to let go of girls who treated her poorly in life and even worse in death, but they will be hooked to the end to discover if she ever gets up the strength to stand on her own and prevent a final act of wickedness by Tanya.-Edith Ching, University of Maryland, College Park (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Peck never writes a book that is less than a page-turner, and this paranormal horror story captures the extremes of joy and dread, belonging and ostracism that are the core of the high school experience. Fifteen-year-old Kerry Williamson is new at prestigious suburban Pondfield High and doesn't expect much. Her status is transformed the day Tanya, Natalie, and Makenzie-the coolest, prettiest junior and senior girls-welcome her into their clique ("I'd moved from reality to a reality show, and what could be better?"), although a place in this charmed circle doesn't guarantee the respect of its rulers. A fatal accident just weeks before prom steals all the magic away-until an impossible text message tells Kerry that, just maybe, not everything has been lost. Kerry's voice is wistful, vulnerable, and would-be sophisticated, and the excuses she gives for her compromises ring both hollow and true. Perhaps because of this realism, the sudden escalation of fantastic horror in the last third of the book comes across as a pat resolution. Nevertheless, the story keeps its hold on readers to the very end. Ages 12-up. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
In his first book set in the twenty-first century, Peck returns to his ghost-story roots. At exclusive Pondfield High School, sophomore Kerry Williamson has been allowed into the clique of super-cool senior girls Tanya, Makenzie, and Natalie -- beautiful, manipulating, and mean, like black widow spiders on the Web, texting, networking, and multitasking, busily controlling the social life of their realm. And so thrilled is Kerry to rise from nobody status to denizen of the inner sanctum that she doesn't question her good fortune. When Tanya, Natalie, and Makenzie are killed in a car crash while texting her, Kerry feels she is nothing without them; she's three quarters dead. But the dead return, and the story turns dark, with a downright macabre denouement. As always, Peck masterfully uses the first-person point of view to get inside his protagonist's head, trace her journey, and show her finally taking a stand and beginning to understand that there's a world out there beyond the peer group. There's no Grandma Dowdel here, no strong adult in this world run by children, so Kerry must find her own way. Peck's message about the power of the peer group could easily have been more didactic, but wrapping the story in the shrouds of a ghost story was a stroke of genius, making it a creepy tale middle school girls will die for...if they put down their cell phones long enough to read it. dean Schneider (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
lived back there") finds herself in over her head when she is unexpectedly adopted by the three coolest girls in school. The power trio, headed by the Machiavellian Tanya, who has the mysterious ability to slow time, proceed to use Kerry as their patsy until their untimely deaths in a car accident. Kerry is devastated--until she receives a text from Beyond instructing her to meet the resurrected crew for a night of pre-prom partying. But when she realizes dead Tanya is bent on eliminating the one boy who dared turn her down, the serial follower must take charge in order to save Prom Night. This staccato-sentenced chiller is not so much a ghost story as it is a smart, sly treatise on friendship, bullying and the timeless power of high-school hierarchies. Peck's supernatural worldbuilding is a bit muddy, but when he hits his stride, his sonorous language chills; his real-life depictions of adolescent egotism and back-stabbing cruelty are spot-on. Probably more for fans of Cecily Von Ziegesar than Lois Duncan. (Horror. 12 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Socially invisible sophomore Kerry is grateful when she is chosen to hang with the most legendary trio in school: Natalie, Makenzie, and leader Tanya. Dazzled by their beauty, perfection, and the cool efficiency with which they control their peers' social lives, Kerry allows the girls to manipulate her until she is completely under their spell. Not even death can stop them, as Kerry learns after the trio dies in a car crash but returns from the grave for one last party. Their reanimation doesn't throw Kerry, who convinces herself that their deaths were a dream, but she confronts the truth when it becomes clear that their time is limited and that Tanya doesn't intend to return to death peacefully. Peck accentuates the scary dominance cliques wield in high school by imbuing them with supernatural power, easing what could have been a pointed message. Kerry's first-person narration is foreboding, taking on the quality of a weird, half-remembered dream, but it's effective for conveying her consuming obsession and eventual waking to a life on her own terms.--Hutley, Krista Copyright 2010 Booklist