As promised I'll be starting the Point Horror recaps today. Well, I'm kind of using Point as a catchall for the '90s teen horror books. If it happens to be a different publisher I'll let you know. The first one up is The Locker (in case you hadn't guessed). The cover is pretty cool looking:
After the death of their parents Marlee Fleming and her little brother are left in the care of their aunt. They move to a new town hoping to get a fresh start. Things go well at first. A cute guy, a new friend. But then they act weird about The Locker she's been assigned which had belonged to a student who disappeared. After opening her locker she gets a terrifying vision. Now she's afraid. Afraid of her premonitions, afraid of what it might cost her. And she should be afraid. Very afraid.
The Pickings:
We open with Aunt Celia dropping off Marlee at her new school. She tells Marlee that she's looking a little strange today. Just what every girl wants to hear on their first day at a new school, I'm sure. We're told Aunt Celia is wearing, as usual, "overalls with a red flannel shirt underneath". So, I'm guessing she's 'unusual'. And yes, indeed, she is. She's an artist. Something with clay. And since artists are unusual we're told Aunt C looks young enough to pass for nineteen. Aunt C starts to say something about Marlee's mom but trails off and tells her to be careful. Which gives Marlee a painful little heart tug. So, Aunt C tells her she looks strange and then reminds Marlee of her dead mother right before school. Great encouragement there.
Before they leave she pokes her head in for one last chat with her little brother whom she'll be picking up after school. Aunt C makes a joke that Marlee better remember the password or Dobkin (seriously, that's his name) will be stuck in his after school arts program. Wow, way to make them really feel at ease there. Dobkin was named after their grandfather and, of course, he's wise beyond his years. I am always torn on young kids being mini-geniuses. On one hand I hate it when they make kids out to be as dumb as rocks. On the other hand, almost every kid in bookdom is an 'old soul' and perceptive beyond belief. Oh well. Onward.
Dobkin also tells her to be careful. Left alone Marlee stares at her new school a bit while she ruminates on how long it takes her to adjust while Dobkin fits in right away. And Aunt Celia has been moving them around quite a bit. Just what kids need after the traumatic death of their parents. Because, in Aunt C's words "there's a whole wonderful world out there, we have no excuse ever to be bored!" But maybe the children you are now raising might like to stay in one place. Although, really, they don't seem to complain too much about it. So maybe it's just me.
Anyway, their system is she takes out a map of the U.S. and they take turns closing their eyes and sticks a finger on the map. Then they pack up and move. We're told they moved a little early this year (Missouri) and they are now finishing out the school year in the new one. So it must be early-late Spring. We get some more description of Aunt C which is pretty much your artist grab bag. She's scatterbrained and creative and has wanderlust. She is also independently wealthy I guess, since she never sells any of her sculptures but they move around a lot. So, yeah, I'm a flaming ball of jealousy right now.
During this she's been standing outside so I guess she's been standing there with zone-out face this whole time. She gives herself a big old "I'm brave!" purse swing and hits someone behind her. And am I the only one who thinks it's weird that she takes a purse to school? Maybe it's common (or was) but I just used a backpack and dumped everything in there.
Anywho, turns out the person she hit in the stomach was a guy. Enter The Heartthrob who seems to be dressed in a large black overcoat that's buttoned all the way down to his black high tops and a black baseball cap. Backwards, naturally because that's how the nineties kids roll, man. And if this were a modern-day school he'd be arrested by now. And who the hell wears an overcoat buttoned all the way up? It's not even comfortable and certainly doesn't look cool. Even then.
He jokes a little bit about her lethal purse and whatnot. While he picks his stuff up she uses this time to eyeball him a little and notice how cute he is and "how soft his hair looked as he shook it back from his wide dark eyes." Even though he has a baseball hat on. That is some super x-ray vision there Marlee. She describes him to us and he kind of sounds like the Necromancer from Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II so I'll just put this here:
You're welcome
They have their little meet-cute and he shows her where the office is. Also, his name is Ysuran Auondril Tyler. He sexily walks off backwards (managing to not run into a hallway teeming with students). Then he points at her and tells her to be careful. Wow, third time in five pages. And, as Marlee notes, warnings always come in three. Also, if a guy dressed all in black smiles when he says be careful and points at you, RUN. I've heard of bad things coming in threes but not specifically warnings. But then, warnings are rarely good, so, you know, there's that.
End of Chapter
So, these chapters are pretty short but I guess that's good since this is a weekend thing. Oh, and I just noticed that my book is actually Archway Publishing but I'm too lazy to retitle the whole project. So, I'll just mention them as I go along. I'd hate to get sued for attributing the wrong cover to the wrong publishing house.
Also also, as always, the buttons at the bottom do work even though they're grayed out. And, as ever, please leave a comment, like or tweet if you like the blog. I'll happily attend to any suggestions or criticisms but please keep it constructive, there's too much negativity on the internet as is and I'd like to keep this a happy place!
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