I've been collecting some of these old 80s horror stories for teens, and RIP is the time! Here we go:
The Haunting of Frances Rain, by Margaret Buffie: Lizzie's family is a mess, but now it's summer and they're going out to the island to live with Gran. It's Lizzie's true heart-home, and she's got serious plans for doing archaeology on nearby Rain Island to see what she can find. In the ruined foundations of an old cabin, she finds a pair of glasses -- and when she puts them on, she sees the events of nearly 60 years ago. Lizzie learns that the island was once the home of Frances Rain, a schoolteacher who loved the solitude of island life. But who was the girl who came to live there for a summer, and what happened to them?
This one was a little unusual, interesting and fun. And it's a Canadian story that takes place in the Winnipeg area!
Dream Date, by Sinclair Smith: Shy Katie has just moved to town and is hoping to reinvent herself a bit, but just as she's making friends and getting into a groove, she also meets a handsome and charming boy....in a dream. Heath Granger keeps showing up in unusual dreams, and soon Katie realizes that he is some sort of spirit, and that he's trying to take control of her.* But how do you fight a presence that mostly shows up when you're asleep, and which is getting more powerful? She tries every way she can think of, while Heath hurts her real life and her friends, and gets closer to taking over.
This was surprisingly good and had more substance than I expected, given the cover!
*Katie soon notices that Heath has three channels: charm, rage, and sad sausage, which are the defaults for your average abuser. How does a naive teen girl spot this so easily? It's implied throughout that Heath is mostly id and can't dissemble as well as a live person.
The Invitation, by Diane Hoh: Sarah and her four best friends are a close bunch, but in the social scale of high school, they don't count for much. So why has Cass, the richest queen bee of them all, invited them to her annual fall party? It's the party of the year, and it's always exclusive. Sarah's got a bad feeling about this, but Ellie is thrilled, Shane needs to show her parents that she's got a social life, Maggie's up for anything, and Donald wants to go where Maggie goes. When they get to the party, Sarah realizes that Cass has a plan for the five outsiders -- it's a party game, and the game isn't kind at all. It may well turn deadly.
A fun read, and more of a thriller than the others have so far been. Lots of action.
Hush, Little Baby, by Caroline B. Cooney: You can always count on Cooney, author of The Girl on the Milk Carton, to come up with a good story. Kit drops by her dad's house while he's out of town, and Darcy shows up -- Kit's former (and very short-term) stepmother, renowned for her ditzy bad decisions. Darcy hands a baby to Kit, says she'll be right back, and zooms away. Is this Darcy's baby -- or, worse, not Darcy's baby? It's clearly just a few weeks old. Kit tries to cope with the help of a friend (and his tag-along little sister), but these scary people show up and pretty soon everything is way out of control. Sam the Baby needs protection and care, not to be in the middle of a tug-of-war; does anybody besides these kids actually care about him?
I did not realize how precarious the situation would become for the small children in this story. I should have known, of course, what did I expect? But I'm not good at kids in danger, even in pulpy YA fiction. There is a lot of driving around in cars, and a lot of action/danger. Do not read if babies/kids in danger is not your thing. It's exciting and Cooney is a good storyteller, just...not the babies!
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