Weekend – Christopher Pike

Guest review by Kristian Elliott.

First published June 1st 1990 by Hodder Children’s Books.

Genre: Young Adult Thriller

Note: This review contains spoilers. 

“The sun is out. The beach is beautiful. The sea is perfect. And for nine friends this weekend in Mexico is a dream vacation. But that dream turns into a nightmare by a mysterious plot for revenge.”

I was recommended Weekend after hitting a wall while writing a short story about some teenagers on vacation at a mystery house. I’m glad that I came across this as it’s helped me considerably in terms of how to build tension and suspense.

This group of friends have all gone on vacation to visit their sick friend, Robin, who was poisoned at their last party. Someone mixed insecticide into her drink. Now, a dialysis machine is the only thing keeping her alive. It’s clear that one of the friends on vacation poisoned her, and when strange things start to occur, they realise someone is trying to avenge Robin.

Pike does an amazing job with the dialogue between characters. There is plenty of humour and you get a real sense of their teenage antics. The characters are vivid and Pike portrays their angst and guilt in a way that the reader reciprocates. This is particularly at its strongest when Shani divulges all the terrible things Leda did to embarrass Kerry during her cheer rally. The incident led to Kerry being teased and bullied around school for being a slut. Leda also stole Kerry’s boyfriend. Then there’s the big reveal where we discover it was Kerry who poisoned Robin, by accident: she wanted to poison Leda. Essentially, the victim created another victim. What Pike does best throughout this book is create suspense, and  slowly reveals the mystery in a fast-paced manner.

The main issue I had with this story was the way in which the group of friends punish Kerry for poisoning Robin. It didn’t feel realistic. Flynn’s role in particular irked me: he seemed too perfect and too good to be true. Good looking, no problem with that. So amazing with a hand gun he can shoot a rattlesnake in half several yards out, just before it bites someone on the leg; maybe that’s possible. Pretends to be a psychopath obsessed with avenging Robin so that he could get all the confessions from the group – makes some sense. He’s Robin and Leda’s long lost brother who just to happens to be able to donate a kidney to Robin and save her life – really?

Regardless, this was an enjoyable read.

Score

7/10

Recommended to…

I recommend this book to lovers of YA Thrillers. If you’ve read any of Pike’s books before and enjoyed them, then you’ll love this. Sticking with the theme of friends on vacation, I recommend reading Oblivion Road by Alex McAulay.

I’m new to reading Christopher Pike and this was only his second novel. I’ve heard that he’s the master of fast-paced thrillers in YA. So I’m going to read the highly rated The Last Vampire series next, also by Pike, which I’ll review.