Title:Driver'south Expressionless by Peter Lerangis

The Author:

A rather prolific writer, Peter Lerangis has been writing for decades, although if yous get to his website the farthest back you'll notice is his The Watchers serial. No mention of his Signal Horror writing that I tin can find. Seriously. Not fifty-fifty his Wiki page goes beyond his Watchers series. Don't worry. I believe I've found them. Titles include Driver'S DEAD, THE YEARBOOK, and 10-ISLE. Seems like he doesn't want the taint, perhaps? Or information technology'due south merely that his various other series have done and then well there'southward no need to put that retail work on his resume any longer. [ Wing: Those the books I've found past him, too (with X-Isle being a two book series). He also ghostwrote some of the Babe-Sitters Club books. ]

Anyway, he has a weird thing for the Vietnam War in this book, and I don't know why. The premise seems to hinge on a "crazy" Vietnam vet and i of the characters existence a refugee from the area and trying to discover his parents. It'southward just the date seems really off. The book was published in 1994. That'southward a big, lingering gap for Vietnam relevance. It was only weird. Information technology didn't necessarily seem forced, but the timing was off plenty that information technology really stood out.

Also every. Single. Chapter. Ends on a cliffhanger. All of them.

The Blurb:

Nightmare – dead ahead.

Kristen's not a very good driver. And the driver'southward ed classes aren't helping. No matter how difficult she tries, she just can't go the hang of being behind the cycle.

Rob'due south a very adept driver. And he wants to give Kirsten a few tips on how to improve her driving. But after the first session, Rob turns upwardly missing.

Kirsten is showtime to realize that this class may be a footling more than she bargained for. A course that may drive her crazy – or to death.

#

That is . . . Really bad. One, it'due south vaguely relevant to the plot. It only leaves out a whole shit ton of applicative details like Rob being a shitbag, the fact that he doesn't turn up missing, but dead, and the story really doesn't centre around the class itself. Driver'south ed precipitates a lot of the events, only the form is really more of a passing thing. The contest is really the driving force behind this (pun intended), along with, you know. Being haunted past a dead kid that's screwing with her head.

The Place:

Port Lincoln, New York. Presumably on Long Island, where Kirsten had just moved from New York City. I hateful I estimate information technology can seem similar a world away to a teenager, simply really. LIRR. I know it sucks, but you're well inside reach, sister.

It's a very eye/lower middle class town that has its nicer houses (where Kirsten lives) and it's older section of town (aka poor department, just say information technology) and and then places in between like the downtown expanse that kind of bridges the gap between the ii. At to the lowest degree in this book we're not dealing with a crazy wealth divide and mansions and whatnot.

The Players:

Nguyen Trang – Mostly dead, from an accident the school yr before, he'due south Vietnamese, obsessed with cars (especially the fancy kind), and was in love with Gwen, the ex-girlfriend of one Rob Maxson. Allegedly had some kind of telekinetic powers and could perform small feats of magic, including changing the angle of items in a photograph and flinging things beyond the room with his mind. He thought this was a great manner to choice up chicks and half thought that'south why Gwen "liked" him. Token Asian nerd with geeky dress and a pocket protector. Of course.

Virgil – Former stooge for Rob Maxson, former hound for the aforementioned Gwen, and electric current fellow of Maria. Brusk dark-brown hair, braces, glasses, and is smart, tranquility, and seems nice. Except he's not actually because he's trying to encompass up a murder. As one does.

Rob Maxon – Rough looking, similar he was chiseled with a crude bract. Eyebrows are nighttime and java brown and slanted upward. Token school tough kid that'due south "cool" and people are equally repelled and attracted to him.

Kirsten Wilkes – Typical teenager learning to bulldoze and who'southward new to Port Lincoln. She laments her lost friends in her diary and is kind of weirded out by moving into the Trangs' house after Nguyen's expiry even though he didn't dice in the house.

Nat Wilkes – Insignificant younger brother to Kirsten, roughly 12.

Maria Sirocco – Loudmouth with thick black hair and wears "cool" clothes. She's funny and nice and the merely person to talk to Kirsten since school started. Girlfriend of Virgil and by far the best character of the volume. Lone voice of reason.

Mr Busk – Erstwhile Marine and Vietnam War vet, he went "crazy" and left his wife and disappeared only to re-emerge a few years later on to become the school'south driver's ed and automobile shop teacher. Sounds totally legit, right? This is Maria's version of the story, so take information technology for what you will. The back of his neck looks like roast beef, according to Kirsten – pinkish and marbled (this is actually an amazing description) – and his hair is potent and sparse similar cutting grass in a drought.

The Story:

It opens with a prologue all in italics, denoting it'south in the by or not from the primary character'due south POV, something. Something important, obviously. We see Nguyen looking rather strained and nosotros get the book equivalent of panning beyond his room to run across the models and cars on his walls. He'due south all sweaty and strained and, uh, masturbating? I have no idea. But the faces of one of the models on the wall allegedly moves. Spooky.

He's supposed to meet upwardly with Rob and Virgil in the rain so Rob can give Nguyen a "talking to" well-nigh Gwen. Why Nguyen would concord to this run into-up, I have no idea. I remember he was originally told Rob wanted to show him an crawly car. But Rob's doing it for Virgil so he can finally motility in on Gwen with Nguyen out of the manner. And Nguyen knows Rob is Gwen's proficient-for-nothing ex-boyfriend. So decisions?

Then nosotros're in the 2 thugs' POV and Rob lets his racism show by referring to Nguyen as Viet Nerd, complains nearly the United states of america losing the war (that's twenty years past its end, BTW, something he wouldn't accept even been live for) to "these people" and so "they" come to the United states of america and take everyone's jobs, including Rob's dad'south, conveniently directly affected past Nguyen'south dad.

It's insinuated that the car Rob and Virgil are currently in is stolen and neither of them are actually licensed to drive. When Nguyen finally shows upward on his bike Rob tells him to go far and tries to intimidate Nguyen with his driving. They end up in the wrong lane, crash into a guardrail and wing into a deep ravine where Virgil, the last POV we're in, blacks out and the prologue ends.

Kirsten's taking driver'southward ed and she hates it. Her classmates call back she'southward such a bad driver that when flyers were handed out for a driving contest and Kirsten took one, they all laughed at her. She's already caused $3,000 of damage to her dad's auto while practicing. [ Wing: HOW?! What are you possibly doing likewise driving into things that is causing that much damage? Is information technology a stick shift and you've killed the clutch a lot? What are you doing, Kirsten? ]

During a driving lesson Kirsten completely shit the bed. She couldn't figure out the pedals, ran a red, and proceeded to hit a kid in the school parking lot. Except she didn't because he was faking information technology for laughs. What a winner. Oh, BTW it was Rob who did that.

She is both repelled and intrigued by this Rob and his glacial stare and sharp features and Maria's like GUUUUUUURRRRRRLLLLL no. Maria warns Kirsten away from him, calling him a scuzzball and a slug. Of course Kirsten denies her interest despite being completely mesmerized by him and his lack of fear in the face of a screaming Mr Busk after that stupid little prank.

To farther bulldoze home her point (well-placed but unintended pun), Maria tells Kirsten about Gwen and how she used to exist squeamish before she and Rob dated. But he broke up with her when he got bored and she started dating Nguyen for revenge. Maria'south dramatized story has Nguyen driving the stolen car from the prologue and driving over the ravine in order to commit suicide. Apparently that's the official story.

One of the things Kirsten liked about moving to the 'burbs was walking home. The chirping birds, fallen leaves, and cool sweet air were a nice contrast to the cross-town omnibus and pee-choked breaths. What she doesn't like is that her friend Rachel hasn't written her at all since she moved (have you written Rachel, Kirsten? HAVE YOU???) then she jokes almost sending her a letter bomb. Ha ha? This was during the peak of the Unabomber shit with Ted Kazynski? Haha? A chip besides real?

Kirsten comes dwelling house after school to an empty house that doesn't feel empty and she finds a destroyed letter addressed to the Trangs that she tries to piece back together. It reveals that Nguyen was a refugee and took the last proper noun of his aunt and uncle. There'due south also a red, wet stain on the letter. We're left to assume it's blood, but information technology's never actually confirmed.

When Kirsten calls Maria to get more information on Nguyen, Maria tells her that his parents (aunt and uncle) thought Nguyen's expiry was a fix-up, some kind of conspiracy against Asians. But when the printing kept hounding them, they gave up and moved away.

The affiliate ends with the porch creaking and someone whispering Kirsten's proper noun. A hooded figured jumps out at her. Turns out it's only Nat.

Back at schoolhouse Kirsten'south sniffing effectually Rob once more. She felt like he had a coolness, a sureness, a grace that made him stand out from the others. He smiled at her and she wasn't sure she liked it, but she wasn't certain she didn't like it either. She thinks his eyes are like alligator eyes. Yeah, that'south what I like in my guys: reptilian attributes. Sounds like a great showtime to the human relationship right here.

Rob offers her a ride subsequently class and she accepts. His auto is a wreck; filthy and littered with trash. The seat's ripped up and he has to cover it with a shirt. Maria watches Kirsten go far the motorcar and stares at her disapprovingly. I like Maria.

While they're out together Rob admits to being impulsive and he doesn't know why. [ Fly: … isn't not knowing why by and large a part of existence impulsive, Rob?! ] He apologizes for his "joke" and Kirsten accepts information technology (of grade). He drives her right dwelling without asking where she lives. When she asks he says he saw her mowing the lawn, which is a blatant lie and she knows it. But she brushes it off as innocent because why wouldn't she?

When he finds out her house is empty he offers to teach her how to drive. He claims Mr Busk owed him a favor and then he learned how to drive for gratis. He starts coaching her and she nearly backs over a petty daughter on a bike at the cease of the chapter. Simply to accept the next affiliate open on a close call.

Rob teaches her how to drive, interim patient and gentle toward Kirsten, and her fears ease upward and she finally gets improve at driving as a result. Imagine what a lilliputian compassion tin do instead of screaming at someone to get better. How about that?

Right well-nigh here is where I commencement eyebrow-raising at the pages going, when is the other shoe going to drop? Rob has a crap reputation. Where is it?

Kirsten realizes they just talked most her so when she tries to plow the conversation to him, Rob says in that location isn't much to talk about with him. His parents were drunks and fought a lot. His dad lost his job and walked out on them. Of course (!) Kirsten thinks Rob is corking company and the exact contrary of what everyone said he was. Because she'southward the right 1 here, beingness new and all, and anybody else who really knew him was wrong. Duh.

They go to dinner and a movie and afterward he teaches her to parallel park and they get out and walk through a fuck park where people are going at it in the open up. She recognizes again that he'south not always truthful but somehow this is okay to her. I have no thought why.

He pulls out the flyer for the auto contest and Kirsten thinks the car's bending has changed but she brushes it off every bit not seeing it conspicuously earlier. She then proceeds to recollect it's sweet that Rob basically admitted to stalking her since schoolhouse started. Why, Kirsten? Why is that okay to you?

They sit on the park bench and the affiliate ends with Rob leaning down over her, presumably about to force himself on her as she struggles. Kirsten redeems herself some here when she bites his lip and draws blood in order to become him off of her. Rob'due south like what the hell? He took her to dinner and a flick and driving and so he's, like, owed. And she patently wanted information technology since she sat on the bench side by side to him. Considering you know how much of a come up-on sitting is. Kirsten tells him to stuff it and walks away (hooray!) but as she'south walking abroad she starts to wonder if she'd been too judgmental or harsh or violent (boo!). No, Kirsten. You weren't. A throat punch would have been adequate as well.

She walks herself home, Rob not coming after her, and thinks she's going to become mugged but to find out it'south a mailbox she was seeing in the shadows. When she arrives home she realizes she'd lost her central, it having probably fallen out when she took her jacket off in Rob'southward motorcar. She tries to look for information technology but a hand grabs her and the chapter ends.

And it opens on her dad grabbing her considering she was just walking in at xi on a school nighttime and she didn't accept any idea what time it was. Her parents yell at her and then send her to her room to practise homework (at midnight?) and she couldn't watch Letterman. Did teens really stay up this tardily during the week? I don't remember doing this, mainly considering I had to exist at school for 7:05. Way besides early. [ Wing: I regularly did, but non really with parental permission. I just stayed up in my room, usually reading. Sometimes leaving after everyone was asleep. ]

Meanwhile Kirsten waffles on how to feel about Rob, telling herself that he would have to piece of work to earn her trust and she wanted him to try. *Eye roll* I guess attempted assault can be brushed aside if he tries hard to earn her trust again?

It besides comes to light that Rob was driving around without a license. How? Is this something the cool kids do? [ Fly: I knew people who did it back in the 90s (and, to be honest, I know a couple people who have pulled it more recently). For them, it wasn't about beingness cool, more about just refusing to wait for the license/being unable to pass the test and not caring/not even taking the test, just driving considering they wanted to/I don't even know. ]

When Kirsten's in her room she sees another copy of the auto contest flyer and the car is turned a unlike way, which completely freaks her out. She keeps trying to convince herself that in that location are multiple versions of the flyer, each with different photos of the motorcar. That's non a completely ridiculous explanation and information technology makes more than sense than the film changing by itself.

She tries falling asleep but gets jolted awake past moaning in her cupboard. Then the closet doors first to bleed after they start rattling. She bursts out of her room and wakes up the firm. Nat pranks her when he barges into her room while she screams not to and pretends to faint. I find these "pranksters" have actually poor timing with their jokes. But when she walks in and turns on the light there's zilch there.

The next twenty-four hours she drives to schoolhouse with her mom all the while thinking Rob deserves a chance to redeem himself with her (Why? No). When they become to school Kirsten sees in that location's a ruckus in the park with constabulary, an ambulance, and a crowd of people. When she goes to check it out she finds out Rob had been run over and killed. [ Fly: Well damn, that escalated quickly. ]

Maria'due south sobbing her face off for some reason. I'k non sure why. She didn't have anything practiced to say about the guy. I estimate shock? Kirsten blames herself for his expiry thinking that he stubbornly waited in the park for her to come back to him because he was teaching her a lesson. My guess is he was probably jerking off or calling his ex-girlfriend. He doesn't seem similar someone who would dwell, IMO.

As she, Maria, and Virgil are walking away from the scene, Gwen approaches them and hands back Kirsten'south key, proverb Rob had information technology on him. Kirsten thinks he really stole it from her and Gwen claims to take found him dead. This, of course, leads to the rational conventionalities that Gwen killed Rob.

Maria totally agrees with that logic and convinces Kirsten not to go to the police because Gwen gave her back her own key [that she'd taken off of Rob's dead body]. But because of this Maria thinks Kirsten is Doubtable #1. Not certain how. Gwen, past her own admission, is the last person to have seen Rob. She would accept found his body in the middle of the dark. What the hell was she doing in the park in the middle of the nighttime? Recollect, people!

A lot of people are really broken up over Rob's death. Lerangis keeps mentioning people sobbing all over the identify and being really solemn. But the guy was a douche. No 1 except his cronies actually liked him. I mean people don't have to be dancing on his grave, but the theatrics are a bit much.

Rob's mysterious death was ruled an accident, but the chief yet has an associates to ready new guidelines for conduct like buddying up everywhere and not traveling lone afterwards dark. Corking mode to instill confidence in yourself, talking out of both sides of your rima oris like this. [ Wing: Not to mention, what, exactly, is buddying up supposed to do when it's a hitting and run? ]

At the decease site, Gwen gets all emotional and runs off and Virgil merely upwards and runs after her, leaving Maria and Kirsten behind. Maria thinks Virgil's still conveying a torch for Gwen. Can't say I blame her. After this and him getting all butthurt for Maria prodding him about liking Gwen before. And it wasn't only an annoyed butthurt, simply a serious butthurt that needed some Training H or something.

Kirsten walks into the criminal offence scene (not very secure, is it?) and sees that the tire tracks look like they're coming direct out of the lake. She finds the flyer Rob had and sees that the automobile in the photo is gone. DUN DUN DUN.

When Kirsten gets home the business firm is airtight upwardly and stuffy and for some reason reeking similar something died in the walls. She remembers her own copy of the flyer and she runs up to her room to fetch it. Except when she pulls information technology out the machine is turned like she saw in Rob's copy before he died. The logical conclusion to this is that she's side by side. More than DUN DUN DUN.

There'southward a knocking and moaning coming from her cupboard door as she finishes up posting the letter she received for Nguyen's aunt and uncle. When she looks at information technology the sounds finish. The knocking continues except it'southward but Virgil at the front door.

Virgil ends up beingness rather forward in someone else's home, asking to be invited in, asking for a drink, using the bath and and then wandering effectually upstairs. Initially I couldn't tell if this was just his personality or if something else was going on. Something else was going on. He was being nosy, but Kirsten didn't know this at the time.

Kirsten tries to confide in him near the flyer but he makes excuses, like there are multiple copies of it even though she tin can tell it freaks him out a tad. When he leaves he lets his paw linger in hers a picayune longer and he says he hopes to meet her shortly, but Kirsten only brushes it off as him being nice. Despite non really knowing him much at all, she's convinced he could be "one of those guys." Perchance not? But yet a creep for doing that with Maria as his girlfriend?

While Virgil was notwithstanding in that location a door had slammed open and knocked a plate off a wall, breaking it. She convinces herself it wasn't airtight all the way and current of air knocked information technology open. Then she finds the attic door open up and figures it was Virgil trying to detect his fashion back downstairs. Is the house that big? Probably non.

The idea that Gwen is the killer is firmly planted in Kirsten'southward head, encouraged past Virgil, and then she decides to face Gwen by pedaling over to her house. Except she almost gets hit by a machine on the way. The driver? Mr Busk who proceeds to scream at her for how awful she is on a bicycle and then peels out without seeing if she's okay. If I read it right, she might take gotten some hair ripped out and she was definitely scraped up. Sounds like a real stand guy.

Kirsten perseveres on to Gwen's firm, which is in an older, more run down section of town, only to find Gwen barreling out of her house on a bike. And then Kirsten follows her to a pawn shop. Kirsten thought she was being low key, but Gwen knew she was post-obit her. When Kirsten goes up to the door of the pawn store she finds a note from Gwen threatening to go to the police shortly and asked how Kirsten'due south parents' auto got the dent in the bumper. This whole thing is set upwards really oddly and is really not resolved past the end of the volume. Gwen'south motivation behind it, I mean. Information technology's not even a expert red herring.

She goes within considering she wants to take a await at what Gwen brought in. Turns out it'southward a agglomeration of stuff from Rob. Too turned out that the owner of the pawnshop is the same guy whose motorcar was allegedly stolen past Nguyen the previous year. Merely the guy's half blind yet he says he identified Nguyen'south face through a window, in the pelting, in the nighttime, when he was stealing the guy'due south car. The owner also mentioned a leather jacket. With her excellent powers of deduction, Kirsten concludes it was probably not Nguyen. Rob, maybe?

She goes abode and boots up her computer to write in her journal simply to find a actually ominous annotation threatening her life. Except that turns out to be Nat playing some other joke on her. She tries to password protect her computer, but she can't figure that one out then she copies everything to a floppy (ha!) and deletes everything from the hard bulldoze.

She searches for a place to hide the disk and finds a gap in the wall panelling. But as she's about to slide her deejay in at that place another one falls out. It has Nguyen'southward name on it and it'southward protected in plastic. His missing journal, mayhap?

Enter MS DOS reference and let the nostalgia overwhelm you for a moment.

The disk she pulled from her wall ends upwardly not being uniform with her PC. Maria refers her to Virgil, who just and then happens to have a Mac. She calls him only to remember she tin can't leave the business firm because she's grounded, so they decide to meet in the library and use those Macs the next day.

Her dad brings abode the comprisal logs from the ER the nighttime Nguyen died at Kirsten's asking. I guess patient confidentiality isn't a thing here. Kirsten scans through them and finds rather generic names right around the time of the incident. The three names were logged in as a fist fight. Kirsten decides to wait more into it.

That dark the moaning starts up again and Kirsten sees a figure in the dark with a mangled face and torn up clothes. She knows at that place's something at that place, but she blacks out and wakes upwards on her floor with cipher marring her sheets where the thing fell earlier she lost consciousness. Her mom comes in and puts her back to sleep, but Kirsten's convinced the thing haunting her is trying to tell her something. She becomes even more convinced after she finds a piece of scorched denim in her bed.

That'south actually really creepy and would have completely freaked me out. Yucky toes, for certain.

Kirsten and her dad attend Rob's service where they encounter Mr Busk who apologizes for the manner he acted when he most ran her over. How squeamish. He said he was thinking about Rob and was just all out of sorts. Of course Kirsten brushes this off and goes over to run across with her friends and become to school. She ends upwards seeing the attending nurse at the funeral, the same one attention the nighttime of Nguyen'due south accident. She wanted to inquire the woman virtually the names on the list, merely decides to practise information technology later when she wasn't surrounded past people.

The names on the listing? Belong to two teenagers and 1 adult, all having come in at the same time and all due to a fist fight. Tin can You Estimate WHO THEY WERE?

Once they get to schoolhouse Virgil takes them to the figurer lab to check out the deejay. He complains that his mouse isn't working and asks Kirsten and Maria to get a new 1 out of the equipment room. No surprise here that when the girls go back OMG the disk is blank. WTH, guys? Oh noes. Virgil mentions the lab teacher might exist able to retrieve the information, simply he holds onto the disk until they tin can meet up with the guy.

Non besides long later Kirsten'south impatient and Maria knows Virgil's locker combination and so they think the disk and go to the teacher themselves to get it looked at. They're able to access it, just information technology's password protected. They try a agglomeration of times and Maria ends up leaving before Kirsten finally manages to estimate the password. She reads through the entries and merely as she's getting to the concluding entry that shows that Nguyen was coming together upward with Rob the dark he died, Virgil shows upwardly and starts screeching near how Kirsten stole the disk and actually shoves her to the flooring to become her away from the computer. She and the instructor are dumbstruck by his beliefs.

Later he calms downwardly and admits to knowing about what happened the nighttime Nguyen died. Except he acts like he wasn't there and didn't know near the other people who checked into the ER.

Bro'south then shady he's an oak tree.

During driver's ed Mr Busk mentions how much Kirsten had improved and offers to have her bulldoze a piddling more than in some other car. One he claims the shop had just stock-still up despite it being littered with crap and looking lived in. They drive up to some train tracks where Kirsten ends up stopped on the tracks afterward a automobile cut her off only to run across an oncoming train and the safety confined dropping around her. When she turns to ask Mr Busk what to do she finds him hightailing information technology away, just not before having hit some kind of locking machinery that locks Kirsten in the car. He took the keys and ran.

I couldn't find anything regarding this type of locking machinery. Anyone?

Kirsten smashes out of the car with a Club (TM) but before it's hit by the railroad train. She gets dwelling house, cleans herself upward, and calls Maria to try and tell her everything, only call waiting breaks in. Information technology's Virgil who needs to meet Kirsten in BFE RIGHT Now and she can't tell anyone annihilation earlier meeting with him.

Sounds like a groovy manner to die, if you ask me.

Earlier she arrives at the manner-besides-secluded place to meet Virgil she sees him pacing and Mr Busk shows up to yell at him. He asks Virgil what Virgil was doing there, there being mode too close to where Nguyen died.

Equally this plays out in forepart of her, Kirsten realizes information technology's Mr Busk and Virgil who are the other names on the ER sheet and they were able to cover everything upwardly because the attending nurse was besides Mr Busk's sis. Kirsten connects the dots of Virgil's weird mental attitude and Mr Busk trying to kill her and her optics accident broad.

She pedals away from them, running from Mr Busk, only to end up running into him again, his Jeep having veered off the road and he having trouble starting it.

She tries to hide, but he sees her and is shocked that she's all the same alive. When Kirsten confronts him with all the things he did to keep her in the machine he vehemently denies it all.

Then Virgil's encarmine face pops upwards in the dorsum seat of the Jeep and he swings the door out, knocking Mr Busk over and Kirsten jumps in. She's able to go it started and they bulldoze off.

As they drive away Mr Busk throws rocks at them to try and become them to stop. Information technology doesn't work. They go abroad and when they eventually stop Virgil finally spills his guts.

Mr Busk was the drunken wrong way commuter that caused the accident that killed Nguyen. He and so blackmailed Rob to help him cover it upward. If Rob didn't assist Mr Busk would take told the cops Rob did it. Since Rob'south car was stolen and he was driving without a license information technology'd be an easy set-up. Allegedly. Mr Busk was and so boozer at the time of the accident that Rob had to drive them all to the hospital.

Kirsten rightly flips out on Virgil. She tells him about Nguyen getting revenge and at first Virgil balks. He'd tried to get close to her to see if he could discover the journal since Rob and Mr Busk idea Kirsten would notice it beginning. That connected to the plate falling off her wall when Virgil was at that place and the telekinesis. Maria had said that it was i of Nguyen'south talents.

When Kirsten tells Virgil about the flyers he starts to freak out and they both realize that there'due south a folder full of rotating motorcar flyers in the back seat of the Jeep they're in.

Virgil mentions that perchance Nguyen was a revenant, a restless spirit who died earlier they were supposed to and they can't go in peace until they discover what it is they're looking for.

Which is really weird because the only other time I've come beyond the concept of a revenant was in Carmen Adams's THE Band, which I also recapped for TDE. [ Wing: This is really closer to the use I've seen for the word "revenant," which is every bit a ghost/angry spirit back from the dead, not the vampire-esque version from The Ring. ]

DUN DUN DUN.

The two of them determine to bulldoze the round about manner home and non affect the flyers since they hadn't done anything all the same. On the drive back Kirsten slams on the brakes and asks if Nguyen wore any jewelry. It took Virgil a second to remember, but he finally mentions that Nguyen had given Gwen a locket. The locket that Gwen had pawned.

They drive to the pawn shop and it's at that place in the window. Kirsten pulls the Guild (TM) from the Jeep and smashes the window. She takes the locket and runs.

They flooring information technology away from the store, dodging cop cars every bit they respond to the store's infiltrator alarm that Kirsten had set off.

Except on that drive the moaning starts upwards once more and Virgil can hear it now too. Kirsten demands that Virgil tell her where Nguyen actually died. He's reluctant, merely with the moaning and Kirsten'southward screaming he finally relents and shows her the mangled tree where Nguyen died and where his aunt and uncle spread his ashes. The moans grow louder when they get there and winds kick up. It starts to rain and a swirling black dust rises from the clay.

Virgil screams for Kirsten to give Nguyen the locket when a cop shows up and tries to drag Kirsten away as the tree starts to glow from within.Virgil tries to throw the cop off, but he gets tackled by the cop's partner. The swirling dust converges into the shape of a man and lifts the cop into the air and flings him away, shocking both cops and rendering them useless.

The locket glows a bright green and the moans turn to joyous sounds as the grit man gets closer. A huge thunder bolt rocks the scene, knocking Kirsten back. When she recovers everything is back to normal, looking completely undisturbed.

A glint in the clay catches her eye and she digs the locket out. Only now information technology's missing the photo of Nguyen's parents that was inside.

Mr Busk weasels his way back into his Jeep and drives off. Kirsten yells at the cops to go him, but they were still struck dumb and useless by everything that had but happened. When they finally snap out of it and drive Kirsten and Virgil away, Kirsten tries explaining exactly what happened, but it doesn't register with them. No surprise there.

As they drive they come upon Mr Busk's Jeep. In the back seat was the folder of flyers, charred black at the edges. Ane cop looks around and finds tire tracks well-nigh the border of the forest. When he goes to cheque information technology out, he blanches and calls for an ambulance.

Kirsten and Virgil find a flyer face up down on the road, also charred at the edges. When they selection it up the photo is empty, the car that was supposed to be there is missing.

Final Thoughts

Probably 1 of the better Point Horror books I've read with a truly creepy ending. Was Nguyen just finishing upward some unfinished business with Mr Busk since he was the truthful perpetrator of the crime? Or is Virgil side by side? Possibly Gwen? Who knows??? Because the volume'south done.

Definitely some typical plot-serving obtuse-ness going on with Kirsten, only that'due south to be expected at this signal. I withal don't understand why the insistence of the whole Vietnam vet matter and the story hinging on the Vietnam War. It just seemed really off with timing on that.

Merely other than that, I liked the whole creepy picture that moves, peradventure? With things coming out of pictures to kill people. It's freaky and it provides a solid dose of horror with the standard Point Horror ridiculousness.

[ Fly: The horror is really nicely done, but the story comes across as unbalanced between the realism and the supernatural threats. That ending is groovy, though. ]

Donna'south been an avid reader since she constitute out what books were and she's had horror on her shelves since way too impressionable of an age. Some might say then much horror at such a young age adversely afflicted her development in some weird, as-yet-unknown way. She'll but tell you she's nearly completely desensitized to the horror genre and only has irrational fears of the dark and clowns and refuses to sleep with the closet door open. That's not *that* abnormal. From Goosebumps to Fear Street to everything Christopher Pike, it was all on her shelves. And so it wasn't and information technology wasn't until years into adulthood that she realized she made a big mistake in purging all that glorious cheese all those years agone and feverishly started re-collecting it all over again. Right downward to that first edition Fear Street #1 signed past the master himself. Because of a rather unfortunate nose-to-chin collision in high school that rattled her retentiveness a tad, she tin't call up her original reactions to these books, but every bit an adult she revels in all the gouda gloriousness that they are. From Stine's incredibly elaborate and artistic death scenes to the caricatures that these authors thought human beings (especially teenagers) were, she loves information technology all. To varying degrees, at least. She'south reviewed cheese at her own review web log, www.litbites.com, since 2009 and she looks forrad to recapping some of her favorite (and non then favorite) cheese brands amid such lovely similar-minded folks at The Devil's Elbow.