Retro Reads Thursday: Pshh… R.L. Stine? I read Christopher Pike

I’ll be the first to admit that I am a total chicken when it comes to anything scary: haunted houses, horror flicks, ghost stories around a campfire. The last time I watched a scary movie I ended up having to sleep with every light in the house on. For a week. That being said, I have a weird love affair with scary stories.

When I was a younger teenager the popular thing to do was read R.L. Stine books; you know, like Goosebumps. But if you were really brave (and kind of bad-ass) you read Christopher Pike. Yeah, I was that bad-ass.

I was insanely lucky to have an aunt who isn’t much older than me (about 7 years) so she had all those cool teenage stuff that she had just grown out of right as I started growing into teenage stuff. Something she bequeathed to me was her copy of Slumber Party (circa 1985).

This Thursday’s Retro-Read is Slumber Party by Christopher Pike.

Y’all, I thought I was the coolest person ever to get this book. It was so GROWN UP that I couldn’t stand myself. Not only were there CUSS WORDS in it but there was a particularly sexy scene where the main character and her love interest kiss in the snow and gasp! his fingers go under the waist of her coat.

Slumber Party is about a group of girls who go on a ski weekend, excited to have just the girls all together again, despite what happened last time at one of their slumber parties. Things seem to be going fine until weird things begin happening. And what is a spooky story without weird things happening?

A snowman melts for no apparent reason. A weird phone call. Someone mysteriously goes missing. What was supposed to be a weekend of fun quickly turns into a weekend of revenge. And murder.

Wah ha ha!

Okay, doesn’t this sound like the most absurd story ever? And by absurd I mean fabulous 80s style. I can’t tell you how many times I read this book and am still able to give a play-by-play of the entire thing. Even as I type I’m starting to remember more and more about it, which is making me want to tell you all the cool scenes that I loved as a teenager.

Although some of the material may now be a little dated – especially considering this book is almost as old as me! – it really is a nicely written, twisty sort of mystery that, as a teenager, left me on the edge of my seat every time I read it.