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Title: The Midnight Club
ISBN: 067187263X
Author:
Christopher Pike
Publicate Date: 1994-02-01
Publish: 1994-02-01
List Price: $4.99
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Mass Market Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $0.80
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $0.01
Amazon Merchant Price: $4.99
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| Customer Review: |
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1: midnight club
In a hospice for the terminally ill, five teenagers, who meet every night to tell each other scary stories, make a pact that the first of them to die must try to contact the others from beyond the grave.
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2: Nice look at death, but still forgettable
I did not get this book at all. I found it rather self-indulgent of wannabe writers; maybe I am just too old and cynical to appreciate youthful passion. To be fair, it was an interesting concept, setting the characters in a hospice, and I'm sure Mr. Pike could have done a fine job expressing more feelings of sorrow at the brevity of life instead of lingering on the exciting-but-forgetful stories.
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3: Not a horror story
The back cover blurb of this book is actually pretty misleading. It says that this book is about a group of terminally ill teenagers who make a pact that the first of them to die will attempt to contact the others from beyond the grave. Based on this, and the fact that Pike is an established horror author, I assumed that this would be a book about homicidal ghosts or something equally lurid. However, this is definitely not the case. For a start, no one actually dies until page 140 (of 211) and even then they don't make beyond the grave contact until after page 200. This is definitely not a horror novel. What "The Midnight Club" is really about is teenagers trying to deal with their own mortality. Every night at midnight the aforementioned teens meet to tell each other stories and it is through these stories that the characters cope with their illness and with death.
I am a big fan of Christopher Pike and have read almost 30 of his books. The main reason why I like them is because he doesn't talk down to his readers. Although his books are generally about teenagers (and presumably targeted at them), he speaks to them as though they are intelligent adults and I think that is why he is so successful. He is also a very good writer. This book, however, is not one of my favourites. A number of Pike's books feature subplots about past lives and alternative religions and after reading a couple of books with those sorts of plots, I already know all of Pike's ideas on the topic and I'm just not interested anymore. This is one such book. In my opinion, Pike is at his best when he is writing crime stories without supernatural elements. Although I thought many of the stories told by the characters in this book were good, I still think that he has written many better books than this one.
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4: NOT A Horror Story, but not bad
This book has been noted as being one of Pike's best, but I have to disagree. First of all, the back synopsis is completely misleading on what the story is actually about. Yes, there are 5 kids in a hospice who meet every night at Midnight to tell stories. Yes, they agree that when the first one dies they are to try and make contact. Thats about it. It also says that when the first person dies thats when their stories really begin and thats also true - however the first character doesn't die until 2/3 of the way into the book.
The book is mainly about how your past lives tie in with your current life and also your next life. Its based around the stories that each character tells at their midnight meetings - most of these stories wouldn't fall into the horror category either, save a few tales. It was an ok story, just not what the publisher leads you to believe.
Other issues I had were the long chapters. It made the book drag a bit for me, having all of the characters stories from their midnight meetings in one big chapter. You start to forget who told which story and what it was about by then end of the book.
All in all, if you're interested in a story about past lives or meeting people from your past you should give this a read. Don't go into this thinking that its a thriller though!
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5: Really deep... not scary
Huge fan of Christopher Pike novels since I was about 11 years old. My fave from him is 'Remember Me'. I'm 26 now and recently decided to read this again because I don't think I ever finished it when I was younger. I'm glad I did. It's about a group of teens that are terminally ill and form a club in which they swap stories. This book includes a lot of "mini-stories" which are told by the characters themselves. Don't worry, they're not boring!! The mini-stories are actually very interesting, funny, and profound. This book has nothing SCARY about it what-so-ever. If you like the ideas of past lives, the after-life, God/Gods, spirituality, and SOULMATES*, you will like this book and maybe leak out a tear here and there. In general, I'd say it's a "deep" book. I would highly recommend this to any young adult, and maybe EVEN an adult because of the way Pike's imagination centers around questions anyone at any age wonders about - love, life and death. Not much sexual content at ALL so it'd be ok for a teen. Disregard one of the reviews below about it being really sexual. I have no idea WHAT they are talking about. Enjoy.
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