Bury Me Deep - Review

Author: Christopher Pike

Genre: Young Adult / Horror

Format: Paperback

Pages: 211

What a throwback! Christopher Pike was an author that sort of fell off my radar long ago. He was a stepping stone in my love for horror. I devoured his books before I was finally gifted my first Stephen King book. Until recently when I've seen his book all over Bookstagram and realized a couple of his books have stuck with me over the years. So I've been keeping my eye out for his books at the thrift store because I can't believe I've been alive long enough for me to find my childhood in one of those. But, here we are a dollar spent on one I'm almost one hundred percent certain I did not read back in my Middle School days.

Right off the bat, I can't lie, I cringed a little bit, and then several times after that. I don't remember Pike's writing of female characters being this terrible and stereotypical of the early 1990's. Then again, little me was most likely not paying attention to that. It's not great, in fact, there is a whole section of this book where I was frustrated with two of the three female characters. Honestly, Michele doesn't get enough page time for me to have an opinion about her. For half a second I thought she might be one of the bad guys, but the red herring in this story was pretty obvious. 

My biggest issue is that Mandy and Jean are supposed to be this best of friends, but the first thing Mandy does is warn her off about the cute guy that Mandy just met. Which considering what happened on the plane ride to Hawaii, you'd think they'd both have bigger concerns. In fact, the whole thing gets played down a lot. Paradise or not, that was trauma and it's hard to believe an eighteen-year-old high school student would just blow that off.

This leads me to the next complaint. At the beginning of the book, we're lead to believe that Jean is probably in college because she mentioned making up a lab. Then halfway through the book during a crisis, Jean says she's a High School student. Full stop. What? Even in the 1990s who is letting three high school girls just get off to Hawaii. Three Freshman College students, yeah I could see that, but I have questions. No, they do not pertain to the plot, but really. The book is two hundred pages. Yes, it's a small thing, but where are these kids' parents?

Okay, all that aside I did give this book three stars because despite pieces not aging well, like so many things from the 90s, the plot isn't half bad. It's super far-fetched, but so are half the teenage shows on the CW right now. So that aside. I can see what I from long ago enjoyed these books. Pike builds up the jump scares pretty well for his younger readers, and makes the plot just hard enough it takes a minute to unravel everything. I clocked it pretty early, but I'm not the target age for this book. Also if I hadn't I'd have felt bad for myself.

End of the day I enjoyed my couple of days with this. It was a great book to read while waiting on my bus. There was a lot of nostalgia in this read as well. There were a lot of problems from the characters to random Hawaii travels guide facts Pike randomly dropped for no reason. But that is a whole other rant. In the end, it was a dollar well spent, I'll be tossing this one back to a thrift store so it can end up in someone else's hands. 

HAPPY READING!!