***Contains Spoilers***

I was a bit disappointed with the Christopher Pike books that I had read so far. I started to think that I was remembering the books I read as a teenager wrong, and that they weren't as insane as I remembered. Well, I'm glad that I continued to read through Pike's books because this one was BONKERS and I loved every minute of it!

I love books that have riddles and scavenger hunts so this hooked me right away. The prologue hints at the craziness to come and it jumps right into the scavenger hunt. The hints are a mix between things that the reader can solve and things that only the characters can figure out. Even though the scavenger hunt part ends about halfway through the book the mystery and the final reveal kept me hooked until the end. Come for the riddles. Stay for the ancient lizard people. ( )

why do I feel like somebody skins somebody else in this novel? I am almost 100% certain that that doesn't happen, but I don't think it would be out of place. this is one of the gnarly Pikes.

I was a bit disappointed with the Christopher Pike books that I had read so far. I started to think that I was remembering the books I read as a teenager wrong, and that they weren't as insane as I remembered. Well, I'm glad that I continued to read through Pike's books because this one was BONKERS and I loved every minute of it!

I love books that have riddles and scavenger hunts so this hooked me right away. The prologue hints at the craziness to come and it jumps right into the scavenger hunt. The hints are a mix between things that the reader can solve and things that only the characters can figure out. Even though the scavenger hunt part ends about halfway through the book the mystery and the final reveal kept me hooked until the end. Come for the riddles. Stay for the ancient lizard people. ( )

This book begins with a cryptic scene of a young man running from something, possibly either a demon or a cult. He takes refuge in a church, where he tells the priest his story. Then the book switches over to Carl, a young man living in a nearly dead desert town. His best friend Joe was killed in a freak flood nearly a year ago, and he's basically just been existing since then. The only reason he's at all excited about the scavenger hunt that's about to begin is because Cessy, a sexy newcomer, has asked him to be on her team.

Tracie would have liked to have had Carl on her team, but unfortunately Cessy managed to ask him first. Tracie has had a crush on Carl for a while, but she's shy, and then Joe's death happened, and she and Carl just sort of drifted apart. The scavenger hunt at least gives them one last chance to interact before she leaves for college, although some of their team members make things awkward.

Carl's team consists of Cessy, her brother Davey, and Tom (Carl's brain-injured former football player friend). Tracie's team consists of Paula (Joe's girlfriend, who's been angry since his death), and Rick (Paula's genius younger brother, who's in a wheelchair due to muscular dystrophy). Both teams get off to a strong start, but it isn't long before they become aware that there's something odd about this scavenger hunt.

This is technically another one of my nostalgia reads, but only insofar as it's another book by Christopher Pike. I honestly don't think I read this when I was a teen. I'm pretty sure I would have remembered at least some of the stuff at the end.

I figured out one of the book's twists only 40 or so pages in. I thought I had the rest of it figured out by the halfway point, but, as usual, Pike just kept on making things weirder. I can't even say it was the good kind of weird. It was like Pike pulled a few nouns out of a hat and crammed them into one big plot twist. Lizards, gold mining, acid (the burning kind, not the drug kind), and dead people.

I hated how things turned out with Rick - it felt like a form of euthanasia, a way for Pike to avoid having to deal with Rick's medical prognosis and the horrors of the American medical insurance system. And the scene with the dog was awful, even though it happened off-page.

All in all, this definitely wasn't Pike's best work. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that I did read this when I was a teen, but just forgot about it.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )

Re-reading this one was fun. It was interesting as it's a short young adult horror novel, yet there is nothing that speaks of it being a horror story at all until after the middle of the book, even buildup. While this is so, the story is still interesting due to the characters and the unraveling of the scavenger hunt. The ending of the book a pretty dark and disturbing, especially for a teenage novel. Still a fun book though and I loved the characters. ( )