How is this ALL stuffed into the last chapter, and there's still room for MONOLOGUES!?
I have to give Mindy props - her motives at least remain consistent, and hilarious. But srsly, all this murder and mayhem was about not having a boyfriend!~?! (Also, think back to fifteen-sixteen year old you: where are you buying mass quantities of kerosene and sedatives? And with what money? DETAILS, man.) Mr. Pike clearly believes teen girls are dumber than protozoa. Nell's face melting with acceptance (urg) is one thing; she apparently has tormented herself with guilt and in fiction parlance she receives A Fitting End. I mean, I GUESS. But Celeste/Nicole is apparently still the dumb little sister following along - wouldn't she have just offed her parents and been done with it? It's their shame that's hurt her most - and kept her from better reconstructive surgery, because COME ON, in 1984 it was available, people were getting sandbags put into their boobs already.
There's still a blatant othering of the disabled that's implied; Pike handily reminds teen readers that a.) their looks are the only thing that will make them lovable or find them partners and b.) imperfections in said looks are worth dying over, because c.) without a partner, YOU MIGHT AS WELL DIE. God forbid if you are born with marks, have scarred or something like a harelip or vitiligo or whatnot. NO ONE WILL EVER LOVE YOU, FREAK.
That such a weirdly 19th century attitude, and it's bizarre that his entire plot pivots on reinforcing old school tropes - all men who want sex are dogs (esp. if they're characterized as sloppy or fat), all women who want sex are whores, (esp. if they're fat and too enthusiastic), everyone who is disabled/disfigured/different is some kind of murderous freak. Okay, so those are typical horror tropes - poking at our primal fears, and I can see that Mr. Pike struggles to reverse this in the single chapter in which he allows everything to unspool --
*Cal turns out to be both a Manly Man with Appetites and a Stand-Up Man in the end,
*Nicole turns out to do the "right" thing - of a sort,
*Dana turns out to be all right after all - even if still unseemly in her hungers.
But, Pike left very little time for any of this to be ...um, believable? Which is I guess... okay. It's horror. It's supposed to be just Scary not Sensible. One of the reasons I don't always care for horror so much, aside from the obvious gore (for some reason, I don't mind a body count, as I do read mysteries? But it has to make...sense?) is that some of the lazier writers ONLY play on people's lizard-brain fears for plot devices and don't do anything more than the characters or plot. Mindy is comedy GOLD, and Dana makes me snort. He could have done more with humor but I remain convinced that this is not a man who a.) understands teens, b.) understands females, c.) understands teen females d.) ought to write books featuring any of the above. Ever.
Okay, though, not gonna lie. I'm so glad we're spared the unctuous Perry this chapter. Of course, he's going to pop back up like recurring acne in the epilogue, but still - it's been a nice break.
This book still cracks me up. Our library doesn't carry a lot of him - he's gotten weeded no doubt - but I'm going to have to look better for a copy next time.
I can't BELIEVE the whole 'where did they get all the kerosene' question hadn't occurred to me, because they weren't tapping it out of the tank, they DEFINITELY had separate containers.
But YES, the Victorian-ness of the way he deals with disability—and a lot of other issues—is really notable. I'd originally been thinking of it as 50s-ish-ness, but you're entirely right, it's further back than that. Amazing. And also, just. SO. WEIRD.
I think one of the things I really love about horror is how much of a time capsule it can be in terms of Fears Of An Era—which obviously depends a lot on the perspective/assumptions of the writer. But then THAT can lead to really bananas things, like the first Slumber Party Massacre movie (from 1982), which was written as satire (by Rita Mae Brown!!!) but then filmed as a mostly-straightforward slasher, so watching it is like CONSTANT INTELLECTUAL WHIPLASH?? None of this is to try to convince you to watch/engage with horror, it's just that I feel like so many people I know are like... WHY DO YOU LIKE IT SO MUCH and I've never been able to entirely put my finger on it?
`\(>o<)/` Wait, WHAAAAAT....!?!
How is this ALL stuffed into the last chapter, and there's still room for MONOLOGUES!?
I have to give Mindy props - her motives at least remain consistent, and hilarious. But srsly, all this murder and mayhem was about not having a boyfriend!~?! (Also, think back to fifteen-sixteen year old you: where are you buying mass quantities of kerosene and sedatives? And with what money? DETAILS, man.) Mr. Pike clearly believes teen girls are dumber than protozoa. Nell's face melting with acceptance (urg) is one thing; she apparently has tormented herself with guilt and in fiction parlance she receives A Fitting End. I mean, I GUESS. But Celeste/Nicole is apparently still the dumb little sister following along - wouldn't she have just offed her parents and been done with it? It's their shame that's hurt her most - and kept her from better reconstructive surgery, because COME ON, in 1984 it was available, people were getting sandbags put into their boobs already.
There's still a blatant othering of the disabled that's implied; Pike handily reminds teen readers that a.) their looks are the only thing that will make them lovable or find them partners and b.) imperfections in said looks are worth dying over, because c.) without a partner, YOU MIGHT AS WELL DIE. God forbid if you are born with marks, have scarred or something like a harelip or vitiligo or whatnot. NO ONE WILL EVER LOVE YOU, FREAK.
That such a weirdly 19th century attitude, and it's bizarre that his entire plot pivots on reinforcing old school tropes - all men who want sex are dogs (esp. if they're characterized as sloppy or fat), all women who want sex are whores, (esp. if they're fat and too enthusiastic), everyone who is disabled/disfigured/different is some kind of murderous freak. Okay, so those are typical horror tropes - poking at our primal fears, and I can see that Mr. Pike struggles to reverse this in the single chapter in which he allows everything to unspool --
*Cal turns out to be both a Manly Man with Appetites and a Stand-Up Man in the end,
*Nicole turns out to do the "right" thing - of a sort,
*Dana turns out to be all right after all - even if still unseemly in her hungers.
But, Pike left very little time for any of this to be ...um, believable? Which is I guess... okay. It's horror. It's supposed to be just Scary not Sensible. One of the reasons I don't always care for horror so much, aside from the obvious gore (for some reason, I don't mind a body count, as I do read mysteries? But it has to make...sense?) is that some of the lazier writers ONLY play on people's lizard-brain fears for plot devices and don't do anything more than the characters or plot. Mindy is comedy GOLD, and Dana makes me snort. He could have done more with humor but I remain convinced that this is not a man who a.) understands teens, b.) understands females, c.) understands teen females d.) ought to write books featuring any of the above. Ever.
Okay, though, not gonna lie. I'm so glad we're spared the unctuous Perry this chapter. Of course, he's going to pop back up like recurring acne in the epilogue, but still - it's been a nice break.
This book still cracks me up. Our library doesn't carry a lot of him - he's gotten weeded no doubt - but I'm going to have to look better for a copy next time.
I can't BELIEVE the whole 'where did they get all the kerosene' question hadn't occurred to me, because they weren't tapping it out of the tank, they DEFINITELY had separate containers.
But YES, the Victorian-ness of the way he deals with disability—and a lot of other issues—is really notable. I'd originally been thinking of it as 50s-ish-ness, but you're entirely right, it's further back than that. Amazing. And also, just. SO. WEIRD.
I think one of the things I really love about horror is how much of a time capsule it can be in terms of Fears Of An Era—which obviously depends a lot on the perspective/assumptions of the writer. But then THAT can lead to really bananas things, like the first Slumber Party Massacre movie (from 1982), which was written as satire (by Rita Mae Brown!!!) but then filmed as a mostly-straightforward slasher, so watching it is like CONSTANT INTELLECTUAL WHIPLASH?? None of this is to try to convince you to watch/engage with horror, it's just that I feel like so many people I know are like... WHY DO YOU LIKE IT SO MUCH and I've never been able to entirely put my finger on it?