Tag Line: She has returned. From the dead.From the Back of the Book: All she wanted was one week. Of Megan's life. She appears in Megan's mirror one day, nothing more than a wispy, shadowy plume, glowing with an eerie light. Her voice is faint and hollow, like a distant echo. The voice of a young girl. Strangest of all is her request. "I beg you to trade places with me, Megan. For just one week. Let me live again." Megan is overcome with fear. Yet she is drawn to the shadow in the mirror, unable to look away. Fascinated by the oddly soothing voice, she listens to a tale of a horrible accident many years before. A tale she would never forget. Gradually, Megan beings to realize that she has no choice. As terrified as she is, she knows she must make the trade.....
Before I say anything else, I just want to point out that this is the Second. Book. In. A. Row. where the mirror talks and two girls trade places. My daughter picks these books out for me. I think she may be doing this on purpose. She's trying to get me declared insane so that she can inherit my Point Horror collection early. Except, that would be more of a punishment than a gift. So moving on.....
This book was published in 1991. I'd never read it before and didn't even know it existed until I saw it mentioned on another blog. It is definitely a Point Horror and it has the blood splatter on the spine to prove it. I've heard other recappers speak pretty highly of Hoh so that, coupled with it being a legitimate PH, gave me high hopes going into this one. I guess you'll have to read to find out whether my hopes remained lofty or drowned in the depths of the murky lake that everyone in this book loves so much.
We don't begin this book with our protagonist. We're in the tiny village of Lakeside and it's hot. It's so hot that all the high school students are skipping school a lot. There's no air conditioning in the building and no one can stand being in it. Jenny, Barbie and Cappie are some of the truants. They are in Jenny's car headed for the woods on the other side of the lake, hoping to find some place cooler. Jenny's car is a dinosaur but she loves it. As they drive, they are all talking about Megan's upcoming 16th birthday party. It's going to be off the hook, y'all. Well, not really. It sounds pretty tame to me, but they're looking forward to it since they are pretty good friends of Megan. As they approach a pretty sharp curve, the steering in the car stops responding and the car seems to head directly into a utility pole. There is a horrible crash.
Now we're with our protagonist Megan. She's trying on dresses for her party and looking at herself in the mirror. Her house doesn't have air conditioning either and her attic room is stifling hot. The house used to belong to Megan's Grandma Martha but she's gone now.
Megan is excited about her upcoming party but she's had an uneasy feeling most of the day. She just can't shake it. Naturally, since she's looking in a mirror, she describes herself to us. She has thick, dark hair. She describes it as a "frothy mass of gentle curls as dark as crow's wings". There's so much bizarre in that sentence that I don't even know where to start. "Frothy" isn't exactly an attractive image. It doesn't sound very gentle either. Anyway, she also tells us she is short and she has sea-green eyes. Has anyone else noticed that most Point Horror heroines tend to be short? Is it supposed to be an innocence thing? Because I've known plenty of pretty devilish short people.
She has "chosen" her good friend Justin to be her date for her party but she hasn't actually asked him yet. I'm sure he'll be bowled over by the honor. I'm not sure if Hoh really meant that sound as arrogant and awful as it did, but I kind of hate Megan already. She tells us that Justin is tall and thin with sandy, wavy hair, gray eyes and glasses. He's generally well-liked and she's secretly madly in love with him. Her friend Hilary thinks that Justin is also secretly madly in love with Megan and she keeps urging Megan to take him out of the friendzone, but Megan just calls her "Silly Hilly" which makes me hate her even more. Silly Hilly. Seriously.
Megan gets a phone call from Justin which takes several pages and uses a lot of words and really doesn't move the story forward at all. We don't even get the greatest picture of their relationship together from it. I have no idea why Hoh included it. I'm suspecting word count again. Megan still doesn't tell him that she's chosen him for her party. The only thing that really happens, is that Megan hears sirens screaming down the street right before she hangs up.
A short time later, the announcer on the radio breaks into programming to announce that Jenny, Barbie and Cappie (he uses their real names rather than their nicknames but I couldn't be bothered to remember them) have been in a serious car accident. I'm blown away by this. First of all, the accident JUST happened and they are already announcing the names of the JUVENILE victims over the air waves. That would never happen today. We'd get the standard "Names withheld pending notification of family members" line. While I'm thinking about this, it occurs to me that this town must have it's very own radio station. A bigger city probably would just add the item to their hourly news broadcast instead of breaking in with the information. How does a village described as "tiny" have it's own radio station? Isn't it just a good thing that Megan happened to be listening to that particular radio station at that exact moment to get the information that she needed to move on in the story? Deus Ex Radio.
Megan is pretty worried about her friends. Hilary calls just then and they talk about how awful it is for a few minutes. Again, the call really doesn't move the plot forward any at all. The book would have been just the same without it. After the call, Megan decides to get changed and head downstairs to be with the rest of the family. Suddenly the room gets icy cold. The lights dim a little and the radio goes silent. She concludes there's been an earthquake which makes no damn sense at all. This should have told me all I needed to know about Megan's future deductive powers. Then, she hears a faint, hollow voice ask her why she's been crying.
Megan looks all over the room, but she's alone. She sees a wispy shape taking form in her mirror and she's terrified. Eventually the vapor takes on a vaguely human form but it's not well defined and lights glow from where the facial features should be. The voice asks Megan again why she's been crying and tells Megan not to be scared because it only wants to talk to her. Megan asks who and what the vapor is and it replies that it's name is Juliet. Megan notices for the first time that the voice sounds feminine like a young girl.
I don't know about you guys, but someone telling me not to be scared pretty much just raises my radar. People usually say that when you have every reason in the world to be scared. And glowing, talking vapor in a mirror is a pretty damn good reason to be scared. IMHO.
Megan tells Juliet to go away. Juliet says she can't and Megan has to listen to her because it's important. Megan's all fuck that noise, I'm not listening to some crazy ass vapor in my mirror. Juliet is shocked. She says she was sure Megan would listen to her because she's waited a very long time to find just the right person to talk to. Megan is instantly flattered that she's "just the right person". Personally, I think she should GTFO but she seems to want to hear what Juliet has to say now. Juliet says she came from another time and place. She's not really IN the mirror, she's just using the mirror so Megan can hear her. Oh, yeah. That clears things up. We have a little repetitive conversation where Megan again asks Juliet to go and Juliet again says that Megan needs to listen to her. Man, this book is going nowhere.
Juliet switches tactics and tells Megan that the party dress she's wearing is very pretty. She tells Megan that the reason she can hear her is because their birthdays are the same only years apart. The fact that the vapor in the mirror was ever alive and had a birthday sends Megan into a little tailspin but she recovers enough to ask when Juliet was born. Juliet says 1930 and Megan performs some tricky mental math to determine that Juliet would be 61 years old now.
Juliet begins to go on and on about her own 16th birthday party. She had a dark blue taffeta dress and napkins with her initials on them and an orchestra played. The vapor in the mirror gets agitated and begins moving jerkily side to side. She says she never got to have her party because it was canceled. Megan is becoming concerned at how the vapor in her mirror is acting right now.
The sound of someone sobbing fills the room and Juliet tells her there was an accident on the lake by the cove. Her boat hit the rocks and she was thrown overboard. She hit her head and was knocked unconscious. Her body became tangled in the seaweed and she drowned. Juliet is sobbing and the vapor in the mirror is spinning wildly. She cries that she never got to have her party and she never got to live her life. Megan begins to cry too but I'm not clear on whether it's from sympathy or fear. Juliet instantly calms down and apologizes for upsetting Megan. She says she'll leave right now but she'll come back later. She thanks Megan for listening to her and vanishes.
The room brightens and gets horribly hot again. The radio begins to play. Megan tells herself that she dreamed the whole thing even though she was clearly never asleep during this entire episode. I don't know about this one, y'all. She's a turnip. At best.
The next day at school, Megan learns that Barbie is okay because she was thrown clear of the wreckage. Apparently the car was so old that it didn't have seatbelts although Jenny DID have some on order. I always thought getting thrown out of the car was a bad thing. That's why we have seatbelts, right? To prevent this? But somehow getting thrown from the car means that Barbie was the least injured of the group. I don't think this is a resounding endorsement of safety restraints. Anyway, Cappie broke her wrist and is pretty bruised up but also okay. Jenny is in bad shape. She has a head injury and a shattered collarbone.
Megan can't shake the feeling that she's being watched but she doesn't see anyone paying her any undue attention. She eats lunch with Justin and Hilary and they end up discussing some guy named Donny who recently asked Hilary out on a date. She turned him down pretty rudely because he wasn't cute enough for her and he got really upset. Megan tells her that she should have been nicer to him. Justin says that Donny isn't such a bad guy but he must be reaching a breaking point because so many girls have shot him down lately. Apparently he asked Jenny out the week before and didn't handle it so well when she declined. Ooooh. Look out, y'all, we have our first suspect. Hilary says he also asked out Cappie and she said no as well. How convenient.
Later Megan passes Donny in the hall and smiles warmly at him because she feels sorry for him. This seems cruel to me. She's not really interested in him and she's kind of sending him the message that she might be. I hope he doesn't pursue it and end up getting his heart stomped on. He looks surprised by her attention but doesn't smile back. Megan notes that his eyes are empty and cold because anyone who wouldn't smile back at her obvi has a black soul amirite?
Megan finds a strange drawing in her art cubby that afternoon. It shows a car being driven by what Megan thinks is a horse. In the passenger seat is a candy bar and a large bee. In the backseat is a baseball cap next to a green pea. Megan applies her entire brain to this incredible piece of secret code and decides that the candy bar and the bee make up the name Barbie and the baseball cap and pea make up the name Cappie. Get the girl a Mensa membership, folks. She can't figure out how the horse applies to Jenny though.
She goes home and heads up to her room. After a few minutes, everything goes cold and Juliet shows up in her mirror again. Juliet again tries to talk to Megan and Megan is again resistant. This book is nothing if not repetitive. Juliet tells her that she really thought Megan would be a little more open minded about this and Megan is so eager to please that this tactic actually works on her. Juliet tells her that she's been watching her which creeps Megan out a little but not enough. They talk a little and Juliet reveals that she knew Megan's grandmother Martha and that seems to put Megan even more at ease.
Megan really starts to feel sorry for Juliet. Juliet tells her sadly that her life ended too soon but there's a chance for her to experience a little bit more. If she can find a girl who shares her birthday, is her exact age and can hear her, she can ask to trade places for one week. She says that at the end of that week she will be at peace forever and no longer sad. Megan is that person and Juliet asks her to think about it. She leaves once again.
Megan doesn't know what to do. She is so touched by Juliet's story and feels so sorry for her, but she can't even stand the idea of switching places with her for a week.
Hilary calls her later and tells her that they discovered that Jenny's steering had been tampered with. It looks like someone deliberately set out to hurt her. Hilary thinks Donny is the one responsible and I roll my eyes so hard I sprain an eyeball.
Juliet comes back after the phone call. So much for giving Megan time to think about it. Megan asks some questions about how things would work. Juliet says that Megan would simply step into the mirror and then Juliet would step out as Megan. Juliet would be able to hear Megan but no one else would. Megan says she doesn't want to trade but her resolve is weakening. Not only does she feel incredibly sorry for Juliet, she can't help thinking about how her friends almost died and how they almost missed out on the rest of their lives like Juliet.
Juliet senses that Megan is close to giving in and presses a bit. Megan tells her that the timing sucks because her life might be in danger. Juliet tells her that there's really no other time. Once Megan turns 16 she will be older than Juliet and the trade will be impossible. Plus, Juliet assures her that she would be safer than Megan because she is able to sense danger. She might even be able to figure out what happened to Jenny.
Can we just take a moment to discuss how ridiculous it is that Megan is willing to trust some random vapor in her mirror? She has no proof that Juliet will do as she says. For all she knows, Juliet will just run off with Megan's body the second she gets into it.
I'm thinking way too hard about mirror vapor.
Megan says she'll think about it. WTF?? She cannot be serious about this.
The next day Megan asks Justin if he believes in ghosts and tells him that something weird is going on in her house. Justin is too preoccupied with Jenny's accident to talk about such nonsensical things. He asks her whether she thinks Donny is guilty. Megan reveals that Donny also asked her out and she said no as well. Wait. What? We're just hearing about this now?!?!? Justin expresses similar disbelief but she brushes it off and shows him the drawing. He tells her that the "horse" is actually a mule and a female mule is called a "Jenny". (Edited to add: my daughter looked this up and he's wrong. A female donkey is a Jenny. A female mule is a hinny.)
Hilary is all upset at lunch. She had planned to ask some dude named Ken to Megan's party but some chick named Vicki has stolen his attention away. They talk about what a ho Vicki is for a bit. Megan feels nervous around Vicki because she's so predatory with the fellas. I get the sick feeling that Hoh is setting Vicki up to be suspect #2 because any girl who actually likes boys must be an evil whore.
After school Megan checks her cubby again and finds another drawing. This one is a pink bump and she immediately decodes that it's a hill for Hilary. Hilary is in the auditorium getting things ready for a play that will be performed there. Megan runs to warn her and finds Hilary up on the catwalk. To her horror, Hilary reaches for a rope and then suddenly topples over the side of the catwalk. Somehow Hilary manages to grab the rope on the way down and saves herself from certain death. A couple of kids run to grab a ladder and she is rescued without incident.
Hilary insists that she was pushed and Megan believes her because of the note but she doesn't tell Hilary about the warning. Hilary wants to report the incident to the principal but her fellow theater classmates tell her not to bother because he won't take her seriously. I know they're right because this is a Point Horror where adults always brush off teenagers. If they're not in Europe, that is. Hilary doesn't seem to know she's in a Point Horror because she insists on telling him anyway. He does, indeed, blow them off but suggests that Hilary call her mom to take her home. While they are waiting, Hilary mentions that she thinks Vicki did it so she could have all the boys. Damn it, Hoh. I knew you were going to do that. Ugh.
After Hilary is safely on her way home, Megan sets out to find Justin. She knows that he'll be in the newsroom working on the paper. When she gets there, she finds Vicki sitting on his desk whispering in Justin's ear. HOW DARE SHE? How dare she show an interest in a boy that Megan has never publicly showed an interest in? How dare she take the boy that Megan has secretly decided is hers without Megan's permission? What a hussy! Vicki and Justin notice her standing there in the doorway but she turns and runs off without saying a word because that's totally a reasonable reaction. She runs all the way home.
Up in her room, she decides that she just can't handle her life anymore and having a week off would be most excellent. She tries to summon Juliet and tell her that she's going to make the trade but Juliet doesn't appear.
She continues to try to summon Juliet all evening to no avail. After waking from a nightmare, she discovers her room is freezing cold and Juliet is watching her sleep. I just had a Twilight flashback. Shudder. Megan asks Juliet if they can practice the transformation a few times before she commits to it. They do. Megan steps into the mirror and it's not unpleasant. She feels light and at peace. When she wants out, she says "I am Megan and I want to be me again." This seems far too easy and I think Juliet is just humoring her with those magic words. There's no way those are going to work later. Juliet tells her that she won't be confined to the mirror but she can't leave the area.
Megan suggests that they do the official switch the next day. That way Juliet can have her week and Megan will be back in time for her party. She secretly hopes that Juliet will ask Justin to the party for her during the week.
When the time comes, they do the switch. Megan instantly notices that it feels different than it did at practice. She doesn't feel pleasant and light. She feels restricted and oppressed. She is instantly scared and worries that the next week is going to feel endless. See, I knew all that practice was a ruse. Juliet knew that Megan would never agree if she knew what it really felt like so she tricked her. Megan regrets her decision. She's really sad when she watches Juliet with her family and realizes that none of them know it's not her.
I should mention here that her mom's name is Connie, her dad is Tom and her brother is Thomas. It's important later. I probably could have tried harder to work this in seamlessly but it's 3:30am and I really don't care.
The whole family is going to Thomas's play that evening. Hilary's sister is in it and Justin is writing about it for the school paper so the whole gang will be there. Megan follows along. She feels better when she's around people even though they can't see or hear her. Hilary notices right off that "Megan" seems more confident. Juliet spends the entire evening flirting with Justin and he really seems to enjoy it. I guess "Silly Hilly" was right about him wanting out of the friendzone after all. Megan should have listened to her.
Juliet really wants to go to the mall after the play but her hopes are dashed. A lot of the parents believed Hilary's claim of being pushed off the catwalk. I know. I was shocked too. I checked the spine again to make sure this was really Point Horror. It is. I feel like nothing makes sense anymore. What was down is up. What was black is white. What was....you get it. Anyway, the parents don't want the kids wandering around and they are keeping them close to home.
Justin and Hilary come home with Juliet and Megan is a little hurt by how much Justin seems to like Juliet. She decides she can't watch the two of them together and she goes down to the lake where her parents and brother are. Lots of people from her school are out at the lake including Barbie, Vicki and Donny. I guess they must be there with their parents or something since Hoh JUST got done telling us that the kids were being kept close to home. Sigh. Megan sees her mom floating unconscious in the water and can't do a damn thing about it since she no longer has a body.
Megan's dad and brother pull her mom out of the water. Megan runs to the house to tell Juliet to call 911. She notices that Hilary is no longer there but doesn't have time to think about it. Juliet jumps up and runs to the phone just as Thomas comes in and tells her to call for help. He doesn't notice that she already had the phone in her hand when he came in. Justin does, though, and asks her about it. Juliet covers quickly and says she saw them through the window and knew something was wrong. He accepts that. It's pretty reasonable, I guess.
After they call 911, they all go back down to the lake. Connie is conscious now. She says that something hit her over the head and she has the bleeding head wound to prove it. Megan rides unseen with her parents in the ambulance. She can't shake the horrible feeling of not being able to help her mother and resolves to tell Juliet that they have to switch back immediately.
When she brings the subject up with Juliet later at home, Juliet instantly starts to cry. She begs Megan not to do this to her. It's her only chance and Megan promised she could have a whole week. Megan crumples in the face of Juliet's despair and tells her that she can stay in the body. Juliet instantly cheers up and tells Megan that she asked Justin to the party after Hilary left. This reminds Megan that Hilary was gone when she got back from the lake so she asks Juliet why Hilary left so early. Juliet shrugs it off and says Hilary must have felt like a 3rd wheel.
After Juliet goes to sleep, Megan finds another drawing in her room and realizes it came out of her purse. It has a picture of a con man and a knee and she knows it represents her mother Connie. See, I told you her name was important. When are you going to learn to trust me on these things? I find your lack of faith alarming. Or something like that. I'm too tired for Star Wars references.
Megan thinks again about her life being in danger and she wonders what will happen to her if her body dies. She wakes Juliet up to ask her. Juliet tells her that if something prevents her from getting back in her body at the end of the week, she will be trapped in Juliet's world forever. Megan can't believe that Juliet never mentioned this and she feels betrayed. Megan, you didn't ask. You barely asked anything. This is all your own damn fault. When you don't do your research, you get screwed.
The next morning, Megan shows Juliet the pictures and warns her that she could be in danger. She tells Juliet that she shouldn't go anywhere alone and Juliet is more than happy to comply. She wants to spend all her time with Justin anyway. She obtains permission to go to the library with Justin and when he shows up, he looks so happy to see her. Megan gloomily wonders if Justin will ever look at the real her like that. She has nothing better to do, so she wanders around the area going over her suspect list. It's a pretty pitiful list consisting of Donny and Vicki. It's ridiculous that Hoh is even persisting with this. Is she going to tell us that Donny asked out Megan's mom and got turned down? Did Vicki knock out Megan's mom so she could date Megan's dad? Those are their only motives and neither apply to Connie. It's just dumb. If Hoh wanted them to be legitimate red herrings in this book, she should have assigned them better motives.
While she's wandering she comes across Justin's car parked out by the lake. He and Juliet are making out inside and Megan does what she always does when she sees Justin with another girl: she runs home. He must be 100% clueless not to know that she's in love with him if this is her typical behavior when he's with another girl. I mean, he can't see her NOW but this isn't the first time she's done this.
Juliet comes back home in a haze of blissful hormones. When Megan points out that Juliet wasn't exactly keeping an eye out for an attack while her lips were attached to Justin's face, Juliet accuses her of simply being jealous. The phone rings and it's Hilary. Megan can only really hear Juliet's side of the conversation but it doesn't sound good. Juliet tells Hilary to stop being so sensitive and that she's not going to apologize. As soon as she hangs up, Megan demands to know what happened. Juliet says she merely mentioned the night before that it was a shame that Hilary couldn't find a date and had to hang out with her and Justin all the time. Apparently Hilary got offended and left after that and was now demanding an apology. Juliet puts on a dim act and pretends she doesn't know why Hilary's feelings are so hurt. This is not a nice girl, y'all. Megan made a deal with the devil and she's too clueless to know it.
People are starting to notice that "Megan" isn't exactly acting like herself. No one suspects that she's another person, but they wonder what's gotten into her lately. I'll tell you what's gotten into her. A scam artist. A mean girl. A person far more brilliant than Megan. Maybe that's what they've noticed - that Megan's smarter than she used to be. Megan decides that she needs to follow Juliet everywhere to make sure she doesn't blow up Megan's life completely while she has control of the body. I'm not sure exactly what Megan thinks she's going to be able to do to prevent it, but if it makes her feel better I guess it can't hurt.
School seems subdued to Megan. Everyone is distressed by the recent attacks and a little scared that the police don't seem to have any clues or suspects. She finds Juliet and Hilary arguing in the cafeteria. Hilary has a legitimate grievance but somehow Juliet flips it completely around and makes everything Hilary's fault. Hilary ends up apologizing to Juliet for getting her feelings hurt. Juliet is a master manipulator here. First Megan and now Hilary. Not that she had to be a master to bend Megan to her will. I think that was ridiculously easy. Megan catches sight of Vicki glaring at "her" and wonders what she's ever done to make Vicki so angry. I wouldn't worry about it, Meg. Hoh is still trying to use Vicki as a red herring even though it's obviously dumb. No worries. As soon as the real bad guy is revealed, Vicki will stop glaring at you.
Megan discovers another drawing in her cubby. It's a tom-tom and she's terrified that her father and brother will be targeted next. Because I'm sure that Donny asked them both out and was turned down or Vicki wants to eliminated them because.....because....sorry, Hoh, I came up empty on this one. Donny and Vicki are the dumbest red herrings ever. EVER.
She hasn't seen Juliet all afternoon and later learns that Juliet ditched all her classes after lunch to hang out with Justin who was running errands for the school paper. What, so Justin was excused from his classes to do this? School paper seems like a good gig to me. I really should have joined that in high school. Megan isn't too pleased that Juliet is skipping HER classes. She's further incensed when Juliet sneaks out of the house to go on a date with Justin after being forbidden by the parental units. Juliet is going to ruin her life, y'all. I want to shake Megan and wake her up. It's not your life anymore, fool. It's been pretty obvious all along that Juliet isn't going to give it back.
Juliet was headed to the ice cream shop in the mall, so Megan decides to go there and force Juliet to return home before anyone notices she's gone. Outside of the shop, Hilary and Vicki are arguing. Vicki is accusing "Megan" of being a ho and Hilary is defending her despite the fact that "Megan" hurt her feelings earlier. Hilary seems like a really good friend and that's a rarity in Point Horror. It's something that Hoh does well, though, so I'll give her credit for that even if her red herrings are craptacular.
After Vicki leaves in a fit of rage, Hilary goes into the ice cream shop to get a bucket for her family. Justin goes to her and tries to smooth things over but Juliet makes no effort at all. Hilary is still hurt and refuses to join them. Justin suggests that they borrow Tom and Connie's boat and go out on the lake for awhile. Juliet practically chokes at the idea of going on a boat and says she won't go. Hilary buys her ice cream and leaves and, when she's gone, Justin asks Juliet why she's reluctant to go on the boat all of a sudden. Juliet covers by saying she's scared after what happened to her mom. Justin thinks that's reasonable and lets the subject drop.
When Justin goes up to pay, Megan finally gets a chance to talk to Juliet. Juliet isn't too concerned about getting in trouble until Megan tells her that Tom might just be so mad he'll cancel the 16th birthday party. Now technically this shouldn't bother Juliet at all. As per their original agreement, she'll be gone by then. But she gets all upset at the idea which should have been a clue to Megan that Juliet thinks she'll be attending this party. Megan's too dim to notice though. Juliet promises she'll go right home and she'll clean up her act from here on out.
Juliet manages to get back into her bedroom without getting caught. Megan shows her the latest drawing and tells her that she needs to take them to the sheriff. Juliet refuses, saying she's in a Point Horror book and the sheriff won't listen to her. Megan is frustrated with Juliet but there's really nothing she can do. She spots a reminder card for a hair appointment and completely loses her shit. Juliet tells her that she thought Megan should have her hair done for the party. Again, this should be a massive neon sign to Megan that Juliet is the one going to the party but, again, Megan lets herself believe that Juliet is just looking out for her. What an idiot. She tells Juliet to cancel the appointment and Juliet tells her that she will.
Two days pass. Juliet has turned into the model daughter, student and friend. She's even patched things up with Hilary. There have been no more attacks and no more drawings so Megan begins to feel like her dad and brother are reasonably safe. One day when she's following Juliet around, Megan sees Donny walk by Juliet. Juliet seems to hone in on him and Megan remembers that Juliet told her that she could sense evil. She asks Juliet if she sensed anything from Donny. Juliet says she sensed something but she isn't sure what it was. Maybe Donny is just a creep.
Juliet is a bit of a whiner. I get the feeling she was pretty spoiled while alive. She hates that all the parents in town are being so overprotective. It's her week to live and no one can go out and do anything. Megan points out that she told Juliet that all this was going on before they made the switch but Juliet still pouts a little. A lot of this is repetitive and unnecessary.
Another day passes and Megan realizes that Thomas is late coming home from school. She goes outside to look for him and sees an 18-wheeler rumbling down the street. It's out of place. Big trucks don't usually drive through this area. She's contemplating that when she sees Thomas heading right for the truck on his bicycle. She can see him frantically working the hand brakes but the bike doesn't stop. It seems to head right for the truck as if drawn to it.
Thomas is taken by ambulance to the hospital but Megan stays home so she can tell Juliet what happened. When Juliet hears the news, she calls Justin to give her a ride to the hospital. While they wait, Juliet moans about how she hopes the party won't be cancelled now. Seriously, Megan. Do you not hear her? She's worried she can't go to the party she's not even supposed to be around for. There could not possibly be a bigger red flag than this. It's the size of freaking Alaska and you can't see it. How effing dumb could a person be???
Thomas is okay but he has to stay in the hospital for awhile. He has a fractured pelvis, broken leg and a concussion. Connie stays at the hospital with him but everyone else goes home. Juliet checks the machine as soon as they get there and Megan hears a confirmation call for the hair appointment Juliet was supposed to cancel. Juliet insists that she merely forgot and she'll call and cancel first thing in the morning. Sure you will, Juliet. Sure you will.
In "their" room later, Juliet tells Megan that she left her body in the library and went in her vapor form to search Donny's locker. She produces construction paper and crayons that lead Megan to believe that Donny is the one leaving all the notes. Um. How did Juliet pick them up in her vapor form? I thought you pretty much couldn't do anything in vapor form and that's why Juliet wanted a body for a week. Didn't anyone notice vapor going down the hall with floating crayons and construction paper? THIS MAKES NO SENSE, HOH. None. And WHY would Donny want to hurt Thomas? Because Megan turned him down for a date? Megan is not that effing special. I do not believe that Donny is so mad that he's deprived of Megan's bland company that he sets out to hurt her entire family. There's no basis for this at all. GRRRRRR.
Megan is a little surprised at the knowledge that Juliet can just leave her body places and go off invisibly doing whatever she pleases. Right now, if Megan had one single functioning brain cell in her head, it should be abundantly clear who is behind all the bad things happening but....Megan is an imbecile and she urges Juliet to turn Donny into the sheriff. Juliet says she'll take the evidence and the drawings to the sheriff first thing in the morning.
Megan spends the night outside at the lake. When she comes back into the house, Juliet is already gone. She notices a new party dress in the closet though. It's not something that Megan would ever wear but it looks like it's something Juliet would love. Megan wonders why Juliet would buy that dress when Megan is planning to wear her blue one to the party. Lord. At this point, I think I'll start rooting for Juliet. Megan clearly had vapor between the ears WAY before she turned to vapor.
Megan spends the day in the hospital room with Thomas. He's recovering nicely. Based on the drawing, she is sure that his bike brakes were tampered with. She still believes Donny is involved because she's an idiot. I suppose Donny could have tampered with his brakes in the hopes that Thomas might have an accident but he couldn't have orchestrated the accident that happened. There was no way he could have known the big truck would be there. It wasn't a usual, daily delivery truck or anything. Megan told us several times that it was unusual that it was there. It would require something supernatural to set up this particular accident, but Megan is vapor and ready to believe it was Donny.
She decides to go to the school to ask Juliet how her meeting with the sheriff went. She can't find Juliet anywhere. She checks home as well before she heads back to the hospital. The sheriff is there questioning Thomas about the accident. He tells the parents that the brakes in the truck failed as well. That settles it. There's no way it could possibly be Donny. He doesn't mention the drawings or talking to "Megan" so she assumes that Juliet never met with him at all.
Megan confronts Juliet about it when she finds her back at the house. Juliet calmly says she went before and after school and the sheriff wasn't there either time. Megan has no choice but to accept that. She asks Juliet about the dress in the closet. Juliet says that the dress Megan picked out is too juvenile and she needs to look sexier for Justin. She's only looking out for Megan. Megan throws a fit and insists that Juliet return the dress to the store.
The next day Megan follows Juliet to the sheriff's office. He's out again and not expected to return until that evening. They go back to the house where Tom is up on a ladder hanging lights on the house. Juliet goes inside while Megan stays to keep an eye on her dad. I'm not sure what she expects to do if someone does attack him but maybe she's just hoping to catch the culprit in the act. When her father goes inside to get a drink, Megan goes to see what Juliet's up to. She finds Juliet lying in bed with candles all around her. It looks more like a seance than a nap and she notes that Juliet doesn't look relaxed at all. She looks stiff and waxy like a statue. Before she can think too much about this, her dad yells and she and Juliet go running.
Tom has fallen off the ladder and through a window. He's all cut up but okay. He tells Juliet that the ladder just tipped on him. Megan starts to wonder. She remembers Juliet saying she can just leave Megan's body whenever she wants. She wonders if Juliet was truly napping just then or if something more sinister is going on. She spends several paragraphs arguing with herself over whether or not Juliet could possibly be behind all the bad things. Connie's accident took place while Juliet was with Justin watching a movie but Megan knows from experience that Justin gets so into movies that he doesn't notice what's going on around him. Juliet could have slipped out of Megan's body long enough to hit Connie without Justin noticing.
Finally...FINALLY...Megan realizes that the hair appointment and new dress mean that Juliet has no intention of switching back before the party. She confronts Juliet and Juliet says it's all because of Megan's Grandma Martha.
Martha was Juliet's half-sister.
I actually didn't see that one coming.
Now we get Juliet's backstory. She hated her new stepfamily which included Martha, her mother and brothers. Juliet wanted it to always be just her and her father. Juliet reveals that Martha was with her when the boating accident happened. She was knocked unconscious but she wouldn't have drowned if Martha had only saved her. She says that Martha just watched her drown and now she wants revenge on Martha's entire family. Megan reasonably points out that if Juliet was unconscious she couldn't possibly know whether Martha tried to save her or not. She says that Martha probably tried really hard and just couldn't find her under the water.
Juliet confesses to all the attacks and says that her goal was to hurt all the people Megan loved because she knew Martha loved Megan so much. This is really convoluted. She's blaming Megan for something she thinks her grandmother MIGHT have done? Or is she trying to hurt Martha through Megan even though Martha is now dead. Truly, Hoh, none of this makes sense. Maybe mirror vapor isn't supposed to make sense. I give up.
Megan tries to use the magic words that let her come back into her body when they practiced the switch. As I predicted a very long time ago, they don't work. Juliet laughs and says for the trade to happen, Juliet must consent to it and leave Megan's body willingly. Since she'll never do that, Megan will never be able to claim her body again and thus, at midnight on Megan's 16th birthday, Megan will cease to exist and Juliet will have the body permanently.
Suddenly for the first time in the entire book, we jump to Justin's POV. I hate it when authors do this. We've spent the entire book looking over Megan's shoulder (well, with the exception of the very beginning when we were with Jenny, Barbie and Cappie). Now, we're looking over Justin's shoulder. He thinks about how much he misses the "old" Megan and how he wishes she would go back to normal. He tries to remember that day more than a week ago when she tried to tell him about something weird going on and asked if he believed in ghosts. He wishes he could go back to that moment and listen to her rather than changing the subject.
And that was it. Did we really need that? He could have told Megan all that later without the unnecessary POV shift. It was pretty useless.
Back with Megan, she's trying to figure out how to make Juliet willingly leave her body. She remembers how scared Juliet was about going out on the boat. She thinks if she can get Juliet out there, she might be able to force her to switch. Megan knows she'll need Justin to convince Juliet to go since Justin is the only one Juliet cares about. She thinks that maybe she can communicate with Justin because he has an open heart and the two of them were so close. I thought sharing a birthday was necessary too but maybe that's just for the switching part. Or maybe Juliet made all that up. I don't know. She goes looking for Justin.
We switch to Justin's POV again and it's even more useless this time. All we learn is that he's going to go to Megan's house to look for her. Seriously. In the very next sentence, Megan sees Justin by her dock so this POV shift was completely unnecessary. Why, Hoh? Why?
Megan goes up to Justin and starts talking to him, begging him to hear her. It takes a bit but he finally does. At first he thinks Megan is hiding from him to play a trick and he isn't very amused but eventually she is able to explain to him what happened. His initial reaction is disbelief and annoyance but he comes around because he's noted that she hasn't seemed like herself recently. He agrees to help Megan by getting Juliet out on the water.
Luckily he finds Juliet pretty quickly because they are down to like 15 minutes or something. Juliet is all in a pout because no one is able to go out and have any fun. Justin tells her it would be fun to take the boat out. Juliet immediately panics and claims to have an awful headache. Justin pours on the charm and it weakens her a little but not enough. He changes tactics and tells her that he thought she was more mature this week but he must have been wrong. She takes the bait and reluctantly agrees. Justin practically drags her down to the boat and then pours on the charm again to get her into it.
On the water, Justin heads right to the cove where Juliet drowned. She gets more and more distressed and demands that he take her home. When he refuses, she stands up in the boat to order him to turn the boat around. Okay, I'm sorry. There's no way, Hoh. No fucking way that Juliet, who is mortally afraid of drowning, would stand up in a boat. She'd be scared to death, sitting on the very bottom and holding on for dear life. A person who is that afraid would NEVER stand up in a boat. When Justin continues to drive toward the cove, Juliet lunges at him and tries to wrestle control of the boat away from him. In the struggle, the boat hits rocks or something and Juliet is tossed overboard.
Megan sees this as her chance and she starts in on Juliet to make the switch. Juliet is scared but still sure that Justin will be able to save her. Megan urges him not to go in the water after Juliet but he can't just stand there and watch Megan's body drown. He jumps in but he's not a good swimmer and the water is pretty rough. Juliet still believes in him and won't leave Megan's body so Megan is forced to started torturing her. She tells Juliet that Justin will not save her and she will drown again. She repeats it over and over until Juliet crumbles in fear and makes the switch.
The rest is pretty anticlimactic. Megan gets back in her body and helps Justin get back into the boat. The two of them head for home, holding hands and talking about Megan's party.
Final Thoughts: This book wasn't as bad as Twins. I had high hopes for it, though, because I've heard repeatedly how strong and smart of a writer Hoh is and how she doesn't treat her readers like idiots. I have to say that I don't agree with that last part at all. Hoh clearly thought we were idiots when she introduced her red herrings. Vicki never made sense at all and Donny only made sense for the first two attacks. After that, they both should have been dropped immediately but Hoh dragged Donny to almost the end of the book. She either didn't think we were smart enough to figure out Donny wasn't the bad guy or she just didn't care. Either way, I was really disappointed in this book even though it really wasn't that bad. I know she's a favorite of a lot of recappers but she's no better than Cusick to me.
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