Slumber Party by Christopher Pike

Warning: Contains Spoilers!!!  This is a recap blog which means I read the book and tell you everything that happens so you don't have to read it yourself.  Do NOT continue to read unless you want to know who the bad guy/girl/Abigail Deveraux is.

Tag Line: It was eight years later, and it was happening again....

From the Back of the Book:  It was the perfect weekend for murder....Lara thought the ski trip should be a blast.  The old gang was getting together again for the first time in years.  What could be better than six single girls out for sun and ski and apres ski - plus a huge house and a warm fire?  Even with the memory of what had happened the last time, it looked like the perfect weekend.  Until things started to go wrong.....It wasn't much at first - a snowman that melted when it shouldn't have, a weird phone call.  But then somebody went out for "one last run" and didn't come back.  And the storm they heard about on the radio was getting worse.  Lara thought everyone was up there for a good time.  But she was beginning to realize that someone was up there for murder.

Validity Confession:  This one IS Point, but it's from their Fiction line rather than their Horror or Thriller lines.  I decided to sneak it in.  I needed a comfort book after that last one.

This book was published in 1985.  I definitely read it back in middle school.  I actually liked it so much, I kept my copy.  The rants will be at a minimum, but I hope you like the recap anyway.

We begin with our protagonist Lara. She's in a car with her best friend Dana and her new friend Celeste. The girls are all excited to be headed up a snowy mountain for a weekend of skiing. Before they reach their destination, they are forced to stop because the road is closed. The ranger tells them that they'll have to walk or cross-country ski the rest of the way in. He also warns them that there is a massive storm forecast for the next day so he hopes they have plenty of supplies so they don't starve to death.

This is the part where smart girls say "hell nah, bro" and go back down the mountain.

Fortunately for the sake of this blog, there aren't too many smart girls in these books.

Lara is worried about Celeste making the trek up to the house. She has a bad back and isn't even allowed to take a basic gym class. In fact, Lara was surprised that Celeste even wanted to come on a ski trip since she wouldn't be able to ski. But the younger girl had begged to be included.

They discuss how they wish Nell had waited one more week for this trip so the storm could have been avoided. However, Nell and Rachel both insisted that it had to be this weekend, storm be damned. We get a bit of a back-story that paints Rachel as kind of a bitch. She clearly doesn't like Lara, and the two of them are competing for Homecoming Queen, so the weekend should be interesting. We also get tiny descriptions of Rachel and Lara. Rachel is described as being a Barbie type – tall, blonde and tan. Lara is described as short, dark haired with fifties-style bangs and a biggish nose.  I don't know what 50's style bangs are exactly or why a girl in the 80's would have had them but I DO know she's not going to get far with those things.  I mean, clearly this bitch be trippin if she thinks she can beat Barbie Rachel out for Homecoming Queen wearing 30 year old bangs.

The ranger tells them to leave their keys and someone will move the car to the lodge for them as soon as possible. Lara asks his name and he replies that it's “the colonel”.

They begin the hike to the house. Dana and Lara use skis while Celeste walks in their tracks. They are talking about the weekend and how they hope to meet boys. Celeste reveals that she's never dated. Lara realizes she knows very little about her new friend. She knows that Celeste's parents died in an accident, she lives with her aunt, she has a bad back and she likes to read. It's not much by real life standards, but Celeste already has more character traits than most PH characters.

Before they go into the house, Lara and Dana prep Celeste on Nell. Nell was one of the group when they were all younger but she moved away in grade school. Everyone kept in touch through the years. They warn Celeste that Nell hasn't had the easiest life and she's often melancholy and serious. Celeste asks what they mean and Lara tells her that when they were nine, there was an accident and Nell was badly burned on her face and hands. She tells Celeste that the group all contributed in some way to the accident. (Note From Future Me: this is such a lie and I kind of hate Lara for saying it.)  Celeste asks if anyone else was hurt and Dana rushes to say no. Lara thinks it was an honest answer because technically Nicole hadn't been hurt. Nicole had died.

Lara gets a strange feeling when she realizes that this weekend will be the same setup as that weekend only with Celeste in place of Nicole.

I sincerely doubt this is a coincidence and if Lara wasn't sporting 30 year old bangs, I might warn her again to get the hell out.

A girl named Mindy comes out to greet them when they reach the house.  Lara describes her as being like bubble gum– sweet and full of hot air. Mindy tells them that Nell has been working hard to get the house ready. Mindy and Rachel have built an epic snowman on the other side of the house. He's wearing Rachel's red scarf and Mindy's cowboy hat.

Nell and Rachel come out to greet them and to meet Celeste. Lara thinks that Nell is awkward around Celeste but thinks it's just because Nell is nervous about having them all together for the first time since Nicole died.

Nell takes them on a brief tour of the house. Everyone is impressed with how large it is. Nell's parents have some serious money.  Maybe they can fund Lara getting some younger bangs.

Rachel is ready to go skiing but Nell says she wants to stay home and rest a bit after getting the house in order. Lara is glad that Celeste will have someone to hang out with since Celeste can't ski. Before the other four head for the slopes, Mindy wants them to see the epic snowman. When they get around the side of the house, though, the snowman is gone.  Not knocked over.  Gone.  There is a large spot of ice where the snowman melted and then the water refroze. No one can figure out how it happened.

Lara thinks it looks like the snowman spontaneously caught on fire.

At the lodge, Lara and Dana find out that Mindy and Rachel have arranged to meet some boys there. That's why Rachel was so insistent that they had to make the trip this particular weekend. They disappear, leaving Dana and Lara to wait. Lara wanders up to the front to get an orange and winds up running into some gorgeous Greek guy with light green eyes and black hair. He says his name is Percy and the two engage in some light flirting.

Lara takes him back to where Dana is and introduces them. The three sit and talk for awhile. Percy is an orphan, originally from Canada, and now spends his time basically wandering around. He is at the lodge with a friend named Cal. Dana instantly wants to invite them back to Nell's house. With the two boys that Mindy and Rachel are there to meet, she figures they can have a little party. Lara doesn't think that Nell would appreciate that very much. Dana urges Lara to call Nell and ask.

Cal turns out to be very different from Percy. He is loud and crass but Dana seems to like him. The two of them leave the table to go unload Cal's van. Percy tells Lara that Cal is more of an acquaintance than a friend. He also mentions that Cal told him once that he was discharged from the military for playing with napalm.

Lara gets Nell's permission to invite the boys over so she gives Percy directions to the house. Just then, Mindy and Rachel show up. If you hadn't already guessed that Percy and Cal were the guys that Mindy and Rachel were there to meet, then you must be pretty surprised by this chain of events. I personally saw this one coming a mile away. Apparently they met the boys at the mall a few weeks back. There's awkwardness and then more awkwardness when Rachel hears that Lara has invited Percy over later. Percy beats it the hell out of there.

Dana comes back looking all disheveled. She's pissed as hell because Cal turned into an octopus as soon as they were alone. Mindy is crushed. She wanted to be the one mauled by Cal. Rachel and Mindy leave in a huge huff.

Lara has a dismal time skiing that afternoon.  It's probably because of her 30 year old bangs.  She's worried about how the evening will turn out.  She considers finding the boys to disinvite them but she really wants to see Percy again. She weaves an elaborate fantasy of Percy picking her up in a Porsche and taking her for a lobster dinner. This girl isn't delusional at all. I mean, he told her that he worked odd jobs and wandered around aimlessly. That doesn't sound like Porsche and lobster to me.  It's more like Honda and burgers.

Dana and Lara talk about it and decide that they need to make peace with Mindy and Rachel or the weekend will be ruined. They meet up at the top of the slopes and talk it out. Mindy forgives Dana when Dana tells her that she has no interest in Cal at all. Rachel isn't worried about Lara and Percy because she knows she'll win that battle.  She doesn't have 30 year old bangs.  They all head off to ski together.

Mindy and Dana are both slow skiers and they end up getting separated from the other two. Lara is ready to call it a day but Rachel suggests they take one more run through the trees. Lara agrees. As they're going down the slope, Rachel suddenly cuts in front of Lara and Lara goes down hard. She ends up rolling a bit and then smacking into a tree. Miraculously Percy finds her.

Lara is okay. Her knee is a little painful and she has a cut on her head. Percy tells her that she needs stitches but she refuses because she doesn't want them to cut her hair before homecoming. A girl has her priorities, doncha know. She wants to know how he found her so fast and I was wondering that too, so I'm glad she asked. This is only a pseudo-Point Horror so I'm hoping for a better answer than “I was following you.”

Guess how he found her.

He was following her.

Sigh.

He says he wanted to tell her that he and Cal aren't coming over that night. He thinks Cal isn't gentlemanly enough for mixed company and he would like to avoid any Rachel/Lara drama. Can't say I blame the dude. It seems pretty sensible to me. Lara talks him out of it though because she is the opposite of sensible.

They go back to the lodge and sit for a bit. It's getting late and Lara hasn't seen any of the other girls. She figures they've gone back to the house without her. She's enjoying being with Percy so she doesn't care much. Then he announces that he'd really like to get a couple more runs in before it gets too dark. Lara is crushed. She can't believe that he'd rather ski than talk to her. Clearly he doesn't love her at all. It actually says all that by the way. I'm not being sarcastic.

Percy leaves. Lara sees the colonel walk through the lobby and she asks him for Dana's keys. He says he left them in the office. She asks if they can go get them, but he blows her off. The girls aren't leaving until Sunday and he has a game he wants to watch. Lara is suspicious of him. She wonders if he's really employed by the lodge at all.

She decides to call Nell. I don't even know why.  She's lost the number, but she's pretty confident that she remembers it. No one answers. She decides to grab some food before she heads back. She's just finishing up when Cal comes to sit beside her. He mainly seems concerned with what Dana told her about him and what Percy told her about him. Lara is afraid that Percy won't come to the party if Cal decides not to come, so she tells Cal to give Dana another chance. She even tells him that Dana likes aggressive men. Which is just horrible of her. Girl code, Lara. Learn it, live it. She asks him if he needs directions to Nell's house in case he doesn't find Percy before the party. Cal says he knows where the place is, which creeps Lara out a little.

Lara heads back to the house. It starts to snow and Lara is making slow progress because of her knee. She's only about halfway there when she sees Mindy skiing towards her. Mindy tells her that Dana is up ahead on the path but no one has seen Rachel since she skied off with Lara earlier. She is headed for the lodge to look for Rachel. Lara stops her. Rachel could already be at the house for all they know and the snow is getting worse. She wants Mindy to come back with her.

Mindy reveals the real reason she wants to go back to the lodge and it's to meet up with Cal. Lara orders her not to go back and Mindy gives in. The two of them continue up the path. About 45 minutes later, they come across one of Dana's skis along the path. Footprints lead away from it for a few yards before ending in a concave ice area that reminds Lara of the area where they found the snowman's remains. There are no more footprints after that.

Lara investigates the area around the icy spot and finds it full of ashes. She doesn't want to alarm Mindy so she acts like everything's fine and Dana has probably just walked on to the house. Mindy seems to accept this and they continue on. When they get to the house, Nell is sitting outside. She says she saw Dana down on the path a long time ago and she's starting to worry because she hasn't appeared. Rachel isn't there either.

Lara fills Nell in on the mysterious ski, ice patch and ashes. Nell brushes it off and says that maybe Dana just walked back to the lodge. Lara doesn't believe it, but Mindy is furious. She thinks Dana went back to meet up with Cal. Lara reminds Mindy that they didn't see footprints in the snow leading to the lodge. Nell suggests that Dana went off the path for whatever reason and the found ski didn't even belong to her. Lara is forced to admit that it's a possibility.

Lara goes inside and decides to seek out Celeste. Celeste is in the shower and she jumps when Lara comes into the bathroom. Lara chuckles at her friend's modesty as Celeste wraps a towel and the shower curtain around her to completely hide her body. Lara chats with her about skiing and the boys and the party, totally ignoring how uncomfortable Celeste is because Lara is awful. Then Lara spots a jar of prescription cream on the counter that says “N Kutroff” and she asks if Nell is sharing that bathroom. Celeste says she isn't sure.

Lara asks Celeste to come help her in the kitchen when she's dressed and she finally leaves. She goes downstairs and Rachel has returned. Rachel denies knowing that Lara wiped out on the slope. Lara doesn't believe her. No one has seen Dana. The two snipe at each other a bit about Percy and it's already SO BORING.

Lara calls the lodge to report Dana missing. It's a wise move even if it's a little premature at this point. They aren't even sure that Dana IS missing yet. But she gets props for letting someone in authority know. This usually doesn't happen in these books. The guy at the desk takes down all the information and Nell's phone number and tells Lara that he'll page Dana off and on throughout the evening in the lodge. If she shows up at the house, Lara is supposed to call and let him know. As an afterthought, Lara asks him about the colonel. He says he doesn't know anyone there by that description, but he's new and doesn't know everyone yet. When she tells him that they gave the colonel the keys to Dana's car, he's concerned and says he'll check into it. Lara hangs up, more worried about Dana's car than Dana. Yes, it actually says that. Lara is an amazing friend, y'all.

Celeste comes down and takes over party preparations. She's an amazing cook and Lara is surprised. They talk about the boys for a bit and then Lara goes upstairs to wash the blood out of her hair. After her shower, she searches the house for any signs of Dana and then goes up to take a nap before the party.

The next chapter is a flashback. I know how we all love those. It's completely written in italics too. Lovely.

They're all little. Nell's mom is driving Lara, Nell and Nell's little sister Nicole to a slumber party at Dana's house. Nell is pissed because she has to bring Nicole along but Lara is glad. She likes Nicole. Maybe more than she likes Nell. Mindy and Rachel are already there when they arrive. The girls settle in to watch a movie and pig out and just do regular slumber party things. They play charades and Nicole is the best at it.

After Dana's parents go to bed, Rachel suggests they raid the liquor cabinet. The girls get drunk and then decide to have a séance with candles and a Ouija board. Nell refuses to let Nicole play and Lara doesn't want to touch the board. Lara is given paper and pen to write down the responses. Rachel, Mindy, Dana and Nell begin to ask the board questions. They accuse each other of moving the planchette.

They ask the board about their futures. It refuses to give a future for Nicole which makes her sad. Someone asks if there are evil spirits in the room and the board says yes. They ask who the evil spirit is and the board spells out Nicole's name.  Rachel seems suspicious.  Nicole gets upset and swats at the planchette. In doing so, she knocks over a candle and a fire starts.

Nicole's robe catches on fire. Nell throws her to the ground and starts to beat at the flames. Rachel grabs a sheet and the fire is almost out when Lara decides to “help”. She grabs a decanter of alcohol off the bar and pours it over Nicole because it was wet and it would put out the flames. For a split second it seems to work and then Nicole combusts. Nell tries to drag her sister out of the flames and burns herself badly in the process. The other girls watch in horror. Only Rachel acts. She pushes Nell out of the way and then smothers the fire with the sheet.

This is why Lara saying they all contributed to the accident is bullshit.  Lara is the one who lit up Nicole.

Nicole lived for a week before dying. Nell had a lot of surgeries and refused to see the other girls for a long time. Her family moved away. Lara blamed herself. Eventually Nell contacted Lara and they talked it all out and Nell declared they could all be friends again.

End flashback.

Celeste comes to wake Lara up. Dana hasn't returned and they haven't heard anything from the lodge. The boys haven't shown up yet either. Lara is grateful to Celeste for doing all the prep work and she gives her a hug and tells her that she hopes they'll always be friends. Celeste acts a little strangely and then says she doesn't like it there and that she's afraid. Lara assumes Celeste is just homesick and suggests she call her aunt.

Lara gets dressed in burgundy cords and a flimsy pink shirt. Sounds super sexy.  {sarcasm}  This WAS the 80's though, so it could have definitely been worse. She wants to call the lodge to check on Dana again but she doesn't want to go downstairs. She decides to search the other bedrooms for a phone. The first door she comes to, she can hear Rachel and Mindy talking inside. Rachel is telling someone on the phone to man up. Nothing is going to happen. Dana is out of the way now and Lara is the only one standing in their way but she won't figure it out until it's too late. Lara wants to find another phone extension so she can listen in on the call and figure out who Rachel is talking to.

She goes up to the next floor and opens the first door she finds. Nell is inside, struggling with something in her closet. She jumps and wants to know what Lara is doing. Lara tells her she wants to use a phone and Nell tells her to go downstairs and use one of the four phones on the first floor. Lara doesn't want to use one of them because they can't be unplugged and Rachel will hear if she just picks up the receiver. She tells Nell she's in a hurry and Nell graciously leaves to allow Lara to make her phone call.

Lara unplugs the phone, picks up the receiver and then plugs it back in. She hears Rachel talking about the prom scene in the movie Carrie. Rachel quickly figures out someone is on the line and Lara is never able to figure out who she was talking to.

Nell is waiting outside the door when Lara leaves the room. They talk about the basement briefly and Nell mentions that she doesn't want anyone down there because of the propane tank. Then Lara asks Nell if she's using the third floor bedroom because she thought Nell was using the one on the other side of Celeste. Nell wonders why Lara thought that, but Lara can't remember. It was because of the prescription cream, you idiot. Clearly this is important and she's too scatter-brained to know it.

Lara goes downstairs to check on the food. The snow has picked up and Lara is worried about Percy not making it. In fact, she tells us she's more worried about Percy than Dana. I hope Dana finds a better friend after this slumber party is over. The boys arrive minus Dana but Lara doesn't really care about anything but Percy.

Rachel is wearing tight white dress pants and a tight black sweater with no bra. Where did these girls learn to dress for a party? Cords and dress pants? It sounds like they're going to church or something. Rachel is already hanging all over Percy (who is wearing a sweatshirt, by the way). The boys haven't seen Dana either but no one seems to care much.

They sit down to eat. We're given the complete and detailed menu but I care as much about their food as they care about their missing friend. Rachel and Lara compete for Percy. Mindy flirts with Cal but Cal is into Celeste who tries her best to ignore him. Nell tells a story about the house formerly belonging to a mafia dude who ended up getting chopped up and burned in the fireplace. Cal tells a story about accidentally dropping napalm on four German soldiers while he was in the military.

After that, someone suggests they put on some music or play some games. Celeste wants to play charades. Nell, Rachel, Mindy and Cal are going to play against Lara, Celeste and Percy. The arrangement reminds Lara a lot of the night Nicole died. She leaves real quick to call the lodge about Dana. There's still been no sign of her. The ranger suggests she call Dana's house to ask if she might have just taken a bus home. Dana's parents don't answer the phone and Lara remembers they are out of town for the weekend.

As she hangs up the phone, it rings. Celeste's aunt is on the other line. She asks about Celeste and then asks about Nell which confuses Lara because the two don't know each other. After that, Celeste's aunt gets off the phone in a huge hurry. Rachel wanders in and wants to know who was on the phone. When Lara tells her, Rachel comments that Celeste spooks her. Lara rushes to defend her friend. The two move on to sparring over Percy and then talking about Dana. Lara tells Rachel about her fears that the colonel was a car thief and Rachel doesn't care. That's what her daddy pays insurance for.

They play charades and Cal slowly gets wasted. About halfway through, Rachel wants to change the teams up, so she and Celeste switch sides. After that, everyone is amazed at how quickly Nell and Celeste seem to be able to read each other's thoughts.

Seriously, guys, you see what's going on here, right? I don't want to stick a huge spoiler right here, but you DO see where this is going???

Cal keeps trying to touch Celeste who seems afraid of him. After he pinches her side and she yelps in pain, Nell stands up and orders him out of her house. There's an altercation and Nell ends up kicking Cal. She takes the rum out of his hands and throws it on Mindy....for some reason...who is standing near the fire. The left arm of Mindy's blouse gets soaked.

She's wearing a blouse.

These girls do NOT know how to dress for a party.

Percy steps in between Nell and Cal and Cal spits in his face. Percy punches him hard and Cal starts to go down. Mindy tries to catch him like an idiot and goes down with him. Her rum soaked arm gets too close to the fire and goes up in flames. Rachel tells her to roll on the ground and Percy tries to smother her arm with his sweatshirt. Our girl Lara picks up the bottle of rum and starts to throw it on Mindy because it's wet and because she DIDN'T LEARN A FUCKING THING FROM WHEN SHE KILLED NICOLE. Nell stops her from doing it. Rachel goes to get a fire extinguisher and Percy tackles the panicked Mindy so Rachel can put the fire out.

She might be a bitch, but Rachel's the smartest one in this group. She has been since they were in grade school. I like Rachel. I wish she was our protagonist.

They examine Mindy's arm and determine that it's just a little worse than a sunburn. It's already starting to blister. Nell picks up a red-hot poker from the fireplace and holds it at Cal, telling him to leave again. Cal leaves. Lara calls the lodge and asks for a doctor. One comes on the line and asks for a detailed description of the injury. He tells Lara it sounds like second degree. They are supposed to wrap it in sterile dressing, elevate her arm and legs and give her a solution of salt and baking soda every fifteen minutes to drink.

What the heck does that do?

Okay, I Googled and apparently baking soda oxygenates the body and promotes healing and the salt makes the baking soda easier to digest. So now we know.

Nell has codeine and they ask the doctor if they can give that to Mindy. He advises to wait an hour and then they can.

Everyone leaves the room and Lara is alone with Percy. She ends up tearfully telling him about Nicole and her conspiracy theories about Dana and the snowman bursting into flames. Percy dismisses the theories and Lara is crushed. She tells Percy that she's sure someone in the group is capable of spontaneous human combustion...only on other people. He asks her if she means like the movie Carrie.

It was Firestarter. Carrie was telekinetic. Different phenomenon.  Get it straight, Pike.

Before anyone points this out, yes there was fire at the end of Carrie.  But it was caused by sparks from when she was doing her telekinetic thing.  She did not spontaneously combust anyone.

Percy thinks Lara is losing it. She tells him that she wants to walk part way back with him so she can check out the spot where Dana's ski was found again. They flirt a bit and he tells her that he's going to visit her back at home after the weekend is over. She's all aglow. Percy wants to wait an hour to make sure Mindy doesn't go into shock before they leave.

Lara goes upstairs to check on Celeste who has retreated to her room. Celeste is really upset. She keeps saying it's all her fault and she doesn't want to hurt anyone. Lara wonders if Celeste burned Mindy with her mind.

Sigh.

Celeste starts asking if Lara knows and if she remembers. Lara is confused.  I really can't believe she hasn't figured this out.  Celeste tells Lara she needs to leave the house and not come back. Then she seems to fall asleep so Lara leaves.

The hour passes. It's midnight and still snowing. Rachel asks Percy to stay but Nell tells him he has to leave. Percy gets ready to go and Lara tells them that she's going back a little ways with him to check out the spot where she found the ski. Nell thinks it's a really good idea. It's actually an awful idea but whatever. Rachel points out that Lara really shouldn't be coming back to the house alone, in the dark, after midnight in blizzard conditions. Sure, she said it because she didn't want Lara going off with Percy, but it's still smart. She's completely right. Lara doesn't listen.

Lara and Percy start to leave but she goes back inside for a scarf. Rachel and Nell are arguing. Nell insists that she accidentally threw the rum on Mindy even though it looked deliberate. Rachel isn't so sure. Lara leaves quickly before the fight gets worse.

It's minus 10 outside as Lara and Percy ski away. They reach the spot where the ski was found. Lara advances her pyro-kinetic/spontaneous human combustion theory again. Percy thinks she's got a wild imagination. He lights a flare to see the area better but then throws it down on the ground so he can make out with Lara. There's some mild sexual innuendo throughout the next few pages. The thing I like about Pike is that he allows his female characters to be sexual beings. It's okay for girls to like sex and Pike understands that. It's refreshing since the rest of PH land treats girls like they shouldn't enjoy their bodies.

The discarded flare ends up melting some of the snow and ice. They dig for a bit but find nothing more than what might be ash but might just be dirt. Percy wants to call it quits because he has a long trip to the lodge ahead of him and it's late. He gives Lara the flare gun in case she has any trouble getting back to the house. He leaves and Lara decides to dig a little more. She finds something but can't tell what it is, so she tucks it into her pocket to look at later.

Lara gets back to the house and Nell is the only one downstairs. Nell says everyone else is asleep. The phones are out now from the storm. She asks Lara what she found and Lara says nothing but dirty ice. They have a weird conversation where Nell accuses Lara of not remembering Nicole and seems angry for some reason that Lara can't figure out. Nell finally tells Lara to go to bed.

Lara checks on Mindy and finds her asleep. She tries knocking on Rachel's and Celeste's doors but neither of them answer. She finally goes to her room. She puts the chunk of ice she collected from the ski site onto her desk to melt and falls asleep. Her alarm goes off at 3am which is when she got up the day before to come on her ski trip. I guess she brought her alarm clock from home and forgot to reset it.

She investigates the desk where the chunk of ice has melted and she finds a bone.

Lara decides she needs to leave the house immediately before someone sets her 30 year old bangs on fire. Her knee is even more painful than it had been the day before. She remembers there's a snow mobile in the basement and decides that will be her method of escape.

Um....does the basement have a door to the outside? It must, right? Because otherwise how did they get it down there and how is Lara going to drive it out?

Lara heads to the basement, disjointedly panicking about the pyro-murderer the entire way. It's irritating to read. She smells kerosene and hears someone pouring jugs of it out into the basement. She turns and makes a run for it as fast as her bum knee will allow.

She falls through a snow drift and nearly dies, but finds some inner strength and claws her way out of it. She makes it a mile before she can't go any further. She remembers the flare gun but her fingers are too frozen to pull the trigger. She does the only thing she can think of doing. She puts her hands in her panties and pees on her fingers to thaw them out. It works.

Lara fires the flare gun but the low clouds obscure it. She doesn't bother to try again. She lies down in the snow, ready to die. Suddenly a giant appears. It's Cal and she doesn't remember anything else after that.

Lara wakes up in the basement. Dana and Rachel are there. They're tied and taped up. The girls tell her that Cal was on the way back to the house to apologize when he found Lara out in the snow.

Wait.  He was coming back to the house to apologize in the middle of the night?  In the middle of a blizzard?  In what universe does this scenario even make sense?

Sigh.  Moving on.

Cal carried Lara back to the house where Nell was all to happy to “take care of her”. They talk about how the other two were “captured”. Dana was served drugged hot chocolate after coming back from the ski lodge. She never had an accident on the trail or went missing. She was in the house all along. First in Nell's closet and then in the basement. Rachel was hit on the head with a fireplace poker after Lara left with Percy.

Rachel also reveals what the mysterious phone call was about. She and some rando guy from school were going to stuff the ballot box so that Rachel could be sure to win Homecoming Queen. She got the idea from Carrie.

That movie sure has been mentioned a lot in this book.

Lara starts to talk about the first slumber party and she asks Rachel if Nell was moving the planchette when it spelled out Nicole's name. Rachel says she thought so at the time but before they can discuss it further, Celeste comes down the stairs.

You know what's coming, right??

Lara calls Celeste “Nicole” which shocks the others but I'm hoping it didn't shock you because it was SO OBVIOUS. Seriously, Pike broadcast this twist all over the damn place. The cream in the bathroom for N. Kutroff was a flaming bright clue but certainly not the only one.

Nicole pulls off her sweater, showing them her burn scars. She says her parents told everyone she was dead to give her a new start in life. She says she's been dreaming of destroying all of them like they destroyed her. She moved in with her aunt to get closer to them, to see if they even remembered her.

Lara is convinced that Nicole doesn't want to do any of this. She's certain that it was all Nell's idea. Nicole says she wants revenge because Lara poured gasoline on her. Rachel tells her it was brandy. She reminds Nicole that she's the one who put her out.

Nicole argues that it was Nell that put her out. She tells them that Nell was the only one that wanted her at the slumber party and everyone else hated her. Lara explains that Nell has been telling her lies. Nell was the one that didn't want her there. Nell was the one that moved the planchette to spell out Nicole's name.

Nell comes downstairs and tells Nicole they can leave now. Mindy isn't going to wake up anytime soon. She reveals how she melted the snowman with a blow torch and then planted the ski, ash and bone on the ski path. She's disappointed that Lara is the only one who took the bait but gleeful on how well it worked on Lara. She makes fun of Lara's pyro-murderer theory for awhile. I can't really blame her for that. She planning to light the kerosene in the basement, ride out on the snowmobile with Nicole and let everyone else burn to death.

Nicole doesn't want to leave yet. She wants the truth about the night she “died”. She starts to come around after listening to the other girls and she tells Nell she wants to stop. Nell says it's too late to stop.

Nicole starts to remember incidents from her childhood where Nell was cruel to her.  While Nell's back is turned, Nicole seems to come to a conclusion. She tries to cut the tape and string around Lara's hands with a hacksaw blade. Nell kicks her in the ribs and sends her flying. Nicole manages to pull herself up the basement stairs to safety.

Lara is able to free her hands enough to grab the flare gun out of her pants. She threatens to shoot the gun at Nell's feet. Nell is standing in kerosene. If Lara fires, she'll go up in flames. Nell doesn't care. She's been burned before. Nicole reappears, though, and begs everyone to stop. She tells Nell that she's scared. Nell says all this has been for her. Nicole tells Nell that it's not what she wants.

Nell says without this, she'll have nothing to look forward to. Nell's life was ruined when her face was burned. If she doesn't pull off this act of revenge, it will have been for nothing. She turns to pounce on Lara and Lara fires the flare. Nell goes up in flames.

Nicole tries to pull Nell out but it's too late. Lara rolls to where Nicole dropped the blade she used earlier and she frees herself and then goes to work on Dana. Rachel tells Nicole that Nicole owes her one. Nicole grabs another blade and cuts Rachel free.

They all manage to get outside and then Rachel remembers Mindy. Lara and Celeste go back in after her. They can't wake her up, so Lara tries to carry her out. She can barely support her own weight on her bad knee, though, and she falls when she tries to get Mindy out. Luckily Dana and Rachel show up. They can't get out the front door due to the fire, so they go into Lara's room. Rachel breaks the window and they all go through it onto the roof. From there, they jump into a snowbank and then crawl away from the house.

The house blows, hurtling them through the air. Nicole is gravely hurt. A few minutes after the explosion, the colonel shows up. He had been in the lodge talking to the ranger when Cal came in. Cal said that he found Lara half dead in the snow and when he took her back to the house, he had a funny feeling about things so he wanted to report that something might be wrong. The colonel was heading to check on them when the house exploded. He uses a CB to call for a rescue copter.

Lara lies to the colonel and tells him that she doesn't know how the fire started.

We skip to Monday and everyone but Nicole is being released from the hospital. No one told the police or their parents the real story of what happened and they all swear they never will. Nicole is grateful for that. Lara promises to come back and visit her really soon.

The book ends as they all leave the hospital.

Final Thoughts:  I liked this book.  Lara was kind of an idiot here and there but she was still smarter than your average PH protagonist.  Rachel was awesome.  She saved Nicole, she saved Mindy, she saved all of them by being smart enough to break Lara's bedroom window.  These books need more Rachels.  It was painfully obvious, though, that Celeste was Nicole almost from the very beginning.  That plot twist wasn't hidden AT ALL.  I remember figuring it out by the time we reached the shower scene even when I was in middle school.  Pike tried to be shocking and failed miserably.  But, I tend to like his books.  For the genre he's in, his books are a little smarter and a little better written than his colleagues.  His characters are a little more real with more human emotions.  He writes female characters far better than Stine or even some of the female writers.  I doubt I'll be allowed to recap another Pike after this, though, because my "manager" likes it better when I hate the author. lol