Tag Line: Same time, same deadly channel....From the Back of the Book: She's living a soap opera. Catherine Belmont watches her soap opera Lost River every day. She imagines she's beautiful Cassandra Bly, the star of the show, with her sexy boyfriends, gorgeous clothes, and her own red convertible. Little by little, in strange, frightening ways, Catherine's life begins to echo Cassandra's. Catherine finds herself nervously rushing home to watch the show, to find out what will happen next in her own life. But Cassandra's life isn't so wonderful anymore. Because someone wants her dead. Catherine is sure her own life is also in danger. Or is she losing her mind?
Note From Me: This is not my typical recap. As I was reading, I became more and more convinced that our protagonist had a legit mental illness. It's hard to snark on that, y'all. Actually, I refuse to snark on that. So this particular blog entry is like recap-lite. It's a kinder, gentler version of my usual entry. And we all know what that means. My manager is going to make me read a fucking Cooney after this. If it's that third vampire book, expect it to be my last post because I already told her that book will end this blog forever.
This book was published in 1994. This was my first time reading it. The back blurb made me a little wary going into this book. I think I was picturing in my head how a Cooney or a Stine with this premise would go. I should have had more faith in Littke.
We begin with our protagonist Catherine
eagerly waiting for class to end for lunch break so she can dash off
to watch her soap opera. The day before, her favorite character
Cassandra was involved in a horrible accident and she can't wait to
see what happens next. Catherine, her friend Liz and her neighbor
Kade all run to the appliance store where the owner has turned all
the TVs in the shop to Lost River for them. The owner seems
like a nice guy and I like him. Kade doesn't usually watch, but he's
fascinated with Catherine's addiction, so he's come along to see what
all the fuss is about.
Catherine is obsessed with Cassandra.
She often imagines how wonderful it would be to live in Cassandra's
world. While she watches the screen intently, Kade mocks what he's
seeing. Catherine ignores him. He's lived next door to her
for almost a decade and she's always thought of him as a brother.
Recently he asked her to a dance and was hurt when she laughed at
him. She wasn't trying to be mean, but she thought he was joking.
She realized too late that he wasn't. He's been acting oddly toward
her since then.
Two more classmates walk in. Britny is
gorgeous and because she's gorgeous, she's a bitch. Point Horror has
taught us that the gorgeous ones are always bitches. I hate how she
spells her name. She's with a guy that Catherine doesn't know. He's
cute though and she instantly feels a connection to him like they are
characters in a soap opera who have been looking for each other all
their lives. He introduces himself as
Travis and says that he used to watch Lost River too. That's
enough for Catherine. She wants to have his babies.
Travis thinks Catherine looks like
Cassandra. He points out that she's even wearing an outfit similar
to the one Cassandra is wearing onscreen that day. And it was
totally on purpose, y'all. Catherine saw Cassandra wearing it on the
previous day's epi and totally wore something almost exactly the
same that day. This girl is a little worrying. Liz and Kade realize
that Catherine DOES look just like Cassandra and they wonder why they
never noticed before. Only her long hair is different. Catherine
thinks about cutting it to become more like her beloved Cassandra.
Britny is throwing major shade at
Catherine because Catherine got a spot on the cheerleading squad that
Britny had wanted. She tells Catherine that she heard that Cassandra
is about to be killed off the show. That would pretty much ruin
Catherine's life.
They go back to school and while she's
in English class, Catherine pretends she's being filmed for a soap
opera. She is conscious of every movement she makes and turns toward
the unseen camera so that it can capture her reactions to the poem
her teacher is reading aloud.
If this were a Cooney, I'd probably be
throwing something right now. But Littke is just....better. I mean,
it's dumb, yeah, but it makes you feel like the character
is dumb rather than the author. Cooney would write it as if
Catherine were completely reasonable and normal. Littke acknowledges
that this is weird behavior and it makes it....better.
Liz notices
Catherine acting like an idiot and totally calls her out for it which
makes me love Liz a little. That probably means she's the bad guy.
After school, Liz is waiting for
Catherine so they can walk home together. Liz sees her coming and
starts to walk off without her. Catherine asks her what her problem
is and Liz launches into this big thing about how obsessed Catherine
is with a soap opera and how ridiculous she looks when she's imagining
to be on one. It's a valid point and she's not wrong, but she could
have discussed it with her best friend a lot more gently than that.
Maybe I don't like Liz much after all. Catherine starts screaming on
the sidewalk that maybe Liz should just script out her entire life
from now on so she doesn't embarrass everyone by existing. I don't
think it's the existing that's the problem here, Cat.
She knows she's over-reacting and being
too dramatic but she thinks she's played the scene well. She's done
it just like Cassandra would and that's due to all her practice at
delivering lines like Cassandra would. Wow. JUST WOW. That's all
I'll say about that.
Liz sighs and walks off. Catherine
lets her go with a “who needs ya” kind of attitude. She starts
to walk home, mindful of the imaginary camera so that it captures her
mournful face and sorrowful walk. Yikes. On the way home she passes
a Tide box with a tombstone-shaped piece of paper taped to it. She
decides to go closer to investigate and steps in a cleverly
camouflaged hole, twisting her ankle. The paper has Rest in Peace and the initials CB on
it. CB are her initials AND Cassandra's.
Catherine is determined not to show any
reaction just in case someone is watching. She starts to walk home,
trying to hide her limp. Not long after, Kade
pulls alongside her and asks if she wants a ride home. She accepts.
They talk a little and Catherine tells him that the reason she has to
run to the appliance store over lunch is because her mom can't afford
to have their VCR fixed. Kade offers to look at it and see if he can
fix it. It surprises her because he hasn't been exactly nice to her
lately (Girl, maybe because you laughed at him when he asked you
out???????).
Catherine's mom is in a Point Horror
book, so she works very long hours and Catherine is home alone most
of the time. Kade picks up the VCR and then walks over to his house
to look at it. Catherine takes a nap on the couch after he leaves.
When she wakes up, there is a single red rose in a vase on the table
beside her.
Dun dun dun.
Catherine is convinced that Kade left
the rose. She steps out onto her small balcony and calls his name.
He pokes his head out of his bedroom window. She puts the rose in
her teeth and does a little flamenco dance because she once saw
Cassandra do that on Lost
River when someone gave her a rose. Then she tells him
thank you and throws the rose over the side of the balcony. When she
leans over to see where it lands, the railing gives way and she
nearly plummets over the side. Kade tells her that it must have been
loose and offers to come over and fix it. A shaken Catherine wonders
if he already “fixed” it in an effort to kill her.
The next morning Liz doesn't show up to
walk with Catherine to school. Kade asks her if she wants a ride
again. When she gets in the car, she sees that her VCR is strapped
into the backseat. Kade tells her that he's taking it to his
electronics class to see if he can fix it. If he can't, Travis
probably can because he's good with things like that. Catherine goes
all weak in the knees at the mention of Travis' name. Good thing
she's sitting down.
On the way they pass Liz and Kade pulls
over to ask if she wants a ride. She gets right in and greets them
both and Catherine realizes that maybe Liz isn't going to hate her
forever after all. Liz was simply running late because she had to
get her cousins ready for school since her aunt wasn't feeling well.
Liz lives with her aunt's family because her own mother is very sick
in another town and her father is of the deadbeat variety so popular
in these books.
Liz thinks it's hilarious that Kade has
buckled the VCR in and they end up having some kind of discussion
about all of the uses for seatbelts. This prompts Catherine to
remember that Cassandra's seatbelt had been cut through before her
accident. She doesn't want to miss that day's episode but she has
cheerleading practice at noon so she isn't going to be able to go
watch it. Luckily, Kade thinks he'll have the VCR fixed by then and he
offers to hook it up to the one of the TVs in the electronics class
to tape her soap for her. They have cable in the classroom?
Seriously? We never did. It was filmstrips or VCR tapes or nothing
back when I was in school. They have cable in the classroom NOW but
not back then.
Kade mentions the “show” Catherine
put on for him the night before. Catherine said it was the least she
could do after he left her the rose. Kade has no idea what she's
talking about. She realizes he didn't leave the rose after all and
she asks him if he left something for her on the route home from
school the previous day. He is puzzled and she knows then that he
didn't leave the “tombstone” either. Poor Catherine is back to
square one on the suspect list.
It's probably Liz. Her mom isn't
really sick. Liz chopped her up and put her in the freezer or
something and now she's stalking Catherine because she's tired of
hearing about Lost River. You know.....or not. It's just a
theory.
Catherine is chosen at practice that
day to be one of three cheerleaders doing a routine for a special
assembly later that week. And, even better, Kade fixes her VCR and
tapes her soap. She settles in to watch after school and we get a
lengthy description of a fictitious soap opera episode. Oy vey. In
the middle of the episode, there's some static and a few blips and
then Catherine is watching footage of her discovering the “tombstone”
and falling in the hole from the day before. After that scene ends,
there are some more blips and then a sign appears on screen telling
her to enjoy her soap opera life while she still can.
Catherine immediately suspects Kade and
she steps out on the balcony to yell his name. He doesn't pop out of
the window this time, though. She runs down the stairs and over to
his house, leaving her apartment completely open. Kade doesn't
appear to be home. She sits on his porch and waits for awhile but then decides to
just go back home. Once inside, she calls Liz and orders her to come
over. Literally. She doesn't even ask, she just orders.
Liz comes over and Catherine pushes
play on the VCR. She doesn't tell Liz anything about the video. But
she's shocked when this time there are no blips or static. Instead
of the scene from the park the day before, the soap simply continues
on with its story. Catherine is horrified. She tells Liz what had
been on the tape before. Liz doesn't appear to believe her and
Catherine is furious. She tells Liz that someone must have switched
tapes while she was over at Kade's waiting for him to get home. Liz
is very, very dubious and I don't really blame her. Catherine hasn't
demonstrated a firm grasp on reality thus far.
Catherine decides she wants to get even
with Kade. She's going to make it look like his pranks pushed her
off the deep end. I don't think this will be too difficult for her,
really. Her first step is to have Liz cut her hair to look like
Cassandra's. She hears Kade coming up her steps (why was he coming
over???) and positions herself on the couch to look just like
Cassandra in the hospital bed on screen.
Liz lets Kade in and tells him that she
thinks there's something seriously wrong with Catherine. Kade comes
to look and is alarmed that she seems to be transforming into
Cassandra. Liz takes him into the kitchen to talk about this.
Suddenly the phone rings in real life just as it rings onscreen.
Catherine answers it and the person on the other end of the line
speaks the exact words that Cassandra is hearing on screen. It asks
if she liked the bloody red rose.
Catherine freaks and yells for Liz and
Kade to come but neither of them do. She staggers into the kitchen
gasping that someone is trying to kill her (the exact same lines that
Cassandra just said on the show BTW). Liz and Kade are concerned.
Catherine tells them about the phone call and Liz is immediately
dubious. She never heard the phone ring and she asks Kade if he did.
He say he heard something but he thought it was on the TV. Catherine
tells them that everything happened almost exactly at the same time
that it happened on TV and now Liz is even more dubious. She thinks
Catherine is making it up to get back at Kade.
Liz thinks Catherine has had a slip
from reality and she advises Catherine to stop watching the show for
awhile. First
Catherine started dressing like Cassandra and then she started
talking and acting like Cassandra and now she's manipulated Liz into
cutting her hair like Cassandra's. It DOES sound bad on paper, but I
think a bad guy is taking advantage of this to gaslight Catherine.
Whoever it is, is doing a good job too.
Kade gives her the benefit of the doubt
and wonders if there is a bug planted somewhere in the house that
enable a person to hear exactly when he/she needed to make the phone
call. They look around but find nothing. Catherine knows they don't
believe her and she feels awkward about it, so she tells them they
can go home. After they leave, she tries to do her homework but
can't concentrate. When her mom comes home she complements Catherine
on her hair.
Catherine mentions Travis and her mom
stiffens and acts strange. Catherine asks her if she knows the
family. Her mother evades. She says she knew a Travis from a long
time ago but he had a different last name. She immediately goes into
her room and Catherine wonders what it was about Travis' name that
scared her mother.
The phone rings at the end of the
chapter. When Catherine picks it up, the voice on the other line
tells her that it's Dr Wyatt. Catherine slams the phone down. Dr
Wyatt is Cassandra's love interest on the show. For a few moments,
she worries that she's completely lost her grip on reality. But then
she realizes that it was the end of a chapter in a Point Horror book and what she actually heard was someone
playing a segment of the soap opera over the line.
Y'all, apparently Catherine's entire
wardrobe is based on Cassandra. For instance, she picks out an
outfit for school the next morning and remembers that she bought it
when Cassandra was dating a man on the show who liked Cassandra to look
feminine. She bought herself an outfit that a fake person could wear
on a fake date with another fake person in a fake town on TV. Her
entire life seems based on being a fictional television character.
This isn't healthy and it isn't normal. Normally in PH books, we're
all annoyed because the completely sane protagonist is being labeled
as “crazy” by everyone in her life. I'm afraid what we're
dealing with here is a legitimately mentally ill protagonist and it's
freaking me out a little. I'm not sure it's okay to snark on
Catherine at this point.
Catherine goes out to meet Liz for the
walk to school. At the end of her driveway is a piece of a seatbelt.
It's clearly been cut out of a car just like the one in Cassandra's
car on the show.
When they get to school, they run into
Travis. He tells her how much she looks like Cassandra now and
invites himself over to watch the tape of the soap opera after
school. Catherine had already invited Liz and Kade over. Liz
suggests that she and Catherine go over to the appliance store to
watch it together at lunch instead. Then she'll occupy Kade after
school so Catherine and Travis can be alone. Catherine agrees to
this plan.
As they go to leave the store after watching, there's a
vase of blood red roses sitting on a stack of VCRs that hadn't been
there when they walked in.
Travis walks Catherine home after
school. Her mother has gone to work leaving the door unlocked as
usual. When they go inside, there's a vase full of red roses on top
of her TV. Catherine freaks out. Travis grabs the roses, intending
to throw them out I think but Catherine grabs them away from him. In
the process, she tears up both their hands with thorns. Travis drips
blood on the carpet. They try to clean it up, but end up making it
worse. Catherine doesn't let it ruin her date. They call for pizza
and spend an enjoyable hour or so watching the soap opera and
talking.
When her mother gets home, she's
alarmed at the blood. When Catherine tells her it was Travis, her
mom almost faints. She moans that it's happening all over again and
asks if Catherine is sure that it was Travis. Catherine tells her it
was the Travis from her school that she told her mom about the day
before and her mom relaxes. Clearly her mom has had some issues with
some dude named Travis in the past.
The next day at school, Britny pulls
Catherine aside to warn her that Travis has some mysterious problem
that she refuses to name. She tells Catherine to ask Travis about it
because he shouldn't be keeping something like that from her and then
she walks off. Catherine frets about it a little. On one hand,
Britny could be trying to keep Catherine away from Travis. On the
other hand, their families are old friends and Britny had known
Travis for a very long time. Maybe there is something wrong
with him.
Does anyone else wonder if Travis is
like a junior or something and his dad is the one that Catherine's
mom is afraid of?
Yeah, me too.
At lunch, Travis finds her and asks if
she wants to run to the appliance store to watch the soap. She does
despite her misgivings about him. The episode that day is scary. Catherine
finds herself slipping inside Cassandra's character and she starts to
smile when Cassandra smiles and gasp when Cassandra gasps. Travis
notices. Maybe someone should be warning Travis about Catherine's
little problem. After the episode she half-jokingly asks if Travis
wants to come home from school with her to check for more roses. He
accepts and they make plans to meet after her cheerleading practice that afternoon.
After school, Catherine goes to the
auditorium for practice. The other two girls haven't arrived yet.
She's standing on stage when all the lights in the room go out. A
person begins to whisper to her, asking if she likes the roses and
blah blah blah. Catherine tries to get away and trips over a bench.
The other girls arrive then and the lights go back on. Catherine is
too shaken up to practice and just goes home, forgetting that Travis
was waiting for her to drive her home.
The phone rings and it's Travis asking
her if she's okay. He tells her to lock her door and not let anyone
in until he gets there. Catherine heads for her mom's room, seeking
some kind of comfort amongst her mom's things. She sees an old photo
album poking out from under her mom's bed and she grabs it to look
through it. She's surprised when she sees Travis in the album among
pictures of her mom at her age. It doesn't make sense to her and
she's terrified.
Listen, Catherine, get it together
here. There are three explanations, one much more likely than the
others. Either Travis is a supernatural creature of some sort, a time
traveler, or his father knew your mother. Only the first one is
terrifying and it's not the one that's most likely. This girl
exhausts me with all her drama.
Travis arrives but Catherine doesn't
answer the door. He become increasingly more frantic and begins
pounding on the door and yelling for her. She sees this as highly
sinister. But honestly, I think he's just concerned for a friend who
he knows has been having a tough time and who isn't answering the
door. He finally stops and Catherine thinks he's left but then she
hears him coming back upstairs with her landlord Albert. Apparently
he convinced Albert that something was very wrong and he needed to
use his master key to open the door.
Travis is surprised to not find her
dead on the floor. He quickly searches the apartment because she's
staring at him stupidly, not offering him any kind of explanation for
not letting him in. He finds the album on the floor open to the
picture of the other Travis and he seems surprised.
Hmmmm. I think my father theory just got blown out of the water.
Travis is thoughtful for a bit and then
says it must be his uncle. He was named after his uncle and his mom
always told him that they resembled each other. Catherine asks about
Uncle Travis and Travis tells her that he was murdered when he wasn't
much older than they are now.
Ooooooooooh. Please tell me that
Catherine's mom murdered Uncle Travis because she thought she was in
some soap opera too.
Travis holds her while she cries and
then takes her out for burritos. Kade and Liz show up while they're
eating and Catherine thinks it's weird that they're there. Neither
of them like burritos very much. Liz seems to be trying to warn
Catherine about something. She makes a lot of veiled psychology
references while giving Travis side-eye. Catherine can't figure it
out even though it's painfully obvious.
Travis and Catherine finish their food
and head back to Catherine's place. Her mom is home when they arrive
and she's miffed that they've been looking through the photo album.
Catherine confronts her about Uncle Travis and her mom admits that
she's the one who killed him.
I'm going to bask in this for a moment.
I think it's just a stupid cliff-hanger and it's going to turn out
that she didn't really kill him but she feels responsible for
his death. But for this moment, I'm going to enjoy the fact that
something in one of these books actually turned out how I wanted it.
That hasn't happened since The Hitchhiker.
Sure enough, just a few paragraphs into
the next chapter, her mom says she didn't pull the trigger but
someone else did because of her.
Sigh. That was predictable.
Her
mom questions Travis about whether he got close to Catherine as some
kind of revenge plot against her but he denies it. He says he never
even knew about her connection to his family. She asks him if he knows a "Tess" and he denies that as well. She seems relieved.
So apparently when Catherine's mom was
her age, she was involved in a triangle very similar to the one
Catherine is in. She knew a guy named Joe who was in love with her
but she thought of him more like a brother (Kade). She met a guy
named Travis and was instantly attracted to him (Travis). They
started going out and Joe was really jealous. He eventually ended up
shooting Travis and Catherine's mom blames herself. She doesn't tell us who Tess is or what role she played in all of this.
Later that night after Travis has gone
home, Liz calls. She warns Catherine to be careful around Travis
because he's a “nut case”. What about the fact that Catherine
thinks she's a soap opera character. Does no one think this is
odd???? Britny told Liz that the previous year, Travis was involved
in a rollerblade accident. He crashed into another person and
paralyzed him. That's how Travis ended up with the broken leg.
After that, he went “crazy”. He started doing odd things like
drawing gravestones and trying to scare people. It's all very vague
and sounds like nothing more than a teenage boy struggling with the
guilt of accidentally altering another person's life forever. But
Liz repeats that Travis is dangerous and she wants Catherine to keep
her distance.
After the phone call, Kade comes over.
He says he's worried about Catherine spending so much time with
Travis. He tells her he's been watching her, he likes watching her
and he'll keep watching her. Because that's not fucking creepy or
anything.
The next day at school, Catherine goes
to the office to find out who has keys to the sound/light room in the
auditorium. It turns out Travis has keys.
Dun dun dun.
I'm really pulling for Liz to be the
bad guy in this book. Everyone else is just too obvious.
Catherine runs from the office and
through the halls of the school. As she goes, she begins to mix up
reality and fiction. She is no longer sure which events happened to
Cassandra and which happened to her. She eventually collides with
Travis who admits he has a key to the sound/light room. When he goes
to give it to her, he finds that it's missing. He tells her that
Britny had the opportunity to take the key. Catherine is agitated.
She wonders where the cameras are and when the scene is going to end.
When Travis asks her if she's going to
the appliance store to watch Lost River, she tells him that
she doesn't want to watch it that day. She's afraid if she does,
she'll slip into Cassandra's life completely. She asks Liz to go
watch it instead. Liz later reports that someone kidnapped
Cassandra. Catherine wonders if Britny is plotting to kidnap her as
well.
Catherine leaps up from her desk in the
classroom and begins to run through the halls again. This time she
makes it out of the school and heads for home. Along the way, she
dodges behind trees and hides behind bushes. When she reaches home,
she seems to come to her senses a bit and she feels stupid for running
out of class like that.
She hears a car pull up in the
driveway. She looks out the window but her view is blocked and she
can't tell who it is. Like an idiot, she opens the door and goes out
on the balcony to have a good look. Someone rams into her, knocking
her down and throwing some kind of bag over her head. Catherine is
taken down the stairs and thrown into the passenger seat of a car.
She's bound with ropes. The Whisperer as she refers to him/her,
drives fast and reckless. She knows one person who drives like that
– Kade.
They drive for awhile. Catherine
becomes convinced that the driver is Travis instead of Kade. She
asks what's going to happen to her. The Whisperer tells her that
they'll find out tomorrow. Catherine realizes that they have to wait
for the next episode of Lost River to figure out what's going to happen to her.
They finally reach their destination and Catherine is taken inside.
She convinces the Whisperer to take off the bag because she can't
breathe very well.
The bad guy is LIZ. It's LIZ.
Another moment to bask.
So Liz's mother was Tess - Joe's sister.
Uncle Joe has been in a mental health facility since he shot the
original Travis. Liz's mother (who isn't "sick" but actually in a mental health facility herself) kept track of Catherine's mom over the
years. When Liz moved to town, she made sure to make friends with
Catherine so that all the revenge could be had.
There's a lovely villain monologue
where Liz details how she accomplished everything. Some of it sounds
a little far-fetched but whatever.
Catherine has a miserable night. The
next day, they tune into Lost River to see what Catherine's
fate is going to be. Liz is dismayed when Cassandra gets the better
of her attacker on screen. In real life, Catherine has worked
herself free of her ropes. A brief struggle begins. Kade and Travis
arrive to save the day. In the end, Liz is taken to get help. The book ends on an episode segment from Lost River. The bad guy isn't dead and vows to come back to kill Cassandra.
Fade to black.
Final Thoughts: I thought I was going to hate this book and I actually liked it. Littke isn't a bad writer. I wish she had written more books for Point Horror. I wish that Catherine's very obvious issues had been addressed in some way. It was like everyone in the book (including Catherine herself), the reader and Littke were all well aware that Catherine was having some pretty serious breaks from reality but no one really wanted to do anything about it. This book sets itself up well for a sequel but I have no idea if one actually exists. All in all, I'm not sorry I read it. I am sorry that I'm probably getting handed a Cooney in approximately seven minutes (or however long it takes my manager to read this entry).
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