Tag Line: Daddy's little darling...is dead.From the Back of the Book: Having a new father can be murder. He's kind and thoughtful. He wants them to be a happy family. He's her stepfather. And he may be a murderer. From the day Livvie meets him, she knows she's not going to like her new stepfather. But when she tells her mother and her best friend, they both think she's crazy not to like such a wonderful man. Then Livvie thinks she sees her stepfather's picture on TV - wanted by the police for a murder he committed fifteen years before. The murder of his wife....and his stepdaughter. Is Livvie crazy? ....Or is her stepfather?
I think the little sticker on the front cover that says the price has been slashed almost in half is a good indicator of how good this book is. Just sayin'.
This book was published in 1993. I had never read it before. Believe me, if I had, there is no way I would have read it again. My manager would have lost this particular war.
We begin with our protagonist Livvie.
She's in her room and acting like she's terrified of her stepfather.
So far all we know about him is that he's middle-aged and has a
birthmark that looks like Africa on the back of his hand. Livvie
thinks he tries too hard and is too thoughtful.
Poor baby.
Livvie's father has been dead for two
years. After he died, she stopped eating and sleeping and ended up
in the hospital for awhile. It took her a lot of intensive therapy
to put her life back together. She still sees a counselor sometimes.
Livvie's best friend Marta
calls. Livvie tells us that Marta is a really good friend. She
stuck by Livvie through the hard times and calls her frequently to
just make sure she's doing okay. I hope all this is true because
good friendships are really rare in Point Horror. Marta seems to
like the stepfather. I should really learn his name.
Okay, I think
it's Allen but Livvie calls him Richardson which is his last
name.
After the phone call, Livvie tunes into
a show called Fugitives From Justice. That night's story is
about a man named Adam Clinton who murdered his new wife and
stepdaughter and was never seen again. They show a picture of Adam
and an artist rendition of how he might look today and Livvie is
horrified. She's sure that Adam Clinton and Allen Richardson are the
same person.
Livvie's mom and stepdad return home
and Livvie hurries back up to her room so she doesn't have to be
around them. She hears them turn on the TV and realizes that
Fugitives From Justice is still playing. She worries that
they will do a wrap-up at the end of the show and Richardson will
recognize his segment and know that Livvie is on to him.
Over the next few days, Livvie goes
back and forth about Richardson. It's pretty tedious to read. On
Saturday she calls Marta to tell her about Richardson being Clinton.
Marta thinks Livvie's lost her mind. She tries to reason with Livvie
for a bit and then suggests that Livvie call her counselor. Livvie
is upset at first, but then vows to try to give Richardson a chance.
Of course, as soon as she hangs up the
phone, Livvie decides to search through Richardson's things. Because
that's how you give a person a chance. When the bedroom yields no
evidence against him, she decides to search his office. She's
stunned to find....nothing. She thinks it's suspicious that he
doesn't have one single thing from his past.
Naturally, Richardson comes home and
finds her pawing through his office. She tells him that she was
only looking for a notebook. She doesn't think he believes her, but
he doesn't say anything to her about it. Livvie decides that she
needs to go to the library to research the Clinton murders. She
decides her best course of action is to go to the True Crime section
and look through every book to see if Clinton is mentioned. Oh, the
days before Google. Those were some dark, dark times. She doesn't
have any luck with this mission and she's about to give up when she
thinks of looking through the newspapers instead.
She finds the address for the newspaper
in the town where Clinton lived and leaves the library. Her plan is
to contact the newspaper office somehow and get copies of the
articles about the murders. On the bus ride home, she makes two
columns in her "Nancy Drew" notebook. In one she lists everything she knows about Richardson. In
the other, she lists everything she knows about Clinton. They don't
have much in common. I'm pretty unimpressed with all of this so far.
In fact, I'm so bored I keep dozing off.
At dinner that night, Richardson makes
some comment about playing football when he was younger. Livvie
remembers that he told them a long time ago that soccer was his
sport. She files this away as evidence that he's lying about his
life. I guess in Livvie's world, people never play more than one
sport. She questions Richardson about it and he says she must
remember wrong because he played football. She then proceeds to
interrogate him about what position he played, where he went to high
school, where he was born. He doesn't really answer her questions
and she's frustrated.
She decides she has to have those
newspaper articles. She writes the paper and requests that they be
sent to Marta's house so there's no way that Richardson can figure
out that she has her eye on him. Livvie feels like she has some kind
of cosmic connection with the stepdaughter who was murdered. Her
name was Cynthia and Livvie wonders if Cynthia distrusted Clinton as
much as Livvie distrusts Richardson.
Guys, this book is so boring, I'm about
to tap out and start another one. I'll get back to this one. Some
day. Maybe. (Author's note: it is 4-11-16)
Okay it's August 7th, 2016
and I have picked the book up again. Let's hope I make it farther
this time.
Livvie can't help but watch Richardson
with suspicious eyes for an entire week. Both her mother and
stepfather notice. Way to be subtle and avoid getting murdered, Liv.
At the end of the week, Livvie's mom tells her that they've noticed
how tense and quiet she's become. They've decided the best thing to
do is to go away for Spring Break. They're going to visit an old
friend of her mother's who has moved into a run-down home with her
three kids. Richardson is going to help out with some repairs while
they are there, but mostly they are going to rest and swim and boat
and refresh themselves. Livvie is less than pleased, but she's less
than pleased about abso-fucking-lutely everything, so it loses it's meaning after awhile.
Marta comes over to visit and Livvie decides it might be a good idea to actually tell Marta about
the newspaper sending something to her home. She asks Marta
to forward it to her, but in a new envelope so Richardson won't be
suspicious. Marta is stunned that Livvie is still pursuing this.
She voices some concerns about Livvie's mental health and then
leaves. Livvie hears Marta greet Richardson and the two have a quiet
conversation. She's paranoid that Marta is telling him of Livvie's
suspicions.
When they arrive at the Ward house, Mrs
Ward (Joanne) is standing outside arguing with her teenage son Kyle.
He gets mad and rides off on his motorcycle in a huff. There's
another son Joel (17) and a daughter Dana (15). Kyle
tends to be angry, Joel is moody and Dana is self-absorbed. Sounds
like a good group. I'm sure she'll fall madly in love with at least
two of them.
Livvie is furious when Mrs Ward seems
charmed by Richardson. She can't believe he's sucking another person
into his web. Dana also seems taken with Richardson. She tells
Livvie how lucky she is to have a nice guy like that in her life.
Livvie is disgusted. She can't imagine why they like this man. There's a rando cat around and Livvie takes comfort in the fact that it seems to hate Richardson as much as she does.
They take a tour of the house and Ellis
hits us over the head with the fact that there are a couple of secret passages located somewhere
that I'm sure will become super important at some point. Livvie
doesn't give two figs about them, though. She's too busy trying to
check out Joel. It's always the moody one. It's okay, Livvie, I was
the same way at your age.
Dinner goes about as well as you'd
expect with such two-dimensional characters. Kyle the angry one
gets....SURPRISE...angry and storms out at some point. Dana the
self-absorbed one acts.....SURPRISE....self-absorbed and takes off to
join her legion of friends. And Joel the moody one
is....SURPRISE....moody. The moms bitch about how hard it is to
raise kids while the kids are still at the table. Tactful. Then
they lose themselves in boring nostalgia. Richardson tries to
pretend he's perfect. It's all formulaic and predictable and BORING.
Ellis, you're killing me.
Livvie is as bored as I am with her
cardboard companions and she decides doing the dishes is preferable
to hanging out in the dining room for one more minute. Joel joins
her. They get ice cream and head back to the table. Richardson is
telling some story about high school in Iowa and Livvie immediately
calls him out for it. She says that last time they talked about high
school, he said he was living in California. She needles him about
it until he says that he started high school in Iowa and finished in
California. He seems upset by her questions. It's supposed to be
sinister, and maybe it is, but honestly most people get annoyed when
someone questions them with the intent to make them look like a liar.
Nobody likes that, Livvie. It just makes people hate you.
She feels someone watching her
afterwards and assumes it's Richardson giving her a death glare.
Instead it's Joel.
The next day Dana takes Livvie to the
lake. They make small talk for WAY too many paragraphs. Then the
subject turns to Joel. Dana tells her that Joel used to be fun but
ever since their dad left he has times when he just wanders off –
either physically or mentally. Dana thinks he's weird now and he's
become a totally different person. I kind of hate Dana.
We meet a bunch of Dana's friends and
I'm feeling overwhelmed with the number of characters in this book.
Kevin is Dana's boyfriend but he leers at Livvie and makes her feel
uncomfortable. They decide to take rowboats out on the lake for
awhile. Livvie finds herself in a boat with two guys
named Lloyd and David and a girl named Sherry who is obviously in
love with David. I have no idea if these people will be important
later or not. Livvie pretty much obsesses about Richardson the
entire time so I'm guess they won't be.
After boating and hanging out on the
beach for awhile, Dana's friends decide to go to the mall. Livvie
can't really take any more time with them and opts to go home instead.
On the way, she decides to look up the high school Richardson
mentioned going to in Iowa. Maybe she could get some kind of proof
of his identity from there. Back at the house, she goes looking for
a phone and notices Richardson's glasses laying on a table. She
picks them up and discovers that the lenses are clear glass. Joel
catches her snooping around.
Livvie asks Joel to borrow a cordless
phone so that she can call Marta from the privacy of her bedroom.
The girls chat a bit and then Livvie asks if the information she requested
has come in the mail yet. It hasn't and Marta is impatient with
Livvie for continuing with the whole Richardson is a murderer thing.
Livvie tries to tell her about the glasses but Marta really doesn't
want to hear it. As she's hanging up, Livvie hears another click on
the line and worries that Richardson was listening in.
Livvie takes out her Nancy Drew notebook that she's
recording all her suspicions about Richardson in. She keeps it
hidden under her mattress. This is such a rookie mistake. You NEVER
write your suspicions down where they can be found and read by the
bad guy. I mean, that pretty much just guarantees that you're going
to be eliminated. And you certainly never keep anything under your
fucking mattress. That's the first place people look. You might as
well attach a neon sign to it that says READ ME.
Kyle appears in her room and he's upset
with her because she told his mom about seeing him earlier after she
left the lake. He's threatening towards her and bars her from
leaving her room when she gets uncomfortable. Richardson becomes the
unlikely hero when he shows up and asks what's going on. Kyle
retreats but makes a gun shooting gesture at her as he leaves.
Charming. If she falls in love with him, I'm going to be super
pissed.
The next day Livvie heads back to the
lake with Dana and her friends again. This time they all get in the
water and swim a bit even though the water is literally still icy.
No one drowns or dies of hypothermia. It's kind of a disappointment.
Kevin hits on Livvie again and it's pretty gross.
Livvie goes home after a picnic lunch.
The driveway is empty except for Richardson's car. When she goes
inside, she sees Kyle disappearing up into the attic with some tools
and assumes he's helping Richardson repair the roof. She takes a hot
shower and then wanders into Joel's room. Not cool, Livvie. You
wouldn't like it if he randomly came into your room uninvited to
snoop while you were away.
Livvie takes a guitar off his wall and
begins to mess around with it. Joel returns and is naturally furious
when he finds her there. She acts all butthurt because she thought
they had something speshul between them and that he wouldn't mind
this completely heinous invasion of his privacy.
Later, Livvie regrets apologizing to
Joel for going into his room uninvited to maul his property without
permission. She's angry at him for getting mad at her and is fed up
with his stupid secrets. You know, because she's known him for about
48 hours and thinks he's cute so therefore she's entitled to know
every single thought he's ever had and every single thing he's ever
gone through. Plus, she's a guest in his house which obviously
entitles her to do anything she pleases in any room of the house.
Sheesh, Joel. You're so unreasonable.
Heinous bitch seems too kind a
description for Livvie right now.
The moms and Richardson come home and
now Livvie wonders what on earth Kyle was doing up in the attic with
all those tools. Surely he wasn't working on the roof by himself.
Wait.
Have you ever heard of someone roofing
a house from the INSIDE of the house? The shingles and stuff go on
the outside. So why is Richardson working on shingling the house
from inside the fucking attic? Now don't say “Mimi, maybe the
shingles have already been done and he's just replacing the inner
roof” because it's been mentioned several times that the roof
leaks. He's supposed to be fixing the damn thing.
Research, Ellis. Actually, this one is
more common sense.
Dana comes out and invites Livvie to a
cookout on the beach that evening. Livvie is reluctant to spend any
more time as an outsider amongst Dana's friends, but she figures it
will be better than hanging out at the house. They talk about Joel a
little and Dana insinuates pretty heavily that Joel is mentally
unstable. She warns Livvie to stay away from him.
They get to the cookout and Kevin is
still leering at Livvie. Disgusting boy is disgusting. As soon as
Dana is busy with something else, he comes over to hit on Livvie
again. She rebuffs him and he grabs her arm because Point Horror
thinks this is a piece of their damn formula and must be included in
ALL books. Dana comes back and gets mad. She tells Livvie that she
knows Kevin is a flirt but he wouldn't be doing it without
encouragement. Because it couldn't possibly be HIS fault that
he's a total douche bag. No, it must be the girl's fault.
I'm so fucking tired of this, Point Horror.
Dana runs off leaving Livvie to gather
up the things they'd brought to the beach earlier. Livvie begins the
walk back to the house feeling pretty sorry for herself with every
step. She's climbing up the long staircase from the beach when she
realizes someone is standing near the top waiting for her. She
worries that it might be Kyle...or Richardson...or Kevin....or pretty
much every other character in the book. Sigh. When she reaches the
top, she takes a swing at the person with one of the duffel bags
she's caring.
It's Joel. She yells at him for
scaring her. He tells her that he's been waiting to talk to her.
He's ready to accept her apology for trespassing in his space and
fondling his guitar. This pisses her off and she acts like a bitch
for a change {sarcasm}. He ends up apologizing to her for
overreacting. I wish he wouldn't have. She didn't deserve it.
Livvie accepts the apology he shouldn't
have made and they walk home holding hands. I'm so bored I can't
even work up suitable outrage for this injustice. Meh. Whatever,
Joel. You do what you want with your hands. It's not like I care or
anything.
When Livvie gets up to her room, she's
stunned to find that the blankets on her bed are too smooth.
Seriously?
Sigh. Seriously. This is what we're
doing right now. Livvie's big clue that someone was in her room is
the fact that the mystery person made her bed better than Livvie
usually does it. So dumb. So fucking dumb. She searches for the
notebook and finds it but she thinks it's been put back backwards.
The spiral edge was facing the middle of the bed instead of the
outside. Dun dun dun. She's sure Richardson has read all the
evidence she's been amassing against him.
Hate to say "I told you so", Livvie, but...yeah. Told ya so.
Livvie is pretty much in a panic when
her mom shouts up the stairs and tells her that everyone is having
popcorn in the kitchen and she needs to come down and get some before
it's gone. Livvie heads for the stairs. She trips over some loose
carpeting and then grabs for the banister. Unfortunately it breaks
under her weight and she falls down some stairs.
She's fine. No one seems particularly
worried about her considering she just fell down a flight of stairs.
I guess they all hate her as much as I do.
The next morning, Dana attempts to
bully Livvie into leaving for good and then insinuates that the
banister incident was no accident. Livvie takes us through an
exhaustive list of all the people in the house and why they might
want to harm her.
I think it's pretty clear why.
She's an awful
person.
She lands on Richardson as her main suspect...SURPRISE!!!.... and thinks he is targeting her because he read her little Nancy Drew notebook that she's now
carrying around in her pocket.
Livvie decides to call Marta to nag her
one more time about the envelope she's expecting. If I were Marta I
would start screening my calls. On her way to the phone she passes
the basement and sees Joel going down the stairs holding some kind of
tape. She attempts to flirt with him, but he's distant and
distracted. He says he has to go wrap some pipes in tape and
continues down. Livvie wonders why he didn't fall all over himself to proclaim his love for her.
She calls Marta's house but Marta is
out at the mall. She asks Marta's mom about an envelope and learns that
Marta has it in her room but hasn't mailed it yet. Livvie is frantic
to get it. She nags and nags at Mama Marta to make sure that it gets in the mail ASAP because it's VERY IMPORTANT. After the
phone call, she grabs some cans of ice tea (side note: didn't know it
came in cans) and heads for the basement thinking she can warm Joel
up with a cold drink.
As she goes down the stairs, she
realizes the light from above doesn't reach the actual basement
itself and there's no light on down there. She continues to go,
though, because she's an idiot who thinks Joel is down there wrapping
pipes in complete darkness. She calls his name a few times and tries
to be flirty but gets no answer. The dark basement spooks her, so
she heads back to the stairs to get the hell out. When she reaches
the stairs, she realizes the light has been turned off and the door
is closed. Ellis pulls a Stine and ends the chapter by telling us
that something comes up behind Livvie in a pointless cliffhanger. It
turns out to be that cat, by the way.
She doesn't want to turn her back on
whatever it is, so she backs up the rickety, rail-less stairs.
That's basically in line with how I perceive Livvie's intelligence
level. When she reaches the top, she realizes she's been locked in
the basement. She alternates between pounding on the door and
sitting on the top step going over her suspect list ad nauseum. At
some point she realizes that there's a little give to the door when
she pushes on it. She thinks she might be able to break the lock if
she can find a screwdriver to use for leverage.
Carefully she makes her way back down
the stairs. Not sure I'd want to try with the cat wandering around
and no railing, but to each her own. She wanders around for awhile,
bumping into things and walking face first into a brick wall. The
whole time she's muttering about how stupid she is and I'm not
arguing. Even the fink cat abandons her and takes off. She decides to just go back toward the stairs and then she hears a creaking sound coming from them. She's
relieved that someone has come down and calls out for help.
There's no answer.
She's convinced that someone is
standing there listening to her stumble and beg for help without
doing anything. She tries to bolt but she keeps stumbling over
things and falling. At one point she loses a shoe and just decides
to go on without it. Like there's a serial killer chasing her or
something and she can't spend 45 fucking seconds looking for her
shoe. And it's not even like she's trying to escape someone who is coming
up behind her. She's actually running TOWARD the mystery person. She can
pause in her pursuit to run directly into danger to get her damn shoe. But she continues on without it like an
idiot. I guess everywhere she goes, she's just going to have one
shoe now. I can hear you all now: “Mimi, most people own more than
one pair of shoes”. I suppose most people do. I do not.
When she reaches the stairs they are empty. She looks
up and sees the door to the basement is standing wide open.
Livvie questions everyone at dinner.
Dana claims to have been in her room. Kyle and Richardson say they
were in the garage. Joel had skipped the pipes and gone to the lake
while Livvie was making her phone call. The moms were grocery
shopping. Kyle and Dana seem to think it's hilarious. They're kind
of openly laughing at how dumb Livvie is. Joel is quiet, staring off
into space. The mom's are downplaying the whole incident, assuming
that the wind blew the door shut and then it stuck. Only Richardson
seems concerned about Livvie and it pisses her off that he is.
I can't even with this girl anymore,
y'all.
Livvie's mom announces that Marta
called while Livvie was adventuring in the basement and said she'd go
to the post office the next day after her dentist appointment. Livvie tells them Marta is mailing
her some notes but no one seems particularly interested.
That night Livvie has a nightmare about
being down in the basement again. She manages to go back to sleep
but awakens a short time later. This time she's sure she can hear
someone breathing in her room. She can barely make out the shape of
someone standing in the doorway of her closet. Livvie screams and
bolts out of the room. Joel, Kyle and Richardson go to check it out.
Predictably there isn't anyone in the
room. Everyone wants to dismiss it as a bad dream but Joanne
remembers that there's a secret passageway that exits into Livvie's
closet. She immediately turns on her kids and demands to know which
one of them just scared Livvie to death. They all deny any
involvement and everyone seems to believe them. Livvie is forced to
simply return to bed. She shoves a suitcase in front of the secret
passageway.
Good thinking, Livvie. An empty suitcase weighs a metric fuck-ton. That'll keep the bad guy out. {sarcasm}
Livvie isn't able to go to sleep right
away so she decides to go downstairs to get a drink of water. On her
way, she overhears Richardson and the moms talking. Her mom is upset
because she feels that Livvie is making things up and exaggerating
things. Joanne and Richardson both defend her. Richardson says that
she's had a lot to adjust to with her dad's death and their marriage.
Livvie is, of course, furious. HOW DARE HE STICK UP FOR HER LIKE
THAT???????? HE IS EVIL!!!!!!!
I'm so tired of this girl.
Livvie is certain that Richardson has
been responsible for everything – the banister, the basement, the
closet. She thinks that he is trying to make her look crazy and then
he will kill her and everyone will assume she was troubled and
committed suicide.
The next morning, the house is quiet.
The moms are at the mall and Richardson went back home for a closing.
Livvie decides to take advantage of the empty house (IS it empty?
There's no mention of the three kids who live there.) to call
that high school in Iowa and see if Richardson did, indeed, go there. She talks
to the high school secretary and gives her the cover story that she's
trying to track down her dad's classmates for a surprise reunion.
The secretary is happy to help. To Livvie's surprise, she confirms
that Allen Richardson DID attend the high school but they don't have
an updated address for him. Livvie is stunned. She wonders if she's
been wrong about everything.
Joel shows up and asks her to go out on
the canoe with him. She agrees. They row out to the middle of the
lake and then Joel stops and asks her if she wants to talk about what's been bothering her.
Livvie just gets right to the point and tells him that she thinks
Richardson is a murderer. She lays out the entire story for him and
then shows him her Nancy Drew notebook. Joel is surprised that she
doesn't suspect Kyle or Dana. I guess he's been sure that one of
them is behind all the “accidents”. That's sibling loyalty for
you right there.
The only thing Livvie can't explain is
that an Allen Richardson went to the high school in Iowa. She's convinced that
Richardson is really that Clinton guy and the reality of Richardson
actually attending the school is a monkey wrench. Joel isn't sure
what to make of it either. These kids don't watch enough Discovery
ID. Maybe the guy really IS Clinton and he went to school with this
Richardson guy. Maybe Richardson died young and Clinton took
advantage of that and assumed the Richardson identity after he killed
his wife and stepkid. They really need to think bigger. She needs
to call the school back and ask if Clinton went there.
They return home and Livvie goes up to
her room for awhile to rest. She naps for a bit and then banging
wakes her up. She realizes Richardson has returned and is hard at
work on the OUTSIDE of the roof. As he should be. Joel climbs up
the ladder and passes her window. As he does, Richardson asks him if
he brought the crowbar. Joel says he forgot it. Richardson says not
to worry about it because the shingles are coming off okay without
it. But Joel sees Livvie at the window and asks if she'd be willing
to grab it off the kitchen table and bring it up to the roof.
Oh. HELL. no.
But Livvie agrees. She puts the
crowbar through her belt loop and climbs up to the roof. When she
gets there, she realizes that the guys must be working on the other
side. She doesn't want to crawl to the apex of the roof, so she
tries to just leave the crowbar by the ladder. It gets stuck on her
belt loop, though, and she has no choice but to climb up on the roof
to sit down and try to get it loose. As soon as she does, she loses her balance and
begins to slide. She catches herself on the lip of the gutter and
screams her head off. Richardson comes to her rescue.
Livvie knows he's not really going to
rescue her. He's going to shove her off and claim an accident.
Richardson yells for her to grab his
hand. Livvie can see triumph in his eyes. She starts screaming for
Joel and Joel finally appears over the top of the roof. He tells
Livvie to take Richardson's hand. Livvie knows Richardson can't
possibly kill her now. She thinks his eyes look defeated and like
he's lost out on his chance. She grabs his hand and allows him to
save her just to stick it to him.
Livvie decides she's going to go home.
She can't stand being there anymore. She decides to call Marta first
to tell her not to mail the envelope. Marta's mom answers again.
She tells Livvie that Marta was hit by a car after her dentist
appointment. She's going to be fine, but she's in the hospital.
Livvie is sure that Richardson is the one who hit Marta. He must
have been trying to get the envelope.
Livvie leaves and drives straight to
the hospital. Marta is alert and not hurt very bad. Bruises mostly.
She never saw who hit her. She apologizes to Livvie for not mailing
the envelope. She says she accidentally left it at home. Livvie is
glad to hear that. It means Richardson didn't have a chance to
destroy the contents.
Livvie drops by Marta's house to get
the envelope and then goes home. She sits at the kitchen table and
lays everything out. She reads all the articles about the crime,
searching for some proof that Richardson is really Clinton. Nothing
is specific enough. Finally she gets to a picture of Richardson
standing next to another man. She reads the caption and practically
pees her pants. The other man in the picture is identified as Allen
Richardson who died in Vietnam.
Called that, bitches!
Suddenly Livvie hears footsteps behind
her and the lights go out. An arm goes around her throat and there's
a huge, boring struggle. She gets free enough to see that it's her
stepfather. She calls him Clinton and he kind of nods and asks her
how she figured it out. She tells him about the TV show.
There's a struggle. Livvie gets ahold
of a knife and nicks Richardson's face. They stare each other down.
Then the doorbell rings and Richardson runs out the back door.
Livvie finds Joel at the door. He was
worried when she left so abruptly and decided to see if she was okay.
Livvie brings him inside and shows him all the proof against
Richardson. He tells her that they need to go back and tell the
moms. When they reach the house, it's empty.
The phone rings. It's Richardson. He
tells Livvie that she was lucky and she replies that she knows she
was. He tells her to tell her mom goodbye and warns her that if they
ever meet again, she won't be so lucky.
PLEASE DO NOT TELL ME THIS BOOK HAS A
SEQUEL. PLEASE. IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS DECENT AND HOLY DO NOT
LET THIS BOOK HAVE A SEQUEL.
We get an epilogue. I'm beside myself
with joy. It's short. A new girl, Rebecca, is about to meet her
mom's new boyfriend. Surprise, surprise, it's Richardson.
The End.
Final Thoughts: This book was SO BORING. Nothing really happened for so long. Even the "accidents" felt way too mild and unscary. I don't even care that "unscary" isn't a word. It should be. There was no tension in this book. Nothing that made my heart race. I didn't even fall in love with the broody boy which NEVER happens. For most of the book, I was hoping Livvie was wrong about Richardson because I just hated her so much I wanted to laugh in her face. When she turned out to be right, I was just too bored to care. BORED. Bored. Yeah.
No comments:
Post a Comment