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/ruling planet is.
Tag Line: She's becoming one of them...From the Back of the Book: For Elizabeth, it's a dream come true.... Her new school looks just like a medieval castle. Her new friends are cool and beautiful...They're Scorpios - just like her. The Scorpio Society meets at midnight. Lanterns glow at secret ceremonies. The members wear long black robes. Their leader makes the future happen. And the future may hold....Elizabeth's death!
I feel like that blurb is super lame. Here's a little secret you might not know about me and these books. I never read the back before I read the book. I only read it when I type it in here after the book is done. If I had come across this at a bookstore and read that blurb, I NEVER would have bought the book. It just sounds stupid. And, in hindsight, it's very prophetic about the intelligence level of the contents within.
Hold onto your seats, y'all, it's time for another Zodiac Chiller. This one was written in 1995 and this is my first time reading it. I kind of like the cover. It's not as delightfully cheesy as some, but it sets a mood. I'm hoping this book won't be as clunky with the zodiac references as the last one. (Note from future me: this book went full-on lame rather than clunky. I miss clunky.)
We begin with a prologue. I have a
love-hate relationship with prologues. I tend to like the ones that
give us a little bit of the backstory. I tend to hate the ones that
give us a snippet of something that hasn't even happened yet (the
spoiler-prologue if you will). This is a backstory prologue at least.
Amy is running through the woods. She's being pursued and
she's terrified. She wishes she'd listened to her friends and then
none of this would be happening. She bursts out of the trees and
sees a van parked in the road. The engine is running, the lights are
on and all the doors are open as if the passengers bailed out of it
in a hurry. She jumps in and locks all the doors. She can hear her
pursuers getting closer and closer.
From inside a closed van? Wow, this girl has ears like a bat.
Amy begins driving down the steep hill.
She's having trouble right from the beginning but I don't know
whether something is wrong with the van or she's just not a very good
driver. The van picks up speed as it heads down the hill. A curve
is coming up and Amy tries to slow down but she doesn't reduce her
speed fast enough. The van crashes through a guardrail and over a
cliff.
Chapter One begins one year after the
prologue. Elizabeth, our
protagonist, is in the school van headed for Harrington Hall
where she will be beginning school. They don't come right out and
say it, but I'm guessing it's a boarding school.
Protagonist separated from her parents? Check.
Harrington is out in the
middle of nowhere surrounded by trees and Elizabeth get more nervous and
homesick the further they go. The person sharing her seat is a returning student
named Heather. She asks Elizabeth what her sign is so she can
check Elizabeth's horoscope. Because that's a completely normal way to strike up a conversation. When Elizabeth says she's a Scorpio,
Heather gives her a long, strange look before consulting her
magazine.
“Dark clouds on the horizon bring
change and turmoil into your life.”
Not super reassuring.
The school looks like a medieval castle
surrounded by a stone wall. Elizabeth is suitably impressed.
Heather tells her that her room will be in the tower with all the
other juniors. Elizabeth is surprised that the seniors don't live in
the tower, but Heather gives her a mysterious smile and says they
don't anymore.
Ellis is trying super hard to be creepy here in case you couldn't tell.
The headmistress Mrs Lennox
comes out to meet the bus as the students disembark. Heather says
they call Mrs L “The Witch” and she certainly looks the part all dressed in black. After a short speech, the new students
head inside to get their room assignments. Heather introduces her to
Ashley who is handing them out. Ashley tells
Elizabeth that she was assigned to the second floor but they changed
it so she'd be on the third floor with them. Elizabeth thanks them
and heads off to find her room.
The rooms are pretty standard as far as
dorm rooms go: beds, desks, places for clothes. There are suitcases
on one of the beds so Elizabeth knows her roommate has arrived. She
settles onto her bed for a bit of a pity party and then realizes
something is carved into her headboard. It's a scorpion.
At first Elizabeth thinks the scorpion
looks evil and she's majorly creeped out. Then she decides it's
destiny and the bed was meant for her all along. At the end of the
tail of the carving are the initials “AW” and Elizabeth wonders
who she was and where she is now.
My guess? Six feet under.
Elizabeth's roommate arrives with yet
more luggage. Her name is Marla and she has buzzed red hair
and light gray eyes. She seems friendly and exuberant. Elizabeth
likes her right away. They talk a bit about the castle and
headmistress and how tough the schoolwork is. Marla is a junior too
but this is her second year at Harrington. After they chat a bit,
Marla invites Elizabeth to come up to the top floor of the tower with
her. Marla says there's someone there that Elizabeth should meet.
There's only one door on the fourth
floor and it isn't labeled in any way. Marla performs some sort of
secret knock and Ashley opens the door. They go inside where Heather
and a couple of other girls are also hanging out. The room is
opulent with a thick red carpet, red velvet drapes and a huge bed
covered in a gold bedspread. Dozens of black and gold candles are
burning and the air is thick with the smell of incense.
I'd already be nope-ing the hell out of
that place.
There's a girl at the window with long,
ebony hair and dark eyes. She's wearing a long, princess-y dress of
royal blue and has a regal air about her. Marla introduces Elizabeth
to her as if she's presenting someone at Court in front of the Queen.
The “Queen's” name is Rachel and she turns to introduce Sally
who came up with Heather. Sally looks terrified which tells me she's
the smart one in this book and even Elizabeth feels a little uneasy
in Rachel's presence but she isn't sure why.
Maybe because she's fucking creepy?
Could that be the reason, Elizabeth???
So.....what are we dealing with here?
Coven of witches? Vampires? Wannabes?
Odds of it being a coven of witches:
75%
Odds of it being a fucking vampire
book: 20%
Odds of them just being wannabes
dicking with the new girls: 5%
They hang out for a bit and Elizabeth
starts to relax as they do normal things like pig out on chips and soda. They talk about the school and Elizabeth admits that
she's very intimidated by the place. Sally thinks she's crazy. The
castle is cool and the girls are cool and she just wishes there were
boys to trip over. I take it back about Sally being the smart one in
the book. That didn't last long.
The next chapter begins with a letter
Elizabeth is writing home to her best friend Laura. Three
days have passed and Elizabeth is still feeling creeped out by the
place. She feels like she's imprisoned 100 years in the past. They
aren't even allowed to leave school grounds for the first month. She
describes Rachel to Laura and talks about how nice and helpful she
is. She's just finishing up the letter when Marla says she's tired
and wants to go to sleep. That was always the hardest part of sharing
a dorm room with another person – varying sleep cycles and one
person wanting the light or TV on when the other person wanted them
off.
Elizabeth isn't tired but she
eventually falls asleep. She has a weird dream about being chased
through the castle by the headmistress and a crow. When she wakes
up, she realizes someone is standing in the middle of the room in a
long, black hooded cloak. At first she is terrified. She wants to
warn Marla that there's an intruder in the room but she doesn't want
the intruder to know she's awake. Finally the figure turns to go out
the door. The hood slips back as the door is closing and Elizabeth
realizes it's Marla.
The next morning Elizabeth asks Marla
about it and Marla insists that she was dreaming. She gets a little
annoyed when Elizabeth presses her on it, so Elizabeth backs off.
She doesn't want to risk alienating one of the “cool kids” in the
school and tanking her precious social standing.
Suddenly we skip ahead to PE class.
The girls are doing soccer drills on the field when they are suddenly
joined by the boys' PE class. The girls are super excited to be
facing off one-on-one with the boys. When it's Elizabeth's turn,
she's paired with a super gorgeous guy with a nice smile. He tells
her that her shoe is untied but she thinks he's just trying to mess
with her mind and get her eye off the ball. By the time she realizes
he was telling the truth, it's too late and the ball is in play.
Still, she manages to get past him and score a goal. He smiles at
her again and introduces himself as Simon.
They chat a bit and he asks for her
number. As they're talking, Elizabeth keeps feeling like they're
being watched but she can't see anyone around. She decides it's the
crows making her feel uneasy and she dismisses it. As Simon leaves,
Elizabeth realizes that she's really hoping he'll call soon because
he gives her the butterflies.
Elizabeth waits for days for Simon to
call. She jumps up every time the phone rings in the hall but it's never him.
Finally one evening, Ashley drops by with a note she found on the
mail table. It has Elizabeth's name on it. The notes says:
“Elizabeth, I'll be at the stables at 8:30 tonight. Meet me
there if you can. It's important.” It's signed with Simon's
initials. Yeah. Seems legit.
Odds of Simon really being the one who
sent the message: 7%
Elizabeth is too puzzled at why he
didn't just call to be excited about the invitation. Marla says it's
more romantic this way. Students aren't supposed to leave the dorms
in the evening without a pass and Marla says there's no way Elizabeth
will get a pass to go out and meet a boy in the stables. Elizabeth
decides to sneak out and take her chances.
The night is misty and damp and the
ground is muddy. Elizabeth is soaked and miserable by the time she
gets there. The stables are dark and empty but she tells herself
that Simon is just running late and he'll be there soon. She waits
until 9:00 but he never shows. Dejected, she makes her way back to
the dorm. She manages to get inside, but before she can reach her
room, she hears Mrs L making her way through the hallway. She's
panicked about being caught, but Heather shows up to save the day.
Heather whisks Elizabeth into a secret
passageway behind a tapestry. It leads down into the basement or dungeon or something.
There's a party going on. Marla, Ashley, Sally and Rachel are
already there along with some boys. One of them is Simon. Elizabeth
goes to confront him about the stable nonsense and he has no idea
what she's talking about. She realizes then that the girls set her
up but she forgives them instantly because they brought Simon to the
party for her.
Simon and Elizabeth dance and kiss the
night away. At some point in the evening, Rachel moves to the center
of the room and announces that the party is over and the boys have to
leave. It seem abrupt to Elizabeth but she and Sally are told to
walk the boys out into the adjoining room to say goodbye. When the
girls come back, the dungeon is dark and someone in a cloak is
standing in the middle of it. Elizabeth assumes it's Marla but it
turns out to be Rachel who tells them that the party is over but the
fun is just beginning. Suddenly, Elizabeth finds herself
blindfolded.
Heather takes her hand and leads her
along. Elizabeth can hear Sally complaining about the blindfold so
she knows she's not alone in this weirdness. They are led up some
stairs and outside. Elizabeth deduces somehow that they are being
led into the woods. When they stop, Elizabeth can feel heat on her
face and she smells fire.
They are instructed to remove their
blindfolds.........you know........I'm just thinking here......they
were in no way tied up or held at gunpoint or anything. Would you
just let someone blindfold you and lead you around with no
explanation because I sure as hell wouldn't. Seriously. I would
have told those girls to get the fuck away from me and requested a
new roommate from the school. I can't believe both of them just went
along with this. Morons.
Anyway...they are instructed to remove
their blindfolds and Elizabeth sees that they're standing in front of
a small fire. Heather, Ashley and Marla are arranged
behind the fire and Rachel is standing on a rock behind them.
They're all wearing the cloaks. Rachel announces that they're the
“chosen ones” and I can't believe these two fools ARE
STILL STANDING THERE. Don't they know this is how sacrifices start?
Are they virgins? Is there a goat around? What will it take for
them to nope the hell out of a place if this doesn't do it? I would so be vapor at this point.
Rachel tells them that they have been
chosen by destiny to join the Scorpio Society if they prove
themselves worthy.
Odds of me saying “no thank you” at
this point: 1000000000000%
Rachel tells them that scorpios are
passionate, loyal and fearless. They both passed the first test by
being willing to break the school rules. Elizabeth realizes that going out to the stables without a pass was her test and she's
pleased she passed it. Rachel warns them that there will be other
tests and that in no way sounds REALLY FUCKING OMINOUS or anything. Elizabeth
assumes she'll have to do Marla's homework or something and she isn't
concerned.
Moron.
Rachel raises her face to the sky and
cries: “Saturn, the dark planet, is descending. Jupiter is
rising. Fire and air – they are on a collision course.”
Then she tells them that they are on a collision course with each other as well. At the
end of initiation, only one of them will be inducted into the Scorpio
Society. Over the next few days, they will be given orders from one
of the members and they must carry out the orders without question.
They must also pledge an oath of secrecy and promise never to betray
the Society.
Elizabeth sucks at secrecy apparently
because the very next day Ashley catches her writing Laura about the
Society and Simon and the party in the dungeon. Ashley is super
pissed but Elizabeth says she didn't think Laura counted since she
lives all the way in Ohio.
Again. Moron.
Ashley and Marla make her tear up the
letter and give her a very stern warning never to do anything like
that again. Then Ashley tells her that she's been summoned to
Rachel's room to do her first test. As they go in, Heather and Sally
are coming out and Elizabeth can tell by the look on Sally's face
that Sally has already passed her first test.
Which, by the way, is their SECOND
test, Ellis, because you told us that their first test was being
willing to break the school curfew rule. Keep track of your own damn story.
Elizabeth is ushered into the room
where Rachel hands her some kind of silver urn and gives her some
kind of speech about Saturn moving into Jupiter's orbit and power
changing hands. An old regime will be replaced with a new regime.
Elizabeth's task is to sneak into Mrs L's room and replace the urn.
I'm wondering if Sally's test was to steal it out of there.
Elizabeth takes the urn and heads for
Mrs L's room. She can hear something clinking in the bottom of it but she doesn't stop to look. Mrs L is coming out of her room to
make rounds as Elizabeth arrives and she's super excited to see that
this mission will be easier than expected. Once inside the room, she
trips and spills the urn's contents all over the floor. There's a
bracelet and a ring with some kind of ruby eye. There's a watch that
Elizabeth recognizes as Marla's and some other jewelry. Elizabeth
assumes the Society put it all there as some kind of a bribe so Mrs L
will turn a blind eye to their activities.
Why does she assume this?
Because moron.
Before she can leave, Mrs L returns and
catches her. Elizabeth thinks fast on her feet. She tells the
headmistress that she came to see her because she has a problem.
When no one answered her knock, she came inside to wait. She tells a
good story about being depressed and homesick and asks when she'll be
allowed to go into town because she thinks that will lift her
spirits. Mrs L says they are allowed to go into town in 2.5 weeks.
Then she tells Elizabeth that she won't be going on that trip because
she's a bad liar and probably a thief. Elizabeth is grounded to the
dorm and dismissed.
Elizabeth is met by Heather or Ashley
or someone. I forgot to care. She's led down past the dungeon into
a small room where the others girls are waiting. Rachel announces
that both she and Sally passed their test and it's time for the next
one already. There's more inane planet babble here: “Scorpio's
ruling planet is Pluto, named for the Roman God of the Underworld.
We're at home in the dark with the owl and the scorpion. We are not
afraid of it – we thrive on it.”
The girls are given flashlights and
another door is opened. Rachel tells them that it leads into the
catacombs that run like a labyrinth under the castle. The one who
gets through first will reveal themselves as the “true Scorpio
rising” and pass the test.
As soon as they're in the
catacombs, Sally pushes Elizabeth down so she drops her flashlight
and so Sally gets a head start. It takes Elizabeth several moments
to find her flashlight in the darkness. When she does, she realizes
there's a huge brown rat staring at her.
PH AUTHORS ENOUGH WITH THE DAMN RATS.
There's a whole chapter of Elizabeth
running through tunnels and worrying about her flashlight batteries
dying. She slides down a hill and into some gross, slimy water. In
the room, there's a ladder leading up and she recognizes the scorpion
lantern hanging beside it as one they use in ceremonies. She assumes this means she's found
the exit. She's headed up the ladder when Sally grabs her from
behind.
Sally does her best to pull Elizabeth
off the ladder. Elizabeth ends up yanking on Sally's hair until
Sally lets her go. Elizabeth ascends the ladder into a room where
the rest are waiting. Sally is hard on her heels and screams that
Elizabeth only won because she cheated and assaulted Sally. Then
Sally grabs Elizabeth's ears and begins twisting them.
{{{guffaw}}}
Did I read that right?
Yes. Yes, I did. She twists
Elizabeth's ears. Of all the lame........ The two girls end up
catfighting as the others watch. Well, Sally is fighting and
Elizabeth is defending herself. She never actually lashes out at
Sally. Maybe that's important. Scorpios are supposed to be loyal
after all. {{shrug}} Rachel finally tells them to stop and declares
Elizabeth the winner of the test.
Later.....hours, days, weeks, who the
hell knows.......Elizabeth receives a note: “Congratulations,
Elizabeth! You acted like a true Scorpio. Pluto, our ruling planet,
will be in the sky tonight, bringing ecstasy to all scorpions.
You're invited to the tower at nine o'clock to experience it.”
Ecstasy to all scorpions? Really,
Ellis?
Also, raise your hand if you're tired
of hearing about “Pluto the ruling planet”.
Elizabeth hopes the note means she's
going to be inducted.
When she and Marla arrive in Rachel's
room, she's happy to see Simon already there. They dance for awhile
and then Rachel shows them a door in the wall. She tells them it
leads out onto a little observation deck where they can go have some
romantic time. Simon and Elizabeth go. Sally takes some random dude
in a football jacket. The observation area has two levels. High
above the second level sits a gargoyle.
After the party ends and the boys go
home, Rachel announces that it's time for another test. They've been
to the underworld, now it's time to master the sky and soar like the
eagles.
This fucking book, y'all. It's so
cheesy that mice keep coming out of the walls to sniff it.
She produces two chains with scorpion
pendants and tells them that the first person to hang one around the
gargoyle's neck will win the test. Sally grabs her chain and takes
off. When Elizabeth gets back up to the observation area, it's
started to rain and the wind has picked up. She's terrified but she
crawls out onto the ledge toward the gargoyle.
Sally is ahead of her and she stands up
to put the chain around the gargoyle's neck just as the wind gusts. It knocks her
sideways and she loses her balance. Sally is able to grip the ledge but it's slippery and she knows she can't hold on long. Elizabeth tries to save her but doesn't reach her in time and Sally falls down to the
roof of the tower below.
Elizabeth goes back down to see if
Sally's okay but she's stopped by the other girls. They tell her that
they'll handle everything and she's to go to her room and keep her
mouth shut. Elizabeth complies but she's pretty disgusted with them
all.
Later Rachel comes into her room. She
tells Elizabeth that Sally is on her way to the hospital with a
concussion and a broken leg but she'll be fine. Apparently they told
Mrs L that they had no idea why Sally was out on the observation
deck. They heard her scream and found her injured. I guess the
headmistress bought that. {{shrug}}
Rachel announces that Elizabeth flew
higher than Sally so she's the new member of the Society. Elizabeth
tells her thanks but no thanks. Marla is scandalized and Rachel is
furious. NO ONE refuses a membership. Elizabeth thinks they're all
awful people and she just wants out of the whole thing. Rachel
coldly tells her that there's no choice in the matter. She took the
oath and she's one of them now whether she likes it or not. After a
dire warning not to betray them or she'll feel their sting, they
leave.
Their sting.
So lame.
So very lame, Ellis. I'm almost
embarrassed for you at this point.
That night Elizabeth has a horrible
nightmare about the Society killing her. When she wakes up, she
knows she has to get help. She calls Simon and asks him to meet her
that afternoon in the stables. He's worried and agrees to come.
Elizabeth tells Simon everything. He
wants to go to Mrs L right away but Elizabeth thinks that Mrs L won't
believe her because she got in trouble with the urn thing.
Protagonist insisting that a person in authority will refuse to help? Check.
Simon
tells her the year before a girl named Amy drove off a cliff
after stealing the school van. The rumor mill said that she was
trying to get into some kind of secret club at the time and he
suspects that it might have been the Society.
Simon still wants to go to the
headmistress but Elizabeth is a PH heroine and she knows the
procedure. She's going to wait until she has some kind of proof
against the Society. They kiss and part ways. As she walks home,
Elizabeth wonders if Amy was really trying to get INTO the Society or
if she was trying to get OUT of it.
When Elizabeth gets back to her room,
she finds a headless mouse hanging from her headboard. Lovely. She
decides to call Simon but has to go down a floor because Ashley is on
the 3rd floor phone. As she's waiting for the 2nd
floor phone, she sees a notice about a missing ring on the bulletin
board. The description of the ring matches the ring she saw in the
urn. She wonders if Sally stole all the jewelry as a test and
wonders why the Society had her put it in Mrs L's room.
Odds of the Society setting Mrs L up to
look like a thief so she'll be fired: 98%.
Elizabeth must be reading my blog
because she comes to the same conclusion. She decides she has to
warn Mrs L before her life is ruined. She runs up to tell the
headmistress about the Society and the stolen jewelry. Naturally
when she goes to the urn to prove it, the jewelry is gone.
Mrs L calls her a liar and tells her
that she's confined to her room except for classes.
On the way back to her room, she's
grabbed by Heather, gagged and taken to the dungeon. Rachel accuses
her of betraying the group and says she must be punished. Then
everyone starts chanting “Face the punishment. Feel the sting.”
over and over.
Oh, Ellis.
They bind her hands, gag her again
and drag her outside through the secret tunnels. She's
led through the forest until she comes to a clearing where a bunch of
guys are waiting. She recognizes them as they guys from the parties.
Including Simon. She feels hurt and betrayed. Rachel says the guys
are there to give her a swimming lesson. Two of them grab her and
throw her into an icy pond.
Simon runs to the side and encourages
Elizabeth to swim to him. She isn't sure she can trust him but she doesn't have much choice. She dives under the surface of the water
and heads his way. When she resurfaces, Simon is gone and Marla is
there to push her under the water again. For awhile Ellis has
Elizabeth swimming from bank to bank where plenty of people are
waiting to push her back under. Elizabeth realizes she'll never get
out alive.
Finally, Elizabeth surfaces to find
Rachel in front of her. Rachel moves to push her back under but
Elizabeth is filled with rage and she grabs Rachel's ankles and pulls
her into the water. Then Elizabeth is out and running.
Ellis lazily repeats the prologue here
just changing all the "Amys" to "Elizabeths". They chase Elizabeth
through the woods. But Elizabeth is smarter than Amy and she
realizes panic will only get her caught. She slows down and begins to
move quietly so as not to give away her location. It's excruciating
for her as a character and for me as a reader. For a long time, she hears nothing
behind her but she's sure that they're still pursuing her.
A twig snaps behind her. She grabs a
branch and swings it at the person's head. It turns out to be Simon
and he blocks the blow. Simon tells her he isn't one of them. He's
been worried about her and when he heard a bunch of guys who had been
former guests of the dungeon parties saying they were going to a
party in the woods, he followed them. He tried to help her out of
the pond but Rachel had the guys restrain him. He ran for help but
then was so worried about her that he abandoned that sensible idea
and doubled back to find her.
She believes him and they stop to hug
and kiss for a bit because people are idiots and always stop to kiss
when they should be getting the fuck out of there. Simon again says
they have to go to the headmistress and this time she agrees. They
begin to head back to the school.
As they are leaving the woods, they
hear a strange noise. It's the school van and it's headed right for
them with Rachel behind the wheel. Marla, Ashley and Heather
approach from the other side, making sure Simon and Elizabeth stay in
the path of the van. At the last minute, the two of them jump away
and Rachel drives the van through the guardrail and over the cliff.
Simon tells her that it's over. She's
safe now and everything will be fine. They kiss and she makes some
corny comment about him being the knight in her castle. Then the
other three come up behind them. They tell Simon to turn her over
because he knows the rules. Elizabeth is stunned when he pushes her
toward them.
The girls tell her that she's the
leader of the Society now. Since she killed Rachel, she's the ruler
until someone kills her I guess. And the book ends with them
swearing allegiance to her as their ruler.
What. The. Hell. Did. I. Just.
Read?
So was Simon a member of the Society as well? It seems like it but we're never really told. We're also never really told what the Society IS or what it does. And we're never told if the crows are magical and really spying on her or what. Thank you, Ellis, for telling us NOTHING. I love it when I read a book and don't know what the hell is going on the whole time.
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