Warning: Spoilers Ahead!!! 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/sign of the Zodiac is.
Trigger Warning: I always hesitate on
these because how do I state what the possible trigger is without the
trigger warning itself being triggering? My faithful reader Wrath
should stop reading right here and go no further. For
everyone else, this book contains an abduction and some very
non-consensual kissing. I will try to recap with sensitivity, but
if you find these subjects uncomfortable, please don't read past this
point.
Tag Line: Best friends - buried alive!
From the Back of the Book: No one can hear their screams.....Nina and Jess...Sworn blood sisters - separated by a psycho. One girl is his prisoner. But one isn't enough, so he lures the other to his lair. Nina and Jess...Gemini twins - in the clutches of a Leo. Now he's got them trapped together, and Leo's roaring mad...
Well, it's come to this. Another Zodiac Chiller. I suppose it
could have been worse. It could have been a vampire book. Still,
the first two of these were pretty awful so I can't say I'm chomping
at the bit to read number three.
This book was published in 1995. Since
I was unaware of this series until I stumbled across it in a used
book store, I've never read this one before. I recapped the first
book (Rage of Aquarius) in August of 2017 and the second
(Scorpio Society) in October of 2017. You can find both of
them on this blog.
We begin with my favorite thing in the
world.....a bad guy prologue.
The bad guy is preparing the cellar for “her” arrival. He plans to keep her there forever and he's
thinking of all the things he needs like candles, blankets and food.
He wants everything to be perfect for her.
I'd start with a bathroom, buddy.
Now we're with our protagonist Jess
and her best friend Nina having cake and sodas in their tree
house. They've both just turned sixteen (on the same day) and they
are discussing their horoscopes (Geminis). Jess says dark clouds are
on the horizon but Nina disagrees. She met a guy named Stephen
the day before she thinks he's perfect. Jess has heard this all
before. Every guy Nina meets is “perfect”. Oh, and they're all
Leos because Nina only falls in love with Leos.
Does she ask them their birthday before
she agrees to a date? Seems unnecessarily complicated to me.
We learn that Nina's last boyfriend
Eric is still a little obsessed with her and won't stop
calling or coming by. We also learn that her parents left the day
before on a two-week trip and she's all alone in the house now.
Technically, she's not our protagonist
but I'm still gonna call it.
Send the parent of the protagonist off
on a trip early in the book? Check.
Eric is aware that she's home alone and
has already made creepy comments about making sure her doors are
locked at night. Lovely.
Odds of Eric being the bad guy: 50%
Stephen is older, having just finished
his freshman year of college, and he has his own place. He's renting
some old house or something.
Odds of Stephen being the bad guy: 50%
I'm giving them even odds although Eric
is super obvious and will probably get adjusted down as we go.
Eric appears uninvited in the treehouse
before Jess can get further details. He says he stopped by because
Nina told him she had a cold earlier and he wanted to check on her. Stalk
much? He pulls a box of cough drops out of his pocket and offers
them to her even though it's pretty clear she doesn't need them.
Nina is harsh with him and asks him to leave. After he's gone, Jess
feels kind of sorry for him. She thinks it's sweet that he brought
Nina cough drops and I would agree with her EXCEPT Nina has asked him
repeatedly to leave her alone. She's made it very clear that they
are broken up and she wants him out of her life. So this sweet
gesture is actually a little stalkerish at this point.
The next day, Jess is working at the
Deli when Eric comes in. She tries to look too busy to talk to him
but the place is empty and she's not that good of an actress. He
wants to talk about Nina because she and Jess are “Sun Sisters”
so he thinks she can help. Jess tells him that Nina is a Gemini and
Geminis are “free agents” so he's just going to have to
get used to the idea that Nina has moved on. He mentions that he'll
be at the Palace that night and Jess groans. She and Nina are
supposed to be meeting Stephen there later.
The Palace is apparently some kind of
dance club that teenagers can get into to. Nina and Jess are there
later but there's no sign of either boy. Nina waits for awhile and
then goes off to dance with some guy with a ponytail. Jess is left to keep watch for Eric. Which
makes her a little resentful because she wants to dance too. Finally
Nina comes back to the table with Stephen and then promptly leaves
him and Jess alone. Jess finds him very hard to talk to. She tries
to ask about college and where he's from and gets short non-answers.
He seems uneasy, scanning the room for Nina and Jess worries that
he's another Leo who will try to cage her flighty friend.
Um....Jess? He's probably wondering
where the hell Nina went. She just left with no explanation and
dumped him off with a total stranger. I'd be looking for her too.
They have an odd exchange about Jess
and Nina being “Sun Sisters”. I'm so sick of that term
already. Stephen mentions that Nina said Jess can read her mind and Jess
says that isn't entirely accurate. She can “feel” Nina
but not read her mind. I'm sure that won't be important or anything.
Nina returns and she and Stephen go to
dance leaving poor Jess as the Eric-lookout again. She finally decides
to fuck it and dance but just then she sees Eric. He's scanning the
room with “hungry eyes” for Nina. Jess decides she'd
better go talk to him until his “hungry eyes” stop being hungry.
What the fuck does that even mean?
You're killing me, Ellis.
Jess approaches and asks Eric to dance,
thinking that will keep him from seeing Nina. I don't know how. It
would have been better to take him away from the dance floor.
Whatevs. Sure enough, as soon as they're out there, he spots Nina
and Stephen and heads that way. Jess follows.
Eric asks Nina to dance and she says
no. He asks again and she says no. He asks a third time and Stephen
gets pissed. At this point there's a lot of chest-puffing and peeing
in circles. Nina gets irritated and peaces out. Things go downhill
from there and Stephen ends up throwing a punch. Erick goes down,
taking Jess with him and she tells us that she hits her head hard on
the floor and everything goes black.
She comes too with a bloody Eric asking
her if she's okay. She tells him she's fine. You know, hitting your
head and going unconscious is no big deal. WALK IT OFF!!!!!!!!!! He
helps her up and then goes back to square off with Stephen again.
Before they can throw any more punches, a couple of bouncers arrive to
escort them out. Nina reappears and screams that she wants both of
them out of her life.
Odds of Stephen being the bad guy: 75%
Odds of Eric being the bad guy: 25%
(Hey, he was really concerned about Jess and it wasn't even his fault
she got hurt. That's not exactly the hallmark of a psychopath.)
After the boys leave, Nina tells Jess
that she thinks Ponytail might be
“the one”. I hope Jess rolled her eyes as hard as I just did.
Jess has a headache from that
concussion she just suffered (WALK IT OFF!!!!!!!!) and wants to go
home. Nina offers to leave with her but it's clear she doesn't want
to, so Jess declines the offer. Outside, Stephen is lurking. He
apologizes to Jess and says he's not usually like that (that's what
they all say). He asks if Nina will forgive him and Jess says that
Geminis need lots of space and freedom and he should give her a few
days to calm down. He doesn't like that answer. He's already
decided he can't live without her.
Stephen offers Jess a ride home but she
wisely refuses since all she knows about him is that he's a little
obsessive and has a bad temper. She walks home, her thoughts full
of Nina and her poor choices. When she gets near her house she
realizes that someone is following her. She works herself into a
right good panic before realizing it's Eric. Eric assumed Nina would
be staying the night with Jess since her parents are out of town.
Which is #bullshit because earlier Ellis told us that he was warning
Nina to lock her doors at night so he clearly knew she was NOT
staying with Jess. Whatevs.
We hop into the bad guy's head for a
few paragraphs. He's been waiting for Nina. He's furious that she's
been with that asshole with a ponytail for the whole evening. He
wants to kill Ponytail but decides that won't really accomplish
anything. Instead he follows Nina home and watches through the
window as she undresses and brushes her hair.
GET SOME CURTAINS!!!! Sheesh.
Bad guy wants to take her now but
decides it's too early and he has to wait until the timing is
perfect.
Now we're back in Jess's head. She's
disoriented and standing outside but she's not outside her own house.
She can't figure out how she got there.
Really?
I'm going to get my hopes up here and
have them dashed, right?
Odds of Jess being the bad guy:
(?????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) 40%
Jess begins the walk home and then
realizes she's being followed. She begins to run. Suddenly Stephen
and Eric and Ponytail are coming toward her and she's relieved. Then
they turn into lions. Then she wakes up.
Fuck you, Ellis.
Odds of Jess being the bad guy: 0%
I feel crushed.
I knew that was too good to be true.
The next day, Nina calls Jess after
work. She was just at the movie theater and Ponytail stood her up so she wants Jess to go catch the next showing with her.
Jess isn't thrilled to be Plan B but she doesn't want to hang out
home alone so she agrees to meet Nina down there in a couple of hours
in time for the next movie.
That foreshadowing we stepped in
earlier starts to reek at this point. Jess goes to take a shower and
when she gets out, she begins to have an “episode”. She feels as
though she's grabbed from behind and strangled but there's no one
there. The feeling lasts several minutes as Jess basically fights
for her life against an invisible attacker. She almost blacks out
several times but then it ends and it's over and everything is fine.
She wonders if she fell asleep or maybe it's a concussion symptom but
she doesn't seem very concerned about it as she continues getting
ready.
Jess apparently doesn't smell that
foreshadowing. Seriously, Ellis? After all the hoopla about how
Jess can “feel” Nina, she never once wonders if someone
has just grabbed and strangled Nina? #bullshit
Jess waits in the theater lobby until
showtime but Nina doesn't show. She STILL doesn't make the
connection between her earlier episode and Nina's absence which
either means Ellis thinks Jess is an idiot or she thinks we are.
Jess decides that Nina has gone off with Ponytail and she decides to
see the movie without her.
A few minutes into the horror flick,
someone grabs Jess's shoulders. It turns out to be Eric who just has
no sense at all. Jess assumes he's there stalking Nina but Eric says
he's given it some thought and decided to move on. He didn't realize
Jess was even in the theater until he came in. She accepts this and
lets him sit beside her. As the show goes on she considers what it
would be like to date Eric. She thinks he's cute and it might be
fun. Nina will be pissed but she doesn't care right now. Nina
always throws her over for the boy-of-the-week so Jess doesn't feel
like she owes Nina anything.
I don't know, Jess. Dating your best
friend's ex really violates Girl Code.
We hop into Nina's head. She wakes up
and hears a radio DJ say it's 3am. That was convenient for us. The last thing she remembers is
going outside after talking to Jess. She's disoriented for a bit and
then realizes that she's tied up, blindfolded and gagged. She thinks
she's laying on a cot and the room smells damp and musty. She
struggles against her restraints, trying to loosen them but is
unsuccessful. Suddenly she hears a click and feels a rush of fresh
air. She's no longer alone in the room.
I know I threw out a trigger warning at
the beginning of this but I feel like I need another one here.
Things start to get non-consensual here.
The person sits on the cot beside Nina
and tries to reassure her. He's speaking in a whisper and she
doesn't recognize his voice. She wonders if it's Eric or Stephen or
Ponytail. She gives them equal odds. I think she's wrong.
Odds of Stephen being the bad guy: 70%
Odds of Eric being the bad guy: 25%
Odds of Ponytail being the bad guy: 5%
Bad guy begins stroking Nina's hair.
She tries to get away from him but can't because her ankles are bound
together. He pulls her back into place and begins kissing her face
and down her neck as she cries. Nina tries to reach out to her “Sun
Sister” with her mind.
We're back with Jess. It's the day
after the abduction but she still thinks Nina is with Ponytail.
She's late for work because she slept through her alarm. There's a
few pages of her worrying about Nina and checking her horoscope.
It's pretty useless.
We're back with Nina. The bad guy has
removed the gag and the first thing Nina does is call him crazy.
Odds that calling your abductor crazy
will improve the situation: -5000000%
He doesn't appreciate her assessment of
his mental health. He grabs her off the cot and shakes her around a
bit telling her that no one will hear her screams. Eventually he
realizes that she's hysterical because she's afraid and she doesn't
really think he's crazy and he calms down. She begs him to
let her go and he just tells her that he loves her over and over.
Nina digs her fingers into the bad guy's leg and refuses to let go. Which is a pretty nifty feat considering Ellis told us her hands were bound behind her back. Keep track of your story, Ellis.
Back with Jess. She's running a ham
through the meat slicer and all of a sudden terror washes over her.
She involuntarily digs her fingers into the ham and she can't let go
even when she realizes that her hand is getting way too close to the
blade. It's like she's possessed. The spell ends when she slices
into her finger and bleeds all over the food.
Back with Nina. Her captor has rebound
her hands in front of her. He offers to go to her house and bring
back some of her things so she'll feel more at home. As soon as he
leaves, she tugs off the blindfold. Looking around, she realizes
she's in a storm cellar. It's been stocked with food and supplies.
She tries to undo the ties at her ankles but the knots are too
complicated and she can't move her fingers enough. She grabs a can
off the shelf and hobbles up to the door to bang against it and yell
for help. No one hears her.
Nina throws the can at the door in
frustration and it bounces off and hits her in the face. She loses
her balance and tumbles down the stairs, hitting her head hard
against the concrete floor. WALK IT OFF!!!!!!! Just before she
loses consciousness, she senses her “Sun Sister” nearby
and screams for Jess with her mind.
This book is so stupid that there
aren't words strong enough to actually describe the stupidity.
Back with Jess. She's driving home
when she begins to hear Nina screaming for her in her mind. She
nearly wrecks the car.....somehow....Ellis describes something that
defies science and has Jess's car up on two wheels. Like that
happens in real life. Jess shakes off the improbable situation and
decides that Nina must be lying in her house sick or injured. She
drives there immediately.
When she gets to the house she realizes
that the front door is ajar. She can hear someone upstairs and she
goes to check it out. It's Stephen. He's rifling through Nina's
drawers. He tells her that he and Nina got back together and she's
going to move in with him for awhile. He's just there packing some
of her stuff. Jess seems to buy this explanation and she begins to
help him pack.
Protagonist who serious needs to watch
Discovery ID? Check.
She tells Stephen that she's going to
go back to his place with him and talk to Nina because she's worried
about her. Stephen hits her over the head with something heavy and
she blacks out.
WALK IT OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jess is tied and gagged with Nina's
robe belt, wrapped in a comforter and tossed into the back floorboard
of Stephen's car. He drives her to the house and throws her down the
basement stairs. Jess tumbles down, landing on Nina's body at the
bottom. At first she thinks Nina is dead but then she realizes her
friend is just unconscious. She manages to rouse Nina and the two of
them help each other off the floor.
The door opens overhead and Stephen
comes down. At first, Nina is thrilled to see him because she thinks
he's there to save them. Then she realizes that he's the one who
abducted her and she starts screaming at him that he's a sicko freak.
Protagonist (ish) displays a shocking
lack of survival skills? Check.
Stephen is furious. He leaves in a
fury telling them that if they try to escape he'll make them wish
they were dead.
Charming.
A few minutes later he's back. He
tosses the bag he packed for Nina on the floor. A can of hairspray
rolls under the cot. That might as well have a big neon sign
pointing to it.
PLOT POINT
HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Stephen has a typed letter addressed to
Jess's mom. The letter says that Jess and Nina have gone off on a
big adventure together and not to worry. He makes Jess sign it and
she tries to come up with a way to clue her mother in that there's
something wrong without tipping Stephen off. In the end she writes
her letters slanting backwards and hopes her mom figures out the
clue.
Huh? Why didn't she just sign her name
“Jessamyn” or something? Stephen wouldn't know it wasn't her
real name but her mom would. Slanting backwards was the best she
could do? Sheesh.
Satisfied, Stephen tells the girls he
has a surprise for them. Carefully he ties their wrists in front of
them with clothesline. Excuse me? They were already tied up this way. Keep
track of your story, Ellis! Then he gags them both and walks them up
the cellar stairs and into the house. He has popcorn and sodas
sitting on the couch and he's selected a movie for them to watch on
the VCR.
He's pretty focused on Nina and doesn't
notice when Jess manages to palm a lighter he used to light the
candles earlier. Suddenly the doorbell rings and Stephen jumps up,
putting a knife to Jess's throat and telling them that he'll kill
Jess if they make a sound.
We hop into Eric's head. Y'all.
Seriously. You know how I feel about these random hops into a
previously unvisited head. It makes me ragey. Lazy, Ellis. Very,
very lazy.
Eric is at Stephen's house looking for
Nina but not for the expected reason. He's actually trying to find
Jess and he figures that Nina will know where she is. Apparently he
can't stop thinking about Jess and he has a burning need to find her.
Stephen doesn't answer right away and Eric is about to leave when he
hears the door open behind him. He asks Stephen if Jess is there and
Stephen says no. He asks to talk to Nina and Stephen says she isn't
there either. He's watching a movie with some college buddies and he
wants Eric to leave.
We briefly land in the Jess's head.
She and Nina are locked in a closet. They're screaming and banging
on the door.
Back in Eric's head. He hears the
sounds but Stephen tells him it's just the movie. Eric leaves.
Back with Jess. Stephen opens the
closet door and tells them that they're going to be punished for
their behavior. He holds Jess an knifepoint again and directs both
girls back down to the cellar. He tells them that they've lost house
privileges until they learn to behave and he leaves them again.
Back in Eric's head. It's the next day
and he's at work mowing lawns. It's hot and he's already tired. He
really wants to find Jess and he can't figure out why she isn't
answering her phone. He decides to take a break before mowing the
next lawn and he goes to Nina's house. Nina's house seems empty so
he decides to check out the treehouse. He's just climbing up when a
police officer rushes toward him with his gun drawn.
The police have been called by Jess's
mother who didn't buy the typewritten note. She said that Jess would
never leave without telling her. They question Eric for a bit and he
gets the feeling that he's a suspect in something but he doesn't
understand what. He tells them that he doesn't know anything and
he's been looking for them too. They finally let him go.
We jump back to Jess. She and Nina are
just waking up after screaming and pounding on the cellar door all
night. Nina worries that Stephen is never coming back but Jess is
sure he will. They hear the door opening and someone coming down the
stairs. It's not Stephen, though. It's Eric. He asks them if
there's a “kidnapping situation” and it's the most bizarre
reaction to two girls locked and tied up in a basement that I've ever
heard. They ask him how he got in and he tells them that he jimmied
the lock.
How did he even know to look in the cellar? Ellis never bothers to tell us.
Before they can escape, Stephen comes
back. Eric hides in the shadows as Stephen comes down. He's seen
the lock and he knows something is going on. Eric springs from
behind the stairs and takes Stephen down. They struggle. Nina and
Jess try to get to the stairs but the fighting boys are in the way.
Jess finally picks up a can and starts beating Stephen over the head
with it. Eric follows with a knockout punch and then he holds
Stephen down while Nina and Jess tie him up.
This feels way too easy. And too
early. There's 30 pages left. I don't like this, y'all.
Odds of Stephen being the ONLY bad guy
in this book: 20%
As they're tying up Stephen, Eric asks
what “the game” was. Jess explains that Stephen was obsessed
with Nina and kidnapped her to keep her forever. Eric asks how Jess
got involved and she explains that she was brought there as one of
Nina's “favorite things”. Eric comments that he feels kind of
sorry for Stephen. After all, he knows what it's like to not be able
to get over Nina and now Jess is under his skin as well. Then he
says that Stephen has the right idea. Locking them up so he could
have them all to himself was the right thing to do – Stephen was
just the wrong man for the job.
Eric runs up the stairs and locks the
cellar door behind him.
What are the odds? I mean, really?
What are the odds that two teenage boys would like the idea of
keeping two teenage girls captive in a cellar? They can't be too
high. I'm really having a hard time swallowing this, Ellis.
Stephen regains consciousness. He
tells the girls that he'll let them go if they untie him.
Fortunately they're not that dumb. Nina stuffs a gag in his mouth so
they don't have to listen to him. Jess remembers the lighter in her
pocket and the hairspray under the cot. She communicates her plan to
Nina and they wait for Eric to return. When he does, Jess lights the
lighter and Nina shoots hairspray across it to create a fireball. It
distracts Eric temporarily. Jess hits him over the head and he goes
down.
They race up the stairs of the cellar
but Eric catches Nina's legs and drags her back down. Jess runs into
the house to find a phone. On her way she notes the sky looks green
and there's ominous clouds on the horizon. A tornado is coming because of course it is. She
gets inside and finds a phone. She calls the police but barely gets
two words out before the phone goes dead and the power goes out.
Eric appears in the house and they have a tense chase scene
throughout. She finally ends up in the kitchen where she grabs a
heavy frying pan and knocks the hell right out of his skull with it.
Jess makes a break for the cellar but
is surprised to find it empty. There's a knife on the floor and she
grabs it before heading back outside. Stephen rushes her. He tells
her he's already taken care of Nina and now it's her turn. He begins
to strangle her. She manages to get away and there's another chase
scene. The tornado sirens begin to wail. Stephen picks up a pair of
sharp garden shears and tells Jess to get into the cellar. She
refuses to move. He lunches for her but she ducks out of the way.
He falls through the door to the cellar and tumbles down the stairs.
Jess looks down after him and sees that he's impaled himself on the
shears.
One down, one to go.
Over the noise of the approaching
tornado, she hears Nina screaming her name. #bullshit She finds
Nina in the trunk of Stephen's car and rescues her. The tornado is
bearing down on them and they begin to crawl toward the cellar.
Before they can get there, the door to the house opens and Bad Guy #2
makes another appearance.
This is exhausting, Ellis.
The three of them rush to the cellar at
once. Jess and Nina get in and hold the door closed so Eric cannot get in.
He screams at them to let him in. Jess feels the latch loosen and
worries that it will come off and they'll be killed.
Suddenly the sound of a freight train
rends the air and Jess knows the tornado is touching down. Eric
screams and then there's no longer a tug-of-war going on over the
door. Jess can hear glass breaking and the sound of a tree coming
down. The fury lasts several moments and then all is quiet.
Cautiously they come out of the cellar to find Eric dead under a
tree.
Jess looks at Nina and tells her to
stay away from Leos from now on and the book ends.
Holy hell that was a circus at the end.
I guess I can't fault Ellis for having nothing happen because that
was like six books in one at the end.
I wonder whatever happened to Ponytail?
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