REPORT CARD
bff charm: yay!
swoonworthy scale: 4
talky talk: right on
bonus factor: chucky
relationship status: crush
the deal:
out photographing her spooky-but-cool victorian house in the middle of the night, lexi notices a strange light hovering outside her sister’s window. then kasey starts acting more strangely than usual (she’s already obsessed with dolls, so she’s def. a little weird to begin with) — she breaks her best friend’s arm, she becomes obsessed with the genealogy of the town’s oldest families and (weirdest of all) her blue eyes turn green. of course, the ‘rents are too busy being career mom and loser dad to notice anything, and it’s up to loner lexi to overcome her outsider tendencies and save her sister — and a bunch of other people’s lives, too (including the popular cheerleaders, natch).
bff charm: yay!
lexi’s pretty cool — she’s a photographer (she has a darkroom in her house!!), she’s smart and sassy. she revels in her outsider status and always has a cause worth fighting for, which usually gets her in big trouble at school. reminds me of julia stiles in 10 things i hate about you. she’s also willing to admit she’s wrong about some people, like cool cheerleader megan who ends up helping her defeat the ghost possessing kasey.
swoonworthy scale: 4
carter blume’s the typical popular guy with a deep soul — the new kid with secrets who reinvented himself when he switched schools. his and lexi’s flirtation has its electric tingle moments, but it’s pretty tame. lots of waiting around for the right moment, and sensible decision making about timing blah blah blah — BOOO-RING! gimme some make-outs! um, i mean, wow, look at them establish a friendship first before jumping into boyfriend-girlfriend stuff. they sure are mature. plus, carter’s totally not my type.
talky talk: right on
the narration is pretty straightforward — like, not much OMG or totally you know. the cheerleaders are (mostly) mean, the internal monologue is sufficiently angsty (“did i just say that? i could die” kind of stuff), but it works cos it doesn’t try too hard. it’s not exactly how teenagers talk, but it works.
bonus factor: chucky
dude, demoniac possession and creepy dolls! guaranteed to make you change the channel the next time one of those madame alexander collector infomercials comes on.
casting call:
julia stiles as lexi
i actually pictured julia stiles as lexi, so there’s really no contest.
debby ryan as kasey
no one but one of the current disney brats could do justice to kasey’s annoying mood swings, so here’s debby ryan from one of those suite life shows.
relationship status: crush
i couldn’t put this book down at the time, but it’s been a few weeks now since i read it and it’s getting hard to remember. i’ve def. moved on. it is published by disney (weird, right? that’s not evident at all until the v. v. end, so don’t worry), so it totally has that same indulgent feel of a disney channel original movie (think watcher in the woods for spook factor) — great while you’re reading it, but when it’s over, it’s over.
also, i was kind of annoyed by the librarians in the book. i mean, i *hate* when i read some silly NYTimes style section article about how hip librarians are because, duh, i don’t need the NYTimes telling me i rock, but dude. these librarians kept all the witchcraft/supernatural books in a special locked room or didn’t have any at all, and what is up with that? i wanted to tell lexi to come to my library and i’d help her out.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
MEGHAN WHY DID YOU HAVE TO PUT UP THAT PICTURE OF CHUCKY?!!! GOOD LORD I’M GONNA HAVE THE HEEBIE JEEBIES ALL DAY!
creepy dolls?!! in a book published by disney?!!! say no more, mon amour, i’m staying far, far away from this book.
yr write-up on carter made me lolz, btw.
also, you should totally think about forming some kind of anti-defamation league for librarians, yo. not only do you have to put up the whole old, meanie shhhing stereotype, but all of those sexy librarian costumes at halloween?! someone needs to take a stand!
AHHH CHUCKY!!! But I still sort of want to read it. It sounds like the exact level of scares I can actually handle. Cause I’m a big ol’ scaredy-cat.
I love Watcher in the Woods, eee! Also I love Child’s Play, and my sister’s name is Kasey, so this sounds like a book for me!
This sounds like a perfect book for Halloween!
Oh, and Meghan, I ALREADY can’t watch those infomercials!!!
sarah — sorry about the chucky picture, but i COULDN’T RESIST. it was like i was possessed or something. and erin — you can def. take the scary. it’s not tooooooooooooooo scary, just creepy enough to keep you awake reading until the end because you can’t take the suspense. but once you’re finished, you can totally sleep. as long as you don’t own any dolls. meredith — this book is just crying to be made into a disney sunday night movie, with bette davis as the old lady across the street. only the old lady is sweet, not creepy, so maybe not. it’s good disney, not hannah montana disney, so you don’t even suspect it until you flip the book over and see “disney” in tiny print on the back. darn you, stealth disney.
jenny — I KNOW. i was soooo ready for halloween after reading this!
Okay, how did I miss this review? It’s hilarious. Thanks for the breakdown. Perhaps I should offer downloadable makeout scenes on my website… (“Insert between pages 77-78.”)
OMG!!! thank you for stopping by, ms. alender! and the downloadable makeout scenes would be AWESOME! i loved the book.