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A review by dtaylorbooks
Driver's Dead by Peter Lerangis
4.0
Oh look. More cheese! On the grander scale of 90s YA horror, DRIVER’S DEAD certainly isn’t one of the worst. I don’t know if I’d say it’s one of the better ones, but it’s not bad.
Kirsten’s family moves into the house previously owned by a couple whose kid died less than a year previously. Not in the house, but he died and it was a tragedy and now Kirsten’s living there and some weird things are happening. Like in solid Point Horror tradition, every single chapter ends on some crazy, often misleading, cliffhanger. It’s hilarious and ridiculous all at the same time.
Kirsten’s your typical teenager. She’s a nervous driver and is a bit shaky behind the wheel until a less than savory individual named Rob teaches her. Then she improves. He also expects payment by the way of some pond-side groping and luckily Kirsten tells him where to stuff it. But then she immediately wonders if she was too hard or too judgmental and blah blah blah. Kirsten, no. He’s a sleaze. Everyone warned you he was a sleaze. Stop.
But then he ends up dead and things start unraveling. Kirsten appears to be having visits from some kind of ghost and she’s convinced she’s sleeping in the room that belonged to Nguyen, the kid who died, before he died. Blood seeps out from under her closet door only to have it disappear when anyone else tries to look at it. The photo of a car in a flyer appears to change position and everyone brushes it off except her. She hears moaning and voices. It’s all totally creepy.
This book has some weird hangup on Vietnam, though. I don’t know why. It came out in 1994, well after the Vietnam War was even a memory of being relevant. Nguyen was supposed to be a refugee child and his aunt and uncle, with whom he was staying, were trying to find his parents who were still in Vietnam. He was right around 16, making him having been born in 1978. I’m not that adept at Vietnam history, but I know the last troops were pulling out around 1976, but things were rather a mess after that. So I don’t know. But you got Rob’s racist dad who blamed Nguyen’s uncle for taking his job and Mr Busk, the drunk driver’s ed teacher (great combination, by the way) who was a former Marine and Vietnam War vet who wasn’t firing on all cylinders, apparently. It’s just an insistent reference that’s really weird for me because the timing doesn’t seem to fit.
I liked the ending of the book, because everything was wrapped up, but in kind of a creepy way that could maybe have you questioning whether it’s really wrapped up at all. Dun dun dun! But at least Kirsten’s a compelling enough character that works to find a solution, even though she seems rather plot-servingly dumb sometimes. But at least she’s not the only one. People seem to be rather easily swayed in DRIVER’S DEAD.
Not a bad piece of cheese. Leaning toward one of the better ones. The writing’s better than a lot of them. The contrivances are actually minimal. Minus points for the ridiculous and never-ending cliffhanger chapters. Pretty decent character development although I wish Maria was more of a thing in the book. She would have sussed out Virgil quicker than Kirsten did with the same information. Such a cooler character than Kirsten. But whatever. If you’re interested be sure to check out my recap of this lovely gem on The Devil’s Elbow. It’s scheduled to post on 3/23.
3.5
Kirsten’s family moves into the house previously owned by a couple whose kid died less than a year previously. Not in the house, but he died and it was a tragedy and now Kirsten’s living there and some weird things are happening. Like in solid Point Horror tradition, every single chapter ends on some crazy, often misleading, cliffhanger. It’s hilarious and ridiculous all at the same time.
Kirsten’s your typical teenager. She’s a nervous driver and is a bit shaky behind the wheel until a less than savory individual named Rob teaches her. Then she improves. He also expects payment by the way of some pond-side groping and luckily Kirsten tells him where to stuff it. But then she immediately wonders if she was too hard or too judgmental and blah blah blah. Kirsten, no. He’s a sleaze. Everyone warned you he was a sleaze. Stop.
But then he ends up dead and things start unraveling. Kirsten appears to be having visits from some kind of ghost and she’s convinced she’s sleeping in the room that belonged to Nguyen, the kid who died, before he died. Blood seeps out from under her closet door only to have it disappear when anyone else tries to look at it. The photo of a car in a flyer appears to change position and everyone brushes it off except her. She hears moaning and voices. It’s all totally creepy.
This book has some weird hangup on Vietnam, though. I don’t know why. It came out in 1994, well after the Vietnam War was even a memory of being relevant. Nguyen was supposed to be a refugee child and his aunt and uncle, with whom he was staying, were trying to find his parents who were still in Vietnam. He was right around 16, making him having been born in 1978. I’m not that adept at Vietnam history, but I know the last troops were pulling out around 1976, but things were rather a mess after that. So I don’t know. But you got Rob’s racist dad who blamed Nguyen’s uncle for taking his job and Mr Busk, the drunk driver’s ed teacher (great combination, by the way) who was a former Marine and Vietnam War vet who wasn’t firing on all cylinders, apparently. It’s just an insistent reference that’s really weird for me because the timing doesn’t seem to fit.
I liked the ending of the book, because everything was wrapped up, but in kind of a creepy way that could maybe have you questioning whether it’s really wrapped up at all. Dun dun dun! But at least Kirsten’s a compelling enough character that works to find a solution, even though she seems rather plot-servingly dumb sometimes. But at least she’s not the only one. People seem to be rather easily swayed in DRIVER’S DEAD.
Not a bad piece of cheese. Leaning toward one of the better ones. The writing’s better than a lot of them. The contrivances are actually minimal. Minus points for the ridiculous and never-ending cliffhanger chapters. Pretty decent character development although I wish Maria was more of a thing in the book. She would have sussed out Virgil quicker than Kirsten did with the same information. Such a cooler character than Kirsten. But whatever. If you’re interested be sure to check out my recap of this lovely gem on The Devil’s Elbow. It’s scheduled to post on 3/23.
3.5