NNtG: Shivers #10: The Curse of the New Kid

So far, despite its often odd premises, Shivers has yet to disappoint me. I asked for Goosebumps clones, and they certainly feel like it. Granted, clones that end up far darker and with a lot more child death, but the point remains. And for my third review, I'm taking it to book ten, since when it comes to this book series, I am much like a new kid trying to get acquainted. And sure enough, we got a book that might just help wit that. It's time for The Curse of the New Kid.

COVER STORY

While not really that different from our last cover we... erm, covered, this is still a really appealing work. I like how the lighting from the school windows glow and bounce off the stairs and on our titular cursed new kid. The twisted trees look nice. granted the red, lightning filled sky that seems nonsensical, but whatever. Also, a bit of warping as well, always liked that. Another skull in the art as well, this time in the left window. Makes more sense than it did last cover at least.

STORY

Lucas Lytle has it rough. You see, this is the eighth new school he's gone to since his family moves a lot. He's also the biggest loser there, so low in the pecking order that even the nerdy kids mock him. He tries to take his dad's advice and befriend the biggest kid in school, unfortunately that big kid is the biggest bully in school named Huff. He gets embarrassed by his teacher Ms. Swimmer for not paying attention in class. At lunch, the popular kids throw their food at him to the delight of everyone else. At P.E., after being called fat by the coach because this is the 90s and teachers couldn't lose their jobs for that level of abuse, Lucas notices that all his clothes are gone (save for the 150$ shoes he has on). He then sees that they've been put up on the flagpole outside. Enraged, Lucas promises that he'll make them all pay. You know, in 2020, the idea of a kid making his classmates pay takes on a much worse meaning. 

Lucas tries to fake sick to his parents in hope of not having to go back. He claims that he has cancer. Yikes. He heads on the bus, in which he proceeds to get slapped on the back of the head by the kids. When he protests, he gets mocked by a kid named Billy. Suddenly, Billy's arm gets caught in the bus door. He screams in pain as if his arm is being torn apart. The bus door soon opens and Lucas begins to head to school. He turns to notice the bus driver has a monstrous grin on her face. In class, Lucas gets tripped by a kid named Leon, but soon after Leon begins to walk, he trips on his shoelace and takes a full on header into the desk, giving him a massive gash over his eye. As Ms. Swimmer tends to Leon, Lucas once again sees a monstrous grin on her face.

At lunch, Lucas gets berated and mocked by Arnold, one of the nerdy kids. He keeps pushing at Lucas until Lucas screams to leave him alone in a voice he's never heard come out of him before. After Arnold shoves a fry in Lucas' ear and goes to yuk it up with his pals, suddenly Arnold clutches his stomach as if it's tearing apart, then starts to vomit everywhere. This causes the other kids in the lunchroom to vomit as well. Amongst the sea of puke, Lucas once again sees the same face as before now on the lunch lady. So, things are getting extreme out the jump today, but then we get to gym class. The coach forces Lucas and a heavyset kid named Ralph Buchmann to climb the ropes. Despite Lucas' best efforts, Ralph makes it to the top first. Then, suddenly, Ralph slips off the rope and falls on to the coach. Both Ralph and the coach collapse on the ground, neither moving. Neither breathing. Both of them are stone cold dead. They aren't actually, but Lucas and everyone thinks they are at that present time. And once again, Lucas sees the face, this time on Ralph's corpse. 

We cut to the funeral of Ralph Buchmann. Lucas and the rest of the school are there, but Lucas begins to hear voices behind him saying that he was the one who killed Ralph. But he can't find anyone who is actually speaking to him. Soon the threats get worse, telling him that he'll burn in hell. He looks to see everyone giving him that same monstrous face. Of course, this is a nightmare, so Lucas wakes up. He talks with his parents, his dad unaware of the name of Lucas' middle school. It's John F. Kennedy middle school, and as we know, nothing bad ever happens to the Kennedys. His dad mentions all the incidents that have happened at the school. Broken arms, the puking spree, a kid who fell off a rope and is now in a coma. 

At school, Lucas once again gets bullied by Huff. But now things have escalated as the kids beat down on him and Huff breaks his locker. This incident causes Lucas to piss himself. He goes to the principal's office and Mr. Peterson full on mocks and berates him for the entire incident, promising Lucas that he's made an enemy of him as well. Ah, the 90s when this abuse of children couldn't cost you your job. He gives him a pair of pants that can be best described as clown pants. This gets him mocked even more, particularly by one of the jocks, Jason. The jocks all beat up Lucas, but he feels nothing. He notices he'd been fighting with his eyes closed. But when he opens them he sees Jason's face a mangled mess, the other jocks with broken arms, hands and faces. And yep, this time the face comes from the cheerleaders, but this time he sees blood all over them.

Suddenly, after taking the jocks out, some of the kids seem to be warming up to Lucas, including two of the nerds who mocked him, Wanda and Muddy, as well as a girl named Ruby Rogers, who invites him for lunch later. But when he arrives, he instead sees her being bullied by Huff. He comes to her defense by swinging his book bag, catching Huff right in the jaw. Huff recovers and goes for the kill, but collapses. He takes off his boot, with his foot now deformed. Suddenly his hands end up mangled and crushed, his flesh on his shoulders a mess. Everyone is freaked out, and Lucas once again surveys the scene for who could have the face. This time it's Mr. Peterson. 

So, now Lucas isn't at the bottom of the totem pole anymore. Nobody even thinks to make fun of him or abuse him. However, now it's given him a massive ego to which he tells Ms. Swimmer that he won't be answering her questions or doing work. When she goes to reprimand him, suddenly her hands begin to bubble and boil. He face begins to be disfigured. And Lucas loves it. He's satisfied with the destruction he's causing, and even beginning to really love that face he keeps seeing. His actions eventually get him another meeting with Mr. Peterson, who threatens to suspend him for his actions. I... I mean he disfigured one of your teachers, that might be more concerning, but sure. We don't exactly know what befell Mr. Peterson, but it's assumed that Lucas sent him falling to his death outside the school. 

Lucas gets grounded for his actions, but disobeys to visit Ruby. He gets caught, of course. They threaten to take him to therapy to get his anger in control, but he is pretty pissed. In the midst of driving there, the car gets hit by a truck. Both Mr. and Mrs. Little are killed, but Lucas is fine. He panics and begins to cry over the sight of his dead parents when he notices his reflection in the mirror. The same twisted face. It was him. He's the cursed one. He's the devil.

TWIST ENDING

And then he wakes up. Yep. All of this was just a dream. Lucas, now realizing that all that hatred and anger could lead to horrible outcomes, tries to make the most of it and goes to his new school with a positive attitude. In fact, nothing seems to go wrong, until he sees one of the bullies ready to pound him.

CONCLUSION

This book is fine. What makes it work is its premise. Something I think a lot of us have struggled with. The feeling of hatred and the want for revenge. Sometimes wanting revenge so badly that it gives us our darkest thoughts and desires. In the case of Lucas Lytle, it's both the need for power and control and the want to make all those people who scorned him suffer. Again, in a modern setting, this would all feel more like the outcome would involve a school shooting, but Spenser thankfully doesn't go there. Instead it's more of a Carrie-esque case of psychic control that leads to further and further damage. To the point that Lucas becomes so out of control he even ends up killing his parents. It gives us a lot of dark and gory scenarios that have become customary with Shivers so far. I guess the moral, if there is one, is that the need for revenge turns you into someone you wouldn't recognize. As if your mind is being controlled by evil, or by the devil himself. That's better honestly than any attempt at that moral by Stine at least. 

Biggest downside however is the twist ending, but honestly, given how much the story ramped itself up, there wasn't really any other way to end this one. So, give us just a weak "it was all a dream" ending and send us off. Lucas is okay, but definitely a kid who feels mentally disturbed, given how gruesome his dreams are. Granted, he's been bullied his whole life, so I can see why those thoughts manifest, but it doesn't bode well for making him too sympathetic. There's definitely a feel "of its time" with how a lot of the kids are mocked for their looks or weight, or how the teachers and principal have no problem mocking or attacking their students. But given this is all coming from Lucas' head, it's more of an obvious exaggeration. But then again, it was the 90s. In the end, this isn't a perfect book, but it feels better structured than the other Shivers books I've covered. It's an adequate Johnny Come Lately. The Curse of the New Kid gets a B+.