NNtG: Shivers #26: One Foot in the Grave

Shivers time again. The last time we covered one for the blog, Camp Fear, was definitely the biggest dud we've dealt with so far for the series. I'm a bit wary of the one we're covering this time, but let's see what we got when we step One Foot in the Grave.

COVER STORY

This cover feels weird. Not sure if I love it or really hate it. I guess I like the design of the monster with his creepy red skin and black eyes. Although the eyes also end up looking like sunglasses to me as well, and I don't think that was the intent. We also have our stock skull on the left of the torn up doors. Other than that, some nice color and shadow work as always.

STORY

Our protagonist is Tiffany Elspeth, but everyone calls her Bubbie. Why Bubbie? Because that's the nickname given to her by her baby brother Patrick. Bubbie and her family have arrived at their new home in a small village in France. She looks around the house and finds her room which is right behind a sycamore tree. But she gets scared by a boy her age who seems to be looking for something. After the boy leaves, Bubbie searches around for what the boy could be looking for and soon finds an object the boy was clearly looking for. 

She meets with the boy, named Jean-Luc, the next day and shows him the object. A strange crystal ball. Inside is a smoky image of a man being hung. Jean-Luc doesn't know what it means exactly, only that according to his grandfather it should make them rich. He decides to befriend Bubbie, telling her that they need to work together to keep this a secret. He also says that her house once belonged to... ahem... gypsies. Yeah, unfortunately we're delving into the G-word in this one and all the Romani stereotypes latched within. The G-Word girl who lived in the house knew Jean-Luc's grandfather and would predict the future, until she eventually vanished. With that exposition behind us Jean-Luc diverts Bubbie from her school route as they need to plan what they're going to do with the crystal ball.

After filling their pockets with rocks for any oncoming pit vipers, Bubbie and Jean-Luc climb up a hill and on to a field which was once used in World War II. Jean-Luc mentions that there's a place inside one of the bunkers that they have to go to. Suddenly, the two get attacked by a boar. Bubbie runs to the nearest wall and jumps over, but Jean-Luc isn't too lucky as the boar gores one of his legs. Bubbie wants to get help, but Jean-Luc is more focused on the score. So they wrap the wound with Bubbie's headband and decide to call it a day due to the whole leg issue. In the fracas, they leave the bag with the crystal ball in the boar area, but Bubbie gets a bad feeling about what's to come.

The next day, Bubbie meets up with Jean-Luc again, who pulls out a grenade! Oh, but it's defused, so it was more of a scare. They arrive back to the bunker and open the door. A foul smell exits the bunker which disgusts both kids. As they enter, Bubbie sees something that scares her and causes her to faint. Upon waking up, she sees that it was a skeleton. A Nazi skeleton at that. But Jean-Luc is more interested in selling all of the military items in the bunker, or even just turning the place into a tourist attraction, which disgusts Bubbie. While he finds an old rifle, she finds a strange pair of earrings in the bunker before she's told to pack up some stuff to take with them, including an actual live grenade.

Bubbie and Jean-Luc make their exit, but get chased by a large black dog. They make it to the wall and scale over the top of it. They then see an old woman below pointing at them and shouting something in a different language. Jean-Luc deduces that she must be a The G-Word putting a curse on them. Sure enough, she speaks in English, telling them that the town will weep. The children will cry. A lesson will be learned, but only when they die. Bubbie makes a run for it, frightened by the woman's words. The kids make it to Jean-Luc's grandfather who studies the items, including a bomb that Bubbie brought with her. They make note of the earrings which cause the old man to tear up. They belonged to the The G-Word girl he knew. He was the one who gave them to her. 

Bubbie walks home, but gets attacked by a strange flying hag with worms and mucous all over her. It disappears, but leaves the crystal ball from before. Only when Bubbie looks in it, she doesn't see a man hanging from a noose, but her baby brother Patrick dead on the railroad tracks. She gets Jean-Luc and the kids sure enough find Patrick at the tracks with a train heading towards him. Jean-Luc saves him in time and deduces the hag was the old woman who put a curse on them. Bubbie takes Patrick home and gets grounded for taking her brother out at night. When she goes to her bed, she gets attacked by a giant rat. But it disappears when her father shows up.

The next day, Bubbie's a wreck. Turns out though that the rest of the family also hate living in their new home as well. Her mother in particular feeling an awful presence. Bubbie heads to school for once and sees no sign of Jean-Luc. That night when she returns home, she gets a call from Jean-Luc telling her that his grandfather was almost killed. He was cleaning the rifle from earlier but it went off and nearly got his heart. But the weird thing is there were no bullets in the rifle. Grandfather tells the kids the story of the The G-Word girl named Elena. He was in love with her, but her heart was with a Nazi soldier. After the war, he seemed to have disappeared. The rest of the villagers, knowing about Elena's relationship with the soldier, locked her up inside the bunker. Bubbie believes that the hag she saw must have been Elena out for revenge. 

As Bubbie heads home, she finds a small The G-Word camp. She finds the woman from before and asks to find a way to get rid of Elena. The woman says Elena will not stop until she kills everyone, but the only way to stop her is to suffocate her. As she leaves, she is stopped by Jean-Luc who tells her that his mother is taking him away to England, so now she's on her own. The next day, sure enough, no sign of Jean-Luc. When she returns home, there's a strange fire in her yard and a small skull in her room. She also hears Patrick telling her to return to the bunker, which is odd since Patrick doesn't speak.

Bubbie arrives at the bunker and is confronted by a giant Elena who is a grim, disgusting sight. After managing to stop dogs with some ham, Bubbie enters the bunker and sees Elena who talks about how everyone loved her, then betrayed her, as bugs leave her mouth for a great gross image. Bubbie falls into the skeleton and realizes that the skeleton was of the boyfriend that Elena killed. You know, maybe this ghost ain't so bad. In her last act, Bubbie grabs the loaded grenade and throws it at Elena. The explosion is enough to bury the ghoul and suffocate her for good. 

TWIST ENDING

Bubbie returns home and is congratulated by Patrick. She also learns from her parents that they're moving to Germany. And their new village even has a haunted castle.

CONCLUSION

This one is just okay, but compared to Camp Fear this is a step up. I like the concept of the story, how it's this girl in a new land where she gets mixed up with a kid that's pretty much a grave robber. Bubbie's an alright protagonist, but not super dynamic, while Jean-Luc works as a great companion who is more interested in riches than their own safety. There are a good series of eerie imagery, some decent suspense in places, even some actual gore. And the conclusion with Elena is a great finale filled with action. Of course, there's the issue of this book using dated and dangerous Romani stereotypes, which does make this book age poorly in some areas. 

While not perfect, I'll at least say this one takes us back in the good Shivers column. Compared to Camp Fear, it flows well and never feels like a nonsensical slog in places. It does have a silly Goosebumps-like twist ending, but I feel it's probably the only way to end this story without just killing Bubbie off anyway. Although we again get a book where the monster in front never appears, and we even get a skeleton which the covers love. But I guess there was no right way to put a Nazi skeleton on your front cover without getting some looks. In the end, I'll give One Foot in the Grave a B-. Not incredible, but satisfies just enough.