NNtG: Shivers #20: Babyface and the Killer Mob

We've tread a lot of similar ground with a lot of these kids horror books, but when presented with the book today, I can't help but feel intrigued. What I appreciate about Shivers is that it offers some very unique book concepts and one that always stood out as interesting to me is a horror story involving gangsters in the 1930s. Is this book a made man, or is it as empty as Al Capone's vault? Find out with Babyface and the Killer Mob.

COVER STORY

I love this cover. It gives us exactly what we need to get us interested in a book about gangsters. The bullet riddled car, the bullets scattered on the ground and our zombie-skeleton-gangster thing crawling at the reader. As if to show that not even bullets can keep him down. It's memorable and enticing. Good stuff.

STORY

Protagonist Joey really hates being a 13 year old kid. Why? Well, mainly because it means adults don't take him seriously, but also because he wants to get a job in the mafia. But unfortunately for this tough kid from the streets of Miami, that's just not in the cards until he's older. That is until five members of the Killer Mob, Miami's toughest mobsters, Lou, Rocco, Jimmy, Jackie and Mikey, come in his direction. Joey asks to join the Killer Mob, but they initially turn him down, but Jackie decides to give the kid a chance. All Joey has to do is shoot someone and he's in. and if Joey doesn't, he's dead. So literally do or die.

Joey has second thoughts about wanting to join the mob now, given that while he wants to be in the crew, he doesn't actually want to kill anyone either. They lead him to the house of their target and tell him to shoot, but Joey decides against it. Jackie takes the gun and shoots him, only for it to actually be a water gun. T'was all a ruse. They weren't actually going to let him join the mob, especially after he flaked as badly as he did with his first assignment. Joey tells them not to mess with him or he'll get the other mob in town the Muscle Gang to get revenge for him. Of course, telling mobsters you're going to rat on them to other mobsters is probably up there in terms of the absolute stupidest things you could ever do. Jackie tells the others to take Joey to the river and drown him.

Rocco and Mikey drive Joey to a warehouse to fit him for cement shoes when suddenly the Muscle Gang does show up. A shootout ensues and Joey has nowhere to hide. He starts to run off, but decides to head back, only to slip on an oil spill and smash his head into the pavement. When he wakes up, he's suddenly driving Rocco's car into the gunfight. Only he can't actually drive. But he manages to save the Killer Mob in time. But oddly, they're now calling him Babyface. And even weirder, he's not kid-sized anymore, but an adult. 

He still has no clue how to drive the car, which doesn't help the Killer Mob given that the Muscle Gang is gaining on them. He eventually manages to get it going, but speeds the car up beyond his control, eventually causing the mob to crash and flip multiple times. And somehow they make it out of the wreck unscathed. But they also hear cop sirens meaning they really don't want to stay there too long. Joey also realizes that he's probably in someone else's body. Babyface the getaway driver. The best getaway driver. And his recent performances have earned him the ire of his fellow mobsters who are confused as to why their getaway driver suddenly sucks.

Believing maybe he's working for the Muscle Gang, Rocco and Mikey pull a gun on Joey and take him to see their boss. It doesn't help Joey's case that he's trying to act like he's been at the boss' place before, though Rocco says that Babyface hasn't. The boss is named Bruno, but only his wife Sondra can call him that. He's the boss to everyone else. Joey still tries to BS his way in this conversation, even agreeing when they mention that he met the boss with the other mobsters earlier. But that actually didn't happen, which continues to make Rocco and Mikey suspect he's not who he seems. 

They arrive to the boss' mansion and meet with him. He's described as tall and fat with white hair and a mustache, so all I can think of is Don Corleone, which I mean, you probably would too. He also believes that maybe Joey isn't who he says he is. They believe that maybe the Muscle Gang killed the original Babyface and found a body double to fool the Killer Mob. Only problem is this guy's no Babyface when it comes to actually fooling the others. After Joey starts crying in panic, they start to think that he might be the real Babyface after all. Except the Boss asks one question. If he is the real Babyface, then what's Babyface's favorite drink? Given that his whole thing is being a "baby face", he says root beer, which surprisingly is the correct answer. 

So, now that they at least believe he's Babyface for now, the boss gives Joey a job that if he fails will lead to his death. He has to drive the boss' wife Sondra around Miami. So, essentially a lower tier GTA mission. She gets concerned when Joey starts driving poorly, then realizes that he isn't Babyface, but a kid in someone else's body. Why? Because Sondra is also a kid in someone else's body. She's been a thirteen year old girl trapped in this adult body for three years, meaning she's been Bruno's wife for three years as well. She managed to learn how to drive and pose as an adult far better over time. 

How is this all possible? Well Sondra (real name Patty), believes that it was the result of a wish as both Joey and Patty hated being kids and wished they could be adults. And they both suffered blows to the head while dealing with the Killer Mob. Maybe that one concussion sent their brains into someone else's body. Patty hates being Sondra and wishes she could be a kid again. Now, she mentions it's because being an adult has responsibilities and such, and it's obviously vague for a kids book, but the implications are obviously there if you get my drift. So now Patty and Joey both have a goal to return to normal. The only problem is, how?

But that's not the only problem Joey's about to have as Patty tells him that Bruno is planning a mob hit on the Muscle Gang that night and Joey will have to lead it. Since despite being a getaway driver, Babyface is supposed to be great with a machine gun. But before that planned hit even happens, the Muscle Gang surrounds their Rolls Royce. They take the two to see their boss, Tony who knows about the planned hit. He tells them to tell where it is or else Babyface will have a bomb on his back and will be driven back to Bruno's as a living bomb. As they're about to talk, Joey sees Rocco and the others sneaking behind the bushes. So once again Joey's about to be in the middle of a firefight, but Sondra/Patty will be as well. It's a mass of bullets in all directions. Joey and Patty rush inside, but are still surrounded. Joey panics and wishes he could just be a kid again.

TWIST ENDING

And then Joey wakes up back in his old body. Back on the ground where the two mobs had their firefight. It was all a dream. I mean, duh. So, around the time that Joey had his slip, other people from the warehouses nearby saw what was going on and called the cops. Sure enough, they managed to capture both the Killer Mob and Muscle Gang. Joey swears off being a gangster, and in a report, tells other kids not to sweat being a kid and to enjoy it while you can.

CONCLUSION

This one was just okay. Sadly, we never get anything that comes close to the book cover yet again, which is really making me feel like Shivers is a lot of bait and switch stuff, so I guess I shouldn't look to the cover for reference for what to expect from now on. And the twist is super obvious. Of course it was a dream. The moment Joey hits the ground you could tell how this book was going to end. But unlike Monster Blood is Back it didn't annoy me anywhere near as much. At least the build to it all being a dream worked better here instead of Stine's work which felt like he had no other way to finish the book other than the worst possible case.

That aside, I do like this book's concept and structure. I like how it feels like it's the point of view of a street tough 1930s kid. Ghostwriter Robert Spencer Knotts (not M.D. Spenser for this one) does a good job giving Joey a lot of character that makes him feel more well constructed than a Stine protagonist normally would. And while the way we get to our supernatural stuff feels lazy, I do like the idea of this Big-esque story of a kid turning into an adult who has to deal with being an adult in the mafia. How he's pressed about his legitimacy as Babyface and how he just skates by, failing in places but succeeding in others. I do also like the addition of Sondra/Patty to make this feel like it's not isolated. Though the implications about Patty having to essentially go from teenager to adult and what that implies is a bit gross for my liking. But thankfully we never go that far given it's Joey's imagination and maybe he never thought that far ahead.

So, in the end, this one doesn't feel as dull as Camp Fear, but doesn't hit on that level of pure WTF that something like The Forgotten Farmhouse did. It's a perfect middle ground book. Good in some of its more unique ideas, but still lacking in something to make it feel more memorable or incredible. In other words, it's a book that isn't quite a made man. Babyface and the Killer Mob gets a B-.