NNtG: Bone Chillers #1: Beware the Shopping Mall

Been a while since we touched a Bone Chillers stuff here on the blog. Well over 100+ articles at this. And, hoo boy, I still haven't gotten over the insanity that was Little Pet Shop of Horrors. This time around, we're starting at the very beginning. As was once mentioned, a very good place to start. The first book in a series is important. It sets the standard of what you should expect going forward. Did Betsy Haynes start strong? We'll see as we Beware the Shopping Mall.

COVER STORY

Oh yeah. Not hard to tell that this is the work of Tim Jacobus. Be it the coloring, the angles and, of course, the design of the skeletons. Oh gee, I wonder what cover this reminds me of? Although, as creepy as the skeletons can be, the real scary part is how garishly 90s the clothing on them are. It's not as shockingly memorable as the cover to follow and maybe not as stuck in your mind as Say Cheese and Die, but for a first cover, it works fine enough.

STORY

The town of Meadowvale just got themselves a brand new mall. Wonderland Mall to be precise. Robin Fagin is super excited about it, because it's the 90s and people still get excited about malls. But her mother tries to tell her about how the mall was built over what was once Mournful Swamp. A swamp filled with monsters and quicksand. A swamp where three teenagers disappeared, believed to have fallen in the ravine. Believed to be haunted. But Robin doesn't care about page one exposition, she needs to get to the mall early with her friends Lisa Karl, Eric Sandifer and Shannon Markoff. First one hundred people to enter the mall on opening day are entered into a lottery to win a free trip to Hawaii. Robin arrives, but their other friend, Jamie England, hasn't arrived yet. 

With the front entrance packed, the kids fear they aren't winning squat. And they're not going to wait for Jamie. So they decide instead to sneak into the mall via the employee entrance, get by the entrance and slide into the first 100 people. You know, cheat. They sneak inside and spot a man in a business suit with a tanned face, white hair and a mean expression. They duck the man and head into a dark room filled with dozens of people staring at them. But, of course, not actual people. Just store mannequins. Sadly not of the skeletal variety. They find another doorway, but it seems to be leading them downstairs. While the others hesitate, Shannon calls them chicken and heads down herself. After some hemming and hawing, the other three follow her down. They head down and find Shannon on the ground, not moving. But, of course, it was all a prank.

Robin soon discovers where they are. They're in the basement of the mall where the air conditioning units are. This is conveniently where there were reports that a crack opened up in the spot that was once the ravine of the swamp. But they patched it up before the mall could open. But ever since then, creepy things have been happening during construction. Like a dump truck seemingly running on its own and dumping rocks on a workman, killing him. Or the fact that a lot of machinery just up and disappears. The kids are creeped out and head back upstairs, but not before Robin can hear "Fa-gin" being uttered. Only, she seems to be the only one who can hear it.

They find the main area and it's pretty much the most extravagant mall you can imagine, even for 90s malls. A carnival atmosphere as well as a large waterfall, a goldfish pond, a rock band performing and so much more. Stores of all kinds as far as the eye can see. So many places that a blond haired girl about their age gives the kids maps to explore everything. They head to a spot called Video Showcase where yet again the blond haired girl they saw earlier is there, now welcoming them to the store. Robin is confused, how could she be in two places at once? Reader beware, twins exist.

But the girl denies having a twin of any sorts, or leaving her post at Video Showcase, which is essentially a video and CD store which god I miss loitering around and just looking at the stuff on the shelf. The kids leave and run into two other girls, Kristin and Amy who also wonder where Jamie is as there's still no sign of her. Meanwhile, Eric goes over to some other boys, including a kid named Aaron Stemple, as they look at the pet shop. Thankfully not of horrors... or is it? Robin is starting to get worried about Jamie, so she decides to look for her, only to stop at a store called Mermaid Magic. It's a swimwear shop. But one mannequin in particular catches Robin off guard as the mannequin looks exactly like Jamie.

Robin is now separated from Eric, Shannon and Lisa. She stops at a fudge shop where a guy named Shannon is confused about why he's being summoned. Decent misdirect there. She eventually ends up in a dark hall where the restrooms are and does indeed find the other girls. Turns out they were following her the whole time and planning to scare her. Man, this mall must actually suck if that's the most fun you can have there. Well, a lot of that has to do with how expensive everything is. The three head to a department store called Zimmer's, which as a Canadian I think of Zeller's. Robin leaves the girls again to head back to Mermaid Magic. She's still confused as to why the mannequin looks so much like Jamie. Suddenly, another mannequin begins to move, or maybe it was just the arm awkwardly dropping out of position. Either way, Robin's freaked. 

The girls eat at the food court and get movie tickets. While they wait, they look around some more. At a shop called Styker's, Robin heads to the boys clothing section and spots something odd in the dressing room. She sees a mannequin of a boy and his mouth is definitely moving. First chance she gets, she goes inside to check. And this time, the dummy looks exactly like Aaron, the boy that Eric was with not too long ago. There's also a female clerk with a French braid that seems suspicious. She runs into Eric and tries to tell him about the mannequin, but Eric claims that Aaron is at the arcade and that Robin must be acting crazy. 

Robin then runs into Lisa and Shannon and tries to show them the Jamie mannequin, but sees the French braid clerk taking it to an area she can't access. So Robin's now in a panic, and the others don't seem to understand what's going on with her. And worse off, two girls named Kitty and Diane saw it and they're considered the school gossips, so pro: Robin had a panic attack over a mannequin in an age before phones had cameras. Con: She's still going to have her social life ruined. And Lisa and Shannon don't believe her either. 

The girls get their tickets refunded as they forgot, which also gives Robin a chance to check the arcade for any sign of Aaron. Robin checks but no sign of Eric. Instead she finds a teenage boy who was also at the theater ticket booth. So again, weird coincidences going on. He tells Robin to try one of the arcade games. An arcade game called The Haunted Shopping Mall. The boy stares deep into Robin, almost hypnotizing her until a girl interrupts him needing change. Robin runs into Lisa, then spots the blonde girl again with another mannequin. This time it looks like Shannon. 

So now Lisa's seeing the familiar mannequins, but isn't ready to believe whatever's going on. They then get confronted by the blonde girl. As they try to leave, Robin notices that the place seems empty. No longer filled with the bustling crowds just moments ago. But there are a hell of a lot of mannequins now. All shapes and sizes. Including one girl mannequin that looks like a classmate of theirs that they don't even know the name of yet can tell by how fat she is, as is the mannequin. Frigging ouch, there. The blonde girl is blocking the way. Robin also realizes that people are being hypnotized by the eyes of the clerks into becoming mannequins. 

Also, the blonde clerk is determined to catch Robin and Lisa. The girls find a backdoor, but it turns out to lead to a passageway of some kind. They search around, only to find themselves back in the storage room where they were in the beginning of the story. Only now there are a bunch more mannequins. Ones that look like other kids they know including Kitty and Diane. The French braid girl brings in another mannequin, while Robin and Lisa stay still, hoping to keep from being caught. The girl says it's a shame the mannequins had to be sacrificed. The blonde girl mentions Lisa and Robin and the two continue their search. So, pretty easy guess as to who the two girls and the boy are, and we're getting close to that reveal, but let us continue.

Eventually, Robin and Lisa find a way back to the mall proper. They head through the crowd, ready to exit, all while avoiding the braid girl and the boy constantly staring at them and trying to sell them things. They're almost home free, until they remember that Eric is still in the mall. Robin goes to find a sporting good store called Extra Innings where he was last spotted, but now Lisa is also missing. And, sure enough, Eric's now a mannequin too, holding a tennis racquet like he's Jim Cornette. Hey, there's my one reference per blog. 

Robin runs out of the mall and is waiting for the bus to show up. No bus shows, so she goes back into the mall and rushes to the phone booth to call her parents, but still doesn't get an answer there either. And, as if on cue, she sees Lisa's mannequin in another display. So, she's all alone now. Oh, and the mall just locked its doors, so she's doubly screwed. The three teens catch Robin as the now-moving mannequins surround her. They reveal the obvious. These are the three kids who died in the swamp. They were resting in some sort of peace until the mall was built over their graves. They found the crack in the foundation and escaped. Now they're taking back the lives they lost by turning kids into mannequins. 

Before they can do the same to Robin, she tells the three that there's a car outside the mall they could use to get away, since besides wanting their lives back, they also want wheels. They let Robin out, who takes this opportunity to make a run for it, with the teens chasing her. But as they chase, their bodies begin to rapidly decompose. Flesh, teeth, eyeballs. All melting away from their bodies, leaving them as skeletal husks. They grab Robin, but then realize that they've strayed too far from their graves and need to run back to the mall. The three ghosts then disappear. Suddenly, the mall opens and all of the kids leave, not having any idea what just happened. But Robin's just glad it's all over.

CONCLUSION

Beware the Shopping Mall is an okay book. Nothing super incredible, but for a first take in this series it's a fine enough entry point. Its biggest problem is that it does feel a bit too predictable as to what's going on. And that has a lot to do with how the book dumps the entire backstory of the three dead kids in the first two pages of the book. And, as such, it becomes super obvious what's going on and who the villains are. I still like the idea of these three vengeful spirits managing to escape and get revenge. I'm also glad this wasn't the more overdone and poorly aged "Indian Burial Ground" concept. And while not well explained, I like the idea of turning kids into mannequins as a form of "taking lives". It makes for some creepy scenarios. Though after the fourth kid being found, it wears thin in the shock department. Which given how big this mall is, maybe there's a store called "The Shock Department". Like an electronics store or something.

Robin is an okay protagonist, though bland and by the numbers. Her friends are just okay, though again lacking much for characters, aside from Shannon being a bit of a joker. They at least feel like friends, even if at first they don't get why Robin is having these panic attacks over the mannequins. The book also feels like it has ideas that go nowhere like Robin's crush on Eric, who disappears midway through the story. I also wish the book explained the businessman at all. He just vanishes from the story. Like someone that was unable to fit into the final narrative before the wrap-up.

Scares are okay at best. Mostly the same ones over and over again, which does make the book drag a little midway through. And while we get some of the mall, we don't really get a good chance to really soak it in. Best guess as to the inspiration is probably the Mall of America. And it does make me a bit nostalgic to see so much excitement over malls and the stores and departments. That real feel of a pre-2007 crash economy and just how crazy it could get. So the book at least nails the atmosphere. It keeps this one feeling more memorable for those reasons.

In the end, this definitely feels like a first book of a series. Not super incredible, but a sign of Betsy Haynes trying to get a handle of what she wants from this series. As a Goosebumps clone, it feels blatant in some places, but still feels strong enough to be its own thing. And I think that's deserving of a recommend at least. Because while this one is tame, the series definitely gets much, much weirder as we go along. Beware the Shopping Mall gets a B.