Time for not just another trip into the world of Point, but also another visit to the works of Christopher Pike. In fact, a look into the first YA horror book by Christopher Pike. Taking us back to 1985, let's see how Pike got his feet wet in the genre, you know, before questionable abortion commentary. Sleep with one eye open, it's Slumber Party.
The cover is kind of bland to be honest. Not horrible, but doesn't exactly wow you either. But it still works. The darkness outside, the one room lit up with two people inside, and the trail of footprints in the snow. It's not going to make you remember this one long after the fact, but it's still effective enough.
Dana Miller, Lara Johnson and Celeste Winston are on their way to Cedar Stream, a ski lodge, when they're stopped by a ranger and forced to walk the three miles on foot. This is easy for Dana and Lara, but not so much Celeste who has a bad back. Why would someone with back issues go on a ski trip? Well, she wanted to enjoy the scenery. Now she has to enjoy a hike. The girls are also aware that a massive snowstorm is due, but their friend Rachael Grayson insisted they do this now instead of waiting for a time that isn't perfect for a horror setting. They're friends with Rachael, but also kind of find her to be a snob. The girls make their exit while the ranger, who looks like Colonel Sanders and is called "The Colonel" for irony's sake, says he'll be able to get the car to them later.
The girls trek through the snow while admiring the scenery and hoping that there will be some cute boys at the ski lodge. Celeste is a bit more startled as she's never gone out with a boy before. We then cut to her first meeting Lara in the library not long after Celeste first moved to town. They bond over Stephen King books because if you're gonna name drop, may as well be King. We learn that Celeste is an only child. She's been living with her aunt since her parents died and the bad back she has was the result of a car accident. She also likes books, so it's not all doom and gloom?
The girls arrive to the lodge which Celeste learns is from one their friends named Nell Kutroff. She's super rich (and white) thanks to her family being oil barons. Since she moved to Sacramento, they don't meet up as much as they did when they were kids. Pre-social media so that means far more strained conversations and keeping of appearances. But there's something else about Nell they need to bring up with Celeste. When they were young, they had a slumber party and an accident caused Nell to be badly burned to the point she needed plastic surgery on her face and hands. They say it's nobody's fault, but they all sort of unintentionally contributed to it, so in actually it was all their fault. Celeste asks if anyone else was hurt, but Dana and Lara keep their mouths shut about the other girl involved, Nicole, who died.
They run into Mindy Casey, another one of their friends at the lodge and Pike writes that Dana takes a snowball from Celeste's "embryonic snowman" and throws it at Mindy, which, okay, that's one way of putting it. After that, Mindy mentions that Rachael and herself were working on a snowman that is far less embryonic. They talk with Rachael who mentions that Nell's doing fine, but is a little ill, likely with everyone around bringing back memories. They talk with Nell and things seem fine and dandy. They look around the lodge before checking out that snowman that seemed to have toppled over. Upon further inspection, it melted. Which doesn't make a lick of sense given this is a ski lodge in the middle of winter with a storm on the horizon.
After that, they make some more small talk about being hungry with Dana wishing she had anorexia which, oh man between that and "embryonic snowman" this is already on collar-tug alert. Add that with Rachel saying Dana needs to feed that double chin of hers. First Pike book and boy does it feel like a first book. While at the lounge, Lara goes for an orange before a 22 year old man shows up and makes conversation about how people usually squeeze oranges for quality. This is Percy Chand who says he's here with a friend of his. We also learn he was an orphan from Canada that mostly has been drifting along since he left the orphanage.
Percy mentions his friend Cal again and leaves with the girls in awe of him. Dana suggests inviting them over since Rachael and Mindy also have guys over. Though Lara says this was supposed to be a slumber party and not an orgy, but Dana sees no harm in inviting these strangers over during a snowstorm. What's the worst that could happen? We meet Cal, who is described as a redhead with a large mouth. Percy says that Cal spent four years in the service but was discharged for screwing around with napalm. WHAT'S THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN? They run into Rachael and we learn that Percy and Cal are also with Rachael and Mindy, so add some more awkwardness into the fireplace. And given that Cal also forced himself on Dana while they were alone, oh boy, this is going to be a night. Oh, and that was all chapter one by the way. 28 pages into this 170 page book that has seven chapters and an epilogue. Put on a pot of coffee folks, we're going to be here a while.
Lara and Dana head up to the ski slopes, Lara still infatuated with Percy, but concerned that Rachael will take him first. Dana tries to boost her confidence, but no such luck. Lara tries to call a truce with Rachael, but Rachael says there's nothing to worry about. When they ski however, Rachel ends up sending Lara crashing into some nearby trees. She's shaken up and she fears she's got some brain damage, but when Percy comes to her aid, she perks up. Percy says that given everything, he and Cal may pass up on the house party, but Lara says they should come and that Dana really likes Cal, honest. She has no problem with the would-be rapist's advances.
Despite, you know, a head contusion and other injuries, Lara doesn't go to the doctor and instead heads back to the lounge. She runs into the ranger who took her keys, and when she keeps asking for them, he says that they're in the office and with him off duty and the girls being here all weekend, there's no rush. She tries to call Nell, but gets no answer. Suddenly Cal shows up and we learn that Percy never mentioned the party to him, but despite, you know, what happened earlier, Lara still invites Cal to the party. She asks if he needs directions to get to Nell's lodge, but he says he knows the way, which sets off some mild alarms early, unlike, again, the attempted rape. Oh yeah, this is a Pike book alright.
Lara runs into Mindy who says she hasn't seen Rachael or Dana since they were atop the hill. As the girls head to the house, they spot one of Dana's skis, but no Dana. Lara notices that the snow around the ski may have melted recently, just like what happened with the snowman earlier. They arrive at the house as Nell says the same. No sign of Dana. She also mentions that maybe she just went off, and that ski might not even be hers. But Mindy's more concerned that she's trying to steal Cal from her, and of course she doesn't believe what Dana said about him.
Rachael shows up and she also has no clue about where Dana went. Lara calls the administration about Dana's disappearance, then asks if there is a colonel there that goes by "Sanders'. Turns out that no, there's no Colonel Sanders on board. Though maybe there's a Ronald McDonald? Lara searches around for a bit and notices the propane tank. She tries to check the snowman scene, but with the storm, that's out of the question. So she goes to sleep, where we flash back to the night of Nell's accident and Nicole's death.
We go to the slumber party at Dana's a few years earlier. Nell and her sister Nicole were invited alongside Lara, Mindy and Rachel. Nell isn't too fond of her sister coming along, and seems pretty angry all told. They set up the projector and watch Doctor Zhivago while talking about Omar Sharif's beautiful eyes and his apparent sex life. Just noting these are nine to ten year old girls, so okay then, Pike. After some time, Dana's parents go to bed and tell the girls to keep it down and not get into any trouble. And because Dana's parents just happen to have an open bar and didn't secure it, Rachael fixes the girls some drinks and they get drunk. Now buzzed and bored, the girls think of what to do, to which Rachael thinks that Dana can pull out the Ouija board and they can summon a spirit.
They light some candles and play with the board. After some questions like if Mindy will do well in school, they ask if there's any evil spirits present, to which the board responds with "Yes". And when asking who the evil spirit was, it spells out Nicole's name, before the planchette points at Nicole. Nicole gets upset, but in her rage accidentally knocks a candle over, causing the carpet to catch fire. The girls scramble to kill the fire by swatting at it with a magazine. Then Lara tries to kill the fire by... pouring brandy on Nicole. These... these aren't very bright kids. The fire catches Nicole's robe and she starts to burn. Everyone tries to suffocate the fire and it works briefly, until it picks up and explodes on Nicole. Nell tries to save her, but her hands and face get badly burned in the fire.
Eventually Mr. Miller puts the fire out, but Nicole is badly hurt and is on death's door. She dies a week later in the burn ward after getting an infection. Nell had skin grafts on her face and hands. Lara takes all of the blame for it, as while Nicole was dying, she told Nicole that she wouldn't die. Meanwhile Dana is a wreck and Mindy is so broken she wiped the incident from her memory. Rachael has the mindset of not dwelling on it, since holy shit Rachael sucks. But Lara was hit hardest to the point she could barely eat or do anything. Her parents took her to a child psychiatrist and things seemed to be going in a good direction. Years passed and Nell made that invitation for them all to come which takes us to where we are right now.
Celeste wakes Lara up from her nightmare and the two talk. While Celeste likes Nell and all, she's worried about being there, having called her aunt earlier. Lara tries to reassure her that things will be fine, but should they need to, she'll take her home early. As Lara gets up, we overhear Mindy and Rachael talking about Dana being out of the way, getting rid of Lara and something else about absolute power, but Lara barely heard much of it, and trying to overhear Rachael on the phone gets no help. She also mentions going into the basement, to which Nell panics, saying they're not to be near the propane tank, so guess we'll keep that in our pocket for later.
Percy and Cal soon arrive, but still no sign of Dana. Cal seems interested in Celeste, which is concerning, and Percy is still playing with both Lara and Rachael, which is also concerning. Nell talks a bit about how the ski lodge here was once the home of a Mafioso, where his cocaine and heroin were stored. When the FBI caught him, they found skeletal remains in the fireplace. Because at this point, every single thing in this book has a shady or horrific past. Next you'll tell me the ski lift belonged to an escaped mental patient who also used it to store heroin and cocaine. Cal then turns it into his time in Germany where he burned four German soldiers. I'd be shocked, but given this guy's track record so far, that's the least I was expecting.
As everyone sets up for charades, Lara gives another call to the administration. Still no sign of Dana, still no answers about "the colonel". Lara then gets a call from Celeste's aunt checking in. Though she mentions that this is her first call there, which contradicts Celeste's story earlier. Lara talks with Rachael, and while both are still after Percy, they talk about Dana's disappearance, which Rachael chalks up as Dana avoiding Cal after their first meeting. Lara remembers some of the things she overheard and is starting to suspect Rachael of something. She pressures Rachael to remember the Ouija incident and how the evil spirit question spelled Nicole's name, but Rachel moves on as we go to play charades.
The charades goes fine until Cal, being Cal, starts pinching and being a creep to Celeste, while Nell gets angry and Mindy defends Cal because she's dense as a post. In the fracas, Mindy has alcohol thrown at her and she topples by the fireplace and despite her arm not being in the fireplace, it still catches fire. The eventually stop the burn, but Mindy's arm is messed up bad. Nell tells Cal to leave and he obliges, not before saying it should have been Nell that burned. They get a doctor to check on Mindy and he gives instructions on how to take care of her in case she goes into shock.
After that, Lara tells Percy about everything. The history with Nicole, the snowman, Dana's disappearance, and whatever Rachel was talking about. Though Percy's certain that Rachel's not capable of anything sinister. Perish that thought. But Lara is suspecting that maybe Rachel and Cal are in cahoots, given that most of the incidents have surrounded the both of them. Again, Percy isn't sure because Percy just isn't sure about anything it seems. She mentions that she was sure she poured wine on Nicole that night and it shouldn't have been brandy, but Percy points out that how many nine year old girls know what alcohol is more flammable than the other, which hey, good point. Lara is suspecting that someone here is causing people to spontaneously combust using their minds, which even Percy thinks is a stretch.
Lara talks with Celeste, who says that what happened to Mindy was her fault, making Lara assume maybe she's right about that whole 'mind fire' thing. Lara tries to ask what she means, but Celeste tells her to leave while she still can. Speaking of leaving, Percy is about to make his leave despite Rachael's protests. But first he and Lara are checking where they left Dana's ski to see if there's been any updates on her whereabouts, which Rachael says is stupid because the snowstorm is picking up. Which, like, she's been awful, but she does have a point there.
They check the location where they found Dana's ski and Lara notes how the area looks as if it's melted. That perhaps Dana was set on fire by whoever has the pyrokinetic power and eventually ended up burning to ash. Lara suspects it would be the perfect crime. Percy's still skeptical, but Lara says that she doesn't suspect him. But everyone else is certainly a suspect. And then they start making out in the snow and Pike has to stress that she's eighteen so it's all perfectly legal in case they were just going to go starkers and have sex in a snow storm. You know, somehow I think Dana's disappearance isn't the priority it should be. The car thieves too, by that token.
After Percy leaves, Lara looks around a bit and finds a chunk of dirty ice. She then heads back to the lodge where Nell's waiting for her. They talk for a bit and Lara still thinks that Nell blames her for everything, but that's not the case. Lara heads to bed. She wakes up the next day to the sound of her alarm, which she thinks is a fire alarm and crashes out of bed. She checks the dirty ice which has melted and sure enough, it's charred remains. Her suspicions about Dana being burned alive were absolutely correct. So now her plan is to escape before whoever the culprit is gets her. She tries for the snowmobile in the basement, but knocks over a kerosene tank and thinks she hears someone after her. She then rushes out of the house in the middle of the storm. She wanders a few miles and starts to pass out. She uses the flare gun Percy gave her earlier, but that doesn't seem to do much. She sees Cal, then passes out.
Lara soon wakes up to see Rachel and a still alive Dana, all bound in the kerosene soaked basement. Turns out that Cal and Nell have been working together this whole time. When Dana returned from skiing, she went into the lodge where Nell offered her some cocoa. She passed out and was tied up. Rachael was knocked out and tied up not long after Lara left with Percy. And same situation with Lara, who we learn also pissed herself because, I guess you have to hook the fetishists somehow? They're all pretty chatty and jovial for, you know, kidnapped people. Lara apologizes for suspecting Rachael, but turns out she was talking with someone else and mentioning the movie Carrie, which Pike has referenced a lot in this last act by the way. Also hey, if you made it this far, we're at the last act with thirty pages left. Light is at the end of the tunnel!
Celeste comes downstairs and Lara finally clues in what we all kind of suspected. Celeste was Nicole the entire time. The reactions when "Celeste" and Nell first "met", their attitudes with each other, how Nell freaked out when Cal was going after Nicole, things like that. Lara eventually put two and two together. Nicole then takes her sweater off to show her scarred and burned body, which causes revulsion in Rachael and Dana's faces. Breasts deformed, bellybutton and nipples burned off. A legitimately shocking sight to behold. Rachael says that they thought she was dead, but Nicole says that her parents only said that so that nobody would see what their daughter became. So they faked the funeral with a closed casket.
Nicole had been planning this revenge for years. Lara tries to tell her that they're her friends, but Nicole saw how they reacted to the sight of her. She invited them to this getaway alongside Nell, to get revenge for destroying her life. They try to apologize, but Nicole brings up that they poured gasoline on her. Rachael says it was brandy, which, like, not helping. Lara then says that Nell was the one who caused all of this. Nell was the one who was angry about Nicole going to the slumber party. Nell was the one who spelled Nicole's name on the Ouija board. But Nell shows up just at that moment to debunk all of that, and at least give Lara props for trying to solve this mystery, unlike Rachael who didn't even bother.
Yes, they melted the snowman with a hand torch, knocked out Dana while she was skiing, then used some old ash and bones from a barbecue to make it look like they were Dana's bones. She overheard all of Lara's claims about spontaneous combustion, pyrokinesis and Carrie. No, this was all practical, even Mindy being burnt. But now the three people who ruined Nicole's life are trapped in the building that's about to blow up momentarily. Nicole and Nell also have their alibis ready to make it all look like an accident. Gotta give these two girls credit, when it comes to revenge, they really know how to map this all out.
But finally Nicole starts to realize that, hey they have a point. Nell did spell her name out and why would there be gasoline randomly in the house, so the brandy would have been an accident. Nell tells her to leave, but after Lara calls her Celeste again and that Nicole was dead, she starts to remember an incident involving a dress she wore when she was six that Nell ruined when she shoved her into a pool. In fact, Nell always seemed to try and ruin Nicole's life That's more than enough to convince her to start to free the girls. She starts to free Lara, but Nell attacks her and knocks her down.
As Nell starts to pour a tank of kerosene, Lara frees herself and grabs her flare gun. Nell says they'll all burn, but Lara says that Nell will burn first and they could escape in time. They try to talk to Nell one last time to get her to leave with them, but Nell is too far gone. She looks at her reconstructed face and says that it's all fake and that no one would ever want her. As Nell is about to flick a lighter, Lara shoots the flare at her, and she goes up in flames. Nicole panics, but they're able to get Dana and Rachael free in time. The girls begin to rush out of the soon-to-explode building and go "Oh shit, we forgot Mindy!" The girls manage to get a still unconscious Mindy and manage to escape just as the lodge explodes.
Lara goes over to Nicole and says that she promised that Nicole would live and sure enough, she really did. Suddenly "the colonel" shows up. Turns out that he was a part of the administration the whole time, and the person Lara was talking to was new, so he wasn't aware of the nickname. Apparently Cal was the one who informed them about what was going to happen at the lodge. He asks how the lodge caught fire, but the girls just say they woke up to the smoke. When he mentions that there should be six of them, they say that they tried to save Nell, but were unable.
A little time passes as Nicole recovers in the hospital. Lara is there to give her goodbyes as she's leaving with her mother soon. Nicole says that while she can't forgive what Nell did, she was still her sister and still took care of her after the incident. Lara also forgives Nell, which may have been how she's been able to cope with what happened. As for the explosion, the police and officials believe it was an accident, so no worries about that. Lara leaves, but not before running into Percy again. And despite Lara's mom showing up, they all leave in Dana's van, just like they came in. So, super happy yet depressing ending?
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