Point by Numbers: The Snowman

It's time for the cold comforts of another Point Horror book. It is almost winter after all. And it just so happens that Stine gave us a book about snowmen... Yeah, I know he gave us a book about snowmen in Goosebumps, but I mean he at least offered a snowman-themed Point book back in 1994. And given it's Point and, more specifically, late-Stine Point, I'm not sure what to expect. Will this be solid cold gold, or an icy reception? Find out as we talk about The Snowman.

Very striking cover. And I don't mean that because the head of the snowman got struck off his body. Although, while it is trying to sell the concept of the killer of the story, there is a bit of a silliness to it. Feeling less like this is a book about a killer and more about someone who's a jerk and clotheslining snowmen. So maybe not a cover that works on the horror aspect as one would hope. Still solid. 

We open on our protagonist, Heather Dickson, being called to hold the ladder for her uncle James, who is fixing the gutters on the roof. Heather, hating her uncle, lets go of the ladder and leaves him stuck on the roof. Except that's not what happens, that was just a dream. Instead she holds the ladder, then lets go as Uncle James crashes to the ground below. But that was also just a dream. Oh yeah this is definitely feeling like late-Point Stine. See, Heather REALLY hates her Uncle James, and envisions different ways of killing him over and over. She tells this to her boyfriend Ben in his Honda Civic, which again feels like Stine projecting that he really wants a nice new car. The two make out for a bit before Uncle James shows up and yanks her out of the car, calls her a tramp and sends Ben on his way before sending Heather on hers. You know, maybe she's in the right to think about killing him. 

So why is Heather in this situation? Well, her parents died in the Stine classic, the car accident, when Heather was three. And she's been left in the care of her Uncle James and Aunt Belle for thirteen years. And since Heather has a huge trust fund that's being denied to her by James, you can again see why the visions of murderplums dance in her head. Heather works at Cook's Kitchen Coffee Shop which feels like someone taking a millisecond to come up with a restaurant name. Inside are the waitress, Marjorie and Mel Heater, the chef. And yes, Heather and Heater being used does trigger my brain. Her friend Kim is also there. As Heather once again complains about her shitty uncle, she's interrupted by a young man about her age with pure white hair and a tan complexion. She's instantly smitten and introduces herself to the boy, who then introduces himself only as Snowman. Not his real name, just his nickname. He conveniently just moved into town and just as conveniently is going to Twin Valley High like Heather is. So smitten is Heather to Snowman that she pays for his meal when he claims to have no wallet on him (which would be an important plot point if she wasn't all goo goo to him) and accepts a date with him on Saturday.

As Heather goes to the parking lot after closing time, she's stopped by her actual boyfriend Ben. She lies about not being able to for out with him on Saturday and continues to contemplate if she's just bored of him at this point. Though given that she then has a dream about riding on a sled with Uncle James and steering him into a tree to kill him, maybe him getting out while he can is a good thing. Saturday comes and Heather goes out with Snowman, but not before again being berated by Uncle James. Snowman arrives and James dresses him down. Snowman claims his name as Bill Jeffers, which offends James because it sounds Hungarian. And also notes his hair claiming that Snowman must be an albino, and also mentions Heather's other boyfriend Ben. We're 48 pages deep and I think we're getting a strong enough laundry list as to why James needs to be dead. 

But Snowman is resilient and manages to deflect all of Uncle James' barbs. Heather and Snowman make their leave to go to the local dance bar The Woods. But as they drive, Snowman notices that they're being followed. But when the car disappears, Snowman says that it must be a false alarm. Definitely not someone looking for him because he's never done anything in his life to arouse suspicion. Nope. Totally innocent. He also mentions that, like Heather, he too lost a parent to a car accident when he was three years old. His father. It's just he and his mother who recently moved to Twin Valley. Oh and he's totally broke, yet again. The next day at school, Heather can't find Snowman. Nobody's even heard of him. But one person who has heard of him is Ben because he found out about her date the previous night thanks to Uncle James. At dinner, Heather and Uncle James get into an argument which turns physical as James grabs her and ends up sending her crashing back-first into the table. Okay NOW I'm on board with making this fucker a corpse. She goes to work, but sees no sign of Snowman. When she gets home, she tells Ben the truth, which causes him to immediately break up with her.

Heather heads to work the next day and Snowman is there. He chalks up not being at school as him having to stay home to help his mother and that he was moved from that class to another. Again. Totally innocent. Alibis as airtight as possible. He leaves her a note to meet him at Swan Park. After closing time Heather drives home, but sees a Taurus following her. She thinks it must belong to Ben's family, but it doesn't appear to be Ben following her. However, when she evades the Taurus and makes it to Ben's house, it's completely empty. The next day, Snowman and Heather are at Swan Park when Snowman suggests making his nicknamesake, a snowman. He then drags Heather to a snowy clearing that he found in the woods, which Heather at least notes is strange to say given that he just moved to Twin Valley, so how would he know anywhere yet? They make the snowman as Heather notes that it feels like they're being watched. After they finish, and before they leave, human Snowman then drives his elbow into the head of the snow snowman, for reasons he won't explain because we're only 84 pages into this 181 page book.

Heather goes out with Snowman again, but not before Snowman notices that Uncle James got a new Volvo, which, I gotta stress, I think Stine's telling the reader what he wants for his birthday. She notes that she knows that Uncle James is stealing from her trust fund, but she can't really do anything about it. She invites Snowman to dinner, saying that given what a piece of shit James is, he won't last the entire dinner, but Snowman promises that maybe he'll manage. And she's technically right. He holds his own for a bit, especially when James starts dressing him down and his family. But then James says that Heather won't be with him for long and he'll make sure that she winds up with her own kind. Snowman leaves with Heather chasing after, apologizing for her uncle being a piece of shit. Snowman says it's just words and he has bigger problems. Namely his younger brother Eddie is really sick and needs a kidney operation. His mother is a nurse, but just a private nurse for an old lady, and even if he winds up getting a job he still needs two thousand dollars to pay for an operation. Yep. Completely airtight. Airtight enough that Heather promises she can get him the money, but he declines. But a week later, he asks for the money again since Eddie urgently needs that kidney operation. She gives him the two grand from the account she's allowed to have, and he promises to pay her back real soon.

The next day, Heather runs into Ben and still tells him that she's with Snowman and that she still wouldn't mind being friends with Ben. This bothers Ben who runs off before asking her how Uncle James is. As she waits for Snowman at the restaurant, Heather does begin to note that despite all this time with him, she still doesn't know where Snowman lives, and he still hasn't been seen at school. She runs into Snowman in the parking lot who tells her that he paid her back like he promised. By which I mean he killed Uncle James for her. And he's not joking either. He went to the front door, waited for him to answer then strangled him with a red scarf. Strong enough to kill, soft enough to not leave a mark so it looks like a heart attack. Gotta admit, pretty slick. He takes Heather home and, sure enough, her Aunt Belle confirms it, thinking it was indeed a heart attack, with Snowman offering sympathy to the new widow. So, uh, yeah. Heather now realizes she's dating a murderer.

After Aunt Belle goes to bed, Heather tells Snowman that yeah, she hated Uncle James, and was saying she wanted to kill him, but she didn't want to ACTUALLY kill him. She threatens to call the cops, but Snowman planned for that as well, showing her the check for two thousand dollars. If she tries to call the cops on him, he'll say that she paid him to kill her uncle, and given she had this nasty little habit of saying "I want to kill him" to people, who would believe her? Also, shocker of shockers, he doesn't have a little brother or a nurse mom. So yeah, like I said, fuckin' AIRTIGHT. After the funeral, the Taurus shows up again at Heather's house. The men inside are FBI agents who admit to following her around because they need to find a boy named William Jeffers. Heather, still knowing she's being blackmailed, denies knowing anything about William. The officers leave, but not before telling her that William is being hunted for murdering his father.

A few weeks pass. Aunt Belle is in control of Heather's money and, unlike James, is actually trusting Heather with it. Plus the house is much more comfortable and far less, um, "asshole polluted?" She also asks Ben out for a date, which might not be the best idea because shortly after that, Snowman shows up. She tells him about the feds looking for her, and that she told them nothing, but he seems to not believe that. He then bribes her for another two thousand, given the check he has, he can't actually cash. She tells him to leave which causes him to snap at her, saying that his father abused him, scarred him, beat him with a bike chain and tied him up to a tree. I guess the moral of this book is adult men fucking suck? But, I mean, given the election... Snowman takes the money and promises to leave Heather forever, but, I mean, you know where this is going. Of course he doesn't leave. He's back the next day. And now he wants five thousand dollars in cash and then scouts honor for realsies he's gone for good. But, whoops! It turns out that Aunt Belle is renting the garage out to Snowman. 

Heather reveals to Ben the whole issue with Snowman and how she still can't call the cops on him because of the check. So Ben suggests that if they can get that check, then he won't have anything to hold over her head. They go into his room to try and steal it, but that doesn't work as Snowman is awake and he smashes a tire jack over Ben's head and grabs Heather, driving her to the clearing from earlier. He knocks her out and when she wakes up, she notices that she's being tied up and bundled in snow. He's literally turning her into a snow woman. This guy's like one or two actions away from being a C-tier Batman villain. She manages to get into her pocket and grab a lighter that she always carries around, but it doesn't work... but does after a few attempts. This book is surprisingly few in fake out stingers, but this one was fine. She frees her hands but is still tied to the legs when Snowman goes after her again. But she uses her lighter which lights his jacket ablaze. He runs off in a panic just as the cops and Ben show up. Ben tells Heather that he was spying on her that day when she was at the clearing. They check on Snowman to find that the check is burned so she's in the clear there too. And so the book ends with Heather promising to never let her heart be cold with hate ever again. Though, I mean, at least her shithead uncle's dead. That's a win no matter how you slice it.

I rail on Stine's Point stuff a lot. Mainly because it can represent some of his worst aspects when it comes to his writing. Poorly structured mysteries, unlikeable characters, a sense of sneering mean spiritedness to the whole thing. So when a book catches me off guard, it tends to end up as a book I really appreciate. And I really appreciate this book. I honestly think it's up there with The Hitchhiker as his best Point book. And that comes down to how well the book is structured. How it sets up everything that leads to Uncle James' death. How it builds up Snowman as someone who always feels like a threat, even when he's putting the facade of being a good guy. It also feels like a book that isn't laden with fake outs or wall hits, or anything that you get so often from Stine. It's a great book. Believe me when I say I was not expecting to say that from a book called The Snowman.

Heather is a great protagonist. I was really worried, what with her bloodlust for killing off Uncle James, that we were going into another Brenda Morgan Halloween Night situation with an unlikeable lead who is also a murderous psychopath. Thankfully the book swerves from that and gives us all of the reason in the world to understand why she has these thoughts about her Uncle. He might be the most detestable character Stine's ever written. Cruel, hateful, constantly treating Heather like garbage. Mostly mentally and rarely physically. And god knows if this were from someone like a Christopher Pike, this would have been presented with far more horrifying implications. Thankfully, the book doesn't need to go that far. So you don't really feel bad at all for his death, but you can also still understand why Heather would feel bad for his death, since she unintentionally caused it to happen. Because despite her dreams, it's well established she would have preferred he dropped dead by his own doing. 

Snowman is also a solid villain. Perfectly able to manipulate someone like Heather into doing whatever he wants. The ultimate example of the perfect boy that is so easy to fall for, that you could see how Heather could buy the classic sick brother alibi. There's a bit of sympathy to him. In how he killed his father mainly as an act of revenge for all of the physical and mental abuse. But given that he's also a massive piece of shit, that sympathy really feels superficial in the end. I also like the symbolism of a character named Snowman being defeated by fire. My god it really does feel like Stine tried with this one. Aunt Belle works as the more likeable relative who is easily manipulated by Snowman, Ben works as the former boyfriend who isn't a piece of crap, and Kim exists as the best friend role. Can't say there's really any Superfluous Clays in this book. Maybe the restaurant staff I guess. 

So yeah, this was good. I'd argue it does have a few of the obvious tropes of Stine's work, mainly down to the spying other boyfriend, the new boyfriend having too many warning signs for the heroine to not immediately suspect he's a killer, and stuff like that. But that does feel moot for a book that does feel fresh enough for a Stine work. Every time I think I have my doubts about him, he does surprise me. Easy recommend. The Snowman gets an A.