Monster Recap Part One: Chpt 1 - 4

TITLE: Monster

AUTHOR: Christopher Pike

PUBLISHED: 1992

GENRE: YA Horror

WHERE I GOT IT: Own it.

ABOUT BLURB: 

She said she killed them because they were monsters. Mary Carlson walked into the party with a loaded shotgun. In the blink of an eye she blew two people away. She wanted to kill more, but was stopped by her best friend, Angela Warner, and the police.

The next day, when Angela visits Mary at jail she asks why she did it. Mary responds, “Because they were no longer human.” Angela thinks she's crazy. At first.

Until she probes deeper into Mary's claims and discovers a horror so unimaginable that she thinks she is going crazy. She even gets to the point where she wonders if she should have let Mary keep on killing. While there was still time to stop the thing from spreading. The very old thing. The hungry thing.

COVER OPINION: I actually really love this cover. At first glance everything seems normal and then you notice the football players eyes and the red moon behind him. Very creepy.

CHARACTERS:

Angela Warner: newbie in town, best friend of Mary

Mary Blanc: one who is convinced there are monsters among them

Kevin Christopher: A good friend of Angela, has a huge crush on her

FOOTBALL PLAYERS AND CHEERLEADERS:

Jim Kline: football player, Mary's boyfriend

Todd Green: linebacker for the football team

Larry Zurer: football player

Fred Keith: football player for Balton injured badly in a game

Kathy Baker: head cheerleader

Carol McFarland: cheerleader

OFFICERS AND OTHER ADULTS:

Lieutenant Nguyen: in charge of the case

Officer Martin: officer helping Nguyen

Officer Kenny Williams: another office that helps Nguyen

Angela's Grandfather: 73, loves chasing tail and is still a total ladies man

Alan Spark: Professor of Geology at the University of Michigan

OTHER:

Plastic: Angela's grandfather's dog

CHAPTER ONE:

Angela saw it as a sign of being accepted in the small town of Point that she was invited to a party at Jim Kline's house. After all she had only lived there for three months. She was enjoying beer and chatting with her fellow classmates when her best friend Mary Blanc came in carrying a shotgun. She looked around and then shot Todd Green in the stomach. Everyone stood in shock as Mary started looking around, pumped her shotgun and then shot Kathy Baker in the head.

(WOW! Talk about an opening scene! That was CRAAAZZZY!)

“Kathy was a blonde piece of Cream pie.”

(okay LOL I hope this doesn't mean what I think it means! Anyways, it made me laugh. Moving on...)

Mary's focus turns to the stairs as she heads that way. Everyone is still standing frozen trying to comprehend what the hell is going on. Jim Kline peeks his head down and when he sees Mary his jaw drops. Mary raises the shotgun and shots again. Did I mention that Jim is Mary's boyfriend? The shot missed as Jim jumped back and took off. Angela tries to stop her as Mary heads up the stairs, but Mary pushes her off and tells her to leave her alone. Angela gives chase anyways. Mary rushes down the hallway to the bedrooms. A few people are scattered along the way and nobody does anything to stop Mary, even with Angela's insistence that they do so.

(I'm sorry I can't believe NOBODY is doing anything! I mean, she just shot two people and is after a third! I don't expect them to try and take the gun away from her but seriously, they could scream or run the hell out of the house, call the police or SOMETHING. Not just stand there. Hmmm just a thought, does that mean that they are monsters to? Or at least most of them? Later the monsters do just stand around staring at stuff. Interesting thought! )

Mary pounded on the door at the end, stepped back and used the shotgun to blow the door knob off. She was just opening the door when Angela tackled her. Mary yells at her again to leave her alone. Angela knocks her head against the door and almost blacks out. She sees Jim at the window, sees Mary cock the gun again and hears the window shatter. At first she thought it was the gun but then realizes that it was Jim going through the window to escape Mary. Mary looks out the window, then turns and runs back through the house.

(ummmm Jim just jumped out of a second story window and is still running! Yeah he is totally a monster – which probably makes the other two monsters as well.)

Angela hears police sirens in the distance and walks back down the stairs trying not to look at the bodies of two of her classmates and all the blood. She goes outside to see that almost everyone is hovering around out here, and some even throwing up.

(Well there goes that theory that a lot more are monsters right now since most are throwing up. I can't believe that a monster would do that. It was an interesting thought though.)

Two cop cars arrive at the scene and Angela tells the one that seems to be in charge what happened. She says that she figures Jim will head towards the South end of Point Lake because the trees are thicker there. He tells her to stay put and let them do their jobs. Angela can't just stand by and wait because she knew that they would probably have to shoot Mary and she didn't want to see that happened. She figures she could possibly talk her down. She runs to her car and hopes that by driving around the lake that she can get to her friend before the police. We learn that she is living with her Grandfather here because she couldn't take the fighting and her parent's divorce anymore.

She arrives and parks and starts to walk into the forest calling out to Mary. Jim is nearby and tells her to shut it because she is going to give their location away. Angela says that the police should be here soon but they soon hear Mary pumping the shotgun and they both stop when she calls out to them.

Mary approaches slowly and tells Angela not to get in her way but she doesn't listen and jumps in front of Jim, who she figures is frozen in fear, and tries to talk some sense into Mary.

“I have to kill him!” Mary said.
“Why?” Angela pleaded.
“Because he's not human,” Mary said.

(Whatever a monster is or what kind of monster they are.)

Mary warns Angela that if she doesn't move she will shoot her as well. She didn't want to but if she didn't get out of the way she would have no choice.

“Angela was surprised that he [Jim] wasn't begging Mary for mercy.”

(Interesting, does he not have any emotions at all anymore or what? He is faking being human badly then!)

Just then the cops show up and tell Mary to drop the weapon. She refuses at first and he tells her that he will shoot her in the head if she doesn't. She finally agrees and slowly lowers the shot gun to the ground but then suddenly dives behind a tree. She pulls out a pistol from her waist band and manages to shoot Jim in the leg before the cop shoots the gun out of her hand. She doesn't give up but the cop is quicker and knocks her out. He then asks Angela and Jim if they are okay. Angela has a weird feeling that it has only just begun.

 (Whatever that is.)

CHAPTER TWO:

Lieutenant Nguyen, the officer that saved Jim and Angela's life the night before calls her early the next day to come down to the station. He asks her if she has any idea why Mary would do this. Angela can't think of anything but she did note that Mary had been quieter then normal the last few days and may have been more distant with Jim lately.

Nguyen wants Angela to talk to Mary since she won't talk to anyone else. We learn that Mary's family has lots of money.


(Of course they do. Seriously the last three books I have read by him at least one character has shit loads of money!)

Besides being an incredible dancer, Mary could, paint, sing, play the flute and make – so she said – incredible love. Jim, she said, was the best.
Three months ago. The best.
And last night she had done everything in her power to kill him.

(I wonder if the change was just recently or if it had been gradual for awhile now?)

Mary is led into the room that Angela is in and Angela asks her what the hell happened the night before. Mary says that she wouldn't believe her if she told her. Then acted bored and not interested when Angela presses her for a reason. It wasn't until Angela reminded Mary that she said last night that Jim wasn't human. That got a reaction and Mary seemed to be scared. Mary tells her that she killed Kathy and Todd because they were no longer like Angela and herself that they were monsters. Angela convinces her to explain in more detail.

Mary says that every year before school starts the football team and the cheerleaders gather at the school to practice. Because she was dating Jim she started going there sometimes to watch him practice. That was when she started noticing that some of them were all of a sudden TOO good at what they did. Specifically Todd and Jim. She also noticed that the head cheerleader did unbelievable things like jump on top of a human pyramid 10 feet in the air from the ground. Mary says that it seemed like something had changed about Jim but she couldn't put her finger on it.

One day she went to the school and saw in the weight room Kathy lifting 1000 pounds over her head and the two guys pushing the machines to their max but not sweating. After that she started watching them and noticed that they often hung out alone together and never smiled unless someone else was around. She even used to camp out in her car on Jim’s street and watch him come outside and play.

“You talk like they were vampires.”
Mary's eyes grew dark. “They were worse then vampires.”

(What the hell are they!!)

Mary said she followed Jim one night and watched him pick up Todd and Kathy. They went to a bar and picked up two couples and they all went to some warehouse. Mary watched from afar and after an hour the trio emerged alone. They were carrying some garbage bags. After the trio left she got a flashlight and looked around the warehouse and spotted blood on the floor but no clothing and no bodies.

“They're monsters. What do monsters have for dinner?”

(I love that freaking line! What do monsters have for dinner? Sooooo freakin creepy! I'm loving this book and so far I do not remember anything about it although I am sure that I have read it before?)

Angela clearly does not believe her and says to herself,

“Mary's raving. She can't accept what she and she's invented this fantasy. There are no monsters.”

(I really don't blame Angela I mean what Mary is saying is pretty freaking weird!)

Mary gets frustrated that Angela doesn't believe her. She mentions that a few days ago she saw Jim talking to Carol McFarland and Larry Zurer, and that it is possible that they are monsters now as well.

Angela still doesn't believe her but asks if there is anything else she wants to add. Mary says isn't it strange that Jim knew he was next and that he dove out that window and dropped 12 feet to the ground without getting hurt. Angela doesn't agree because she said she would do the same thing if someone was coming after her with a gun.

Before Angela leaves Mary tries to get her to swear she will stay clear of Jim and then looks sad when she realizes that her friend doesn't believe how dangerous he is. Angela leaves and tells Nguyen that Mary wouldn't talk about last night.

After she left another officer brings a tape recorder to Nguyen to listen to. 

(Sneaky sneaky!) 

He had already listened in on their conversation but wanted to listen to it again. He had interviewed Jim earlier and he did not like him. He was convinced that Jim was hiding something and that he was guilty of some crime.

(Well that at least is good!)

He asks Officer Martin to get Mary's bail hearing postponed because he did not want her out roaming free and he also asked for a list of all empty warehouses in the area.

CHAPTER THREE:

Angela attended the funeral for Todd and Kathy. As she was leaving Jim approaches her to talk. She had no fear of him because Mary’s story was just to crazy to believe.

Jim was what was known as a totally rad dude.

(LOLZ! Sorry the slang from back in the day is hilarious – totally rad man! :D )

Angela has always been attracted to Jim.

(oh gawd here we go, but what did I expect.)

He just wanted to thank her for saving him. She asks him what happened and he was like didn’t you talk to her on Saturday?

(Sounds to me that he is fishing for information. Obviously we know he is a monster but I totally don't trust him and why is it that people always think the 'monsters/bad guys' are not shady when they are TOTALLY being creepy!! How did he KNOW she talked to Mary. She hasn't even talked to anyone. Geez creepy stalker Jim! Well I guess it is possible that he saw her at the police station but if she was so into him wouldn't she have noticed him as well? Actually regardless of how he found out it still is sort of creepy.)

Angela says that she didn't tell her anything. Jim shook his head.

“What happened is I told her I wanted to break up with her and go out with other girls. She got real upset – actually it caught me by surprise. You know how strong Mary always is. So when she told me that I couldn't leave her, that I belonged to her, I didn't know what to do. I avoided her at first, but she kept coming to our practices and wouldn't leave me alone. She called Todd and told him to tell her if I went out with any other girls. She cornered Kathy at school and told her if she so much as looked at me that she'd kill her.”

(BULLSHIT Jim, total bullshit! I'm not surprised, though, considering he first fished around to see if Mary spilled the beans or not before he came up with this LAME excuse. GAWD and Angela FALLS FOR IT! I am seriously rolling my eyes at the moment. I mean, even if this was true, how would he expect his girlfriend to take that news. She wouldn't jump up and down in joy so of course she is going to be upset and pissed. OMG Jim is an ass, why does Angela like him? Being a strong women has nothing to do with being upset about the person you are going out with dumping you. It still sucks.)

Angela asks him why he wanted to break up with Mary in the first place and he says that a funeral is a shitty place to talk about this.

(Well duh Jim. I think you should like, I don't know, be mourning your friends instead of trying to hook up. These monsters sure don't know how to not make people suspicious. Oh wait, what am I saying. Mary was the only one to notice.)

He suggests getting together after the game on Friday. Angela is surprised that he is playing.

(hello Jim you got shot in the leg! Humans don't recover that fast from a wound like that.)

He was all like 'I am fine', almost like it was only a scratch or something. Then Angela thinks this,

But Jim wasn't asking her out on a date – not really. He just wanted to talk. There could be no harm in that.

(ugh, REALLY Angela? Really? I mean come on. Also you suck as a friend.)

Then Kevin Christopher comes to visit her. Turns out Angela considers him to be her next best friend after Mary, and that Kevin has a huge crush on her and is obsessed with sex.

(lol)

Angela wishes that she had the same feelings for Kevin but he doesn't “do it” for her, not like Jim Kline.

(Oh god this is going to end bad I just know it. Ohh maybe Angela is convinced that whatever Jim is, is cool and gets turned into a monster as well to be with him forever...ahhh let's hope not! I don't want this “love” story to turn out that way!!)

Kevin calls her A&W because her initials are the same as his fav root beer.

 (I agree that stuff is the shit!)

“I almost feel like leaving Point and going back to live with one of my parents. They only fought with words – they didn't use shotguns.”

(haha I love Pikes wit!)

Angela decides to tell Kevin what Mary said if he promises not to tell anyone. He listens and tells her that maybe it wasn't Mary’s fault.

(Interesting but she still pulled the trigger.)

He said that it was only a year ago that the Point high school was built and near the end of football season a lot of students started feeling shitty. The strange thing was it seemed to only effect two groups of students, the football players and cheerleaders. Experts were called in. They tested everything but couldn't find anything wrong. Theories were tossed around that the strange long summer they had was the root cause or the fact that the football team lost two games that season, which was normal for a new school.

(??? I don't get this. Doesn't someone have to lose sometime?)

They never found a reason and the issue seemed to resolve itself. So everyone soon forgot about it. Kevin said maybe whatever they had is what Mary caught and that is why she went “crazy” and started shooting people. It also could be why it made the three targets do strange things? Although Kevin does not believe that they eat people.

They go to the library because Angela wants to read articles on what happened but she really only found what Kevin had just told her. The only new thing was that the contractors who built the school lost money on the project because it took them a million times longer to build the foundation then they thought. Something about the iron content of the soil being a lot more then the figured so the ground was a lot harder? And we learn that Point Lake could have been formed by a meteor.

(oooh could the monsters be aliens from the meteor crash? Or the school football field is built on top of something?)

The people who live on Angela's side of the lake get their water from a well high up on a hill, while the school gets it from the lake.

(Well that seems strange!)

CHAPTER FOUR:

Angela goes to the football game by herself, not mentioning to Kevin that that is her plan. She meets up with Jim and they go to a restaurant. Jim's family also has money.

(Honestly being told randomly that Mary and Jim's family are stinking rich really seems like an after thought and to me has no bearing on the story at all. So I don't really see why it matters if they have money or not? I don't know that just sort of bugs me.)

He tells Angela that he actually told Mary not only that he wanted to see other girls but that he wanted to see Angela herself.

(OMG I didn't see that one coming! ~note my sarcasm. Wow sorry but Jim is really freakin creepy).

Angela is flattered since she has a huge crush on him anyways.

(~Rolls eyes)

She feels guilty because Mary is still her friend but she doesn't tell Jim she isn't interested, on the contrary she tells him he is cute.

(Your a shitty friend! I don't care that Mary tried to kill him, Angela still considers Mary a friend and is worried about her. So she should not be trying to hook up with her ex.)

They drive back to her grandfathers house to go for a walk. He hits the propane tank with his truck but thankfully it didn't explode. It was a pretty big tank for only one house,Jim points out. Angela said that there were more houses here that used the same tank but they burnt down a longtime ago.

(Interesting, although I find it strange that more then one house shares a tank? What happens if one person hogs all the fuel? I don't know I would never go for that.)

She also states that it was just filled it up.

(Also interesting. I totally see that tank exploding at some point in the future.)

They get all mushy, and he moves to try and undress her. She tells him to slow the F down! Then he spontaneously starts to take his clothes off because he wants them to go for a swim. Angela knows the water is always freezing so does not go in. He does but then comes back out to try and drag her in.

(Nice Jim. Not only are you creepy but your a douche that will make her do what you want against her will.)

She never knew that he was this pushy and runs away from him. He follows. She ducks behind a bush to hide but then hears him cry out. When she peeks around the bush she sees him holding his arm .

(Yeah that wasn't intentional or anything.)

They start back to the house so she can bandage it up for him but when they get back to the water he insists that he just wash it off in the lake and bandage his arm with his t-shirt.

(Weirdo.)

He says that it hurts a lot but when she leans over at the waters edge to help him with it he kisses her and then is practically ripping her clothes off. Strange thing is this time she doesn't care, not until she feels blood on her stomach and realizes that he is really freaking bleeding on her.

(GROSS!)

He tried to pass it off as nothing, he also tries to get her to kiss it and make it better !!!?????

(WTF is going on. Why would he think that she would do that!)

She was like 'hell no'. She instead ties his t-shirt around his arm. He tries to make out with her again but since they were both covered in his blood she was like ' umm I don't think so!' He leaves and she goes to bed.

Angela has one messed up dream about blood and an earth like place trying to absorb her from the soil.

(???? I don't even know what to say and I thought my dreams were strange!)

She wakes up and wishes that she never has that dream again.

(I have a bad feeling that she has just become whatever the hell Jim is, or at least starting too. She did get a bit of his blood in her mouth.)

CONTINUE ON WITH: Monster: Part 2, Part 3, Part 4