Journal Entry 1 by choclaholic from San Antonio, Texas USA on Sunday, March 27, 2005

2005/19
6 1/2 stars

I first heard of this author when my Bookcrossing Group (BC-SAT at yahoo) embarked on a banned book project and made Duncan's 1978 novel, Killing Mr. Griffin one of our first read-and-release banned books. I just read that one over the weekend, too, and it was such a quick, easy and satisfying read, that I wanted to read more by this author right away. So I decided to get this made-famous-by-the-movie novel, as I figured it would make a good book-to-movie release in a video store or something.

This book is the story of a couple of southwestern teen couples who, after a night of partying, accidentally run down a 10 year old boy as he is out biking in the dark, late at night. It is about how they panic as they anonomously call for help, but decide never to admit responsibility for their actions, especially as they find out he dies on the way to the hospital. It is about their escape-ism as they think they got away with it and put the tragedy behind them. That is until SOMEONE (who?) apparently finds them out, and attempts to murder them for it. (Spoiler: It has nothing to do with a fisherman or a hook;)

I admit that after Griffin, I was a bit disappointed in this one. I'm keeping in mind that this book predated Griffin by five years, and perhaps the author was still working out the kinks in her style. But because it had such a similar theme -- a group of stereotypical teens hanging out at a secluded picnic area end up accidentally killing someone, and then making a pact to keep it a secret -- AND that the two book's characters were practically interchangeable: Julie from this could have been Sue from there, Ray here could have been Dave there, our Helen so much like their Betsy, and this Barry is kind of a combo of that Jeff and Mark -- well, by the time I was done with this, it was like I'd already read it, only better before. This book didn't have quite the smooth elements and natural unravelling of the plot, or the psychological insights that Griffin had -- Griffin read as if it could've been written by the likes of Sue Grafton or that caliber, whereas I think Summer really IS more appealing to the YA set.

Still, interestingly enough, as opposed to when I read Griffin, I actually couldn't picture the screenplay of this going through my mind -- even though I knew this was already a movie. So, though I'd never had the impulse to see the movie before, now I just had to go out and rent it, to see what they'd done with it. And, oh what liberties they took with this story! I knew they'd probably set it in modern times, which meant they 'd obvioulsy remove all the Viet Nam era anti-war references, but wow, I didn't figure that they'd actually turn it into a horror flick! Hmmm, I wonder what Duncan herself thought of how they turned her story into that finished product, and with a sequel, no less!

Anyway, to those of you who actually enjoyed the movie, you may be disappointed by the book when it reads like just a standard "who-dunnit", rather than the heart-pounding cheap-thrill-maker of a suspense movie. Those who didn't like the movie so much may feel this is refreshingly original, rather than the hollywood-bastardized screenplay.

I, myself, felt the whole experience this weekend spiralling down hill, as I started with the very good Griffin, went through this book, and ending up watching a loosely connected horror movie.

Regardless of what I thought about it, now that you've found this book, YOU have the opportunity to read it and decide for yourself what to think!

For me, this weekend was an interesting immersion into Lois Duncan's style. Since I think I've read her best, with the exception of her non-ficiton book that she wrote searching for her real-life daughter's murderer, I feel I am done with her now, and am moving on to other things.

 

Journal Entry 2 by choclaholic at Joe's Crab Shack, 12485 I 10 West in San Antonio, Texas USA on Thursday, March 31, 2005

Released 6 yrs ago (3/31/2005 UTC) at Joe's Crab Shack, 12485 I 10 West in San Antonio, Texas USA

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:

Since this book turned out to be sooooo different from the movie, I decided not to do the video store release for it after all.

I left this on a chair in the "lobby" of Joe's about 8:15.