Book Review of Scavenger Hunt by Christopher Pike

Name of book: Scavenger Hunt

Author Name: Christopher Pike

ISBN: 0-671-67656-3

Publisher: Archway Paperback

Type of book: Young adult

Year it was published: July 1989

Summary:

School was almost over. A secretive club on campus had organized a scavenger hunt for the entire senior class. In small groups, and with the help of cleverly planted clues, the kids are led throughout the city, and then deep into a nighttime desert. The sponsoring club has promised a wonderful prize for the first group to reach the goal of the hunt. But for Carl Timmons, a troubled young man who has recently lost his best friend, the hunt will become a nightmare. Led astray by his love for a strangely beautiful girl, he will wander far from the others, and back into a haunted past, where the line between hte living and the dead is blurred and broken.


Characters:

The characters are second dimensional but are interesting. In particular its hard for me to find a character I disliked. Also this has a wheel chair character as one of the heroes so to speak.

Theme:

Ultimately, no species exists forever. I apologize that I cannot think of any other messages that the book was trying to send me.

Plot:

This was written in third person with alternating chapters of Carl's and Tracie's points of view. One thing that wasn't explained was how Cessy and David acquired bodies, and unfortunately it didn't go into technicalities of how revenge works for them.

Author Information:

Christopher Pike wrote 30+ novels mainly for young adults, the most famous or well known one is The Last Vampire Saga, Final Friends and Remember Me, and his real name is Kevin McFadden. One of his books, Fall Into Darkness was created into a movie. Unfortunately he doesn’t have a website, but there is a fan club that is devoted to him. (http://www.christopherpikefanclub.com/ )

Opinion:

This is another top favorite Pike that I loved. He really builds up a good tension in the book and answers the questions well for the most part. This is a very easy read in my view. I do wish that in the future books Davey and Cessy would be present again. I am curious about Cessy. One thing I didn't like was the "reality" cop out. (no pun intended.) The scavenger hunt clues connected well with one another. I also liked the love aspect, that Cessy's civilization isn't powerful in emotions. I suspect as well that this book has some sort of dark side to religion.

4 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)