Tagline: if you thought last time was scary…
Back tagline: The most exclusive holiday club is one you have to be dead to enter…
Summary: Spinnaker Lodge: glamorous, luxurious holiday hotspot off the east coast. But five teenagers there for the summer know this island has a sinister side.
A killer is still on the loose, and the hooded figure who stalks the teens’ nightmares is closing in. Can they keep it together without losing hold of their own dark secrets. Could the stories of a curse on Essex Island be true?
Whatever, for Anna, Martin, Erica and Carter, what was meant to be a vacation paradise has turned into a holiday in hell…
First impressions: This blurb tells us nothing, but I enjoyed the first one so hopefully this is a worthy sequel. I can’t help but notice that Rachel is left out here, though; does that mean she’ll die? Maybe she’s the new killer!
Again it’s a super simple cover, but I like it. This villain is more grim reaper-ish than on the first book, and I like the addition of the bloody chain. I wonder how it will come into play, though.
I’m assuming this book picks up shortly after the first one ended, which I like, because we were left with a cliffhanger, and we also still don’t know what exactly the shape-shifting coyote-creature thing was. Hopefully this sequel answers all my questions! Let’s read.
Recap
Roll call:
Carter – The womaniser who continues to make questionable decisions.
Anna – Carter’s love interest with not much to do this time around.
Erica – The wannabe journalist who’s first to realise there’s something weird still going on.
Martin – The paranoid schizophrenic who’s episodes take a backseat this time around.
Henry – The local boy who steal likes to take things that aren’t his.
Rachel – Carter’s other love interest who still doesn’t know if she’s actually pregnant.
Obadiah – The Essex tramp who’s as mysterious as ever.
Jared – A mainlander with ties to the island who’s even more of a tool than Carter.
Redriver – A Madekonset tribesman who’s on a very important mission.
We begin with a prologue than I can barely make sense of, so I guess this book will also have its fair share of unclear scenes. We’re with some kind of being named Redriver, [Maybe the shape-shifting beast thing?] who’s watching as Alphonse Lemieux is feeding a small stack of paper to a paper shredder. This apparently hurts Redriver, who can’t be seen or heard and refers to the paper being shredded his skin? [Seriously, I have no idea what is happening] There’s a knock at the door now, and Alphonse is clearly scared. His trembling hands are unable to place the last two sheets, one brittle, old and a tawny-coloured and the other a bright white, into the shredder, so shoves them into his jacket pocket and rushes to the door at the other end of his office. A figure steps through the door behind Alphonse and Redriver closes his eyes, preferring to simply hear the brutal murder of Alphonse Lemieux instead of seeing it, too:
Outside, in the reeds, a black animal perks up its ears. It hears the scream. Just as it had heard the others. But this one is different.
The creature knows. The killings were a prelude.
The battle has begun.
[Ok, so Redriver is something different to the black beast thing, I guess. It’s really annoying how unclear this whole thing is] The main story begins a few hours after the discovery of Alphonse Lemieux’s body as Erica sits in the hospital’s autopsy room across from his corpse, writing up a news article. [Which is very obnoxiously written] Henry’s also here and has been reading over her shoulder, and he thinks she’s being harsh on the cops, but good reporters write the truth, damn it! Erica likes Henry; he’s not like the other local teens ‘who treated Erica extra-extra well to gain the cachet of having a black friend.’ [Wow, she lasted one whole page without bringing up her race]
Henry’s alcoholic father is the island’s ambulance driver and had offered her a lift here, and Erica couldn’t turn down a scoop like this! Even now there’s dozens of media people outside the door, wanting to get access to where she is. But by now the novelty’s worn off and she’s growing more unnerved by the lifeless body on the cold, marble table. Erica can’t believe that the murder spree over the last few days, including her own brush with death earlier tonight hasn’t hardened her up a bit, but that might be because of one glaring issue – Alphonse was axed after Gershon Phelps was captured, meaning there’s another killer on the loose.
Henry’s hovering around the body, whistling merrily as he paws through the dead man’s pockets and takes off his jewellery. He declares to an appalled Erica that emptying the pockets in preparation for the autopsy is Mortuary Science 101, and he knows this because his dad was a mortician. Henry’s dad was also a postal worker, bartender, tour bus driver, scalloper, and fisherman at one point or another, but had been fired every time for being a drunk. [Was he even qualified for some of these jobs?] Then he’d beg his way into another job, because the locals look after each other around here; ‘”Everyone’s family owes everyone else’s.”‘
At Erica’s command, Henry heads off to find his father so they can leave, and while alone with the body Erica notices that his expensive jewellery and money is now missing. Erica can’t believe Henry would really steal from a dead man and scolds herself for being so gullible. Erica realises she’ll likely be blamed for ransacking his belongings because she was the last one in here, so she decides to put everything back in Alphonse’s pockets to make it look like it never happened. For all she knows, Henry’s already on his way to the mainland to spend his new riches! As she pulls on some rubber gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints, Erica notices two crumpled papers on the floor. One is a sheet of Spinnaker Lodge stationary with some kind of list on it, and the other one seems to be parchment that’s old, cracked and disintegrating. On it is a faded drawing of a man in a weird pose, holding what looks like a tray up to the light.
Thinking it’s a depiction of an ancient Madekonset ritual, Erica decides she’ll take it to the Essex Historical Society and slips it into her bag, not wanting it to be manhandled and ruined further by the police. She quickly begins refilling Alphonse’s pockets, but ends up panicking when she can feel his cold skin through the material and gets her hand stuck when she tries to yank it out. The body moves closer to her as she continues to pull, and the pocket ends up ripping, spilling pennies and nickels and quarters all over the floor. [So apparently this guy was walking around with a thick stack of bills, all these different coins, a wallet, cough drops, gum, and several receipts in his pockets all at once?] The body then slips over the edge of the table, yanking Erica down with it because her hand is still caught in the pocket, and she finds herself eye to eye with Alphonse, who then blinks. [?!?!?!]
Elsewhere, Rachel’s called Carter’s cellphone and can tell it’s not a recording when he pretends to be a voice mail message. He seems to be in high spirits despite the fact he pulled a body down from a hanging shark jaw in a restaurant earlier this evening, so Rachel worries that he’s in denial. She wants to see him but he’s with the cops, who think he murdered Alphonse on account of his fingerprints being on the body, and he hands the phone to Patrolman Lovett so Rachel can vouch for him. She tells Lovett about their ordeal in a hole, [Speaking of that ordeal, still no mention of Carter’s snapped ankle?] but he informs her this was just procedural and they know his alibi checks out. Lovett thinks Carter looks older than a teen and assumes Rachel’s his wife, and she can’t believe how clueless the cops are as she confirms they’re both in high school [But how long has he been in high school? And if he does look older, why has no-one mentioned that until now?] before hanging up, although she’s quite excited by the thought of being married to Carter. [Rachel, you don’t even know him]
Over to Carter now, who’s quite tickled by the though of Rachel being his girlfriend. Sure, she’s hot and fun with silky brown hair and a nice balcony, [A balcony? That’s one of your requirements?] but she’s too willing; ‘If things came easy, there was no point.’ That’s why he likes Anna – excluding her looks and the fact she’s the granddaughter of an exiled king, [But she’s not? She told you that was a lie?] she hates him [I never got that impression from her, just that she was playing hard to get] and doesn’t believe a word he says. ‘For good reason, of course —but that was part of the fun.’ He decides to wake Anna up with a phone call and asks her to meet him on the beach, and despite it being nearly 1am, she agrees to be there in 20 minutes.
Carter can’t leave the station just yet, though, because Lovell hands him a sheet of paper that had been found in Alphonse’s office, wanting to know if anything looks familiar. On the page is a list of names organised into in a family tree, handwritten by Alphonse .The bottom is stained with blood, partially covering a name that’s been circled – Richard Henry Grusen, which is Carter’s birth name! [No, according to the first book, his birth name is Richard William Grusen. Is this just a typo and Lerangis had his Henry character on the brain?] Carter lies about recognising any of the names and leaves as fast as he can, limping on his bum left ankle [Ohhhhh, so the ankle was just injured and not actually snapped, like the first book said?] and unnerved by this new development. [It’s not clear whether Carter already knew about this relation or not, which is annoying]
Meanwhile, Martin finds the lights off in Essex Museum Gift Shop, but the door’s unlocked so he lets himself in. A guy behind the counter, Jared Myer, [Ooh, the guy Anna knows who went to the school Carter’s claiming to be from! I wonder if they’ll meet] insists the store is closed, and Martin realises he’s interrupted some hanky panky when he catches a glimpse of a blonde girl fleeing out the back. Martin’s wanted to visit here for a while and learn more about the massacred Madekonset people, but there’s always too many people and Martin doesn’t like crowds, so he takes this opportunity to enquire about books on the slaughtered natives. Jared rudely tells him to come back tomorrow, then realises he’s talking to one of the hole teens and asks if ‘”the chick with the boobs”‘ was trapped in the hole too, clarifying that he means the one with the legs and the hair who cleans rooms. That sounds like Anna to me, but he’s actually referring to Martin’s beloved Rachel, [I guess Rachel’s a maid there too. Not that we ever saw her do any work lol] and no-one talks about her like that and gets away with it! [Tough guy!] Martin warns Jared not to ‘”involve a guy like me in a ninja duel”‘ [I would literally laugh in his face if I were Jared, Martin is not intimidating at all hahaha. Props to him for trying to defend Rachel’s honour, though!] and repeats his request for information on the Madekonset tribe.
There’s lots of books and paintings on the subject, but Jared directs Martin to a sign by the door for the Essex Shadow, suggesting he join. Shadow is an acronym for the Society for Historical Accuracy in the Depiction of the Old World, a club that is all about bringing the bringing the past alive through re-enactments. And how convenient, their next re-enactment is at the base of Spinnaker Hill in 15 minutes at 1:15am, the time of the original massacre!
Jared’s keen to go with him, so they lock the store up and journey through the fog to Spinnaker Hill while Jared explains his family owns many of the island’s historical sites and they live in one of the lighthouses. He kindly offers to arrange a tour of the properties and interviews with the important members of the Shadow for Martin for the very small fee of an introduction to that babe at the Lodge. Indignant, Martin stops walking and argues that he doesn’t know any babes, only women, and Rachel is a woman, but Jared continues ahead and thanks him for the information.
Martin starts to feel the beginnings of an episode and calms himself down before continuing on, now disoriented in the fog with no sign of Jared. He reaches the hill but thinks he’s somehow gotten to the other side to where he needs to be, and starts climbing up. A man dressed in old-fashioned clothes appears through the fog and falls in step beside Martin, introducing himself in a very outdated dialect. [He never come sup again so no point giving you his name] Reaching the top of the hill, Martin finds himself among a crowd of people in similar garb to the man and using the same old-fashioned words. Martin realises they’re not supposed to break character and tries to match their speech, but quickly notice that every one of these people is staring at him, and they’re all men.
A piercing scream suddenly cuts through the murky fog and a young man comes running toward the group from the top of the hill, [But the group is on top of the hill? This doesn’t make sense] followed by a stocky man in a robe and pointed hood. Martin is in the young man’s way and steps aside, but the guy lunges for him and begs for help in an ‘oddly gurgling, guttural voice.’
He trapped Martin in a bear hug and they both fell.
Martin gasped. A warm sticky liquid spattered his eyes – and a wooden stick hit him in the face.
It was the handle of a curved scythe, buried in the back of the man’s head.
[I’m confused by the logistics here. They fell while hugging, yet the handle of the scythe stuck in the back of this guy’s head somehow hit Martin in the face?] Martin quickly takes off in a panic as all the men chase him, shouting slurs like slant-eye, heathen and yellow man, [Oof] and it’s unclear whether his mental illness is conjuring this up or if it’s really happening. [If it is real, this is the kind of stuff we we needed to see during Erica’s storyline in the first book to justify her own prejudice. Like obviously I’m not saying she deserves to experience racism, but she’d just decided everyone was racist without their being any proof of it] What matters is that Martin believes it’s real, and he flees towards the wharf to find a spot to hide. [Sounds like he’ll be trapping himself if he’s really being chased lol]
Cut to Anna, who’s been waiting for Carter on the beach for 40 minutes and is not a happy camper right now. She’d only agreed because he’d used his manners, and she’d assumed their near-death experience was also a bonding one, but now she’s second-guessing herself. Speaking of second-guessing, the whole Gershon Phelps murder spree never really made sense to her, and what the hell was with the panther she’d seen attack him, then disappear? Was it even real? [A panther?? I just assumed it had been the coyote that she and Carter saw on the beach near the start of the book. I guess the coyote appeared that time, and every other time the creature is mentioned it was this panther? Because if it was a panther, surely Rachel and Henry would have referred to it as that, and not just a creature or animal? But also, how did she even see it when was inside the hole? This book is already pissing me off with the inconsistencies]
Anna heads home, avoiding the creepy woods via a detour along the beach and through the town, but as she’s moving past a point overlooking the bay, a figure appears on the path at the bottom of the cliff. He stumbles toward her and looks exactly like Justin Riggs, except this guy has lots of freckles. As he gets closer, Anna realises they’re not freckles at all, but spatters of paint. No, wait, it’s not paint…it’s blood! [Bamboozled!]
Anna hauls ass away from the guy and heads for the safety of the Lodge, but at the base of the hill she bumps into Jared, who embraces her way too tightly for an accidental meeting. Anna glances behind her, but Justin or whoever it was is now gone, and Jared seems like the lesser of two evils. He thinks he’s god’s gift to women and not anna’s type at all and, remembering that he went to school with Carter, she wonders if they’ve been comparing notes about her. Jared refers to her royal status, and when she tells him that she’s technically not a princess (Apparently she’d claimed to be related to an exiled king once as a joke and it just stuck, so she’s kept up the facade), he calls her a goddess and proposes they go consult Bacchus, the god of wine and partying. Anna scoffs that he must have shared some classes with Carter because they both use such stupid pretentious lines, but Jared doesn’t seem to recognise the name:
“Carter Hale. Hello? It’s a small school, Jared. He’s a senior, going to Harvard next year, you should know him. Anyway, you’d get along great. You’re both awful — except he’s smart and awful. Now, if you don’t mind…”
Anna stormed away, walking around Spinnaker Hill, toward the dock. Forget about the Lodge. She wanted to get home as soon as possible.
Preferably without Jared Myer.
[God, give him a chance to reply, Anna!] Back to a terrified Erica, who flees the autopsy room, out of the hospital and into the fog, calming herself down by deciding Alphonse’s eyes probably opened as a reflect when the body fell suddenly. [But I’m thinking the recent dead people are being resurrected somehow] Erica heads for her favourite dock on the wharf, wanting to clear her mind by writing everything down instead of going straight home. [These teens are pretty casual about being alone while a murderer is seemingly still on the loose] To her surprise she finds Henry sitting on the jetty with a wad of money, and immediately confronts him about ditching her at the hospital. He explains that he told his father to take care of her because he had a meeting to get to, and after more furious probing from Erica, he admits he stole Lemieux’s belongings and is meeting Obadiah to give him some of the cash.
Erica calms down a bit, knowing how much the teens owe to Obadiah Harkness for inadvertently saving them, [He’s a Harkness? His last name was never brought up in the first book, unless I just didn’t notice. Could he be the creature thing?] and realises Henry’s somewhat of a Robin Hood, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. Apparently Obadiah likes rowing through the fog and is supposed to meet Henry around now, but he hasn’t arrived yet.
Running footsteps are heard behind them, paired with Martin’s protesting voice, and soon he emerges from the fog while rambling about needing to wash off the blood. He struggles against Erica when she grabs him, insisting someone died in his arms and he needs to cleanse himself. Erica assures him there’s no blood and instructs him to take his medication. Henry’s no help, walking further out on the jetty and calling out to Obadiah as something floats toward the dock. With Martin calming down, Erica joins Henry and realises Obadiah’s gonna collide with the jetty because he can’t see properly through the fog, but they quickly realise it’s not a rowboat… it’s a body!
We now get the body’s perspective as he’s pulled out of the water and resuscitated. Erica, Martin and Henry surround him, soon joined by Anna and Jared, and the man introduces himself as Jim Redriver, a Madekonset tribesman. The teens introduce themselves as well, but Redriver laughs and admits he already knows…
Over to Carter, who’d been dropped off by police at the gate to Chilton Head, [But his last chapter said he left the station on foot?] where he’s been claiming to live this whole time, then journeyed on foot the mile to the Billingsley home where he rents the garage room. He showers and gets changed quickly, bandaging his sprained ankle and thinking about how soon, Billingsley’s money will be all his after Carter put down his real name as the beneficiary in the old man’s will. His real name was also on that list found in Alphonse’s, but ‘Carter hadn’t even begun to sort that one out.’ [And he never will figure it out because this is the last time we’ll hear of that list] Anyway, he doesn’t feel bad about the scam because Billingsley has no other family the money could have gone to.
Carter’s almost out the door when he notices a sheet of paper on his desk. It’s Billingsley’s forged will, face up and out in the open for anyone to see! Carter doesn’t remember leaving it there but scolds himself for printing out a hard copy before he needed to. Annoyed at his carelessness, he rips up the page and heads for the door again, but is confronted by Fenimore Billingsley himself, standing in the door that leads to the kitchen. Carter knows he’s not supposed to be out of bed and says as much, but Billingsley retorts that sometimes a man needs to see what’s happening in his own house.
He asks if Carter really goes to Harvard Law, even calling him Richard, and Carter has to think quick. He lies that Richard Henry Grusen is just a stand-in name, [OK, I guess it wasn’t a typo and it’s just another inconsistency. This was published a year after the first one, but I would have thought Lerangis wrote them back to back to avoid these kind of issues] like John Doe, that lawyers use while waiting for clearance on a big change. Carter then tries to leave, accidentally brushing the old man’s elbow while reaching for the door, and it somehow causes Billingsley to stagger backwards, hitting the wall with a yelp before sliding to the floor. Carter drags him through the doorway to the kitchen floor and tries to perform CPR on the barely breathing man, but his breath is absolutely foul and Carter almost throws up. [Grossssssssssssssssss]
Billingsley starts convulsing violently, smashing his head into the floor, and Carter dials a doctor. It turns out to be Rachel’s father’s office, so Carter decides to hang up because this will blow his cover with Rachel as well as reveal his scamming of the old man. Billingsley’s still now and no longer breathing anyway, so it’s damage control time! [What do we think, is Carter a murderer for this?] Carter drags the corpse through the house, leaving a trail that makes Carter gag, [What is it? Shit? Piss? Both?] and rinses him off in the shower. He mops up the mess and dresses Billingsley in clean pyjamas before depositing him back in bed. Throwing the soiled clothes in the washing machine, Carter’s now satisfied that it’ll look like the old man died in his sleep. He’d been having night-time problems for a while, so Arabel, his nurse, won’t question the change of clothes.
Carter finally leaves the house to meet Anna, but realises he’s way too late and she’s probably gone already. He still needs an alibi though, someone who can verify Carter wasn’t home at the time of Billingsley’s death. [But even if he was in the house, an autopsy would show that Billingsley wasn’t murdered, right? I guess the death was brought on by his little bump into the wall, but Carter didn’t push him, so would there really be a bruise or anything? I mean, he probably could have been saved if Carter called a doctor/ambulance, so I guess it is murder] His best option is someone who’ll meet at a moment’s notice at 1:30am, like Rachel!
Back on the dock, Martin’s realised that everything that happened on the hill was all in his head. [So after Jared ditched him in the fog, none of that was real? Okeh] He also believes Jim Redriver is figment of his imagination at first, despite the other teens clearly seeing and talking to him. Redriver, a young man roughly around their age or so, who explains that the tribe is based in Canada now, and he’s on a mission from his great-grandfather. Redriver apparently goes into a state between sleep and awakeness, and his deceased great-grandfather speaks to him and shows him things, which is how he knows who they all are. Redriver has also been shown the recent murders and expresses disgust at how bad the last one was. [Ohhh, so that’s what was going on at the very start? Redriver didn’t even see it though, he had his eyes closed lol]
The group quickly realises he’s talking about Lemieux and Jared grumbles that he’d probably seen it in the evening paper, [Is that a thing?] but Redriver apparently hates reading the paper, and he has no idea who the man was. But his great-grandfather told him he had to go to Essex by ancient means of travel, like walking and swimming, to retrieve something stolen from the tribe over 400 years ago, during the last Tip. Of course, no-one knows what a Tip is, so he explains at length an old legend of Madekonset tribe.
Basically, in the beginning, there were these Great Makers, basically kids like them, who are innocent and full of the Forces of Good, but also stupid. The beautiful, perfect world they create bores them, so they fill it with evil things like natural disasters, volcanoes and beasts etc, before moving on, deciding they can do better. They lose their edge as they get older and never create anything as cool, and finally one of them remembers their perfect world. They check it out again and find that the Dark Forces have taken over; there’s fires, volcanoes and corpses everywhere.
Nobadeer, the smartest Maker, creates a mini-replica of himself, minus the super-powers, using stars, clay and lava, and puts it on Earth, claiming it will save the world. The other Makers become jealous and do the same thing, knowing that together the clones will destroy the Dark Forces and the world will be 100% Good. ‘”And that’s the start of the Madekonset tribe, which becomes the human race.”‘ The world comes out of the Darkness and is 50% Good and 50% Evil, but Nobadeer feels he’s not getting enough credit and transfers some of his powers into a vessel created from the horn of a mystical dragon, and hides the Horn on Earth. The key is a small spike, but only Nobadeer’s clone is able to insert it into the horn. He gets cocky and brags, though, and the Spike and Horn are both stolen. Slowly everything falls apart, with the clones’ descendants battling each other and starting wars, and the Makers are disgusted and leave them to fight the Dark Forces and the forced within themselves.
Every few centuries, people find the Horn, but it always gets lost or stolen again, but it doesn’t matter too much because the clones learned to balance Good and Evil. The Dark Forces are always waiting, though, and are always on the verge of winning, so every few hundred years things start to tip. The last Tip happened on Spinnaker Hill 400 years ago, the darkest time ever for the Madekonset people. That’s when the massacre of 1,000 tribespeople occurred, and the survivors were banished to Little Pequod Island. [Where Obadiah now lives!] Ever since, the balance has been tipped toward the Dark Forces, and a second Tip that will put everything over the edge is about to begin.
Redriver is here to keep the Horn hidden from the Dark Forces, and to find the Horn he needs a special talisman; a two-pronged shark tooth carved with an intricate design with fringey things hanging from it. [Is this talisman the key to the horn?] If Redriver can’t locate the horn, the world will have its final Tip into total darkness. [Some cool mythology here, though I’m not sure how much sense it makes that the whole world rests upon the shoulders of one particular tribe. It doesn’t really seem like the previous Tip really affected anyone but the natives on Essex Island] Henry knows the talisman Redriver needs, but clarifies he hasn’t stolen it, [Must have been a different but similar shark tooth he stole in the first book] and the last time he saw the shark tooth was in a storage room at the Lodge.
Redriver’s great-grandfather had told him it could be found there, and he’s supposed to ask three times. [Ask what and to who?] If he’s refused the third time, ‘”I have to return and travel home the way I came.”‘ [Thus dooming the world to the Dark Forces? What if someone who sides with the Dark Forces has the talisman? Of course they’d refuse him three times. There’s no other way to get the talisman? And what would have happened if Redriver died on his way here? Like, he was half-dead when the group found him in the water lol] Before he can explain who or what he needs to ask, he rises to his feet, staring past the group. Martin follows his gaze toward two green eyes perched atop the jetty, a shadow low on the rocks behind it. Redriver instruct them to run, but the long, black beast springs out of the darkness, its claws reaching for Martin.
The others are able to intervene before Martin is mauled and drag him to safety, then turn around to find the beast sitting on the dock, purring, as Redriver kneels before it and purrs back. The creature looks at Henry, then Martin, before slinking into the fog towards the beach. [At one point it says sunlight is starting to soften the darkness, but it’s like 2am so not sure where that light’s coming from?] Bewildered, Redriver explains that he was somehow able to communicate with the animal; he just understood what it wanted. It thought Martin was someone else, but Redriver isn’t sure who because he couldn’t understand too much, ‘”But I could feel what he was feeling. It was weird. He was confused. He had so much fear.”‘ [Note from future: we never find out who the animal thought Martin was. Also, Martin is Asian and there’s not much diversity on Essex… is the beast implying all Asians look the same?]
Jared thinks Redriver is crazy and wants to know how the feline got to the island in the first place, and Redriver claims he’s been here all along, but no-one’s ever seen him. [How? He’s certainly made himself known a lot the last few days] Jared thinks it’s all one big hoax and heads off to his lighthouse home. [I wonder if he’ll die at some point] Redriver is keen to get some sleep but turns down Martin’s offer to stay at his place, opting to sleep on the beach instead. He’ll need them as witnesses tomorrow when he asks his questions, but it likely won’t be until the late afternoon, so he’ll contact them when the time comes. He disappears in the same direction the animal went, and the teens make plans to meet at Erica’s place the next day..
Over to Rachel’s house, where she’s met Carter at the door. She’s still very unhappy about their predicament because she doesn’t even want to be a mother, let alone a teen one, and she’s unimpressed that he’d ditched her to meet Anna. They walk over to the enclosed tennis court, where he apologises for being awful to her and insists he had to meet Anna that day he’d ditched her. Rachel’s demeanour softens, especially because he seems really genuine and it looks like he’s about to cry, and he also reveals he’s not really rich and has no parents, and that he’s a caretaker for a generous old man. Rachel is stunned by the revelations but forgives him, and they end up kissing. Carter looks meaningfully toward her house as he claims his leg is sore, but Rachel doesn’t want to wake her parents so suggests they drive back to his place instead. [Get a clue, Rachel, he’s just using you!]
Off they go, and Rachel’s pretty keen to get down and dirty in his messy garage apartment. She plops down on the mattress as Carter hands her a beer, noticing he seems a bit tense. Carter flicks the light off and meets her on the bed, and they start making out. Rachel notices he’s going slow this time, unlike what happened on the beach — this seems right and real to her, and ‘Carter, as far as she was concerned, could have what he wanted.’ [Rachel, plz] Rachel’s got her eyes closed so is completely unaware at first when the lights turn back on:
But she felt Carter lurch upright. And she heard a deep, rattly cough from the other side of the room.
She sat up quickly, pulling her blouse shut.
The old man lurched into the room. Wide-eyed, as if not yet accustomed to the light, he leaned against the doorjamb.
And Carter shrieked.
[Zombie! Somehow the island’s dead are being resurrected but how, and why now?] It’s just after 5am now, and Henry’s still waiting at the dock to give Obadiah some of Lemieux’s money. Henry had learned the art of theft from the old man, who had often looked after him when his father couldn’t, and now that Obadiah is weaker and slower, Henry has taken it upon himself to return the favour. Henry’s quite jumpy given what’s happened on the island recently, and although he’s never missed the weekly meeting before, [Another inconsistency; the first book implied they met daily by stating how slowly Obadiah rowed every day] he’s seriously considering heading home. [You’ve already waited here like a loser for four hours, may as well keep waiting 💀] Obadiah finally rocks up and Henry yells at him for being late, [Wait, so do they do this at 5am every week? Because they met at 10am in the first book] but he’s pretty relieved to see him.
Henry hands over the money and rambles on about what’s happened in the last few hours, but Obadiah seems unfazed by the arrival of Redriver and his telepathy with the creature and limps away down the street. Henry doesn’t see the point in going home since he’ll probably just fight with his drunken father, so he follows Obadiah, hoping they can get breakfast at the diner. Hard-of-hearing Obadiah doesn’t hear Henry calling out to him and looks to be in a hurry, disappearing behind a corner. When Henry reaches the same corner, Obadiah’s disappeared; it’s a long street, so there’s no way Obadiah limped all that way already, so Henry investigates the houses on the street.
He stops at a ramshackle building that used to be the headquarters of the Dock Rats Club. The front door and windows are shuttered but there’s a cellar door below them that opens easily. Henry warily descends the wooden stairs into the mouldy-smelling room and follows Obadiah’s dragging footprints to a door. There’s no answer when Henry knocks and calls out, so he pulls the door open and turns on the light, a string of bulbs illuminating dirt-walled tunnel. Henry continues on, but the tunnel ends at a solid wall. There’s a familiar-looking goat head inside a five-pointed star carved into the rock floor, but Henry can’t place where he’s seen it before. One of the star’s points had been crudely lengthened and ends at a hole at the base of the wall, and a curious Henry fishes out a flashlight keychain he’d stolen from Lemieux’s corpse [What happened to his own one from the first book?] and inspects the hole, pulling a ring-like object that causes the wall to slide open. [I would never do this shit alone, fuck that. Especially now that I’ve seen Barbarian, a great movie!] Salty air rushes into the tunnel and Henry spots a ladder leading downwards past the door. Against his better judgement, Henry climbs down and aims his light on the surface of the water, which is red with blood. There’s some splashes to the left and when Henry raises his the flashlight, Obadiah floats past face up, and then the door slides shut above Henry. [Ooooh, is he dead? What attacked him?! Surely not the animal. Maybe one of the zombies!]
Over to Redriver now, who seems to be having another vision. He’s following what is now confirmed to be a panther, [97 pages into the sequel, mind you. Did none of our characters recognise a fkn panther in the first one? And was it the panther that Henry and Erica saw on the beach, not a coyote?] who’s name Redriver inexplicably knows is Erebus, deep into the woods, finally reaching a clearing. An eagle, cougar, lynx and owl are also here and are confused by Redriver’s presence, some even wanting to kill him. Erebus prevents this with a look and explains about the great Tipping. Nearby is a fenced-off cemetery, and suddenly the earth erupts and human corpses begin to surface. They breach a hole in the fence as the animals brace to attack, and Redriver realises the Battle is beginning and his time is running out. The owl lifts off and swoops at a fat corpse, sinking its talons into its eyes, and Redriver screams and takes off back through the woods. Erebus chases after him and soon Redriver feels its claws on his back and falls to the ground. He finds himself alone when he sits up, the sounds of battle having faded, and when he glances back towards the Battle, he sees nothing but the tombstones in the distance.
Back to Henry, who’s examining Obadiah’s wounds. His coat is ripped to shreds and his face is slashes and bruised, and although he’s barely breathing, he’s conscious and trying to say something, but Henry wants him to save his energy and searches for an exit. There’s a bit of sunlight peeking through the opposite wall about 20-feet high, and while heading towards it Henry notices the crags and rock ledges along the walls are filled with countless objects – a jewel-studded spear, a feathered headdress, a golden basin, engraved whale-tooth pendants, etc. They’re all placed high off the ground above the walls’ footholds, and Henry realises the water in here must rise and fall with the tide. He’s basically drooling over how much cash these treasures would fetch, but he has to focus on getting Obadiah out of here first.
With Obadiah on his shoulders, Henry climbs onto a ledge near the light source and finds that the wall curves upwards, presumably to freedom. Obadiah’s still struggling to speak but clearly wants to tell Henry something, pulling out a long, ornately carved two-pronged tooth from his pocket, and Henry realises this the talisman Redriver is seeking. [I thought it would be the one that Phelps took from the teens in the first book, which he was calling a talisman, but there was no mention of that one being two-pronged] Shoving Obadiah up before him, Henry begins the ascent through the algae-slicked tunnel towards the world above.
Meanwhile, Jared had been following Henry, but is now frustrated at having lost him and Obadiah after they disappeared around the corner. Henry is definitely shifty so Jared doesn’t trust him, and when he realised Henry was staying on the dock while everyone else left, he ran home to fetch his digital camera. He’d seen the cash exchange between Henry and Obadiah and suspects some kind of black market deal; Essex Island has lots of illegal drugs and stolen goods, and it’s the townies who provide the goods to the rich yuppies. Jared believes Henry, with his talent for stealing, can lead him to the source of the good stuff so Jared can start making some shady deals too.
With no idea where Henry went, Jared heads to the beach for an invigorating swim. As he’s returning to shore, there’s movement in the shadows further along the beach, so he quickly ducks behind the rock where he’d stashed his clothes and camera. To his surprise, Obadiah is squeezed through the hole and flops onto the sand, lifeless and pale, and Henry climbs through after him, covered in blood. His attempts to rouse Obadiah fail, and Henry does a little prayer before pulling something from his pocket. Despite being like 50m away, Jared can tell it’s the talisman Redriver is after and zooms in on his camera to snap a photo. Jared suspects the hole they emerged from leads to a secret storage space the pair keep their smuggled goods in, and wonders whether Henry murdered the old man to have it all to himself. Jared takes another photo as Henry pockets the talisman, and then a third one as Henry flees the scene, leaving Obadiah’s body on the sand. [Wow, show some respect, Henry]
Across the island, Carter awakens alone in an abandoned concession stand by Quidset Beach. Rachel had gone home after the old man’s interruption, but she wasn’t half as freaked out as Carter was, which I guess is why he’d fled and slept outside. We then jump to 1:45pm as Carter, Rachel, Anna and Martin have gathered at Erica’s house. She shows them the parchment she’d taken from Alphonse’s body but still isn’t sure exactly what the tray-like thing is that the man is holding. They ignore the phone ringing in the kitchen to listen to a news report on the TV that reveals Alphonse’s body has vanished from the hospital, and Erica hesitantly tells them she saw his body move in the autopsy room. Carter argues that Alphonse is definitely dead, then gets angry at Anna when she divulges her run-in with who she thinks was Justin Riggs.
Erica agrees with Marvin that they need to think outside the box, especially after yesterday – ‘”We’re almost killed by a lunatic… then — boom — a sudden turn into the Twilight Zone! People swimming to Essex… panthers appearing out of nowhere…”‘ Rachel suggests Carter’s just rattled by ‘”what happened to us last night,”‘ referring to being caught in a compromising position, and Anna isn’t impressed that he’d left her alone on the beach to be with Rachel instead. Rachel is shocked by Anna’s announcement and Carter decides to be a lil bitch and declares he’s leaving the island because there’s nothing for him here anymore. [What about your unborn baby?] ‘”Good riddance,”‘ says Anna, and Erica scolds him for being a shit person, demanding an apology if he doesn’t want her hounding him for the rest of his life. [Wtf has he done to you, Erica? Am I forgetting something?]
Carter tells them what happened with Billingsley last night, which is why he was too late to meet Anna and called Rachel to use as an alibi, afraid the cops would think he killed the old man. He confirms that Billingsley had been stone-cold dead when he’d left to see Rachel, and before the group can discuss what three revived corpses could mean, Erica’s parents burst through the front door with groceries. They tell Erica they accidentally scared away her shy friend, Jared Myer, who’d been listening at the window, and Erica peers out the door but he’s nowhere to be found. Back inside, her parents play the message left on the answering machine, which is Redriver requesting the group to meet him at the Lodge.
The gang piles into Erica’s Range Rover and pluck Henry off the street on their way to the Lodge. He tells them about his little cavern adventure this morning and Obadiah’s death, confessing he’d taken the talisman from him, but it was then stolen when he fell asleep on a park bench because he was so exhausted! [Fkn Jared. Also, Henry knew how important this talisman was, why would he be so careless?] There’s a lot of traffic on the road so Erica parks the car, deciding they’ll get to the lodge quicker on foot.
Over to Jared, who’d bought a hat, linen jacket and Groucho Marx moustache to disguise himself after stealing the talisman from Henry, then went to Erica’s house to spy. Her parents had almost caught him eavesdropping, but luckily they hadn’t recognised him at all. [See how obnoxiously confident this idiot is?] Now he’s in the lobby of the Lodge, reading a newspaper while waiting for Redriver and the others to arrive. Jared’s got a plan to muscle in on what he believes is Henry’s lucrative deal, because without Obadiah, he’ll need a new smuggling partner and Jared wants access to the goods he’s sure are inside the hole he saw them come out of earlier. [You know where the hole is, why not just go down it and steal some stuff??]
Redriver finally rocks up, alone, and interrupts Cyril and Duke arguing about nothing at the front desk to ask for the talisman that belongs to his ancestors. Cyril just asks Redriver to leave, so Redriver asks again after warning Cyril to think carefully because he can only ask three times. Cyril impatiently orders him to leave again and then Anna, Rachel, Erica, Martin, Carter and Henry waltz in ‘like an expanded co-ed version of Charlie’s Angels.’ Jared’s surprised that Henry would have the audacity to face his friends after stealing and losing the talisman.
Erica calls out a warning that the Lodge doesn’t have the talisman, but Redriver isn’t listening and threatens that Cyril will be in major trouble if he doesn’t hand it over. Cyril calls for the guards as a crowd begins to gather, and Carter and Anna try to pull Redriver away, again insisting the talisman isn’t in the Lodge’s possession. He still refuses to listen, and then they’re three burly men take hold of Redriver. He seems to be in some kind of state and demands the talisman one final time. [The teens really didn’t try hard enough to get him to stop, tbh, and Redriver clearly isn’t taking the situation as seriously as he should be considering the fate of the world is in his hands. What a fkn idiot]
Jared stands up and flings away his disguise with a dramatic flair, declaring that Redriver’s asking the wrong person for the talisman. He does his best impression of a detective in a movie as he announces that the police got an anonymous report about Obadiah lying dead on the beach, but he’d presumably been washed away by the tide by the time they arrived. [He probably got up and walked away, tbh] Jared loves keeping them in suspense, but finally announces that someone they all trust isn’t who he appears to be. He hands printed copies of the photos he took earlier to Cyril and declares that Henry possesses the talisman, as proven by the photos. Henry retorts that it was stolen from him, but Jared insists they believe the photographic evidence, which realistically doesn’t prove Henry wrong, just that he did take the talisman from Harkness, something the group already knows and he doesn’t deny in the first place. For some reason, Martin suddenly rushes at Redriver, [What? Why???] while Henry tackles Jared to the ground, and our wannabe extortionist blacks out after his head hits the ground.
Redriver is now unconscious but having one of his visions where his grandfather is present. Redriver’s disappointed that he’s failed his task, but his grandfather is encouraging, reminding him he still has one question left thanks to the teens. [But he asked three times? Does he still have one more question left because no-one answered him the third time, so technically he wasn’t denied? Because if we’re getting that specific, Cyril never actually said no to him; he just apologised once and asked him to leave a few times before calling for the guards]
Over to Martin now, who’s laying on the beach as the sun begins to set [What time does the sun set on the island? It was 1:45pm at Erica’s house, there’s no way it’s been several hours after that lol] and is surprised by his own strength after the group carried Redriver all the way to the beach from the Lodge. Redriver comes to and Martin explains he knocked him out with the Vulcan pinch, [A fictional knock-out technique used in in Star Trek] with Erica piping up that it was for Redriver’s own good – ‘”If you’d asked the third question, you would have had to go home empty-handed.”‘ [But he did ask the third question, before Martin knocked him out?!? Why is this book gaslighting us? What’s going on?]
Henry clarifies what really happened this morning with Obadiah, postulating that he’d interrupted someone or something attacking Obadiah in the cavern. Henry wasn’t sure what to do after Obadiah died, so he fled the scene and tipped off the police before falling asleep on the bench. [So it hasn’t occurred to any of them that Jared might have taken the talisman? Idiots] He’d ran back to the cave opening but the tide had come in and the body was gone. Henry thinks that Obadiah knew about Redriver and was trying to get the talisman to him, and Redriver confirms that he’d seen the cavern in his visions and other people would be seeking the talisman. They’re right near the rock outcropping where Henry and Obadiah had emerged from, and Henry explains that it’s illegal to go inside the cave because people have drowned, although the locals would sneak in as kids anyway, not believing the rumours of ‘”a passage to an underground death chamber”‘ inside. [Just to clarify because it’s confusing and not really clear here, but Henry and Obadiah escaped the treasure cavern through a tunnel that lead to this cave in the outcropping, and the cave was illegal to go in, while there were just rumours of the hole and cavern within] Martin theorises that whoever stole the talisman might try return it to the cavern, so they all venture inside the cave, through the tunnel and into the cavern.
As everyone examines the walls covered with nooks and ledges that hold the Madekonset treasures, Carter points out how well-kept everything is, which means someone has been accessing it regularly. [None of them have even considered that Obadiah, who clearly knew about this place, was the one taking care of everything. But I guess it’s probably the Dock Rats Club, but I’m not sure why they moved locations when they head easy access here] The cavern trails off into darkness to the left, and the group follow Redriver and his lighter through there in search of the talisman. They find themselves in a tunnel that ends in a fork, and Redriver takes the right side based on some previous visions. The walls soon expand out and then they’re out of the ankle-deep water and standing on higher ground, their footsteps and voices echoing around them. Carter, at the back of the pack as they continue forward, suddenly has a hand clamped over his mouth.
The rest of the group have entered a chamber, where they find candle-filled shelves, an alter with the scorched remains of something on it, and heavy chains on the walls weighed down by heavy padlocks. Rachel hears a muffled sound behind her and realises Carter’s missing, so the group heads back the way they came. Rachel spots a hole in the rocky wall and dives through it when she hears some scuffling from within. A hand immediately clamps over her mouth as she loses her balance and falls, her mouth clamping shut on the hand. Her teeth break skin and a cool liquid dribbles down her cheek as she scrambles away, gagging. [Gross]
The others enter the room now, and Redriver’s lighter illuminates a robed and hooded figure that picks up two scythes from the ground and lumbers towards Rachel. [So the first book had two scythes on the cover even though only one was ever mentioned, and now this one has one scythe on the cover but two are present…] Martin distracts the attacker with a Vulcan pinch that doesn’t work, and the man whirls around to attack him instead. Rachel whacks him over the head with a nearby rock, causing him to fall, and she and Erica snatch up the scythes. Redriver sits on the mans chest to hold him down while Henry pins down his legs, and Carter pulls back the hood to reveal… Fenimore Billingsley.
Carter demands they stab the old man but Henry refuses to be a murderer, so he takes things into his own hands and plunges Erica’s scythe into his right eye. Carter insists he’s already dead and leads the group back out to the main tunnel, where Redriver pauses just before a sharp turn and commends Carter for doing the right thing back there. It turns out they’re dealing with revenants, ‘”a human corpse, animated by another form of life,”‘ which means Erica really did see Lemieux move and Anna did see Justin Riggs on the beach.
Redriver continues on around the corner, letting out a piercing scream before his lighter flickers out. Henry bolts ahead, feeling along the ground until he finds the lighter. and flicks it on to find Redriver flailing on the ground with Jared on top of him. Henry kicks him away, and Jared lays still on the ground, blood flowing from a wound in his midsection. He’s dead, [Wait, so is he dead somehow from the kick, and revenant Jared was attacking Redriver? Or was Jared attacked by a revenant in the dark and then attacked Redriver in self defence, thinking he was the attacker? Either way, how did a fkn kick from Henry kill him?] so Henry pulls a hanky from Jared’s pocket to cover his face with. He also finds the talisman in Jared’s pocket, and although Rachel points out that Redriver has what he needs to save the world, no-one seems too excited. [And none of them have had much of a sense of urgency throughout this whole experience, either. The world is at stake, guys, come in!]
Henry begins pulling Jared’s corpse along with them so they can get him up to shore and notify his parents, planning to tell them he’d died for a good cause, which prompts a realisation from Erica – if a revenant killed Jared for the talisman, why didn’t he take the talisman? It quickly dawns on everyone that this isn’t the right one. [So was the correct one the tooth that Phelps took off them the other day then? It seems weird that Redriver doesn’t know what he’s looking for. Are these revenants conscious? None of them have talked. Are they just trained to attack or something? Seriously, everything is so unclear]
They push on, reaching the decline that leads to the cavern they’d started from, but the tide has come in by now and they’re met with a deep, swirling whirlpool. Erica advises that if they stick to the outside they’ll be fine, but unfortunately, Anna can’t swim. Erica takes Henry’s belt and threads it through a loop on Anna’s jeans and one on her own, assuring her friend they’re connected for good and warning her not to panic in the water. Of course, Anna immediately does the exact opposite in the whirlpool, flailing about until they’re both caught in swirling water, being spun around and around.
Erica swallows a shitload of water and is almost ready to give up when Anna finally gets her shit together, spurred on by revenant Alphonse Lemieux standing where they’d just been standing. She and Erica finally reach the opposite ledge and are helped from the water by the others, and when they’re all back on the beach, Redriver frets about their situation. Henry points out that the talisman could still be real; it looks like what Redriver described, and it was at Lodge before it was stolen. Redriver is sure it’s fake and blames himself for Obiadiah’s and Jared’s deaths, and prepares to toss the talisman into the sea in frustration. Rachel slaps the tooth out of his hand, insisting it’s valuable, and it lands on a flat granite rock and splits open between its two prongs.
The tooth turns out to be hollow, and inside one of the halves is a rolled up sheet of parchment. Unrolling it, the group find that the page is full of squiggles and lines, and Erica pulls out the sheet of paper she took from Alphonse’s body. Martin examines the image of a man holding a rectangle at eye level, and suggests if they hold the squiggly line paper at eye level, it might show a secret message, much like those illusions/puzzles that reveal a word if you hold it a certain way. He tests the theory and the lines form a definite shape, seemingly a W, [Could be an M, though, Martin, maybe you’ve got it upside down!] but as Martin lowers the sheet, the page is ripped from his hands and lands on an old tree stump, impaled by a scythe. [I’m confused, so was the tooth the key or is one of these parchments the key?]
The group duck for cover behind a three-peaked rock that resembles a crown as Henry snatches up the scythe and moves forward to greet their attacker, who steps out of the woods 50 yards away with his remaining scythe. [A corpse threw a scythe that accurately from 50 yards away? Okeh. Maybe revenants have super strength!] There’s a brief scythe fight, with Henry making contact with the man’s right side before losing the scythe in a parry.
Just when it all looks over for Henry, Erebus the panther appears and mangles the scythe-wielder, leaving his remains draped over the three-peaked rock. [Is this rock important? I feel like the emphasis on its three prongs means it’s important] Redriver thanks Erebus for saving them and Henry pulls back the hood of the dead man, revealing the attacker as Obadiah. When Martin questions how a dead person can die again, Redriver explains that the dead play by different rules to the living; their spirit animates them, and the living can’t take that away from them without help. Erebus was their help! [OK, but can we get an explanation to Erebus’ origins, or?]
Observing Obadiah’s body positioned on the three-pronged rock, Martin realises that this is what the W on the parchment meant, and the group start digging in the sand. When they reach the bottom of the rock, which also turns out to be hollow, they push it over and discover a map inside. [I’m so confused by how this fits in with the lore Redriver explained near the start… is the tooth the key that can only be used by Nobadeer’s clone to unlock the Horn? Is the rock the Horn? None of these people are a clone] It’s a detailed map of Essex, with a large X placed over Little Pequod Island. They decide they need to make a plan before venturing over there, and agree to head over to Martin’s place for some food. Henry opts to stay behind with the two corpses, planning to call the cops and wait until they arrive. The others start to head off, and the book ends as Henry calls out to them:
Martin turned. The setting sun cast an elongated shadow over the toppled crown-shaped rock and the body of Obadiah.
Henry was standing atop a ridge near the dune, looking over. “Will you come here…?”
Martin was the first one to his side. He looked down the slope of the ridge, to the place where they had placed Jared’s body.
Martin’s windbreaker, which had covered his face, lay on the sand.
Footsteps led from that spot directly into the woods.
[Really? This is how you’re gonna end it, Lerangis? This is not a good conclusion to this story, there’s clearly more adventure to be had! There’s several revenants still roaming around, so many loose ends in the characters’ individual storylines. Redriver’s problem isn’t even resolved, for god’s sake! They still need to save the world?!?]
Final thoughts
I was enjoying the towards the start, when it felt like it was continuing on in the direction of the first book’s multiple storylines, but then it all veered completely left and basically everyone’s individual storylines were abandoned for whatever bewildering mess the book became by the end. Just off the top of my head, here’s a list of storylines that weren’t resolved at all: Carter’s real age; Rachel’s possible pregnancy (like, it’s still not confirmed if she even is pregnant?); Carter’s familial connection to Alphonse Lemieux; Jared not knowing who Carter is; the Anna-Carter-Rachel love triangle; how the revenants came about and who is responsible for them and the treasure cave (I guess it could have all be Phelps before he was taken away, but some clarity is definitely needed); Erebus the panther; everything to do with the Island Curse and the Freemasons from the first book; whatever the fuck happened to Jared in the cave… I’m sure I could go on.
I can’t help but feel like it was supposed to be a trilogy, because there were so many loose ends and the book seems to end without any actual resolution to anything. Like, all they did was get a map that presumably marks the location of the Horn, but wtf was the key? Do they even have the key yet? Is Redriver supposed to be Nobadeer’s clone/a descendent of the clone or something? Like, nothing makes sense here, and the whole lore that was established only made things more complicated. This book kinda seems like a bunch of ideas were thrown at the wall and Lerangis tries to make a coherent story out of whatever stuck. When Redriver came into the picture is when things seemed to really fall apart. Despite the failure of his missing bringing about the Dark Forces taking over the world, no-one seemed too urgent about finding the talisman or Horn to save the planet, including him.
The first book was more of a slasher, but this one went more into like, a supernatural, mystic sort of vibe, and I didn’t really like it. To me, the Phelps storyline wasn’t complete… Like, what was the point of Island Curse and the Freemasons stuff if it wasn’t going to be expanded upon? Nothing seems to correlate with the overarching plot of this one. I don’t think all the deaths at the Spinnaker’s location over the years were anything to do with Tipping either, because Redriver explicitly said the last big Tipping was when the tribe was slaughtered 400 years ago. I feel like the more I think about it, the more I come up with explanations that just wouldn’t work with what has been established by the book.
Neither of these books felt like an actual Point Horror, and I think the first one works better as a standalone. Of course, that would still leave the cliffhanger at the end and the confusing stuff about the beast that none of these idiots recognised as a panther, but the continuation of those factors in this book make even less sense lol. I didn’t totally hate the book because I still enjoyed the characters, but I probably wouldn’t reread it ever.
Anyway, 36 inconsistencies that don’t match up with the first book out of 192!
