The Train by Diane Hoh

Tagline: A one-way ticket… to terror.

Back tagline: Death train.

Summary: Go-back, go-back, go-back…the steady sound of the train rushing over the tracks warns Hannah. She and her friends are on a trip that begins as a fun cross-country tour—until they learn what’s on the train with them.
A coffin. Frog’s coffin.
His real name was Roger. But from the day he started at Parker High to the day of his sudden and horrible death, he was taunted and ridiculed, cruelly nicknamed Frog by his classmates.
One by one, Hannah’s friends guiltily confessed the nasty things they did to Frog.
And then, one by one, they are viciously attacked.
It seems Frog is out for revenge. But frog’s dead—isn’t he?

First impressions: The cover’s pretty simple, but I like the sinister vibe it’s got going on with all the red outlining and that half-skeleton hand.
This sounds exactly like ‘Terror Train’, a great ’80s slasher starring Jamie-Lee Curtis, which makes me pretty excited. A bunch of bullies getting their comeuppance, what’s not to love? Diane Hoh hasn’t disappointed me yet, so hopefully she’s not about to start. Let’s find out!

Recap

Roll call:
Hannah – Our protagonist with a fear of trains, death and tight spaces.
Mack – Hannah’s jock boyfriend.
Kerry – The self-centred best friend who we hate.
Lewis – Kerry’s boyfriend.
Jean Marie – My favourite of Hannah’s friends.
Frog – The bully victim who died in a car crash.
Lolly – Frog’s girlfriend and the first victim on the train.
Eugene and Dale – Frog’s friends who are at the bottom of the high school hierarchy.

The book begins with protagonist Hannah Deaton standing with her friends, ready to board the train for ‘Parker High School’s Teen Tour from Chicago to San Francisco’. There’s 30 students taking part in the week-long adventure, and Hannah can’t help but pity the handful of students she’ll be journeying with that don’t really have friends to enjoy the trip with [Maybe you could be friends with them, Hannah?]. Particularly catching her eye is a glum-looking trio who don’t seem the least bit excited for the trip – thin, quiet Eugene; ‘huge’, glasses-wearing Dale; and Lolly [Who’s last name is Slocum, which is a fun word to say], ‘a stocky girl with sad eyes and lank blonde hair’ , who social status Hannah does not pity at all [So, these three have each other to enjoy the trip with, they’re just don’t have other friends I guess?].

We’re also introduced to the two young teachers chaperoning the trip, Ms. Quick and Mr. Dobbs, who look like they’d rather be doing anything else, before we meet Hannah’s friends – muscular jock Mack, who I’m assuming is our love interest; best friend Kerry, who’s black hair ‘glistened like patent leather’ [OK]; and stick-thin Lewis, Kerry’s boyfriend. Kerry’s complaining about the one-suitcase rule and is horrified that she might have to outfit repeat once or twice during the trip [I don’t know if I love her or I hate her hahaha], which Lewis playfully teases her about. As everyone begins boarding, we learn of Hannah’s fear of trains, because ‘They went awfully fast, their coaches swaying dangerously as the wheels sped over the tracks’ [A cross-country train trip sounds like a good idea then].

The students are given a tour of the train, including sleeping compartments and an onboard cafe, and after losing sight of the other two in the crowd, Hannah’s grateful to have Mack by her side, who she’s only known for about six weeks [Is he new to the school?]. Eventually, the foursome finds each other outside the corridor of the sleeping compartments, and Kerry’s outraged when she learns that Lewis, who she’d forced to carry her giant-ass bag, had been required by the conductor to stow it in the baggage car since it’s too big to be a carry-on. Complaining Kerry starts up again because all her make-up, hair care and clothes are in the bag, and she needs it:

“Kerry,” Hannah offered, “you can share my stuff.”
Kerry stared at her. “Your stuff? Hannah, you only wear mascara, and you use that cheap stuff. It gives me a rash.”

[Uhh, how about a “Thanks for the offer”, you ungrateful bitch?]. With Lewis and Mack disobeying her demands to go get it, Kerry cracks it and storms off to the baggage car herself [Remember when I wasn’t sure if I love her or hate her? Well, I hate her]. Minutes later, Kerry arrives back at the compartment she’s sharing with Hannah, but she doesn’t have her bag with her. Hannah notices she looks a bit distraught, and Kerry reveals there’s a coffin in the baggage car [!!!].

She thinks it’s absolutely disgusting that they’re sharing a train with a corpse [I really don’t think it’s that big a deal]. Hannah tries to convince her bestie, and herself, that the coffin is empty and just being delivered somewhere along the train route, but the possibility of a body on the train gives Kerry the willies and she demands they go find out for sure [This bitch needs some manners pronto]. Kerry explains that if the coffin is unused, it’ll have an invoice taped to it somewhere, like all the other stuff she saw being shipped in the baggage car [I guess that makes sense].

Hannah’s super reluctant to investigate since she’s got a fear about anything relating to death, but Kerry’s not taking no for an answer and off they go. As they slip down the corridor, we learn about yet another fear of Hannah’s – ‘small or narrow spaces’ [This is not gonna be a very fun trip for you, Hannah]. She starts wheezing and Kerry just tells her she’ll be better when they get back to the cafe after checking out the coffin [Really, Hannah? This is your best friend?].

Inside the baggage car, there’s no invoice on the coffin but Kerry does spot a little white tag hanging from the corner. Reading it, she reveals it’s someone they know inside – Frederick Roger Drummond, AKA Frog, headed to San Francisco where his parents live. Self-obsessed Kerry immediately starts whingeing:

“How could they put it on this train?” Kerry cried, still staring at the coffin. “It’s just not right! Why didn’t they put it on a regular train with people who never knew Frog? Why did they have to put it on this one and ruin our trip? It’s not fair!”

[It’s Kerry’s world and we’re all just living in it. I hope she dies, and I hope she dies first xox]. Hannah’s reaction is more sympathetic, but still quite self-centred as she thinks about all the people in her life who would mourn her death as opposed to Frog, who she struggles to imagine anyone caring about. Kerry wonders if Lolly, Dale and Eugene know Frog’s onboard, since they were all best friends and never went anywhere without him, which she finds creepy [So… there’s three people right there that care about his death. Also, how the fuck is it creepy that four friends always spent time together? God, I hate Kerry]. Hannah realises that might be why they looked so sad earlier, and suggests the reason they’re on the trip is for a potential memorial service in California.

The girls head to the cafe and find Mack and Lewis sitting with a red-head named Jean Marie, who Mack used to date. Hannah’s not jealous though, since that’s history and ‘Jean Marie was too nice a person to flirt with someone else’s boyfriend’ [Wait, so Hannah and Mack are together? I just got the impression she had a crush on him, this is the first time a relationship is actually referenced. Also how long have they been a couple if they’ve only really known each other for six weeks?]. Anyway, Hannah and Kerry explain about the coffin and we learn how Frog died, courtesy of an extremely insensitive Lewis:

“I don’t see what the big deal is,” Lewis said to Kerry. “The guy is dead. Burned to death when his car hit that wall. It’s not like he’s going to be bugging you during the trip.”

[Real nice, Lewis]. Apparently it wasn’t as straightforward as that though, with Jean Marie adding that firefighters tried to free Frog from the car for 40 minutes before it burst into flames [Wow, poor Frog :(]. We also learn that Frog was a ‘”big, hulking kid with greasy hair and bad skin”‘, a deviation to the standard nerdy bullying victim seen so often in teen films, shows and books. He was also a bit of a bad boy, skipping school and constantly getting into trouble with the law while living in California, which is why his parents sent him to live with his grandma in Chicago [He sounds like he’d be the bully, not the victim].

It also turns out Mack was responsible for the nickname when on his first day, Frog had to write his name on the blackboard to introduce himself:

“Frog started to write his name, Frederick Roger Drummond. He never used the Frederick, so he wrote the initial F, then R-O-G. And when he got that far, I yelled, ‘Hey, the guy’s name is Frog!'” Remembering, Mack flushed with shame.

Everyone laughed except Frog, of course, and the name stuck despite Frog’s obvious disdain for it [I guess it was a shitty thing to do in hindsight but at the same time, it’s not that bad, is it? Like, it’s not his nickname is about his appearance or anything. Hardly bullying]. No-one’s talked about Kerry for a while, so she pipes up with her own story about how she was mean to Frog, too. Apparently before Frog had started dating Lolly Slocum [I love this name hahaha], he’d asked Kerry out. Now, Kerry knows how hard it is for guys to ask a girl out, ‘”never knowing if they’re going to be shot down”‘, so Kerry always tries to be nice when she says no [I find that hard to believe]. This makes sense to Hannah, since Kerry is ‘spoiled and a little shallow, but she wasn’t mean’ [I still don’t like Kerry’s attitude].

Anyway, Frog had been so arrogant about the whole thing, acting like he was doing Kerry a favour by asking her out. He argued with her when she refused a date with him, warning she’d be sorry if he didn’t give him a good excuse. Kerry had just laughed at him, and recalls the look on Frog’s face, like he wanted to strangle her, and now that he’s dead and on the train, she feels rotten about it [OK, Mack and Kerry’s supposedly nasty things are really not that bad. One was a nicknamed based on his name, and the other was laughing in an uncomfortable situation when he wouldn’t take no for an answer. I really thought these people were gonna be actively bullying Frog].

Lewis is next with his story, revealing he got Frog kicked out of gym class [That sounds like a good thing to me]. When Frog first came to the school, Lewis and Mack were team captains for the basketball in gym class. The teacher told Lewis to pick Frog for the team to make him feel included [What, Mack couldn’t pick him? It’s gym class, Frog would have been on a team regardless, right?]. Lewis had a bet with Mack that his team would win, so didn’t want a Neanderthal with two left feet like Frog on his team, and started arguing with the teacher about it. Frog overheard this, stormed over and hurled some abuse at Lewis, which got him sent to the vice principal’s office where he was apparently suspended for two days [For name-calling? Lol OK…]. Lewis wasn’t punished because of his much-needed basketball skills on the team.

Jean Marie also has a story [I reckon she’ll die first. I like her though :(] – she’s the editor of the school newspaper and when Frog had come in asking to be a reporter, she’d told him reporters are assigned at the start of the year and there were no openings, which was a big fat lie – Jean Marie just didn’t like him [OK, Lewis and Jean Marie’s were the meanest stories, but again, not that bad].

Kerry asks if Hannah’s ever made Frog feel like shit too, but Hannah claims she doesn’t have a story and excuses herself from the booth to get a coke [What are you hiding, Hannah? It better be the meanest story if you’re too scared to tell everyone]. She thinks back to the night of Frog’s crash, not far from her own house, and wonders if everyone at school made him feel so unhappy that he crashed on purpose [Surely not].

Mack comes up to bring her back to the booth and as they begin to walk, the train enters a dark tunnel and the carriage lights go off [!!!!]. Hannah’s claustrophobia kicks in a little, but soon they’re out of the tunnel and Ms. Quick, the chaperone, turns the lights back on, realising someone had simply flicked the switch [But who?!]. And then Hannah notices Lolly Slocum in a booth to her left and wonders if she heard what her friends had been saying [I’ll say yes]. And then Hannah realises something is wrong:

What everyone was staring at was a bright red print bandana, twisted into a “rope” and wound around Lolly’s neck so tightly that her round, plain face was rapidly turning purple and her eyes, wild with desperation, were bulging dangerously. Her fingers clawed frantically at the brightly-colored noose, but in vain. Her mouth opened and closed silently as she struggled for precious air.
Like a dying fish, Hannah thought numbly.
Lolly Slocum was choking to death.

[Is no-one going to help her?]. Mack eventually gets the the knot loose as Lewis fetches a doctor who’s onboard. Ms. Quick sends everyone back to their rooms while they help Lolly, who’s alive but now sports ‘an ugly necklace of raw, wounded skin’ around her throat. When someone makes a comment about not even knowing who Lolly is, Hannah feels sad – Parker High isn’t an overly large school, shouldn’t they all know each other? [Everyone in their year level should at least be aware of each other’s existence at least].

Hannah and her friends head back to the compartment she shares with Kerry where she can’t help wondering how Lolly ended up ‘with three such strange boys as her only friends’. She was a big girl, but she wasn’t ugly [Because being bigger implies ugliness, right?] and at least made an effort with her appearance [It’s not all about looks, Hannah]. She was also very pleasant, so it’s not her personality that set her apart from anyone else. Unable to come up with a reason why Lolly’s so unpopular, she puts the question forward to the group, and Kerry suggests it’s because she dated Frog. But no-one liked Lolly before that, and Hannah wonders if she’d had more friends, maybe she wouldn’t have dated Frog in the first place.

Lewis wants out of the guilt trip by this point and insists what just happened ‘”didn’t happen because of the way we treated Frog or his girlfriend Polly”‘ [You’ve just heard her name like 45568987 times in the last two minutes, how have you forgotten already? Wanker]. Jean Marie informs the group Lolly’s real name was Louise, which she knows from Lolly’s brief stint in choir before leaving for the drama club.

The conversations is interrupted by Ms. Quick at the door, who explains Lolly is fine but wants to go home, so she’ll be heading back on an express train accompanied by Dr. Lindsay, who volunteered to go with her so one of the chaperones didn’t have to [That’s incredibly nice of a complete stranger to do…]. Ms. Quick has been asking all the students if they know any reason why someone would do that to Lolly, and with no answers, there’ll be a detective boarding the train tomorrow morning. She then urges Hannah and her friends to stick together until they have some answers.

A while later, Ms. Quick returns to announce dinner is ready in the dining car, but Lewis wants to go back to his compartment first. Mack goes with him, and Jean Marie tags along for company back to her own compartment, and as the train comes to a stop, Hannah watches from the window as Lolly boards the express train with the doctor. Kerry hopes Dr. Lindsay wasn’t the only doctor onboard in case something else happens, and wonders why anyone would do that to Lolly, which Hannah interprets as Kerry implying ‘Lolly wasn’t interesting enough or important enough to have something like that happen to her’ [Poor Lolly].

Kerry takes ages to get ready for dinner, sending the boys away twice to give her more time, but when she’s finally ready, there’s no sign of the boys. Impatient, Kerry wants to go get them from their compartment, arguing they won’t miss them because there’s only one way to get there down the hall. Hannah’s reluctant, so Kerry insists whoever strangled Lolly would have left the train when she did [Not necessarily] and drags her out into the hall.

All the other students are apparently at dinner already and after a few steps, Kerry starts shrieking. She’s left the gold chain Lewis had given her back in the room, and she’d promised to never go anywhere without it [I think you’ll be fine without it for an hour, hun]. She absolutely insists Hannah stay in the hall and wait while she heads back to get it, even though Hannah’s clearly anxious about being alone [You need new friends, Hannah].

Kerry doesn’t immediately return, even though their compartment isn’t that far away, so a restless Hannah heads to the end of the corridor to gaze out the window [Why wouldn’t you just go back to the compartment as well?]. After a few minutes, ‘something thick and fluffy and cottony’ covers her mouth and nose as an arm wraps around her chest and starts dragging her towards the baggage car [I’m so confused about the layout of this train]. Hannah’s struggles are unsuccessful and she’s unable to see her attacker before she’s knocked unconscious.

She wakes up in complete darkness, trapped in some kind of box, and it takes her way too long to realise she’s in Frog’s coffin. Unable to shift the lid and with no way to escape, her claustrophobia kicks in as she claws at the wood and screams for help, passing out again as she hears voices.

She awakens in Mack’s arm surrounded by her friends, Ms. Quick and the conductor. Mack explains they found the claustrophobic Hannah in the coffin after hearing a noise while looking for her and insists she needs a doctor, but there’s no more doctors on the train. Hannah admits she didn’t see who attacked her and the conductor suggests they let the detective figure it out [Is there no other stop before Denver, where he’s supposed to get on? Two people have almost been murdered?!]. As everyone escorts Hannah back to her compartment, something even more horrifying than her imprisonment dawns on her – Frog’s body wasn’t in the coffin with her, so where is it? [Oooh, good point! Unless it’s genuinely an empty coffin].

Kerry kindly cleans up Hannah’s torn fingers and hands, bloodied and wounded from clawing at the wood, and puts her to bed, promising to stay with her. The boys want to stay too, but Ms. Quick axes that idea and leaves with them, instructing the girls to lock the door. As she lays there, Hannah wonders whether to go home tomorrow for her own safety like Lolly did, since there’s not really anywhere safe to go onboard if the attacker returns, but ultimately refuses to let some lunatic scare her off [I guess as long as she’s never alone she’ll be fine, maybe? Although Lolly was in a full carriage when she was attacked…].

She wakes up early the next morning and immediately worries about the whereabouts of Frog’s corpse. Could it be possible that he never died in the fiery crash, escaping at the last minute like what happens in movies and shows [Definitely wouldn’t put it past a Point Horror for something so convoluted, but the fact that Hannah’s wondering about it tells me that’s not what happened here]. She decides it had to have been Frog who died, but if that’s true, where’s his body? She then concludes that Frog is here, out to get revenge for all the horrible things they did to him [Again, not that bad]:

But Hannah, the nasty little voice reminded her slyly, You didn’t tell a story. You were the only one who made no confession. So why would Frog be out to punish you?
For that matter, an even bigger question was, Why would he want to hurt Lolly? Lolly wasn’t part of Hannah’s group. She was Frog’s own girlfriend.

[If you were mean to Frog, he wouldn’t need to overhear a confession about it because he experienced it, so that first part makes no sense. And good point about Lolly, obviously Frog’s not the bad guy. Must be someone who knows all the bad things they did, and maybe Lolly did something bad too that we don’t know yet?] Later that morning, Hannah visits a doctor with Ms. Quick where she gets a clean bill of health. She’d told her friends she’d wait at the doctors for them to return from breakfast [Not sure why she wouldn’t just go to them but okeh], and after a little while only Kerry, Lewis and Jean Marie return. Apparently as they were heading back here, Mack yelled something and took off, and they’d assumed he was just eager to get back to Hannah.

Hannah refuses to go back to the train without her man, since he’d promised to meet her here, so Ms. Quick heads back to check if he’d gone straight there instead. After a while, Lewis convinces Hannah their best option is to head back as well and if Mack’s not there, the detective will help look for him, but back at the platform there’s still no sign of Mack. Dale, on the other hand, is by himself, which is weird because Hannah’s never seen him without at least one of his friends before [Eugene is a red herring I guess].

Eventually Mack runs up to the platform, red-faced with exertion and claiming he just got lost. Hannah’s not buying it, but can’t think of a reason why he would lie. Before she can protest, Ms. Quick announces that all students are finally present and everyone boards the train in a big surge, separating Mack and Lewis from Hannah, Kerry and Jean Marie. Hannah pushes her way through the crowd to catch up to them, convinced Mack’s telling Lewis something he doesn’t want her to know. When she’s finally within earshot on the train, she hears Mack explaining he thought he saw Frog coming out of a drugstore [Or our bad guy dressed as Frog!].

Mack hears her gasp, and Kerry and Jean Marie catch up to them just as he’s explaining that he only thought it was Frog, but it was just someone who resembled him. Since he didn’t actually see the guy’s face, Hannah argues it could have been Frog, and all the pieces come together in her mind:

“He faked his own death so he’d be free to get even with all of us for the nasty things we did to him. He knew that no matter what happened to any of us, no one would suspect him because everyone thinks he’s dead. It’s perfect.” Her eyes travelled from one face to the next. “Can’t you see that?”

Kerry points out that even if he were still alive, Hannah never confessed to anything back in the café, so why would Frog target her [Again, Frog experienced firsthand what they all did to him??? He doesn’t need to hear their confessions to know]. They take the conversation into Hannah and Kerry’s compartment, where Hannah asks Mack why he was gone for so long. Well, he’d followed the guy down an alley and watched him enter a little wooden shed, but when Mack went in after him, no-one was in there. Then the door was stuck and he couldn’t get out. He had to break a window to escape, and checked on the door, which was definitely just stuck and not locked, but Hannah’s convinced Frog had somehow locked him in.

Mack gives up on trying to persuade Hannah otherwise and leaves with Lewis to ask the detective about any leads. Kerry asks Hannah if Frog is behind these attacks, why would he hurt Lolly, and Jean Marie reveals she’d heard them arguing at The Gap:

“She kept saying he couldn’t go, and he kept saying he was going. Then she said she was sure it was a joke and he was stupid not to see that and he screamed at her not to call him stupid, and then the clerk came over and threw them out. Told them to take their argument outside. The last thing I heard was Lolly saying something like, ‘Then I’m going with you’ and Frog saying ‘You’re not, you’ll ruin everything.’ And she said ‘You’re not going without me, Roger’. But their voices got too far away for me to hear the rest.”

[I guess that’s a motive for Frog to have attacked Lolly, but I still don’t believe he’s the bad guy. Also, could the fight have something to do with however Hannah was mean to Frog?]. My question is answered when Jean Marie reveals the fight happened on ‘the Saturday before the trip’ [Which means nothing to us yet. Note from future: she means the trip they’re currently on. I don’t know how I didn’t realise that hahaha], and Hannah silently remembers how that fight had been her fault [We better find out why soon!].

Kerry’s over the conversation and decides to leave Hannah to rest while she drags Jean Marie with her to the showers, since they’re not supposed to go anywhere alone [I’m sure you’re not supposed to leave the victim of an attack alone either, but I guess your shower is more important, huh Kerry?], and instructs Hannah to keep the door locked.

Soon after, Ms. Quick arrives with Detective Tesch to ask Hannah some questions, and also reveals Lolly made it home safely. Unfortunately, Detective Tesch has no answers for Hannah and likewise, she has no answers to his questions, not wanting to sound crazy with her thoughts about Frog. The adults leave, and Hannah decides she’ll feel safer resting in the top bunk, Kerry’s bed [Why would you be safer on the top of the bunk where it would be harder to escape?], but when she climbs up, she discovers Frog’s corpse resting there [!!!].

In a state of relatively silenced shock, Hannah manages to escape the compartment and get down the hall towards the shower/Mack and Lewis’ compartment before she’s paralysed by fear and can’t go any further. Kerry and Jean Marie eventually notice her as they exit the showers, and Kerry waits with Hannah while Jean Marie runs for help. When she arrives with the boys, who were in the rec room with everyone else, Ms. Quick and the conductor, a rattled Hannah manages to tell them to check the upper berth.

Everyone except Kerry goes to investigate, returning a few minutes later to reveal there’s nothing up there [I can’t wait for this to be explained]. Hannah insists Frog was there – she saw him, felt him, and Ms. Quick dismisses it as a nightmare, brought on by the trauma over the past 24 hours. Hannah argues that she hadn’t slept, but since no-one seems to believe her, she decides to march into the room herself and point out the body [Come on, Hannah, If it was still there, they would have seen it already] and sure enough the bunk is empty.

Hannah realises there’s no point arguing anymore, even though the body’s disappearance is proof to her that Frog is alive and roaming the train, scaring and attacking everyone. Mack advises she gets some sleep, but that’s the last thing Hannah wants to do so she suggests they go to the rec centre for a showing of an Arnold Schwarzenegger film [Which Arnie movie?!?].

During the last few seconds of the movie, our Hannah hears a ‘sharp, whizzing sound that sent Hannah’s head into an instinctive ducking motion’ followed by a startled groan. No-one else seems to notice, but after the movie’s over, Hannah waits and watches as everyone stands up except for Lewis, who simply says ‘”I think I’ve been stabbed.”‘ Suspecting what she heard was a knife hurtling through the air, Hannah rushes to his side with her friends and notices not a knife, but the handle of an ice pick protruding from the back of Lewis’ chair, its pick impaled near his collarbone [I’ve always wondered if there’s been a death scene in a cinema where someone was stabbed through the chair, unbeknown to the rest of the room. It’s not an actual cinema and Lewis isn’t dead, but it’s close enough!].

The rest of the room is completely unaware until Mack calls out for someone to get the adults, and an angry Kerry declares she knew they’d need that doctor, blaming Lolly for his not being there anymore [Fuck off, Kerry]. Hannah wonders if anyone will believe her now that Frog’s alive and onboard, and decides she’s going to make sure, once and for all, by opening his coffin [Hannah, you already know he won’t be in there, so what exactly is it going to prove when he’s not in there again? Someone’s clearly moving his body around or something].

Lewis’ injury proves to be minor and after being taken care of, the gang escorts him back to his compartment. Despite not wanting to tell the group her plan, Hannah’s got no intention of going to the baggage cart alone, so quickly announces she’ll be heading there after dinner to check the coffin [Why not go now?]. Everyone agrees to go with her, with Lewis especially eager to find out ‘”who thinks I’d make a good ice cube”‘ [Hahahahahaha].

At dinner, the rest of the students are glad to see Lewis is OK, and to the gang’s surprise, Dale and Eugene stop Lewis at the entrance to ask how he’s feeling:

“You we are lucky,” Dale said, moving away. “An inch or two lower or higher and…”
Eugene raised a hand to make a slicing motion across his own throat. “Yeah, you’d be up in heaven right now with good old Frog,” he said with a grin. Then the two left to take a table at the rear of the car.

[…Those two red herrings are super weird]. After dinner, the gang waits in Mack and Lewis’ compartment for everyone else to turn in for the night before they creep into the baggage cart where they leave the light off so no-one will notice them. Kerry and I don’t understand how Hannah expects to know Frog’s in the coffin if she can’t see, but Hannah declares she’ll just know [OK…but how?]. After reaching the coffin in the dark, Hannah and Mack have only moved the lid a few inches when the lights go on, and the conductor’s at the door demanding to know what they’re doing.

Hannah makes up a story about a valuable ring her friends were helping her search for and the conductor eventually buys their story, albeit reluctantly, and allows them to pass back into the corridor, where Hannah calmly tells everyone she found out what she needed to know. Turns out Frog had a distinctive tattoo of a wingless rat on his left wrist [Apparently Hannah’s the only one of these five that have ever noticed, though], and despite the lid only being opened a fraction before they were busted, she’d seen his tattooed wrist in there.

Back in Mack and Lewis’ compartment, Hannah reiterates that despite Frog’s body being back in his coffin, someone is still out to get them, and whoever it s knows who’s staying in which compartments. Mack suggests the five of them sleep in the Observation Lounge, where the ceiling and walls are made from glass, since they’ll have it to themselves at this time of night and no-one will expect them to be up there [OK, but is that really safer than locking yourselves in your compartments? Anyone could find you there if they simply looked?].

Safe and sound the next morning, the girls head to the showers while the boys stand guard at the door. After a few minutes, Hannah hears one of the shower doors close and knows it’s Jean Marie, because Kerry would never take a shower that quick. When Hannah steps out a short while later, there’s no sign of Jean Marie. Kerry’s taking her sweet ass time still, so Hannah assumes Jean Marie went outside to wait for the boys. She quickly gets dressed and steps out into the corridor, where the boys are talking to Eugene, of all people, who leaves as soon as he spots Hannah [????? What’s going on here]. She enquires about Jean Marie, but she never came out of the shower room. Confused, Hannah knows there’s nowhere for Jean Marie to be hiding in the tiny shower room, but checks again anyway before the detective is called to the scene [I hope Jean Marie’s OK, I really like her].

After investigating the shower room, Detective Tesch declares Jean Marie must be playing a joke on them:

He stood in the centre of the small room, pointing upward. “See those plastic panels up there?” He climbed up on the bench under the light, reached up and easily slid one of the lightweight panels sideways, revealing a large opening. “They’re very lightweight,” he said. “Slide in and out in a minute. The ducts up here lead all over the train. Your friend climbed up there and probably came down somewhere else, maybe in one of the compartments.”

[Ohhhhhh, so that’s how our bad guy is moving around the train unnoticed]. Hannah insists Jean Marie would never do something like that, ‘”Not ever, but especially not now”‘ and the detective thinks it’s suss that neither of the other girls heard Jean Marie being pulled or pushed up through the ceiling. Hannah points out that she was probably gagged and/or knocked unconscious, like Hannah was herself [Why does a detective need a teenager to point that out to him? Tesch is an idiot], and Detective Tesch agrees to let all the students help search for Jean Marie, as long as they stay in groups.

Mack takes charge, dividing the students into seven groups of four, but Eugene is noticeably absent [Red herring!]. Each group is designated a different carriage and instructed to check the ceiling panels as well, and Hannah, Kerry, Mack and Lewis start their search in the Observation Lounge. It’s empty and the glass is ceiling, so there’s no panels to search, but as they’re about to leave for another car, they hear a shrill scream overhead:

Suddenly, a bright blur of hot pink sailed past the window in front of them, arcing downward like an arrow aimed at the ground, and disappeared.
Instinctively, Hannah’s gaze shot to the ceiling glass and for just one tiny split-second, she thought she saw a movement overhead…the heel of a boot? Then it was gone, and there was nothing.

Kerry recognises the hot pink as Jean Marie’s bathrobe, which she was most likely wearing when she was taken [Oh no, not my Jean Marie :'(], horrifying the others, and Hannah yanks on the emergency cord above her, bringing the train to a grinding halt.

A short while later, the gang waits in the Observation Lounge for Ms. Quick and the conductor to return, hopefully without the bad news they’re expecting about what they saw [I’m praying with you, guys!]. When the adults arrive, they break the news of poor Jean Marie’s death and explain anyone who wants to leave the trip will be able to do so when they stop in San Francisco later today. It’s all too much for Hannah, who runs from the room in tears all the way to her compartment, where she finds someone waiting in her room – Lolly Slocum [Whaaaaaat? Didn’t she leave?]. She’s dressed in boy’s clothes, particularly an outfit Frog used to wear, which is the same one Mack described on the person he was chasing the other day.

Through her bad guy monologue, Lolly reveals she’d feigned motion sickness to the doctor when they’d boarded the second train, so the doctor stashed Lolly in a sleeping car so she could rest. Lolly got right off that train and back on the original one, and stayed out of sight by hiding in the ceiling. She’d sent the message about getting home safely herself, and not even Eugene and Dale knew she was still on the train.

Hannah’s evidently too stupid to grasp what Lolly’s telling her and thinks Lolly she should be at home or in hospital because of her strangulation, and Lolly declares she tied that knot herself [And Hannah still doesn’t understand what’s going on]. Lolly explains Hannah will get what she deserves, but killing her without telling her why wouldn’t be any fun, and you’d think the light bulb in Hannah’s head would finally turn on when Lolly comments on how hard it was to stuff her in that coffin [What, it was harder to do that then literally pull someone up through the ceiling?], but it’s not to be.

Lolly divulges it was her dressed as Frog in Kerry’s bunk [That’s a lot of effort], with makeup on to resemble his wounds thanks to skills she’d learnt in drama club. She’s getting back at them all for how they treated poor Frog, and is especially mad at Hannah because it’s apparently her fault that Frog died angry at Lolly [Naturally we don’t find out why that is just yet, but it’s obviously something to do with Hannah being cruel to Frog].

Lolly continues with her revelations, revealing she’d hurled the ice pick at Lewis [Duh. I can’t believe Hannah still needs all this spelled out for her. Buy a vowel, girl], had planned to burn down the shed with Mack inside but there were too many people walking past the alley, and finally that poor, sweet Jean Marie was murdered because Frog was in love with her and was only dating Lolly because he couldn’t have Jean Marie, so Lolly ‘”hated Jean Marie more than I’ve ever hated anyone.”‘ [Wooooooow, Lolly. It’s not Jean Marie’s fault the guy was in love with her! It’s not like she encouraged it. Maybe direct that anger at your boyfriend lol].

Lolly gazes out the window as she says this, off in some far away place, and Hannah seizes the opportunity to escape out to the hall. She runs into Mack, Lewis and Kerry two cars down, who don’t believe her story since they all watched Lolly board the other train, so Hannah drags them back to her compartment, picking up the conductor and Detective Tesch on the way [Plenty of time for Lolly to sneak back up into the ceiling].

Sure enough, the room is empty, but the window is smashed with a piece of Lolly’s denim jacket caught on a shard of glass. There’s also a note on the mirror that reads ‘I’LL BE WITH ROGER NOW. I’M NOT SORRY FOR ANYTHING. L.’. With the train currently moving over a vast canyon, there’s no point stopping it, so the adults leave to phone search and rescue teams [We’ve still go 20 pages before the end, so Lolly is clearly just hiding in the ceiling again]. Hannah agrees with me, telling the gang as soon as the adults have left that Lolly has to be hiding again.

The others are sceptical but agree to humour Hannah by helping her search the train, but have no luck finding their tormentor. Hannah is forced to accept that Lolly really did jump from the train, and they arrive in San Francisco by 5pm, where Hannah plans on catching the school-funded flights back home for anyone wanting to leave. As the students leave the train, Hannah notices Frog’s coffin being unloaded [Oh my god, that’s where Lolly’s hiding! Surely]. There’s still three hours before Hannah’s plane is due to depart, so she agrees to go sightseeing with her friends since she’s never been to San Francisco, or even seen a beach [Really? Wow]!

They spend the afternoon at a restaurant overlooking the sea before heading to the arcade beneath it. Hannah becomes separated from the others and decides to escape the stuffiness of the arcade, heading outside to the seawall overlooking the ocean without even attempting to let them know where she’s going [Which given the circumstances of the last few says, is not only a terrible idea, but a cruel thing to do to her friends, who will be stressing out when they can’t find her]. Hannah’s all alone on the walkway and takes in the view for a while, feeling relaxed for the first time. Just as she decides to head back to the arcade, an arm wraps around her neck – it’s Lolly Slocum!

With a knife pressed against Hannah’s ear [Her ear?? Why her ear?], Lolly drags her toward a crumbled area of the seawall that’s been roped off, revealing she was hiding in Frog’s coffin that whole time [Lol, knew it]. Hannah realises Lolly’s planning on throwing her to the jagged rocks far below and stalls for time, asking the burning question we’ve all been wondering – where’s Frog’s body if it hadn’t been in the coffin? Lolly releases her grip as she backs Hannah up against the wall and holds up a metal canister, not a knife as Hannah had originally thought:

“You don’t think anyone cared enough about him to provide a real funeral for him, do you? Too much bother to have him sent home to be buried. They had him cremated!”
“Frog was never in the coffin? Then why was it on the train?”
Lolly grinned. “I ordered it. I’m having it sent COD to his parents. As a reminder. They had a son they didn’t want, not when he was alive and not when he was dead. They’ll get a call from the railroad station and they’ll come down to see what they’re getting and there it will be…their son’s coffin. Only he won’t be in it. They won’t care about that, but they sure will be ticked off when given the shipping invoice.”

[COD means collect on delivery, btw. I had to look it up lol]. Lolly was given his ashes, since no-one else cared, and had decided to scatter them here in San Francisco, one of Frog’s favourite places. She signed up for the tour after realising she could get revenge at the same time, and that’s when Hannah notices the tattoo on Lolly’s wrist – the same one that Frog had, a winged rat [Very interesting].

Lolly starts babbling about how Frog’s death was Hannah’s fault [Just references though, we don’t actually find out what went down yet], while Hannah gropes the crumbling wall behind her for a piece she can use as a weapon. Finding a suitable piece of concrete, she suddenly whacks it against Lolly’s head, catching her so off guard that the canister of Frog’s ashes goes flying up in the air. Lolly lunges for it, catching it as she hits the damaged wall, which disintegrates from the force and sends Lolly plunging to the rocks far below.

Mack, Kerry and Lewis arrive at the same time after seeing Lolly and Hannah from the arcade window and take Hannah back up to the restaurant to wait after phoning Ms. Quick and the police. They’re all confused as to why Hannah seemed to be Lolly’s main target when she never confessed to any cruel behaviour back in the café, but Hannah reveals she was too ashamed to say anything because what she did to Frog was worse than the rest of them [It fucking better be to go the whole book without disclosing it].

She explains that it all began when Hannah’s dad hired Frog to help with some yard work before Hannah’s recent party. Basically, the whole school would be attending and Frog knew this, constantly bringing it up. Hannah felt bad that the whole school had written him off so quickly, and eventually told him he could come. Despite them both knowing she instantly regretted it, she knew he was determined to show up, and from then on Hannah couldn’t stop thinking about what everyone at school would think and how her party would be ruined [Wow, Hannah, you bitch]. The night of the party, Hannah met Frog, followed closely by Lolly, at the front door with a lie:

“I’m really sorry, but the party’s been cancelled. I’m not feeling well… the flu, I think, I’ve got this terrible headache and my stomach… well, I hate to do it, but I have to send everyone home. I was just about to when you came.”

[This could have been his chance to make friends, Hannah! This is definitely the worst thing any of them did to him]. Frog clearly wasn’t buying it, but got back in his car and sped of, all while Lolly basically yelled “I told you so” after him. Hannah’s friends know the rest from here – Lolly had left, and they’d all heard the sirens five minutes later but were having too much fun to give it any thought [To be honest, I think I’m #TeamLolly right now. Although Jean Marie definitely didn’t deserve to die :(].

The books ends with Hannah deciding to continue on the trip and come back here the next day to say a decent goodbye to Frog and Lolly, and ‘”Then it will really be over”‘.

Final thoughts

Not bad, Hoh! I definitely didn’t see the bad guy reveal coming, and although only one person died [And probably the least deserving], I can appreciate that Lolly had either planned to or attempted to kill them all. Well, except for Kerry, god knows why. She should have been the first victim.

I thought Hannah was a great protagonist, at least until the whole bad guy monologue where everything had to be spelled out slowly for her. I was easily absorbed into the story’s universe and found it quite suspenseful, never really knowing what would happen next.

Lolly’s revenge plot made sense, and I love that she was gaslighting Hannah the whole time into thinking Frog was alive. It added a whole potentially supernatural element, which was done a lot better here than in Party Summer.

From memory, this is the least predictable book I’ve recapped so far, and looking back, I was so into it that I never even made an attempt to guess who the bad guy was, so I’ve gotta give it props for that as well.

86 empty coffins on a train out of 114.