School should never be synonymous with danger, but that’s exactly what it has become. Students are violent, with each other and with the staff. Teachers and administrators have been attacked. This is nothing like the school shootings occurring on other campuses. No, this is personal. It doesn’t revolve around one child wanting revenge on the rest of the student body. It involves most of the … students wanting payback against everyone.
Something far worse than teenage rage lurks in the Darrius Sawyer High corridors. Everyone can sense it. Teachers hint about it. They speak in hushed tones, tell stories about odd occurrences in their classrooms, and travel by numbers as they make their way to their cars after school.
Evil walks the hallways and the teachers know its name: James Bender.
At DS High, the seniors are planning the ultimate Grad Night bash, and all the teachers are invited. James Bender will be there. You will be too.
Carver Pike takes ordinary circumstances, cinches them tight with razor wire, and then saws back and forth. Gasp for air, holler for help, and pray for an end to the madness.
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So, the entire time I was reading this, the song “Teenagers” by My Chemical Romance played in my head.
“Teenagers scare
The living shit out of me
They could care less
As long as someone’ll bleed”
This is a very fitting theme for this book.
DS High operates like any other high school. There are cliques, overzealous kids, and pure evil. James Bender is one student that gives all the teachers chills though none of them are really sure why. The student body rallies around him, and a few of the teachers do what they can to avoid him at all costs.
That is, until they receive their invitations to the Grad Night Party. It’s a party they won’t want to miss.
So this is my first book from Carver Pike, and oh, how I loved it.
This was such a refreshing take on horror, mob mentality, and the dangers of human nature. I loved the way the author gave each character a story, a driving motivation behind what they did. He also countered this by offering up countering POVs in which the characters didn’t know how far the consequences of their actions would reach.
With each passing scene and the amped up horror, I loved how the author was consistent to each character’s personality. I especially loved the twist at the ending. I had my suspicions about Josie and Bog, but I loved what they did (I don’t want to give away spoilers!)
So, all in all, if you like horror, and aren’t already terrified of teenagers, you’ll love this book! If you’re a teacher, read with caution.
Grad Night sets into play ever educators frustrations with the triangle of the education system: The administration, the parents. and the students. Carver Pike lights up every surface issue plaguing the system and then drives the stake right into the center of the issue. Pike has a knack for pulling out the day to day and preying on the deeper senses of your imagination. Those normal things that shouldn’t curl your toenails and cause the hair on your neck to stand at attention, but he grabs those ordinary things and twists them into the deepest fears lurking in the recesses of your mind. A well played out horror story played on the ideals Hitchcok laid out decades ago that a good suspense horror is based on dramatic irony. However, it is apparent that Pike also plays off the satirical nature of mankind’s deepest evils—himself.