Now that we’ve looked at one book from the main BSC series, we turn to one its many spin-offs, the Mystery series. Now this is not the first time I’ve looked at one of the mystery books as last year when I did three Dawn-centric Halloween reviews, I reviewed Dawn and the Halloween Mystery.
That book was rather good as this was one but it also had something of a tragic bent to it. Believe it or not, this book pulls elements from Carrie. And the movie is even mentioned by name in the book.
Thankfully no pigs blood but there is still the idea of a recluse girl being mocked by her school and unrequited love just because someone is being nice a la Tommy Ross.
Normally when reviewing mysteries such as the Nancy Drew books, I don’t like revealing who the culprit is but this feels a bit different with the book evoking the feelings of Carrie.
Cover
The Carrie of it all begins at the cover but you wouldn’t know that if you hadn’t read the story. The black-robed lady and the football player are the book’s equivalents to Carrie White and Tommy Ross. A football player is a nice touch considering how in the book, Tommy is described as athletic and was also popular amongst his peers and that’s true of the character featured here.
This is one variation from the King novel in there’s no Sue Snell type character that asked Mr. Rothman (the Tommy stand-in) to take Liz (this book’s Carrie) to the dance and that it was part of a prank set up by his football buddies playing on the crush Liz had. To borrow from the musical which I greatly enjoy.
Tommy, latelyI’ve just not been feelin’ rightI’m so ashamed of how we’ve all been treating Carrie WhiteNow I realize this is hardly your concernI hate to drag you into this, but I’ve got nowhere else to turnDo me a favor
However, the guilt and shame that Sue expresses are shared by a young Mr. Rothman after he reveals his friends bet him ten dollars and he let fly out of his pocket fall to the ground.
The book refers to an event in Stoneybrook Middle School’s past that happened here known as the stampede which continuing our comparison could be viewed as their take on the prom massacre/black prom.
This being a children’s book however no deaths of children are mentioned even if 300 students escaped the gymnasium where the dance was held after a fire alarm was pulled. The only death mentioned is that of a teacher and he died of a heart attack, the following day.
I’ve already delved enough into the gist of the story here but I will be going into the plot next some more as I feel a little bad that I haven’t talked about the main character yet.
The Plot
The main story kicks off when BSC member Stacey McGill hears her middle school is holding a Halloween dance or a rather mischief masquerade and she wants to work on the dance committee. She ends up joining the decorating team alongside BSC bully/rival Cokie Mason. She’ll show up again in our next review as well. Mr. Rothman who I brought up when discussing the cover decided to join to chaperone the dance as he wants to make sure nothing like that ever happens again. This is something I appreciate and in some ways reminds me of the Carrie sequel and how Sue Snell became a principal and how it seems to be a way of atoning for the sins of the past of that horrible night from her youth.
This is interesting to look at because as I mentioned, Mr. Rothman seems to be both a combo of Tommy Ross and Sue Snell in this book, or rather Tommy realizing that the school were dicks to Carrie White. This is where the mystery aspect of the book comes in as someone has been sabotaging the dance and Stacey at first thinks it might be Cokie as she has had it out for the members of the BSC for who knows why. And then there is also the group known as the Mischief Knights who are just a bunch of pranksters.
Well at least, it wasn’t Billy and Chris.
No, it turns out that it was Liz Connor after all doing all of this as it is revealed in the final chapter that Liz hearing Stoneybrook Middle School would be hosting another mischief dance drove her mad, and apparently her mind had been slipping over the years. And when she shows up at the present-day dance in the story, she breaks down and started apologizing for all of her actions as Mr. Rothman led out of the school. She had been obsessed with how she was humiliated that night of the dance when she was a kid. And I honestly can’t say that I blame her as she was made to be a laughingstock just because she was different. It is a bit of a tragic spin and you can’t help but feel bad for her.
My Final Thoughts
In all I think this is a good story and much like the book that it took its inspiration from is a story of how bullying can push someone to their breaking point. Yet unlike anti-bullying PSA’s it never feels preachy and instead comes across as just saying bullying can ruin someone’s life and have lifelong ramifications. Join me next time when I close out our time in Stoneybrook when I look at the graphic novel adaptation of Mary Anne’s Bad Luck Mystery.
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