Anyone remember this 90s YA book?

[BeautifulWar]

Hi,
Does anyone remember this YA 90s (or maybe late 80s) book? For some reason I'm thinking it's Christopher Pike - if it's not him, then another similar author of that time, but definitely not R.L.Stine.

I don't remember much of the plot (helpful, I know), other than it being the ubiquitous bunch of friends getting picked off one the by one scenario.

It's definitely a first person narrator - female teen (Anita or Alison rings a bell). The ending reveals the culprit is the narrator and involves a cyanide pill.

Can anyone help me, pleeeeease? It's driving me insane and trawling the internet hasn't helped!

Thanks!

Have you checked the Point Horror series? Probably would've been a shiny (maybe black) cover with a high-contrast image and jaggy text for the title?

Like this one maybe? www.pointhorror.com/198/class-trip-by-bebe-faas-rice/

Sounds like a Point Horror book called something like Trio. The Narrators mum owned a prom dress shop I think?

It fits:

• first person narrator
• picked off one by one
• narrator did it
• cyanide
• main character is called Angie

But then these things are quite formulaic so that's not necessarily it 😅

I don't think it's this one, but The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler?

I think it's the Christopher Pike 3 part series Final Friends. Think the 3 books/parts were called The Party The Dance and The Graduation. The final graduation party in on a boat. I loved the series!! Might read again 😃

My daughter just read and loved the invitation that I had from when I was a kid. So I'm buying her more point horror books if I can find them.

I'm sure there was one by Christopher Pike where the cover was a skull and a biohazard sign or something and the plot ended up with the kids in a cave or underground. And possibly involved poison so maybe it the same one you're thinking of. I really want to get It but not sure what it was called!

Amazing! @ClumpingBambooIsALie that's it! If forgotten about the Nightmares series, but didn't think it was Point Horror!

Thanks for responses!

Yay! I hate that trying-to-remember-a-book thing. So tricky with these ones where there's a massive genre of really similar books, often ones that you tend to binge-read (or I did — our school library had a mahoosive collection of Point Horrors).

(I know Nightmares series isn't Point Horror but they're in the same basic category in my head, I guess…)

@BeautifulWar I've got that book! Went through a phase in lockdown of tracking down loads of PH/Chirstopher Pike/Nightmares books on EBay. Had hoped my eldest who is 10 ,might read them at some point but he is not keen!

@JonSnowedUnder me too but with Point Horror!

I mainly read PH as a tween, but I do remember reading the Nightmares books about the hotel - I didn't remember that there were any others in that series!

I'm currently reading The Chain Letter by Christopher Pike, and went through a stage (also in lockdown) of re-reading all the Point Horrors. Still love them all these years later. Not sure of the one you're talking about though although it sort of sounds more Pike than Stein.

@evilharpy love chain letter, gives me a similar feel to his final friends trilogy.

Oh I loved PH!

Christopher Pike isn't ringing any bells for me though...I think my favourite had to be R L Stine and I also remember Caroline B Cooney, Diane Ho and Richie Tankersley Cusick (fabulous name).

I had a trilogy by R L Stine - The Boyfriend, the Girlfriend, and another one I can't remember. The Boyfriend was about a guy who faked his death by falling off a cliff and then harassed his ex, I think?

Also loved the Nightmare Hall series by Diane Hoh, and the Fear Street series by R L Stine.

I was a tween when I read them and thought my high school life would be like that - cars, boyfriends, hanging out at the mall etc...the reality was such a disappointment 😂

This was a point horror book and I remember loving the twist! I feel like there was a cabin or holiday vibe to it!

Oh yes, Class trip!

I loved point horror and Christopher pike books. I might have a browse on ebay for some.

Ooooo, I think that one had a plit where something happened (), the friends when to a cave and started acting weird, because of what happened to them already, then this spread across the town.

I loved Christopher Pike books when I was about 13. Read loads of them.

I had a trilogy by R L Stine - The Boyfriend, the Girlfriend, and another one I can't remember. The Boyfriend was about a guy who faked his death by falling off a cliff and then harassed his ex, I think?

The other one was The Dead Girlfriend!

Those were the days!

@BeautifulWar I looked that one up, maybe that was it but I don't remember much of it.

The Girlfriend I could totally remember bits of as soon as I read the plot summary - the guy cheated on his gf when she was "out of town" with some random girl.....I can remember she was in his car, playing with her hair, chewing gum and blowing bubbles, and changing radio stations.....and I imagined that's exactly what I'd be doing when I was 16 (although preferably not with someone else's boyfriend 😂)

I'm sure I was only 10 or 11 when I was reading these....seems very young!

I did love them though, and old Stiney really could churn them out, couldn't he? 😂

The Babysitter. That was another good one.

I did love them though, and old Stiney really could churn them out, couldn't he? 😂

He could, but that's where it started going wrong, I think!

I loved the Babysitter, The Hitchiker and The Beach House. Then he started doing stuff like Halloween Night and Call Waiting. He must have been raking it in though!

I liked Caroline B Cooney - hers were always quirky! Loved The Cheerleader when I was 11!

I absolutely loved Point Horror. My favourite was The Forbidden Game trilogy.

@ThreeRingCircus LOVE forbidden trilogy as well! I think that might be one of the best, I remember just after reading it going on holiday and in one of the little shops there were loads of rune necklaces.

I also loved fear street - I watched the recent series on Netflix but was disappointed it had nothing to do with the books. I thought there might at least be a couple of nods to the books but I didn't notice. It wasn't a bad series but it wasn't fear street.

For anyone who liked Christopher Pike YA check out his Season of Passage, it was written for adults and it's still one of my favourite books.