Pep Rally (Horror High, #7) by Nicholas Adams

Pep Rally (Horror High, #7) Reviews

• 
  Donna

  If there ever was a misleading blurb for a book it’s this one. This is almost nothing like what the book is actually about. Cathy doesn’t have dreams of becoming a cheerleader, she’s not jealous of them, and she doesn’t hate being on the outside. She was content being friends with Jennie, who was in that crowd, but she never voiced any desire to “really belong.” And the cheerleaders aren’t being killed one by one. So, there’s that. And again, Cathy isn’t jealous. At all. At any point in the book. She does moon over no longer being part of that crowd once her friend dies but it’s more of a ‘why aren’t they more upset about this?’ than anything else.
  
  So yeah. Completely disregard that blurb. It’s largely irrelevant to the book.
  
  I actually liked PEP RALLY a bit more than some of the other old school YA horror books because it took its time setting the mood of the story. The first death happens within the first chapter and Cathy and all of her pseudo-friends start getting questioned by the police about it and things just spiral from there. Cathy starts having nightmares about Jennie all mutilated and it appears her dead friend is trying to tell her something from beyond the grave and it’s all just moody. I liked it. Plus I think the setting was early spring, early enough that it was pretty cold with snow still around and getting closer to real spring where there were some buds on plants and there were warm temperature bursts. So gloomy with a hint of hope, I guess.
  
  I never felt any real connection to the characters but I enjoyed the story I was reading. The author did a good job of psyching out the reader (me) when it came to who was heading up this whole conspiracy deal. I felt like the dominoes were set up and the picture looked right but then a hand came in and wiped it all away. I think there was a lot of care taken with the plot to make sure it wasn’t too obvious who was controlling everything and who was doing the killing and I really appreciated that.
  
  The motive behind it all was rather thin but in the early days of technology when something like hacking was so new and being able to alter records from a distant computer were still pretty big deals I think the plot would have held more weight. But was it something to kill over? That was pretty extreme considering what people were killing others over was skipping classes, doctoring grades, and getting something called Booster Bucks (I still have no idea what those were or how they worked, there weren’t any details given about that). I did like the alternate plot of these rich kids peddling amphetamines. That was definitely far more real and could have potentially been part of something much larger and far deadlier than record-doctoring that would have lent itself to killing others but it was secondary to the hacking. If it were flipped I think the plot would have been stronger. Or at least transcended time a little better.
  
  PEP RALLY was fast-paced and kept me guessing. Plus it really was a little creepy as all these things kept happening but Cathy didn’t have any answers. Definitely one of the better older YA horror books that I’ve read, coming in closer to my thoughts about Christopher Pike than RL Stine. Adams’s characters were far more realistic and weren’t crappy human beings when they shouldn’t have been (exclusive of the whole murdering thing) but there wasn’t as much depth as Pike has in his books but it’s up there in terms of care taken to give a good story. I liked it.
  
  4.5
• 
  Keith Walfson

  Great book, good starting point for beginner programmers.
• 
  Courtney Gruenholz

  Let's get something out of the way first.
  
  If you go into Pep Rally thinking it will be anything like the blurb on the back, possibly since that is why you want to read it, be prepared for disappointment in that regard. So that means a tiny part of me was expecting some horror-fun involving cheerleaders but...nah.
  
  Instead, I did get a really good story the complete polar opposite of my original expectations.
  
  Cathy Atmore wears Coke-bottle glasses and is pretty good with computers. The only thing that keeps her from being a nerd or loser is her friendship with Jennie Brodie. Jennie is blonde, pretty, popular and a preppy cheerleader who Cathy has known since childhood and she isn't the type of person who drops friends just because her family got the luck of the draw.
  
  All of this changes the day Cathy is called into the office with some other students and they are interviewed by a police detective...Jennie has been murdered.
  
  Details aren't released but soon it's all over school...this was grisly and horrific. Cathy can't believe her friend is gone and she starts having dreams of Jennie asking her for help beyond the grave to figure out her murder.
  
  There is something going on at Cresswell High involving the popular crowd that led to Jennie's death and Cathy finds herself drawn in to find out what happened to her friend. She never wanted to be popular or be in the spotlight but now Cathy has no choice because the one who killed Jennie knows friends tell each other every thing...right?
  
  Horror High does not shy away from the same topics that Christopher Pike tackles and even Terror Academy goes to places you never went to on Fear Street that's for sure.
  
  I liked Cathy as our main protagonist and we get a lot of going back and forth between the other characters in trying to find out who are the ones we can trust and the ones we want to root for. We get some of the book chapters from the perspective of another character named Bill Marsden who is in the same computer club as Cathy...which makes for something interesting.
  
  There are gory details, surprising deaths, a fake out, a not too subtle between the lines B plot and a whammy of a reveal toward the end. It's satisfactory enough to make up for the complete lie printed on the back of the book and the ending is okay which are the only factors that keep it from five stars but yeah...I'd recommend it despite those flaws.
• 
  J.D.

  When Cathy's best friend winds up dead, Cathy begins to notice strange behavior among her high school's popular crowd.
  
  The more she pokes around, the more attention she draws to herself. Will she be able to figure out what is going on or will she be silenced just like her best friend…
  
  I'm a bit confused when it comes to the story summary on the back of the book considering the actual story is quite a bit different.
  
  That being said, this was more of a mediocre school crime ring read with the usual Horror High twist ending.
  
• 
  Celo

  One (long) sentence review: althrough it sounds and looks like a B-horror book, it is more a very naive crime story, with absolutely misleading blurb, annoyingly stupid and unreal heroine and forced plottwist.
• 
  Jessyka Russell

  I didn't love this book. Others in the series were better. There really isn't anything about a pep rally except that it is canceled because the head cheerleader ends up dead.
  
  90s horror books are my favorites, but I would skip this one.
• 
  Micky Parise

  Really enjoyed this book. Great plot, characters were super and book flowed nicely.
• 
  Bobby Stringini

  Fun, Bloody 90's Teen Horror
  
  I was surprised by how fun this book was. High stakes, some pretty nasty deaths and plenty of tension. Some books from this era play it very safe. This one went big. Totally recommend for fans of 90's teen pulp fiction.
• 
  Glenn Griffiths

  Cathy is best friends with a cheerleader called Jennie who winds up murdered.
  
  Cathy is a nerd who only got to sit at the popular table due to her friendship with Jennie. When she is dead, they ignore her until they realise she may know something about the organisation.
  
  Cathy never really desires that status, pretty happy being Jennie's friend.
  .
  
  The popular crowd are suspicious, and so are the nerds in the computer lab.
  
  The book involves themes of cheating on grades, computer hacking, drugs, and what people will resort to to keep the status quo.
• 
  Zoie

  I really enjoyed this book. I started reading Horror High books when I was in grade 6 because the covers were neon pink and I loved the color. Now, as an adult I am continuing all the books I didn't get to.
  
  This book was a fun mean girls/jawbreaker type of story with twists.
• 
  Sara

  
  
  Main character was annoying which dragged the book on, otherwise a good book :)
• 
  Denisa

  Another rating: 2/10
  OK, this was quite better but still full of clichés and predictable.
• 
  Kelly M

  Tak tenhle díl byl o něco lepší. :)