THE CREEPER by Pete
Johnson
Corgi Yearling (Transworld) UK - 2000 (Reissue for Halloween)
ISBN 0440863929 - Paperback
Juvenile, Ages 8-12 / Horror / British
When Lucy sees the story
tape in the bookstore window she knows she just has to have it. Halloween
is just a few days away and her best friend Amy is coming for a sleepover.
Lucy's parents aren't keen on them watching horror videos but this is
surely different, and there is something so compelling about that horribly
burned hand on the cover. For this is the hand of The Creeper, a creature
formed from the ashes of a murdered man bent on the destruction of all
wrongdoers. When Lucy does something awful to her best friend the very
next day and plays the tape she finds out that The Creeper has escaped
and is intent on making her his next victim!
There is nothing better
than a good spooky story at Halloween (or Christmas) and this one fits
the bill, getting my vote for eeriness, imagination and brevity. There
is plenty for children (especially girls at which it appears to mainly
be aimed) to identify with here - playground disputes, knowledge of guilty
adult secrets, peer group pressure to be one of the gang and, when the
night comes, fear of the supernatural. Unusually I particularly liked
the ending which manages to be politically correct yet rounds the story
off very well indeed - more modern and more unusual than any of the more
usual ways of ending a ghost story. I can see why Pete Johnson won awards
for his work.
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