ndiganci's review against another edition
2.0
I would give this 2.5 on pure nostalgia alone, but I ended up giving it 2.
I first read this when the YA horror genre was just coming into vogue: all the R.L. Stine Fear Street books, and Christopher Pike, and Cusick were the rage when I was in high school. I remembered this being one of my favorites out of the bunch, along with Pike's Remember Me and Weekend. Feeling nostalgic - and wanting a quick read - I sought this one out. Wooo boy. Let me tell you, aging 20 years will definitely give a new perspective on this book.
Kate is a (I assume) high school student going to a writer's retreat with her creative writing teacher. It's at a camp in the middle of the woods (point here for being in a location prone to creepiness) with classes taught by writing instructors. I assume the only things they teach here are romance and horror - because that's all the classes we hear about: Kate for horror and her teacher for romance. For someone given a retreat to hone her craft, Kate really doesn't go to any classes. She really only seems to go to 2, and it's during the first one that she's singled out by the teacher, Gideon Drewe. He, of course, is dazzled by her beauty at first glance. Problem 1: she's, what, 17? His age is never stated, but he "looks young," so I'm assuming at least mid-20s, especially since he's been published quite often and travels a lot (for work, I assume. There's a lot of assumptions going on in this book). And - of COURSE - Kate is already a brilliant writer. Which, ok, some people have a natural talent, but this just adds to Kate's Mary Sueness. She's beautiful, caught the eye of the teacher, AND is a talented writer. But the point is, we have an at least 25-year-old man becoming infatuated with a high schooler. It happens, but it doesn't make it less icky.
From here, we meet the other main characters: Pearce, the tall/dark/handsome/troubled/mysterious/oh-so-bad-boy caretaker of the camp that is owned by Gideon and his brother William; Denzil, an 18-year-old who also works at the camp, who immediately takes Kate under his wing; and his sidekick, the sweet but quite dim Tawney. Kate's teacher suffers an extreme case of poison ivy and is shipped off to the hospital quite early, so she's out of the way. I enjoyed Denzil and Tawney's characters best out of the crew, but they still seemed to fall flat from what I remembered.
And since this is YA, we of course have the love triangle. Or quadrangle. I'm not entirely sure. Kate falls in love with Gideon, Gideon falls in love with her. Pearce admits being attracted to Kate, and even though Pearce gave Kate the heebie-jeebies at first, NATURALLY she starts developing feelings for him, especially after a nasty accident causes bodily harm to Pearce (because who can't help falling in love with a man who's just had his foot almost torn off by a bear trap??). And Denzil falls in love with Kate. Kate kisses Gideon, Gideon kisses Kate. Kate kisses Pearce (while he's practically bleeding out), who kisses her in return. Kate kisses Denzil, Denzil kisses her. Really, I was waiting for Tawney and Kate to kiss. She kisses half the camp, and this retreat is only a couple of days long!
So anyway, the plot happens. Someone is out to get Kate because she's caught the eye of Gideon. Starts leaving threatening messages, cuts up her clothes while she and Tawney are swimming, destroys her belongings in her cabin and sacrifices an animal in her shower, and later sets her cabin on fire. She finds a hand in a glove in the woods. She also runs across a mysterious woman in the woods near the Drewe house, but Gideon shrugs this off as one of his brother's weirdo friends.
But then later we find out there was a third Drewe sibling, Gideon's twin Rowena, who was a wee bit off her rocker, tried to kill William but ended up being caught in the fire, and died. No one's really recovered from her death. William, of course, hasn't been seen in weeks but is assumed to be off on another bender somewhere. Tortured writers, amiright? Gideon starts acting strangely, Kate gets drawn more and more to him, Rowena may or may not actually be alive. Turns out, Pearce has been playing as Rowena all this time. He set the fire to kill William to free Rowena, didn't realize she had been locked in William's room and died as a result. This made him go mad, end up in some weird split personality situation where he BECOMES Rowena, sees Gideon and Pearce falling in love with Kate, and sets out to destroy the one trying to take her place.
It was a convoluted mess with flat characters. Kate is the annoying Mary Sue: everything happens to her; she doesn't take action on anything. Dissolves into tears (which, I guess I can understand. She came to a retreat without a thought that she'd be singled out with someone trying to kill her). But she just moves with the story instead of moving the story. She really doesn't do anything to improve her situation, just makes it worse by kissing everyone she meets.
And the ending: after Pearce is caught, Gideon makes a comment that the doctors said his delusion has gone on for quite some time. Excuse me - we're a couple hours, maybe, from his being caught? What doctors? If this was known, WHY was he still allowed to run the camp? Why wasn't he in a hospital somewhere? And where were the cops? A cabin's been set on fire, there's no fire trucks there, William's been chopped up into pieces and strewn about the camp, and Kate's just allowed to get on the train and head home. You'd think she'd be questioned about the events and her part in all them, but it just seems like no one cares about what happened. The Drewes aren't rich enough to buy off the police. How are they going to explain William's disappearance?
Sometimes things that you loved in childhood should just be left there so you don't spoil the illusion. This was definitely one of them.
I first read this when the YA horror genre was just coming into vogue: all the R.L. Stine Fear Street books, and Christopher Pike, and Cusick were the rage when I was in high school. I remembered this being one of my favorites out of the bunch, along with Pike's Remember Me and Weekend. Feeling nostalgic - and wanting a quick read - I sought this one out. Wooo boy. Let me tell you, aging 20 years will definitely give a new perspective on this book.
Kate is a (I assume) high school student going to a writer's retreat with her creative writing teacher. It's at a camp in the middle of the woods (point here for being in a location prone to creepiness) with classes taught by writing instructors. I assume the only things they teach here are romance and horror - because that's all the classes we hear about: Kate for horror and her teacher for romance. For someone given a retreat to hone her craft, Kate really doesn't go to any classes. She really only seems to go to 2, and it's during the first one that she's singled out by the teacher, Gideon Drewe. He, of course, is dazzled by her beauty at first glance. Problem 1: she's, what, 17? His age is never stated, but he "looks young," so I'm assuming at least mid-20s, especially since he's been published quite often and travels a lot (for work, I assume. There's a lot of assumptions going on in this book). And - of COURSE - Kate is already a brilliant writer. Which, ok, some people have a natural talent, but this just adds to Kate's Mary Sueness. She's beautiful, caught the eye of the teacher, AND is a talented writer. But the point is, we have an at least 25-year-old man becoming infatuated with a high schooler. It happens, but it doesn't make it less icky.
From here, we meet the other main characters: Pearce, the tall/dark/handsome/troubled/mysterious/oh-so-bad-boy caretaker of the camp that is owned by Gideon and his brother William; Denzil, an 18-year-old who also works at the camp, who immediately takes Kate under his wing; and his sidekick, the sweet but quite dim Tawney. Kate's teacher suffers an extreme case of poison ivy and is shipped off to the hospital quite early, so she's out of the way. I enjoyed Denzil and Tawney's characters best out of the crew, but they still seemed to fall flat from what I remembered.
And since this is YA, we of course have the love triangle. Or quadrangle. I'm not entirely sure. Kate falls in love with Gideon, Gideon falls in love with her. Pearce admits being attracted to Kate, and even though Pearce gave Kate the heebie-jeebies at first, NATURALLY she starts developing feelings for him, especially after a nasty accident causes bodily harm to Pearce (because who can't help falling in love with a man who's just had his foot almost torn off by a bear trap??). And Denzil falls in love with Kate. Kate kisses Gideon, Gideon kisses Kate. Kate kisses Pearce (while he's practically bleeding out), who kisses her in return. Kate kisses Denzil, Denzil kisses her. Really, I was waiting for Tawney and Kate to kiss. She kisses half the camp, and this retreat is only a couple of days long!
So anyway, the plot happens. Someone is out to get Kate because she's caught the eye of Gideon. Starts leaving threatening messages, cuts up her clothes while she and Tawney are swimming, destroys her belongings in her cabin and sacrifices an animal in her shower, and later sets her cabin on fire. She finds a hand in a glove in the woods. She also runs across a mysterious woman in the woods near the Drewe house, but Gideon shrugs this off as one of his brother's weirdo friends.
But then later we find out there was a third Drewe sibling, Gideon's twin Rowena, who was a wee bit off her rocker, tried to kill William but ended up being caught in the fire, and died. No one's really recovered from her death. William, of course, hasn't been seen in weeks but is assumed to be off on another bender somewhere. Tortured writers, amiright? Gideon starts acting strangely, Kate gets drawn more and more to him, Rowena may or may not actually be alive. Turns out, Pearce has been playing as Rowena all this time. He set the fire to kill William to free Rowena, didn't realize she had been locked in William's room and died as a result. This made him go mad, end up in some weird split personality situation where he BECOMES Rowena, sees Gideon and Pearce falling in love with Kate, and sets out to destroy the one trying to take her place.
It was a convoluted mess with flat characters. Kate is the annoying Mary Sue: everything happens to her; she doesn't take action on anything. Dissolves into tears (which, I guess I can understand. She came to a retreat without a thought that she'd be singled out with someone trying to kill her). But she just moves with the story instead of moving the story. She really doesn't do anything to improve her situation, just makes it worse by kissing everyone she meets.
And the ending: after Pearce is caught, Gideon makes a comment that the doctors said his delusion has gone on for quite some time. Excuse me - we're a couple hours, maybe, from his being caught? What doctors? If this was known, WHY was he still allowed to run the camp? Why wasn't he in a hospital somewhere? And where were the cops? A cabin's been set on fire, there's no fire trucks there, William's been chopped up into pieces and strewn about the camp, and Kate's just allowed to get on the train and head home. You'd think she'd be questioned about the events and her part in all them, but it just seems like no one cares about what happened. The Drewes aren't rich enough to buy off the police. How are they going to explain William's disappearance?
Sometimes things that you loved in childhood should just be left there so you don't spoil the illusion. This was definitely one of them.
laurelinwonder's review against another edition
3.0
Short and Perhaps too quick
A quick read, but maybe not long enough to be satisfying. I liked the voice Cusick created, but but it wasn't for me.
A quick read, but maybe not long enough to be satisfying. I liked the voice Cusick created, but but it wasn't for me.
ntharpta1's review against another edition
2.0
WTF did I just read? I had this book as a kid but wow! Reading it again as an adult, I am horrified and not in the intended way.
obscurefangirl's review against another edition
4.0
This is the first book I read that got me into Romance and it was that touching teen romance with a homocidal killer in the mix. I still have a pretty beat up copy of this ..well the first 7 pages have fallen out and I've just got them sitting in the rest of it with the cover sitting on top. Awesome book.
saydenie's review against another edition
3.0
My absolute favorite book as a teenager.
I’ve been really feeling a need for 90s nostalgia lately, due to the stress of the word. It was really fun to revisit this book. It’s definitely dated, but I can remember what I loved about it as a teenager. YA horror has come a long way.
I’ve been really feeling a need for 90s nostalgia lately, due to the stress of the word. It was really fun to revisit this book. It’s definitely dated, but I can remember what I loved about it as a teenager. YA horror has come a long way.
katkinslee's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
I've loved this book since I was a kid. It's a nice creepy afternoon read!
manwithanagenda's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Oh my. This was a real treat. 'Teacher's Pet' takes place at a week-long writer's retreat. Kate Rawlins has won a place at the retreat as a prize for doing well in English. She accompanies her teacher there, but they promptly part ways as Kate is interested in William Drewe's horror seminar while Miss Bunceton wants to write better romance. We check in on Miss Bunceton here and there, but she's a pretty awful chaperone and Kate is essentially on her own in a not at all predatory environment.
Kate is intimidated by all the adult attendees who seem to know one another, as well as the, I don't know, groundskeeper, Pearce. He tells her that William Drewe is not going to show up so she'd better leave. She is at least befriended by Denzil and Tawney, young staff members. We also meet 'Pet', the black cat who lives at the retreat. She steals clothes and we all love her.
The retreat is set up a lot like a summer camp where there are a few central buildings and a lot of tiny cabins where attendees sleep and shower all overshadowed by trees. There's not much description, but later there's a lot of being lost in the trees so we must assume they were there all along.
William Drewe is a no-show, but his younger, hotter brother is. He wins over the class with his charm and single out Kate's story for personal attention. She is even invited to see him after class for some one-on-one tutoring.
The book eventually gets going as Kate begins to find herself the vicitm of mean-spritied pranks. Clothes are snatched while she skinny-dips with Tawney, blood is smeared on walls, and someone gives Pet a glove full of bloody hand to drag around. Who could be responsible? Pearce is creepy. Denzil is creepy possessive. Mr. Drewe (the younger) is creepy, possessive and handsy. Or it could be the hoarse-voiced goth girl who confronts her on a misty path in the woods warning her in rhyme that she's gonna get it.
This is so problematic and unbelievable, but it at least has some real danger and a few laughs.
Kate is intimidated by all the adult attendees who seem to know one another, as well as the, I don't know, groundskeeper, Pearce. He tells her that William Drewe is not going to show up so she'd better leave. She is at least befriended by Denzil and Tawney, young staff members. We also meet 'Pet', the black cat who lives at the retreat. She steals clothes and we all love her.
The retreat is set up a lot like a summer camp where there are a few central buildings and a lot of tiny cabins where attendees sleep and shower all overshadowed by trees. There's not much description, but later there's a lot of being lost in the trees so we must assume they were there all along.
William Drewe is a no-show, but his younger, hotter brother is. He wins over the class with his charm and single out Kate's story for personal attention. She is even invited to see him after class for some one-on-one tutoring.
The book eventually gets going as Kate begins to find herself the vicitm of mean-spritied pranks. Clothes are snatched while she skinny-dips with Tawney, blood is smeared on walls, and someone gives Pet a glove full of bloody hand to drag around. Who could be responsible? Pearce is creepy. Denzil is creepy possessive. Mr. Drewe (the younger) is creepy, possessive and handsy. Or it could be the hoarse-voiced goth girl who confronts her on a misty path in the woods warning her in rhyme that she's gonna get it.
This is so problematic and unbelievable, but it at least has some real danger and a few laughs.