I once found some of my favorite dolls in the window of an almost-closed store after dark, so there.

83. Beat the Devil – Scott Siegel

This book has all the essentials of 1980s YA and I have to say, I am impressed with what the Dark Forces series has to offer a reader. The blurb about the series mentions mixing normal teen things like pizza with the occult – like that one scene from Nightmare on Elm Street 4. However, these books scared me a little less than that scene, which was ridiculously gross. Beat the Devil is not gross.

Beat the Devil has video game addiction before graphics were even graphic, not being able to call your girlfriend because she’s at her grandma’s house, bowling and ice skating dates, friends who fight during gym class, Nuclear Fruits, and Satan. It also has a dream set up – dude leaves his girlfriend and best friend to go buy video games to play on his dad’s new computer before the store closes, misses the bus, and suddenly is in the deserted part of town and – oh, gee – a flashing neon sign tells him he can buy video games from this creepy store that apparently just opened up. Not suspicious at all. But, it only has one game and it’s not for the faint of heart.

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Finny running from any moral messages contained within.