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Sweet Sixteen and Never Been Killed
As Cara Nelson's sweet sixteen party draws nearer, she finds herself the target of a killer
- GenresHorrorYoung Adult
224 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1993
21 people want to read
About the author
Richard Posner
40 books3 followersb. 1944
Also writes as Dayle Courtney, Jonathan Craig, Iris Foster, Erica Mitchell, Beatrice Murray, Alayna Richards, Paul Todd, Dick Wine.
Also writes as Dayle Courtney, Jonathan Craig, Iris Foster, Erica Mitchell, Beatrice Murray, Alayna Richards, Paul Todd, Dick Wine.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 10, 2024
Cara Nelson is looking forward to her sixteenth birthday party, but things turn ominous when she visits a psychic for the school paper. The psychic has frightening visions of Cara's future, and something bad possibly happening at her sweet sixteenth. However, she also predicts a cute boy coming into her life. Soon after the visit, frightening things begin to happen to Cara, and a boy, Danny, does indeed come into her life. Does that mean the psychic's prediction about her party will come true?
Although I appreciated that the author tried to give Cara some shades of complexity, as she goes from someone who has complete control over every aspect of her life to someone who comes to realise that life can throw curveballs at you that you actually have no control over. However, an insufferable main character is still insufferable. Cara is shrill, spoilt and rude to all those around her. She complains about things to the point where you just want her to shut up. So, yes, she's a well-developed character, but not really one you want to be around!
The book is done in by its slow pace and a cringy insta-love subplot (exchanging "I love you" after one date, and also makes Cara further unlikeable because she's cheating on her boyfriend). I'm also not really a fan of psychic phenomena in straightforward thrillers. My score was dropped down to 1 star by virtue of the ending. The plot twist is stupid and I have no idea how it could even be possible. The antagonist's motive is the laziest I have ever come across in my life.
Even if I had read this in 1993, when it came out and I was 14, I would have chucked the book across the room because of that ending. Skip this party.
Although I appreciated that the author tried to give Cara some shades of complexity, as she goes from someone who has complete control over every aspect of her life to someone who comes to realise that life can throw curveballs at you that you actually have no control over. However, an insufferable main character is still insufferable. Cara is shrill, spoilt and rude to all those around her. She complains about things to the point where you just want her to shut up. So, yes, she's a well-developed character, but not really one you want to be around!
The book is done in by its slow pace and a cringy insta-love subplot (exchanging "I love you" after one date, and also makes Cara further unlikeable because she's cheating on her boyfriend). I'm also not really a fan of psychic phenomena in straightforward thrillers. My score was dropped down to 1 star by virtue of the ending. The plot twist is stupid and I have no idea how it could even be possible. The antagonist's motive is the laziest I have ever come across in my life.
Even if I had read this in 1993, when it came out and I was 14, I would have chucked the book across the room because of that ending. Skip this party.
August 27, 2021
I just wanted a killer birthday party
August 1, 2024
You'd think they would just call the book Sweet Sixteen in a scary blood-red font and the tagline would be, "...and never been killed!" But they went with the entire, unwieldy phrase for the title. It's so dumb. I love it.
That's maybe the best part of the book, though. The psychic angle is frustrating, as it often is, because ole Auntie June seems to know who the killer is from the get-go but refuses to tell Cara out of some warped and incoherent sense of professional ethics. She says her visions come in the form of feelings, and can be misinterpreted, but at other times she's like "Your mother is at her friend's house, drinking tea. There are green curtains on the walls." So which is it? Can she see anything at any time or only vague and illusory flashes?
The story of a psychotic boy seducing a misfit teenage girl and convincing her to become a killer is the more interesting plot. Pretty bleak though. Dyann is probably the most sympathetic character in the book, at least early on, wishing she could go live with her dad and have glamorous adventures in New York City rather than rotting in this small town where the other kids make fun of her. I had a hard time telling whether Posner wants the reader to know Eddie and Dyann are the architects of Cara's torment or if he's trying to create a misdirect. Cara-the-heroine keeps dismissing Dyann as a threat because "she's not the killer type"--no further clarification offered. Even the psychic underestimates Dyann . What exactly is the "killer type" and why do even the clairvoyant characters not see that Dyann fits that profile? June explores Dyann's mind with impunity but apparently can't see the numerous times Dyann fantasizes about slitting Cara's throat. The supernatural must always bow to the laws of plot convenience, I suppose.
It is sort of interesting that when Dyann takes over as the editor of the school newspaper (after Cara takes a few days off following an assault), she apparently does a better job than Cara. I'm not sure what Posner was trying to say there. Cara refutes the idea that either Dyann or Eddie have it worse than she does, but also Dyann is objectively a better editor than Cara but was passed up for the position because (reading between the lines) she's an unpopular weirdo and Cara is well-liked. Cara asserts at the end that she has no sympathy for Dyann because everybody has bad times but we don't all go around stabbing people; true enough, but also Cara IS privileged in a way Dyann is not, with her loving parents still together, caring friends, social status at school, a hunky boyfriend, etc. Life really doesn't seem all that fair to Dyann, who suffers from untreated depression and is being systematically harassed at the start of the novel by jocks (including Cara's boyfriend) for writing an editorial about how public education should fund the arts as well as it funds sports programs. When I say "harass", I mean whispering "filth" (Dyann's word) into her ear all though class and following her around in their cars and catcalling her whenever she goes outside. Cara dismisses Dyann's complaints about this as "paranoia", thinks that nobody can stand Dyann because of her "attitude", and loathes having to hang out with her when Dyann offers an olive branch after a confrontation:
Cara stared at her. "You're whacked, Dyann."
Dyann curled up on the ottoman, her chin tucked on her knees. "Why?"
"We just had a major brawl. Now you want to act like this is a sleep-over?"
Dyann tapped the remote against her chin and gazed at the screen. "We're still friends, right?"
"Before or after I make a voodoo doll?"
Obviously this doesn't justify Dyann trying to kill Cara, but it doesn't really make Cara all that sympathetic, either. Another writer on the paper, Thea (psychic-June's niece), later realizes that Cara is in danger, and hesitates about whether or not to act on the information, thinking that Cara had never really been that nice to her. Weird. I don't know why Posner would write that, unless he just realized too late that his protagonist is a self-centered ass and didn't have time to change more than a few lines to acknowledge the fact.
This is the kind of book that uses edgy PG-13 language (by Fear Street standards, where characters never swear) like "pissed off" and "asshole" but also the characters earnestly say lame things like "drop dead" and "up your nose with a rubber hose".
That's maybe the best part of the book, though. The psychic angle is frustrating, as it often is, because ole Auntie June seems to know who the killer is from the get-go but refuses to tell Cara out of some warped and incoherent sense of professional ethics. She says her visions come in the form of feelings, and can be misinterpreted, but at other times she's like "Your mother is at her friend's house, drinking tea. There are green curtains on the walls." So which is it? Can she see anything at any time or only vague and illusory flashes?
The story of a psychotic boy seducing a misfit teenage girl and convincing her to become a killer is the more interesting plot. Pretty bleak though. Dyann is probably the most sympathetic character in the book, at least early on, wishing she could go live with her dad and have glamorous adventures in New York City rather than rotting in this small town where the other kids make fun of her. I had a hard time telling whether Posner wants the reader to know Eddie and Dyann are the architects of Cara's torment or if he's trying to create a misdirect. Cara-the-heroine keeps dismissing Dyann as a threat because "she's not the killer type"--no further clarification offered. Even the psychic underestimates Dyann . What exactly is the "killer type" and why do even the clairvoyant characters not see that Dyann fits that profile? June explores Dyann's mind with impunity but apparently can't see the numerous times Dyann fantasizes about slitting Cara's throat. The supernatural must always bow to the laws of plot convenience, I suppose.
It is sort of interesting that when Dyann takes over as the editor of the school newspaper (after Cara takes a few days off following an assault), she apparently does a better job than Cara. I'm not sure what Posner was trying to say there. Cara refutes the idea that either Dyann or Eddie have it worse than she does, but also Dyann is objectively a better editor than Cara but was passed up for the position because (reading between the lines) she's an unpopular weirdo and Cara is well-liked. Cara asserts at the end that she has no sympathy for Dyann because everybody has bad times but we don't all go around stabbing people; true enough, but also Cara IS privileged in a way Dyann is not, with her loving parents still together, caring friends, social status at school, a hunky boyfriend, etc. Life really doesn't seem all that fair to Dyann, who suffers from untreated depression and is being systematically harassed at the start of the novel by jocks (including Cara's boyfriend) for writing an editorial about how public education should fund the arts as well as it funds sports programs. When I say "harass", I mean whispering "filth" (Dyann's word) into her ear all though class and following her around in their cars and catcalling her whenever she goes outside. Cara dismisses Dyann's complaints about this as "paranoia", thinks that nobody can stand Dyann because of her "attitude", and loathes having to hang out with her when Dyann offers an olive branch after a confrontation:
Cara stared at her. "You're whacked, Dyann."
Dyann curled up on the ottoman, her chin tucked on her knees. "Why?"
"We just had a major brawl. Now you want to act like this is a sleep-over?"
Dyann tapped the remote against her chin and gazed at the screen. "We're still friends, right?"
"Before or after I make a voodoo doll?"
Obviously this doesn't justify Dyann trying to kill Cara, but it doesn't really make Cara all that sympathetic, either. Another writer on the paper, Thea (psychic-June's niece), later realizes that Cara is in danger, and hesitates about whether or not to act on the information, thinking that Cara had never really been that nice to her. Weird. I don't know why Posner would write that, unless he just realized too late that his protagonist is a self-centered ass and didn't have time to change more than a few lines to acknowledge the fact.
This is the kind of book that uses edgy PG-13 language (by Fear Street standards, where characters never swear) like "pissed off" and "asshole" but also the characters earnestly say lame things like "drop dead" and "up your nose with a rubber hose".
March 11, 2015
Actual page number: 211 pages
This book seems to have less action but the main character makes up for it. The main character started off as the girl who tries to keep everything in control for her liking. After that, she feels hopeless and lost after someone tries to killer several times but in the end she learned a lesson. This is great character development where its interesting to see how the main character transform after facing events she can't control or predict. Her only questionable activity is that she is cheating on her boyfriend with another guy who doesn't reveal much information to her.
The few action scenes book provided were suspenseful and keeps the book from being dry and there was a nice twist near the end or maybe predictable if you read enough thrillers.
Aside from fewer actions or suspenseful scene, what also I don't like are the villains. They seem underdeveloped. Dyann becoming bad because she is excited from believing she can control events to her liking makes her motive less farce but her hatred over cara just makes her petty since it involves a misunderstanding. I don't understand this Eddie character since it seems his character seems to switching so this villain is underdeveloped.
I woulf recommend this book if you really like to read some light thriller since the book's average.
This book seems to have less action but the main character makes up for it. The main character started off as the girl who tries to keep everything in control for her liking. After that, she feels hopeless and lost after someone tries to killer several times but in the end she learned a lesson. This is great character development where its interesting to see how the main character transform after facing events she can't control or predict. Her only questionable activity is that she is cheating on her boyfriend with another guy who doesn't reveal much information to her.
The few action scenes book provided were suspenseful and keeps the book from being dry and there was a nice twist near the end or maybe predictable if you read enough thrillers.
Aside from fewer actions or suspenseful scene, what also I don't like are the villains. They seem underdeveloped. Dyann becoming bad because she is excited from believing she can control events to her liking makes her motive less farce but her hatred over cara just makes her petty since it involves a misunderstanding. I don't understand this Eddie character since it seems his character seems to switching so this villain is underdeveloped.
I woulf recommend this book if you really like to read some light thriller since the book's average.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews