Mummy

by Caroline B. Cooney

Emlyn is a model student and a great athlete—a girl who doesn't seem to have a dark side. But secretly she's always wondered what it would be like to commit a crime and get away with it. When she gets involved in a prank to steal a mummy, everything goes according to plan. Until Emlyn is forced to save the mummy—and herself.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Mystery, Horror, Thriller, Teen, Fantasy

213 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Caroline Cooney knew in sixth grade that she wanted to be a writer when "the best teacher I ever had in my life" made writing her main focus. "He used to rip off covers from The New Yorker and pass them around and make us write a short story on whichever cover we got. I started writing then and never stopped!"
When her children were young, Caroline started writing books for young people -- with remarkable results. She began to sell stories to Seventeen magazine and soon after began writing books. Suspense novels are her favorites to read and write. "In a suspense novel, you can count on action."
To keep her stories realistic, Caroline visits many schools outside of her area, learning more about teenagers all the time. She often organizes what she calls a "plotting game," in which students work together to create plots for stories. Caroline lives in Westbrook, Connecticut and when she's not writing she volunteers at a hospital, plays piano for the school musicals and daydreams!
- Scholastic.com

Reviews

[Heather ~*dread mushrooms*~ · Rating 2 out of 5]

She can write but this story wasn't really engaging for me. Needed some kissing and murder.

[Amal Bedhyefi · Rating 3 out of 5]

My last and 8th book of January 2017!
"Mummy is about a high school girl named Emlyn with an inner bad side who finally has a chance to do something transgressive when a group of popular kids recruit her to steal a museum mummy for the senior class prank".
A quick read , easy to read , light and a little bit suspensful .
However , I'm not so sure wether i liked the ending or not . I mean it took me by surprise , I admit , I thought that Caroline will include a powerful message or some kind of a morality but she didn't YET she wrote pages about the Integrity of the mummy , That confused me .
But overall , I enjoyed reading it !

[Courtney Gruenholz · Rating 2 out of 5]

As I have said in the past, Cooney is sometimes a miss with going into the paranormal but good at doing something more grounded yet thrilling and suspenseful.

Like her Janie Johnson books and Hush Little Baby.

So when I see that someone has brought in a bulk of Cooney books to HPB and they are ones I have yet to read...I'll give them a chance. This is where Mummy comes in because some of the other books are ones I own and have enjoyed yet...it is always a grab bag with Cooney.

So did I spin the wheel and come away lucky?

In one word: no.

There was maybe a chance as the book progressed that it might actually get interesting or have some sort of twist but no...no it didn't. No real romance, no ancient curse of bad luck or the mummy seeking revenge just a book proving that teenagers are just awful.

I won't say stupid because the main character Emlyn is highly smart just not using her brains in a good way. Good grades, nice family but she has this great desire to do something Bad.

She fibs and she has accidentally walked off with some mundane thing like a pen or pencil but not being a straight up klepto or thief or shoplifter. Emlyn doesn't know what this great Bad thing to do is until she is handed the idea by some teenagers who aren't as intelligent.

Since Emlyn seems such a straight arrow, some other kids ask her to help out with what they call Mischief Night. It's the night before Halloween or Halloween Night (not sure) where you do some sort of prank involving the principal's car or wanting to put a cow on the roof...senior hijinks.

Jack, his girlfriend Maris, Jack's buddy Donovan and another girl named Lovell want to put the mummy from on display in the museum to hanging from the bell tower. It has been an exhibit there for a century and probably the biggest deal since the museum has no T-Rex skeleton to entice the kids.

Emlyn doesn't want to do the prank but she is now enticed to steal the mummy and begins doing research on the sly about mummies and scanning the museum for hidden cameras, ways out and all of the stuff as if she were robbing a more big-time museum or Fort Knox.

It is actually kind of creepy how methodical Emlyn gets...

A few snags happen but...Emlyn is able to get the mummy out of the museum and into Jack's van where they plan to hide it at the cabin of Donovan's out of town grandparents. It should all just go simple from there but one of the group can't help but want a little more notoriety than hanging a mummy from a belfry.

A call is made to the museum and then it is all over the news that the mummy has been stolen...

Emlyn just wanted to do something Bad and get away with it but the other teens are starting to get other ideas about what you can do with a mummy from Ancient Egypt because they are always buried with such splendor for the next life...right?

There is definitely a lot of description but not a lot of dialogue really so I did actually find myself want to skip along until...something happened. Also, there is this theme about integrity where the mummy is concerned about preserving her and treating her with respect as Emlyn dives into the way the Egyptians treated their dead.

Pulling the brain out of the nose and all the gross anatomy stuff aside, that was interesting and thoughtful but it soon builds up this strange symbiosis Emlyn has with the mummy as if they are connected because Emlyn stole her body.

Again...creepy.

All of this really leads up to nothing and nobody learns any sort of lesson and it just doesn't leave any sort of impact.

This is one of Cooney's book that should just stay on the shelf. Only those with morbid curiosity should be brave enough to excavate this mummy...so READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!

*insert evil laugh or spooky moaning here*

[Annika]

DNF - I couldn't stand anymore angsting and drivel from Emlyn. It's exhausting to read, and I couldn't skim my way through it. She just has this "holier-than-thou" mindset, where everyone else is so greedy, and can't wait to get their hands on the mummy, but she respects the mummy, thinking of how great she must have been when she was alive, how beautiful, how magnificent. She wonders idiotic things like how it must have felt to be embalmed, even though she knows full well that a person would be well and truly dead by the time the embalming would happen.

It's annoying, and she's annoying.

[Robert Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well done, a fine read!
I came across this book recently; I was not familiar with the author, nor did I know what the book was about. I have recently instituted a policy of not reading the back cover of books, as having been the victim of too many spoilers being revealed on the back cover. “What the heck”, I figured, it is only a couple of hundred pages, and it is called “Mummy”. Maybe it is horror…
Well, what it was is a very wonderfully written, well paced thriller. Highly recommended. I was in a state of suspense through much of this book and was very impressed with the author. It seems I have a few more of hers in my personal library that I will be very happy to include in my Soon to be Read stack!
By the way, I am 61 years old and thoroughly enjoyed this book.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you ever wanted to do something big and bad, just because you wanted to see if or prove to yourself that you could get away with it? I'm not going to lie- that's what drew my attention to this book. I have always had a morbid facination with true crime, and how the bad guys get away. Me and my overactive childhood imagination used to plan how I could commit the perfect crime, and never get caught.
That's exactly what this girl plans to do! I thought it was great when I noticed it. I don't remember very many details, but I do remember thinking it was done well enough for the age it was directed at, and it made for a fun read.

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book up until the final sentence. I was hoping after reading her entire adventure that she would have learned her lesson, but the final sentence proved that she didn't. I was ultimately disappointed that Caroline Cooney ended it the way she did. For lots of talk of mummy integrity she neglected to include character morality.

[MsAprilVincent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh.

I liked the ethical discussion of whether a mummy should be unwrapped in order to gain knowledge and/or treasure or if it should remain untouched because IT'S STILL A HUMAN UNDER THERE.*

Otherwise: eh.


*I might have strong feelings about this.

[Richard L. Haas III · Rating 1 out of 5]

Admittedly this was better than the last two I read; however, as with what seems to be all Cooney novels, there are... complications. Now of course the idea of tying a mummy up to a bell tower is stupid, the mummy would snap and break away. But our little Miss Main Character, Emlyn, decides not to see any problem with that idea of a prank, let alone the morality of it. It's almost as cringeworthy as when Cooney compares stealing a sacred mummy to playing field hockey or lines such as "Nothing they did now could be minor, because they themselves were not minors." But I think the phrase "the integrity of the mummy" takes the cake. The director for a newscast kept saying it and eventually the kids started saying it too. Over and over. What teen uses the word "integrity" more than six times a day. I'll tell you, ones that graduated already and do not believe in silly senior pranks like this. Although it's awkward, I would have much rather heard some synonyms in place for integrity, such as: honor, veracity, reliability, uprightness (there are more, you just gotta look).

I had so much more small nitpickey stuffy written in this review but honestly there is no need to list them. If you want to read awkward writing and novel where just about every character (main or background) is absolutely stupid, read this book. Or perhaps any novel written by Cooney.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I nabbed this last year when Open Road Media made a huge number of e-books free. I've been wanting to read some YA horror to get a sense of what's out there (and maybe try to write some). I was impressed right off the bat with Cooney's characterization of Emlyn, a typical "good girl" on the surface whose secret is that she deeply desires to do something bad. Emlyn's inner thoughts are more believable and the character more deftly written than in a lot of adult horror I've read lately. Cooney clearly has skills.

But ...

It turns out that this isn't a horror story. Not even a little bit. I think the packaging may have been spooked up to cash in on the YA horror trend. While this isn't Cooney's fault, I do think that it's also misleading that Emlyn has a couple of brief flashes of what seems to be a supernatural connection to ancient Egypt, yet nothing ever comes of it.

The heist segment of the book is somewhat exciting, and would probably be even more so to young readers—just the idea of being in the museum at night has its thrill. Ultimately, though, the set-up just doesn't deliver.

I wouldn't be averse to reading more of her books just to study her style, but I won't be expecting anything bone-chilling.

[Bookishlor · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5 stars

First, let me warn anyone that this book was not a fantasy or horror. It's a teen thriller centered on a girl, Emylyn. She is considered a good girl by all that knows her. She gets good grades, is in all the right school clubs, comes from a good family and yet has always daydreamed of doing something bad. Emylyn is approached one day to take part in a senior prank that will involve stealing a mummy from a museum and hanging it from the school bell tower. The story and teenage drama evolves from there.

This was a very slow, annoying read for me mostly since I kept thinking there was a horror aspect to the story that never developed! If you go into this story expecting a teenage caper and the drama that could come from it, you might enjoy it. If you want more horror from your mummy stories or are looking for a spooky read, look somewhere else!

[A.V.S Pranavi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hated the ending. The entire book did an excellent job on depicting Emlyn's emotions with respect to the mummy and I intensely liked the message that artefacts must be left alone. Yet, the satisfaction I gained and the thrill I felt was all lost in the end. Until 99% of the book, I thought I would recommend this to others, give it a 4 star, but now, I am disappointed. If Emlyn could be such an understanding individual how could she still ponder over the question of stealing the next one? She displayed that she did not have greed up until the very end. Why then, would her eyes flash when she looks at the sword? If it is merely for "Bad", I'm not convinced. The ending seemed forceful, out of place, just to keep up the idea that Cooney writes thrillers. The most unnatural ending I ever encountered. Disappointing, really.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unique, I'll give it that. I read it in one day over two sittings. I think that this is the most tense book I've ever read. The entire thing reads like one continuous action sequence, I am genuinely awed by the suspense, and I was very invested in what would ultimately happen to the mummy. Emlyn's moral conundrum and introspection less so, but it didn't bog down the narrative for me.

I'm hesitant a bit with the five stars because I don't imagine I'll think about this much or read anything else by Caroline. It was just so random. What are the stakes? The tropes? Where is the anticipation? Everything just ... happened. But it is so so absolutely perfect at what it is that I feel compelled to give it the five stars.

[Library Queen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars only because I think she genuinely manged to make the other teens be threatening when they wanted to cut up the mummy and take the gold. But otherwise they only thing I can say about this book is at least it's short.

If you want a better teen heist book, read Heist SocietyHeist Society.

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tight thriller for all ages. Emlyn is an interesting lead; she isn’t at heart a good person, still wishing to steal, but she also represents a sort of purity in being a thief - not wanting to damage or sell out the thing she stole. Contrasted with the greed of the other characters over a mummy’s gold, it becomes an interesting picture of what a mummy is actually “worth” and whether it’s allowable to disrupt the dead for their jewels.

This is a bit overwritten at times, and can have slower moments when there’s a lot of Emlyn’s inner monologue, but overall the action is nicely paced and tense!

[Chloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book and that showed in how fast I read it. I’ve always loved anything to do with ancient Egypt and mummies, and I love mysteries. This story was a lot of fun and it always held my interest very well. I know I would have loved it even more if I had read it as a kid since that appears to be the intended audience. I’m sad this book is over but it definitely surprised me and I’d for sure recommend it.

[Kat (Ginger Bibliophile on YouTube) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting enough for one read, though I did skim a bunch in the middle. I thought it was gonna be a good cheese fest with curses and the like after a bunch of teens broke into the museum to steal the mummy. Nope. Just dumb teens and some maybe learning a lesson. Maybe good for some, but definitely not meant for me or what I was expecting given the description on the back or cover on the front

[Sarah Zaslavsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Giving this 5 stars mainly because it's stuck with me, years after I read it, enough that I had to find it again. I was probably about 11-12 when I read it. It had a good balance of adventure and not being actually scary for me at that time.

[BRANDON · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book expecting curses and corpses and all I got were teenybopper heists and moral philosophy. It was something of a disappointment but hopefully my next read, The Mummy by Barbara Steiner, will shine by comparison. https://www.goodreads.com/review/edit...#

[Caroline · Rating 1 out of 5]

Heavy handed teen morality play with unrealistic characters and a weak plot. 2 categories in the 2018 pop sugar challenge!

[Jenn · Rating 2 out of 5]

An ok book. Definitely not a scary book like I thought it would be. Not awful, just not what I expected.

[Allie rademacher · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wasnt the best book by her

[Austin Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this one some time ago; remember thinking it was just okay.

[Damean Mathews · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this YA offering for sure. The horror lover in me wanted more of a supernatural bend, but the story was a good one. Not sure I'd ever yearn to read it again, but I have no regrets.

[D · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m a sucker for anything to do with ancient Egypt so no surprise the title and cover alone sucked me into MUMMY but the story ended up being rather . . . dull.

Emlyn (whose name kept flopping over to Emilyn) has a bad streak and she wanted to do something bad and get away with it. Stealing the mummy for their senior prank was it but she had to end up looping other students in with her, students whom she couldn’t trust since she didn’t know them all that well. That blind trust ended up backfiring on her.

The thing that kind of bothered me about this story was that it somewhat alluded to something supernatural with Emlyn’s “flashbacks” to the mummy’s life but that never came to anything. She was just really into the mummy and into saving her from ruin because other people were greedy. So she basically pulls off the theft but when she finds out the people she’s working with have ulterior motives she has a crisis of conscience and tries to save the mummy from them. End of story.

No really. That’s it. It did start to get a little ‘we’re going to get you’ in tone for about 30 seconds but that faded really fast. There really wasn’t a whole lot going on with this story despite the fact that it’s one of the longer old school teen horror novels in my pile. It was pretty disappointing.

I did like how Emlyn’s hubris was thrown in her face, though. She thought herself the most fantastic spy and sleuth and thought she was going so slick when she wasn’t. She was actually being incredibly obvious while casing the museum and the other students she was working with made sure to point that out to her. It was a little satisfying. But while I can appreciate her respect for the dead and seeing the mummy as something more than just a mantle piece or collection item it did little to bolster the story.

There just wasn’t a whole lot going on that was exciting although it was pretty poorly edited. Emlyn’s name was misspelled quite a few times, a lot of other misspelled words or words that were completely missing. It was a little embarrassing to find that many typos in a finished copy. It kept me on my toes, at least.

MUMMY is actually the first Cooney book I’ve read but I have some experience with her movies and like I said before, there was about 30 seconds of student-on-student gang-up to protect the majority against the morally sound minority but that came and went in a blink. The characters didn’t have anything to write home about. A girl good wanting to go bad and the morally bereft classmates who help her. That’s about it. The rest was just a really dull plot that I’m not even sure said a message at the end. It just was and I wanted more.

2

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mummy is about a high school girl named Emlyn with an inner bad side who finally has a chance to do something transgressive when a group of popular kids recruit her to steal a museum mummy for the senior class prank. There were some things I adored about this story, and some things that held me back a bit in my enjoyment. I think the book's biggest problem was that it didn't read as though it had been published in 2000, but rather in 1978 or so. The dialogue did not sound authentic to teenagers, and the character names (Lovell, Maris, Donovan, etc.) didn't sound realistic to me.

What I loved about the book was watching the main character realize that how she sees herself isn't necessarily how other see her, and that how she sees others isn't necessarily accurate. I guess that's what I loved about the story. Time after time, Emlyn realizes that what she thought she knew about herself and others was wrong, in a way that feels really . . . realistic. Also, Cooney did a great job of turning up the creepy when it counted.

Even though there were some things that strained my suspension of disbelief, I feel like there were some really, really neat things about this book. And I loved the ending. I hated it and I loved it.

Book Suggestion: If you liked Mummy, I think you'd probably also like How Can You Hijack a Cave? by P.J. Petersen. (Interestingly to me, How Can You Hijack a Cave? was first published in 1988, but still comes across as more up-to-date than Mummy.)

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember standing in line for my high school commencement and thinking with more than a little regret, I never skipped class--I was never even tardy! Because I always followed the rules, I thought I had missed something somehow by being a "good" girl. Cooney explores this very concept in this novel. I found it thought provoking and suspensful despite the fact that it was also far-fetched.
My favorite quotes:
"Emlyn had thought she would rejoice, would hug herself with the delight of her Bad, the succes of her Wrong. But there was no such feeling. There was just a deep, appalling dread."
and
"Integrity meant having honor and truth in your soul. But it also meant completeness, soundness, unbroken perfection."

[Jeane · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I disliked this book because it wasn't what I was expecting. It was really a cozy-heist novel. As in it was about a heist, but the main character (and all the characters pretty much) were such goodie-goods that it felt like I was reading a cozy mystery. There was no mystery in this book, so I don't want to confuse anyone with thinking this is a mystery. I thought is was going to be a horror or at least a thriller. No such luck. All in all the main character was incredibly boring, as were all other characters. Spoiler- at the end the main character sees the error of her ways and befriends the museum director, who decides to mentor her in becoming a museum curator, I mean, what?!? how lame of and ending can you possibly get?

[Dayna Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Emlyn has always wanted to be "bad". Now she has her chance! Her classmates plan to steal the mummy of ancient Egyptian princess from the local museum for Mischief Night. They ask for Emlyn's help because she is intelligent and daring. She plans it out carefully, manages to pull off the robbery, and then everything falls apart. When her friends decide to cut open the mummy to steal the gold jewelry inside, Emlyn knows she must save Amaral-Re from such a fate. Can she do this without getting arrested for the robbery herself? An interesting take on the consequences of doing the wrong thing and the challenges involved in making it right.

[121courtney]

This year I read the book Mummy. I thought that the book was very interesting overall. At the begginning of the book, the story went kind of slow with explaining the timing snd place where events would take place. If you like to read mystery books the mummy is a book for you to read. Mummy is about a small group of kids from a senior class that are trying to pull the senior class prank. Five kids are debating on what prank to pull and they go to one certain girl, who is very intelligent yet shy, that they think is bright enough to help pull off thi big skeem. So on the night of the prank all plans are made, the timing is right, and suddenly everything goes wrong.