I.O.U.

by Nicholas Adams

Haunted by recurring nightmares, high school junior Sharon Anders begins to confuse dreams with reality and is soon plunged into a desperate struggle between good and evil

Genres: Young Adult, Horror, Teen, Mystery, Paranormal

187 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1991

About the author

Nicholas Adams is a collective pen name created by Daniel Weiss Associates and used by several authors of YA horror written in the 1990s. These include John Peel, James D. MacDonald and Debra Doyle, and Sherwood Smith.

Reviews

[Elina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this as a teenager and it made me afraid of sleeping for a while. That memory stuck with me and that I remember the beginning being great.
Rereading it I still think the first part of the book is very good but the rest varies from okay to horrible. I kind of wish I didn't read it again so I could have kept remembering it as better than it was. My negative thoughts doesn't feel new to me though, like I had them back then as well but they got overshadowed by the positive first impression.

Despite fearing for her life there's no way Sharon could possibly miss the school dance!
Come on! The author really couldn't figure out a better way to get the climax going.

Stupid denial on Sharon's part is just at a face palm level and highlights the poor build up of a crucial relationship. There's also poor build up of some other relationships which just feels sloppy.

The ending and "twist" was just bad. The twist is so obvious and the ending reeks of the author not knowing how to give the book closure.

[Courtney Gruenholz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Couldn't find a physical copy so I had to settle for the Kindle version reprint.

This is John Peel writing under the shared author pen name of Nicholas Adams.

This had a very slasher feel to it with sort of a mix of Bad Dreams and NOES: Dream Warriors to give you a feel for the plot if you are a horror fan such as myself.

The difference is that the killer is not at all quippy like Freddy and actually quiet disturbing yet loses most of his menace when you realize that something supernatural is pulling the strings...far more devious.

Sort of jumping the gun but not really trying to spoil anything major.

Sharon Anders is about to turn seventeen and she has been having very bad dreams about a man trying to stab her to death in the woods yet there is a darker unseen presence alongside him.

Her best friend, Chiku, has a father who is well versed in psychology and analyzing dreams through his Kenya background and hearing all sorts of legends about demons and fallen angels. Sharon doesn't know whether she is going crazy, but she wakes up from her dreams to find ominous signs that what she was experiencing was real.

A broken bed canopy, nightgown slashed, a cut on her arm, a doll hanging from a noose in her closet. Her father, as a lawyer, is convinced it is just a human psycho stalker, but it seems her mother thinks Sharon just needs a therapist to talk to.

The only main male characters aside from her dad in Sharon's life are Larry, a fan of horror films who keeps failing to impress Chiku, and new guy at school Travis. The minute Sharon sees Travis it is the first time she has felt happy in a long time thanks to his good looks, and she hopes his love can be a factor in protecting her.

After another dream attack changes its pattern and an incident in the real-world forces Sharon to get her hair cut, her growing fear has been replaced by anger. She is determined to find out why this is happening to her but doesn't understand that it is only a matter of time before the game is finished.

These dreams won't kill her, and the price is going to be paid...with Sharon's soul.

I guess the only reason I couldn't give I.O.U. five stars was I didn't really like the ending. The climax leading up to it was excellent yet the twist in the reveal was just a little...ick. When it was all said and done, Sharon turned out to be a great main character, but I don't think she got the happy ending she should have deserved.

Not poignant enough for me, I guess. Thrilling story but such a standard YA novel ending.

[Sarah Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

* Sharon has nightmares where someone is trying to kill her in the woods with a palette knife.
* She sees the palette knife at school and then it goes missing.
* She tells her best friend what is going on, and she tries to console her that it's just a dream.
* She has several nightmares which get progressively worse, which her parents witness, and things escalate when her therapist in killed in one of her dreams, and is also murdered in real life.
* Eventually the truth comes out that she's adopted, her mother was her adoptive mother's sister, and she joined some kind of devil-worshipping commune, and was murdered when she tried to get Sharon out.
* Turns out that the man trying to kill her in her dreams is her biological father who has made a deal with a demon and he has to slaughter his firstborn.
* On the night of the big school dance it turns out that her date Travis has also made a deal with the same demon and is trying to kill her too.
* Fortunately Travis ends up dead and Sharon's best friend and her father succeed in rescuing her, and she decides that the demaon has no power over her any more.

[Erica Leigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Girl has recurring nightmares and gets attacked by her canopy bed a few times, but really it’s her dead birth dad haunting her in her dreams because he was part of a cult and had promised her to a blood-hungry demon who salivates at the thought of consuming ~innocent flesh, in exchange for power/money/wealth. Naturally.

Be prepared for a very lengthy, very dull over-explanation of family history and demon deals.

Love that everyone agrees that she’s obviously very much possibly in danger, but must make it to the Halloween Dance so she can be with a boy. Priorities.

Everyone believes the demon thing right away, her parents, her best friend, and even her best friend’s dad? Good best friend.

Also, her love interest is actually her HALF-BROTHER who made the same pact with the same demon, so now he’s trying to sacrifice her for power/money/wealth too.

Easiest battle ever. She simply decides she’s over the demon…and that’s…it. Ends rather anti-climactically, although there is one casualty in the form of a demon-squashed half-brother.

[Cazzy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember really liking this book as young teen. The Nightmares series seemed a bit more complex and sophisticated than Point Horror (or what it had become by time it had deteriorated to mostly R.L.Stine churn) and having re-read this as an adult, it certainly was.

The story was quite good for teen horror, but I found the writing style a bit on the dull side and it was a bit of an effort to keep picking it up.

[Jameson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as fun as Horrorscope, but decent enough if you cut your teeth on Fear St. More PG-13 than those books, though. Adams’ biggest weakness appears to be his inability to disguise the identity of the bad guy. Or maybe that’s a concession to his intended demographic. IOU also suffers from too much dreaming. Half the book the protagonist is running around in the same lame dream.

[Sreypich Van · Rating 3 out of 5]

wasnt expecting it turn out into a battle with a demon with a crucifix. Demon, i condemn you! despite the recurrent dream sequence and the obvious walking red flag of Travis, it was still a pretty fun read. The best friend, Chuki was amazing and I loved her banter with Larry. The ending was a bit anticlimatic and there were also some hilarious moments.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fun

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book snags you from the very beginning. Not a boring, slow book. Has you going in a few directions as to wondering who is out to kill her.

[Robyn Drummond · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nightmares was relatively unknown to me but these books have taken me back to my youth and my love for cheesy horror.