Eve's Party

by Nick Turnbull

Normally the old folk of Portlecombe love to spin a yarn. But mention 1936, and everyone clams up. Something bad happened back then. Something connected to the weird events of the last few days...

Killer sharks in the bay. Dogs turned savage. Strange laughter in the hills... And Eve.

Quiet, smiling, red-headed Eve. She's having a party. It's kind of a reunion. For anyone who survived her last one...

Some stories are best left...buried.

Genres: Horror, Young Adult

206 pages, Paperback

First published June 18, 1999

Reviews

[Paula Brandon]

A man who likes to watch the seals winds up in a cave after his boat is tossed there during a storm. Exploring the cave, he finds a stone box with the body of a girl inside. He's then gobbled up by a monster! Opening this box unleashes terror on the town of Portlecombe. Strange events occur, including shark attacks and dog attacks! Lindsay and Ben start seeing a young girl in places where they really shouldn't. Their grandparents seem to know more than what they're saying. The events seem to be connected to the deaths of several children back in 1936...

C's review was right. This was unexpectedly terrifying! It was suspenseful and creepy from start to finish. Once again for the Point Horror Unleashed line, I was surprised to find that this was populated by more adult characters than teen characters. Ben and Lindsay do investigate what is going on, but the adult characters - in their 60s and 70s no less (!) drive the story. The book was filled with creepy imagery, so I could picture it playing out like a movie in my head. I was intrigued to know exactly why this little ghost girl Eve was terrorising everybody.

I thought there was just a tad too much description when it came to walking through woods and caves, but it was a minor quibble. This is the sort of scary story you look for when you want something to read on a dark and stormy night! A very welcome, surprising delight!

[Sarah Elizabeth]

This wasn't bad.

* Lindsay (13) is visiting her grandfather who lives in a small village in the south of England. A friend - Ben (15) is helping her with a project about photography, she needs to take a photo which shows how people lived.
* What they don't know is that a creepy little girl (Eve) who was a wreccan has been released from her tomb, and is now out to kill people.
* Lindsay and Ben eventually find out from Ben's grandmother Phoebe that this little girl Eve moved to the village in 1936, and the other kids didn't like her because she never spoke, and she ate bugs. Eve's parents threw a party for all the kids in her class, and all but 3 attended. Eve fed the kids and her own parents deathcap mushrooms and killed them all. The headmaster and some other .embers of the village burned the house down and trapped Eve in a stone coffin in a cave.
* Eve decides to throw another party for the 3 kids that were sick before, but the headmaster's son manages to get Eve back in the stone coffin and everyone is saved.

[Lia]

More style over substance. Eve's not a very threatening or compelling antagonist. Reading this, think of it less of a horror book and more of a potential storyline for an episode of Supernatural or the X-Files or something. It has a good premise, but written as it is it doesn't really stand as its own story.

[Rob]

A surprisingly good book I thought. Very impressed with the setting and location chosen for the story goes together very well. A much recommended read if you just want a good creepy tale.

[C.]

Well, that was unexpectedly terrifying.