Rotterham Home is a hospice for teens with a variety of terminal illnesses. One small group, consisting of Ilonka, Anya, Sandra, Kevin, and Spence, gets together every night at midnight to tell stories. Spence's stories always feature some form of mass murder, Anya's story has more of a supernatural bent, Kevin's is a multi-part story about an angel who becomes a mortal out of love for a young woman. Ilonka, meanwhile, always tells stories based on her memories of her past lives. Although she says she's never met anyone in this life that she's known in her past lives, that's a lie - she recognizes Kevin as someone she's met and loved in all or most of her past lives. Unfortunately, Kevin is currently dating a pretty and healthy cheerleader.

Almost every member of the group has a secret gnawing at them, something they must deal with as best they can in the little time they have.

I had forgotten how much mysticism was in some of Christopher Pike's books. This particular one had a LOT. Ilonka had repeated dreams of sitting at the feet of some guy she called the Master, who philosophized at her and tried to get her to stop looking at the past or longing for the future and instead focus on the present. Weirdly, her reincarnations resulted in her being both the Master's mother and his first disciple. The two past lives readers got to see the most of took place in ancient India and ancient Egypt (sort of). Then there was Kevin's angel main character, Sandra's evangelical upbringing, and lots of mentions of God.

Speaking of Sandra, evangelical readers would probably be annoyed by this book, since she comes across as the least likeable and most hypocritical character. Oddly, she was also the only character to find Spence's stories disturbing. Considering Pike's usual inclusion of murder and/or horror in his books, I initially thought Spence's stories were going to lead up to some kind of murder mystery, but that wasn't exactly the case. (There was a tiny bit of mystery, but it was more of a minor detail than anything.)

I'm not really sure what else to say about this. The one bit where Ilonka had a bunch of magic-filled dreams of past lives was weird, and the far-future ending felt weak and tacked on. This was a bit of an "issue" book, dealing directly with subjects like teenage sexuality,

, in addition to the more obvious issues of death, serious illness, and mortality. (And yes,

All in all, this wasn't the book I expected it to be and wasn't one of my better Pike rereads, but it wasn't bad. Just don't let the cover trick you into thinking it's horror, or you'll be terribly disappointed.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

I never know how to rate Pike's books. I'm going to have to think about this one.

This one was zero horror (unless you count the whole "everyone's slowly dying of incurable illnesses" aspect), great gobs of mysticism, and a teeny tiny amount of mystery. I wish I still had my huge collection of Pike novels, because I kind of want to start reading another one. I need to sit down and figure out which one I'm going to request via ILL next. I suppose I'll browse some cover art and see which one gives me the best gut feeling based on my vague teenage memories.

None of the characters have died yet, but I'm keeping track of several details that I suspect will become important soon: Spence not wanting to be involved in the blood pact, the way Ilonka's wine tasted, and the fact that one of the glasses was switched out because it was supposedly dusty.

Spence is now telling his second story, and this one is even more unbelievable. I mean, what sort of truck driver would loan his daughter his semi to go to a party?

My second book for Snakes and Ladders. It's just barely long enough.

This one has a hospice filled with terminally ill teens. The main character, Ilonka, is in love with Kevin, one of the other teens at the hospice, who is unfortunately already dating someone (but that girl is a healthy cheerleader who for some reason thinks Kevin is going to get better soon, which of course means they aren't meant to be together). Pike has already introduced the "we knew each other in another life" aspect, sort of - Ilonka has dreams about a past life in ancient Egypt, and there are indications that she knew Kevin in that life.

At midnight, five (?) of the hospice's teens get together and tell each other stories. Spence (who I'm certain is lying about having a hot girlfriend back in California) just told a story about a Vietnam vet who got up on the Eiffel Tower with his girlfriend as a hostage and shot a bunch of people. Now it's Anya's turn, with her story about a girl who makes a deal with the Devil.

There's going to be another Christopher Pike reread in my near future. All I remember about this one is that it was one of my top favorite Pike books, once upon a time. Also, it stars a bunch of terminally ill teens, a thing that was my catnip when I was a teen (so many Lurleen McDaniel books, OMG) and that I now generally avoid like the plague.