Review: Beach House by R.L. Stine

Title: Beach House

Series: Point Horror

Author: R.L. Stine

Genre: YA, horror, mystery thriller

Publication date: August 1991

Published by: Scholastic

Source: Own paperback

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Synopsis:

Swim.
Sunbathe.
Die.

The sun is hot. The water's cold. And the kids are cool. Too cool to live. Because a killer is stalking them, one by one. A killer who never leaves a clue. Who disappears as completely as a footprint in the sand.

A killer who has found a very special place in the sun

for some very special sun...

My rating: ★★★☆☆
There are a couple of parts to this book that alternate between the summer of 1956 and the summer in the present (which I’m assuming is in 1992 because that’s when this book is published. Lol), each with their own set of characters. And these two different groups of friends in these two different decades are connected by a beach house... and murder.

In 1956 we have this group of friends who are joined by Buddy who is basically a tourist vacationing in this beach town. Initially I felt really bad for Buddy ‘cause he just wanted to make friends and hang out, but these awful kids just picked on him. One girl, Maria, seemed to actually be pretty decent, and he was interested in her! But boy did that last like one second. It turns out peer pressure is greater than your own moral compass.

Maria initially defended Buddy from her awful friends, even agreeing to go out with him. But in one instance, the “friends” start picking on Buddy—they steal his swimming shorts and leave him stark naked in the ocean. Maria is telling her friends that it’s not funny and to help him, but her friends quickly change her mind—she does a complete 180 and just abandons him without a second thought. Then she cancels her date with him and totally blows him off. This after she tells the other guy no, that she has a date with Buddy, but the other guy, again, convinces her that hanging out with him is more fun. And just like that, she abandons him again. Fuck you Maria, you goddamn pushover.

Anyway, the point is she turned out to be a bitch as well when Buddy didn’t deserve it. Not at first, anyway...

Even though I did feel bad for him, he went completely off the deep end, going as far as killing Maria and her friends! Look, I get it, they are awful people, but this is a bit extreme. Just stop hanging out with these guys! Why did he want to in the first place, when they were being so mean to him? And yeah, Maria was part of that in the end and hurt his feelings, but holy shit, dude, get over it! You didn’t have to go and murder her! Just find new friends!

And then, in the present, we have another group of friends who could also be better people. Our main girl Ashley? I hated her! So she has a boyfriend Ross, but...

She liked to flirt with guys. It was fun
Harmless fun.
Why couldn’t Ross just lighten up?

She was particularly into the new guy Brad, and she showed her attraction for him... right in front of her boyfriend! She is practically rubbing it in Ross’s face and then she gets all offended when he gets jealous. Girl, stop! You can’t really blame the poor guy when he’s got a pretty good reason for being mad! Ugh!

Anyway, I didn’t really care for any of the characters—most of them were awful! But it did have a pretty cool plot twist I enjoyed! How these two sets of characters in different times are connected... wow! I was really not expecting it!

The first plot twists I actually figured out pretty much right away. To me it was just so obvious that Buddy = Brad. However, I was not sure how things were connected since they’re decades apart. It turns out it’s time travel! OMG! There is a beach house, that for some reason, has a closet where you can time travel to 1956. Well, Brad figured this out and traveled back as Buddy, killed everyone that were awful to him, then came back to the present to proceed and pretty much do the same thing to his “friends” in the present. That was pretty interesting.

I also liked how Maria didn’t actually die in the shark attack, but somehow made her way to the present and became Buddy’s/Brad’s maid in the present to get her revenge! Cool!

Overall, it was an okay read. I didn’t care for the characters, but the mystery spanning decades was interesting and the plot twists were pretty cool! I can always count on R.L. Stine to deliver a plot twist that will surprise me!

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! :)