X-Isle (Point Horror) [Paperback]

X-Isle is a very good novel! It is fantastic and has many relations to the slasher sub-genre. Some movies related to the novel are: The House on Sorority Row, Madman, Scream, The Burning and Happy Birthday To Me. It has fantastic references and amazing kills. The counselors have dark, deadly secrets that come back to haunt the teen-aged protagonists. The novel is amazing! Do not mind the other over-critical review! It's amazing!

******THERE WILL BE SPOILERS******

I picked up the second book in this series is a close-out bin in a bargain bookstore for a few dollars, and seeing that I try never to read books out of order, I decided to get a hold of this book, "X-Isle", which is the first book in this series.

The here plot won't be unfamiliar to anybody who is above ten years of age. Seven teens (the back cover says "five teens", somebody needs a math lesson): Carter Hale, Anna Karpathos, Erica Patterson, Martin Hsu, Henry Finney, Rachel Cominsky, and Sam Fanelli are new recruits, picked for their social standings and looks, for the staff of the newly opened Spinnaker Lodge. The Spinnaker Lodge is built on Essex Island where the Native Indian tribe Madekonset were pretty much slaughtered, with the rest driven off the island into exile. The island residents are convinced that the site is haunted, as one business and one dwelling after another that have been situated on Spinnaker Lodge's site have all ended in tragedy and failure.

Then people start dying is rather spectacular ways, including one beheading. As usual with these types of stories, most of these teen-agers have dark secrets that they are trying to hide. Carter & Anna have faked their pasts, Martin is psychotic and prone to sudden violence and hallucinations, while Henry is a klepto, and Rachel is pregnant.

This is a short novel, with large type and margins, and lots and lots of white space. The villain is an often glimpsed person in a long black hooded robe who carries a scythe. If you've seen the recent tv series "Harper's Island" then you've seen the most recent example of this type of plot. I found myself fairly interested in the by-the-numbers plot, and some of the characters have some interesting things happening in their lives that kept me reading. There's even a hint of the supernatural, as a ghost hound or dog is glimpsed.

Unfortunately, veteran children's author Lerangis seems to have a low opinion of his audience's IQ. Despite having fits of anger and anguish, as a whole the characters are rather bland, and most of the crimes and secrets end up being rather pedestrian. Despite hints and aftereffects, this is a rather bloodless novel, reading more like a novelization of some tv movie more than an original work. Then Lerangis commits an unforgivable sin, despite seemingly to solve the murders, surprise!, there is a murder in the last pages of the last chapter. Therefore, "X-Isle" has NO ENDING!!! Yes, the story just ENDS, tune in to the sequel, if you happen to have it, for the next chapter.

GAAAH!!! Therefore, I wouldn't read this novel unless you have the sequel "Return To X-Isle". Really. It's like reading a novel and finding out that somebody has ripped out the last half of the story. This novel only gets two stars because of the pedestrian plot, and because Lerangis simple stopped the story instead of ending it. He may very well have been instructed to do so by the publishers, but, that's still a poor excuse. Unless you have part two, avoid.

If you want to read my review of Return to X-Isle (Point Horror) then click the product link.