Thoughts before reading:
The cover of this looks familiar to me, but I don't think I've ever read it before. If so, I don't remember anything. I do like the cover though, it's very Fear Street.
The basics:
The Krashers (the team Kristy and Bart formed by mixing their older players) have a game 30 miles outside of Stoneybrook, and Charlie's driving them all there in a van. They win, but right after the game it starts pouring. Charlie has a hard time seeing the road in the ensuing thunderstorm, and ends up making a wrong turn. They decide to try and find a store to ask for directions, but instead they end up trapped on a rural road after a bridge gets washed out. There's nothing around but an old, creepy looking mansion with a cottage out front. Kristy and Charlie decide to knock at the cottage door to ask for help, since it's less intimidating. A stoic old man answers, and explains that he's the caretaker of the property, but no one has actually lived in the mansion for a long time. He doesn't have a working phone either, but tells them they can stay up at the main house until morning, and he gives them some bread and apples to tide them over.
The kids explore the house, and after they learn it's called the Sawyer house, Jackie says he's heard of it before, because it's haunted. In one of the bedrooms, Karen finds a diary from 1935, written by an eighteen year old girl named Dorothy. They start reading it to pass the time. It begins with her hopes that her boyfriend will propose, which he does, on Valentine's Day. She then worries that her father won't approve. He doesn't, and forbids them to marry. They decide to elope instead. The diary ends there, so they don't get to find out what happens.
Disappointed, the kids look around further, and find some newspaper clippings about how Dorothy vanished on the night she was supposed to elope. It was another rainy night, where the bridges had washed out. Ultimately everyone decided she must have drowned during the storm. Her father died six months to the day later, allegedly of a broken heart. There's also some pictures of her, and her fiancé, Will. He even looks familiar to some of them.
Kristy has the idea to have the kids play an icebreaker game, because the Krushers kids and the Bashers kids have been staying pretty separate. It makes everyone more comfortable, and they're able to settle the kids down to rest. A long, mostly sleepless night follows. Lots of the kids are restless, and Kristy keeps hearing weird noises. She's also haunted by the story about Dorothy.
Since she can't relax, Kristy goes poking around in the library, where she finds more clippings. This batch is about the supposed Ghost of Sawyer Road, a woman in a wedding dress that many people claim to have seen. There's also a deed to the house: it's owned by Will now.
By morning, the storm has cleared up and work on the bridges has begun. While the group is waiting, Buddy figures out that Will looks like the caretaker they met the previous evening. Kristy asks him about it, and he confirms his sad story, telling them he never recovered from losing Dorothy. He also firmly says there are no ghosts.
Kristy and Bart take the kids outside to distract them from thinking about ghosts, and keep them busy practicing softball until the bridge gets cleared. From there, they make it off Sawyer Road and to a general store. Charlie gets directions, and Kristy's finally able to call home. Everyone there has been really worried, since they were unable to get in touch all night.
Everyone's parents, plus the whole BSC, wait at Kristy's, and there's a big happy reunion when they finally get back. The BSC plans a sleepover to celebrate. Karen comes in during it because she can't stop thinking about Dorothy. She took a picture of her from the house without telling anyone, and when Mary Anne sees it, she swears it's the woman in town who runs the sewing store.
Everyone's parents, plus the whole BSC, wait at Kristy's, and there's a big happy reunion when they finally get back. The BSC plans a sleepover to celebrate. Karen comes in during it because she can't stop thinking about Dorothy. She took a picture of her from the house without telling anyone, and when Mary Anne sees it, she swears it's the woman in town who runs the sewing store.
The next day, the girls all head to the sewing store first thing. Kristy asks the owner outright if she's Dorothy. She's clearly caught off guard, but admits she is, and tells them about how she did really love Will. During the big storm she was swept away by the creek though, leading her to realize she was free for the first time in her life. She decided to let everyone think she was dead because it was the only way she could see to take control of her life. The girls tell her about Will, and she agrees to go see him.
No side plot in this one, just some chapters of the BSC back in Stoneybrook worrying about the missing kids.
Timeline:
It doesn't really say, but I'm guessing it's still late Spring, due to the weather.
Misc. thoughts:
*I liked that we finally got to see a lot of Charlie in this one. He's also such a good sport, again, and a great brother. He keeps the kids calm, takes the lead, and is really patient.
*If Watson was at home, why didn't he drive them instead of Charlie? It's hard to believe all those parents would have been ok with a 17 year old they don't know driving their kids out of town in a big van. Plus, other than the Pikes, nobody's parents went to the game?
*I figured it would be Karen that got all the ghost and haunting talk started, but for once she had nothing to do with it...
*Claudia makes her own tie dye! I remember doing that in the 90s too.
*Claudia's annoyed that Janine thinks intelligence can solve any problem...but she's not really wrong about that.
*When everyone in Stoneybrook is freaking out about the van not showing up, Watson keeps calling Mary Anne to see if she's heard anything. Why doesn't he call the police or hospitals instead? Everyone missing was under eighteen.
*Bart says one of his favorite things to do is "be with Kristy". Poor clueless boy...
*Apparently Kristy doesn't like squirrels? How random.
*Charlie says he remembers holding Kristy when she was a baby. Awww.
*David Michael talks in his sleep, and Charlie snores.
*WHY is Claudia once again in charge of making banners and signs? No one ever learns their lesson about this...
*Kristy tells Stacey that Sam likes anchovies, and she's horrified, haha.
*After the story about Kristy being stranded in the storm spreads around SMS, even Cokie tells Kristy that she's awesome. It seems unrealistic that she'd be impressed by this to me, or that it would even be gossip at school. I don't think teenagers would care much.
*At the BSC sleepover, Stacey gets dressed before breakfast in the morning, just in case she sees Sam.
*Ghostwritten by Ellen Miles.
Books mentioned:
*The Frog and Toad series, by Arnold Lobel
*Beezus and Ramona, by Beverly Cleary
*Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
My rating:
1 star, WTF? I was going to give this 3 stars for plot, readability, and entertainment value, but the ending was too ridiculous. I guess this was intended to be feminist, and I fully understand that women had less choices a few generations ago, so Dorothy felt trapped. Plus, I am a proud feminist myself. Taking all that into account, what she did was so effed up! This woman got her happy life and her freedom at the expense of two other people's lives and happiness, which I find unforgivably selfish. She couldn't just let them know she was alive? She could have at least written her father and Will a letter while she was out enjoying all the traveling she tells the girls about. Even if they looked for her, that's a small price to pay for all their suffering. If she mailed the letter from a random place, it's unlikely they would have found anything. If she was afraid of her dad, she could have reached out to Will after he passed away. It was only 6 months later. Instead Will spent his whole life alone, heartbroken, in her family house, and never recovered from her supposed tragic death. The whole time she was 30 miles away, living happily and having grand adventures. When the girls tell her about Will, she has no remorse at all. She actually finds it amusing that if she turned up now she'd "give old Will a turn".
I couldn't believe it. I just hated this plot so much. It's too bad, because the book was actually decent until Dorothy turned up alive. If they had left that part out, and let her fate be a mystery, this would have been vastly better.
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