A Book Review - The Lifeguard by Richie Tankersley Cusick (Point Horror)

This is a truly odd book. It's one of the first Point Horrors I owned, back when I was 8 or 9, but I couldn't really get into it well back then. I know I read it - I can tell from the cover that it's been read a lot, LOL - but I didn't really remember it very well.

Richie Tankersley Cusick is an interesting writer. Her writing style is more subtle than some of the other Point Horror authors like Diane Hoh or R.L. Stine, perhaps a little more sophisticated, and as a result I think she probably appeals more to teenagers than to the preteen crowd. She's not as heavy-handed on the imagery as some of the authors, and that means that (for me, at least) her plot points don't stay in the memory for that long. There's no single image, in this book or any other of hers, that stands out for me years later the way the jellyfish in the bed (in R.L. Stine's Beach Party), the girl who gets locked in a coffin (in Diane Hoh's The Train) or the leather-clad biker who terrorises a girl trapped in a phone booth (in Carol Ellis' My Secret Admirer) do. Yet this is not necessarily a bad thing; the lack of that sometimes overwhelming imagery means that most of her books feel fresh and new each time I read them.

As far as The Lifeguard goes, I enjoyed it very much. The plot is average: Kelsey arrives on a small island for a vacation with her mother, to stay with mom's boyfriend and his kids, only to find that the thirteen-year-old daughter is missing and that there have been a couple of suspicious drownings recently. The parents are absent for most of the book - this is a recurring theme in teenage horror novels - and Kelsey is left in the company of mom's boyfriend's two sons: sweet, shy Justin and dark, intense Neale, as well as two other island kids, bubbly Donna and arrogant-but-charming Skip. Due to a note she finds in her room (that says, "I think someone is going to kill me"), Kelsey becomes convinced that Beth, the missing daughter, has been murdered. She just doesn't know by whom. And then the terror starts, with wet footprints on her rug when she thinks she's alone in the house, a body that appears and disappears, and a crazy old man who keeps showing up and yelling warnings.

While it's a little light on depth - although to be fair, you can't expect too much from a 200-page teenage book - Ms Cusick has a way of creating likeable characters that you want to root for. Combine this with a creepy, almost gothic feeling that weaves its way through the narrative, and a sense of loneliness during the scenes that feature Kelsey alone that contrasts nicely with the cheerful comfort of the supporting characters, and you have a very enjoyable, somewhat haunting read.

Verdict: An excellent YA novel that is probably at least partly responsible for the success of Point Horror in the early 90s.