A Book Review - The Diary / Let Me Tell You How I Died by Sinclair Smith (Point Horror)

I always think of this book as one that I don't really like, and I'm not sure why. Maybe it was too subtle for me as a kid. I know that I didn't remember it terribly well, and it took a little while to get into this time, but once I was in I found I really liked it.

Delia is one of those introverted girls - shy, bookish and tied to a life with an ageing aunt who doesn't seem to like her much. She has no idea what she wants to do with her life after she graduates in a few weeks. When she finds a diary in her locker, she assumes it's a present from her boyfriend - she's an avid journaler, and it's just the kind of gift she'd love to get. But it turns out that the diary isn't blank, it's full of the life story of another girl, and there's a mystery as to where and who it came from.

Delia reads the diary, more and more of it every day, and slowly she starts becoming more and more like Laura, the girl who wrote it. Her personality changes and she becomes an extroverted party-girl. She dresses like Laura and gets her hair cut and dyed and her nails painted the way Laura had hers done. She picks up a paintbrush and discovers that she's a talented artist, despite never having painted before. All good things, right? But she also starts skipping school, and being mean to her friends, and having violent fantasies about people who upset her...

A past life regression from the town psychic indicates that Delia has lived before, and she finds out that Laura died in a freak accident the day Delia was born. Except it wasn't an accident - it was murder...

Delia starts having visions of the past, including Laura's murder. And Laura's murderer seems to know that something's rotten in Denmark (or Pleasantville - yes, that really is where this is set) because s/he is leaving threatening messages for Delia.

I hope I've got the gist of the book down, and apologies if I got anything wrong. It's quite a complex story for a teenage horror book, and I've only read it once or twice so it's not etched into my memory the way childhood favourites are. It's a good book, though, and I'll read it again in the future. Delia's a great character, and deeper than most of the protagonists in Point Horror novels. The transformation she goes through as Laura's personality takes over is eerie and surprisingly believable. I also didn't suspect the killer, which is always nice.

On the whole, I thought it was a pretty great book. This is the Sinclair Smith I know and love, which is why The Waitress was such a bitter disappointment. But The Diary, as well as other Smith novels like Second Sight, Amnesia and Dream Date are inventive and well-written, and reaffirm my faith in the author.

Verdict: Eerie, compelling and nicely crafted.