31. Pranks – Dennis J. Higman

Evil teenager alert! Bucky Foster, terrorizer of the island neighborhood of Horsehead Point, is a total psychopath. The total psychopath for Halloween 1983 definitely. He and his two friends, Jeff and Harry, are riding around on their motorbikes and up to the most no good on Halloween anyone could be. I know I’m being more expressive than usual but I spent this entire book wondering how Bucky was going to be vanquished because you do not beat a sheep to death, strangle an elderly dog, bash the head of an elderly woman, hit an old grumpy dude with an axe, threaten your teacher, and live to see the end of the story. Preferably.

Jeff and Harry are kind of caught in the flow because they’re “friends.” And nearly everyone who should be keeping Bucky from doing these things is either overwhelmed by it enough to just pretend it’s not happening (Bucky’s mom), thinks it’s just “boys will be boys” to spray paint and murder animals (Bucky’s stepdad), thinks they can help him (his teacher), or is willing to write off some serious deaths as “accidents” (the police and the on island EMT dude). They should all have taken that sheep’s death vastly more seriously. Even if her owner was an awful woman.

Pranks read very quickly. Very. And it has a lot of perspectives and a lot of background about the community, even mildly stupid political intrigue, and I never found it confusing. It does have a lot of gruesome animal death, women struggling with their roles, flawed and terrible people, the worst teenager I’ve ever read about, and also a Halloween party.

Snorri and Jonesy are both teenage boars, but they would never do anything like what happens in this book. Their worst prank would be something like taking little bites out of someone’s pumpkins (as seen here).