Joining the Others, a group of outcasts whom she thinks are just lonely students like herself, Salem University freshman Molly Keene realizes that there is something very wrong about the group, but finds there is only one way to leave it.
Diane Hoh is the author of fifty-seven novels for young adults. She grew up in Warren, Pennsylvania but currently resides in Austin, Texas. Reading and writing are her favorite things, alongside gardening and grandchildren.
I've generally enjoyed the Nightmare Hall series, unfortunately this one felt like Hoh just trying to get another out during the hight of Point Horror's popularity.
It seemed like a good idea for freshman Molly to attend a group of social outcasts only to bulk at the ideas that 'The Others' have regarding the more popular students. Choosing not to join a group who are angry at successful people was completely the right choice, but staying through the Initiation ceremony was clearly a bad idea!
Hoh trys her best to convince the reader that having rejected the group Molly is now being terrorized by the leader Norman. Some very inventive padding ensures as first Molly's car is defaced with river mud to her clothes being destroyed. With so many side characters it's a case of trying to guess who's really behind the threatening pranks.
The limitations of setting a series in one location whilst attempting to churn out 12 books a year shows with this one.
Fairly standard Point Horror affair this one. Playing on the tropes of the cult leader which added an extra bit of intrigue. Like most of these books, the mystery is decent and the stakes are fairly high in this one with multiple people actually being injured. But I was let dowb a little by the obvious reveal and abrupt ending. Would reccommend if you really like the series but don't start with this one. Molly is a freshman at college who doesn't really fit in. Intrigued, she goes to a meeting by a club known as " the others", a group that feel they are being underappreciated on campus. She gets bad vibes from then and instead joins the college newspaper. But when she writes an article about them, The Others set there sights on her and any one else associated with the paper.
Probably one of my favorite Nightmare Hall books that I have not read because it strikes a little bit of a chord in me that is relatable and I will elucidate that point further as I go on with my review of The Initiation.
Molly Keene is a freshman at Salem University. She was a pretty good student in high school that teachers liked her, she had fun with her friends and took time to know everyone no matter what.
College is different than high school though. Sometimes friends may end up going to the same school but no one Molly knew is at this university with her at the beginning of her first year in the fall semester.
At registration for classes, she meets Norman Oakes.
He isn't ruggedly handsome but he is nice to Molly and she can tell he is a very smart, intellectual guy. There is a charisma that Norman has and the intense way he talks, matching his blue eyes, makes him very persuasive.
The only thing about Norman is that he seems to be judgemental of others which is ironic because he decides to start a club of sorts where they are called The Others.
The very first meeting is held in the woods in front of a bonfire where Molly can not make out anyone's face and she is surprised that the initiation is that very night. Norman rallies everyone first with a speech where he says they will pass judgement on those who are supposed to be the best.
Does the best actress on campus deserve that title? Best athlete? Best painter? Best musician?
Do those who were on top in high school deserve to be given accolades their freshman year while the ones Norman has recruited, the ones who are smart and talented, get passed by?
Molly has second thoughts about joining and even though she holds a candle given to those about that circle, she doesn't say the oath and begins thinking about the paper she is supposed to be writing for her English class.
She calls the title of her paper "Solitaire" and it is about that transition for high school to college and her teacher, Professor Theodore, commends her work once she turns it in.
Molly is flabbergasted in amazement that the teacher has talked to the editors of the campus literary magazine, Odyssey. Every year at least one freshman writer is chosen to be on the paper and she believes Molly would be perfect so they want to meet with her...an appointment already set up the managing editor, Hank Seagrove.
Molly heads to the meeting and runs into Norman, who was waiting on her outside. He doesn't seem to happy when Molly tells him the news and he's pretty rude about it if he is supposed to be her friend. Molly tells Norman she isn't joining The Others and even though she is confused and hurt...Molly doesn't back down about going to the interview at the paper.
Norman apologizes but it doesn't seem to be very convincing.
Molly goes meets with Hank at the office of the magazine and gets introduced to the rest of the staff. With some of the old staff having graduated over the summer, freshmen are allowed to join the magazine but most of them work as copy people, typists or assistants to the ones who actually write articles like what Molly will be doing.
Her first assignment is to turn her paper into an article for the magazine.
Molly accepts the job of revising her article and earning a place on the crew of the campus' award-winning periodical.
All of the exhilaration soon turns into apprehension and suspicion when awful things start to happen not even a day after Molly is hired on.
Her car is filled with mud then all of her clothes are ruined when her roomate offers to do the laundry. The girl, Kayla, says she put them in the washer and then got side-tracked talking to a football stud named Boomer.
She came back and her own clothes were fine but Molly's were covered in ink and not in little blotches either but smiley faces.
Molly is sure that Norman is behind this, petty about Molly not joining The Others and instead being a part of a magazine he called a "rag". He thinks nobody notices him but Norman couldn't be more wrong because almost everyone on the paper knows he is "the skinny weirdo lining up people like The Pied Piper and his rats"
These pranks are nothing compared to finding the office of Odyssey completely vandalized, campus property mind you, and destroyed. Molly doesn't think Norman would be that crazy to do this to school property but she knows that there are members of The Others everywhere.
Soon, the freshmen students interviewed for the new talent story of the first issue are being targeted in threatening letters left in Molly's mail. The only difference is now...Molly has been added.
Will the "best writer" soon be a dead writer?
It may not be Norman because there are plenty of people on the paper who want Molly's position as a writer?
The question is who and can Molly figure it out in time before The Others hurt someone else...
I wasn't popular in high school but I think I was a nice enough person and I was always good in classes that involved writing. English, Creative Writing, Poetry, papers for History and Film Studies, writing scenes for Drama and essays on Shakespeare.
That all changed when I went to college.
I got A's and B's in high school...D's and F's in college English no matter how hard I tried.
I at least got B's in my Theater classes for reviewing the plays they put on.
I had friends in high school that ended up going to the same college as I did and that was a mistake.
I can totally relate to this book from that standpoint.
High school drama has no place at college but I was also homesick being away from home for the first time. I thought having people I knew would make it fun but the homesickness, discouraging grades and antics made me drop-out.
I know a few people like Norman.
Molly seems like me.
We actually get two reveals in the story even though one is more like a twist but I was shocked at the first one. The second reveal was kind of...meh.
We have so many red herrings and Norman set up as such a *ahem* psycho cult-leader that it kind of lacked punch.
The epilogue that ends the book cleared a few things up and seemed ambiguously optimistic but not cheesy in delivering a lesson.
Being jealous and judgemental of others, as well as putting them down, is childish and immature.
Some people like myself are overly sensitive, I get that, but it still isn't cool to discourage anyone even if you think it isn't up to your standards.
Just do what you do and be you.
Rant over and stepping off my soapbox. I enjoyed this book and you should too if it is one Nightmare Hall you have yet to check out.
This was interesting at first but the plot twist wasn't as exciting as I hoped it would be. I also hoped that there would be a paranormal element to this but there wasn't any...
This wasn't too bad really. Set in college, so more of a grown-up feel to it than the Point Horror's. The vast majority of the incidents that occurred in this book could have been avoided if the main protagonist wasn't such an idiot and just *told* someone from the beginning what was going on and her suspicions. All of it could have been avoided with the use of a mobile phone, but hey ho.
Following Monster, which despite the book cover claiming is penned by Diane Hoh the copyright revealed Barbara Steiner was actually the author, we're seemingly back in Hoh's hands for The Initiation. Now, I have been enjoying what Hoh has been building here, utilising the same college setting for an assortment of (very) loosely connected stories, and whilst I wasn't exactly wild about Steiner's entry, I did at least appreciate how more of an effort seemed to be made to reference previous events and characters. Besides some recurring locations, we don't really get a lot of that here. It's a missed opportunity.
The Initiation has a really intriguing central concept that isn't particularly utilised. The idea of a club / cult being formed on a college campus consisting of those bitter at perceived slights is rich for exploration, and whilst this idea does form a backdrop, it's not really interrogated much. Another missed opportunity.
What we end up getting is a fairly formulaic standard Point Horror Nightmare Hall book. It doesn't exactly do anything really wrong - the protagonist is likeable enough, the book is well paced, the escalating threats have a suitable wickedness to them, and there's some decent misdirects - but it also doesn't really do anything that makes it stand out either. It's just a totally okay book that could've been so much better.
As I'm nearing the end of my Point Horror Nightmare Hall journey (there seems to be only one book remaining that got a UK release under the Point Horror label) I'm left feeling the series overall, whilst being a really good idea, is lacking consistency. With the exception of locations, there really doesn't seem to be a lot of overlap between the books when it comes to plot events and characters, which begs the question of why bother collecting them all under the Nightmare Hall umbrella in the first place. I mean, even the titular Nightmare Hall has only really played a significant role in a couple of the books, and although it does get a mention in every title, it's always exceedingly brief. And then there's the supernatural element which is present in a couple of the books, but again, there's inconsistency - it's never referenced outside of the titles where it occurs. I think for me this is all coming to a head with The Initiation because the main character, Molly, lands a job working for the school literary magazine, Odyssey, where you'd think most of the events of previous books would make for ripe fodder.
Anyway, as it stands The Initiation is fine. I enjoyed it just enough and I didn't guess any of the reveals (although I am typically astonishingly awful at predicting the Point Horror reveals) so it was an enjoyable enough journey. Sure, if I give it too much thought it vexes me, but if I don't then it's absolutely fine.
I’m a big fan of the the concept behind the Nightmare Hall books by Diane Hoh. Take everything fun and nostalgic and campy about vintage YA horror from the 90s, but set it in on a college campus rather than at a high school…sign me up! It doesn’t even necessarily feel more mature because of this transition; it just gives the series a little more identity than your run of the mill high school YA story.
That being said, this particular installment could’ve gone further, I think with the concept it was trying to pull off.
The main premise off this is a good one. I won’t say too much but there’s cult-vibes right from the first page, and the idea behind the cult is interesting to say the least. I just found that the follow through, while creepy and fast paced, didn’t have enough to do with the initial set up and title of this book. I know there’s a different book in this series that revolves around Greek Life (I don’t own a copy yet, otherwise I would love to read and compare the two) but I was expecting a bit more in that vein just due to the title, the cover, and the premise of this story.
Overall though it was fun and a very quick read. I’m eager to read more of the Nightmare Hall books to see how this one stacks up, and I liked Diane Hoh’s writing style quite a bit. She feels a little closer to a Christopher Pike rather than an R. L. Stine to me. A bit more depth to her prose and a little less emphasis on the witty dialogue.
A solid read for me and a great installment in my YA horror binge this month.
Very quick read. Nostalgic and enjoyable to read a point horror! I read many whilst in my teens! I enjoyed reading from Molly’s POV, however the candidates for the malicious activities were slightly obvious. Perhaps reading as an adult takes some of the original fun out of it. But overall fun read which helped to entertain and pass the time.
This does that 90s YA thriller thing that I hate where the very creepy guy who is obviously a red herring has all his bad behavior excused just because he isn’t the main bad guy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.