The Locker

by Richie Tankersley Cusick

FINAL ASSIGNMENT

After the nightmarish death of her parents, Marlee Fleming was starting over - a new school, a "happy life." But her new friends Tyler and Noreen acted strangely when they saw the locker she'd been assigned. They said it had belonged to Suellen, who had mysteriously disappeared. The moment Marlee opened the locker and saw the horrifying vision, she was afraid. Afraid of the future. Afraid of her own premonitions, of powers she tried to deny. With a thrill of terror, Marlee knew she'd been chosen to find Suellen - even at the cost of her own life!

Genres: Young Adult, Horror, Thriller, Mystery, Teen, Paranormal, Childrens

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 1994

About the author

Richie Tankersley Cusick is the bestselling young adult author of over 25 titles, including two adult horror titles, Scarecrow and Blood Roots. Her popularity grew at the height of the horror/YA boom in the late '80s/early '90s, particularly with books like Lifeguard , Trick or Treat and Teacher's Pet, just to name a few, allowing her to keep company on the bestseller paperback lists with the likes of R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike. Her fan base expanded about the time she changed publishers to Archway/Pocket Books with titles like Vampire and Someone at the Door.

Reviews

[Obsidian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember reading this book back when I was a young whippersnapper. I adored all things R.L. Stine and Richie Tankersley Cusick. I think my mom was worried for a while there that I was so obsessed with what is Young Adult Horror. I didn't of course realize that was a genre, I just know that I had fun reading about kids around my age involved with dark and mysterious things. The woods near my home and in my background used to scare the crap out of me. So on rainy days (and even sunny) I would curl up with one of these books and scare the life out of me. Of course reading this as an adult is different, I found most of the scary things to be so-so and of course some of the character development lacking. But all in all, a good YA horror novel to give to someone between the ages of 12-18 I would think.

"The Locker" follows Marlee Fleeming and her family as they move to Missouri (yeah who moves there). We find out that Marlee and her younger brother who is 6 (and named freaking Dobkin) are an odd pair. Marlee seems to have a gift that allows her to feel things when she touches them. And Dobkin has an old soul. Seriously though, he's 6 and he talks like my 40 plus year old investment advisor.

On her first day of school Marlee is given a locker that once she touches she is hit with a terrible smell and feels fear. She later finds out that the girl who had her locker before her disappeared the fall before and no one knows what happens to her. Marlee with Dobkin assisting (seriously, he's 6) find out what they can about the missing girl (Suellen). But it seems to stir things up and then Marlee is slowly running out of time to find out what happened to Suellen.

Even though I gave this book four stars (more for nostalgia purposes, believe me) this book did a terrible job with character development. Just like in most Cusick books, the main character is a teen girl and she develops a insta-crush on the first guy she lays eyes on. In this case, Marlee literally runs into a guy named Tyler who dresses like he is auditioning for the Basketball Diaries. They run around what they feel, but it appears Tyler is into Marlee for reasons.

We also get another character named Noreen who shows Marlee around and who befriends her. I did find it weird that literally in this school, Marlee only talks to Tyler, Noreen, and another boy who instantly dislikes her.

As other reviewers pointed out, Dobkin was odd and I don't know why Cusick didn't just age him up. Marlee's aunt who has been raising her and Dobkin since their parents died is a non-presence (like most adults in her teen horror books).

The book moves really fast (this is only 224 pages (electronic edition) so before you know it all is revealed and you find out who is behind Suellen's disappearance and why.

[Kati · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty unremarkable. I knew I had read it before, but didn't really remember the plot. The vibes were good, but it was pretty thin on both plot and character. Not RTC's best.

[Annabelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

The reason I love Richie Cusick.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marlee and her brother Dobkin have just moved into a small town in the Midwest with their aunt. They moved around the country a lot, their aunts view was, it's a beautiful country, let’s see it. Before this they had been living in Florida in a cottage on the beach, but after the cottage flooded they decided to move before school got out.
Marlee entered her new high school wondering what was going on, first her aunt tells her to be careful, then her 6 year old brother Dobkin tells her the same thing. When meeting a few people outside the high school, another tells her the same thing.
Does this mean that the one thing she's been fighting since the night her parents died is coming back and how is she going to fight it when she doesn't want the power to begin with.
Richie Cusick is a good writer, so far all of the books of hers that I've read are dealing with teens and are great reads for teens also. They are fast and easy reads.

[Steen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was a bit disappointed with this one considering I was really into reading 'Vampire' also by Cusick just before this one. I know I read this one as a teenager as well but had no recollection about what happened in it. I just didn't like this one to much and the fact that her younger brother seemed waaay older then kindergarten? or was it grade 1 sort of bugged me. He seemed like a wise old man. Then again it's not like I have been around 6 year olds that much so maybe some of the time they act like he did.

I was actually surprised at the ending considering the only thing I thought I remembered about it was who was behind it all and I was totally wrong. lol.

[LJP1610 · Rating 1 out of 5]

i read this a long time ago but i dont remember it being so...weird. and i dont mean weird as in 'this story is weird i am interested' i mean 'this story is weird WTF' it seems very choppy - perhaps it because i read it so long ago.
one thins i do like is the way Marlee's feelings are described just before she has a premonitions. the other characters a little WTF - the little brother i am not buying but hey its the early 90s point horror time. i should just go with it.

[Jimena Gimena · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has surprised me a lot.

I don't read terror books because is a gender that I don't enjoy reading it (yes, I'm a coward, I know), but with this book it had different. I have to say that it's YA terror and that I read it in English (thing that I'm so proud because I didn't use the dictionary at all).

This is a really addictive book with a very interesting story (such the main one as the secondaries) that I loved. The end has remind me to "We were liars" (I haven't read this book, so my opinion is based in what I have read in other reviews); the continue suspicious of all that are around you, accuse everyone without have proofs of anyone and the scam of the ones you believed your friends.

The characters are another strong point of the novel, they are so good structured and you can see that they have a work behind them. I have grown fond all of them in some point of the novel.

A little detail that I have lack, it's that the locker doesn't have number, it was just Suellen's locker. I would have liked that the locker would have number.

In summary, a really good book to start reading terror, with great characters and a so interesting plot that doesn't let you drop it pages and keeps you on edge during all your reading.

4,5⭐

---
Este libro me ha sorprendido mucho.

No leo libros de terror porque es un género que no disfruto leyendo (sí, soy una cagada, lo sé), pero con este ha sido diferente. Tengo que destacar que es terror juvenil y que lo he leído en inglés (cosa de la que me siento muy orgullosa porque apenas he usado el diccionario).

Es un libro súper adictivo con una trama muy interesante (tanto la principal como las secundarias) que me ha encantado. El final me ha recordado un poco a "Éramos mentirosos"/"We were liars" (no he leído este libro, así que mi opinión se basa en lo que he leído en otras reseñas); esa continua sospecha de los que te rodean, acusar a todos sin tener pruebas de nadie y el desengaño de quién creías tus amigos.

Los personajes también son un punto muy fuerte de la novela, están muy bien estructurados y se nota que llevan un trabajo detrás. Me he encariñado con todos y cada uno de ellos en un punto u otro de la novela.

Un pequeñísimo detalle que me ha faltado ha sido que la taquilla no tenía número, simplemente fue la taquilla de Suellen. Me hubiera gustado que tuviera un número en concreto, la verdad.

En resumen, un libro bastante bueno para empezar con terror con personajes geniales y una trama súper interesante que no te deja soltar sus páginas y te mantiene en vilo durante toda su lectura.

4,5⭐

[Courtney Gruenholz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always wondered how authors of these Point Horror and thriller YA novels could take such mundane things, almost any object, and try to make it a terrifying title. I've read a few that are good and some yet to come but I think that RTC pulled off a good story about a locker. High school is already frightening enough so let's take this inanimate storage container for our textbooks and make it a portal to horror.

Joking aside, I enjoy the story even if it is told in first person. I just find third person almost dragging on (being that I am not too good at public speaking and am I master at rambling...) and tedious. The formula I have noticed in other RTC works is a little skewed this time and makes it interesting.

Marlee Fleming and her little brother Dobkin (makes him sound like a kitten) have been living with their Aunt Celia since their parents died in a car crash two years ago. They travel around the map to different places, taking a blind spin to see where they will go to next in these here United States, and they never stay long.

Marlee feels drawn to this tiny Missouri town called Edison and the family head there to have her start her senior year. The Fleming siblings are different from anyone else they know and even in this small town, they stand out because no one ever leaves Edison or visits. Little Dobkin is a sixty year old man in a kindergarten body, growing up to soon, and Marlee gets these...twinges. She hasn't had one of those feelings in almost two years...until now.

It happens when she finds her assigned locker on her first day of school and once Marlee opens the metal frame of the door...it begins a terrifying chain of events. Visions of blood, the stench of death, the feel of oozing mud as well as the face of a girl...a girl Marlee knows is dead.

She soon learns from new friends Noreen and Tyler that this locker once belonged to a girl named Suellen Downing. An out-of-towner who moved here with her parents for her father's construction job and then she mysteriously disappeared. No one ever found her...now she is seeking Marlee's help from beyond the grave.

We also get introduced to one other character who is the son of the local sheriff and he's named Jimmy Frank Baldwin. So of course once we get our central cast setup, you just need to try and figure out who is the one responsible. A few good twists along the way and a climax wrought with tension lead to a happy yet melancholy ending in a book that I can highly recommend you read.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. This was an interesting one, with the supernatural element.
I did appreciate that the mystery was solvable, or at least that there were clues you could pick up on to figure out who the killer(s) were. At 90% I was starting to get worried the killer would be someone who’d been offscreen the whole time, as RTC is wont to do that.

I did think it would have been better if all 3 of the friends had colluded on the murder and cover-up together, and that’s where it seemed like things were going based on the clues laid out by RTC. I think that would’ve put more of a bow on the ending and tied up some “loose end” clues that otherwise went unaddressed.

As usual the heroine was kind of helpless and was constantly being gaslit, but she was a bit more I interesting than many of RTCs heroines with her psychic gifts and with actually trying to conduct an investigation. I liked the weird little brother Dobkin, too, who seemed to have the soul of an 80 yo man. That was random!

[ErikaWasReading · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like the plot on this one was a two, but Dobkin was a 5, so let’s call this a ~3.25/3.5.

I feel like RTC’s books are either fantastic (like Blood Roots, Silent Stalker, Vampire, Fatal Secrets) or are stale like this one and The Lifeguard. In fact, this one felt like I was reading Trick or Treat all over again, only instead of having the dead girl’s bedroom, she has the dead girl’s locker.

Dobkin, yes, the world-weary six-year-old brother, was by far the best character in this story.

[Daniel Stalter · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Locker is everything I want from a pulpy teen horror novel. It has a creepy atmosphere, a solid cast of characters, and a tightly executed plot. The gloomy feel of early spring in the deep woods of rural Missouri really permeated through from the first page. Even though it wasn’t the most original concept, it was well constructed and rich in its details. It had some excellent scary moments with Marlee’s visions and it had some truly gruesome deaths. I appreciated the supportive relationship between Marlee and her brother Dobkin, and I liked the fact that the story didn’t twist the way that I expected it to. It’s always a bit of a bummer when I figure out the twist in the first half of the book, and I was pleasantly surprised that I got it wrong. The Locker was the first Richie Tankersley Cusick book I’ve read, and I’m really glad I added more of her stuff to my list.

Score: 4.5

My full review with spoilers, snark, and memes is on my blog:
https://www.danstalter.com/the-locker/

[Carmen Tudor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't find The Locker as compelling as some of RTC's other novels (such as Trick or Treat, which is 90s YA perfection) and I guessed the red herring-laced ending long before I got there. However, I still think it's a good book with a thrilling concept and it's a must-read for her fans.

[Tori Dillon]

DNFed at 17%. Just couldn’t get into it. It was written super strangely and the characters made no sense. The kindergartener talked like a thirty-year-old which was just super off-putting (and I know that he was probably some supernatural being or something and that was supposed to be a twist later on?? But it didn’t feel right)

[Erica Leigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not much going on here. Other than in a few visions, Suellen doesn’t really make much of an appearance. Could’ve been more compelling if her back story was fleshed out more, as well as the other characters’.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another fun Point Horror re-read.

This one felt a bit disjointed from start to finish, but it was still entertaining overall.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first Cusick book I ever read and loved it; edge of your seat suspense, terror, and a romantic and funny ending.

[Bianca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thrilling and exciting

I think I might have read this when I was younger but only remember that I really liked the author and was excited to find this book. The story is not very long but caught my attention and had me reading the book all the way through looking forward to the big reveal. This story is aimed at a YA audience but can be enjoyed by older readers looking for a quick horror mystery.

[Alma Say · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmm... Even though this book falls within my favorite genre, it felt a bit different while reading. I think I’ve gotten so used to Stine’s writing style that it's hard to stay engaged. I prefer fast-paced, page-turner plots, and while the story wasn’t bad, it just didn’t grab me like I wanted it to. So yeah... that’s my take! :) 2.5 ⭐️⭐️✨

[Vicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Creepy story with a bit of the paranormal thrown in.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

An extra star for the main character’s 6 year old brother who acts like a 65 year old man and is named Dobkin.

[Jason Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was a really fun mystery that still managed to throw a curve at me in the end. Would certainly recommend to readers of the YA Horror

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was kind of easy to tell that either Jimmy or Tyler were the killer. Other than that tho it was really good and was

[Elby]

My favourite out of all of her 90s YA pulp horror offerings.

[Jimmy Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, I thought there would be some reveal about how Dobkin, a six year old that talks like an adult and is much wiser than his age suggests. It turns out, however, the author just doesn't know how to write six year olds. I imagine the kid just had to grow up fast because his parents named him Dobkin. Full of mostly annoying characters, this book had its moments but the central mystery wasn't all that interesting.

[Erek · Rating 4 out of 5]

AWESOME!!! I have never read anything from her before so this was refreshing wonder. The book had twists and the romance was not rushed. I love the creepster thing it had going for it and i would recommend it for anyone.
Fast paced with lovable chracters. And the BOY!!! The boy was pure gold...
if i dont stop i'll start spouting spoilers...
Just read it!!
It WILL BE WORTH YOUR WHILE!!!

[C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The romance was slow and understated and perfect. The psychic elements, while not my thing, were creepy. The ridiculously precocious six year old was somewhat annoying; I could have suspended disbelief if he'd been ten, maybe, but as it stands it's so unrealistic it's distracting.

Takeaway lesson: if you move to a small town, trust nobody.

[Alicia Stanaway (Farman) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book! It was the book that got me really interested in reading. It took me years and many, many second hand book dealers to finally find a copy for me.

Everyone should read this at least once.

[Rachelle Hinkley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite stories, Cute teen romance before that stupid twilight shit came and ruined it.

[Tobius · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy this author, she is quite good..
This book was really good, and I liked the ending, though now that I have read a few of her books, I am starting to figure out the endings :-)

[Titus214 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kind of all over the place and rushed at the same time. I think the plot and twist could of been done a lot better. Definitely RL Stine for teenagers.