The Deadly Past

Spooksville #11

by Christopher Pike

Suddenly there are creatures from the ancient past in Spooksville. Huge meat-eating lizards attacking people in their cars. Flying reptiles swooping down and lifting kids away. But where have these dinosaurs come from? Adam and his friends discover that a huge doorway has been created between present-day Spooksville and sixty million years ago. It is through this doorway that the dinosaurs are attacking. But who created this doorway?

How can it be closed before all of Spooksville is destroyed?

Genres: Horror, Fantasy, Middle Grade, Paranormal, Adventure, Childrens, Supernatural

144 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1996

About the author

Christopher Pike is the pseudonym of Kevin McFadden. He is a bestselling author of young adult and children's fiction who specializes in the thriller genre.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

McFadden was born in New York but grew up in California where he stills lives in today. A college drop-out, he did factory work, painted houses and programmed computers before becoming a recognized author. Initially unsuccessful when he set out to write science fiction and adult mystery, it was not until his work caught the attention of an editor who suggested he write a teen thriller that he became a hit. The result was Slumber Party (1985), a book about a group of teenagers who run into bizarre and violent events during a ski weekend. After that he wrote Weekend and Chain Letter. All three books went on to become bestsellers.

Reviews

[Carrie (brightbeautifulthings) · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Adam and his friends are hiking in the hills around Spooksville, they’re horrified to discover a dinosaur on their trail that’s determined to make a meal out of them. Prehistoric lizards are attacking Spooksville, and they’re almost certain that active volcano wasn’t a part of their mountain range yesterday… They have to scramble to save the town and close the rip in spacetime before Spooksville is destroyed. Trigger warnings: injury, blood.

I grew up on Jurassic Park and my dad and I share a love for dinosaurs and mega-monsters of all kinds, so I was pretty excited about The Deadly Past. There’s an extremely cool pterodactyl right on the cover! And, indeed, the novel starts out strong with a totally unprecedented pterodactyl attack while the kids are hiking in the hills. Even in Spooksville, dinosaurs are pretty strange, and the fight is frightening and suspenseful as they realize there aren’t really any good weapons for fighting off a prehistoric monster. If it wasn’t a middlegrade book, I would have worried more about all of them making it out alive.

I wish Pike would have just stuck with the dinosaur angle, but it gets sillier after that. I mean, sure, it’s part of a larger plot and Pike is good at mixing genres, but aliens are a use-sparingly plot device that has already been used too often in this series. There’s no reason a book that already has dinosaurs in it also needs aliens. Isn’t that essentially Occam’s Razor, at least applied in a literary sense? We’ve already made one metaphysical commitment in this book; adding another is asking quite a lot of readers’ willingness to believe. Philosophical digressions aside, I do like that Ann Templeton appears again and hints that the crew is being set up for a bigger destiny. The series would benefit a lot from having a stronger over-arching plot. (Also, I’m with Adam on Bryce Poole. I don’t trust that guy.)

I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was another great Spooksville. I believe that it was a lot easier to read than some others might have been because, unlike the others, it did not rely so much on fictional creatures. Instead, it features dinosaurs that have managed to find their way into Spooksville via a time warp. Of course, Adam, Sally, Watch, Cindy, and special guest star Bryant manage to save the day and everything returns to normal (or as normal as Spooksville can manage).

[Elusive · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 'The Deadly Past', Adam, Sally, Watch and Cindy are climbing a bluff when a pterodactyl swoops down for a meal. Escaping is the top priority, followed by saving Spooksville from the problems caused by an interdimensional time warp.

With a multitude of dinosaurs and aliens out and about, the crew could barely catch their breath. There was no shortage of action, intelligent moves and engaging / hilarious content. Some excerpts below:

"I think it will be better that it doesn't get us all. While the thing is eating one of us, the other three can get away."

"I like to yell when I'm scared!" Sally yelled. "It calms me down!"

Ten seconds to pterodactyl dessert.

The feel-good ending struck a perfect balance between danger and lightheartedness. They kept hesitating to use the laser pistol on the pterodactyl. Exasperated, Sally threw her shoe into its mouth.

Overall, 'The Deadly Past' was as deadly as it was fun.

[Nader Nate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starting from the first chapter, the story is really interesting and intrigue, The characters felt their interaction between each others and the villians, One of the few things i blame christopher pike in this story is that I wanted more focus on the dinosaurs ofc some of them was the main antagonist (pterodactyl) but i wanted more.
i liked the time wrap theory despite it is somewhat difficult to understand
another thing i noticed about this series that it somehow the books connected to each other thats why i need to find alot of it for sure(, I do like that Ann Templeton appears again and hints that the crew is being set up for a bigger destiny) and i also was astonished by the mention of atlantis and lemuria.
VERDICT: (7.4/10)

[Ana Ibarra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tings start to happen in chapter one, but it made me think, This is like a huge 1500 pages book, and each book its a new chapter. Thats way there is very little need to explain the characters, background and their look for adventures.
With that said, I liked this book, it had new items, as well as new secrets, half way to the series, now you want to finish to see what they were talking about.
The characters develop nicely and a lot of funny "romantic" things happen.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series is starting to lose its charm for me. Random dinosaur invasion, the kids get involved chaos ensues. I am wanting actual growth happening with these kids book to book and possibly a slow moving super plot tying it all together. So far 11 books in, i am still waiting.

[Yuiko · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bored of this one from the start

[Lucy_Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hasta ahora es el que más me a gustado. Es una saga de libros un poco repetitivos pero bastante fáciles y rapidos de leer.

[Solim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one didnt know what it wanted to be. Dinosaurs, aliens or time travel.

[Entertainment · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5

Started out fun but lost me around halfway

[Lucky MBor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me gustó el adversario que representa el Pterodáctilo al inicio del libro para el grupo y como se las ingenian para sobrevivir.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the Spooksville series (not all about dinosaurs).