The Stepdaughter

by Carol Ellis

Everyone thinks Livvie is crazy not to like her mother's new husband, but Livvie is convinced that the person wanted by police for a fifteen-year-old murder and her stepdad are one and the same

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

218 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 1993

About the author

Carol Ellis is an American author of young adult and children’s fiction. Her first novel, My Secret Admirer, was published in 1989 by Scholastic as part of their popular Point Thriller line.

She went on to write over fifteen novels, including a few titles in the Zodiac Chillers series published by Random House in the mid-1990s, and two titles in The Blair Witch Files series for young adults, published by Bantam between 2000 and 2001.

Reviews

[Courtney Gruenholz · Rating 3 out of 5]

So...I still am a big fan of Carol Ellis and her writing. I liked The Stepdaughter and that's because...I've seen the film, The Stepfather starring Terry O'Quinn. Being a horror movie fan, it's easily one of my favorites. There are a few twists in the plot but it's very, very similar in execution.

Livvie doesn't much care for her stepfather, Allen Richardson. Her birth father died of a heart attack and her mother, Patricia, remarried. Her best friend Marta doesn't understand why Livvie doesn't like him because he seems like a nice guy.

Home alone, Livvie watches a show basically based on America's Most Wanted mixed with some Unsolved Mysteries abut a man named Adam Clinton who murdered his wife and stepdaughter in a fire fifteen years earlier. They show his picture then and age-progressed to what he might look like now...and Livvie sees Allen's face.

The death of her real father left Livvie depressed and she was kept in the hospital for awhile, so upset she has to/ had to see a therapist, so who is going to believe her when she says her stepfather is really a killer?

We have the slight difference of Livvie and her mother going away with Allen to visit the family of a woman who went to school with Patricia, Joanne Ward. Her husband is gone and she has three older teenage kids: Kyle,19, and Joel, 17, and Dana, 15. Have to throw in some teen conflict of how boys are jerks, girls get in catfights over said jerky boys and some red herrings who might just have it out for our heroine somewhere right?

If you've seen The Stepfather and even if you haven't, The Stepdaughter is still pretty good. Not totally original but maybe Carol Ellis just happens to be a big fan of the film and got inspired to write her own little twist?

Can't fault her there I have seen many a film and read many a book that has given me some inspiration too. Ah the circle of creativity...

[Trevor Wells · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very well-written and a great read. While the basic plot isn't very original (teenager suspects their mother's new husband is a killer), Carol Ellis was able to make an original, suspenseful story out of it. The rising tension throughout the story is real and had me on edge while reading it and Livvie's confrontation with Richardson at the end was pretty thrilling. However, this book wasn't without some flaws, but I'll get to those later.

Plot Synopsis: From the moment she met Allen Richardson, Livvie Palmer is sure she's not going to get along with her new stepfather. But despite her feelings, everyone else thinks Allen is the greatest. Livvie's feelings for Allen are confirmed when she thinks she sees his picture on TV-as a man wanted for the murder of his wife and stepdaughter. Is Livvie's mind playing tricks with her? Or is her new stepfather really a murderer?

I love how the plot gets going very quickly. By the end of the first chapter, Livvie is already thinking that Richardson (she refers to him by his last name several times during the book) is a murderer. Livvie has some really great character development during the book. She quickly goes from being a typical teenage girl to being a mature, intelligent, brave young woman determined to uncover the truth about her stepfather. I also liked the change in scenery, as Livvie's family goes to an old friend of Mrs. Palmer's so Richardson can repair their house. The woman is named Joanne Ward and she has three kids: Joel, Dana, and Kyle (I'll get to them later). I liked this change and it's very utilized pretty well.

The internal struggle Livvie goes through during the story is very realistic and makes the reader emphasize with her. She constantly wonders if she's being crazy or if she's really onto something about her stepfather. And the panic she experiences following the "accidents" that occur at the Ward house is understandable and you sympathize with her when no one else takes her seriously about them. All in all, the story was a very good read.

However, there are some issues. I was expecting for Dana or Kyle to turn out to be in league with Richardson, as they both had grudges against Livvie. But in the end, they just turn out to be meaningless red herrings. But Joel, Livvie's on again-off again love interest, is the second best character after Livvie. He's very complex and is not made unlikable despite his tendency to be emotional (at one point, he becomes somewhat angry at Livvie). He's the most likable of the Ward family.

As for the ending, it was pretty good. After looking through the newspaper documents and finding out that Richardson really was a killer, he shows up and tries to kill Livvie. They get into a confrontation, in which Richardson confesses to Livvie's "accidents." He tries to attack Livvie again, but she cuts his face with a knife and he flees when someone rings the doorbell. It's Joel, who takes Livvie back to his house. They go to Livvie's room and the phone rings. It's Richardson. He tells Livvie that she was lucky to escape him, but that she won't be so lucky if they meet again. Then, we get an epilogue where Richardson starts dating another woman who has a daughter. While I was a bit disappointed that Livvie didn't do away with Richardson in the end, the ending very nice and worked as a cliffhanger.. I highly recommend this book to all YA horror fans.

Pros: Livvie's character development, Joel's character, the interesting change in scenery, the tension, Livvie's internal conflict, and the ending confrontation.
Cons: The red herring characters of Dana and Kyle and the slightly disappointing conclusion.

[Rachel]

My copy of this is from my old school in New Zealand. I paid like 20cents for it as the library was basically giving away really worn out books and is now literally falling apart but I still love it! I can't wait to re-read it.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Livvie catches a crime show & sees a man who's a wanted fugitive & she's sure that that same man who has been on the run for years is her stepfather.

She does her own investigation into this matter. She starts questioning things that he has said in the past vs. the present.

They then go to visit family friends & plan to stay for a few days. Livvie's Mom feels that Livvie needs this break from reality because she fears that Livvie may be headed towards another break down.

As they are at their friends home, a hand full of things happens to Livvie. Like being locked in the basement & the banister breaking which makes her fall down the stairs & her notebook with her notes about her stepfather was moved.

Livvie gets bad news that her friend Marta was hit by a car. Livvie visits her friend in the hospital. Afterward, Livvie goes back to her home.

After she starts reading the newspaper articles she got her hands on about her stepfather being involved in a possible murder years earlier, she loses power & gets attacked. It is her stepfather! Joel (Livvie's mom's friends son) shows up & scares off the stepfather.

Livvie & Joel go back to where Joel lives & explains the whole thing to Livvie's mom.

It did get my attention early on & kept it through the book. Though a good book, it's not my favorite book from Carol Ellis.

[Sandra Girard-Demontigny · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 ⭐️

I am slightly disappointed with this novel. The majority of the final twist was very obvious. The only thing I didn’t expect was that Livvie’s father-in-law had taken the identity of a brother in arms. However, it was clear that he had stolen the identity of a deceased person. In short, this is clearly not the book with the most suspense and mystery.


Je suis légèrement déçu par ce roman. La majorité de l'intrigue finale était très évidente. La seule chose à laquelle je ne m'attendais pas c'était que le beau-père de Livvie avait pris l'identité d'un frère d'arme. Il était toutefois évident qu'il avait volé l'identité d'une personne décédé. Bref ce n'est clairement pas le livre avec le plus de suspense et de mystère.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this scholastic point horror YA book. A Lot. The premise is a classic 80s type of story. We have seen it with movie franchises like The Stepfather. This was a great read and told through a young strong teenage girl. Is she going crazy or is her mother's husband truly a killer. Great ending that I wonder if the author wrote more in a series format. I'll have to look that up. 4 stars

Re-Read 7/26/24
So yea, this is pretty much the same plot as the 80s movie franchise, The Stepfather. I remember this being a lot better than it was. The annoying part is the constant change in Livvie. SHe keeps going back and forth on whether the Stepfather is the killer or is she going crazy. Not much else goes on here. She sees a show on TV about fugitives and there is a killer that kills their family that they newly married into. The fugitive is said to look exactly like Livvies current stepfather, down to eyes and birthmarks on hands.

Livvie also gets pieces of information from conversations with "Richardson" ( the stepdad), and starts piecing together contradictions. Anyway, there is enough information to go on that even if he isn't a killer, he isn't who he says he is but Livvie continues to second guess herself.

Livvie, her mom and Richardson then get away for a weekend to stay with the moms friend and her 3 kids. Livvie gets on all 3 of their bad sides, not really her fault, and bad things start to happen. This is the "red herring" part of the book where we think maybe its someone else after her and not Richardson.

Anyway, this was not the best Point Horror but Def not the worst. Ill leave a 4 stars but in my head, its 3.5

[Nattie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read this book many times, and for some reason I never quite remember what was really going on, but it's obviously pretty good or I suppose I wouldn't keep reading it. It's also obvious that Carol Ellis must have been watching The Stepfather with Terry O'Quinn when she started writing the book.

I LOVE The Stepfather, it's a classic in my family. I can't even say how much I love the movie, I pretend that the 2009 remake does not exist. The Stepdaughter is super lame by comparison, but it keeps my attention.

I felt completely cheated by the ending. One thing I can't stand is reading a book and not really getting a payoff.

[Erica Leigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

The reveal is kind of like DUH and very anticlimactic.

[Casey Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE WORKS OF CAROL ELLIS, 1945-2022

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

My mother, Carol Ellis, passed away on November 5th, 2022. While she'd been retired for some time, she spent years making her living as an author for children and young adults. When I was a kid, I was tremendously proud of her status as a writer, but she always seemed vaguely embarrassed by it. As I grew older, she told me she didn't enjoy the process of writing, and I'm sure that was part of the problem but there was also something deeper. My mother was an extremely self-deprecating person, inclined to critique herself to a fault. As such, I think she was uncomfortable with her public status. Also, as an avid reader herself, I think she decided early on she would never measure up to the books and authors she admired. It saddened and confused me to hear her dismiss her writing and, from time to time, even become cynical about the whole concept of telling stories. This never lasted very long because she enjoyed reading too much, but it was still depressing. Later on, I would occasionally try to change her perspective by pointing out the long and (in my view) proud tradition of popular fiction authors, people who, yes, wrote largely for money but gave years of joy to millions of readers. She would just shrug and say something like "Sure, but I wasn't even that good." Even in the past few years, when I would tell her how so many people online would respond with comments like "Oh wow, I LOVED your mom's books growing up!" if I mentioned her in a comment to a post or video, she would brush it off. "Doesn't it make you happy, knowing people still like your work?," I'd ask. She'd shrug or look away and reply, "Sure, I guess so."

Despite her indifference, my mother's career as a YA and children's author was substantial. A conservative estimate would put the number of books she wrote or co-wrote somewhere north of 50, and there were shorter works as well. She's best remembered as a fixture of Scholastic's Point Thriller line from the late 80s to the mid 90s, but her work ranged over several genres and publishers, her career lasting from the late 1970s till 2017; in the weeks following her death, I started discovering material she never even mentioned to me.

Through the years, despite sharing my mother's passion for reading, I rarely read her work. While she didn't exactly come out and say so, it was pretty clear she'd prefer I not. There were occasional exceptions and, towards the end of her career, I sometimes assisted her, both as a researcher and as an uncredited co-author. But her main body of work seemed like something she didn't want to get into much, so I largely avoided it. Now I've lost her forever and, partially to distract myself from the grief but also to try and create some sort of memorial to her, I've decided to read through her works and comment on them here.

As I mentioned, my mother's writing career was extensive. A large portion of her work was ghostwriting for others and even a fair amount under her own name were series works where she was more less told what to write. There were also nonfiction works which were pretty tightly controlled by the editors as well. While I know she gave every project her all (no matter how little she enjoyed some of them) and no doubt put her stamp on all she wrote, I'm primarily interested in the peak of her career, that is novels written under her own name and over which she had at least some degree of artistic control. This comes out to 20 or so books. While I have most of these works, there are still some I'll have to search for online and in used bookstores.

There's no point in pretending these "reviews" will be objective. All the books will get 5 stars, although I will be honest about elements of my mom's work I don't care for. Mixed in with my comments on the books will be memories of the creation of those I was old enough to be aware of, memories of my mother and her thoughts and comments on the books, and thoughts about the culture and industry that shaped her career.

I have no illusions that my mother was some sort of literary genius. But her work touched many readers nonetheless. She was also an incredible human being, one of the kindest people anyone could hope to meet. I will miss her terribly for the rest of my life. My hope is these commentaries will act as a tribute to her and bring back some good memories for those who grew up with her work, just as they preserve some cherished memories for me of a very cherished person.

THE STEPDAUGHTER

I would say this book is a fascinating and enjoyable misfire. The reasons my mother couldn't quite make this particular pot boil (in my view) are, however, quite intriguing. To begin with, I've always been struck by the fact that "The Stepdaughter" seems to be the unloved...stepchild of my mom's thrillers for Scholastic's beloved Point line. While I know it was published abroad, it either never made it to the UK, or was barely released there. British acquaintances who like my mom's books have expressed surprise when I've mentioned "The Stepdaughter." This is puzzling since the British market was huge for the Point books but, even here in the US, it seems rare that I ever hear of it, although my recollection is that it sold fairly well. Being published in 1993, it was certainly ahead of the big drop off in popularity that books like my mother's went through in the late 1990s. I get the impression it wasn't kept on the shelves by Scholastic very long. I have no solid answers for this neglect but some theories that should be come apparent shortly.

Next up, in my review of my mom's "The Window," I mentioned that novel was the start of her "ripoff" phase. Well, "The Stepdaughter" is definitely that phase's peak! There's no point in trying to avoid it, this book is quite obviously a mockbuster of Joseph Ruben's 1987 film "The Stepfather." That film, with a screenplay by crime fiction giant Donald E. Westlake and starring Terry O'Quinn, Jill Schoelen and Shelley Hack, would become a cult classic, spawning two sequels (the second of which came out, surprise, surprise, a year before this book) and a 2009 remake.

Now concerning the charge of plagiarism, the prosecution would have...well, the title and the entire plot (but more on that later) and my testimony that my parents were often talking about the movie during the writing of "The Stepdaughter." In fact, a treasured memory of mine is my mom taking me to see Ruben's thriller "The Good Son," starring Macaulay Culkin and Elijah Wood, which came out in 1993, only a few months after "The Stepdaughter" was published. We both put the film in the "so bad it's good" category, but half of our giggling (before, during, and after watching it) was how she'd ripped off the director's most famous movie for her novel!

However, believe it or not, the defense has a case too...of sorts. To begin with, my parents never saw "The Stepfather" or either of the sequels. The extent of their knowledge of the film's plot didn't go beyond reading the synopsis in a movie guide, a couple of articles, and asking me what I knew about it, which wasn't much since I didn't see it for well over a decade. But above all, Westlake and the other people who worked on the story and script (including noted author Brian Garfield) didn't just come up with "The Stepfather"; they loosely based it on the horrible true story of John List, who murdered his family in 1971 and eluded capture for nearly twenty years. When "The Stepfather" came out, List was still at large (he'd finally be caught just two years later, dying in prison in 2008) and it was anyone's guess what he was up to. Speculation about what someone like List was doing would naturally be great fodder for horror and thriller writers. It's kind of distasteful, but that's part of the business in these genres. Bottom line, my parents might well contend they were just drawing from the same well Westlake, Ruben and co. were drawing from. How about it? You buying? ( ;

In any event, I suspect the lack of play "The Stepdaughter" got might have been connected to Scholastic feeling this one was a BIT too close to the edge. After all, Westlake, Ruben, Garfield and their collaborators were all alive, well, and active, and the parallels between "The Stepfather" and "The Stepdaughter" were awfully on the nose. I have no idea if litigation was actually threatened (I doubt it) or if the fear of it was raised (more than likely) but it would certainly provide an explanation for why Scholastic let this novel kind of fade away. To be sure though, if you're screaming "GUILTY!" to the plagiarism charge, fair enough, but Scholastic is right there with my parents. I'm not sure whose idea the book's story originally was, but either Scholastic more or less told my mom to rip off "The Stepfather" or my parents proposed it based on their vague knowledge of the film and Scholastic responded with "Awesome! Do it!" They may have gotten cold feet later, but I just wanted to be clear that it wasn't as if my parents tricked them or anything like that.

But I also think that "The Stepdaughter" was allowed to fade away for another reason, which is the same reason why I don't find it ultimately successful. There are some minor issues, including my mom's overuse of red herrings, getting a little out of hand. But none of those would genuinely undermine the book. And overall, things mostly work quite well in a stylistic sense. Livvie, the titular stepdaughter, is extremely likable, and several of the secondary characters are actually better done than usual in my view. Also, I continue to be impressed by my mother's skill with atmosphere, especially here since she manipulates the warm, sunny vibe in a way that's deliciously creepy.

No, the problem is that the theme of "The Stepdaughter" is a truly ugly and depressing one, and it can't be explored properly in a book designed to be a YA thriller. That theme is, let's be blunt, family annihilation. Now there's nothing wrong with exploring something so dark in a novel, but you can't pretend that's not what you're doing, and that's exactly what my mom was trying to pretend in "The Stepdaughter." To be fair, she had no choice; an honest novel about this topic would have landed straight in the garbage at the Scholastic offices, but that still creates a tension between the type of book this had to be and what it's really about. Ultimately, that tension just defeats the novel. There's even a bizarre scene where Livvie assures her friend that, if her stepfather did murder his family, he just did it for money and is running from the cops now and not planning to do anything similar. The scene makes no sense because it sounds like Livvie is defending her stepfather, when it's been well established that she dislikes him and is suspicious of his past. And any lawyer making trying to make a defense of "Well, yeah, he slaughtered his family, but only for the money and he won't do it again" needs to pursue other career options. However, that's just it: Livvie isn't really defending her stepdaughter because "Livvie" the character isn't really talking in that scene. It's my mom, doing everything she can to assure her publishers and nervous parents that this character didn't have some skin-crawling (and quite possibly sexual) motive for murdering his family, therefore he's not really a family annihilator, despite having, um, annihilated his family.

This strongly reminds me of a tendency in some older books and films dealing with serial killers. Because the truly pathological aspects of serial murder were usually out of bounds there would often be an almost nervous assurance that these crimes, dreadful though they were for sure, were really about money. Sometimes, in the better works, this financial motive would be stated in the text, but there would be an implication that something more hideous was at work. Charles Laughton's magnificent 1955 film "The Night of the Hunter" is a good example of this. Actually, there are two scenes in "The Stepdaughter" where my mother moves in that direction, or at the very least touches on the truly unsettling (not just suspenseful) aspects of the story she's telling, so I have no doubt she was capable of pulling this off. But ultimately she felt too constrained from doing so and "The Stepdaughter" takes on the odd feeling of a Scooby-Doo episode where the gang is trying to catch Ted Bundy.

This irreconcilable internal conflict between genre and theme, coupled with worries about being (justly) accused of pilfering probably led Scholastic to conclude "The Stepdaughter" was just a bird that wouldn't fly. I largely agree but, while it's a frustrating read, it's still a lot of fun!

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of those Point Horror books that I had seemingly fond memories of, and I've been trying to track down a copy for years to re-read it. I finally got it through ILL, and I was fully expecting to just love this trip down memory lane.

But, that wasn't the case. This was just.... boring. There's no big twist, and you know the whole story just from the back cover. There's these weird red herrings with the three siblings, but they're odd and don't make a ton of sense.

I was really let down by this one.

[Florencia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 🌟
Me gustó bastante. El final fue un poco apresurado pero disfruté cada página.

[Pollypan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kept my interest, not a reread.

[Klaus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a cool book, I loved every second of it. I literally finished it in two days. It's very exciting without being to scary

[Jane Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first book I’ve ever read yeaaaarssss ago. Quite an introduction to novels. I wish I can read it for the first time. Such a thrilling experience, you’ll read it in one sitting.

[Kurtis and Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

There aren’t any twists. The book is very straightforward and it’s what you expect it to be.

[Laura]

There is a movie out there named the Stepfather I believe. Its basically the same thing only a few things are different.

[Rosa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the kind of book you read more than once.

[Erica Locke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still love this book as much as i did the other 13 times. 😂😂

[Dominique Reeves · Rating 2 out of 5]

J’aurais aimé un dénouement plus complet. Je suis restée sur ma faim.

[★Kayla★ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book, wish i still owned it!