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Jump Rope
Haley had always been the quiet child, the sensitive child, the secretive child who liked to go off and play by herself. And she never told anybody about what she saw the day her father died. Never told them about the red striped jump rope wrapped around her father's wrists as he lay in a pool of blood. Or about the other little girl—the one who looked just like Haley—who had taken the jump rope and skipped away, singing a childish tune...
Everyone thought it was suicide. even the police said so. After all, they hadn't seen what Haley had seen—the evidence that her father couldn't have killed himself, not with his hands tied. And Haley wasn't about to tell them. She was too scared. Too scared of seeing that other little girl again. And feeling the jump rope tighten about her own fragile throat...
Everyone thought it was suicide. even the police said so. After all, they hadn't seen what Haley had seen—the evidence that her father couldn't have killed himself, not with his hands tied. And Haley wasn't about to tell them. She was too scared. Too scared of seeing that other little girl again. And feeling the jump rope tighten about her own fragile throat...
383 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 1, 1988
8 people are currently reading
374 people want to read
About the author
Ruby Jean Jensen
39 books211 followers
Ruby Jean Jensen
Born McDonald County, Missouri, USA, March 1, 1927
Died November 16, 2010
Website http://www.rubyjeanjensen.com
Twitter RubyJeanJensen1
Facebook www.facebook.com/Rjjhorror
Ruby Jean Jensen authored 30 published and 4 not yet published novels, and over 200 short stories. Her passion for writing developed at an early age, and she worked for many years to develop her writing skills. After having many short stories published, in 1974 the novel The House that Samael Built was accepted for publication. She then quickly established herself as a professional author, with representation by a Literary Agent from New York. She subsequently sold 29 more novels to several New York publishing houses. After four Gothic Romance, three Occult and then three Horror novels, MaMa was published by Zebra books in 1983. With Zebra, Ruby Jean completed nineteen more novels in the Horror genre.
Ruby was involved with creative writing groups for many years, and she often took the time to encourage young authors and to reply to fan mail.
Ruby Jean, a supreme story-teller, quickly captures and holds your attention. Her books, written for adults, are also suitable for adolescents and young adults. She continues to have an enthusiastic following in the Horror genre.
Born McDonald County, Missouri, USA, March 1, 1927
Died November 16, 2010
Website http://www.rubyjeanjensen.com
Twitter RubyJeanJensen1
Facebook www.facebook.com/Rjjhorror
Ruby Jean Jensen authored 30 published and 4 not yet published novels, and over 200 short stories. Her passion for writing developed at an early age, and she worked for many years to develop her writing skills. After having many short stories published, in 1974 the novel The House that Samael Built was accepted for publication. She then quickly established herself as a professional author, with representation by a Literary Agent from New York. She subsequently sold 29 more novels to several New York publishing houses. After four Gothic Romance, three Occult and then three Horror novels, MaMa was published by Zebra books in 1983. With Zebra, Ruby Jean completed nineteen more novels in the Horror genre.
Ruby was involved with creative writing groups for many years, and she often took the time to encourage young authors and to reply to fan mail.
Ruby Jean, a supreme story-teller, quickly captures and holds your attention. Her books, written for adults, are also suitable for adolescents and young adults. She continues to have an enthusiastic following in the Horror genre.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
October 21, 2016
Sweet, blonde, eight-year-old Hayley impulsively goes home early from school one day and finds her father (Alex) in the bathtub dead, a red gash in his throat, his wrists slashed, a child's jump rope holding his hands tightly together. Then Hayley sees a girl her age that looks just like her in the bathroom. This girl unties the bloodied rope from her dead father's hands and begins to jump rope with it and sing. Hayley runs back to school in fear.
After Alex's funeral, Hayley's mother Amanda (who is lonely and understandly unhappy) interviews a woman (Rachel Platt) for the job of part-time babysitter. Amanda has six children, and one is an infant, and she's having a hard time getting by and she needs help. Rachel arrives and really gets on with Amanda. Amanda even brightens up for the first time since her husband's death. But when Rachel picks up the baby she sees such a horrible vision (a hand holding a knife that's slicing and cutting into the baby) that she freaks out and tells Amanda that she doesn't want the job. Rachel is worried that there is something wrong with her if she could come up with such a horrible thought/vision about the innocent baby and she's worried she may do it harm. Rachel then leaves and goes back home, even though she would have loved to accept the job.
Amanda gets more and more depressed. One day, after the funeral, the children go to the library in their house and hold a séance with a Ouija board to see if they can contact their dead father and ask him why he killed himself. (People think he committed suicide because his wrists were slashed.) During the séance the girl with the jump rope (that looks like Hayley) appears in the back of the library, jumping rope and singing her creepy song. The children panic, Hayley screams, their mother Amanda shows up and scolds them, the girl/vision disappears. Later, the kids wonder about what they saw. Why did the girl look like Hayley, where did she come from?
Eventually Rachel changes her mind and comes back and accepts the job as part-time babysitter (she has held more babies and hasn't had any weird visions). More people see the girl with the jump rope, people die... I don't want to give too much of the story away.
This was one creepy read. I never thought a little girl jumping rope could be so spooky. I liked most of the characters in the story and I was sad to see some die. The book sometimes had a depressing feel to it (probably from all the deaths). But I was always curious to know what was going to happen next. This was an enjoyable, eerie, and strange read.
After Alex's funeral, Hayley's mother Amanda (who is lonely and understandly unhappy) interviews a woman (Rachel Platt) for the job of part-time babysitter. Amanda has six children, and one is an infant, and she's having a hard time getting by and she needs help. Rachel arrives and really gets on with Amanda. Amanda even brightens up for the first time since her husband's death. But when Rachel picks up the baby she sees such a horrible vision (a hand holding a knife that's slicing and cutting into the baby) that she freaks out and tells Amanda that she doesn't want the job. Rachel is worried that there is something wrong with her if she could come up with such a horrible thought/vision about the innocent baby and she's worried she may do it harm. Rachel then leaves and goes back home, even though she would have loved to accept the job.
Amanda gets more and more depressed. One day, after the funeral, the children go to the library in their house and hold a séance with a Ouija board to see if they can contact their dead father and ask him why he killed himself. (People think he committed suicide because his wrists were slashed.) During the séance the girl with the jump rope (that looks like Hayley) appears in the back of the library, jumping rope and singing her creepy song. The children panic, Hayley screams, their mother Amanda shows up and scolds them, the girl/vision disappears. Later, the kids wonder about what they saw. Why did the girl look like Hayley, where did she come from?
Eventually Rachel changes her mind and comes back and accepts the job as part-time babysitter (she has held more babies and hasn't had any weird visions). More people see the girl with the jump rope, people die... I don't want to give too much of the story away.
This was one creepy read. I never thought a little girl jumping rope could be so spooky. I liked most of the characters in the story and I was sad to see some die. The book sometimes had a depressing feel to it (probably from all the deaths). But I was always curious to know what was going to happen next. This was an enjoyable, eerie, and strange read.
April 21, 2023
So, this was a 'Struggle Busride' to finish! I struggled almost 3 MONTHS, yes months to finish this one. Not your average 5 star Ruby Jean Jensen read.....
8 year old Hayley has to leave school one day and comes home early. Why couldn't it have been a different day? Hayley is one of 6 kids and she comes home to find her father dead in the bathtub with his throat slit and his hands tied.....with a Jump Rope! But not only does she see her father dead, and in a pool of blood in the tub; she also sees a girl who looks JUST LIKE HER untie the jump rope and takes it as she skips away singing a very disturbing song. So begins Ruby Jean Jensens "Jump Rope".
Where as you could always count on Jensen having a couple of either very creeeeeepy kids in her books or you could most def count on there being VERY scary demonic and murderous DOLLS!!! Which is worst; right? This one had neither. But there is a Doppleganger of 8 year old Hayley that is somehow tied to the jump rope in the title.
The mother of the kids Amanda is at a loss with losing her husband. She is not making ends meet on her own and decides to hire a live in type of a babysitter to help with the older 5 kids while she takes care of the baby. One day the 3 older kids and Hayley decide to have a seance in the library in the house to see if they can contact their Father to ask him why he killed himself.....it WAS a suicide; right? Well in the middle of things starting to get creepy, Hayley and her sister see someone standing in the back of the library who looks EXACTLY like Hayley, and she has the jump rope!!!
This book was not as good as the author's many, many other books but I still enjoyed it. I was wishing for the typical scary dolls, and demonic ghost kids, but not this time. Would still recommend this to someone who has never read this author before. Plus at 385 pages long....it could have been 100 pages shorter; IMO.
3 bloody🔪🔪🔪's
8 year old Hayley has to leave school one day and comes home early. Why couldn't it have been a different day? Hayley is one of 6 kids and she comes home to find her father dead in the bathtub with his throat slit and his hands tied.....with a Jump Rope! But not only does she see her father dead, and in a pool of blood in the tub; she also sees a girl who looks JUST LIKE HER untie the jump rope and takes it as she skips away singing a very disturbing song. So begins Ruby Jean Jensens "Jump Rope".
Where as you could always count on Jensen having a couple of either very creeeeeepy kids in her books or you could most def count on there being VERY scary demonic and murderous DOLLS!!! Which is worst; right? This one had neither. But there is a Doppleganger of 8 year old Hayley that is somehow tied to the jump rope in the title.
The mother of the kids Amanda is at a loss with losing her husband. She is not making ends meet on her own and decides to hire a live in type of a babysitter to help with the older 5 kids while she takes care of the baby. One day the 3 older kids and Hayley decide to have a seance in the library in the house to see if they can contact their Father to ask him why he killed himself.....it WAS a suicide; right? Well in the middle of things starting to get creepy, Hayley and her sister see someone standing in the back of the library who looks EXACTLY like Hayley, and she has the jump rope!!!
This book was not as good as the author's many, many other books but I still enjoyed it. I was wishing for the typical scary dolls, and demonic ghost kids, but not this time. Would still recommend this to someone who has never read this author before. Plus at 385 pages long....it could have been 100 pages shorter; IMO.
3 bloody🔪🔪🔪's
August 11, 2019
Where has Ruby Jean Jensen been all my life? I overlooked her books every time I've seen them in bargain bins and shelves of stores. I'm not totally sure, but all her novels seem to be published by Zebra books. Those are the b-grade stories with silly book covers with psycho kids doing all manner of mayhem. That's another reason I passed them up. I have learned the errors of my ways before it was to late.
The story reads much like a 70's or, from which it was written, 80's house of horrors. A little girl comes home early from school to find her dad dead in his bathtub. She runs away without telling soul. After he is discovered and laid to rest, some of his older children pull out a ouija board to try and contact him and ask why he did what he did. What they get is a creepy double of the kid who found the body jumping rope through the house singing a macabre song. Soon the kids start to die. A recently hired live in nanny try's to find out why before all the children perish.
The reason I did not give this five stars was that this went in circles from time to time to drag this out to it's 383 pages. Other than that, I enjoyed what I read. This was my first book by Ruby Jean Jensen, and I do believe that I will seek out more from her. Also on the lookout for even more trashy Zebra books for the future.
The story reads much like a 70's or, from which it was written, 80's house of horrors. A little girl comes home early from school to find her dad dead in his bathtub. She runs away without telling soul. After he is discovered and laid to rest, some of his older children pull out a ouija board to try and contact him and ask why he did what he did. What they get is a creepy double of the kid who found the body jumping rope through the house singing a macabre song. Soon the kids start to die. A recently hired live in nanny try's to find out why before all the children perish.
The reason I did not give this five stars was that this went in circles from time to time to drag this out to it's 383 pages. Other than that, I enjoyed what I read. This was my first book by Ruby Jean Jensen, and I do believe that I will seek out more from her. Also on the lookout for even more trashy Zebra books for the future.
November 4, 2022
I have loved Ruby Jean Jensen since the age of 13. One of the things that I love most about her is that she is not afraid to take chances with her story lines. There was more death then I expected in this book but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It kept me guessing. Unlike other stories by Jensen, this one had more of a happy ending. I prefer my endings less happy. It's more realistic that way. But, hey, that's just me.
September 22, 2019
Haley is yet another of Ruby Jean's youngsters that is caught in a bind. She keep seeing things that others do not see, and would not believe even if they did see. And the "other girl" is clearly deadly. Rachel also comes to understand that there is a serious problem, but what can she do? A master story-teller is again at work.
April 27, 2021
One of my favorite authors
As always, Ruby Jean captures the horror and holds the truth until the end. She has become one of my favorite authors. Thanks for releasing these books.
As always, Ruby Jean captures the horror and holds the truth until the end. She has become one of my favorite authors. Thanks for releasing these books.
April 12, 2025
This was my 4th RJJ read, and so far it's the one I liked least. Lots of repetition and the ending was just silly.
January 14, 2012
One of Ruby Jean Jensen's later works, and most definately not her best. It has a very bad 70's movie of the week quality to it, and seems to be padded out by describing someone in a peasent dress about every 15 pages. It's full of fodder characters, and much of the violence is directed to the children in this one, though even a little more than usual for Ruby Jean. It kind of makes Dark Night Of The Scarecrow look like James Cameron's Avatar.
January 8, 2013
Loved this book back when I read it. Loaned it out and never got it back and have been looking for another copy ever since.
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August 1, 2014First novel I ever read...still love it!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews