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Terror Academy #7
Night School
Enrolled in night school classes to improve her grades, Stacey begins to suspect that her class's instructor, a handsome hunk with a winning smile and whom she has never seen in the daylight, is a vampire.
196 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 5, 2015
January is vampire month for me and Karly.
Stacey is a vain, selfish girl to an almost comical level. She uses boys and manipulates people so that she never has to do any schoolwork. But then her plan backfires and the school catches on to her schemes. The result? She gets sent to night school, where the teacher isn't all he seems...
However, he's hot. And if one of my teachers looked like Ian, well, I'd probably have some crazy dreams too.
(Gratuitous Klaus gif for Karlypants.)
While this book didn't have much going for it (it's 90s YA, what do you expect?), it was actually kind of entertaining and better written than many similar ones I've read. Stacey was an idiot, and knowing Chandler was manipulating her didn't make her any more sympathetic.
Toward the end, the book went off in a direction I didn't expect. And, delightfully, it was full of fun things you can randomly shout at people if you want them to know how weird you are. "You lie, Bat-boy!" for one, and "All mortals are fools!" for another.
Although this book left a lot to be desired, it was kind of a fun diversion I read in the course of an afternoon while doing laundry. I won't be reading it again, but I'll probably shove it at my children when they're older.
"Wait for nightfall," he replied. "Vampires always come out after dark."
Stacey is a vain, selfish girl to an almost comical level. She uses boys and manipulates people so that she never has to do any schoolwork. But then her plan backfires and the school catches on to her schemes. The result? She gets sent to night school, where the teacher isn't all he seems...
However, he's hot. And if one of my teachers looked like Ian, well, I'd probably have some crazy dreams too.
(Gratuitous Klaus gif for Karlypants.)
While this book didn't have much going for it (it's 90s YA, what do you expect?), it was actually kind of entertaining and better written than many similar ones I've read. Stacey was an idiot, and knowing Chandler was manipulating her didn't make her any more sympathetic.
Toward the end, the book went off in a direction I didn't expect. And, delightfully, it was full of fun things you can randomly shout at people if you want them to know how weird you are. "You lie, Bat-boy!" for one, and "All mortals are fools!" for another.
Although this book left a lot to be desired, it was kind of a fun diversion I read in the course of an afternoon while doing laundry. I won't be reading it again, but I'll probably shove it at my children when they're older.
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August 6, 2021Chandler Carr is the dreamy new night school teacher at Central Academy. He's also a vampire. For Stacey Linden, aspiring model and Carr's new remedial student, the former is 💕 totally 💕 more significant than the latter. Though beginning as a dreary proto-TWILIGHT "will she or won't she accept the invitation into immortality?" paranormal romance, NIGHT SCHOOL soons spreads its wings and flaps into the zany night, in typical (and always appreciated) Pine fashion. The last quarter of the book is devoted to a knock-down, stake-thrusting showdown between Chandler and his Van Helsing, with Stacey's life hanging in the balance. It's a skillfully constructed sequence, creating genuine suspense due to Pine's twist on the vampire's shapeshifting abilities making Chandler a particularly crafty foe to vanquish. In short: I'm easily pleased.
The book is hindered somewhat by Stacey being one of the more vapid and unlikeable YA protagonists outside of FEAR STREET's Reva Dalby, though she's not without her moments of pathos. When she admits to herself that her snootier-than-thou image has cost her any real friends and when she clutches to the offered explanation of a learning disability as cause for her perpetually poor performance in school, she becomes a little deeper than the stereotypical mean girl. And, of course, her near brush with becoming a Dracula snack does lead her towards some small personal growth: Stacey, with Chandler's help, comes to the late recognition that learning how to read a book and all that other school stuff is probably important for later in her glamorous life. Even "Cindy Crawford studied chemical engineering," after all.
The book is hindered somewhat by Stacey being one of the more vapid and unlikeable YA protagonists outside of FEAR STREET's Reva Dalby, though she's not without her moments of pathos. When she admits to herself that her snootier-than-thou image has cost her any real friends and when she clutches to the offered explanation of a learning disability as cause for her perpetually poor performance in school, she becomes a little deeper than the stereotypical mean girl. And, of course, her near brush with becoming a Dracula snack does lead her towards some small personal growth: Stacey, with Chandler's help, comes to the late recognition that learning how to read a book and all that other school stuff is probably important for later in her glamorous life. Even "Cindy Crawford studied chemical engineering," after all.
August 29, 2018
This is...something else. Terribly written, fucked up, wrong in so many ways. The author of Twilight must have read this and thought "Wait, I can monetise this..."
I read this for our podcast Teenage Scream, which dissects the best (and worst) of 90s Teen Horror.
https://soundcloud.com/teenagescream
I read this for our podcast Teenage Scream, which dissects the best (and worst) of 90s Teen Horror.
https://soundcloud.com/teenagescream
February 27, 2024
Night School (Terror Academy #7) by Nicholas Pine sounded like it had potential but it was so bad. Not even so bad it's good, just plain bad. The main character is what I would consider to be brain dead. She also drives a Geo Tracker (this was *somehow* published in 1994) which I haven't thought about in years let alone actually seen one. There's also a moment when Obi-Wan Kenobi is spelled as "Obiewan Kenobe" during a conversation in the story. I just wanted Buffy, Angel, and Spike to knock some sense into all the characters in this story.
February 27, 2023
Very fun, if a little melodramatic.
Hot teacher trope always gives me the ick but it’s kinda campy and doesn’t take itself too seriously.
When it’s the climax and they try to stake hot teacher and he transforms from vamp to bat to wolf to bat to vamp! Perfect scene.
Hot teacher trope always gives me the ick but it’s kinda campy and doesn’t take itself too seriously.
When it’s the climax and they try to stake hot teacher and he transforms from vamp to bat to wolf to bat to vamp! Perfect scene.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 7, 2024
We follow again in this series another junior at Central Academy, this time it’s Stacey a for better lack of a word, slutty girl who is more interested in dating guys than any type of schoolwork. She also doesn’t care to have female friends and has big dreams of becoming a model after high school, Stacey starts the book by skipping a big exam that she decides she doesn’t need because she’s not going to college anyway. Only she’s not that smart because the vice principal forces her to take the test where it turns out she has the reading and math comprehension of a sixth grader. So she is forced to go to night school to get back on track because our parents had no clue that she was not smart. While at the night school she instantly falls in love with her teacher Chandler Carr If it wasn’t obvious that he is a vampire, they show him using mind control and he is only around at night. I’m not a huge fan of vampire stories so this one for me was really obvious of what was gonna happen. The only thing that was different was that being a vampire he can turn into a wolf as well as a bat. I’m also sick and tired of these books where people fall instantly in love, for example vampire hunter Will who turns out to be Chandler‘s brother in the first hour of meeting Stacey professes his love for her. That’s just gross. And while there were a couple of deaths, the victims were fairly obvious, and the death were pretty tame. Barely a three star.
August 8, 2017
Not really a Point Horror or Fear Street; just that type of book.
Reading this made me feel slightly delirious, as though I'd gotten really drunk and then watched an extremely 80s soap opera about a vampire. It was kind of awesome.
Reading this made me feel slightly delirious, as though I'd gotten really drunk and then watched an extremely 80s soap opera about a vampire. It was kind of awesome.
December 27, 2024
Look at that cover. Does this not feel like a Bailey School Kids entry? Count Dracula Doesn't Teach Remedial Courses.
I read a book as a kid--the title of which escapes me--about a misunderstood vampire who survives on tomato soup and wants to be a standup comedian. "What did one bat say to the other? Nothing, bats can't talk!" (I recall that one is described as "bringing the house down" amongst his audience of children.) If you told me Nicholas Pine was a pen name for the children's author who wrote that other book, I'd believe you. The vampire hunter repeatedly refers to the central antagonist as "Bat-boy", for God's sake.
Night School has a vain and rude protagonist, which is usually a good sign as it means she at least won't be boring. Her name is Stacey, and she can't wait to leave her small town behind and become a model in New York. She's sixteen and already has a car, which makes you wonder why she doesn't simply drop out of school and start pursuing her goal, but this never seems to cross her mind--I guess the author is trying to show that she's entitled and lazy and just thinks this opportunity will be handed to her. Anyway, Stacey has breezed through high school running a number of schemes to keep her grades up without doing any actual work, and she finally gets caught after she's unable to talk her way out of a standardized test. She's threatened with suspension unless she goes to night school. Enter Chandler Carr--a strangely hypnotic teacher who's always "too busy" to meet during the day.
The pacing of the book is all wrong. The first act follows Stacey as she dreams about her jet-setting future, pays smart kids to do her homework, and generally manipulates other students and teachers to get her way. This is probably the best part; Stacey is a camp soap opera villain with the potential for depth and insight, like Cordelia on Buffy. Unfortunately, she never seems to learn any sort of lesson or grow as a person. You would think that she would be tempted to let Chandler turn her into a vampire because that would be a great advantage in her future career as a model--never age, sleep all day, party all night, never have to eat food or gain weight, perfect pale skin with blood-red lips, etc. But this isn't the case; she simply wants to become a vampire because she's in a hypnotic swoon over Chandler, overcome by the romantic temptation of becoming his eternal undead bride. I find this story path much less interesting.
Stacey's mean-girl persona evaporates and she becomes indistinguishable from any other heroine in any other paranormal romance. (Their fog-shrouded meetings in dreams are extremely reminiscent of the Midnight Secrets trilogy I read last year.) Then another guy shows up with fifty pages left to snap her out of her reverie, and she immediately flips to being a good girl who pays attention in school without the author having to earn this transformation. It's essentially like placing your main character into a Plot Coma and having them awaken later with an entirely different personality; even though time has passed and they have changed, you can't exactly pretend that's an arc, you know?
I read a book as a kid--the title of which escapes me--about a misunderstood vampire who survives on tomato soup and wants to be a standup comedian. "What did one bat say to the other? Nothing, bats can't talk!" (I recall that one is described as "bringing the house down" amongst his audience of children.) If you told me Nicholas Pine was a pen name for the children's author who wrote that other book, I'd believe you. The vampire hunter repeatedly refers to the central antagonist as "Bat-boy", for God's sake.
Night School has a vain and rude protagonist, which is usually a good sign as it means she at least won't be boring. Her name is Stacey, and she can't wait to leave her small town behind and become a model in New York. She's sixteen and already has a car, which makes you wonder why she doesn't simply drop out of school and start pursuing her goal, but this never seems to cross her mind--I guess the author is trying to show that she's entitled and lazy and just thinks this opportunity will be handed to her. Anyway, Stacey has breezed through high school running a number of schemes to keep her grades up without doing any actual work, and she finally gets caught after she's unable to talk her way out of a standardized test. She's threatened with suspension unless she goes to night school. Enter Chandler Carr--a strangely hypnotic teacher who's always "too busy" to meet during the day.
The pacing of the book is all wrong. The first act follows Stacey as she dreams about her jet-setting future, pays smart kids to do her homework, and generally manipulates other students and teachers to get her way. This is probably the best part; Stacey is a camp soap opera villain with the potential for depth and insight, like Cordelia on Buffy. Unfortunately, she never seems to learn any sort of lesson or grow as a person. You would think that she would be tempted to let Chandler turn her into a vampire because that would be a great advantage in her future career as a model--never age, sleep all day, party all night, never have to eat food or gain weight, perfect pale skin with blood-red lips, etc. But this isn't the case; she simply wants to become a vampire because she's in a hypnotic swoon over Chandler, overcome by the romantic temptation of becoming his eternal undead bride. I find this story path much less interesting.
Stacey's mean-girl persona evaporates and she becomes indistinguishable from any other heroine in any other paranormal romance. (Their fog-shrouded meetings in dreams are extremely reminiscent of the Midnight Secrets trilogy I read last year.) Then another guy shows up with fifty pages left to snap her out of her reverie, and she immediately flips to being a good girl who pays attention in school without the author having to earn this transformation. It's essentially like placing your main character into a Plot Coma and having them awaken later with an entirely different personality; even though time has passed and they have changed, you can't exactly pretend that's an arc, you know?
June 30, 2017
Strong beginning, slow end.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews