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Dance of Death
Finding a beautiful pair of red shoes, Tammy Peters tries to overcome her superstition when she is told that the shoes are cursed, but whenever a friend borrows them, strange and terrible things happen. Original.
183 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 26, 2022
This was my 2nd Jo Gibson book, after "My Bloody Valentine", which I really enjoyed! This one I will henceforth refer to as "Jo Gibson lite", as she's really toned it down for a younger audience.
Have you read "Prom Dress" by Lael Litke? WELL just replace the dress with the shoes, and the spooky old house/spooky old lady with a spooky old tent/spooky old lady and VOILA! You have Dance of Death! Everyone who wears the cursed shoes has horrible bad luck accidents and mishaps, and while they are unfortunate, they're nothing terribly exciting.
ALSO there is NO "Dance of Death"...just a Dance of Pure and Utter Exhaustion. May I suggest a title change here??
The ONE thrilling part of the book is pretty awesome however, and keeps this book out of the 2 star zone for me. The shoes take over while one of our hapless characters is driving, and well...Dead Mans' Curve is coming up soon at 70 mph 🙈
3 out of 5 warnings from the old lady NOT to purchase the damn cursed shoes, but you do it anyway. What's a long stay at the loony bin when you're blessed with all the right moves 💃💃💃
Have you read "Prom Dress" by Lael Litke? WELL just replace the dress with the shoes, and the spooky old house/spooky old lady with a spooky old tent/spooky old lady and VOILA! You have Dance of Death! Everyone who wears the cursed shoes has horrible bad luck accidents and mishaps, and while they are unfortunate, they're nothing terribly exciting.
ALSO there is NO "Dance of Death"...just a Dance of Pure and Utter Exhaustion. May I suggest a title change here??
The ONE thrilling part of the book is pretty awesome however, and keeps this book out of the 2 star zone for me. The shoes take over while one of our hapless characters is driving, and well...Dead Mans' Curve is coming up soon at 70 mph 🙈
3 out of 5 warnings from the old lady NOT to purchase the damn cursed shoes, but you do it anyway. What's a long stay at the loony bin when you're blessed with all the right moves 💃💃💃
July 15, 2015
Actual rating - 2.5
The characters in this weren't ones I could really like.
The majority of this was dull. Nothing exciting/Interesting happened.
Can't say I'm looking forward to reading the other story in the Afraid bind up, The Dead Girl.
The characters in this weren't ones I could really like.
The majority of this was dull. Nothing exciting/Interesting happened.
Can't say I'm looking forward to reading the other story in the Afraid bind up, The Dead Girl.
October 8, 2019
Jo Gibson is an alias for Joanne Fluke, who has written that enormously popular food cozy mystery series featuring Hannah Swenson. I haven't read those books, because I'm not a fan of cozy mysteries, but her work in the 90s YA horror realm was pretty underwhelming. She wrote the dreadful "The Crush" and the even worse "The Crush II". She finally got her chance to pen a tale for Scholastic's Thriller line (aka Point Horror), the pinnacle of 90s YA horror at the time. Ironically, it was essentially the last book in the line as well, published in December 1996. By the start of 1997, Point Horror was done. While you can't blame Gibson/Fluke for that, it's sad the line should end with such a silly and yes, underwhelming, story.
Donna Burke listens to the shoe seller tell a story about the cursed shoes, but the girl Donna is with - Tammy - buys the shoes anyway. The story is, they'll gift the wearer with a fantastic talent, only to turn on her later. Indeed, each girl who wears the shoes suddenly discovers she's got skills she never knew existed, only to suffer an unfortunate fate. Our main character Donna never wears the shoes - all she really gets to do is pine over dreamy Steve while they run around after the various girls they think might be wearing the shoes to try and stop the mayhem. It's all a bit dull and very repetitive. It's much like Gibson's other YA tales "Slay Bells" and "My Bloody Valentine", in which the same scenario plays out over and over again through characters who should know better, but do it anyway.
A girl going mad after spending only one night trapped in the attic and another girl dancing herself into exhaustion aren't things I find especially scary or suspenseful. No backstory is given for the cursed shoes (unlike the similarly themed and far superior "Prom Dress"), and the story limps to a close with an assumption the shoes can be stopped by printing Donna's story about them in all the national newspapers. Huh?
Donna Burke listens to the shoe seller tell a story about the cursed shoes, but the girl Donna is with - Tammy - buys the shoes anyway. The story is, they'll gift the wearer with a fantastic talent, only to turn on her later. Indeed, each girl who wears the shoes suddenly discovers she's got skills she never knew existed, only to suffer an unfortunate fate. Our main character Donna never wears the shoes - all she really gets to do is pine over dreamy Steve while they run around after the various girls they think might be wearing the shoes to try and stop the mayhem. It's all a bit dull and very repetitive. It's much like Gibson's other YA tales "Slay Bells" and "My Bloody Valentine", in which the same scenario plays out over and over again through characters who should know better, but do it anyway.
A girl going mad after spending only one night trapped in the attic and another girl dancing herself into exhaustion aren't things I find especially scary or suspenseful. No backstory is given for the cursed shoes (unlike the similarly themed and far superior "Prom Dress"), and the story limps to a close with an assumption the shoes can be stopped by printing Donna's story about them in all the national newspapers. Huh?
September 25, 2021
I enjoyed reading this. It's like a get-what-you-deserve kind of story. I like it that they were able to still have a good ending. The urban legend of the red dancing shoes was truly interesting! :)
What I'm just bummed about is the mc's attitude at the beginning. She felt like she had to go through heaps and bounds just to be accepted by people in her class. I hope that this isn't the case for students nowadays. :/
What I'm just bummed about is the mc's attitude at the beginning. She felt like she had to go through heaps and bounds just to be accepted by people in her class. I hope that this isn't the case for students nowadays. :/
January 28, 2023
Rounded up.
The only thing that kept it from being really amazing is the fact that the plot has been done before.
Lael Littke's Prom Dress but with shoes.
Not as grisly as Gibson's Slay Bells or My Bloody Valentine with their slasher feels. Tame by those standards and it has a feel like a teenage Tales From The Darkside episode so kind of a variation of the both the book and episode of Goosebumps based on "Be Careful What You Wish For".
Also not to go without mentioning The Red Shoes, the oldest version of this story.
Everything else about the book is great in what is original to the book's plot.
Donna Burke has been at Jefferson High for six weeks and she is still referred to as "The New Girl" by her classmates.
She lives across the street or next door to Steve Harvey...no, not that one. This Steve is a high school senior who plays football and dates the richest blonde girl in school, Tammy Peters. He is Donna's crush but he only calls her up to check his mail box for his letter from State University to see is he's gotten in on his scholarship.
Donna doesn't mind to meet him at the school carnival to give Steve the letter and runs into Steve's friend Jerry who is also there to help Steve set up the rides for this autumn carnival. Donna is also going to the same college as Steve and Jerry but Tammy is going off to a more Ivy League school...thanks to Daddy's wallet.
The four of them go off to the vendor booth section of the carnival away from the rides and come across Magical Footwear where an old woman claims to make the shoes by hand. Tammy is looking for a pair of shoes to wear in the school play and her eyes land on a pair made of red satin.
The old woman says she can not sell Tammy the shoes because they are cursed: they bring good luck but then it turns bad. Donna believes what the woman says...she looks like a witch and her smile and warnings don't seem to come from the goodness of her heart.
Tammy doesn't believe in such things and tells the woman she will pay $200 dollars for them after much back and forth. The woman gives in and spoiled Tammy gets what she wants again.
Donna needs to write an article to try and earn the spot as the high school newspaper editor and she now has an idea to write about whether the shoes are truly cursed. Tammy isn't superstitious but uses Donna's topic to try and promote her performance in the school play.
Through circumstance, the pair of shoes keep falling into the hands of the teenage girls of Jefferson High after the first performance of the play goes horribly wrong for Tammy but terribly right for her understudy.
Donna doesn't care about writing the article to gain popularity anymore but chronicling the misfortune the red shoes bring to each girl who falls victim to their ruby allure. It doesn't hurt that soon Steve begins to fall for her or that his friend Jerry is starting to fall for Donna's only friend, Lisa Jensen.
The big fall dance is coming up but Donna can't get swept up in romance even if Steve is the man of her dreams. The night could be magical for her but for the other girls...they'll never get the chance to experience a fairy tale evening.
If Donna and Steve can't stop the red shoes from finding their way to another victim, the curse for on girl may be the final dance of death...
I like most of the characters.
Lisa, Donna, Jerry and Steve are my favorites.
The ones that I don't like are brought out by how Gibson depicts them. Not saying the bad stuff that happens to a couple of girls is warranted but they aren't likeable.
One girl doesn't seem all that bad and her fate is the worst one of all.
It's a little unclear but it seems as if sometimes the shoes bring out the worst in people and the ones who were just rotten to begin with get their comeuppance. Yet out of the four girls (the only spoiler) two of them have no reason to be cursed.
The ending is one of those iconic twists and in a way is terrifying...but in a good way.
It should have some sort of narration Rod Serling style if it were adaptable for the screen.
A good read I highly recommend if you ever get your hands on it.
The only thing that kept it from being really amazing is the fact that the plot has been done before.
Lael Littke's Prom Dress but with shoes.
Not as grisly as Gibson's Slay Bells or My Bloody Valentine with their slasher feels. Tame by those standards and it has a feel like a teenage Tales From The Darkside episode so kind of a variation of the both the book and episode of Goosebumps based on "Be Careful What You Wish For".
Also not to go without mentioning The Red Shoes, the oldest version of this story.
Everything else about the book is great in what is original to the book's plot.
Donna Burke has been at Jefferson High for six weeks and she is still referred to as "The New Girl" by her classmates.
She lives across the street or next door to Steve Harvey...no, not that one. This Steve is a high school senior who plays football and dates the richest blonde girl in school, Tammy Peters. He is Donna's crush but he only calls her up to check his mail box for his letter from State University to see is he's gotten in on his scholarship.
Donna doesn't mind to meet him at the school carnival to give Steve the letter and runs into Steve's friend Jerry who is also there to help Steve set up the rides for this autumn carnival. Donna is also going to the same college as Steve and Jerry but Tammy is going off to a more Ivy League school...thanks to Daddy's wallet.
The four of them go off to the vendor booth section of the carnival away from the rides and come across Magical Footwear where an old woman claims to make the shoes by hand. Tammy is looking for a pair of shoes to wear in the school play and her eyes land on a pair made of red satin.
The old woman says she can not sell Tammy the shoes because they are cursed: they bring good luck but then it turns bad. Donna believes what the woman says...she looks like a witch and her smile and warnings don't seem to come from the goodness of her heart.
Tammy doesn't believe in such things and tells the woman she will pay $200 dollars for them after much back and forth. The woman gives in and spoiled Tammy gets what she wants again.
Donna needs to write an article to try and earn the spot as the high school newspaper editor and she now has an idea to write about whether the shoes are truly cursed. Tammy isn't superstitious but uses Donna's topic to try and promote her performance in the school play.
Through circumstance, the pair of shoes keep falling into the hands of the teenage girls of Jefferson High after the first performance of the play goes horribly wrong for Tammy but terribly right for her understudy.
Donna doesn't care about writing the article to gain popularity anymore but chronicling the misfortune the red shoes bring to each girl who falls victim to their ruby allure. It doesn't hurt that soon Steve begins to fall for her or that his friend Jerry is starting to fall for Donna's only friend, Lisa Jensen.
The big fall dance is coming up but Donna can't get swept up in romance even if Steve is the man of her dreams. The night could be magical for her but for the other girls...they'll never get the chance to experience a fairy tale evening.
If Donna and Steve can't stop the red shoes from finding their way to another victim, the curse for on girl may be the final dance of death...
I like most of the characters.
Lisa, Donna, Jerry and Steve are my favorites.
The ones that I don't like are brought out by how Gibson depicts them. Not saying the bad stuff that happens to a couple of girls is warranted but they aren't likeable.
One girl doesn't seem all that bad and her fate is the worst one of all.
It's a little unclear but it seems as if sometimes the shoes bring out the worst in people and the ones who were just rotten to begin with get their comeuppance. Yet out of the four girls (the only spoiler) two of them have no reason to be cursed.
The ending is one of those iconic twists and in a way is terrifying...but in a good way.
It should have some sort of narration Rod Serling style if it were adaptable for the screen.
A good read I highly recommend if you ever get your hands on it.
September 19, 2017
I can't find this book at any library. I read it in the early 2000's. All I remember about it is a girl finds a pair of shoes & something bad happens with each girl that finds the shoes. One part of the book had me laughing really hard, when a girl tap dances & can stop, her feet goes out of control & she taps so fast she thinks the shoes have a mind of their own. Anyway I'll probably have to buy this book on EBay since there are no libraries around me that have this book.
November 18, 2019
The book "Dance of Death" is about a pair of red shoes that brings incredible talents to whoever wears them but at the same time also gives the person really bad luck. I thought this book was a good read because it has a lot of suspense and mystery and those are 2 things that I find make a good book. The book also has a pretty interesting storyline that doesn't get boring really quick. I recommend this book if you like a book that keeps you guessing.
May 1, 2015
Not an awful story, just... not the best. Being published under Scholastic's "thriller" banner (though, not a part of Point Horror), I had an expectation for what this book would be like, and it didn't live up to it. There were only two really scary moments in the book, and the rest felt like the author trying to restrain themself from "going to far". Also, smaller issue, I wouldn't have used this title. Two of the characters have a conversation about a pair of shoes which were cursed that made the wearer dance until they die, and there's a dancing incident at one point in the story, but... a different title would have been better.
March 29, 2017
3/5 stars
This was admittedly a trashy 90s teen horror novel. It was fun and super addictive and at first I didn't think I'd like this at all judging from how silly the premise was. It didn't have much substance, and even the likeable characters were still two dimensional but my gosh I had been in a reading slump for almost a week and I managed to down this in one sitting.
Characters:
Donna and Steve-
Like I said, they didn't have much depth, but they still managed to be very likable and I thought they were very cute together.
I can't remember her name but the friend who works at a diner was very fleshed out and I found I actually connected with her and rooted for her.
Everyone else-
was very frustrating and deserved all of the bad things that happened to them.
Overall-
Fun, but not something that's meant to be taken seriously.
This was admittedly a trashy 90s teen horror novel. It was fun and super addictive and at first I didn't think I'd like this at all judging from how silly the premise was. It didn't have much substance, and even the likeable characters were still two dimensional but my gosh I had been in a reading slump for almost a week and I managed to down this in one sitting.
Characters:
Donna and Steve-
Like I said, they didn't have much depth, but they still managed to be very likable and I thought they were very cute together.
I can't remember her name but the friend who works at a diner was very fleshed out and I found I actually connected with her and rooted for her.
Everyone else-
was very frustrating and deserved all of the bad things that happened to them.
Overall-
Fun, but not something that's meant to be taken seriously.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews