Hannah, Mack, Kerry and Lewis. Four friends enjoying Parker High School's cross-country train tour from Chicago to San Francisco—until they learn what is on the train with them... a coffin. Frog's coffin.
One by one, Hannah's friends guiltily confess all the nasty things they did to Frog before his sudden and horrible death, and then, one by one, they are viciously attacked.
It seems that Frog is out for revenge. But Frog is dead... isn't he?
Diane Hoh is the author of fifty-seven novels for young adults. She grew up in Warren, Pennsylvania but currently resides in Austin, Texas. Reading and writing are her favorite things, alongside gardening and grandchildren.
A group of teenage students from Parker High School are taking an end-of-summer train trip from Chicago to San Francisco. This was planned so students could "see the country". Hannah is eager to go. Her parents have been to San Francisco many times and told her how much they loved the city. So Hannah, with many of her school friends, goes on board the train. One girl, Kerry, is told her luggage bag is way too big and it has to be kept in the baggage compartment. Angry, she goes to the compartment to get her bag. She comes back, pale and shaky. Hannah asks what's wrong. Kerry tells her that there's a coffin in the baggage compartment (which freaks them out.) Curious to know if the coffin is empty or filled they go to the compartment and notice a tag on the coffin. It seems one of their fellow classmates, nicknamed Frog, was killed/burned in a car crash recently, and it's his coffin/body in the baggage compartment. This puts a damper on the trip as Kerry and a few of their classmates recall how badly they treated Frog (Frederick Roger Drummond). As the trip progesses, many classmates are badly/viciously attacked. Hannah is starting to believe Frog isn't dead. One classmate thinks he saw Frog when the train stopped in Denver...
This was a fun, fast-paced, young-adult suspense story. I liked the train setting and I was curious to see what was going to happen next. An entertaining and enjoyable read.
Hannah and her friends are going on a cross-country train trip with their class. Once on board they find out that the train is carrying the coffin of Frog, a trouble boy from their school who died in an accident. It turns out that each of them were mean to Frog and they start to believe that he is back from the dead to take his revenge on them.
This was quite an interesting premise and I liked how the story unfolded. The (mostly) single setting of the train added a unique element to the story. Unfortunately the characters are all pretty unlikeable though so I mostly felt like they got what they deserved, and I'm sure that wasn't the intention! Also, I did find it disappointing that although the group showed some remorse they didn't seem to truly realise the seriousness of the way they behaved and its effects on other people. This was still a good story and a fun read, and the characters do find themselves in some genuinely serious situations (which was interesting since a lot of the Point Horror books keep things pretty light).
A pretty standard point horror affair, but a little less suspense and tension than I expect from a good book in the series. I did like the setting, but the characters were flimsy and the reveal was a little underwhelming. Hannah and her classmates are travelling by train for a class field trip. But the train is carrying the coffin of there recently deceased class mate. Hannah swears she saw Frog skulking outside her cabin. But when his coffin is checked and he's still inside, can she find out who is terrorising her class before it is too late?
Hannah and her friends are on a train trip, and are horrified to discover that a coffin containing a dead classmate is on board with them! The dead boy is Frog, who was very unpopular at school. As Hannah and her friends reveal what mean things they themselves did to Frog, they start to get attacked.
In the hands of a lesser author, there might have been speculation that the kids were being stalked by a zombie, but thankfully Diane Hoh is a master at this genre, and makes it clear there are no supernatural shenanigans at play. However, when I re-read this a couple of years ago, I found how sympathetic I felt towards Frog. The book suffers because we're clearly supposed to be on the side of the protagonists, but they really all were such horrible people! Kerry especially. They bullied Frog, made snap judgments about him, and generally made life a living hell for him, all for no good reason. Meanwhile, Frog is the one who is trying to fit in at a new school, and even getting a job. Sure, he was a bit of a creeper with the girls, but what high school boy isn't?
Hoh's skill at suspense thrillers means that the tension remains high and the book is enjoyable, even if I kind of felt the protagonists were getting what they deserved!
I read this book on paperback It’s nothing like turning the pages and smelling that “book” smell. I enjoyed this book it was fast paced, full of terror, and mystery. I couldn’t put the book down and it was a quick read for me.
This is a YA book the setting takes place on a train with high school taking a trip to San Francisco. All seems well with the exception of a student not taking this journey alive. As the kids settle in on their ride everything isn’t as it seems. The popular kids all share a story about an outcast named Frog, needless to say Frog wasn’t liked by a lot of kids in school. One by one they share their story about Frog and the stories are not good. All of a sudden tragedy strikes and one by one people tend to drop. This is where the horror filled story begins.
I did enjoy the setting there is nothing scarier than a train. It’s really no escape. The train is constantly moving and there really aren’t a lot of places to hide. The author definitely does a good job with building up the suspense and mystery. Definitely give this book a read !
Trains really can be scary (even though I have never been on one personally) and it is the perfect place for horror when you have nowhere else to go to escape a crazed killer...
The teens from Parker High are going on a cross-country trip to San Francisco: the popular ones and even the unpopular ones. Hannah is with her boyfriend Mack, her best friend Kerry, her boyfriend Lewis and their other friend, Jean Marie.
They are the popular ones so when vain Kerry over-packs her carry on bag, which gets taken to the baggage car, she finds something else...a coffin.
Hannah assures her it is empty but upon further investigating they realize it has the body of one Fredrick Roger Drummond, known to the others present as Frog.
He use to be the new kid and no one treated him like a geek...he was different. No one was really very kind to him because he didn't belong to the popular crowd. Now Frog is dead, killed in a fiery car crash, and learning this everyone confesses how they made him miserable and an angry outsider.
Kerry wouldn't be caught dead dating him and neither would Jean Marie... Mack gave him his awful nickname but not to be mean... Lewis didn't want him on the basketball team and got him suspended from school... Hannah doesn't share her story but her guilt seems to weigh more on her than the others...
Why should it matter? They are on this trip to have fun and Frog wasn't exactly a nice guy.
Too bad fun isn't on this trip...terror is.
Teens start being attacked but it only seems to be those who had interactions with the late F. Roger Drummond. First his girlfriend Lolly, the only girl who would give him the time of day, is almost strangled to death then Hannah and her friends...are targeted.
These pranks are deadly and the next stop may be their last...
I never know if I'm going to go in to a book and have the story be good. We didn't get a slasher but a thrilling mystery with a good twist and a surprising reveal.
The ending is actually bittersweet and it seems that the teens actually do grow from the horror they have to deal with. It's probably one of the best Diane Hoh books I've read for the first time and a thumbs up recommendation.
I've always been attracted to horror stories involving trains especially long distant journeys. Maybe it's the idea of being trapped somewhere you can't escape that makes it so sinister. Even though this book is aimed at youngsters, some parts are actually quite creepy, and if you are claustrophobic some scenes may even terrify you (a little)! There's some nice twists too and we learn new things about the characters right up until the end of the book. In summary, another great Point Horror story and I'll look forward to reading some of Diane Hoh's other contributions to this collection.
One-Line Review: Be excellent to each other. *Bill and Ted GIF*
Full Review:
This was like, the fifth Point Horror book I read this autumn, and after reading another dozen I had to go back and change my 3-star rating to a 4-star, because it stayed with me.
Basic plot: Hannah and friends, along with a bunch of kids from her school, are travelling by train from Chicago to San Francisco. While getting something out of the baggage car, they find a coffin that they realise belongs to Frog, a schoolmate who died recently and who they were all mean to before his death. Hannah - who is already claustrophobic and scared of the train - starts getting attacked by an unknown assailant. Despite the fact that she's locked in the coffin amongst other things, none of her friends seem to take the threats and attacks seriously, even though another friend is stabbed by an ice pick. Hannah is seeing Frog's burned, almost-unrecognisable corpse in various places, and theorises that he's the one playing tricks on her, but nobody believes her.
There's good and bad about this book. The bad, or the hard-to-swallow, is that Hannah's friends don't take her seriously. If I were knocked unconscious and locked in a coffin - I italicise it again, because it's still kind of awesome and terrible to me - I would damn well expect my friends to believe someone is trying to hurt me, and would be furious - like supernova furious - if they wrote it off as a prank. And if a corpse showed up in my bunk, I'd expect them to believe that, not say I was dreaming. I can't figure out if Hannah is a total flake, to have these friends who blithely shrug off her tales of terror, or if her friends - and for that matter, the teachers and detective on the train - are just really dim.
Also, a couple of the things the characters say made me go, WTF? Like, "The train won't leave without us." Uh, what?
The good is that Hannah and her friends are likeable characters, despite their assorted faults, and the book is chilling. I've had it for about twenty years and I still get freaked at some of the scenes. Now that's lasting power. :) The plot, aside from Hannah's friends' disbelief, is well-crafted and the killer's motivation is solid. (After so many books with really shaky reasons behind everything, this is very welcome!) And bonus points for creativity for setting a horror story on a train. Working within those limits couldn't have been easy.
Verdict: Towards the top of my Diane Hoh pile. Better than The Fever and Funhouse, not quite as good as Prom Date.
You know, if you were on a train and people are being maimed and/or murdered by a maniacal killer on board, don't you think the train would STOP somewhere safe and have the authorities come and handle business??
So that is NOT what happens here in this weird Diane Hoh reality, but instead they have a private detective come on board to help instead 🤣🤣
Anyway, it's a school trip on a train to San Francisco, except there's a coffin on board too, holding the body of a kid everyone called "Frog" who was bullied and ostracized before dying in a car accident. The thing is, one by one all of Frog's tormentors are getting killed or almost killed on board the train, and our protag Hannah swears she saw Frog on the train...but he's dead, right?
A fun and quick read, if you can suspend reality long enough to think the train can just keep on chugging along while its' passengers are being seriously injured 🤷🏻♀️😅
Hannah and her friends Mack, Kerry and Lewis are enjoying a Park High Schools cross country tour from Chicago to San Francisco. But whilst they’re enjoying their journey they discover a coffin in the luggage compartment. It belongs to Frederick Roger Drummond (nicknamed Frog for short), a classmate that was recently killed in a car accident.
Hannah’s friends rilled with guilt, soon confess that they’d treated Frog pretty terribly prior to he’s death. When one of the group is brutally attacked on the train, tensions started to rise. Is Frog seeking revenge from beyond the grave?
Setting the story on the train really adds a sense of claustrophobia to the story, as the journey progresses so does the stakes. This is definitely one of the best Point Horror’s in the series.
A thrilling dose of nineties nostalgia, the story is fast paced and would easily work for a modern audience. Wonderfully creepy!
More like two-and-a-half stars if I had the choice. Serviceable, but barely; the characters were far too thin, with hardly a distinguishing trait among them. Stine, for all his cardboard, at least applies perfunctory spraypaint. I did not feel anything for these people, and the plot was partially driven by a belief among them that a train would be carrying halfway across the country, in a cart with no environment control, a single body in a coffin. Maybe that is a sort of thing that occurs, though it seemed unlikely to me; but even if it is, the mystery could be cleared by simply asking an adult with the knowledge. Plus there were times where the pace seemed glacial, which really shouldn't occur for a book this short. A paucity of tension.
A five star book for its time. I love reading 80s horror like this. Its a time when I was in high school as well, so the slang, the situations I can always identify with. A group of teens on a field trip coming from Chicago to San Fransisco by train are being harassed and seemingly haunted by a dead classmate. Will they all make it to the next stop before somebody else croaks? Loved the book, it was short and sweet. Excellent author too, she has lots of great horror books out there, clean, non gore horror.
Love the concept, but man there are serious plot holes here. Like it was written and never edited. For example, at one point, in less than 5 pages, which of the main characters slept in the top/bottom bunk (important to the plot) changed 4 times.
Diane Hoh is one of, if not my favourite 'Point Horror' author so it's always nice returning to her books. I found the dynamic in this one quite interesting as it's written in the sense that we're supposed to root for the protagonist group of characters in here but they're self entitled bullies who are completely unapologetic. Even by the end of the story they show no growth and little to no remorse for any of their transgressions. Whilst it's not my favourite entry from the author, I did still enjoy this one as there's a solid mystery running through it and I'm also a sucker for transport horror (especially trains).
Fast paced. One of my favorite tropes - being stuck somewhere albeit a snowed in cabin, remote forest, or deserted island and unable to leave with a killer on the loose.
This book made me want to read/watch an Agatha Christie book/movie like Murder on the Orient Express. It reminded me slightly of one of my favorite movies - Train to Busan.
4.5/5 Again, another great point horror book! I’m so enjoying reading these with the point horror book club. In this book, we follow a school trip/vacation,which they travel via train, only it’s not just the school trip on the train, but a coffin too!
Ridic but I kinda loved it. I’m here for the dramatics and long train ride.
We get an unhinged Bad Guy who will stop at nothing for vengeance and a bunch of bumbling teens who have no conscience and are actually all kinda terrible btw. maybeee they deserve what’s coming to them.
I read this with my book club that I run on Instagram where we revisit Point Horror and other books from our childhood - @talespointhorrorbookclub
Tagline - A one way ticket … to terror
Memorable For - Coffin on a Train and ice picks!
Blurb -
Four friends are enjoying a cross-country school train trip. Then they discover that they are travelling with a coffin that contains someone they were all very nasty to - or does it?
Some Thoughts - Welcome to the Parker High School Teen Tour – Chicago to San Fransisco. Departing 3 o clock on a Wednesday afternoon on a huge blue and silver train with dark paisley walls. Hear the wheels beneath your feet but the train is surprisingly quiet with no sway back and forth. Sounds like a fab time right?
Hannah, Mack, Kerry and Lewis are about to have a journey they never forget! They find a Coffin in the luggage compartment covered in a black cloth and they discover it’s someone they know! Frog, who died a few weeks prior in a car accident and burned alive! Why is there a coffin with his name on?
One by one the gang confess all the nasty things they did to Frog before his death and one by one they are all viciously attacked.
Has Frog come back from the dead to get revenge? Could Hannah really be one slice of bread short of a loaf or is someone out to get them! Where do you run too on a train when you are in trouble?
Other highlights include a claustrophobic setting, some super strength shenanigans, dodgy adults that need reporting, dead bodies, ice pick attacks and a very Point Horror crazy ending involving a wall and an urn!
Dreading another Diane Hoh book after reading The Fever - but this was actually quite good. Good in that awful Point Horror way I mean.
I'm also starting to notice a trend in Point Horror books in that the horror is exclusively stalker/murderer/Scoobie-Doo style farce and nothing ever paranormal. I'm starting to hope that I'll find a Point Horror book with a ghost or a bigfoot or something just to break the endless parade of mildly ineffective stalker stories.
Really liked this point horror book, it was creepy set on a moving train with no were to go a group of teens are being terrorized by a dead class mate whos coffin is in the cargo hold, it was a little predictable in parts and the characters make silly decisions but over all a good I enjoyed would be a fun read on a long train journey.
This was the biggest god-damn train ever - showers, recreation areas, a restaurant, a cinema, sleeping compartments, an area to watch the stars from and all sorts. There were also some questions about certain parts of the plot 😂