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Overkill
Lacey has a nightmare in which her best friend, Celeste, is murdered, and when she learns that Celeste has died exactly as she dreamed, Lacey realizes that her personal nightmare is just beginning. Reprint.
176 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
4 people are currently reading
110 people want to read
About the author
Alane Ferguson
42 books265 followersAlane Ferguson was born in Cumberland, Maryland, in 1957. She attended the University of Utah and Westminster College where she studied journalism. Later, Alane became interested in writing for children, mostly, she says, to follow the example of her mother, successful author Gloria Skurzynski. Her mother has written over fifty-seven books for children, while Alane is currently completing her thirty-second. Alane and her mother co-authored a series for National Geographic. Their novel, WOLF STALKER, was the first work of fiction National Geographic had published in its as of then 109 year history. WOLF STALKER was nominated for the 1998 Mystery Writer's of America's Edgar Allan Poe Award and the newest and 13th book in the series, NIGHT OF THE BLACK BEAR, was launched in spring of 2007. A recipient of the 1990 Edgar Allan Poe Award as well as the Belgium's Children's Choice Award for her young adult novel SHOW ME THE EVIDENCE, Alane was also a nominee for her third young-adult mystery, POISON. She received a 2007 Edgar nomination for her young adult novel, THE CHRISTOPHER KILLER, the first in the Sleuth Forensic Mystery series. Alane won the Children's Crown Classic Award for CRICKET ANDTHE CRACKERBOX KID, the American Bookseller's Association's "Pick of the List" for her picture book entitled THAT NEW PET, and has been on numerous ALA Recommended Books for Reluctant Young Readers and Young Adult's Choice list.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 9, 2012
I liked the way how the main character changed during the story. In spite of the fact that the mysterious part was a bit unhatched, it's quite good and enjoyable book.
September 1, 2017
The book I read as called Overkill. This book is about a girl named Lacey, who has frequent nightmares. After recently losing a friend, she has one nightmare that really stands out. Her old friend Celeste, was stabbed repeatedly and killed by a man in a black mask. This is not completely unordinary for her nightmares, besides the fact that her nightmare comes true. That next morning, Lacey finds out that Celeste was killed just the night before. It was just a coincidence, right? Then maybe it was just a coincidence that all the details of Lacey's nightmare, were unsettlingly similar. In fact they were exactly the same. While this book adequately describes how Lacey’s life falls apart, it keeps you attached. Attached to the characters and curious to find a killer.
It takes an outstanding book to really make me want to read. This book I just picked off of a random shelf. The odds, that out of a hundred books that I've refused and turned down, that this random book, would actually make me want to read. I picked this book to occupy me while waiting for another book. I didn't really expect to enjoy it, and I barely expected to finish even a chapter. After I started, I couldn't stop. My biggest issue with books is that the beginning is generally not that great, and if I don't get off to a good start then I can't finish the book. Overkill got extremely interesting extremely fast. The moment I opened up the book, I was swallowed by the words. One thing that really grabbed me and caught my attention, was the title, Overkill. I think that personally I just really find killers and mystery exciting. It's something I can read, and actually enjoy. Last week, for the first time in a long time, I was sitting at home and reading. Just reading. Normally I think of reading at home as punishment or some kind of homework, but I read completely for the fun of it. I never read for the fun of it!! I read and I read and I read until there was nothing left. This was the quickest I have ever finished a book.
Reading this book was like some sort of dream. You hear people that love to read, talk about how the stories take them to different places. I never could, relate because when I read I felt lonely and my mind could never focus on what was in front of me. I guess It was just because I was never intrigued by the books I was reading. That was my mistake. Reading this book really did take me to a new place. I felt attached to the character, I felt like I was a part of the story myself.
To get to the point, this book was incredible. I loved the plot, I loved the characters, and I LOVED the ending!! This book was kind of everything I had been looking for. This book is honestly for anyone and everyone. I don't think there is one person that could not love this book, but to be less vague, if you like mystery, horror, and a really awesome book, this is the absolute best book for you.
It takes an outstanding book to really make me want to read. This book I just picked off of a random shelf. The odds, that out of a hundred books that I've refused and turned down, that this random book, would actually make me want to read. I picked this book to occupy me while waiting for another book. I didn't really expect to enjoy it, and I barely expected to finish even a chapter. After I started, I couldn't stop. My biggest issue with books is that the beginning is generally not that great, and if I don't get off to a good start then I can't finish the book. Overkill got extremely interesting extremely fast. The moment I opened up the book, I was swallowed by the words. One thing that really grabbed me and caught my attention, was the title, Overkill. I think that personally I just really find killers and mystery exciting. It's something I can read, and actually enjoy. Last week, for the first time in a long time, I was sitting at home and reading. Just reading. Normally I think of reading at home as punishment or some kind of homework, but I read completely for the fun of it. I never read for the fun of it!! I read and I read and I read until there was nothing left. This was the quickest I have ever finished a book.
Reading this book was like some sort of dream. You hear people that love to read, talk about how the stories take them to different places. I never could, relate because when I read I felt lonely and my mind could never focus on what was in front of me. I guess It was just because I was never intrigued by the books I was reading. That was my mistake. Reading this book really did take me to a new place. I felt attached to the character, I felt like I was a part of the story myself.
To get to the point, this book was incredible. I loved the plot, I loved the characters, and I LOVED the ending!! This book was kind of everything I had been looking for. This book is honestly for anyone and everyone. I don't think there is one person that could not love this book, but to be less vague, if you like mystery, horror, and a really awesome book, this is the absolute best book for you.
August 13, 2018
Lacey had a fight with her best friend Celeste. Later, Celeste was discovered dead, stabbed to death. The police suspect Lacey when she describes the dream she had the night Celeste died, and the only way she can prove she didn't do it is by finding out who did.
This is a (1990s) YA book but it reads like it is meant for an older audience. There's nothing specifically taboo, but the gore and other adult subjects are more than touched upon, though they aren't anything that would be completely unfamiliar with YA books. The teen characters act more adult than current YA readers might expect (though that wasn't that uncommon for 1990s books).
The book starts after the friends' falling out so you don't get much sense of Lacey and Celeste's friendship. It seems like an odd friendship to begin with, because the two girls are so different -- Lacey as the jokester and Celeste as more sophisticated and introverted. Lacey seems especially naive as the book goes on, which isn't terribly out of character. The police have Lacey describe the dream, until she believes it was a rare psychic vision. Granted, it doesn't enter her mind that she's a suspect because she knows she didn't do it, but her sense of self preservation seems rather low for someone who watches and reads too many mysteries. (The dream never gets fully explained. Did Lacey have a rare psychic experience? Did something she observe get filtered into her dream world?)
The book ends on a dark note, as well as a realistic one, which saves the book from being merely a gory slasher and gives the story more gravity than one might expect from, for example, R. L Stine's books.
This is a (1990s) YA book but it reads like it is meant for an older audience. There's nothing specifically taboo, but the gore and other adult subjects are more than touched upon, though they aren't anything that would be completely unfamiliar with YA books. The teen characters act more adult than current YA readers might expect (though that wasn't that uncommon for 1990s books).
The book starts after the friends' falling out so you don't get much sense of Lacey and Celeste's friendship. It seems like an odd friendship to begin with, because the two girls are so different -- Lacey as the jokester and Celeste as more sophisticated and introverted. Lacey seems especially naive as the book goes on, which isn't terribly out of character. The police have Lacey describe the dream, until she believes it was a rare psychic vision. Granted, it doesn't enter her mind that she's a suspect because she knows she didn't do it, but her sense of self preservation seems rather low for someone who watches and reads too many mysteries. (The dream never gets fully explained. Did Lacey have a rare psychic experience? Did something she observe get filtered into her dream world?)
The book ends on a dark note, as well as a realistic one, which saves the book from being merely a gory slasher and gives the story more gravity than one might expect from, for example, R. L Stine's books.
December 11, 2023
First thing out of the way is that the cover of my copy of Overkill looks nothing like the cover listed with this. Which gives me a perfect lead-in...
Imagine going to the Scholastic Book Fair and you are in the fifth grade. Your mother has given you money to buy anything you want. You have $20 in your pocket and you are ten years old but you will be 11 soon and starting sixth grade after the long summer so you need something to tide you over.
I leave with 3 books and some change. Overkill by Alane Ferguson is one of them and the cover has the reflection of a teenage girl dancing in a modest one-piece body leotard with a gauzy pink material about her arms. Her reflection isn't in a mirror but that of a meal cleaver...with blood dripping off the rectangular, ax-like blade.
Neither one of my parents are disgusted or shocked but I am gifted for my eleventh birthday one of those covers like an oven mitt you put over your book and mark the pages with a large mouse's tail by my paternal aunt.
Ah the 1990s were a different time...
Lacey Brighton is a senior at Olympus High and she has been having really bad nightmares lately.
They are bloody and frightening so her mother has had her going to a therapist, Glade Otkin, to help Lacey get over her crippling anxiety that makes it way into her dreams. Lacey has the lead in a dance recital alongside her BFF Tamera Belmondi and her grades are suffering in her classes despite Lacey being well...bright and lively.
Her boyfriend Sean is a straight A student and is giving her lectures about her future with college but not in a mean way. He doesn't harp on her like her older sister Sara who is a lawyer and her parents are divorced. Dad is dating a younger woman named Angie who is an airhead and Mom has had her own mid-life crisis with exercise and make-up and hair dye as if she were a different person.
She opened a jewelry store with a woman named Elaine Shephard, the wife of a diplomat, and has made herself a name with the country club set. She even dragged Lacey into it by having her play tennis with Elaine's daughter, Celeste, who is the same age.
Celeste has been to private schools and been around adults more than peers her own age but the two seemed to hit it off really well, Celeste even going to Lacey's high school and being on the same dance team.
That all changed about three weeks ago when Lacey and Celeste had a fight and then...Celeste was just gone. Rumors are she had a breakdown and went to some sort of retreat but it didn't really change Lacey's life much...she still had Tamera and Sean.
Now, Celeste is back. She shows up in dance class and Lacey is called into the office by the instructor. The other teachers who have Lacey in their class have cornered her about the slip in her grades where most of them are D's and close to a failing F and by school rules it means no outside activities.
Like the dance recital and it seems awfully convenient that Lacey is being dropped as a lead when Celeste comes back. She left and Tamera took over Celeste's part and now that Lacey has worked her butt off to be dismissed from the recital and forced to take Study Hall instead of attend class until her grades get better?!
Lacey is not happy and when Celeste tries to talk to her for the first time in almost a month, Lacey blows her off but notices that something is a little different in the way Celeste carries herself.
That night, Lacey has a dream that she sees a girl dancing about a room with gauzy blue material wrapped about her face. A man enters the room with a large knife and Lacey tries to shout a warning but she has no voice and her body feels like stone in the bed.
The gauze is pulled off and it isn't Lacey's auburn curls that spill forth but the cool blonde hair that surrounds Celeste's face. The serene look becomes horror as Lacey watches her friend be stabbed over and over...and over again until she falls down in a puddle of blood with Celeste's last word being Lacey's own name.
Lacey wakes up, her mother comes into her room to soothe her daughter back to sleep after hearing her screams and it still haunts Lacey the next morning but she tries to go on with her day as the whole school is called to an assembly.
It is to let everyone know that Celeste Shepard was found murdered in her home. Everyone is in shock but no one more than Lacey and a grief counselor and the police are both there if anyone needs to talk. Lacey decides to go and talk to the counselor and her nightmare from last night just happens to pour out in her grief.
The counselor calls in the detective in charge of the case to talk to Lacey because everything in her dream fits a little too close to be just coincidence.
It it isn't hard to know that all of this is going to come back around to Lacey being the one everyone suspects. The drama is in the fact that some know she is innocent and others will jump to conclusions to turn their backs on Lacey...the horror too.
It is sort of handwaved that one of Lacey's ancestors, her great grandmother, was a psychic of sorts but most people in the family didn't believe it. Lacey's mom is beginning to fall in the camp that believes but Sara is still firm that it was just some sort of fluke...she is a lawyer after all.
Sara is actually the character I like the best however. She is actually likeable in her blunt and no nonsense way while others are just downright nasty. You feel sorry for Lacey but you know the minute she tells her dream to the policeman, it was probably the dumbest thing she could have done.
When we get to the climatic reveal of just who the killer is...it is a little underwhelming. The motive for the crime is one of those old chestnuts and a few hints are subtly given throughout the book as to their identity.
The actual ending of the book is bittersweet but to have it just end happily or leave some things ambiguous and unanswered would just be criminal...no pun intended.
Overkill is a murder-mystery thriller, a courtroom drama and a teen slasher rolled into one but it is gripping from beginning to end. I still enjoy it after all these years and if it a book you have yet to read, it is worth seeking out.
Imagine going to the Scholastic Book Fair and you are in the fifth grade. Your mother has given you money to buy anything you want. You have $20 in your pocket and you are ten years old but you will be 11 soon and starting sixth grade after the long summer so you need something to tide you over.
I leave with 3 books and some change. Overkill by Alane Ferguson is one of them and the cover has the reflection of a teenage girl dancing in a modest one-piece body leotard with a gauzy pink material about her arms. Her reflection isn't in a mirror but that of a meal cleaver...with blood dripping off the rectangular, ax-like blade.
Neither one of my parents are disgusted or shocked but I am gifted for my eleventh birthday one of those covers like an oven mitt you put over your book and mark the pages with a large mouse's tail by my paternal aunt.
Ah the 1990s were a different time...
Lacey Brighton is a senior at Olympus High and she has been having really bad nightmares lately.
They are bloody and frightening so her mother has had her going to a therapist, Glade Otkin, to help Lacey get over her crippling anxiety that makes it way into her dreams. Lacey has the lead in a dance recital alongside her BFF Tamera Belmondi and her grades are suffering in her classes despite Lacey being well...bright and lively.
Her boyfriend Sean is a straight A student and is giving her lectures about her future with college but not in a mean way. He doesn't harp on her like her older sister Sara who is a lawyer and her parents are divorced. Dad is dating a younger woman named Angie who is an airhead and Mom has had her own mid-life crisis with exercise and make-up and hair dye as if she were a different person.
She opened a jewelry store with a woman named Elaine Shephard, the wife of a diplomat, and has made herself a name with the country club set. She even dragged Lacey into it by having her play tennis with Elaine's daughter, Celeste, who is the same age.
Celeste has been to private schools and been around adults more than peers her own age but the two seemed to hit it off really well, Celeste even going to Lacey's high school and being on the same dance team.
That all changed about three weeks ago when Lacey and Celeste had a fight and then...Celeste was just gone. Rumors are she had a breakdown and went to some sort of retreat but it didn't really change Lacey's life much...she still had Tamera and Sean.
Now, Celeste is back. She shows up in dance class and Lacey is called into the office by the instructor. The other teachers who have Lacey in their class have cornered her about the slip in her grades where most of them are D's and close to a failing F and by school rules it means no outside activities.
Like the dance recital and it seems awfully convenient that Lacey is being dropped as a lead when Celeste comes back. She left and Tamera took over Celeste's part and now that Lacey has worked her butt off to be dismissed from the recital and forced to take Study Hall instead of attend class until her grades get better?!
Lacey is not happy and when Celeste tries to talk to her for the first time in almost a month, Lacey blows her off but notices that something is a little different in the way Celeste carries herself.
That night, Lacey has a dream that she sees a girl dancing about a room with gauzy blue material wrapped about her face. A man enters the room with a large knife and Lacey tries to shout a warning but she has no voice and her body feels like stone in the bed.
The gauze is pulled off and it isn't Lacey's auburn curls that spill forth but the cool blonde hair that surrounds Celeste's face. The serene look becomes horror as Lacey watches her friend be stabbed over and over...and over again until she falls down in a puddle of blood with Celeste's last word being Lacey's own name.
Lacey wakes up, her mother comes into her room to soothe her daughter back to sleep after hearing her screams and it still haunts Lacey the next morning but she tries to go on with her day as the whole school is called to an assembly.
It is to let everyone know that Celeste Shepard was found murdered in her home. Everyone is in shock but no one more than Lacey and a grief counselor and the police are both there if anyone needs to talk. Lacey decides to go and talk to the counselor and her nightmare from last night just happens to pour out in her grief.
The counselor calls in the detective in charge of the case to talk to Lacey because everything in her dream fits a little too close to be just coincidence.
It it isn't hard to know that all of this is going to come back around to Lacey being the one everyone suspects. The drama is in the fact that some know she is innocent and others will jump to conclusions to turn their backs on Lacey...the horror too.
It is sort of handwaved that one of Lacey's ancestors, her great grandmother, was a psychic of sorts but most people in the family didn't believe it. Lacey's mom is beginning to fall in the camp that believes but Sara is still firm that it was just some sort of fluke...she is a lawyer after all.
Sara is actually the character I like the best however. She is actually likeable in her blunt and no nonsense way while others are just downright nasty. You feel sorry for Lacey but you know the minute she tells her dream to the policeman, it was probably the dumbest thing she could have done.
When we get to the climatic reveal of just who the killer is...it is a little underwhelming. The motive for the crime is one of those old chestnuts and a few hints are subtly given throughout the book as to their identity.
The actual ending of the book is bittersweet but to have it just end happily or leave some things ambiguous and unanswered would just be criminal...no pun intended.
Overkill is a murder-mystery thriller, a courtroom drama and a teen slasher rolled into one but it is gripping from beginning to end. I still enjoy it after all these years and if it a book you have yet to read, it is worth seeking out.
August 3, 2020
You know those times where you read something and afterwards you're like, "Well. That was definitely A Book™️ I guess. If only it'd made any sort of impression." This book is one of those. I'm immediately going to forget the entire plot after writing this.
Main character Lacey's best friend Celeste is killed. Lacey has a dream about the murder and tells the police about it because otherwise we wouldn't have a plot. The police immediately charge her with the murder. Now the only thing I know about the law is that /r/legaladvice loves tree law but I highly doubt you could build a serious case on, "but your honor, she had a dream about it" with absolutely zero physical evidence but who am I to question the logic of teen thriller law. Lacey's obviously innocent so blah blah blah who did it.
This book is like 100 pages long so obviously there's no serious search or stakes. Things just kind of happen and then it's over and you ponder why this has been sitting on your bookcase unread for like 7 years.
But still, technically A Book™️ I guess.
Main character Lacey's best friend Celeste is killed. Lacey has a dream about the murder and tells the police about it because otherwise we wouldn't have a plot. The police immediately charge her with the murder. Now the only thing I know about the law is that /r/legaladvice loves tree law but I highly doubt you could build a serious case on, "but your honor, she had a dream about it" with absolutely zero physical evidence but who am I to question the logic of teen thriller law. Lacey's obviously innocent so blah blah blah who did it.
This book is like 100 pages long so obviously there's no serious search or stakes. Things just kind of happen and then it's over and you ponder why this has been sitting on your bookcase unread for like 7 years.
But still, technically A Book™️ I guess.
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January 12, 2020The best of all books i want ti read
February 21, 2014
Overkill by Alane Ferguson, is a mind twisting mystery about a girl quite almost living in a nightmare. Though the book had some weird transitions, I personally liked it because of the author’s mature detail, and excellent plot twist to end the book.
After years of being best friends, Lacey and Celeste have a huge argument that will lead them in opposite directions. Weeks later, Lacey has a terrible dream about Celeste being murdered and she ends up in jail for it. Eventually the true killer is found and Lacey is released.
The main theme throughout the book that the author delivers is to never give up. She shows this theme through the main character’s struggles with adversities left and right. In the end, Lacey is able to live a semi-normal life again because she never gave up. To enhance her story, Ferguson attempts to use writing devices. One of her strong devices is her immaculate detail, like on page 83, “A stubble of beard shadowed his face and his clothes, so neatly pressed that morning, now seemed tired and rumpled”. Another strength is the plot twist on page 152, “Lacey couldn’t look into his eyes. The eyes of a killer. His hand landed firmly on her shoulder to push her towards the chair. She could feel his fingers bore into her back, but his voice had the same, even tone as always. ‘Please sit’ ”. Though Ferguson has many strengths, she also lacks a little in her transitions, like on page 132, “Lacey didn’t move until it disappeared around a bend in the road. Steam filled the bathroom…”. This transition confused me a little causing the effectiveness of the story to diminish a little.
All in all, Overkill is a well written book with excellent detail, an awesome plot twist to finish it, and only minor flaws in transitioning. Therefore, I would suggest this book to anyone who loves mystery books or likes to read interesting books with good plot twists.
After years of being best friends, Lacey and Celeste have a huge argument that will lead them in opposite directions. Weeks later, Lacey has a terrible dream about Celeste being murdered and she ends up in jail for it. Eventually the true killer is found and Lacey is released.
The main theme throughout the book that the author delivers is to never give up. She shows this theme through the main character’s struggles with adversities left and right. In the end, Lacey is able to live a semi-normal life again because she never gave up. To enhance her story, Ferguson attempts to use writing devices. One of her strong devices is her immaculate detail, like on page 83, “A stubble of beard shadowed his face and his clothes, so neatly pressed that morning, now seemed tired and rumpled”. Another strength is the plot twist on page 152, “Lacey couldn’t look into his eyes. The eyes of a killer. His hand landed firmly on her shoulder to push her towards the chair. She could feel his fingers bore into her back, but his voice had the same, even tone as always. ‘Please sit’ ”. Though Ferguson has many strengths, she also lacks a little in her transitions, like on page 132, “Lacey didn’t move until it disappeared around a bend in the road. Steam filled the bathroom…”. This transition confused me a little causing the effectiveness of the story to diminish a little.
All in all, Overkill is a well written book with excellent detail, an awesome plot twist to finish it, and only minor flaws in transitioning. Therefore, I would suggest this book to anyone who loves mystery books or likes to read interesting books with good plot twists.
September 29, 2022
Lacey è in cura da uno psichiatra, a cui racconta i raccapriccianti incubi che infestano le sue notti e rovinano le sue giornate. E quando la sua amica-rivale Celeste viene trucidata come nel suo incubo, per Lacey la realtà diventa ancora più spaventosa, dato che anche le persone più care sospettano di lei...
Buon thriller per ragazzini che si avvicinano al genere.
Buon thriller per ragazzini che si avvicinano al genere.
January 16, 2015
Overkill by Alane Ferguson is a great book about mystery and drama. It is a book where you can make descriptions palpable and feel like you are seeing all what happens in the book. I like how Alane Ferguson describes every action with little details, so that makes the scenes have an important role during the whole novel. It is good to try to imagine how lacey dream has an important clue about Celeste’s murder. I will recommend this book for people who like drama and mystery; it will be a goodread for you.
May 9, 2016
Was an okay teen book. It was mostly drama that involves the main character being wronged by justice system and struggles through the hardships from this experience. The book does a fairly good job of showing the justice system but the biggest problem with the book is that it's only drama but no suspense or little mystery solving which is what I expected when reading the book.
Maybe recommend for teens for mostly if they want to learn basics of the justice system.
Maybe recommend for teens for mostly if they want to learn basics of the justice system.
February 18, 2014
Un giallo per ragazzi carino, dove la protagonista dovrà cercare di far luce sull'omicidio di una sua amica, che le era precedentemente apparso in sogno. Ma si sa che la polizia non crede nei presagi e non sarà una bella mossa confidarglielo... Sul finale magari poteva essere meglio, non mi ha entusiasmata, comunque un libretto simpatico da leggersi in una giornata.
December 27, 2012
I haven't read this since I was thirteen, but I adored it then. It was a good murder mystery, and while some may see the plot as a bit predictable, I enjoyed the twist. It is a balance between a light touch of paranormal and and good plain murder mystery. Well written and great for teenagers.
March 10, 2008
this was a good book. Scary.
January 13, 2012
Trying out some of the books already in the library...Details in this one are a bit dated...Plot is ok although predictable.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews