Petrified

by Ray Garton, Joseph Locke (Pseudonym)

Six years after they had gone their separate ways, Leslie, Erika, Lynda, and Bret return to their favorite hangout, the old Waxhouse museum, for a reunion, never suspecting that someone in the museum is watching their every move.

Genres: Horror, Young Adult

165 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Ray Garton is the author of several books, including horror novels such as LIVE GIRLS (which has a movie in the works), CRUCIFAX, E4 AUTUMN, and THE FOLKS; thrillers like TRADE SECRETS and SHACKLED; and numerous short stories and novellas. He's also written a number of movie and television tie-ins for young readers. He lives with his wife, Dawn, in California.

Reviews

[Jeffrey Canino]

Ray Garton's first young adult horror for Bantam swirls in many tried and true slasher tropes: the revenged social crime from the past, the creepy townie red herrings, the sneaking into an abandoned location, the costumed killer, the needless splitting up that results in certain death-- all the greatest (fatal) hits! Fortunately, they're exciting (if not exactly fresh) from Garton's pen, with the chaos in the pitch dark wax museum providing a number of memorable visual chills as the girls' flashlight beams illuminate and surreally animate the wax figures.

Points docked, however, for violating Chekov's wax dummy rule: don't introduce a Tom Cruise w/ Robert Duvall from DAYS OF THUNDER display in Act 2 and not have it rev up in Act 3.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ahahahaha, I was just talking to my friend (and fellow Goodreader!) Meghan about this book and figured I may as well add it while I'm thinking about it. I read Petrified as a wee thing back in the day (it was written in the early 90's, so yes. BACK in the WAY BACK.) Was it actually good or worth five stars? I dunno, but baby preteen me was sufficiently impressed; it was the first "horror" book I read, and it shooketh me because, up until that point, {possible spoiler?} I didn't realize characters in books could die. Yeah, I was a bit naive. Anyway. I still remember Petrified quite fondly and have thus bestowed five stars for the sake of nostalgia alone.

[Anna Gaffey]

Read this when I was in high school and I still think about it sometimes -- there's a particularly striking scene with an iron maiden that terrified me. I couldn't remember the title but came across someone with a similar memory in the What's the Name of That Book group here on GR: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

If memory serves: a good creepy YA horror in the tradition of Point, Christopher Pike, Caroline B. Cooney, and R. L. Stine.

[Matthew MacIntyre · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second Joseph Locke book that Bantam released and it takes place in the same town there is every little continuity from the first one mentioning the movie theater and a few stores like the hardware store owned by the main characters father from the last book. This book is about five girls who all the summer before their sixth grade year are moving away for one reason or another meet up at the wax museum one last time. During their last visit the four main friends Erika, Bret, Leslie, and Lynda who have been close friends much longer are surprised when Karin, although their friend, arrives and soon freaks out because according to everyone she is fat with messy hair who doesn’t dress well so no one was ever really her friend. They all try and reassure her had promise to meet back at the wax museum in six years.
Well six years later they come back and the four main girls have maintained a friendship through letters and phone calls but no one has heard anything at all from Karin. They still decide to go to the wax museum and have their reunion but since so much time has passed it’s now boarded up. So they break in and lots of not scary stuff happens that to me doesn’t seem logical. Wax figures are movies around so frequently that keep scaring the girls. Now I thought they weren’t light but somehow the bad guy moves one from the basement up three flights of stairs so the attic. And places another on the stairs and literally moves five or six others in what seems like the timespan of twenty minutes. The whole reveal who the bad guy was really lame. The only thing I will give this book credit for was someone actually dies. Like thank you!! More deaths moving forward please. Looking forward it seems at least that the next few books take place in the same town as well so I hope there is more continuity moving forward.

[Paul Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual page number- 165 pages

Really got into atmosphere of the book's setting which is the wax museum. I'all admit I sort of jumped a bit when I read that some objects are moved and such. There was some mystery that also got me into reading the book as I would like to know what happens next. However, most scares consist of objects being moved so the scares aren't that scary and I feel the book was a bit too quick-paced that the setting feels it's skimmed over.

Solid horror book that's tad short and lackluster scares but good setting.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four girls trapped in a spooky wax museum - what could possibly go wrong?

I liked this one! It actually had a very eerie atmosphere and kept me hooked. But the ending was a bit disappointing for multiple reasons. And evil Greg was just never dealt with??? Bret should have just been a lesbian and in love with Erika.

Feel like it maybe needed more wrapping up but it was pretty creepy and a lot of fun. And not terrible writing of girls by a man.

[Paula Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were a few too many false scares in the wax museum, but this was still a typically great book from Joseph Locke! It really started getting intense as it got nearer to the end. There's a genuinely shocking and brutal death of one of the main characters, too!

[Diana Esguerra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good easy fun read. Holds your attention and suspenseful enough to make you want to keep reading to find out what happens.

[Sabrina Frang · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 for actually having a very body positive message (and in the 90's!)

Petrified was a fast, fun 90's young adult slasher about four estranged friends who decide to have their reunion at an abandoned wax museum.
What I liked about this novel:
1) The setting provided a perfectly spooky atmosphere for this closed circle horror story.
2) Jospeh Locke does a great job of building a mystery. What's really going on, and who is behind it?
3) His characters actually make some smart decisions sometimes. They are just thwarted by a determined foe.
4) The girls were not totally unlikable, which is a nice change-of-pace from your typical slasher.
5) Though there is a low body count in Petrified, Jospeh Locke is able to maintain a genuine sense of dread and spookiness throughout the novel. This is even more impressive for young adult horror.
6) Finally, this book has a progressive message, especially for its time: You actually don't have to be pretty to be liked. If someone does not like you based on the way you look, something is wrong with them, not you. In the 90's, so many movies had the moment where the "ugly duckling" female had to have her glow up moment so that she could attract the man of her dreams. This book was ahead of its time in saying, "Actually, you don't have to change to please people. The right people will like you for who you are."

What did not work for me:
1) The big reveal (no spoilers)
2) The time that the girls made stupid decisions, but that is standard for the slasher genre.
3) The mental health representation in the book is a mixed bag of tricks, but to be fair, slashers, and horror in general, are not known for positive mental health representation, so just know that this book, at least on that topic, is a product of its time and its genre.

All in all, I was hooked from cover to cover, and I did not expect this young adult horror novel to put me on the edge of my seat, but it did. Joseph Locke, is of course, the pen name for extreme horror writer Ray Garton. I am not sure that I can stomach his adult horror novels, but I will continue reading his books under the Joseph Locke pen name.