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Horror High #6
Sudden Death
Lara Crandall is determined to write a major news story about steroid use among student athletes for her high school newspaper. But her snooping stirs up trouble when the athletes she has interviewed start to die.
- GenresHorrorYoung Adult
151 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1991
2 people are currently reading
65 people want to read
About the author
Nicholas Adams
16 books19 followersNicholas Adams is a collective pen name created by Daniel Weiss Associates and used by several authors of YA horror written in the 1990s. These include John Peel, James D. MacDonald and Debra Doyle, and Sherwood Smith.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 10, 2019
"Before he could scream, the blade snapped closed on his neck, severing his head from his body like a twig from a tree."
Never underestimate the control of steroids. They take over your life and make you murder your friends!
Never underestimate the control of steroids. They take over your life and make you murder your friends!
July 30, 2021
Lara is hoping to be a journalist one day and needs an impressive story for her college essay.
When she discovers some star athletes might be using steroids at her high school, she decides to be the first to get the scoop.
The story however leads her down a darker path of secrets and lies than she was expecting.
A good example why doing steroids is never a good idea. Although I'm not sure they were 100% to blame in this situation as there was a traumatic experience also involved in the story.
I was able to guess who was responsible before they were revealed but it was still an entertaining read.
When she discovers some star athletes might be using steroids at her high school, she decides to be the first to get the scoop.
The story however leads her down a darker path of secrets and lies than she was expecting.
A good example why doing steroids is never a good idea. Although I'm not sure they were 100% to blame in this situation as there was a traumatic experience also involved in the story.
I was able to guess who was responsible before they were revealed but it was still an entertaining read.
October 18, 2023
4.5 stars rounded up to five because the subject matter of the book is very heavy so I wouldn't say that it was amazing in that regard. When it comes to plot, characters, pacing and the ending it is worthy of five stars.
I wish I could have found the original printing with the neon pink binding but this reprint cover is just so crazy with Jason Voorhees vibes and an actual hockey connection in the book...I like it.
Lara Crandall hasn't had a bad life except for the nightmares that still haunt her of the terrible accident that killed her mother in a gruesome way and also the father of her childhood friend, Billy Owens. Their parents were very close friends and a vacation in Canada ended with a drunk driver and two fatalities.
Besides losing her mother, Lara and her doctor father are still doing reasonably well but Billy's mother had to move away from the more affluent part of Creswell to the poor side of town after her husband's death and working a dead end diner job. Billy's grades have slipped ever since accident and he now has to hope that getting a sports scholarship for wrestling or hockey can send him to college.
Lara wants to go into Journalism and head to Columbia but she needs to write an essay to blow admissions away to offer her a spot in the program. She's the editor of the school paper but to write about the only thing that changed her life would be almost getting pity and opening the still bleeding wound even more.
Getting inspiration from an article in Time magazine about high school athletes using steroids has Lara wanting to investigate her own high school as there are tons of sports activities in the school.
If you have read any YA/Teen book dealing with the subject of steroids, you know that it is already a beginning for disaster. Her journalism teacher doesn't want Lara to do the story alone so that there is no libel being printed or even assassination of character if an athlete or a coach is slandered. So Lara is supposed to be paired up with the sports editor, James Horton, to do the story but she decides to start with Billy and asking him alone.
Lara's father isn't too thrilled with his daughter wanting to bother Billy about this subject since he was under the same Coach in high school along with Billy's father and they were state championship athletes without any drugs. Billy isn't too happy about that subject either and there are so many red flags waving about to us readers but obviously Lara is colorblind.
These are green flags waving her on...
Four chapters in we already know that Billy's using steroids, so are a few of his team mates, and it is the objective not to let the story get out because some people just aren't going to make it to college on smarts alone.
Athletes at the school start dropping like flies and Lara is in serious danger.
It does get a little more interesting as a major swerve happens that I didn't see coming and the descriptions of death are very vivid. We have a red herring about where the steroids are coming from but it does little to shake us off from the real person because it is just so obvious.
Lara is a very driven character but she isn't really cut out to be a stealthy reporter but I can connect with her in that she has passion in her writing even if it doesn't pan out the way she wants it to...
Besides Lara there is one other female character named Kim who is a cheerleader dating Billy and she is a nasty piece of work, yo-yo dating Billy only when it suits her. All of the other characters are male and there is quite a lot of toxic masculinity thrown about from all of them...except for James and a guy Lara has a crush on named Nick Glidden.
The ending is a bittersweet one as there are good things to come out of all the tragedy but there is also so much residual damage done that we as the readers know can never be healed. Coping with life-changing incidents is buried beneath the horror and it makes Sudden Death one of the better Horror High books.
I wish I could have found the original printing with the neon pink binding but this reprint cover is just so crazy with Jason Voorhees vibes and an actual hockey connection in the book...I like it.
Lara Crandall hasn't had a bad life except for the nightmares that still haunt her of the terrible accident that killed her mother in a gruesome way and also the father of her childhood friend, Billy Owens. Their parents were very close friends and a vacation in Canada ended with a drunk driver and two fatalities.
Besides losing her mother, Lara and her doctor father are still doing reasonably well but Billy's mother had to move away from the more affluent part of Creswell to the poor side of town after her husband's death and working a dead end diner job. Billy's grades have slipped ever since accident and he now has to hope that getting a sports scholarship for wrestling or hockey can send him to college.
Lara wants to go into Journalism and head to Columbia but she needs to write an essay to blow admissions away to offer her a spot in the program. She's the editor of the school paper but to write about the only thing that changed her life would be almost getting pity and opening the still bleeding wound even more.
Getting inspiration from an article in Time magazine about high school athletes using steroids has Lara wanting to investigate her own high school as there are tons of sports activities in the school.
If you have read any YA/Teen book dealing with the subject of steroids, you know that it is already a beginning for disaster. Her journalism teacher doesn't want Lara to do the story alone so that there is no libel being printed or even assassination of character if an athlete or a coach is slandered. So Lara is supposed to be paired up with the sports editor, James Horton, to do the story but she decides to start with Billy and asking him alone.
Lara's father isn't too thrilled with his daughter wanting to bother Billy about this subject since he was under the same Coach in high school along with Billy's father and they were state championship athletes without any drugs. Billy isn't too happy about that subject either and there are so many red flags waving about to us readers but obviously Lara is colorblind.
These are green flags waving her on...
Four chapters in we already know that Billy's using steroids, so are a few of his team mates, and it is the objective not to let the story get out because some people just aren't going to make it to college on smarts alone.
Athletes at the school start dropping like flies and Lara is in serious danger.
It does get a little more interesting as a major swerve happens that I didn't see coming and the descriptions of death are very vivid. We have a red herring about where the steroids are coming from but it does little to shake us off from the real person because it is just so obvious.
Lara is a very driven character but she isn't really cut out to be a stealthy reporter but I can connect with her in that she has passion in her writing even if it doesn't pan out the way she wants it to...
Besides Lara there is one other female character named Kim who is a cheerleader dating Billy and she is a nasty piece of work, yo-yo dating Billy only when it suits her. All of the other characters are male and there is quite a lot of toxic masculinity thrown about from all of them...except for James and a guy Lara has a crush on named Nick Glidden.
The ending is a bittersweet one as there are good things to come out of all the tragedy but there is also so much residual damage done that we as the readers know can never be healed. Coping with life-changing incidents is buried beneath the horror and it makes Sudden Death one of the better Horror High books.
March 27, 2022
Book #14 - Sudden Death by Nicholas Adams, part of the Horror High series - 3.75 stars
Lara wants to be an investigative journalist, so she decides to investigate the possibility of steroid use by the wrestling team. She will then use that article as her personal essay for her application to Columbia.
Of course, the athletes she interviews end up missing or dead.
Unlike Cathy from the last book in this series, I liked Lara. She had a good back story, and she demonstrated growth. The rest of the characters were one-dimensional, though.
I have one more book from this series to read. I am mostly glad to move on, but I am enjoying the nostalgia and easy reads.
Lara wants to be an investigative journalist, so she decides to investigate the possibility of steroid use by the wrestling team. She will then use that article as her personal essay for her application to Columbia.
Of course, the athletes she interviews end up missing or dead.
Unlike Cathy from the last book in this series, I liked Lara. She had a good back story, and she demonstrated growth. The rest of the characters were one-dimensional, though.
I have one more book from this series to read. I am mostly glad to move on, but I am enjoying the nostalgia and easy reads.
May 22, 2024
3.45 stars. One of the better books in this series.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews