Wait and See

by Ruby Jean Jensen

The body floated in the depths of the river. Slowly it rose and fell with the shifting waters. The once beautiful eyes were wide and staring. The hair, once as red as copper, had turned into a pale lifeless pink, sweeping out strand by strand in a large undulating fan. Trapped beneath the murky waters of the waters of the river, she waited... — Don't go near the river, his aunt had said. But Kevin wouldn't listen to her. He could see the river from his new bedroom window as it glistened in the moonlight. Something dark and evil was waiting for him there. Something caught in a twilight world between life and death, that beckoned to him in his dreams with skeletal hands and spoke to him through the blackened flesh of decaying lips. Something that once freed, would exact a terrifying unthinkable revenge...

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Horror Thriller, Suspense

249 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1986

About the author

Ruby Jean Jensen

Born McDonald County, Missouri, USA, March 1, 1927

Died November 16, 2010

Website http://www.rubyjeanjensen.com

Twitter RubyJeanJensen1

Facebook www.facebook.com/Rjjhorror

Ruby Jean Jensen authored 30 published and 4 not yet published novels, and over 200 short stories. Her passion for writing developed at an early age, and she worked for many years to develop her writing skills. After having many short stories published, in 1974 the novel The House that Samael Built was accepted for publication. She then quickly established herself as a professional author, with representation by a Literary Agent from New York. She subsequently sold 29 more novels to several New York publishing houses. After four Gothic Romance, three Occult and then three Horror novels, MaMa was published by Zebra books in 1983. With Zebra, Ruby Jean completed nineteen more novels in the Horror genre.

Ruby was involved with creative writing groups for many years, and she often took the time to encourage young authors and to reply to fan mail.

Ruby Jean, a supreme story-teller, quickly captures and holds your attention. Her books, written for adults, are also suitable for adolescents and young adults. She continues to have an enthusiastic following in the Horror genre.

Reviews

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thriller about a long dead evil girl (beautiful fifteen-year-old Charlene Childress) who was chained up and hidden under some tree roots in a river after she died, by her cousin/lover Daniel (who doesn’t go through with the suicide pact that Satan worshiper Charlene came up with). Charlene gets unchained over twenty years later by a couple of unsuspecting young boys (one is Daniels’s son) who find her dead skeleton in the river where it was hidden, and Charlene rises and begins her reign of terror and revenge with a very sharp knife. A totally creepy read with some pretty scary moments, especially with her skeleton wandering around in the shadows, in the dark, at night, around the river and the ranch house where she used to live and where Daniel’s family is currently staying. This was another great horror read by Ruby Jean Jensen with an interesting cast of characters, really great atmosphere, and some spooky and tense situations.

[Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Good ole Ruby Jean! I read so many of her books as a child I can’t even remember. They certainly take me back when I read them now!!

I read this one for my Horror Group Challenge!

Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

For once, Zebra actually has cover art that reflects the story, even though it is a skeleton. Wait and See opens with a prologue set in 1959 featuring Daniel and Charlene, cousins, both about 15. Daniel has been coming to the ranch of his grandparents for summers for years, but this year he and Charlene did the nasty and she got pregnant. Charlene has a plan, however-- one last tryst and then a mutual suicide pact. After she helps Daniel stab her heart, he gets second thoughts about the suicide deal and drags and chains her body to the roots of an old tree by the nearby river. The locals think she just ran away and Daniel stays mum.

Flash forward 25 year or so and Daniel has a wife and four kids. Yet, Daniel is bored and wants something else. Charlene's mother has been sending letters to his wife Ronna for years, playing nice and asking them to move in with her at the old ranch. Little does Ronna know but Charlene's mom just wants some revenge. She 'knows' Daniel killed Charlene, her only child, and thinks the best cold dish would be to kill Daniel's kids! So, while Daniel is on the road (he is a travelling salesman), Ronna packs up the brood and heads to California to the old ranch and fate...

What Jensen does well here is keep and maintain a sense of foreboding and tension. The story is largely told through the narration of the oldest child, Kim, aged 14 or so. She knows her aunt hates her (she is not blood after all; Ronna had Kim before she met Daniel) and she tells Kim her daddy killed her daughter all those years ago. All the niceties expressed in the letters are belied quickly by her Aunt's aloofness and disregard. Kids, being kids, start exploring the place but what they find in the end is terror...

Jensen was one of the leading authors in Zebra's stable, usually incorporating evil dolls and possessed toys into the story. Here, no dolls, but the animated skeleton of Charlene looking for some payback!. A little but apt dark humor also kept the story rolling. I have not much of Jensen for years (and years!), but IIRC, this was one of her better tales. 4 spooky stars!

[Alex (The Bookubus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wait and See is a fun, schlocky story like a 1980s horror film...and I mean that in the best possible way! The setting is a ranch in a small town in California. Charlene, a teenage girl, is killed in the 1950s and her body chained deep down in the local river. Now in the present day (the 1980s) her skeleton is unleashed and Charlene is free to have her revenge.

The story, while using some cliches, was unique and interesting. I thought the characters were described well enough to get their personalities and their motivations. There were definitely some suspenseful and creepy moments. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of the skeleton! I felt like it lost its pacing a couple of times but for the most-part it was a real page-turner.

[Michelle]

Great old time Horror book. The visuals that the book gave to me were excellent. One of my favorite authors for Horror.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

"It was pale, almost diaphanous, the blackness of the stairwell behind it showing through its body. The skull seemed to be filled with the blackness of perpetual night, and streaks of it oozed down over the frontal bones, like a different kind of blood, its right arm hung down, but in its hand was a knife, a long bladed knife that was stained with something dark." (Pg. 272)

Two teenage cousins, Daniel and Charlene, are madly in love. After agreeing to the taboo of their lust, they agree to both commit suicide by the river. Daniel stabs his cousin Charlene, but afterward, he chickens out, chains her body and dumps it in the river.

About 25 years later, Charlene's mother, who always believed her nephew, Daniel had something to do with her daughters death, plans to murder his 2 biological children who will be staying with her. Meanwhile, unknown to most, a 15 year old Charlene was a practitioner of Satanism and was sacrificing animals in the barn. Her corpse is about to rise from the river and seek revenge on the love of her life for abandoning her.

I have to admit, this one actually frightened me. Jensen's writing is good but simple and very easy to follow. At times, the pacing does slow throughout the novel but overall, this is an extremely underrated horror masterpiece. I feel if it weren't for the irrelevant title and lurid cover art, this may not be forgotten.

I would definitely recommend this for horror fans, I promise you will love it!

~ Rick

[RVGSteve · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first Ruby book and I really liked it! The beginning hooked me right away. The descriptions of the skeleton wandering around the barn and other places in the dead of night was really creepy. It does lose some pacing here and there, the body count is quite low (not necessarily a bad thing per se) and the ending is a bit abrupt (with not nearly as satisfying a payoff as I was hoping) but I enjoyed the journey.

Can’t wait to read Home Sweet Home, which seems to be her best novel based on consensus.

I give Wait and See 3.75 stars rounded up to 4 for Goodreads.

[Bandit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Light reading, not as bloody as some of Jensen's work, pretty low death count for her too, super awesome cheesy 80s cover.

[Christian Baloga · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had fun reading this. I had to buy it when I saw the 80s cover and I'm glad I did.

[❤ArtfullySinful❤ · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I am pregnant. And now it is time to make the ultimate sacrifice to my lord and master, and in return we will receive life beyond life, love beyond love, never ending. We will be together forever, Daniel and I, in our mutual sacrifice to my lord, Prince of Darkness. Tomorrow we will die together, in the ecstasy of our passion, and thereby be transported forever to life beyond life. The knife is sharp. I honed it well, while my lover slept. I will kiss his lips once more, and I will ravage him. He is so beautiful. He will be mine forever. There will be no more long winters apart. This life will be left behind. And the ecstasy that awaits us will be more than we have ever known. We’re coming, master, we’re coming, netherworld. We will fly forever through the dark nights.”

Two cousins commit the ultimate taboo, a sexual relationship at fifteen years of age, which would leave Charlene Childress pregnant with Daniel's baby. In a society of unwed, out of wedlock babies meaning isolation from families, she came to a horrific ideal. In the froes of ecstasy to eac other, they would take the knife and stab themselves to death. A way to preserve a love not meant for this Earth, one ripened with sins, this would be a fatal outcome for a troubled teenage girl. Falling deeper into the Occults and the Devil, young Charlene thinks she knows a way to immortality and powers that far reach what she can do in mortal life. With one last passionate time together, she convinced Daniel to help plunge the knife into her chest with a promise he would do the same shortly. As she passes away in his arms, he panics and stashed her body into the river, ta glued amongst the tree roots with a heavy chain attaching to her to keep her in place. It would be a long and grueling thirty three years before the discovery of the skeleton in the river would be uncovered and a horrific entity released into the world.

As he walked away from the river for the last time, he heard a whisper behind him.You, Daniel. Now you. I’ll help you.He began to run.It’s your turn, Daniel.He stumbled, fell, got up again, terror turning the sun’s warmth to ice on his back.I’ll wait for you ...

As a young child Charlene frightened and confused her peers while being spoiled by her mother and grandparents. To Daniel, Charlene was a beautiful mystery, up until he sacrifice he witnesses. Captivates heavily by darker forces, she built a sacrificial alter in one of the rooms of the barn where she sacrificed animals to the devil in exchange for promises she saw in the books she read. As less and less people dared to come around her, Daniel clung to her the entire summers they spent together, until it because a lovers affair best kept hidden. Now as Daniel is grown with wife Ronna, and children; Kim, Sara, Kevin and Ivan, he can't contain his wondering eyes and he constantly abandons his children and his marriage. Growing tired and disgusted, she takes the opportunity to move thousands of miles away to live with Daniel's aunt Winifred without a second thought. Leaving the bustling city of Chicago far in the rearview, she's excited at a chance to put her children into a more stable home.life, one where Daniel isn't.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Where to begin? Okay, first of all, throw all logic out the window. Any rational thoughts left? Throw them out the door! Now, maybe you’re ready for Wait And See by Ruby Jean Jenson. It’s been an eternity since I’ve read this ancient relic, so I’m putting a quarter in the jukebox of memories. Are you ready? Picture, if you will, a boy and girl who love each other with all their hearts. The girl, Charlene or Charlotte, I can’t remember…oh, her name doesn’t matter, she doesn’t last long. She comes up with this crazy idea with a knife, and presents her idea to him…that he needs to cut her with the knife, just enough so she can bleed to death, and then he needs to cut himself, so they can bleed to death together. Why? According to her, so they can be free like the birds. So here’s the setup…she talks him into cutting her chest open. Great job, bonehead, you just committed murder! She wants him to cut himself, but he chickenshits out, and leaves her to die, bleeding to death. He disposes the body in the river, where he hears her voice call out….I will wait for you! So. There you have it. There’s the center heart and soul of Wait And See. Half the book is just waiting around around to see if he’ll off himself for her. I don’t think he ever felt guilty for what he did. Needless to say, there has to be filler before she eventually gets tired of waiting for him, and rises from the river to seek revenge. What’s the filler? Oh, I don’t know, I remember two young boys swimming in the river, and one of them finds the skeleton at the bottom of the river. And why aren’t the police looking for this bitch, never mind why the boyfriend isn’t asking a dickload of questions by the cops on his whereabouts, while the family waits for her to come home, hoping she’s still alive. Well. She’s alive, but she’s dead. She’s a skeleton rising from the river, out to claim some lives to make up for her life lost. What did you expect, you dumb girl? It was your idea! Am I supposed to feel sorry for you, because your boyfriend was slightly smarter than you, and decides not to die for you? Hey, in all fairness, this was way before that you jump I jump crap. It was her idea, I say screw her. From what I remember, there’s a trail of innocent body count left behind before he makes the connection that it’s her back from the dead, since all these dead people just happened to be around the river area where he killed her. Book plays off like a silly 80s slasher flick. Not a good read, but it was fun, I’m giving it three stars.

[Bobby Stringini · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really wanted to give this five stars. The suspense and tension in this book are top notch.
Ruby Jean Jensen is one of those authors who makes sure the reader knows very early on that no character, young or old, is safe. That sets the stakes sky high, and it keeps those pages turning. The plot itself is fairly simple. A vengeful ghost hunts down basically anyone who gets in her away, including the family of her former lover... Who was also her cousin. This is a simplified version of the novel, but to reveal more would be spoilers, and this one is worth reading.
So why only four stars? The ending is VERY abrupt, and there wasn't the big pay off I was hoping for.
Still, this is a fun ride of a horror novel, and now that it has been reprinted I highly recommend it. Ruby Jean has yet to disappoint me, and Wait and See is a really fun, cozy horror novel.

[Kevin Macak · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first book, that I read by Ruby Jean Jensen and I really liked it. I found a copy of it at a fair price, and bought it. The cover art really is creepy and goes with this scary story of a satanic skeleton coming back for revenge. The story is about 2 cousins, who are romantically envolved. They are both only fifteen and Charline is pregnant. She is also a devil worshipper and is planning to sacrifice herself, along with her baby and cousin Daniel. This way they can be together immortaly. The only problem is Daniel doesn't go through with killing himself like Charlene did for the sacrifice. He instead hides her body in the river by a tree. Charline is chained down below with the very knife she killed herself with. 25 years later and she is back for revenge. Her satanic skeleton form is back and is on a murderous rampage.

[DJMikeG · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first Ruby Jean Jensen novel and I was very impressed! Ruby Jean kicks butt! This was rock solid horror, and it was so much better than so many rival novels of the same era. There was a moment, about 50 or so pages in, where I groaned and thought "here we go, this is about to get really boring and dull for awhile." Nope! This novel excels where so many of its peers fail. Ruby Jean keeps you guessing all the way up to the end. The book shocks you and amazes.
Gore, violence, creepy ambience and a propulsive narrative mixed in with just enough emotional heft makes for a winning read. I look forward to reading more of her books, Ruby Jean Kicks Butt!

[Nik · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd heard so many good reviews about this author's work I decided read time to find out for myself and this happened to be the first book of hers that I obtained a copy of.

Yeah. This is Pretty Good. It's short for a horror novel with a very common concept, which is predictable from its synopsis but it's well written with characters you can easily relate to and makes this a very enjoyable read. I'd definitely read more of her work.

Which one next? You might ask, well...

Wait and see!

[Sam Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very enjoyable bit of pulp horror. Jensen is not particularly good at hinting at future narrative events without giving them away, but nevertheless, she writes with intensity and clarity. For a novel of this type, descriptive passages are wonderfully evocative, and the whole thing moves at a well-judged pace, outside of its remarkably abrupt and somewhat disappointing ending.

A strong recommendation for horror readers.

[Ronald Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Winifred could never quite come to grips with the loss of her 15 year-old daughter. Of course, the body had never been found. She carefully plotted her revenge, then invited Daniel's wife and three children to come live with her. The 26 year-old mystery was rapidly approaching a conclusion. Ruby Jean spins another spell-binding story.

[Camille24 (camilleisreading) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect book to kick off spooky season! This vintage gem features a bloodthirsty skeleton, a creepy farm, and bad parenting! Really enjoyed this story and found it reminiscent of older Stephen King novels.

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, it's a fun vintage horror book . Fast paced but a bit confusing, never really understood anyone's motivation for doing well, anything, but it's not really that type of book. It's fun, like a cheesy horror movie. Read it with that in mind and you will enjoy it.

[Reevrb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Ruby's books and this novel is no exception...

[DecayingPumpkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

92

[Kelsi - Slime and Slashers · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 rounded down for GR

[Philip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this book. Page Turner from start to finish. It was original and had amazing pacing. The horror did produce many genuine scares. Ruby Jean isn’t messing around

[Fabián A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read. The book is really slow in its first half, but it picks up in the latter one. It tells the story of a walking skeleton searching for revenge. It's a haunting story, it has definitively some scary parts and some sad and cruel ones. The problem I found is that it's unnecessarily long. I could tell the same story and just as scary with 100 pages less. Anyway it was good. I bought this on Amazon after reading about Ruby Jean Jensen I found amazing the fact that she wrote all these books in her fifties and the fact that she isn't popular along with the awesome book covers convinced me to give a try. And it was worth it.

[Wendy Forte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Guessing I read this right when it came out. It the one horror book that I’ve read so many years ago that has stuck with me all this time. I still have nightmares about it. Maybe I would change my review if I read it again but from what I could remember it was the best, the creepiest book I have ever read. I believed in the power in that book and still do.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title does not really give you an idea what its about but "Wait and See" how much you like it. It is one of the scarier horror novels I have read. Unfortunately, it is out of print now. One to look for on the used book store shelves. (originally posted on Amazon.com)

[Misty Mathis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book definitely kept me up at night!