Win, Lose or Die

Nightmare Hall #18

by Diane Hoh

Accepting a scholarship to the Salem tennis team, Nicki realizes that someone is sabotaging her play, and when an accident meant for her claims the life of another girl, Nicki realizes that not everybody loves a winner

Genres: Young Adult, Horror, Mystery

209 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1994

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one was awesome. It's longer than the others and the suspense was believable.

[Erin *Proud Book Hoarder* · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun! I have a soft small for college setting retro series, not just the horror ones. This had several suspects that made sense and then another twist at the end. Fun times. A first read for me, although I've read some of the series in the past, was happy to grab a lot of them on sale. Hopefully the others hold up as well.

[Jina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This school has way too many psychopaths. Seriously. They need to start making psych evals part of the college application process.

[Sarah Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't remember any of this taking part at Nightmare Hall.

* Nicki is a top tennis player, and after being offered a full scholarship at Salem University to play tennis, she switches universities from State.
* The other tennis players aren't very nice to Nicki, mainly because of a girl called Libby who makes it clear that she's the best, and she doesn't want Nicki there.
* Nicki gets a ruined racket left in her room, a tennis ball explodes and covers her with red paint, she goes in a whirlpool bath after practice with a girl called Barb and Barb ends up dead, and she gets trapped in the locker rooms alone in the dark and someone tries to kill her.
* Nicki comes across some information and she remembers that when she was 12 she threw her racket on gravel and the stones hit someone else. Turns out that she blinded that person in 1 eye.
* She figures that that is who is after her, but when she works it out, it turns out it's not that person (it was John and he's not overly bothered).
* Turns out it's Pat because the scholarship was taken away from her to give to Nicole.

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good little whodunit in the knightmare hall style .

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun little trip down memory lane! There were so many red herrings that I was legitimately shocked by the culprit at the end, which made this one of the better books in the series.

[Kasey Loftis · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite Nightmare Hall books so far. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Caitlin]

Win, Lose or Die (Nightmare Hall, No. 18) by Diane Hoh (1994)

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this series when I was in middle school and frequently continue to revisit them as an adult. Nice, easy read.