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Hall Pass
Melissa discovers the diary of a crazed killer who has already murdered several of her classmates and learns that she is Mr. Elliot's next target.
148 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1993
45 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 27, 2024
This a first I believe of me rounding a book up to 2 stars from 1.5 for GR.
This book started with promise in the normal patterns of a YA Horror/Thriller but it felt as if it might deliver something a little different.
The back of the book is also not very subtle as to just who is going to be the crazy of the book...neither is the cover for that matter.
The manner as to just how that is revealed is carried out in a very strange way. Perhaps I have become too desensitized to these books and horror movies with their tropes or maybe Hawks is just a writer on a different level as this is the first book of his that I have read.
I must also admit that when it comes to villains...I really am not a fan of those who seem too verbose and gaslight to the point that you question your own intelligence.
Melissa Maynard is a prankster, a joker but being only a sophomore in high school and having a file about an inch thick of your tricks doesn't impress parents or educators.
That is why she is in this "Intervention" class at school because it is the last ditch effort to try and work out the problem kids. The next step is being sent to a "special" school...none of the students want that.
Prison would be better or maybe a mental ward...Mr. Elliot already acts like a shrink with his psychoanalysis for these problem kids. Melissa is however not crazy but she probably would be if she didn't have at least her best friend Holly to count on.
Melissa has never liked her stepmother Jeanette and even calls her "The Witch" since she married Melissa's dad when she was eight years old. Melissa even ran away from home and got twenty miles out of town in two days before being returned home.
If her mother could turn and walk away, why couldn't she?
Melissa has six other classmates in this basement room, seven assigned but Janie ran away, and the only one that is trouble is Russell Morse. Rumors are that he killed his brother while others say his brother had to be sent away to Florida with relatives before Russ did kill him.
Russ arrives late that day and his black eye and bloody lip show he got in a fight with someone, his mood not the greatest. Mr. Elliot tries to get him to see the nurse but Russ' temper causes him to break a desk with his bare hands. Instead of getting the principal, Mr. Elliot asks Russ what could be done to make him feel better.
He suggests they go to the library or else he will pace like a tiger in a stifling cage. The handsome teacher uses his charm on the librarian to let his students have time while other students are studying for a test. Melissa finds a table to read a fashion magazine while all of the others dump their stuff and "mingle" while Russ decides to join her.
Melissa tries to ignore him but becomes intrigued to learn that Russ took stuff off the teacher's desk when Mr. Elliot wasn't looking since it looks like an unorganized mess. Most of them are files on his students and the notes he takes in "observing" them but Melissa isn't looking to get in trouble anymore...or else be sent off to Bannerston.
Once the bell rings and everybody grabs stuff off the table, Melissa finds that she has picked a blue notebook that is not hers. It is one they sell in the student store at school but it has no name in it so out of curiosity, Melissa reads it instead of paying attention to Algebra.
I would too...I hated all math classes in high school.
First she does so to see if she can find the owner because it might be one of those juicy gossip filled slam books that make their way around tables in the cafeteria. Soon, it becomes clear that it is a diary of sorts and whomever writes in it...is in Intervention but that was no big leap really.
What is a big deal is that the person admits...they had to kill Janie Hoffman. The one student missing from the class for the past two weeks...
Melissa thinks that this has to be a joke...a cruel one that not even she would find funny. Needing time to think about what she has read, Melissa stashes it in her locker and decides to wait over the weekend.
She's grounded after all thanks to her last prank by her wicked stepmother and even when Holly calls begging her to sneak out so they can hook up on a double date while Holly's parents are out of town. It is when Melissa learns that Holly found the notebook since the besties know each other's combinations by memory and share locker space all the time to borrow clothes and whatnot.
Back to school on Monday, Melissa makes it to school before Holly. The girls find the inside of Melissa's locker a total mess and the lace sweater she "borrowed" from Jeanette missing and Holly is sure that the writer of the notebook is responsible yet she won't reveal who she believes it is.
It is when the note shows up that we know things are about to get terrible:
WHO DO I HAVE TO KILL TO GET MY NOTEBOOK BACK?
Interwoven in the story, we get our "writer" explaining just why and how off the deep end he really is. There are not too many shocks given to the system and the book spirals into a truly perplexing and...disappointing ending.
To grow your collection would be the only reason worth having this book so for me Hall Pass...is a hard pass.
This book started with promise in the normal patterns of a YA Horror/Thriller but it felt as if it might deliver something a little different.
The back of the book is also not very subtle as to just who is going to be the crazy of the book...neither is the cover for that matter.
The manner as to just how that is revealed is carried out in a very strange way. Perhaps I have become too desensitized to these books and horror movies with their tropes or maybe Hawks is just a writer on a different level as this is the first book of his that I have read.
I must also admit that when it comes to villains...I really am not a fan of those who seem too verbose and gaslight to the point that you question your own intelligence.
Melissa Maynard is a prankster, a joker but being only a sophomore in high school and having a file about an inch thick of your tricks doesn't impress parents or educators.
That is why she is in this "Intervention" class at school because it is the last ditch effort to try and work out the problem kids. The next step is being sent to a "special" school...none of the students want that.
Prison would be better or maybe a mental ward...Mr. Elliot already acts like a shrink with his psychoanalysis for these problem kids. Melissa is however not crazy but she probably would be if she didn't have at least her best friend Holly to count on.
Melissa has never liked her stepmother Jeanette and even calls her "The Witch" since she married Melissa's dad when she was eight years old. Melissa even ran away from home and got twenty miles out of town in two days before being returned home.
If her mother could turn and walk away, why couldn't she?
Melissa has six other classmates in this basement room, seven assigned but Janie ran away, and the only one that is trouble is Russell Morse. Rumors are that he killed his brother while others say his brother had to be sent away to Florida with relatives before Russ did kill him.
Russ arrives late that day and his black eye and bloody lip show he got in a fight with someone, his mood not the greatest. Mr. Elliot tries to get him to see the nurse but Russ' temper causes him to break a desk with his bare hands. Instead of getting the principal, Mr. Elliot asks Russ what could be done to make him feel better.
He suggests they go to the library or else he will pace like a tiger in a stifling cage. The handsome teacher uses his charm on the librarian to let his students have time while other students are studying for a test. Melissa finds a table to read a fashion magazine while all of the others dump their stuff and "mingle" while Russ decides to join her.
Melissa tries to ignore him but becomes intrigued to learn that Russ took stuff off the teacher's desk when Mr. Elliot wasn't looking since it looks like an unorganized mess. Most of them are files on his students and the notes he takes in "observing" them but Melissa isn't looking to get in trouble anymore...or else be sent off to Bannerston.
Once the bell rings and everybody grabs stuff off the table, Melissa finds that she has picked a blue notebook that is not hers. It is one they sell in the student store at school but it has no name in it so out of curiosity, Melissa reads it instead of paying attention to Algebra.
I would too...I hated all math classes in high school.
First she does so to see if she can find the owner because it might be one of those juicy gossip filled slam books that make their way around tables in the cafeteria. Soon, it becomes clear that it is a diary of sorts and whomever writes in it...is in Intervention but that was no big leap really.
What is a big deal is that the person admits...they had to kill Janie Hoffman. The one student missing from the class for the past two weeks...
Melissa thinks that this has to be a joke...a cruel one that not even she would find funny. Needing time to think about what she has read, Melissa stashes it in her locker and decides to wait over the weekend.
She's grounded after all thanks to her last prank by her wicked stepmother and even when Holly calls begging her to sneak out so they can hook up on a double date while Holly's parents are out of town. It is when Melissa learns that Holly found the notebook since the besties know each other's combinations by memory and share locker space all the time to borrow clothes and whatnot.
Back to school on Monday, Melissa makes it to school before Holly. The girls find the inside of Melissa's locker a total mess and the lace sweater she "borrowed" from Jeanette missing and Holly is sure that the writer of the notebook is responsible yet she won't reveal who she believes it is.
It is when the note shows up that we know things are about to get terrible:
WHO DO I HAVE TO KILL TO GET MY NOTEBOOK BACK?
Interwoven in the story, we get our "writer" explaining just why and how off the deep end he really is. There are not too many shocks given to the system and the book spirals into a truly perplexing and...disappointing ending.
To grow your collection would be the only reason worth having this book so for me Hall Pass...is a hard pass.
May 10, 2016
Well, that was...interesting. (Again, not a real Point Horror or Fear Street, but close enough for shelving purposes). It was easy enough to figure out who was writing the crazy-notebook, but I hadn't anticipated that a second person would ALSO be crazy and homicidal. The stepmother was so awful that by the end (when the heroine joins Team Homicidal Crazy) I was more or less glad.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 8, 2025
Similar to another review, the start really was promising with a story full of potential. You have the class of intervention kids sitting around in a circle like a scene from nightmare on elm street 3, the discovery of an anonymous notebook detailing their group, along with a confession of murder, made for an intriguing plot device for a whodunit and when the owner of the notebook will go to extreme lengths to get it back you know danger lurks around every corner.
Unfortunately a whole lot of nothing happens after that, for a short story it becomes a real slog and nearly all but one other character from the intervention class are dropped from the story all which is odd considering they are all suspects. In classic and obvious misdirection the other bad kid of the class, Russ, becomes the prime suspect.
The ending is a slightly convoluted affair involving a separate murderer who lived in a large house and is pretty much summed up in a few pages with a very unsatisfying twist which is not played out on the page.
Unfortunately a whole lot of nothing happens after that, for a short story it becomes a real slog and nearly all but one other character from the intervention class are dropped from the story all which is odd considering they are all suspects. In classic and obvious misdirection the other bad kid of the class, Russ, becomes the prime suspect.
The ending is a slightly convoluted affair involving a separate murderer who lived in a large house and is pretty much summed up in a few pages with a very unsatisfying twist which is not played out on the page.
March 31, 2022
I wish I could rate this half a star. I truly regret every moment I spent reading it.
June 20, 2010
It was ok I love that the kids are degenerates and that the teacher was the bad guy but not really impressed!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews