Freeze Tag
(Point Horror)
by Caroline B. Cooney
Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks
Publication date: Sept. 1, 2004
Genre: Young Adult Horror
Rating:
From best-selling author Caroline Cooney comes this suspenseful story of Meghan, whose relationship with her perfect boyfriend is destroyed by a girl who can freeze people with a touch of her finger.
When Meghan and West first played Freeze Tag with Lannie, it was no ordinary game. Because when Lannie tagged someone, they really froze. Icy blue and cold. Like death.
Now Meghan, West, and Lannie are in high school, and Meghan and West are in love. They’re the perfect couple. But Lannie is determined to have West for her very own… and if she doesn’t get her way, she’ll freeze Meghan… to death.
This was an interesting story that deals with a young girl (Lannie) who has the ability to freeze people. Not in a block of ice, but to basically hit the pause button on them. The story starts off with a group of young children playing around in their front yard. They decide to play a game of freeze tag, only everyone who gets tagged is literally frozen in place. The story then fast forwards to their teens and you realize that Lannie has been waiting for the right moment to strike, and that moment is now.
This sounded like it would be a thriller story, but I honestly didn’t get that. The story is told in third person, and doesn’t actually follow one particular person, but the group as a whole. It became clear early on that just about none of the characters in this story are likeable. Lannie has been neglected her entire life. She was basically an unwanted child by her parents, and it shows. Meghan was super obnoxious. She seemed a bit self-centered and was more concerned with her boyfriend playing along with Lannie’s threats, than showing her affection. Which brings me to West, who was a complete pushover. Some crazy chick tells you that you have to be HER girlfriend otherwise she will freeze your siblings and you just play along? I also don’t understand the time jump that happens between children and their teenage years. I had zero insight on who they were as people, other than the bits that I read about them as children, and let’s just say they never grew up. In all honesty, I felt bad for Lannie. Her parents ignored her, the children in the neighborhood didn’t want to play with her because they thought she was weird, and that followed her throughout the years. I’m not saying what she did was right, but she was the only character that seemed to have more to them.
Another thing that didn’t jive with me was the writing. Everything seemed so bland. It was just one rambled on sentence the entire time. Then when the ending came, I was left wondering what the heck happened. The good guys became bad guys? The bad guy became good? Honestly, I have no clue. It was such a bizarre ending that didn’t really resolve anything.
In all honesty, this was just not for me. It was a short story thriller that didn’t have any purpose, depth, or conclusion. I was hoping for something more, but this just didn’t hit the mark for me.
Sorry to hear you didn’t like this one more.