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Driver's Dead
Trying to get the hang of becoming a better driver, Kirsten gratefully accepts Rob's offer of help, but when Rob disappears after their first lesson, Kirsten begins to realize that the driver's ed class may be more than she bargained for
227 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 1994
About the author
Peter Lerangis
140 books785 followersLerangis's work includes The Viper's Nest and The Sword Thief, two titles in the children's-book series The 39 Clues, the historical novel Smiler's Bones, the YA dark comedy-adventure novel wtf, the Drama Club series, the Spy X series, the Watchers series, the Abracadabra series, and the Antarctica two-book adventure, as well ghostwriting for series such as the Three Investigators, the Hardy Boys Casefiles, Sweet Valley Twins, and more than forty books in the series The Baby-sitters Club and its various spin-offs.[1] He has also written novels based on film screenplays, including The Sixth Sense, Sleepy Hollow, and Beauty and the Beast, and five video game novelizations in the Worlds of Power series created by Seth Godin.[2] As a ghostwriter he has been published under the name A. L. Singer.[3]
Lerangis is the son of a retired New York Telephone Company employee and a retired public-elementary-school secretary, who raised him in Freeport, New York on Long Island. He graduated from Harvard University with a degree in biochemistry, while acting in musicals[4] and singing with and musically directing the a cappella group the Harvard Krokodiloes,[5][6] before moving to New York. He worked there as an actor[7] and freelance copy editor for eight years before becoming an author.[8]
In 2003, Lerangis was chosen by First Lady Laura Bush to accompany her to the first Russian Book Festival, hosted by Russian First Lady Lyudmila Putina in Moscow.[9][10]Authors R. L. Stine (Goosebumps) and Marc Brown (the Arthur the Aardvark series) also made the trip with Bush.[9]
Also in 2003, Lerangis was commissioned by the United Kingdom branch of Scholastic to write X-Isle, one of four books that would relaunch the Point Horror series there.[11] A sequel, Return to X-Isle, was published in 2004.
In 2007, Scholastic announced the launch of a new historical mystery series called The 39 Clues, intended to become a franchise.[12] Lerangis wrote the third book in the series, The Sword Thief, published in March 2009.[13][14][15] On March 3, 2009, Scholastic announced that Lerangis would write the seventh book in the series, The Viper's Nest.[14][16]
Lerangis lives in New York City with his wife, musician Tina deVaron, and their sons Nick and Joe.[17]
Lerangis is the son of a retired New York Telephone Company employee and a retired public-elementary-school secretary, who raised him in Freeport, New York on Long Island. He graduated from Harvard University with a degree in biochemistry, while acting in musicals[4] and singing with and musically directing the a cappella group the Harvard Krokodiloes,[5][6] before moving to New York. He worked there as an actor[7] and freelance copy editor for eight years before becoming an author.[8]
In 2003, Lerangis was chosen by First Lady Laura Bush to accompany her to the first Russian Book Festival, hosted by Russian First Lady Lyudmila Putina in Moscow.[9][10]Authors R. L. Stine (Goosebumps) and Marc Brown (the Arthur the Aardvark series) also made the trip with Bush.[9]
Also in 2003, Lerangis was commissioned by the United Kingdom branch of Scholastic to write X-Isle, one of four books that would relaunch the Point Horror series there.[11] A sequel, Return to X-Isle, was published in 2004.
In 2007, Scholastic announced the launch of a new historical mystery series called The 39 Clues, intended to become a franchise.[12] Lerangis wrote the third book in the series, The Sword Thief, published in March 2009.[13][14][15] On March 3, 2009, Scholastic announced that Lerangis would write the seventh book in the series, The Viper's Nest.[14][16]
Lerangis lives in New York City with his wife, musician Tina deVaron, and their sons Nick and Joe.[17]
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
July 6, 2024
I read this with my book club that I run on Instagram where we revisit Point Horror and other books from our childhood - @talespointhorrorbookclub
Tagline - A crash course…in murder
Memorable For - Ghostly cars, moving contest flyers and roast beef!
Blurb -
Kirsten’s not a very good driver. And the driver’s ed classes aren’t helping. No matter how hard she tries, she just can’t get the hang of being behind the wheel. When Rob offers to give Kirsten a few tips on how to improve her driving, he turns up missing after the first lesson. Now Kirsten’s getting a crash course–in murder.
Some Thoughts -
Drivers Dead starts with a flashback on a murky misty night, woods, a stolen car with odour de la Old Spice and wet dog…a “talk”, a little drive….and BOOM!……you know, the whole works! With a little love triangle going on, a steep ravine and a “YO! YOU’RE IN THE WRONG LANE” shout out….. someone ends up dead within the first few pages! Flash forward to@present day ... Our point horror girl Kirsten realises something strange is going down in funky town! She starts hallucinating, hearing noises like “”ooohhhhhh” , seeing things like blood coming out of her wardrobe and smells of dead animals in her house and to top it all off she starts seeing ghostly figures!
Other highlights include a man who looks like roast beef, a dead guy, floppy disks (remember them?), a computer with DOS (so 90’s), haunted lockets, ever changing contest flyers with a fab prize of an Escort and telekinesis (you know like in the book Carrie)……I kid you not! Oh and lots of bad driving!
Bonus points for a much needed offing of a character 👏🏻👏🏻
Tagline - A crash course…in murder
Memorable For - Ghostly cars, moving contest flyers and roast beef!
Blurb -
Kirsten’s not a very good driver. And the driver’s ed classes aren’t helping. No matter how hard she tries, she just can’t get the hang of being behind the wheel. When Rob offers to give Kirsten a few tips on how to improve her driving, he turns up missing after the first lesson. Now Kirsten’s getting a crash course–in murder.
Some Thoughts -
Drivers Dead starts with a flashback on a murky misty night, woods, a stolen car with odour de la Old Spice and wet dog…a “talk”, a little drive….and BOOM!……you know, the whole works! With a little love triangle going on, a steep ravine and a “YO! YOU’RE IN THE WRONG LANE” shout out….. someone ends up dead within the first few pages! Flash forward to@present day ... Our point horror girl Kirsten realises something strange is going down in funky town! She starts hallucinating, hearing noises like “”ooohhhhhh” , seeing things like blood coming out of her wardrobe and smells of dead animals in her house and to top it all off she starts seeing ghostly figures!
Other highlights include a man who looks like roast beef, a dead guy, floppy disks (remember them?), a computer with DOS (so 90’s), haunted lockets, ever changing contest flyers with a fab prize of an Escort and telekinesis (you know like in the book Carrie)……I kid you not! Oh and lots of bad driving!
Bonus points for a much needed offing of a character 👏🏻👏🏻
May 15, 2024
Kirsten is new to Port Lincoln and is an awful driver, I mean really bad but when she meets Rob Maxson, all green eyes and smoulder he offers to teach her. Meanwhile at home she is being haunted by a past student, Nguyen, who was killed in a car accident or so it is believed. As he demands his murderers are brought to justice, Kirsten is drawn into a deadly game of revenge.
This takes the trope of a picture changing to stalk you, mixed in with a guilty small town secret and a vengeful ghost, it is fabulous fun and the subject matter is actually very dark.
As the town’s racism and xenophobia is brought to light the ghost of Nguyen makes them pay for their crime. Kirsten is a typical PH teen, new to the area, a bit drippy and determined not to tell an actual adult what is happening 😆 Her parents seem doting but dim! This is a decent horror that I found thoroughly entertaining!
This takes the trope of a picture changing to stalk you, mixed in with a guilty small town secret and a vengeful ghost, it is fabulous fun and the subject matter is actually very dark.
As the town’s racism and xenophobia is brought to light the ghost of Nguyen makes them pay for their crime. Kirsten is a typical PH teen, new to the area, a bit drippy and determined not to tell an actual adult what is happening 😆 Her parents seem doting but dim! This is a decent horror that I found thoroughly entertaining!
March 4, 2018
Oh look. More cheese! On the grander scale of 90s YA horror, DRIVER’S DEAD certainly isn’t one of the worst. I don’t know if I’d say it’s one of the better ones, but it’s not bad.
Kirsten’s family moves into the house previously owned by a couple whose kid died less than a year previously. Not in the house, but he died and it was a tragedy and now Kirsten’s living there and some weird things are happening. Like in solid Point Horror tradition, every single chapter ends on some crazy, often misleading, cliffhanger. It’s hilarious and ridiculous all at the same time.
Kirsten’s your typical teenager. She’s a nervous driver and is a bit shaky behind the wheel until a less than savory individual named Rob teaches her. Then she improves. He also expects payment by the way of some pond-side groping and luckily Kirsten tells him where to stuff it. But then she immediately wonders if she was too hard or too judgmental and blah blah blah. Kirsten, no. He’s a sleaze. Everyone warned you he was a sleaze. Stop.
But then he ends up dead and things start unraveling. Kirsten appears to be having visits from some kind of ghost and she’s convinced she’s sleeping in the room that belonged to Nguyen, the kid who died, before he died. Blood seeps out from under her closet door only to have it disappear when anyone else tries to look at it. The photo of a car in a flyer appears to change position and everyone brushes it off except her. She hears moaning and voices. It’s all totally creepy.
This book has some weird hangup on Vietnam, though. I don’t know why. It came out in 1994, well after the Vietnam War was even a memory of being relevant. Nguyen was supposed to be a refugee child and his aunt and uncle, with whom he was staying, were trying to find his parents who were still in Vietnam. He was right around 16, making him having been born in 1978. I’m not that adept at Vietnam history, but I know the last troops were pulling out around 1976, but things were rather a mess after that. So I don’t know. But you got Rob’s racist dad who blamed Nguyen’s uncle for taking his job and Mr Busk, the drunk driver’s ed teacher (great combination, by the way) who was a former Marine and Vietnam War vet who wasn’t firing on all cylinders, apparently. It’s just an insistent reference that’s really weird for me because the timing doesn’t seem to fit.
I liked the ending of the book, because everything was wrapped up, but in kind of a creepy way that could maybe have you questioning whether it’s really wrapped up at all. Dun dun dun! But at least Kirsten’s a compelling enough character that works to find a solution, even though she seems rather plot-servingly dumb sometimes. But at least she’s not the only one. People seem to be rather easily swayed in DRIVER’S DEAD.
Not a bad piece of cheese. Leaning toward one of the better ones. The writing’s better than a lot of them. The contrivances are actually minimal. Minus points for the ridiculous and never-ending cliffhanger chapters. Pretty decent character development although I wish Maria was more of a thing in the book. She would have sussed out Virgil quicker than Kirsten did with the same information. Such a cooler character than Kirsten. But whatever. If you’re interested be sure to check out my recap of this lovely gem on The Devil’s Elbow. It’s scheduled to post on 3/23.
3.5
Kirsten’s family moves into the house previously owned by a couple whose kid died less than a year previously. Not in the house, but he died and it was a tragedy and now Kirsten’s living there and some weird things are happening. Like in solid Point Horror tradition, every single chapter ends on some crazy, often misleading, cliffhanger. It’s hilarious and ridiculous all at the same time.
Kirsten’s your typical teenager. She’s a nervous driver and is a bit shaky behind the wheel until a less than savory individual named Rob teaches her. Then she improves. He also expects payment by the way of some pond-side groping and luckily Kirsten tells him where to stuff it. But then she immediately wonders if she was too hard or too judgmental and blah blah blah. Kirsten, no. He’s a sleaze. Everyone warned you he was a sleaze. Stop.
But then he ends up dead and things start unraveling. Kirsten appears to be having visits from some kind of ghost and she’s convinced she’s sleeping in the room that belonged to Nguyen, the kid who died, before he died. Blood seeps out from under her closet door only to have it disappear when anyone else tries to look at it. The photo of a car in a flyer appears to change position and everyone brushes it off except her. She hears moaning and voices. It’s all totally creepy.
This book has some weird hangup on Vietnam, though. I don’t know why. It came out in 1994, well after the Vietnam War was even a memory of being relevant. Nguyen was supposed to be a refugee child and his aunt and uncle, with whom he was staying, were trying to find his parents who were still in Vietnam. He was right around 16, making him having been born in 1978. I’m not that adept at Vietnam history, but I know the last troops were pulling out around 1976, but things were rather a mess after that. So I don’t know. But you got Rob’s racist dad who blamed Nguyen’s uncle for taking his job and Mr Busk, the drunk driver’s ed teacher (great combination, by the way) who was a former Marine and Vietnam War vet who wasn’t firing on all cylinders, apparently. It’s just an insistent reference that’s really weird for me because the timing doesn’t seem to fit.
I liked the ending of the book, because everything was wrapped up, but in kind of a creepy way that could maybe have you questioning whether it’s really wrapped up at all. Dun dun dun! But at least Kirsten’s a compelling enough character that works to find a solution, even though she seems rather plot-servingly dumb sometimes. But at least she’s not the only one. People seem to be rather easily swayed in DRIVER’S DEAD.
Not a bad piece of cheese. Leaning toward one of the better ones. The writing’s better than a lot of them. The contrivances are actually minimal. Minus points for the ridiculous and never-ending cliffhanger chapters. Pretty decent character development although I wish Maria was more of a thing in the book. She would have sussed out Virgil quicker than Kirsten did with the same information. Such a cooler character than Kirsten. But whatever. If you’re interested be sure to check out my recap of this lovely gem on The Devil’s Elbow. It’s scheduled to post on 3/23.
3.5
May 31, 2021
Great story, terribly written.
I read this for Point Horror Book club and we had a blast laughing at all the spelled out sound effects! I suppose that means I enjoyed it!
The cover is beautiful.
I read this for Point Horror Book club and we had a blast laughing at all the spelled out sound effects! I suppose that means I enjoyed it!
The cover is beautiful.
October 17, 2022
The last Peter Lerangis Point Horror I read had some twists and turns I didn't expect but this time the road was pretty much straight as an arrow with a few bumps.
It wasn't bad but I could have rated it higher if some things were different.
The back of the book blurb makes it vague about what's going on but the beginning of the book is a bit of a spoiler you can't ignore.
We think we're getting Kirsten as the main character and some guy named Rob but we get a glimpse at Nguyen Trang and Virgil Garth. Nguyen is from Vietnam, a nerd who wears glasses but loves cars and magic. The only thing Virgil has in common with Nguyen is that they both are head over heels for redhead Gwen Mitchell. Gwen use to go with Virgil's friend Rob Maxson but is now using Nguyen to make him jealous.
Rob's not jealous...he hates Nguyen's guts. Couldn't care less about Gwen, his hatred is more racially driven and home grown. Rob says he'll talk to Nguyen to try and get the geek to back off on Gwen so Virgil can have a chance at her.
The three teenage boys meet up on a rain filled night and it ends in tragedy...
Nguyen Trang died but the other boys survived. We have an idea about what happened but around town it has been decided that Nguyen stole the car that crashed and committed suicide. Kirsten Wilkes, new to town learns this from Maria Sirocco, her only real friend and Virgil's girlfriend.
It's ironic news to learn as Kirsten is taking Driver's Ed and she is really bad at it (I share her pain...I barely passed the class myself and got the lowest score you can get to pass for your actual license but did well on the written part.)
In Kirsten's driving group is Gwen Mitchell and her best friend Sara along with Maria and the three other girls are so much better at driving. It doesn't help that Mr. Busk, the Driver's Ed teacher, is a gruff ex-Marine who fought in Vietnam and has a faint odor of alcohol about him.
Her turn ends at the wheel when Kirsten thinks she has hit a young man and killed him but Rob Maxson was just kidding around. Maria tells Kirsten not to fall for Rob's charm and beautiful eyes yet she can't help it. He takes an interest in Kirsten and offers to take her out so he can teach her how to drive.
Ironically, he's a good teacher with patience and they even go out to dinner and a movie. Some of the things they talk about are more about Kirsten than himself so when she presses Rob, he seems evasive and even lies about how he noticed her. She thinks it's sweet until Rob goes a little too far in the park on a moonlight stroll.
Incensed, Kirsten leaves Rob and gets her jacket from his car before walking home alone. The next morning, Kirsten finds cops all about the park...Rob is dead.
A vehicle ran him over and Kirsten can't believe she was the last person to see him alive and she feels guilty about running out on him. He acted like a jerk but he didn't deserve to be mowed down and Kirsten is freaked when Gwen hands her...her house keys. They fell out of her jacket and Gwen, who found the body and called it in, spotted them.
Gwen has it in her head that Kirsten killed him but Kirsten believes the opposite...Gwen was jealous that Rob was showing interest in her and killed him in a jealous rage.
At home, some strange noises and a sickening smell assault Kirsten's senses. People believe her house is haunted but that couldn't be possible because the family who lived here before didn't have anyone die and the family before that...was Nguyen Trang's.
He didn't die in the house but he was connected to both Gwen and Rob...could that be just a coincidence? Kirsten has heard rumors that Nguyen had a diary and it was never found so what are the chances when she finds a floppy disk below the floorboards in her room with his initials written clear as day...
Now Kirsten has more on her mind than passing Driver's Ed: solving the mystery of Nguyen Trang's death even if it ends up killing her...
A decent ghost story, murder mystery plot going on but it's spoiled in the beginning and you know how it will end. When Kirsten starts trying to find out information, one piece that she finds spoils what could have been an awesome twist/reveal.
The ending, the actual "epilogue" ending didn't need to be added.
Still, Lerangis has a way with words so I can recommend it if you like more thrillers than horror.
It wasn't bad but I could have rated it higher if some things were different.
The back of the book blurb makes it vague about what's going on but the beginning of the book is a bit of a spoiler you can't ignore.
We think we're getting Kirsten as the main character and some guy named Rob but we get a glimpse at Nguyen Trang and Virgil Garth. Nguyen is from Vietnam, a nerd who wears glasses but loves cars and magic. The only thing Virgil has in common with Nguyen is that they both are head over heels for redhead Gwen Mitchell. Gwen use to go with Virgil's friend Rob Maxson but is now using Nguyen to make him jealous.
Rob's not jealous...he hates Nguyen's guts. Couldn't care less about Gwen, his hatred is more racially driven and home grown. Rob says he'll talk to Nguyen to try and get the geek to back off on Gwen so Virgil can have a chance at her.
The three teenage boys meet up on a rain filled night and it ends in tragedy...
Nguyen Trang died but the other boys survived. We have an idea about what happened but around town it has been decided that Nguyen stole the car that crashed and committed suicide. Kirsten Wilkes, new to town learns this from Maria Sirocco, her only real friend and Virgil's girlfriend.
It's ironic news to learn as Kirsten is taking Driver's Ed and she is really bad at it (I share her pain...I barely passed the class myself and got the lowest score you can get to pass for your actual license but did well on the written part.)
In Kirsten's driving group is Gwen Mitchell and her best friend Sara along with Maria and the three other girls are so much better at driving. It doesn't help that Mr. Busk, the Driver's Ed teacher, is a gruff ex-Marine who fought in Vietnam and has a faint odor of alcohol about him.
Her turn ends at the wheel when Kirsten thinks she has hit a young man and killed him but Rob Maxson was just kidding around. Maria tells Kirsten not to fall for Rob's charm and beautiful eyes yet she can't help it. He takes an interest in Kirsten and offers to take her out so he can teach her how to drive.
Ironically, he's a good teacher with patience and they even go out to dinner and a movie. Some of the things they talk about are more about Kirsten than himself so when she presses Rob, he seems evasive and even lies about how he noticed her. She thinks it's sweet until Rob goes a little too far in the park on a moonlight stroll.
Incensed, Kirsten leaves Rob and gets her jacket from his car before walking home alone. The next morning, Kirsten finds cops all about the park...Rob is dead.
A vehicle ran him over and Kirsten can't believe she was the last person to see him alive and she feels guilty about running out on him. He acted like a jerk but he didn't deserve to be mowed down and Kirsten is freaked when Gwen hands her...her house keys. They fell out of her jacket and Gwen, who found the body and called it in, spotted them.
Gwen has it in her head that Kirsten killed him but Kirsten believes the opposite...Gwen was jealous that Rob was showing interest in her and killed him in a jealous rage.
At home, some strange noises and a sickening smell assault Kirsten's senses. People believe her house is haunted but that couldn't be possible because the family who lived here before didn't have anyone die and the family before that...was Nguyen Trang's.
He didn't die in the house but he was connected to both Gwen and Rob...could that be just a coincidence? Kirsten has heard rumors that Nguyen had a diary and it was never found so what are the chances when she finds a floppy disk below the floorboards in her room with his initials written clear as day...
Now Kirsten has more on her mind than passing Driver's Ed: solving the mystery of Nguyen Trang's death even if it ends up killing her...
A decent ghost story, murder mystery plot going on but it's spoiled in the beginning and you know how it will end. When Kirsten starts trying to find out information, one piece that she finds spoils what could have been an awesome twist/reveal.
The ending, the actual "epilogue" ending didn't need to be added.
Still, Lerangis has a way with words so I can recommend it if you like more thrillers than horror.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 12, 2024
I liked this Point horror entry. It had the usual "who done it?" to figure out but with a supernatural twist which made it a nice change. It was also basically an ad for how bagels and cream cheese are the best snack....so that's fun.
May 18, 2024
My point horror reviews are compared against other point horror books only. Fun, murder mystery, and supernatural, a lot of fun. Definitely one to read if you love point horror.
May 9, 2021
This one was so much fun! And it actually featured a real ghost which was nice.
I’m not sure why I’m not giving it 5 stars - I needed a cleaner concept for that, I think, but I really liked Kirsten as a protag and I enjoyed the mystery! I hope she won the car and passed her test in the end.
Several things I found weird - why would anyone scatter the ashes of a crash victim at the crash site instead of, like, their favourite place? And was the concept of a password so foreign in 2003 that Kirsten wouldn’t know what one was? Maybe it was.
Oh floppy disks.
I also can’t imagine having to take driving lessons with classmates. I’d never have passed my test if I had to do that!
I’m not sure why I’m not giving it 5 stars - I needed a cleaner concept for that, I think, but I really liked Kirsten as a protag and I enjoyed the mystery! I hope she won the car and passed her test in the end.
Several things I found weird - why would anyone scatter the ashes of a crash victim at the crash site instead of, like, their favourite place? And was the concept of a password so foreign in 2003 that Kirsten wouldn’t know what one was? Maybe it was.
Oh floppy disks.
I also can’t imagine having to take driving lessons with classmates. I’d never have passed my test if I had to do that!
May 31, 2024
Another trip down memory lane with this one that I definitely read in the 90s. There isn't much of a mystery here because of the Prologue, and I'd say it differs slightly from most Point Horrors because it does retain a supernatural element to it. Kirsten is a good female protagonist, pro-active and not too annoying, although why she trusts Rob in the park at night surrounded by snogging couples I have no idea. This is not the very best in the series but it is one of the funniest with some scenes that come off comic rather than frightening. My favourite parts of this book are the really nostalgic parts, with a hidden diary saved on a floppy disk and a computer with a DOS operating system. All these things about the 90s that we forget! These books are great research if you're writing something set in the 90s.
May 5, 2024
This book hasn’t aged well, the attempted sexual assault was just brushed over and not really addressed, I think it’s probably just a product of its time but still wanted it to not be condoned. Also the racism from one of the older characters, now this was addressed by the younger characters and reacted to as unsavory, but the older man was just brushed off as crazy with nobody telling him he was wrong. On top of this there are questionable relationships throughout and people jumping to ridiculous conclusions. It was a quick read though and kept me wanting to pick it up.
August 14, 2024
3.5 stars rounded up to 4
This was a quick and easy read in the Point Horror collection.
The story is set in a small town near New York and tells of the mysterious death of Nguyen Trang in a car accident.
Kirsten is new to town and moves into the Trangs old house where odd things begin to happen. Can Kirsten find out the truth before she also becomes a victim?
The casual racism throughout this book is horrible, especially the way in which Vietnamese and Japanese people are talked about by various characters.
This was a quick and easy read in the Point Horror collection.
The story is set in a small town near New York and tells of the mysterious death of Nguyen Trang in a car accident.
Kirsten is new to town and moves into the Trangs old house where odd things begin to happen. Can Kirsten find out the truth before she also becomes a victim?
The casual racism throughout this book is horrible, especially the way in which Vietnamese and Japanese people are talked about by various characters.
May 12, 2024
A thrifted gift! This was simultaneously the worst piece of literature ever created and the most fun I’ve ever had reading a book. The dialogue was super cheesy and the ending was pretty meh, but the mystery itself was fun to pick out. Lerangis did a good job of leaving clues for the reader to follow without giving it away completely. There were some supernatural elements that felt underdeveloped; I would have loved if Lerangis had leaned into them completely. The ending was so-so.
May 18, 2024
This one is hard to rate for me (and I rate this against other point horrors not against all my reads) it wasn't the best, but I liked the supernatural element and the SK references and the fact it was based on a true story.
September 25, 2018
Loved this book. Not to many characters but good characters. A lovely little creepy twist at the end
March 8, 2019
1 of my most favourite books of all time! Suggest you read it yourself, I think this book was amazing.
November 30, 2019
Totally over the top teen horror novel. This one would make a really good film. A tad eye rolling at times, but theatrical and it works, somehow.
May 3, 2020
Overall, quite an emotional book. Had alot of emotional chapters.
May 20, 2024
3.75 stars
June 19, 2024
3.75-4 stars - Driver's Dead is a fun, fast-paced YA thriller about high school student Kirsten uncovering secrets behind a deadly car accident. Kirsten's driver's education experience is both funny and relatable, reminding me of my own struggles as a novice driver. While the supernatural elements felt unnecessary, the author's exploration of the important topic of racism added depth to the story.
June 28, 2024
This is a thrilling young adult-ish book. A new girl. A Haunting. Secrets to discover and solve. And a few twists I didn’t see coming.
July 31, 2016
Point Horror books are something of a guilty pleasure for me, or as close as I get to having guilt over anything I enjoy. I loved them as a teen, mainly because I knew my parents wouldn't want me reading them, and even then I knew they weren't technically very good.
Driver's Dead is largely better written than a lot of the other point horrors and (sadly for me) lacked any real howlers in the dialogue; what it also lacked was scares or a particularly interesting protagonist. The story focuses around the forgettable Kirsten's driving lessons, her very teen girl decision to have lessons with obvious arsewart Rob and a possibly haunted or possessed car.
It's all very silly but it took me back to my summer holidays as a teen and whiled away an hour, which is really all I wanted.
Driver's Dead is largely better written than a lot of the other point horrors and (sadly for me) lacked any real howlers in the dialogue; what it also lacked was scares or a particularly interesting protagonist. The story focuses around the forgettable Kirsten's driving lessons, her very teen girl decision to have lessons with obvious arsewart Rob and a possibly haunted or possessed car.
It's all very silly but it took me back to my summer holidays as a teen and whiled away an hour, which is really all I wanted.
April 10, 2012
This was the first pocketbook that I ever had. I remember buying this because I always wanted to read horror stories.
It has been years when I actually read this book so I don't remember the whole story. But I know that I had goosebumps and the real antagonist was unpredictable until the end of the story.
It has been years when I actually read this book so I don't remember the whole story. But I know that I had goosebumps and the real antagonist was unpredictable until the end of the story.
February 25, 2016
This is a very strange book. It's meant to be horror, but it wasn't, really. Unless one can count one or two mentions of 'she tried to scream', as horror. Took me ages to finish this, even the second time around and it has fared no better than the first time I read it. Still a single star and off it goes, back to the banished books shelf.
November 23, 2016
11/22/2016 (3.5 stars)
I chose this book because I thought it had an interesting synopsis. It kind of reminded me of something RL Stine would write. It was a good book, though predictable if you pay attention. However, I do recommend this book, especially if you are a fan of Mr Stine's fear street series. I plan to look for more of Mr Lerangis' books.
I chose this book because I thought it had an interesting synopsis. It kind of reminded me of something RL Stine would write. It was a good book, though predictable if you pay attention. However, I do recommend this book, especially if you are a fan of Mr Stine's fear street series. I plan to look for more of Mr Lerangis' books.
July 10, 2013
It was a brilliant idea and it is a very good story, although some things are a bit confusing like why the competition flyers? I didn't see how those connected. But it was still good.
September 21, 2012
Wasn't entirely sure of what was happening and when as i found this book quite confusing, but overall I enjoyed it
August 28, 2014
Good book but the whole thing with the car in the flyers was a little confusing.
October 15, 2021
One-Line Review: I’d have found this more interesting if the villain had turned out to be the hero (and alive).
Full review to come.
Full review to come.
May 31, 2016
Good book. A quick read.
November 10, 2009
This book is not too good
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews