BOOK REVIEW: Trick or Treat

by Richie Tankersley Cusick (1989)

“Trick or Treat, trick or treat, candy is dandy, but murder is sweet”

The sixth book released in the Point (or Thriller depending on where you sit on the globe), Trick or Treat is a cozy, autumnal exercise in genre fiction. For some background, Point fiction was a series of young adult horror and mystery titles penned by a number of authors, most notably helping R.L. Stine kickstart his career in spooky juvenile tales. I put these books in the end stage of YA horror. Young kids start with the definitive Goosebumps series, shortly after that sneaking up to the Fear Street books, then onto the slightly more mature Point Horror, dabbling in somewhat darker more adult themes of romance, mental health, trauma, and crimes of passion.

I have been enjoying reading many of these nostalgic tales of terror recently, especially the ones taking place around Halloween, which of course many do. They can easily be knocked out in a day or so and I encourage anyone to pick one up and just have fun. Not every read needs to be a profound exercise in literary achievement. It’s just like with movies. Sometimes you want to watch Eraserhead, and other times you want to watch Sleepaway Camp III. Discussions on which is better are pointless, both can exist and serve different purposes. 

Enough of my rambling, let’s talk for a bit about Trick or Treat. The synopses is as follows: 

“Martha knew there was something evil about the house she was moving into. It was so cold…and creepy. And it wasn’t just the house that was giving her a weird feeling. Martha was sure someone was following her…watching her every move.Then the practical jokes began – the scarecrow with a carving knife in its head, the fire. And the phone calls…’Trick or Treat Martha, you’re dead’. It was October, but these were no Halloween tricks. Someone would be coming home this year with more than just a bag of treats and Martha was the prize. Trick or treat”. 

That about explains it. Cusick’s fourth novel, and second for this series following The Lifeguard, plays alongside the tropes of whodunit popular fiction. Like many YA thrillers from this era the mystery isn’t “who is killing these characters off one by one”, I suppose that may be a bit grim for this age range, it’s more figuring out who is tormenting our heroine, Martha. An emotionally fragile character not adjusting well to moving, her new school, living in a murder house, or bearing a resemblance to the victim of said murder. Fair enough, I suppose. Anyways, while gliding along those tropes, we as the readers are given a far more dreamy, ethereal, and at times disorienting mood than can usually be expected from this realm. The prose and vernacular on display really allow you to sink into the high emotional states Martha constantly floats between.

U.S. Edition

U.K. Edition

Now, though tropes are not inherently a bad thing (how could genre exist without them), you can expect to find many on display during your stay with Martha at the old Bedford house. Chapters often end in tense scares and ellipses to simply be red herrings by the start of the next, keeping the story moving in a cyclical fashion. Speaking of red herrings, lots of very shady character activity going on here! Whether from the love interest, step-brother, new friend, teacher, any of them really. However, it never feels that those suspicions are there for the reader to wonder who our villain is, more it feels as a constant game for Martha and the reader to try to understand what everyone’s motives are. They all seem to be holding back or casting doubt onto themselves, but not in a way that makes you say “he’s definitely the killer”.

These loose ends and hazy sequences of torment do culminate to an ending that did actually surprise me, even if just a little. I was also taken back by how grim the conclusion of the mysteries were (mind you, for a book targeted at middle to high schoolers).

Read it, have fun, allow yourself to be briefly swept into a pulpy good time.