READS LIKE A MOVIE - HOLLY SCHINDLER

When I was about 13, I discovered Christopher Pike. I loved his stuff. LOVED. The first one I read was FALL INTO DARKNESS, and then I just devoured as many as I could get my hands on.

At the time (and in the years since), I always said Pike’s books read “like movies.”

What did I mean by that?

His books were fast-paced. They were scenic. They were visual. High stakes were usually involved. I remember some sort of chase scene toward the end of FALL INTO DARKNESS during which the character attempting the escape was basically in a kind of ever-shifting snowdrift that was acting like quicksand.

I’d grown up on books that largely focused on interpersonal relationships. Realism. Blume and Cleary. But Pike? They were a completely different world. When I read them, I didn’t just feel them. I saw them. He put a screen up there in my head where all the action scenes came to life.

I’ve read plenty of mysteries or action novels since. But there was just something about those first Pike books. That feeling of You can really do this in a book?

Yes. Yes, you can. And readers will thank you for it.