All Andrea wants this year for Christmas is a little peace. And after being the target of harassment for the last year, she deserves it. The teenage protagonist at the heart of the 1993 book Slay Ride can’t even ride the bus to school without being made the subject of lewd jokes and unfounded rumors. Her life is hell and no one wants to help her. The situation only changes when Andrea gains an ally. Someone goes to great lengths to help Andrea with her bullies, but at some point she starts to wonder if maybe her “Guardian Angel” has gone too far.
The 1990s series The Nightmare Club takes place in an “Anywhere, America” kind of fictional town called Cooper Hollow. And its namesake is really a nickname for a teen hangout, the Night Owl Club, that can be found deep in the woods. Whispers of weirdness surround the place, but as far as everyone is concerned, those stories are unfounded. So what if the place used to be an orphanage a century ago, and 100 kids died in a fire there? That doesn’t mean the place is evil.
Or does it?
The Night Owl Club has a small part in this volume when compared to others, but before the main character of Slay Ride ever visits, Andrea Wanamaker first learns she has someone looking out for her. Or has he called himself it in the notes he leaves in her locker, a Guardian Angel. Big man on campus Tom Markham has been tormenting Andrea for what feels like forever. The school principal said “boys will be boys” when Andrea approached him about the constant sexual harassment, and a female teacher basically told her to ignore Tom and his friends. Another day of taunting and a humiliating Secret Santa gift — Andrea receives a box of condoms in front of the whole class — ends with Andrea on the edge of sanity. Yet there in her locker, Andrea discovers the note that changes everything.
“What has been done to you is wrong. It ends here. I will make it end. Please believe me. Your Guardian Angel.”
Along with the anonymous letter is a ruby pendant with an inscription made up of foreign markings. Andrea has no real friends to speak of, and she’s yet to tell her parents about the abuse, so she hasn’t the faintest clue who this Angel person could be. At first she suspects her crush, the brooding Jimmy Barnes. Or maybe it’s bad boy Ray Levy, who’s originally from Queens and supposedly shot someone before coming to Cooper Hollow. Both young men help Andrea out when she’s in a bind, so either one could be Angel.
Soon enough, the tables are turned on Andrea’s enemies. A fake newspaper spreads like fire around Cooper High; it features doctored photos of Tom and his friends in drag, as well as an article about Tom being denied a penile implant. It’s all obviously fake, but people don’t care. Even Andrea’s favorite teacher Mr. Beroni finds it amusing. Nevertheless, Tom and his clique are now the joke of the school, and their humiliation empowers Andrea. She gains the courage to not only make friends with classmates Anne and Grace, she also goes on a date with Jimmy. Andrea’s Guardian Angel has indeed made her life a bit easier, though she quickly realizes the relief is temporary.
What Guardian Angel fails to realize is he’s only making things worse for Andrea. By vandalizing the school’s trophy case, which houses Tom and his friends’ awards, Andrea’s invisible savior is poking a bear. And eventually that bear is going to poke back. Tom erroneously suspects Andrea and Jimmy are behind these elaborate pranks, so he and the others gang up on Jimmy as he’s on his way to meet Andrea at the Night Owl Club. Things get out of hand and Jimmy ends up in a coma. Meanwhile at the Night Owl Club, Andrea gets an unsolicited lesson about her ruby pendant from one of the proprietors, Jenny Demos. She tells Andrea the necklace is connected to the Golem myth of Jewish folklore. “Have any of your enemies come to harm?” Jenny asks her. It’s here where readers start to believe Guardian Angel might actually be a supernatural creature rather than a human.
Andrea doesn’t put two and two together when it comes to finding Jimmy’s attacker. She doesn’t immediately stop to think Tom and his ilk are responsible. And with Jimmy likely never waking up again, Ray ruled out as Angel, and Anne and Grace too scared to help, Andrea is right back where she started: all alone and back to being the school’s punching bag. There’s always Mr. Beroni — who even gives Andrea a book on how to combat sexual harassment — but Andrea is wary of trusting anyone right now. Especially when she thinks her father, a war veteran, could be Angel. The evidence she discovers makes her theory more likely than a Golem.
Right or wrong, she wanted revenge.
Slay Ride lives up to its title when Guardian Angel starts to do more than humiliate Andrea’s tormentors with jokes. Author Nick Baron (a pseudonym for the late Scott Ciencin) delivers a full-on slasher story after Jimmy’s brutal beating. One by one, Tom and his goons are murdered by a shadowy assailant. Someone’s beaten with chains, another is split in half during a game of laser tag, and the others are picked off after Andrea is abducted and nearly gang-raped. What’s interesting is Andrea herself kills three of her attackers after Angel took care of the others. The first guy is impaled on reindeer antlers in a Christmas display, the second ends up face first in a burning furnace, and lastly, she beats Tom’s head into a bloody paste. Baron is not one to mince words when it comes to the violent scenes.
In the final showdown with Tom, Andrea learns her father is neither Guardian Angel, nor is there a Golem involved. The book’s anti-hero is none other than Mr. Beroni, who was triggered by Andrea’s situation. In the past he failed to help a student with a similar problem, and she ultimately took her own life. As thankful as she is, Andrea also calls Beroni out; she accuses him of enjoying what he did. Finally, before Beroni succumbs to his own mortal wounds, he suggests he and Andrea were no different. A farewell letter Beroni wrote for the police absolves Andrea of any of the murders, but she’s now left to wonder if she can contain this growing desire to hurt those who hurt others.
Slay Ride is another disturbing Kensington book published under its Z-Fave imprint. If your education in vintage young-adult suspense is mainly Goosebumps or Point Horror, you will likely be shocked by how graphic and gruesome this story is. Baron enhances a (sadly) timeless tale of what it’s sometimes like for women who are harassed and assaulted. Society at large tends to doubt them, or worse, people look the other way. In addition, there’s the theme of revenge. How far can you go before it’s no longer standing up for yourself? As entertaining as this book is, its subject matter is something to reflect on. It’s not all neatly wrapped and topped off with a pretty bow. On the contrary, Slay Ride goes to a dark place and then never leaves.
There was a time when the young-adult section of bookstores was overflowing with horror and suspense. These books were easily identified by their flashy fonts and garish cover art. This notable subgenre of YA fiction thrived in the ’80s, peaked in the ’90s, and then finally came to an end in the early ’00s. YA horror of this kind is indeed a thing of the past, but the stories live on at Buried in a Book. This recurring column reflects on the nostalgic novels still haunting readers decades later.
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