Customer Reviews

Chloris and the Creeps

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

I read the Chloris books when I was young and I identified with Chloris' complicated life. I think the author speaks intelligently to young readers. The author deals squarely with a child facing a less-than-ideal family situation and realistically portrays a child's anger when this happens.

Chloris in "Chloris and the Creeps" is one unhappy child. Unfortunately, she's also a hostile, unpleasant one, determined to make her family (mother, sister Jenny, and stepfather) suffer along with her. Jenny narrates this story, in which Chloris does her best to create a fantasy world in which she and her estranged father are reunited and happy, and where Jenny attempts to live with her sister's misery and the upheaval it causes.

Set in California during the 1970s, "Chloris and the Creeps" is like stepping back into a time machine and revisiting your childhood--the clothes, the slang, the TV programs, and the issues. Platt doesn't sugarcoat any of it. Jenny may be too earnest for some readers, but make no mistake: the one with the lesson to learn (and the blinders to remove) is Chloris, who is desperate to hold on to her illusions of happiness with her father.

Unlike many of the reviewers, I felt little sympathy for Chloris--and I doubt the reader will also. While it does illustrate the problems of blended families and the pain of losing a parent, it also paints a true-to-life portrait of a girl who feels that, so long as she's unhappy, everyone around her must be as well. It's not politically correct by any means, but it is well-done. If you remember Kin Platt's Chloris series, or you know someone from a broken family, I recommend you buy it.

This book is a real disappointment. Chloris, the title character is a then 11-year-old coping with the suicide of her father some three years earlier, a selfish mother who isn't even nice to her and her pampered princess of a sister, Jenny. Jenny narrates all the Chloris stories and the favoritism the mother showers on Jenny is sickening. Poor Chloris had to contend with the fact that her father squandered her inheritance, leaving her nothing while spoiled little Jenny gets it all. The stupid mother slaps Chloris and treats her like dirt whenever she is angry at her which is frequent. She never seems to relate postively to Chloris and appears to be conditioned to disapprove of anything connected with her. A must miss.

Poor Chloris has a lot on her plate. A favored, bratty younger sister, a father who committed suicide some three years earlier and a mother who shouldn't happen to a mongrel dog. Chloris' father squandered all the insurance money that she was supposed to inherit, but leaves bratty Jenny well off. What a bummer. Chloris has a vain, spoiled, immature mother who craves the attention of men. After remarrying a man named Fidel Mancha, Chloris rebuffs Mancha and refuses to let him adopt her or her favored brat of a sister.

I hated the way that disgusting mother would go on slapping sprees to Chloris. I also hated the way she would talk against Chloris to goody two shoes Jenny and refer to Chloris as "your sister." That mother belonged in the wastebasket. This book is a real downer. Skip it.