Customer Reviews

Dreadful Future of Blossom Culp, The

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

BOOK BLURB: 14-year old psychic Blossom Culp isn't looking forward to life in high school. Thanks to stuck-up Letty Shambaugh, Blossom's not included in the class Halloween project, so she can't help transform Old Man Leverette's place into a haunted house. What's worse is, Letty has her sights set on handsome Alexander Armsworth. Wanting to get back at Letty, Blossom secretly explores the eerie house with Alexander.

Suddenly everything goes berserk, and Blossom's hurled from 1914 into a time warp. Through her psychic powers Blossom's found a new way into the future, where she's surrounded by Valley Girls and computers. But will those powers work in reverse?

I've read all four books in this series, and this is the one I like least.

I can see why Peck chose to follow up on "Ghosts I Have Been" (the best, in my and probably most others' opinion). Readers and his publishers were probably hounding him for a sequel...and that's the most likely explanation for why this is so poor! It must have been written under duress, is all I can figure.

The tone of the other three installments is lost here, crushed under the weight of slapstick and gratuitous .... (Blossom ogling Alexander at the swimming hole? P-lease!) The 1984 sequence doesn't stand out as an anomaly, the way it should: everything leading up to it has been a painfully obvious parallel. And Peck also cheaps out, in my opinion, by only showing the extremes of the '80s lifestyle.

When I first read this, it had just been released, and I was 14. As such, I could totally feel Blossom's pain when Alexander starts courting Letty. But now, at 33, I have to wonder if he's worth losing a minute's sleep over. In GIHB, he and Blossom were a year or so too young for any serious romantic leanings (although there was a bit of foreshadowing when a character points out that if Alexander gets caught in Blossom's room, he'll have some 'splainin' to do), but they were definitely friends. Now, I can understand that a year later, when he starts to Notice Girls, that he might be swayed by Letty, who is more conventional, but that doesn't excuse his extreme rudeness towards Blossom.

And not just rudeness. In one case, he's either a cold-hearted SOB or the most base coward ever. Throughout the 1984 sequence, I assumed that it would be one of those deals where Blossom would return to 1914 just a few seconds past the time she left. But the same amount of time elapsed in both eras: she was gone for a night and a day. Meanwhile, Alexander just took off as soon as she disappeared, which is bad enough, but when they meet up again, he never shows one iota of concern for what happened to her! No "Glad you're okay", not even "So what happened?" For all he knew, she might have never have come back at all. What a jerk.

I'd say skip this one, as it adds nothing to the series. The next one is okay, but only if you accept that Peck hit the reset button.

To be perfectly honest, I'm not always thrilled when writers pull the "time-travel" card into a story that already has plenty of fantasy. But, oh well. Peck had already established Miss Culp as the girl who randomly finds her way through time and space. Much more light-hearted than prior stories, Blossom's goal is to show up the rest of the student body at the freshman Halloween fund-raiser--due to age-old rivalries and subtle romantic tension between Blossom and Alexander. Still,the modern-aged bugged me. Aside from that, this has plenty of the personality I have come to expect from Richard Peck and his unique vision of old-school small-town America. Not only that, girls in that awkward age between kid and woman will certainly share Blossom's feelings--without the CW-type angst.

I am a fan of the Blossom Culp series. Ghost I have been is the best. Thisis the second Blossom Culp book. It has all the same charm as "Ghost" but not as good. Still a worthy read.

All the Blossom Culp books are really good, wish he would write more of them.

Blossolm Culp steps into a time warp. And compared to her puney powers its amazing. IT's really suberb because it gives a funny but serius view about her life and how the future is always there. IT's Exxelent, Magnifzent and fuuny all in one.