The Midnight Club (Mass Market Paperback)

by Christopher Pike (Author)
Key Phrases: Dana Two, Midnight Club, Eiffel Tower (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Rotterdam Home, a hospice where teenagers with terminal illnesses went to die, was home to the Midnight Club--a group of five young men and women who met at midnight and told stories of intrigue and horror. One night they made a pact that the first of them to die would make every effort to contact the others . . . from beyond the grave. Original.

Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Simon Pulse (February 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067187263X
• ISBN-13: 978-0671872632
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (86 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #235,623 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love, Loss and Healing Supernatural Occurences!, July 1, 2004

By	Damarian Dreamer "nowhere_gurl2" (South Dakota, USA) - See all my reviews

This is one of my all-time favorite books! Normally I'm not a fan of Christopher Pike but this particular book is incredibly insightful and full of heartbreaking and heartwarming stories.

Ilonka is a patient at a hospice for teens and 20-somethings, Rotterham Home, she has made friends with other patients Kevin, Sandra, Anya and Spence. Every night at exactly midnight the five of them gather in the library to tell stories. Basically, telling stories is the only fun they can have, in a hospice, everyone is waiting to die. Each one of the five friends has a different form of fatal cancer. Then, they discover that one of the members of their club is leaving the hospice to go back to normal life!

At the same time, Ilonka begins to have dreams of past lives, she remembers vividly life in Ancient Egypt, Asia and medieval Europe. The strange thing is that all the lives are connected to Kevin, a member of club Ilonka felt that she always knew from the first time she met him. Kevin's continuing story revolves around an angel and the misguided woman he loves, a story which is strangely parallel to the lives that Ilonka remembers.

Then, one of the members of the midnight club dies, but not before they tell Ilonka a true story which begins a mystery and the ultimate resolution to the sad stories that plague Ilonka's past.

Absolutely touching and revealing story. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone under the age of 14 though, this books should really not be in a children's catagory. I recommend it to anyone 14 to 114! This is just such a fabulous, fantastic story! Christopher Pike really hit on a timeless story with this book!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just for kids..., August 8, 2000

By A Customer

As a teen, I read countless books by Christopher Pike. Most of them have since been packed away in boxes or given to younger friends and relatives to enjoy. The Midnight Club, however, remains on my bookshelf (its cover is nearly torn off from so much use). Pike expands his horizons in this book, departing from his usual themes of horror and death. Though the book is all about kids who are dying, the prevalant theme is life. Pike gives us a great truth in a story told with deceptive simplicity: it is not the number of years we live that makes our lives meaningful, but instead the way we spend those years and the other lives we touch. Don't be dissuaded from picking up this book because of the YA classification--a must-read for all ages.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't miss it, October 28, 2005

By	Jerome E. Murphy - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Here it is. Christopher Pike's masterpiece. Yes, he's a teen horror writer. No, his books won't outlast Austen's or Dickens.' So what? Like Stephen King, he's a damn good writer, one of the best of our era, and in Midnight Club he's at his peak. Read this one for its sheer inventiveness, read The Last Vampire for action, and read Whisper of Death for the ultimate chill. Read all of them for expertly crafted setting and mood, tight plotting, and characters that are both unpretentiously created and totally compelling. While most of his characters are "normal," their traits are heightened enough from those of ordinary people to make them truly engaging.

This book has everything from comedy to sci-fi to drama to romance, and it also marks the point when Pike's "Eastern mysticism" kick started to go overboard. But here, it's just enough.

Like Roald Dahl, Pike succeeds because he doesn't write "down" to his audience. It's a travesty that he's lumped in with R.L. Stine, which is like lumping in Stephen King with Dean Koontz. One's a great original; the other's just very proficient in the genre, sending boxes down the assembly line. Read Pike and you'll feel a master at work.