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Post by booboobrewer on Nov 30, 2009 18:53:17 GMT -5
This cracked me up. She does look awful on this cover. Jessi doesn't even mention she's black in the intros, just that she has "light brown skin." Surprising. She also says "I'm strong, and I hope, graceful" in reference to her dancing...refreshing to see that instead of "sorry if I sound conceited, it's just a fact!" The Pikes say grace before they eat dinner in one chapter. They don't seem like the saying grace type, or at least I don't recall any mention of them doing it in other books. Mallory uses her dad's old briefcase. She also carries one in the movie, and I don't remember if this was ever written into the books before. I'm thinking it wasn't...the movie was '95, Chiller is '97. Stacey, Claudia, and Ethan seem waaay older than their ages here. The girls go to Ethan's apartment alone, go out alone to drink coffee, go shopping on Fifth Avenue, and the three of them just walk everywhere by themselves. It's all very mature, which is probably why I liked this storyline the best btw, the earring, the bleached hair...Ethan is so getting a tattoo next. If he takes Stacey to get one, she might have a hard time deciding between something cute and girly or the symbol for pi
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Post by anzuhana on Nov 30, 2009 19:43:28 GMT -5
I found the "She's doing The Robot" funny. I agree that Mary Anne looks like a guy. That's what I first thought when I saw her this cover and I still do. Overall, I like this book and I find the Stacey and Claudia chapters creepy.
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wanderingfrog
Sitting For The Arnolds
Official BSC Archivist
Posts: 2,552
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Post by wanderingfrog on Dec 8, 2009 17:34:11 GMT -5
The Pikes say grace before they eat dinner in one chapter. They don't seem like the saying grace type, or at least I don't recall any mention of them doing it in other books. Maybe it's just thrown into this book since it also has them being in the Nativity program at church. Richard also says grace in Mary Anne Saves the Day (when he calls her mom "Abigail"), and then never again that I remember.
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Post by anzuhana on Apr 18, 2010 10:49:19 GMT -5
I liked this mystery despite the fact that I like the other three super mysteries better. I loved reading about the food for Hanukah. The jelly donuts and latkes sound delicious. I wonder if there was 3 plotlines in this book because it was going to be the last super mystery.
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celaeno
Sitting For The Papadakis's
I have to share a room with Vanessa
Posts: 1,514
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Post by celaeno on Apr 20, 2010 23:22:24 GMT -5
I haven't read Christmas Chiller (it's the only one of the Super Mysteries I don't have! I want it just so that I can finally say I've completed at least ONE of the subseries of the BSC books); however, I do have some definite thoughts about the cover. Ok, for a long time (years, actually), I had a very wrong impression with what was actually going on on the cover of this book. I guess I had seen some pictures of the cover, but maybe had not seen the cover up close and personal in real life. Because, for years, I thought that the vase near Abby's right hand was actually IN her hand, and that her arm was pulled back while she was hovering over Kristy because Abby was preparing to knock Kristy out, which was why Mary Anne was looking at them in such surprise on the cover. And I always imagined in my head that the tagline on the cover was something like "Abby f#@%ing hates Christmas!" I guess the weirdest thing is not that I thought that's what was going on on the cover. The weirdest thing is that that's what I thought was going on on the cover, and I don't think I thought twice about it! For years, I think I was just like "Abby's about to knock Kristy's lights out over Christmas? Yeah, sounds in character to me." Also, Mary Anne looks like a mannequin from the 8- to 12-year-old boys clothing section in a department store.
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oldhickory
Sitting For The Arnolds
Heather Loves Boys and Gym
Posts: 3,251
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Post by oldhickory on Apr 26, 2010 1:50:08 GMT -5
^ haha, she totally looks like a 10 year old boy mannequin, and those pants suck. that cracked me up. but if it makes you feel better, i have this book and i know i read it, but i don't remember a thing.
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Post by anzuhana on Apr 26, 2010 9:15:08 GMT -5
I love your description of the cover, especially Abby preparing to knock out Kristy with the vase.
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oldhickory
Sitting For The Arnolds
Heather Loves Boys and Gym
Posts: 3,251
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Post by oldhickory on Aug 26, 2010 12:46:59 GMT -5
i am rereading and i actually really liked this book. it's not as good as the other super mysteries, and i don't like how the pikes suddenly got religious. but overall it was still pretty good.
the part about mr nixon being the bad guy was really obvious to me and i was annoyed they didn't get it right away, but i love when the families get together and we see people who are not normally written together, like rachel and watson. it makes sense that they would be friends (considering the stephensons stayed with the brewers the very first day they met) so it's fun to see.
in the new york chapters, i liked claudia a lot more than i liked stacey. i was frustrated that she didn't dump ethan even though she suspected him. it's like she was more willing to be lose her life than lose her boyfriend. that's something that bothers me about stacey a lot, because even when robert was acting suspicious she convinced herself nothing was wrong and made excuses for him. anyway, at least claudia had a chance to save the day.
the mary doe/pike family plot was my favorite. i felt so bad for mary! at the end, it said her family didn't miss her because they weren't expecting her home, but mary was with the pikes for quite a while. so nobody cared at all that she hadn't called in a couple weeks? that's sad. and even though i didn't buy the pike's sudden church involvement, i really liked the pageant story. it reminded me a lot of home alone, where kevin goes to the church to watch the choir sing. it seemed so cozy and happy.
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Post by booboobrewer on Aug 26, 2010 15:28:37 GMT -5
but i love when the families get together and we see people who are not normally written together, like rachel and watson. it makes sense that they would be friends (considering the stephensons stayed with the brewers the very first day they met) so it's fun to see. I liked that too! Mrs. Stevenson kept to herself a lot and I would have liked to hear more about her w/ the Brewers.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Nov 22, 2010 15:25:48 GMT -5
oh man i wanted this book so bad! it started off at a reasonable price ($2 NZD) but now its past $NZD7 !!!!!
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Post by booboobrewer on Nov 30, 2010 19:55:13 GMT -5
Reread this one today and will probably read again before Christmas because I skimmed the Mr. Nixon/Stoneybrook chapters near the end, and just because I love it...I love Claudia and Stacey's chapters so much that I wish their plot was its own book I particularly liked their shopping day on this read, it sounded fun (if tiring) and Stacey buying her mom a silk scarf makes me wonder what Maureen thinks about still having her gifts bought for her by Ed...because you know he gave Stacey $ for her excursion... Something I've noticed in the super mysteries is that Mallory comes across as pretty capable. In the Salem one she's eager and smart, and confident when dealing with Eileen. In this one she's the same way with Mary, trying to make her as comfortable as possible and stuff. It just makes me even more disappointed about the Spaz Girl stuff later.
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Post by maddieruns on Jan 2, 2011 3:23:19 GMT -5
Mallory does come off as a lot smarter in the mysteries, but it actually bothered me a bit that she solved the Lisa one by finding and tracing back the tags on her clothes and the ring design. Why can’t the Stoneybrook police do their jobs?
Is Ethan’s hair always bleached? Usually in my head, Ethan’s pretty cute, but after the description of him in this book, I kept picturing him in unflattering bleached hair and I couldn’t unsee it.
I love that Mallory and Jessi write about horses in the club notebook. I thought it was so funny when Stacey and Claudia started rambling off about different horse facts, it cracked me up!Mallory and Jessi must be adding a whole lot of side notes on horses to the notebook. I wonder if the other sitters do the same thing like Kristy rambling off baseball facts or Claudia giving them all art tips or something. No wonder it takes them so long to update themselves on the notebook entries!
Ohhhh Mal. I noticed this too. Is this Mallory’s regular backpack or does is she just using it as a suitcase?
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Post by anzuhana on Jan 2, 2011 21:06:47 GMT -5
I don't think so. If I remember correctly, when Stacey meets Ethan for the first time, Ethan's hair was its regular color.
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Post by booboobrewer on Jan 2, 2011 21:34:21 GMT -5
Yeah, he gets a pretty good description in Stacey's Broken Heart.
For a pic of him there's BSC in the USA.
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Post by virgoscorpio on Jan 10, 2011 13:53:30 GMT -5
This book wasn't very Christmasey -- was anyone else disappointed by that? Stacey and Claudia's storyline about Ethan's crazy ex was pretty dumb. Mallory's storyline about the lost pregnant woman was slightly Christmasey, although it could have taken place at any time of year.
I bought this book at the same time as Jessi's Big Break when they first came out.
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