Warning: Spoilers Ahead!!! This is a recap blog which means I read the book and tell you everything that happens so you don't have to read it yourself. Do NOT continue to read unless you want to know which girl acted like a complete bitch in this book. Because you know at least one of them did.
Tag Line: Who said being honest was easy?From the Back of the Book: Telling the truth is easy as pie, right? Wrong! At least that's what Shelley, Faith and Dana begin to discover when they take part in a 48 hour "Truth Pledge" as part of a psychology research experiment. Although it may be the best policy, honesty isn't always easy. Will a simple experiment lead to heartbreak, fights and real trouble for the roommates?
This book was published in 1985 and
I've definitely read it before. When I first read the series as a
ten-year-old, this book was my favorite. I can't remember why
it was my favorite back then but I do know I only kept 2 or 3 of them
and this was one. Don't worry that this will be like a Joan Lowry
Nixon or Christopher Pike recap though. I'm sure I'll hate it when I
read it as an adult.
The ghostie for this book was Eileen
Hehl. She wrote one other book in the series – Troublemaker
in the new girl series. I think that was the book where they
introduced Penny but I can't really remember. (((Nope. It was the
one where they introduced GiGi and Laura Lee.
#amomentofsilenceforLauraLee))) Since I can't remember which book
that was, I have no idea whether to be optimistic for this one or
not. She wrote a bunch of teen romance novels in the 80's so I'm a
little hopeful and I do know I liked this book once upon a time.
Then again, I also liked that Cusick monstrosity with the triplets in the old
castle so you can't trust my past-self judgment.
The cover of this book has always been
one of my favorites. I think it sums up the girls really well.
Shelley is oblivious, Dana is mocking and Faith is judging. The room
isn't even remotely right. If you remember, awhile back there was a
major plot point of them painting the room completely black and
putting their mattresses on the floor so there's no way their beds
are that high and that wall looks taupe. So the artist really should
have been given some kind of spec sheet but whatevs. I like how this
series doesn't play favorites as hard as the new girls series did. I will say that this scene didn't happen ANYWHERE in this book, so there's that.
Canby Hall Catch-Up: So you know the
drill. We have three protagonists: Dana (sophisticated
fashionista), Faith (urban photographer) and Shelley
(small-town farm girl). Faith is back to dating Johnny the
future police officer from town and Shelley is still stringing along
her hometown boyfriend Paul but Tom has exited the
picture for now. (((Or has he????))) Dana is justifiably forever alone. (((Or is she???))) In the last
book, the girls took a volunteer position at the local hospital and
Faith fell hard for an intern who was at least 10 years older than
her. Unfortunately, he did not dissuade her and it all felt very
creepy and nasty. The school voted 'no' on uniforms and Dana
struggled with the news that she might have to
#keeponeeyeonMaggieatALLtimes next year. Shelley was passed
over for the lead in the school play and then Tom fell for his new
co-star Elizabeth. Shelley and Tom broke up but things didn't
work out with Elizabeth so I'm sure they'll be back together soon.
Missing, Presumed Dead: I think everyone was present and accounted for in this one. All the major peeps anyway.
Risen From the Tulip Bed: Michael and Randy both dig their way out of the netherworld for this one.
We start out in room 407 where ghostie
slaps us right across the face with a review of all the girls'
traits. She mentions Dana's 'sophistication' (I hope you could sense
my air quotes around that) and Shelley's naivete but, honest to God,
the only personality trait she could come up with for Faith was her
afro. That's.....that's not good. That's not good at all. The
girls are getting ready to go up to Alison's 'penthouse' room
to meet her cousin. Before we leave page 3, Gale makes her
first appearance as Shelley tells us that her face is “mildly
round” and she still has too many pounds around her hips.
It's sad when Shelley's 15 extra pounds
is the most consistent thing in these books.
They meet up with Casey along
the way and walk together up to Alison's room. There's a sign on the
door that reads: “Beauty is truth, and truth beauty....or,
abandon all hope ye who enter here.” Dana, ever the scholar,
tells them it's a mixed up quote from Keats and Dante's
Inferno. They walk in and find the entire dorm is already
there. In Alison's room. The entire dorm is somehow in her room.
Fucking hell, ghostie, this doesn't make sense at all. You can't fit
an entire dorm full of people into one fucking room.
Alison introduces her cousin Maura
who is an undergrad at the nearby university. Maura is doing an
experiment to gather data for a psychology paper and she needs some
teenaged volunteers. To participate in the study, they have to
promise to tell the truth, no matter the circumstance, for 48
straight hours. The study will run from Friday morning to Sunday
morning. At the end, Maura will come interview them about their
experience.
The 407 girls all think smugly to
themselves.....and then out loud to the group....that being honest
for 48 hours will be no problem because they are exceptionally honest
people. I'm honestly surprised the entire room didn't go up in
flames from all the lightning bolts that must have hit them at that
point. I've never encountered three more dishonest characters in my
reading life. Pamela, treasure that she is, immediately calls
them out on it and says if they're honest people, she's Princess
Diana.
Everyone but Pamela agrees to sign up,
though Casey is a little reluctant. Casey has a feeling that bad
things will come from this truth pledge but the others pretty much
scoff at her for having concerns. In the end, she agrees to sign up
because she knows if she doesn't, people will think she's some kind
of lying liar who lies.
We skip ahead to Friday and the
beginning of the truth pledge. The 407 girls are still feeling super
smug about their levels of honesty and Shelley makes a sweeping
statement about how their friendship is so magical that My Little
Ponies spring from their assholes and they can withstand any amount
of truth telling. She then challenges Dana and Faith to tell her
something they don't like about her because she's a fucking idiot.
Dana and Faith are understandably reluctant but Shelley decides
this is the hill she intends to die on and she insists.
Finally Faith gives in and says that it
bugs her that Shelley always forgets to buy shampoo and then uses
theirs. Dana rapidly says this is the thing that bugs her too and
they consider the whole thing done. Shelley instantly gets defensive
and says that Dana and Faith eat all her goodies from home so that
makes them even. Because the goodies Shelley receives for FREE from
her mom and dad are completely equal to the shampoo that Faith and
Dana have to PAY to replace. Whatevs, Shelley. Dana tells them to
stop being so stupid. After all, she never complains when they
borrow her expensive perfume.
Well, this is starting out bangers.
Truth Pledge 1. Room 407 girls 0.
We go to Creative Writing class with
Dana and Terry next. Terry reads a science fiction short
story aloud to the class and then everyone gives him feedback.
Several people compare his work to Ray Bradbury and Dana, literary
genius that she is, has NO fucking idea who that is or what
constitutes a good SciFi story but she decides that Terry's story is
just “a downer”. He asks her what she thinks about it and
she tries to get out of giving her opinion but the teacher insists
because critique is part of the class grade. Dana finally declares
that his story made her want to throw herself under a truck and he
counters with the fact that she knows nothing of the genre and should
maybe educate herself before she speaks about it. Which......is a
valid point. She could have just said that she isn't familiar with
the genre but found his story dark or something like that. Dark is
still diplomatic and some people would even see it as a compliment.
Saying it made you want to throw yourself under a truck is super
harsh. Terry is upset and Dana is upset that he's upset.
Truth Pledge 2. Room 407 girls 0.
We skip over to Sheff and Faith
after science class. She asks him how the truth pledge is going and
he says he isn't finding it too problematic because he doesn't tell
many lies. She pounces on this and tells him it's “shocking”
that he's admitting to telling some lies. He laughs at her and says
everyone tells some lies. She replies in a “prissy tone”
that she does NOT, thankyouverymuch. He gives up and asks her out to
dinner which she refuses because she has a date with Johnny. As he
walks away, she admits to herself that she's still torn between the
two of them even though she's said over and over that she loses
herself when she's with Sheff because she's too busy pretending to be
someone she's not. #fuckcontinuity
The girls meet up for lunch and run
into Pamela who looks like she's up to no good. She's standing with
the head cook Mrs Merriweather
who we've never been introduced to before and will probably never see
again after this little plot device wraps. I hope you like tulips,
Mrs Merriweather. Pamela has told the sweet elderly lady that the
407 pals have formed a committee to improve the school meals and she
is very eager to hear what they have to say. The girls are in a
panic because they don't want to hurt the nice old lady's feelings
but they are bound by the pledge to tell the truth. They tell her
that they haven't finished gathering data yet, hoping to put her off
until at least Monday but she insists that they meet the next day
instead.
When they get into the cafeteria, Keith
pulls Dana aside and asks to speak to her privately. It turns out
Casey's birthday is the next week and he's wanting to take her
somewhere fancy for dinner but he doesn't want her to be ashamed of
the geeky way he dresses. He wants Dana to help him pick out a new
outfit because she's so “stylish”. She agrees and agrees to keep
it a secret so Casey will be surprised. I'm sure this won't come
back to bite her in the ass or anything.
We skip ahead to that afternoon.
Shelley is struck by spring fever and decides to take a walk in the
gardens around PA's house. Apparently the tulip garden is doing
EXTREMELY well this year. I wonder what they use for fertilizer?
::coughRANDYcough:: ::coughMICHAELcough:: As she's walking, she
hears a weak call for help and finds PA laying on the ground in the
garden. PA is having chest pains and wants to go to the hospital in
Greenleaf but she doesn't want the entire school to find out. She
asks Shelley to drive her and to keep it all a secret. PA ends up
getting admitted. She again tells Shelley that she can tell no one
about this and then instructs Shelley to take the car back to her
house and park it in the garage. She tells Shelley to hang onto the
keys so she can come get PA when she's released. Again.....I'm sure
this won't come back to bite her in the ass or anything.
We skip ahead to that evening. The
girls all have dates and........here is where my head explodes,
y'all. Tom is downstairs waiting for Shelley like the ghostie was
never told they broke up last book but that isn't the most egregious
sin. RANDY IS DOWNSTAIRS WAITING FOR DANA!!! WHAT THE ABSOLUTE
FUCK??? THEY PARTED WAYS BOOKS AGO AND THERE'S NO WAY HE'D BE THERE.
Ghostie describes him as Dana's “special friend” and says
they have a “warm friendship”. BULL FUCKING SHIT. SHE
BROKE HIS FUCKING HEART AND HE DIDN'T WANT ANYTHING TO DO WITH
HER!!!!!!!
Of course, Keith is waiting for Casey
and Johnny is waiting for Faith but both of those are okay.
Shelley still isn't back from her
adventure with PA but none of them know about that so they're all a
little worried that she hasn't shown up for this weird quadruple-date
thing. They all decide to wait for her except Casey and Keith.
Casey says they'll go ahead because she needs to talk to him about
something. Dana assumes Casey has heard about their little
conversation in the cafeteria and she wants to grill Keith about it.
Pamela rocks up and informs Johnny,
Randy and Tom about the truth pledge. The girls were really hoping
to keep that to themselves. Johnny immediately snags the opportunity
and asks to speak to Faith outside. When they get out there, he asks
if she has feelings for Sheff. Faith can't seem to figure out how to
answer the question honestly which should make her realize that she's
not as truthful as she thinks she is. She finally says that she's
“dazzled” by Johnny's sophistication and that she likes the idea
that he intends to be a musician when he grows up. She thinks they
would relate to each other because they're both creative and admits
that she's still concerned that Johnny wants to be a police officer
since her own father was killed in the line of duty. Johnny is a
little hurt by this and decides to just go home instead of going out
for ice cream.
Truth Pledge 3. Room 407 girls 0.
Ginny suddenly runs up which is
startling because I'd completely forgotten she existed. Was she
under the tulips or have I just been ignoring her? She yells at them
all to follow her and then she leads them over to PA's house where
Shelley is parking PA's car. Shelley, naturally, can't tell anyone
why she was driving the car alone at night and everyone assumes she
was up to something nefarious. Pamela threatens to turn her in and
Dana wonders if Shelley will be arrested along with being expelled.
Shelley is pretty unconcerned.
Pamela goes to tattle to Alison who
calls Shelley up to the penthouse to get to the bottom of the
situation. Shelley tells Alison that she can't reveal why she was
driving PA's car and asks Alison to trust her. Alison is dismayed
and tells Shelley she's ground to Baker House until PA can be
reached. Shelley protests that she has a “real special date”
with Tom the next night but Alison is unmoved.
Truth Pledge 4. Room 407 girls 0.
We skip to the next day. Casey and
Keith are playing frisbee on the lawn because they're bored like
that. Casey sees the school handyman carrying a chainsaw toward the
maple tree that grows under her window. She asks him what he's doing
and he says that PA ordered him to cut it down because the branches
were in the electrical lines. Casey is furious that anyone would cut
down “one of her special friends” and now suddenly I'm very
worried about Casey's mental state. She and the handyman get into a
screaming match about it and Casey throws her arms around the tree
declaring that he'll have to chainsaw her in half too. He's pretty
flummoxed and goes off to find PA.
By that afternoon, several other girls
have joined Casey's cause. Ginny says they'll chain themselves to
the tree if they have to but the handyman just seems perplexed at
this point. Shelley, meanwhile, is being super dramatic and
martyrish about her grounding of course. It's super annoying but she
kind of has a point this time. PA has put her in an awful position
and now she's missing out on her entire weekend when all she did was
help out in an emergency. It's kind of stupid. When Tom finds out
Shelley can't go to the play they have tickets for, he says he'll
invite Elizabeth and I'm impressed her hole in the tulip bed hasn't
been dug yet.
Dana goes over to the library where she
is literally stunned to hear that they have a whole Sci-Fi section.
She just assumed that since she wasn't interested in it, that it must
not be very popular. I wish I was making this up but the book
literally says this. She goes to the section and browses some of the
short story collections and finds many stories similar to the one
Terry wrote. She admits to herself that she made a mistake and her
solution for solving it is to dress up like Chewbacca and go stand
outside Terry's room. When he comes out, she apologizes.
Why did she need a Chewbacca costume
for that?
Couldn't she just apologize as an
actual person?
This is the stupid thing I've ever
read.
Terry accepts her apology and offers
one himself for being childish about the entire thing. I mean.....he
didn't dress up like Chewbacca or anything so I don't think Dana can
accept it. Stupid costumes are obviously mandatory for accepting
apologies and I think Dana should hold out until Terry whips his hair
into some Princes Leia buns.
Later that evening at dinner, Mrs
Merryweather approaches to get their opinion on her food. They start
out by trying to phrase everything in a truthful but deceptive way –
like telling her that no one else makes chicken like she does. She's
pleased by what she interprets as praise and says that she will go
on as she's been doing since they think the food is fine. This
prompts Shelley to tell the entire truth about how they really feel
about the food but then she softens it by saying that she thinks Mrs
Merryweather does the best she can with the budget she has and the
amount of people she has to cook for. Mrs Merryweather decides to do
some kind of poll to determine what kinds of things the student body
might like to eat. Crises averted I guess and that plot point gets
wrapped up in a neat bow.
Truth Pledge 4. Room 407 girls 1.
Back at the maple tree, Alison appears
to shut down the protest. She confronts Casey with the rumor that
Casey uses the tree to sneak out of her room after hours. Apparently
Pamela has ratted her out. Forced by the truth pledge, Casey admits
that she has used the tree to sneak out. When the other girls hear
this, they abandon the cause. Alison orders Casey to cease the
protest because it's for selfish reasons or something but then
assures Casey that she'll tell the handyman to wait until they can
talk to PA and see if there's another solution. Casey ends up
grounded for sneaking out.
Truth Pledge 5. Room 407 girls (and Casey) 1.
Dana and Keith head to Greenleaf for
their little shopping expedition. Dana gets him all fixed up with a
nice suit and then he asks her to pick out a sweater for herself as a
thank you for helping him. She also helps him pick out a red silk
blouse for Casey's birthday present which just seems like such a
weird present for a sixteen-year-old boy to give to his girlfriend.
Ghostie is a bit out of touch here. Naturally, Pamela sees them at
the store because we need some more conflict here. Somehow she gets
back to campus before Keith and Dana and tells Casey all about their
little 'date'.
When Dana returns, Casey confronts her
about going out with Keith. Dana can't lie but she can't spill
Keith's secret either. She admits they went to town and when Casey
asks if Keith bought Dana a sweater, Dana admits that too. Casey is
enraged. She throws a huge fit where she threatens to throw herself
off a cliff (nice one, ghostie) and then she runs off to her room.
Dana goes down to get Keith so he can straighten everything up right
away. He does and that gets all tied up with a nice bow too.
I feel like the Truth Pledge won one and then promptly lost one in that skirmish.
Truth Pledge 6. Room 407 girls 2.
The book is 90% done and we're on
Chapter 17 or something and guess who shows up? MICHAEL!!!
He obviously dug his way to the surface in order to stop by and see
if anyone is having any major issues with the truth pledge. They
tell him about their issues with Terry, Casey and Johnny. He asks
about Shelley's issue but Shelley refuses to talk. He mentions that
he has to go visit a friend in the hospital and Shelley has a very
visible reaction to that. She asks him what floor his friend is on
and he says the second floor which is where PA is. Michael had no
idea that PA was in the hospital but Shelley's reactions cause him to
wonder if the hospital has something to do with why she was driving
PA's car. Oblivious to all this, Faith asks him if he will deliver a
letter to Johnny in town. She's decided writing is better than
calling because she organizes her thoughts better on paper.
Acting on his hunch, Michael inquires
at the front desk about PA's room number which he is given. He goes
up to see her and, after assuring her that Shelley kept her secret
and he just figured it out on his own, he tells PA about all the
trouble Shelley is in. PA asks for a phone so she can straighten
everything out. Also, in case you were wondering, she's fine. She
didn't actually have a heart attack and all her other tests were
negative so I'm not even sure why she's still there.
PA clears everything up and Shelley is
ungrounded. Alison praises her for keeping her head in a crises and
for keeping her word afterwards even though it meant some sacrifice.
Shelley calls Tom and finds out he hasn't asked Elizabeth to the play
yet so he can take Shelley after all. I'm not sure why she wants to
go since 1) they broke up LAST BOOK and 2) as soon as she was
grounded, he said he was going to out with the girl he broke up with
Shelley for in the first place. I'd tell him to fuck right off but
that's just me.
Truth Pledge 6. Room 407 girls 3.
Johnny receives the note which Faith
poured her heart into. She said that she gets dazzled from time to
time by Sheff but ultimately knows that Sheff is self-absorbed while
Johnny has always had Faith's feelings in mind. She tells Johnny
that he owns her heart and she's sorry if she hurt him. He ends up
sending her a big bouquet of multi-colored daisies and that's all
tied up with a bow too.
Truth Pledge 6. Room 407 girls 4.
When the girls get back from dinner,
Alison gives them the official verdict on the maple tree. The tree
will be left standing but the branches will be severely trimmed.
Also, the branches near Casey's window will also be removed so she
can no longer sneak out. By the way, ghostie never bothers to tell
us how Pamela knew about Casey sneaking out. I guess we're just
supposed to accept that it happened and not ask questions.
I HAVE QUESTIONS!!!!!
- How the hell did Shelley and Tom get back together?
- Why is Randy all chummy with Dana again?
- How the hell did Pamela know about Casey sneaking out?
- How did Michael breathe under the ground for that fucking long?
- WHY DID I LIKE THIS BOOK????????????????????????????
There was another few pages about Casey
getting back at Pamela by somehow misdirecting her boyfriend (WHO
WE'VE NEVER FUCKING HEARD OF IN OUR LIVES) so he couldn't come visit
Pamela. It was supposed to be their “big revenge” but it
was just childish and stupid as usual.
The book ends with Maura coming back to
get the results of the experiment. The 407 girls admit that they
aren't as honest as they thought they were but that's okay because
sometimes lying actually makes them better people. That's what they
learned apparently. Sigh.
The Least Annoying Person in Greenleaf
Award: Keith. Let's face it, it could pretty much always be Keith.
He's definitely the most underappreciated member of the cast.
The Bitch of Baker House Award: I can't
give it to our queen Pamela so I'm going to hand it to PA. She never should have put a young girl in the situation she did and she definitely
should have anticipated that it might get said young girl in some
trouble. It was a major dick move on her part.
Coming up next: Dana gets a new boyfriend. Yay.
No comments:
Post a Comment