Beware the Shopping Mall —(Bone Chillers)
Robin’s heard weird things about Wonderland Mall. She’s heard it’s built on a swamp. She’s heard some kids disappeared there. She’s heard it’s haunted! But Robin and her friends go to Wonderland Mall anyway. Looking for sales. Looking for bargains. Too bad something’s looking for them . . . something that lives at the mall. Something creepy. Something spooky. Something that’s been dead for a long, long time.
GOT U COVERED 📗
Author: Betsy Haynes
Published: 1994
Series: Bone Chillers
Tagline: Shop till you drop…dead.
Description: Three skeleton mannequins in the store window.
Remember when going to the mall with your friends was the most teenage thing you could do 😂
Mall culture is now a nostalgic pastime, but it was a way of life back then. To go to the Mall…unsupervised…meant you were cool. As a kid, it felt like your parents gave you freedom and independence (even for just 3 hours).
I used to love going to (and sneaking into) the cinema🍿, playing fighting arcade games like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter🕹️, and browsing the CD 💿 store for the latest “Now That’s What I Call Music” or The Sims games.
(*sighs dramatically) 😮💨
Oh how simplistic those times were. Luckily I got to re-live some of those memories with this fun book, Beware the Shopping Mall, or as I know it to be titled, The Shopping Spree, from Betsy Haynes.
When I was finally able to track down and purchase this book from a second-hand store, my inner geek flipped out, because it is the first and only Bone Chillers book I’ve read to date, and it’s stuck with me since then. There was a TV show based on the book series too. However, I’ve never seen it. I’ll have to check it out for the site.
Anywhoo…
I find “Mall Horror” to be so exciting. There’s something about being in this massive place with multiple hiding spots and infinite resource possibilities that feels like the perfect setting for some scary shit to go down and fight for your survival.
So how about we sneak through the employer's entrance and meet with our characters at Wonderland Mall?
“I shuddered.
This mannequin couldn’t possibly have anything to do with my friend.
But where had it come from? And where was Jamie?” - pg 38
Immediately we are to understand that the opening of this Mall is a major deal for this town. The sheer volume of people described as standing in line and waiting for the doors to open already made me feel claustrophobic. The only times I’ve ever stayed in line for an excessive amount of time was when I saw some acts in concert, which could also be considered the last time. I’m patient but not that patient, and especially after seeing the opening scene of Thanksgiving…uhm I’ll opt out of possibly being trampled as thin as a pancake thanks.
But good on the gang for finding another way and going through the Employees Entrance. I would’ve done the same. I worked at my local Mall when I was younger so I could picture all the back hallways and shortcuts. They are quite spooky and darkly lit.
We come to identify some personality traits of a few of these friends. Shannon Markoff is the opinionated prankster, Lisa Karl goes along with whatever Shannon says, and Eric Sandifer is part of the friend group, however, Robin has a big crush on him, and Robin Fagin is our main character. However, they’re missing a friend, Jamie, who should’ve met them at the Mall.
As they’re touring the Mall, the way each store and the building itself was described felt nostalgic. I remember how fun it was to go to all these similar stores and browse the items, clothing, and accessories on sale. Of course, I never bought much, but the idea of buying something was sometimes equally as exciting 😆 consumerism had weaseled itself into my brain.
Something weird happens that jolts the group. A store clerk, who was just at another store, immediately appears to be working at a different store. Does she have a twin? Surely, she could not be in two places at the same time…right? It starts to set off Robin’s alarm bells, which raises our suspicions too.
The action and turning point of the story happens when Robin finds a mannequin in the store window who looks exactly like her missing friend.
I enjoyed these parts of the book where Robin would find her schoolmates now turned into shiny, plastic mannequins. Mannequins have always been creepy by default. Their frozen smiles (or in some cases stares) and their stiff, frozen bodies. They’re life-sized dolls and what's not creepy about a huge ass doll.
The chase between the clerks and Robin was thrilling especially once more town’s kids were being turned and her friends disappeared.
“I didn’t dare look at her. She might see my eyes move. But what if she was looking at Lisa and me right now?
What if she had noticed that our skin didn’t shine like the other plastic dummies lying all around us?
And there were no painted smiles on our faces? - pg 92
A standout scene was when Robin and Lisa hid in the basement filled with mannequins (who were once other kids). Trying to keep still and hold their breath so they don’t get caught was a little intense if you pictured yourself in that scenario.
It’s revealed that the clerks are the souls trapped by the three teens who went missing in Mournful Swamp all those years ago. The construction of the mall disrupted their graves and created a gateway/portal to the real world and to obtain life, they need to drain the lives of others. This was a cool full circle to what Robin’s mom said at the beginning of the book. What seemed like a town folktale, was a true story all along.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I was just as engaged this time as I was when I was a kid. That’s largely due Betsy Haynes’ fun writing style and descriptive imagery. I don’t have much to say about the characters, because this is more about the events that happen to the characters, rather than about the characters themselves. But as a whole, I liked the group dynamic between all the friends.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is missing the nostalgia of the mall, loves book series similar to Goosebumps and wants to relive 90s childhood.
I grade this book B+
Did you like this book? What was your favorite store in the Mall? Share your thoughts and comments below.
