Remember Me 2: The Return by Christopher Pike

This is book two in the Remember Me trilogy.

I found this to be a decent follow up to the first one. Despite it's dense format, I found it to be a page turner. While I didn't appreciate the organization of the story (alternated between the characters of Shari Cooper and Jean Rodrigues), I did enjoy watching the story unfold.

Again, this story is poorly categorized as Horror/Thriller, so please don't start reading these books expecting to find these elements because I believe you'll be disappointed.

Horror/Thriller rating: 2/5 stars - sure there's a twist you weren't expecting, but it just wasn't enough to call this a thriller or a horror novel

Mystery rating: 2/5 stars - while this was a strong element in book one, it's a weak element with this book.

Paranormal rating: 4/5 stars - again, the main character is a ghost

Spiritual rating: 5/5 stars - you'll just have to read the book to find the spiritual element! :)

Again, I felt this a decent read. The more I think about it, the more I feel this trilogy is a great way to help a teen coping with the loss of someone close to them or struggling with their own pain, and can be a great tool to open the lines of dialogue about life, death, souls and the afterlife. While these topics can be considered taboo, for the teen struggling with the death of someone they know or the worth of their own life, these topics need to be discussed to help them get through the problems and succeed in life. The author does a great job of covering these aspects without really bringing specific religion into it. Pike merely uses basic spiritual concepts which can be religious or not, it all depends on how broadly you consider each topic.

Remember Me by Christopher Pike

This is book one in a trilogy.

I've had this book for years and just never read it even though the premise intrigued me enough to buy it from a library resale fundraiser. Years later, I picked up Remember Me 2: The Return - probably from the same library - and it ended up in a stack of books next to my bed. I haven't touched this stack in quite some time. I kept looking at the books, but every time I did, I either had a migraine or the topics just didn't capture my fancy.

Finally, on October 31st of this year, this book caught my attention, and not just because of the topic, but because it dawned on me that I had the first book in the series. I figured that since they were considered horror/thrillers, they would feed my need for scare this year, so I went through my bookshelves and located Remember Me and started reading.

I'll admit, while this book didn't give me the horror or thrills I expected, the story itself wasn't bad. The fact that I went on to read book two (Remember Me 2: The Return) and am contemplating borrowing book 3 (Remember Me 3: The Last Story) from the library, is testament that I found these books enjoyable.

Horror/Thriller rating: 3/5 stars - in this sense, this trilogy just doesn't deliver.

Mystery rating: 5/5 stars - it's quite interesting to follow Shari as tries to uncover who killed her and why!

Paranormal rating: 4/5 stars - the main character is a ghost that has to learn how to be a ghost, and you can't get more paranormal than that!

Spiritual rating: 4/5 stars - you'll have to read the book to discover how it fits into this category! :)

Anyone looking for a spiritual paranormal mystery YA story will find this book a great read!