Book Title: A Density of Souls
Author: Christopher Pike
Version: Paperback
ISBN: 9780330489331
Voice: Third Person
Publisher: Hyperion Books
First Published: 2000
Number of Pages: 274
Genre: Fiction, gothic thriller
SYNOPSIS: Meredith, Brandon, Stephen, and Greg are four best friends living in New Orleans. While growing up they were inseperable, riding bikes everywhere, playing hide and seek every weekend in the local cemetery. As kids nothing touches them, although they each have families that may not be perfect, they find solace with each other. They have a friendship that seems like it could last forever. This all changes when they enter high school, Brandon and Greg gravitate towards the jock crowd and soon distinguish themselves as emerging football stars. Greg and Brandon are able to pretend that what they used to do in each other's bedrooms with Stephen when they were kids never happened. Stephen on the other hand is shunned by everyone and constantly faces pain and humiliation due to the homophobia that runs rampant in the school. The worst part is his friends have all abandoned him. While Stephen is walking around with his head down and Brandon and Greg are strutting through the halls Meredith is trying her best to fit into the in-crowd by becoming a bulimic.
Each of them is struggling in their own ways, basically doing their best to survive high school alive. While they are struggling with their own lives, two horrible and grisly deaths rock the world that they have grown to know. When they all gather together five years later a dramatic revelation proves to be the beginning of the end. One of the deaths that had rocked the town five years before turns out to have been a murder. When this secret is revealed it becomes the starting point for all the other secrets that had been kept hidden. What was once thought to be a simple group of friends turns out to be such a tangled web of lies and secrets that the unraveling of it might just end with death.
REVIEW: It's been years since I read "A Density of Souls" written by Christopher Pike, so the synopsis is a little weak. I apologize for that but I really loved this book, that much I remember clearly. I wanted to review this book today (without rereading it) because I haven't yet reviewed a truly dark tale yet. And that is what this is, a dark tale that really never lets up in that darkness. Don't mistake me though the darkness is nothing to stay away from, with this book it is something to be embraced. I think this book is just fantastic and I am ready to read it again.
The writing is a mix of amateur and utter professional. After reading this I assumed that Christopher Pike was an established writer but it turns out this was his first novel. It was a surprise to realize that the person that wrote this had never been published before. The writing flows in and out of a kind of dark beauty that literally took my breath away a couple of times. It was so good that I continue to seek out Christopher Pike's writing today.
The story itself was a coming of age story that had some twists and turns. It is a story of a gay boy that is trying to learn what it means to be gay when the rest of his world is straight and homophobic. And it is the story of four friends that are trying to figure out what it means to be friends in a world filled with secrets and lies. It is a story that is filled with darkness, murder, secrets, and four teenagers that are trying to grow up.
I think that this is a fantastic book, a fantastic story, and a truly great debut novel. Christopher Pike takes a simple coming of age story and turns it into a surprisingly dark and mysterious novel. I highly recommend this book because of so many reasons, the most important one being that it's just good. As I have stated a few times it is a darker novel so be prepared for that. But if you can stomach something that is a bit of a downer and has a sense of menace through out this is worth the read.
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