Thursday, October 2, 2008

The Babysitter 2 or "What's with all the outfit description?"


To make up for my incredibly loooong past few posts, here is the Babysitter 2, in one paragraph:

Jenny is trying to get over almost being murdered by Mr. Hagen and goes to a psychiatrist, Dr. Schindler. He is sinister and twirls a letter opener in his hands. She gets a new job babysitting creepy, needy, asshole-y Eli and can’t decide if she hates him (I do though.) She also has a new creepy, needy, asshole-y boyfriend Cal. While babysitting the phone calls start happening again and Jenny is convinced it’s her pyschiatrist, Dr. Shindler. She sets up a trap for him at the quarrel where Mr. Hagen took her last book but instead of the doctor showing up, his receptionist, Miss Gurney does. She’s batshit crazy and in love with him. She accuses Jenny of trying to seduce him with her “pretty, clean hair” and “nightmares”. Luckily Dr. Schindler figured out in time that Miss Gurney had gone off her rocker and showed up with the police. Ends with: “She kissed him.”(him being Cal). But of course it does!

The book was pretty decent. I was convinced that Dr. Schindler WAS the murderer until Jenny thought of that idea. You know it’s never who they think it is! I was reading the book at Shadyside Snark headquarters and actually looked up and told L.K. Stine that Dr. Schindler was the killer as soon as he started fiddling with the letter opener. R.L. really got me this time! 4 needy children out of 7!

Well that was too short, wasn’t it? This book was FILLED with descriptions of clothes. Let’s go through those!

1. Jenny wears a tie dyed shirt to her first appointment and Miss Gurney asks “What do you call the way the colors all run together?”, then scribbles a note to herself. I can only assume it read: “Buy tie dyed clothing, then KILL JENNY”
2. Jenny’s ex-boyfriend Chuck makes an appearance in a “faded Bart Simpson t-shirt over jean cut-offs. His white Nikes were mud-stained and soaked.” O baby!
3. First time Jenny meets Eli, he wears “a “Turtle Power” t-shirt over green spandex bicycle shorts. What parent puts their child in spandex?
4. Jenny first meets Cal in a “record store”. She’s totally afraid of him because he has spiky blond hair and is wearing black jeans with an Aerosmith t-shirt. Dear Lord, no! Not AEROSMITH! Terrrrifying!
5. “Cal was wearing black, straight legged jeans and an oversized, short sleeved Hawaiian t-shirt. Jenny wore a green t-shirt over an orange sleeveless t-shirt over white tennis shorts. It was hard to tell what anyone else at the party was wearing. It was too dark!” Thank god.
6. O a good description of some 1991 party crashers! “Two guys with long, greased-down hair, both wearing denim jackets over plain white t-shirts came swaggering up the walk.”
7. “He was wearing a denim workshirt and faded jean cutoffs. Jenny thought he looked really great.” The Canadian tuxedo!
8. Last but not least, Miss Gurney: “She wore baggy black slacks and a black blouse, long sleeved despite the heat.”

Only one question remains. Where are all the catsuits?!

13 comments:

zanne said...

I loved the first Babysitter book. This one wasn't too bad, but I hated the 3rd one.

Anonymous said...

Are there four, or five Babysitter books? Or even six? My request for the next Babysitter review is that you review two of them simultaneously. I don't know how you'd do that, but such a long series needs innovation.

So you thought Schindler was the killer, but did anyone even die?

L. K. Stine said...

Letter opener = murderer. It's an age old equation. Even if Schindler wasn't stalk her, he's guilty of something.
I totally for a second thought she kissed the psychiatrist at the end and was all 'is that legal' - and then I figured it out.

LAK said...

I like the outfit descriptions!
But, were denim cutoffs ever really in for men?
I love the pop culture Ninja Turtles and Simpsons references. Takes me back....way back...to elementary school....great, now I feel old!

A. M. Stine said...

To answer your question: No one died. How disappointing! O well, at least there was no dog-murder. But i don't know if we'll even be recapping the rest of the series because we don't actually have number 3. I hear I'm not missing much though!

zanne said...

If you're dying to read the 3rd Babysitter book, I have it. I hated it. I guess there is a 4th one, but I don't remember it.

Anonymous said...

These books sucked.

The other Fear Street blog is better, by the way. It doesn't waste so much time on the stupid outfits!!!

A. M. Stine said...

Zanne, I'm not dying to read the third book, but once we start to run low on Fear Streets ... we may have to do a book swap!

zanne said...

Yeah, just let me know if you want the book!

Jen said...

Hey, leave the Canadian tuxedo out of it!!!

I love "Buy tie dyed clothing, then KILL JENNY". Too funny.

I can't believe there were soooo many of these. What was it about the Babysitter that needed, like, up to 5 sequels??

Anonymous said...

I read this one last night and in the German version Cal is wearing a Marylin Manson T-Shirt instead of the one with Aerosmith. ;)

A. M. Stine said...

Cal is waaaay more hardcore in German!

RecallerReminder said...

I think Stine really need to learn some fashion tips to make better outfits on his characters. With all this, hardly tell there was a story. Still, I love the twist!