Plot Summary
Chyna Shepard is a college student
visiting the family of her friend, Laura Templeton, for a long weekend. Chyna,
who was abused and neglected by her mother as a child, finds the Templeton
house provides something she has yearned: acceptance. This comes to a violent
end when Edgler Vess, a serial killer, breaks into the house in the night and
methodically kills all of the occupants except Laura and Chyna.
Chyna hides from him under her bed
and waits until he goes downstairs. She searches the house and finds Laura's
father shot and tied to a toilet seat, and the mother stabbed to death in the
shower. Chyna encounters Vess on the stairs eating a spider before she sneaks
into Laura's room. She finds Laura tied up and raped. Chyna sneaks away,
promising to return. Before she can intervene, Vess kills Laura and takes her
to his motor home. Chyna hears Laura screaming and runs upstairs intending to
attack Vess with a knife.
Unaware Laura is dead, Chyna sneaks aboard the motor
home and finds her friend's corpse. Before she can escape, Vess drives away.
Chyna hides in a back room, planning to escape at the earliest opportunity.
When he stops at a gas station, she sneaks out of the motor home, and heads
inside the gas station to find a phone. Chyna surreptitiously watches Vess
boast to the gas station clerks that he is holding a young girl, Ariel,
prisoner in his basement, before he kills them and drives away. Chyna feels
compelled to follow Vess and help free the girl. She takes an attendant's car,
and follows Vess. Chyna passes Vess while traveling through a state park and
crashes her car into a redwood tree. While Vess gets out to investigate, Chyna
sneaks on board the motor home.
By the time Vess reaches his house,
he has discovered that Chyna is on board. Fascinated, he decides not to kill
her immediately to see what she will do. Chyna breaks into his house and goes
into the basement to find Ariel, locked in a room and catatonic. Before she can
free Ariel, Vess attacks Chyna in the kitchen, punching her unconscious before
binding her with a chain in the kitchen. He taunts her for a while, revealing
details about his past and past crimes. Obsessed with the "intensity"
of any particular experience, sensory and existential, Vess styles himself as a
"homicidal adventurer", and has killed continually since childhood.
He offers to allow Chyna to live if she aids him in mentally torturing Ariel
out of her catatonia.
Then, Vess leaves for work. Chyna escapes from her chains
by breaking away from the table to which she is chained and slamming her chair
into a wall. She releases Ariel from her prison. Vess has trained a pack of
deadly
Dobberman to guard his property and kill
anyone attempting to get in or out. Chyna dresses in Vess's dog-training
clothing and sprays ammonia on the dogs to get through the dogs and into the
motor home. She and Ariel exit the house, and take a vehicle. Chyna sees a
police car on the road, so she pulls over to signal it, only to discover that
the driver is Vess, the local "county sheriff".
In the ensuing
showdown, she rams his police car, soaking him and the highway with gasoline,
though this fails to kill him as he escapes his car and uses a shotgun to
disable the motor home, causing it to tip over. Chyna and Ariel escape the
crippled wreck but Vess catches up to them and knocks Chyna to the ground but
Ariel continues on, distracting Vess long enough for Chyna to get a lighter
she'd grabbed at the gas station. She uses it to ignite the gas covering Vess
and the highway before rolling to safety. She catches up to Ariel and watches
as Vess meets his end in the flames. They are then rescued by a passing
motorist.
A few months later Chyna adopts
Ariel, who has begun to speak in small phrases and meets a man who she falls in
love with.
Part 1
This book is
well written, I'm sure. From the moment I started reading it I felt sick to my
stomach from the overly detailed homicidal and torturous events, but also I
could not stop reading it because the author held a small hope of the heroine
doing some lasting good by helping the 16-year-old girl who was locked in this
crazy bastard's basement.
After reading
this book, I was amazed by Chyna’s braveness. Even though at first she loses
her strength because of the death of her bestfriend Laura and Laura’s Mom and
Dad who accepted her as a part of their family. Amazed, because it is not easy
to save a 16yearsold girl who was kidnapped by a sociopath. I was also amazed
by the way Koontz write his novel, for example Koontz is not using clichés but
he make his own.
All in all this
book made me cry in the end. The book starts off amazing, and that is how it
continues and finishes. I couldn’t put this book down, I'd read before going to
bed and the first thing I'd do when I woke up was pick up that same damn book
again, eager to find out what happened next. The plot is fast paced, INTENSE
and emotional. The main character, no matter how damaged by her horrifying
future or dark past, always has hope and determination. The book is told from
two perspectives: the heroines and the villains, which helps to understand the
mentality of both and fills in spaces that would have otherwise been gaps if
just left to one perspective, such as when one is hiding somewhere, what is the
other one doing? Have they realized they're not alone, or are they just going
about their business? This is another great book if you want something that
leaves you with your face practically buried in the pages with your hands white
from gripping the book, and a headache from shouting 'RUN!! GET OUT OF THERE!!'
repeatedly in your head. It also has a likable villain, which I don’t find as
often as Id like. What can I say, the man amuses me :)
For a book that doesn’t
have many plot twists and is straight forward, it is extremely well written and
addictive. I like a lot of twists in books, but this one has made up for the
lack of twists with emotion and intensity, bringing it right up there with my
other favorite books.
Having a friend
that treats you like a sister is one of the best feelings you can ever have.
Also with the addition of the Mom and Dad who also accept you as one of the
part of the family. When I read the part where Chyna and Laura having there way
to Laura’s house something crossed my mind, I’ve also experienced that thing
with my bestfriend. My bestfriend treat me as her sister and so I, also her
family treat me one of their daughter. It feels great when someone accept you
as a part of the family even if you’re not related by blood or name. That’s why
I was shocked and also cried when Laura and Laura’s Family was murdered. Even
if I , I don’t want it to happen to my bestfriend’s or anybody.
I wonder what
if Chyna didn’t ever think about saving Ariel? Is she going to live after that
horrifying night? I wonder what id Laura didn’t die ? Is she going to be also
one of Vess’s victim ?
If Ariel was
not able to save by Chyna ? is she going to die like what Vess did to others ?
Is she going to have a great life with Chyna ?
Maybe after
Chyna saved Ariel, Ariel will be having an extraordinary life and will live
happy with Chyna. Maybe there will be no longer showing of Vess so that Chyna
and Ariel will have a peaceful life.
Part 2. Entry
#16
My name is
Elaiza Tero and I am a Newspaper reporter, and I’m here to interview Chyna
Shepard a survivor of unexpectected torturous crime.
Elaiza :“Good morning Ms. Shepard I am here to
ask you some questions. First I would like to ask you. What did you feel when
you saw a man standing in your door’s room?”
Chyna : “At
first I had a bad feeling that this guys is not a part of Laura’s Family,
because first I know who’s Laura’s brother, or father or either the gardener.
He really isn’t a part of the family and I have an instinct that he is murderer
or a killer!”
Elaiza : “What
did you feel when you found the corpse of Laura’s Mother and Father?”
Chyna : “I feel
like I was dying too. Seeing this good person in front of me lying without giving
any signs that they are still alive, it’s like the world stop for a moment. It
took time for me to realize that they were both die and killed by that
sociopath Vess! And after that Laura came next to my mind. The feeling of
awakened by a dream, I rush to Laura and find her in her room but I didn’t.”
Elaiza :” What
did you feel when you saw Laura?”
Chyna : “First
I feel that I am still lucky, lucky that I saw Laura alive. But then she was
killed by Vess and I was like shocked and got angry, angry because Laura is my
best friend, my sister, my family, and she’s my everything, I was angry because
I also wanted to take revenge, to kill Vess to get back what he took from me!
To have the justice for the deaths of the Templeton Family. But still I was
scared. Scared that in the end Vess’ll also kill me!”
Elaiza: When
you heard about Ariel, the girl whom you saved from Vess. What’s the first that
came to your mind?”
Chyna : “First
I didn’t believe that Ariel exist, that she really is a hostage of Vess, but
after seeing her picture in the table. My braveness swallowed me. And that made
me think that when I save Ariel I can also save my life, I didn’t think what
would happen when I save Ariel from Vess. I only think that when I save Ariel I
can save a life.”
Elaiza : “Do
you think that if you didn’t save Ariel, is she going to live with Vess, or
Vess would also kill her?”
Chyna: “I never
think that Ariel would live longer with Vess, I think that Vess would also kill
her. But after getting all he wanted to Ariel.”
Elaiza : “Now
that Ariel is in your hands, what can you promise to her?”
Chyna : “I can
promise, that she’ll live happily with me, with her new mate. I will treat her
as my daughter and I promise to love her with all my heart. I promise that no
one could ever hurt her anymore, no more Vess, no more sociopaths, no more
hurting.”
Elaiza : “Thankyou
Ms. Chyna. Thankyou for you time.”
Chyna: “Thankyou!.”
