Christopher Pike excelled in entertaining thrillers for older young adults who were a bit more worldly than those portrayed by paramours like the popular R. L. Stine. That’s no slam on Stine, I’m simply making a distinction between his brand, which can also be enjoyable, and Pike’s.

Read today by an adult, you can add nostalgia to the mix. Released in 1991, Bury Me Deep is a very fun read, and would make a great time at the beach for anyone looking to combine teenage thrills with the nostalgia of late teens whose growing pains involved a few beers, and whether to have sex and when, rather than trying to decide what pronoun they’d like others to use when addressing them, or being so PC offended by statues of revered figures in history, they become drama queens until they’re torn down, proving they never truly understood what Orwell’s 1984 was about.

This one starts out fun, with a trip to Hawaii for of-age Jean, who is joining her friend Mandy, and a beautiful girl named Michele that both girls know, but who has invited herself along. On the long flight over, Jean meets Mike, a sweet kid who promptly dies aboard the plane right in front of her. This tragedy happens immediately and is not a spoiler. This tragic event shakes up Jean, who feels a connection to Mike, even though they only spent a few minutes together on the plane. That connection may be a supernatural one, as Jean soon discovers.

You’d think Jean slept through this fun story from comments made by others about this book, but each nap is placed where it makes sense — jet leg from the flight, after a busy day ending at a club with two young men (Dave and Johnny) who are teaching them to scuba dive, etc. — and is barely a blip on the radar. There exists the possibility Jean is being influenced by Mike, who appears in her dreams, possibly trying to tell her something. It becomes so frightening — and dangerous, when she almost takes a header off the hotel balcony — that she actually avoids sleep any more than she must. The dead boy’s influence begins to affect her during waking hours, compelling her to take great and foolish risks underwater as well.

There’s a ton about scuba diving in this Pike entry. It borders on an info dump at first, but eventually becomes very pertinent, because two murders, not one, may have been committed. By someone. A boat that went down near Lanai and may have some serious loot on board may be a piece of the puzzle Jean needs to figure out in order to understand what’s happening to her, and the visions she’s having. But when she’s worried she may be taking Mandy’s boyfriend from under her nose without trying to do so, and there’s so much fun to be had both above and below water, how is she going to focus on Mike, who is no longer among the living? But with his connection to Jean, Mike might as well be alive, as Jean is soon to discover.

I sort of guessed part of this, but with a lot of different possibilities, Pike keeps the reader just unsure enough that the conclusion is both action-packed and thrilling. As another reviewer so astutely noted, Pike was different from others who wrote in this young adult thriller genre, in that he was able to paint the victim in a way that elicited sympathy in the reader, their loss as real as Jean’s when Mike dies on the plane. That tragedy however, kickstarts a fun and thrilling Christopher Pike novel that turns tender in its final moment, giving it that extra something missing in so many others in this genre.

Yes, it’s young adult, but if you can imagine yourself as 17 or 18 again, and put yourself back in these shoes, you’ll have a blast. I had great fun reading this, and find it one of the more memorable Christopher Pike stories. If you give this a try and enjoy it, I can also recommend the following by this author: Slumber Party, Weekend, Gimme a Kiss, Die Softly, Monster, and the really splendid, Fall Into Darkness. There was a touch of realness to Pike’s kids, even in the stories that had supernatural elements at the forefront (Monster), so not all of them had the kind of ending we’d like. This one I think does, despite a new death that brings even more teenage poignancy to the epilog. Highly recommended! ( )

A great thriller. I love how Christopher Pike writes YA novels that are interesting and easy to read, but not cheesy. This is one of his more down-to-earth stories. There's still a supernatural element, but it's not crazy like most of his other books. It was a nice change to just read a straight forward mystery/thriller from him. ( )

is this the one where somebody dies from the bends? i think i'm right.

Christopher Pike (like R.L. Stine) is one of those authors I steered clear of when I was in the target age demographic for their stuff because I thought they would scare the bejesus out of me (I was probably right--I was a sensitive kid, and I have never particularly like to be scared). I heard this book mentioned somewhere lately and had a "I think I'm brave enough to try some of that" moment. I loved it. It's just enough this side of horror not to scare me now, and I loved the intrigue and the slightly improbable plot populated by teenagers that are both too young and too old to be believably their stated ages. This book also knows a lot about scuba diving and put that on the page in a way that was fascinating. I may check out some more of Pike's books when I'm in the mood for something thriller-ish but want the read to be quick and not super likely to actually freak me out. ( )

Christopher Pike has an amazing endowment for winding together complex, deep plots, especially for young adult tales. Bury Me Deep isn’t the most composite of the lot, but it still harps an intriguing tale that’s a mystery from day one. Jean gets on a plane headed for Hawaii , to meet two other teen girl friends for a week of paradise. Next to her seat is a boy, Mike, who never reaches his destination. Instead, he starts to mysteriously suffocate, and then falls away dead, in front of Jean’s horrified eyes. Not the best start to a vacation, Jean can’t shake the feeling of dread as she tries to make the best of what’s left for her on the trip.

Finding that her two friends have enrolled the three in scuba diving glasses, taught of course by two attractive men, the five is soon constantly bombarded by one terrible occurrence after another, with none of them making much sense. After being plagued by ominous dreams of the dead boy and finding a skull in an underwater cave, Jean must unravel this mystery before it gets the best of her.

The book never bores, keeping action and interest levels high. The mystery, told through only Jean’s eyes, leaves the reader unsure of what is happening, although it was a bit of a disappointment to guess the potential culprit(s) halfway through the tale. Still, reading to the end proved to be an enjoyment, even if guesses prove right, and as is usual Pike style, the words never grow stale as they work their magic upon the reader.

Characterization is strong, but still a little weaker than other Pike books. He generally writes very real type people for the teen audience, over what many of the modern authors fail to do, not creating simple innocent dolls that scream of Brady Bunch marathons. Here Jean is a bit stiff at first, but gradually warms into a full-blooded human being. Her friends are cliché to an extent, but still likable, and the men come through as more easily realistic, perhaps because Jean doesn’t know them before the story starts, not forcing Pike to do a downplay of their general personalities.

While not as darkly orientated as Whisper of Death and some other Pike pieces, it still has grim layers, bizarre parental relationships, and tragedy that’s as adult as any. ( )