Carol Plum-UcciCritiques

Lani Garver is a new kid and a misfit. Claire McKenzie and her best friend Macy are unsure whether Lani is a boy or a girl. But this does not stop Claire from befriending him, even though the small island town of Hackett does not like outsiders

Reread review: I read this in highschool and was completely engrossed by it. It was creepy and fascinating and I loved it. I still think its a good book and the creepyness factor was still present, but I am definitely pickier about things like racism and sexist language these days and the book contains more of that sort of thing than I would have liked.

It seemed really dated already, with the main character talking about blogging all the time. I couldn't get into this one at all.

Its been years since I read "The Body of Christopher Creed" so I was a bit apprehensive about how I'd go with this one but I needn't have worried as I could slide straight back into the small-town universe with all its quirky characters and strange habits. In this one, a college student called Mike is an investigative reporter and is fascinated by the Christopher Creed mythology having read all about his disappearance on a website. In this case, Mike comes to town just as the police uncover another body in the woods which, once again, is not Christopher Creed but that of a young woman. Mike starts his investigations with Christopher 's stoner brother who believes in quantum thought .(That is, if I think something hard enough it will come true). There are also others in the town who believe that the woods hold the secrets to the town's other disappearances and claim to see lights flashing late at night. Its all very intriguing and Mike is drawn deeper into looking at what happened to not only Christopher, but also the woman whose body was found.
I don't want to give the ending away but it was a doozy and completely floored me. I love books that keep me guessing and this one did. A good one for young adults who like their crime/mystery stories to be intellectual rather than gory.

I just couldn't finish this one. I loved the original "Christopher Creed" book, but I found the main characters in this sequel too obnoxious and uninteresting. Perhaps I'll try it again sometime in the future and see if I have a different opinion.

Christopher Creed is a nerdy outsider that many kids bullied and even more ignored or avoided. Then he disappears and a hunt ensues for the body --and truth-- of Christopher Creed. Terrific pacing, a touch of the supernatural, and some exciting plot twists make this a can't-put-down book. Highly recommended.

I found this book while cleaning my daughters room. It looked good. It's a mystery involving high school students at an upper-class school in Georgia. It really was quite good. The author does well describing Torey's feeling and thoughts about trying to find Chris who may have killed himself. Per a letter to the school principal, Torey and his pals may be partly to blame! Chris was a geeky kid that was always teased and had difficulty making/keeping friends. I liked the book because the story has unexpected events½

This book was a lot like Looking for Alaska but without all the sex and a little bit more mystery. I liked it pretty well. It was kind of creepy, but did a fair job of trying to teach a moral while keeping with a modern day setting.

I loved this. Intelligent characters and an intriguing plot. I don't want to read the sequel, content to leave the mystery intact. Great read!

The high school misfit, Christopher Creed, has disappeared without a trace. People theorize that he has run away, committed suicide or was killed by one of the boons, the town thugs. No one takes it very seriously, except Torey, whose name was mentioned in Chris’ supposed suicide note; Torey’s friend Ali; and her boon boyfriend, Bo. With Chris’ disappearance, Torey soon learns that truth and reality in his town are not what they seem, and that people can make them suit their own needs. Edges on creepy. Lib notes: Swearing, talk of death and murder.

"The Body of Christopher Creed" is narrated by seventeen year-old, Torey Adams, who is trying to discover the truth about the recent disappearance of a fellow student. As he struggles to find the truth, Torey has to struggle against small town prejudices, stereotypes and deceptions. This book reminded me of "Jasper Jones" by Craig Silvey, which I read earlier this year, but it lacked the humour and charm that was so evident in "Jasper Jones."

Great book!

Good, quick realistic fiction. The plot arcs wide from it's beginning point and leaves the reader with sense of sadness.

It is hard to connect to the charaters but I think this is purposeful. An underlying concept of the book is how hard it is know others when you don't really know yourself. And this sums up the journey that young people take as they leave their childhood behind.

“He didn’t understand what it was like to have your truths turn to crispy critters in stinking, rotting laughing that smelled like something you could never, ever describe, yet never, ever forget.” (pg 301)

Carol Plum-Ucci’s novel delves deeply into interesting territory as a small town deals with the mysterious disappearance of one of its own, Christopher Creed. The story is told through the compelling narrative voice of Torey, a young boy, who among others, is referenced in the final email received from Chris, the town bully-target. In Torey’s quest for answers, there are some startling secrets uncovered as he only comes face to face with the mysteries, lies, and hypocrisy of adults. There are some dramatic moments in the story, and the ambiguity of the ending is thought-provoking, and suspense-laden. This novel has appeared on curriculum lists in Saskatchewan for English Language Arts and has been used at the grade nine level with ties to identity, decision-making, and relationships. This novel was the winner of the Michael L. Printz Honor in 2001 and the South Carolina Book Award for Young Adults in 2003.

I was just re-reading this book. I'm a lot older now than I was when I first read it, and the book definitely made me think more than the last time I read it. I found myself admiring Lani for his bravery and opinionated lifestyle rather than the fact that he felt the need to avoid being defined or forced into boxes . I found myself hating Tony even more, for his cowardice. I find myself less satisfied than ever about the ending of the book. But I would still recommend it to my greatest friend or my worst enemy in a heartbeat.

Impressed by setting and the storytelling. Great to see characters talking about big things like belief systems, capitalism v socialism. And gripping, too!

I've always liked reading mysteries, and this one did not disappoint - in fact, I stayed up late to finish it because I had to know how it ended. The plot centers on the disappearance of Christopher Creed, an unpopular "weirdo" and longtime classmate of the main character, Torey Adams, in the town of Steepleton. Though Creed's parents insist at first that he has run away, soon rumors that he has been murdered begin to swirl around the school. The way that the topic is treated casually bothers Torey, who seems to have more of a conscience - a more developed sense of empathy - than his friends. Torey has to know what happened to Chris Creed, and he slowly pulls away from his popular friends and begins to hang out with those on the fringes - who, he discovers, are not at all the way their reputations led him to believe they would be.

Torey muses a lot about the nature of popularity and friendship, the role that rumors and gossip play in the town (both in high school and among grown-ups), truth and lies and hypocrisy:

"It was easier to point the finger at somebody else. If Creed had written that note, we would have had to point the finger at ourselves, or at least take a good long look at our ways and agonize over questions. Like, could we have played it out differently? Could we have been nicer? Do we have a heartless streak, and can we be bastards?....Maybe it was my time in life, or maybe it was this whole thing with Creed. But something inside of me felt totally ready to be completely nice to the rejects - people like Creed, the boons - and to be somebody who's not so drowning in surface junk." (59)

"This weird kid leaves, but the weirdness stays. It starts coming out of everybody else. I felt like Chris's ghost was in us, trying to make us understand." (117)

"I wondered if being a geek made you a better, less judgmental person." (130)

"Flocks of kids were all doing their usual homeroom things - talking, laughing, finishing up homework they didn't do before. But they had fangs like snakes that came out when something rubbed them wrong. I knew it. I'd been part of it. They could bite. They could ruin my life..." (130)

"...I felt very close to Creed. I could feel all his confusion over what was real and what was made up in his own head. I felt his wish for make-believe to come alive, for some sort of control over the universe so that if life started to suck, you could just imagine something else into existence." (215)

"This was the most dangerous kind of lying, it struck me, the kind that was happening to me now - where people need the lie so badly they become convinced the lie is true. It's dangerous because they can tell the lie with so much belief that it sounds like the truth, and they can make other people believe it." (216)

"I've stayed awake wondering what people think when they spit out some enormous lie, like, do they even stop to think, Why am I saying this?." (238)

"Some people like to state their opinions as fact. I'm sort of the opposite. I'm afraid of believing some lie for the sake of convenience." (238)

These musings don't slow down the pace of the story, however; this is a book with plot and suspense as well as good characters. Torey tells the story at a slight distance from the events; the reader learns right up front that he has transferred to a boarding school to get away from Steepleton. He is still searching for Creed, via the internet, and at the end of the book there are four responses that he has received: the "most flattering," "most insulting," "mostly likely to be from Chris Creed in disguise," and the "reply that makes me believe totally that Creed is alive." That final reply will most likely convince the reader, as well.

A final note: at one point in the story, Torey suffers some trauma and talks to a therapist afterward. Torey says, "I mean, I just don't understand how people can show all the violence [in visual representations of Jesus]. But they single out [cover up] the nudity. Nudity is a problem, but all the violence isn't. I don't understand people." Dr. Fadhi replies, "We live in a culture that has definite quirks about both sex and violence" (226). This is an insightful observation for a teenage boy to make, but it is true that American morality is much more concerned with sex than with violence.

Whoa! I recognized the unreliable narrator for what he was, but somehow still didn't see the twist coming. I wasn't sure if this sequel would live up to the first book, but I think in the end it did.


"I guess unanswered questions are good because of how they feed people's imaginations. I think imagination is the most beautiful defense we have in a world that can be insanely cruel at times. Once all the questions are answered, the imagination runs out of fuel, has to shut down. We're back in skeptic mode. Everything's limited again." (306-307)

"I would venture to say....your brother mixes lies with truth sometimes to protect his identity. I would venture to say...he is alive and he still loves you." (395)

In The She Even, was young when his parents died in a boating accident - and I mean a freighter, not a little boat - and now that he's 17, he finds he hasn't coped with it. His ever-so-logical brother is telling him a version of the events he can't stomach. And then of course, there's this popular girl... If you've read Carol Plum-Ucci's award wining (and deservedly so) The Body of Christopher Creed, you can imagine what is coming.

The She is a decent book, but compared to The Body of Christopher Creed it's a let down. It travels some of the same themes as Christopher, but the characters are not as engaging or likable.½

The book, The Body of Christopher Creed was written by Carol Plum-Ucci. The book is realistic fiction. The copyright date is 2000. This was a very good book. The Body of Christopher Creed is a mystery about a murder/suicide/runaway. When a kid from Steepelton goes missing, everybody is confused and shocked. People don’t know if it was a murder, suicide, or if he just ran away. Torey, Ali, and Bo try to solve the mystery but it only results in more problems. As Torey tries to solve the Christopher Creed problem, he discovers a horrifying truth.

This book is very suspenseful. There are many cliff hangers which keeps the reader interested. The whole idea of the story is intriguing and makes the reader want to know more just by reading the back cover. While reading the book, there is never a dull moment. Something is always happening. The Body of Christopher Creed never gets boring.

The theme of this book would be judging others. All throughout this book you see people judging others but for what? The people who judge aren’t friends with who they are judging and don’t know what their life is like. Another theme for this book might be friends. This book illiterates the need for friends. Chris just wanted a true friend. Torey had friends but in the end, he found out who his true friends were.

I would recommend this book to anybody that enjoys reading mysteries. The Body of Christopher Creed contains many cliff hangers and suspenseful moments. I would rate this book a 4/5.

Christopher Creed is the weirdest kid in school. Intelligent, tall, socially beyond awkward, he has no friends that anyone can name, though he seems to see himself as popular. During his junior year he disappears without a trace, except for an email he sends from a school computer that could be a suicide note or just be a goodbye note. Or it could be that Christopher Creed didn't send the note at all if he was murdered and his killers simply wanted to cover-up their crime.

Since no one knows for certain what happened to Christopher Creed, including the reader, the novel becomes the story of what happens to those left behind. How can his family deal with this loss when they don't know what kind of loss it is? How can the students at his school adjust to knowing they may have contributed to their classmate's suicide when the truth may be that he simply ran away?

Suspicion eventually falls on the narrator, Victor Adams, a classmate and acquaintance of Christopher's who attempts to solve his disappearance. Victor and s few of his friends try to spy on Christopher's mother because they believe it was her eccentric, strict upbringing that drove him to run away from their small town. After Christopher's mother catches them out, she becomes convinced that they are responsible for her son's death. She simply refuses to believe that he ran away or that he committed suicide.

This is much more plot summary than I usually like to do. While I enjoyed The Body of Christopher Creed and think it is a well written book, I find I have nothing to say about it. It's an interesting story that becomes something of a thriller and it goes on. The characters are all interesting and believable. I enjoyed reading it. That's just all I really have to say.

In the small town of Steepleton, the mysterious disappearance of a socially awkward teenager, Christopher Creed, rattles the community revealing both secrets and settling lies of the past. Known as the obnoxious class geek, Christopher Creed was the target of bullying. His vanishing becomes the high school’s juicy gossip. As the rumors intensify about Creed, a popular Torey Adams becomes agitated by the lack of sensitivity regarding the matter. Torey’s curiosity of what happened to Creed becomes consuming as he discovers that his name was left in a cryptic email from Creed the day of the disappearance. Determined to find some understanding of the situation, Torey’s life is altered. In the course of uncovering answers, Torey finds himself entangled in a series of events that put him and two others in jail for Creed’s disappearance. Plum-Ucci’s writing is full of twists and turns that will put the reader in a state of suspense. The characters are well developed and the change in Torey is as equally captivating as trying to figure out what happened to Creed. The Body of Christopher Creed is a mystery thriller that will leave young adult readers searching for more answers and questioning ones tolerance towards others.

Age Appropriate: Grade 9 and up
This is a Young Adult book. The content is for mature readers with reference to sensitive topics (sex, drugs, suicide, abuse, etc.). The book contains swear words.

Claire deals with an eating disorder and dysfunctional family with the help of possible angel Lani Garver, who may need her help in return. This is a moving book. Claire’s life is falling apart around her—her mother is an alcoholic, she’s recovering from cancer, she’s developed anorexia…anyone going through any issue will relate to her. Lani, on the other hand, though having been a runaway and faced prejudice, has used his hardships to become stronger and help others. Normally someone so perfect would be easy to hate, but Lani is so real—he is very smart but faces gay-bashing because of his androgyny—that it is easy to fall in love with him. It is possible for the reader to see himself in Lani, wiser and stronger because of his difficulties. However, there are so many issues going on in this book that none are fully developed. It is easy to forget about Claire’s cancer or anorexia until it’s explicitly mentioned again, if it even is. In addition, the twists, especially at the end, may actually be too clever for their own good. The author comes across as being afraid to make a decision—is Lani any angel or not? Did he drown or not? The questions are repeatedly batted around with no definitive answer, leaving the reader wanting. The book is beautiful and enjoyable as long as the reader doesn’t think too hard about it.

I remember reading The Body of Christopher Creed in high school and LOVING it because it was just so creepy. It was a well-done psychological thriller. And it was my first (psychological thriller, that is), so automatically it has a soft spot in my heart. When I first heard of Following Christopher Creed, I was a bit put-off. The Body of Christopher Creed was so amazing that I feel that it didn't need a sequel. And, unfortunately, I was right. Following Christopher Creed never lives up to the brilliance that is its predecessor.

Following Christopher Creed was, most of the time, a bloated, boring book. Sure, some interesting things happened here and there, but reading most of the book was tedious. I also found the characters in The Body of Christopher Creed more developed and therefore more intriguing. While I did like Mike and RayAnn, I never got a clear reading of them, particularly when it comes to Mike. Now maybe this was the author's intention, but it made me feel very disconnected to Mike. Revisiting with the characters of the previous novel was pretty cool, but that only lasted for a few chapters.

Another thing I didn't understand was why the author built up this side-plot at the beginning with Steepleton having bad karma, yet never elaborated on it. I thought that should've been the focus Following Christopher Creed. What makes Steepleton tick? Why is it that while most towns see change, Steepleton remains the same and never evolves? She brings up these questions, but answers are never forthcoming. Normally, the lack of answers doesn't really tend to bother me, but I guess I was latching on to the Steepleton theory because it was really the only thing in Following Christopher Creed that intrigued me. I found the rest meh.

So, two stars for the ending which I really did NOT see coming (but really should have. I think I'm off my game) and for some moments of interest. But really, I found Following Christopher Creed to be an unnecessary sequel that never reaches the awesomeness that was The Body of Christopher Creed, let alone surpasses it.

I absolutely loved The Body of Christopher Creed and it's gone down as one of my all-time favorite books. But as it's a coming-of-age novel that comments on both society (to take a large-scale view) and high school bullying (to take a smaller-scale view), I was doubtful as to how good a sequel would be. Novels of The Body's caliber and scope don't usually have sequels. Following Christopher Creed turned out to be decent. If not for the ending, though, it wouldn't have come anywhere near wowing me as much as did the first book. It wasn't as hard-hitting nor as thrilling, a lot of it being dialogue, and I was never sure where Plum-Ucci was trying to head with the story. Was it intended as another coming-of-age social commentary, a novel about moving on, or some book promoting the powers of positive and quantum thinking? It only became clear at the conclusion.

Fortunately, the author keeps the plot interesting; even with there being little action (at least in the physical sense), things move fast. The main characters are likeable, each having their own faults that they're trying to overcome with varying rates of success. I wish Plum-Ucci would have delved more into the "bad frequency" aspect of Steepleton, why there's a high cancer rate, why there have been unexplained, total-fatality car wrecks, why everyone is "mean" - mysteries that readers expect to be explained by the end but are dropped. Again, what makes this a totally worthwhile read rather than just an ok-ish one is the end when some shocking realizations finally come out about what really happened to Christopher Creed. There's no way you'll ever see it coming until the last few pages.

Note: Readers will need to have read The Body of Christopher Creed before this book in order to understand the basic plot and characters. I also noticed that there is much, much less profanity in Following Christopher Creed than in the first book.½