D. E. Athkins

Dore Grey is a very beautiful girl. She's a high school senior who has won countless beauty pageants, and she has a steady boyfriend, Stan. Dore knows she’s beautiful; her whole life is based on her beauty. But she wants more from life.

There is a new girl in school called Luci. Dore thinks of Luci as a vamp (red-haired, sexy, hot, bad). Luci says Dore can have more in life. Luci gives Dore a present…an old-fashioned mirror with odd decorations around it.

After a while Dore’s personality starts to change, she becomes mean and vindictive to her friends and her parents. She starts hanging around Luci more often. And her reflection in her strange mirror looks worse and worse, while Dore herself seems to look prettier and prettier.

This was a book written for teens/young-adults but I found it pretty captivating. (It reminded me of "The Picture of Dorian Gray" at times.) Most of the characters weren't very likable. But I still enjoyed this book and I found myself turning the pages to see what was going to happen next. I also liked how the story ended.… (mere)

Seven teens from Shelter Cove High School are invited to popular Djuna Dufarge's yearly "Secret Santa" party, which is held around Christmas time. (This is the "in" party that everyone is dying to be invited to.) The teens are flown on a plane to Teach's Landing (a remote island) where the party is being held. Once they get to the island, and get settled in, eventually they are told to draw names and they will be a "Secret Santa" to the name that they picked. (Basically they give a gift to whoever's name that they picked). But then strange things begin to happen. They hear eerie howls in the night, their "Secret Santas" are giving them weird gifts, people are disappearing...

I thought this book would be fun to read around Christmas, but it was sort of boring, and had way too many characters in it for such a short story. The gifts were silly and not scary, and I didn't really care for any of the characters.… (mere)