Dead Flip

Gr 7-10–Three best friends in 1987 have no idea what is hiding behind the new pinball machine inside their favorite local store where they gather to eat candy and read comics. However, when Sam, the most vulnerable among them, starts hearing voices and having nightmares after playing the game, it is only a matter of time before he disappears. The adults don’t believe Cori and Maz when they insist there is something paranormal going on, and no one looks into the creepy store owner. The narrative is told through multiple perspectives, and it jumps between the time line of Sam’s disappearance and 1993, when he reappears, still a 12-year-old boy. A lot has changed in those six years, but Maz and Cori are still haunted by the earlier events. Maz is drinking more, as he deals with other kids who misunderstand his Persian heritage, and Cori tries to hide her feelings for a punk girl while dating the popular athlete. The premise of a wealthy old man inventing a machine that helps him live forever is not an original one, though the simple plot is part of the throwback, since this book feels like the novelization of an episode of Friday the 13th: The Series. The plethora of 1980s and 1990s references are spot on, though the young audience reading this will likely not pick up on them all.