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Books like Goodnight Kiss

Goodnight Kiss

1992R. L. Stine

4.3/5

Gabriel (Gabri) and Jessica are bored and desperately in need of "nectar," so they make a bet. The first one to bite their victim three times and make them an Eternal One wins. Jessica suggests they choose each other's victims. Gabri chooses Todd for Jessica. He's a shy guy, one Gabri assumes won't be easy to claim. Jessica chooses April for Gabri, the girlfriend of Matt, a guy who only wants to go see horror movies and be immature. Gabri will have to split up April and Matt in order to claim her, but he doesn't see this as a problem. As Gabri and Jessica start charming their victims, they also try to sabotage one another at the time of biting. Jessica is coming out ahead, with only one more bite needed to claim Todd. She has him alone on the beach. But right as she goes to bite his neck, Gabri appears in bat form and startles her. She bites too deeply into Todd's neck, killing him and losing the bet. Matt is the one who finds Todd the next day, which leads to recurring nightmares. He starts to believe that Gabri is a vampire. Of course, he's missed all the signs so far. Gabri and Jessica won't eat at the pizza parlor. They recoil at the smell of garlic. They are nowhere to be found during the day. And Gabri's reflection doesn't appear in the House of Mirrors he is forced to enter with April. All the cliches are here, folks.Jessica isn't ready to cut her losses. She wakes Gabri from his coffin one day to tell him that Matt will now be her victim, and that Gabri has made it easy by separating him from April. Matt is growing frantic to talk to April, especially when she becomes tired all day and won't come out to see him. When they finally meet up, he notices the pinpricks on her neck. He tries to warn her of danger, but April isn't having it. She gets angry with him. Matt decides he will need proof. So he ignores the siren call of Jessica and borrows his Dad's camera to photograph April and Gabri together. When they are finally developed, he has the proof that Gabri doesn't show up in photos. Matt runs off to find April but is waylaid by Jessica instead. Her perfume is intoxicating to him. But out of the corner of his eye he notices Gabri and April in a rowboat heading for the bat island. He has to save April! He brushes off Jessica and climbs in a boat to follow them. When he gets there he enters an abandoned house. He finds April collapsed weakly in a chair. But then Gabri comes in to attack him. Matt is able to shove the oar right through him. Even though it's not made of silver, this somehow causes him to decay on the spot. He tries to rally April but then Jessica comes in. April finds strength and they get in a fight, with Matt watching helplessly on. He remembers the lighter in his pocket and uses it to set Jessica on fire. She immediately disintegrates too. April and Matt make it off the island.A few days later they both talk about feeling so much better. Matt finds the silver cross necklace in the sand that April had received as a birthday present from her father. He picks it up to give it to her, but she tells him to leave it. And just as reality is sinking in, April bares her fangs and said no way was she going to let Jessica have all the nectar! Clever.Victims: Todd, unless Gabri and Jessica count, but I don't think they do.Rating: Three out of five bats!Unanswered questions: Did Matt's Dad ever get his camera back? Because he told him it was expensive and that he needed to be careful with it.
Picture of a book: Goodnight Kiss

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