Title: Killing Mr. Griffin
Author: Lois Duncan
Year of Publication: 1978
Genre: YA
Pages: 222
First Line: "It was a wild, windy, southwestern spring when the idea of killing Mr. Griffin occurred to them."
Summary: They only planned to scare their English teacher.
They didn't mean to kill him.
But sometimes even the best-laid plans go wrong.
Source: Back of book
Review: I wasn't aware this was written in the 70's until I started writing up this review. From that perspective, I'm more impressed because I feel the plot is more original. The writing wasn't fantastic -- typical horror style, nothing terribly amazing but not awful, either. Characters were pretty two-dimensional and fairly predictable. I really liked Mr. Griffin's character. Plot was somewhat predictable. A quick read and kind of interesting. Probably worth it if you need something to read on the go. Plus, it's physically a tiny book.
Worst part: Part of the end was really confusing. Begin Major Spoiler. At the end, Susan was all, "I love Mark." But I hadn't seen anything that would have indicated that throughout the book. It didn't make sense and wasn't really relevant to the plot, either. You can be easily influenced by someone without loving them. And I think Mark should have been compared to Hitler more. /End Major Spoiler.
Best part: Mark was probably the best part but he could have been done even better.
Grade: B
Other Books by This Author: I Know What You Did Last Summer and others.
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