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.

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)

( )

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. ( )