If you asked me what Christopher Pike book to start with, I’d probably hand you Remember Me or Chain Letter and then tell you good luck, because you’re about to fall down a very weird rabbit hole.

That is probably the easiest way I can explain what reading Christopher Pike was like for me. You never really knew what kind of story you were about to get, only that it was probably going to involve teenagers, death, secrets, something supernatural, somebody making a terrible decision, and at least one moment where you had to stop and go, wait…WHAT? And I loved that.

Remember Me Is Still One of the First Ones I Think Of

Remember Me is probably one of the books I associate with Christopher Pike the most. A teenage girl dies, knows she was murdered, and has to figure out what happened to her while basically watching everyone else continue living. That is such a Christopher Pike setup.

It has mystery, death, the supernatural, teenage relationships, secrets, and that feeling that you are constantly one step behind whatever the real answer is. And then there were THREE of them, because apparently solving your own murder once was not enough.

That whole series just stuck with me. If somebody told me they had never read Pike before, this is absolutely one of the first places I would send them.

Chain Letter Was Completely Different and Somehow Just as Addictive

Then there was Chain Letter, which is a totally different kind of story but had the exact same effect on me. I could not stop reading.

A group of teenagers shares a secret, somebody knows what they did, and suddenly they are getting letters telling them exactly what they have to do. That kind of premise is basically made for me. Somebody knows something, everybody is hiding something, and every time you think you understand what is happening, nope.

Pike was really good at taking something that already sounded creepy and just making it worse. Another secret. Another connection. Another person who knows more than they are saying. Another reason these kids probably should have made completely different life choices.

And again, there was more than one book because apparently once Christopher Pike had you, he knew you were coming back.

Then He Would Just Switch It Up on You

This is probably one of the biggest reasons I kept reading him. He was not just writing the same story over and over with different names.

You could go from Remember Me to Chain Letter to Spellbound to The Midnight Club and they were all different, but somehow they still felt like Christopher Pike. Sometimes it was murder. Sometimes ghosts. Sometimes witches. Sometimes vampires. Sometimes you spent half the book trying to decide whether something supernatural was actually happening or if everybody involved was just losing it.

And I never really cared which one I was getting. If his name was on it, I was probably going to read it.

Spellbound, Witch World and Everything Else

I also read Spellbound, and then there were the Witch World books, Red Queen and Black Knight. By that point I was not really picking a book anymore. I was picking Christopher Pike.

There are certain authors where you get to that point. You stop asking, “What is this one about?” and start thinking, “Eh, I trust you. Let’s see where this goes.”

With Pike, where it went was usually weird as hell.

You might be getting witches this time. You might be getting murder. You might be getting some completely bizarre supernatural mess that makes no sense at first and then somehow pulls you in anyway.

Fine. I was in.

And Yes, Obviously There Was Thirst

Of course there were the vampire books too. The Thirst books were a whole other Christopher Pike obsession for me, but I have already talked about those separately, so I am not going to turn this into another whole vampire article.

But they are still a perfect example of why Pike worked so well for me. He could take something familiar, like vampires, and still make it feel like his.

And when you have read and watched as much supernatural stuff as I have, that matters. I can usually tell when a story is heading somewhere obvious.

Pike was really good at making me think I knew. Then nope.

The Midnight Club Hit Different

Then you have something like The Midnight Club, which feels different from a lot of his other books. It is still dark and still about death, obviously, but it is sadder and quieter.

That is why I do not think saying “Christopher Pike wrote creepy teen books” really covers it. Yes, he did. Absolutely. But there was grief in there too. Guilt. Fear. Friendship. Obsession. People trying to make sense of death. People making bad decisions because they are scared, angry, hurt, or all three.

Some of those books were a lot heavier than the covers made them look.

He Made Weird Feel Completely Normal

That might be the best way to explain what he did. Christopher Pike could give you a dead girl trying to solve her own murder, a group of teenagers being terrorized by chain letters, witches, vampires, ghosts, whatever the hell else he felt like doing, and somehow about ten pages in you were just like, okay, sure.

There was never really a point where I thought, “This is too weird.” It was more like, “Okay, what kind of weird are we doing this time?” And honestly, that is probably why I read so many of them.

I Would Still Start With Remember Me or Chain Letter

After all the Christopher Pike books I have read, if somebody asked me where to start, I would still probably go right back to Remember Me or Chain Letter. They just feel like Pike to me.

They are creepy. They are dark. There are secrets, death, people making terrible choices, and enough weirdness to make you keep going because you HAVE to know where this is headed.

And once you finish one, there is a very good chance you are going to go looking for another. That is exactly what happened to me.

I would finish one Christopher Pike book, pick up another, and have absolutely no idea what kind of story I was about to get. I just knew it was probably going to get weird.

And that was the fun of it.