Following Christopher Creed by Carol Plum-Ucci

Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books

Pages: 416

Series or Stand Alone: Sequel to The Body of Christopher Creed

Summary: Years later . . . what really happened to Christopher Creed? When Torey Adams posts on his blog that a body has been found in Steepleton—four years after Christopher Creed disappeared—college reporter Mike Mavic sells his laptop and hops a plane to capture the story that will undoubtedly launch his journalistic career. But what Mike finds is a town suffering under a cloud of bad frequency and people with an underlying streak of meanness. To the teens of Steepleton, Chris is nothing more than history—but to Justin Creed, a teen obsessed with his older brother’s memory and balancing on the edge of sanity, discovering what really happened to Chris Creed is a matter of life and death.

Review:
I ripped this book off the new shelf when I saw it at the library. Somehow, it had evaded my notice until I saw that shelf, which I find a little odd since I practically stalk books all over the interwebs. I had no idea that there was ever going to be a sequel to The Body of Christopher Creed, a book I read in my freshman year of high school that stuck with me even though I could not remember basically anything about it. The only thing I did remember is that Carol Plum-Ucci did not tie up the ending with a nice little bow--the mystery of Christopher Creed was still unsolved. I took it out immediately, wanting to read it as soon as I could. Then I had to wait for another library to send me a copy of The Body of Christopher Creed so I could know what the hell was going on.
Following Christopher Creed continues the story of the creepy town of Steepleton four years after the disappearance of Christopher Creed. The story is narrated by Mike Mavic, an outsider that is looking to find out about current and past mysteries with his girlfriend, RayAnn, in order to make it as a journalist. He meets Justin Creed, the newly drug addicted younger brother of Christopher, and attempts to help him and garner information about Christopher. Through Justin, Mike makes contact with a myriad of veteran characters from The Body of Christopher Creed, including Torey, Ali, Bo, and even Christopher's mother, the now-creepily-nicknamed Mother Creed.
One of the aspects that made me love The Body of Christopher Creed so much was Torey's narration. This meant that I was not exactly thrilled when I saw that the narration of the second book would be done by a character that was not even in the first book. Mike Mavic was a complete outsider even though he had basically stalked the website Torey created to tell the story of Christopher Creed's disappearance and to post any updates that came through. I suppose that I was more attached to Torey's narrative style than I thought, but after a little while I started to think it might be interesting to see the story continue through the eyes of the legally blind college reporter that was simply searching for his big break. Of course, there's more to Mike that only that. 
I don't want to say too much about this story because I know how intense the mystery of Christopher Creed is. It should be spoiled for no one. I will say that Carol Plum-Ucci continued to demonstrate her skill in creating a creepy, melancholic environment with characters to match. While Torey, Ali, and Bo aren't the ones at the forefront of this novel, they do return towards the middle of the story. They all have grown up and demonstrate changes fitting of twenty-somethings that have moved away from terrible occurrences in their pasts. Any fans of the original story will love the return of these three. Mike proved to be a good narrator, though I will not say that he was able to match Torey in awesomeness. 
The ending was fantastic. That's really all I can say about it without giving anything away. This is probably one of the vaguest posts I've every written about a book.
I wish Carol Plum-Ucci had developed the problems in Steepleton a little bit more. In the beginning there is talk of "bad frequency," something that is causing an increase in suicide, runaways, car accidents, and general "meanness" in the town. I don't remember getting an explanation as to why these things were happening. It seemed that this kind of fell away in order to search for the solution to the Chris Creed mystery. I was a little disappointed to see it fall by the wayside; I thought it added even more of a creep factor to the town. To see that mystery fully realized would have made this a great sequel. While it was still good, it was not quite up to the caliber of its predecessor.
Carol Plum-Ucci brought a satisfying conclusion to the Christopher Creed mystery with Following Christopher Creed. Using new characters and old alongside one another brought in a new perspective on the mystery and on the town in general. Fans of the original story should definitely pick up the sequel in order to have their original questions answered. Anyone who didn't read the original should just go read it now and count yourself lucky that the sequel is already out--the rest of us had to wait seven or eight years!

Rating: 4 - good.

The Body of Christopher Creed by Carol Plum-Ucci

Publisher: Graphia

Pages: 276

Series or Stand Alone: for many years it appeared to be stand alone, but a sequel was released this year

Summary: Chris Creed grew up as the class freak—the bullies’ punching bag. After he vanished, the weirdness that had once surrounded him began spreading. And it tore the town apart. Sixteen-year-old Torey Adams’s search for answers opens his eyes to the lies, the pain, and the need to blame someone when tragedy strikes, and his once-safe world comes crashing down around him.

Review:
This book and I go way back. Once upon a time, they (meaning the powers that be) created something called One Book New Jersey. One Book New Jersey is the New Jersey Library Association's way of attempting to bring readers together all over the state by having everyone read the same book in the month of May. I just looked it up and apparently it lost funding and has been on hiatus since 2010, but for awhile it was a cool thing that libraries did to promote reading and community. The library's teen book club that I belonged to in high school participated in this starting in 2004. The book chosen that year was The Body of Christopher Creed. I remembered absolutely loving this book back then, but I didn't remember anything else about it. Once I saw that Carol Plum-Ucci had very recently released a sequel to Christopher Creed's original story, I knew I had to read it...which also meant I had to re-read the first novel in order to get the full effect.
The Body of Christopher Creed, ironically, does not really feature the titular character. He's a mere phantom presence, really only recalled or discussed by characters in the story. No one knows whether Creed is dead or simply a runaway--all they know is that he's gone and he left a cryptic note. The protagonist in the story is Torey Adams, a musician on the more popular side of high school, and one of the few people in the town that seems to care at all for Christopher's welfare. Along with Ali McDermott and her "boon" boyfriend Bo Richardson, Torey attempts to uncover the truth about Christopher Creed's disappearance.
The short version? I still love this book. The book isn't a "bullying" book, or a ghost story--it's about the mysteries that exist in a New Jersey small town and how they slowly unravel when people are brave enough to act on their own. There is a creep factor in this story, but not because of anything that goes bump in the night. Not even because of the (SPOILER ALERT) dead body that Torey finds. The creep factor in this book stems from the complete and utter lack of compassion in the town of Steepleton. Everyone assumes that Christopher Creed committed suicide upon hearing of the note he left before disappearing, but no one but the three main characters (plus Torey's mother and Chris's family) even consider it a problem. Some of Torey's friends even make light of the situation, causing him to distance himself from their pathetic influence in the first place. No one cares. I think that is far more chilling than any ghost story I could read. I would say that the most chilling character was Mrs. Creed--she had absolutely no boundaries with her son and was incredibly strict and controlling. She also was entirely willing to pin a murder, the existence of which was entirely unsure, on an innocent boy because of where he came from and a past incident. She was extreme and entirely lacked reason.

The characters in this book were very well done because they seemed to be real people, not mere one dimensional adjectives. They also weren't completely the things are not always what they appear. Torey was a very sensitive teenage boy that went against all of his friends in order to pursue the mystery of Christopher Creed--but it doesn't mean that he didn't punch Chris when they were twelve. Ali McDermott was known for sleeping around in the popular clique--and that's just what she did, until dating Bo. That doesn't mean that she isn't one of the deepest people in Steepleton that actually cared about Chris's disappearance. Bo was supposed to be a "boon" with a mean streak. He turned out to be one of the most caring people in town for those he concerned himself with.

Carol Plum-Ucci's The Body of Christopher Creed is a brilliant mystery about a missing boy, a creepy town, and the people who attempt to discover things previously hidden. It also serves as a great commentary about preconceptions and the inability--or unwillingness--of people to alter these preconceptions once they've been formed. Highly recommended to basically anyone.

Rating: 5 - shelf of favorites status.