Killing Mr. Griffin
by Lois Duncan
|
List Price: Our Price: $2.97 You Save: $4.02 (58%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Killing Mr. Griffin
Book Review: Killing Mr. Griffin Review
Summary: 4 Stars
The novel Killing Mr. Griffin written by Lois Duncan is an exceptional murder-mystery story. Her unique approach to writing makes this novel a winner. Duncan's descriptive and realistic writing style keeps her readers on the edge of their seats. Her story remains plausible at all times, never futuristic or impractical, making it all the more suspenseful. She packs this novel full of suspense and surprises making it one of her best. Duncan incorporates several literary devices into her work. The first is foreshadowing. Duncan cleverly places clues as to what will happen next throughout the story. For example, when the high school students bring the kidnapped Mr. Griffin to a secluded area in the mountains, they discover a bottle of nitroglycerine in his coat pocket, which alludes to his heart condition. The students fail to notice this clue, which ultimately causes Mr. Griffin's untimely death. Secondly, Duncan uses the allusion to Ophelia as a connection to Susan. Both feel alone and helpless, often contemplating death. Because of this weakness inside of Susan, she does not kill herself, but rather allows herself to become wrapped up in a murder case in order to gain acceptance and popularity. Lastly, without Duncan's use of stereotypes in this novel, readers would not be able to grasp the full reality of this story. Susan the shy lonely student, Mark the quiet but cool guy, Jeff the jock, Betsy the prom queen, and Dave the All-American model child come together in this story to form a real image of high school life. Each character has a different reaction to situations adding variety to the novel's plot. The theme of this story is simple: all are held accountable for their actions, and when bad decisions are make in haste, regret and turmoil result. This novel is a well-written wonderful novel that everyone should read!Book Review: They only meant to scare him...
Summary: 5 Stars
Set in a wild, windy, southwestern day, Was when 5 students decided they would kill Mr. Griffin. Louis Duncan author of Block Buster hit " I know What You Did Last Summer" writes a novel called "Killing Mr. Griffin". It is about 5 teenage students that want sweet revenge on their teacher Mr. Griffin. The only thing is will everything go as they planned, or will they regret what they did forever. The five main characters in the book are Susan, David, Jeff, Betsy, and Mark. Susan is the shy kind of girl, David lives with his mom and grandma, Jeff works on cars, Betsy is a popular girl and if any one does anything to her that she doesn't like she hates them, and Mark is one who makes trouble. These teenage boys and girls all do not like Mr. Griffin. Mr. Griffin gives to much home work, and pressures everyone. Mr. Griffin has a wife who is pregnant with a child. Susan, David, Jeff, Betsy, and Mark all plan on kidnapping Mr. Griffin and taking him up to a secret spot in the mountains that only they know about. Once they got there they would make him plead for forgiveness, and freedom. Everything goes all right, they think. Did they think how they were going to get rid of his car, or if Mr. Griffin had any medications to take. You will find all of this out once you read this book. In one scene Betsy and Jeff are driving Mr. Griffins car and a cop is following them. Will they get caught, will they run from the law, will the cop not notice, or will they get put in prison, each one of these is a possibility. This book contains everything from kidnapping a teacher to someone being trapped in a house while it is on fire. Killing Mr. Griffin is everything I look for in a book and that is suspense, action, and a great and an astonishing ending. The kids only meant to scare him, but sometimes the best plans go very wrong.Book Review: Killing Mr. Griffin
Summary: 4 Stars
Killing Mr. Griffin is about these students that dislike their English teacher (Mr. Griffin) a lot. The hate him so much, that they come up with this very cruel plan. They want to kidnap him and scare him. They don't plan to kill him, but anything can go wrong. They leave him up at the mountains for about six hours. When they go back, they find him... dead. Now, how do they get rid of the body in a way where they can't get caught? They can't...Killing Mr. Griffin is a great and frightening book. I like this book, because it makes you want to finish it, especially on the end of the middle. I like murder books like Killing Mr. Griffin. There are very exciting parts in the book. Like when they leave him up in the mountains and they try to get away. Here is a quote that explains when they are leaving Mr. Griffin, "Betsy turned to throw one last look at the man by the stream. He was lying very still. Only his chest was moving-up and down-up and down-as though he had been running hard. Betsy had a sudden childish impulse to run back and step on his face." Killing Mr. Griffin is a very good book.
This book is thrilling, but there are some boring parts and extremely sad parts. A boring part was when Mr. Griffin was talking to his wife. It was quite boring but I still read it. A sad part was when they kidnapped Mr. Griffin. Their plan was to make this girl (Susan) stall him long enough (by a conference) so that they could capture him while no one sees...So the middle was the best part of the whole book. I think this book is a great book.
Killing Mr. Griffin is one of the best murder books I ever read. It was suspenseful and amusing. Though you have to read some parts again because it get confusing. I think everyone should at least read this book once.
Book Review: Not one for the classroom
Summary: 2 Stars
I would advise one to not read the book Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan. I had to read this book for school and didn't find it appealing. I disliked this book because it was unrealistic and inadequately written. Killing Mr. Griffin is also impractical and somewhat offensive. Most teenagers would not go to the point of killing their teacher because of strict rules and unfair teaching; because of this one never really believes what is going on. Lois Duncan isn't really making the reader believe what is happening. The characters are all very disappointing and unlike real teenagers. They are mostly chaotic and unintelligent. I was frustrated when the female lead, who was supposed to be a smart sensible girl, made a foolish choice because of a boy. Another example of an unrealistic part is when a character drugs his grandmother just to get out of the house. The characters were also underdeveloped. The plot in this book is truly predictable. Killing Mr. Griffin had barely any surprises and no suspenseful parts. Although the theme was true, it was presented in an undesirable and dull way. I was let down by this book and unless sifting through a predictable distasteful book is enjoyable to you, do not read it. Killing Mr. Griffin was also a book that dragged on for large amounts of time. There was major action in the book but it was presented in a way of tedious and confusing text. The dialogue was unrealistic and was not how teenagers talk to each other or to other people. I also thought that Lois Duncan could have found a title that did not give away what was going to happen. The plot was unlikely to happen and very random. Killing Mr. Griffin is not an enjoyable book to read and I highly recommend anyone to avoid using this book as classroom requirements.Book Review: Good suspense.
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm more of a movie watcher than a book reader (though I do read about two dozen novels a year), and this book reminded me of several recent movies along the same vein, about teenagers plotting a prank or smaller crime that spirals out of their control, like Mean Creak, Murder By Numbers, and even parts of Heathers and Sleepers. I've never seen the film version of Killing Mr. Griffin, but now that I've finished the book, I'm anxious to get the DVD.
The story is about five high school students who plan to scare their English teacher by kidnapping him, to get even for his strict grading. It all goes wrong when the teacher dies of heart failure while they have him tied up. The plot was very well crafted, especially the details of how their cover-up unravels. It's skillfully written to maintain suspense through the length of the book. The teenage characters are realistic and interesting, taking me back to my own high school days (over 20 years ago), and the difficult characterization of the victim is handled perfectly. You can easily believe he's a good man, undeserving of his fate, and at the same time see how the students could hate him. I welcomed a bit of commentary on the state of our education system from his point of view.
If there's any imperfection in this book, to me, it's the relatively abrupt ending and brief denouement. The long-term consequences of the crime are not explored, and I'd like to know what became of the students - how they're finally punished. I guess there's a balance and too much of that could become boring, but still it seems it might leave some readers with the impression the kids got off too lightly.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in a suspenseful read.