Wikedpedia by Chris Van Etten

Author: Chris Van Etten
Publisher: Scholastic
Date of publication: June 2014

It's the return of Point Horror for the Internet generation! Don't open the door. Don't answer your phone. And whatever you do, DON'T turn on your computer. . . .

Cole and Gavin love playing practical jokes through Wikipedia. They edit key articles and watch their classmates crash and burn giving oral reports on historical figures like Genghis Khan, the first female astronaut on Jupiter. So after the star soccer player steals Cole's girlfriend, the boys take their revenge by creating a Wikipedia page for him, an entry full of outlandish information including details about his bizarre death on the soccer field.

It's all in good fun, until the soccer player is killed in a freak accident . . . just as Cole and Gavin predicted. The uneasy boys vow to leave Wikipedia alone but someone continues to edit articles about classmates dying in gruesome ways . . . and those entries start to come true as well.

To his horror, Cole soon discovers that someone has created a Wikipedia page for him, and included a date of death. He has one week to figure out who's behind the murders, or else he's set to meet a pretty grisly end.

Wickedpedia is kind of a mess.  Cole is a jealous ex-boyfriend who wants revenge on Winnie and her new boyfriend.  So, he and his best friend start making fake Wikipedia pages about them.  Only someone takes the fake pages to heart and starts killing off teenagers. 


I'm not even sure what to really say about this book.  It wasn't the worst YA horror, I have read.  But is wasn't the best either.  It kind of reminded me of one of those independent horror films where the teens make dumb decisions and not a lot makes sense.  You know the ones that show up on Netflix and only have 1 star ratings?  The characters were kind of dull and one-dimensional.  I'm not sure I was really rooting for any of them.  The ending was awful and abrupt.  I would have liked an epilogue.  Even a cheesy one would have been better than what I got.  

The only thing that did surprise me was the killer.  I didn't call that one right away..  The kill scenes were pretty gruesome too.  So, if you don't mind that ( and I don't) than this will be right up your alley.  I'm not sure this will be relevant in the future. The pop culture references and technology will be forgotten in 20 years.  I know this is marketed to teens, but they aren't dumb and I can't really imagine most of them thinking this was good solid writing.