While the library lost its stand-alone copy of See You Later, I discovered that all was not lost:
See You Later is in a Christopher Pike omnibus that the library does have! I got it on inter-library loan last week and read it all and now I have re-read See You Later and my life is complete, if by complete I mean pretty much exactly the same as it was before.
The book was not as awesome as I remembered. Not even close. The first story in the collection, Spellbound, was pretty terrible (it has a magical negro so you can pretty much guess how subtle the rest of the story is). The stories have been “updated” in that characters talk about DVDs and Blu-Rays, yet they don’t seem to have cellphones and they are still buying video games at Future Shop-type places rather than Steam or EB or any of the other places people buy games. I don’t know what about See You Later lodged itself in my mind over any of the other Christopher Pike books I read – maybe because the protagonist designed computer games and I played computer games? Maybe how the love story plays out? I remember being so impressed by the depth and literariness of the novel at age twelve, which demonstrates how sheltered I was when it came to literary quality.
Still, every now and then I see a Christopher Pike book at a thrift shop or a yard sale and I contemplate picking them up as I see them for when Tesfa’s older. Maybe she’ll enjoy them or maybe she’ll just be confused as to why the main character didn’t just text whoever is being threatened by the ghost/spirit/were-creature/vampire/alien/etc. to warn them.