Focusing On Fear Street: The Face

WELCOME TO FOCUSING ON FEAR STREET WITH THERESTHEGIRL

Book #35 of the series

Published February 1996

Cover Art by Bill Schmidt

I'm not really sure but I think Martha is supposed to be horrified at the face that she keeps drawing but that looks more like mild shock...maybe. The face she is drawing doesn't look like the one described in the book in only one little detail...the boy is supposed to be half-smiling. It's a little bland compared to past covers I've talked about and the lighting is about the only thing I like about it but it looks like just the model posing for Bill Schmidt.

Let's look at the French edition:

A little bit better with a book accurate scene where two skiers come across the body of a third as blood forms on the white snow. The trees and the mountains are very detailed and I like how the cover is brighter than past French covers that were very dark or harshly lit. Bright and simple.

Here's the cover art for the Portuguese/Brazilian cover:

The wintry backdrop is just gorgeous! The face of the girl who I guess is supposed to be Martha looks so sad and haunted but the face that she keeps on drawing looks like something out of a nightmare...it's hardly even human looking. The red in the foreground is blood on some sort of wire and that is very book accurate. Out of all the past covers from Portugal and Brazil, this one is the most detailed in facial features and is the most beautiful.

There are a few German covers which are from both omnibus collections and the original and reprint of The Face. 

The first two are the original and the reprint I believe. So of course the first one is a drawing of a face that's similar to the one on the US cover with drawing utensils as the window outside shows a winter landscape at night. The second focuses on broken glasses and a turned over, burnt out candle dripping melted red wax that almost resembles blood. Some scenes do take place in a cabin but there is so face which is a little disappointing but the atmosphere is very creepy. The last is from an omnibus collection though Goodreads says this is the German edition so that's why it's here. Very detailed winter background with a bright moon, a wire strung up in the trees with blood upon the snow and the ski gear surrounding one mitten-clad hand. I like the last one the best...it's stunning!

Taglines: On the front we have: "He had something to tell her...from beyond the grave" Gives a pretty good indication or spoiler that the young man in the picture is dead. On the back: "Why can't she remember?" So now we know something horrible happened that Martha can't remember involving how the boy died and he wants her to know. Not just from the taglines but the blurb as well is enough to make me want to read the book.

 

I'm nor really sure which line I should start with. The prologue doesn't give anything away that we don't know but just Martha in first person telling us about a dream of drawing a silver line that begins to bleed. So I guess we'll just begin with the first chapter...

 

The First Line: "After the accident, I guess I went into shock."

 

Sometimes I love the first person narration of our main character or hidden antagonist to get more of their inner thoughts and feelings and with Martha having the hinderance of not being able to remember a whole week of her life it gives us more insight into the rest of her. For some reason, Martha is the only one out of her and all her friends who can not remember the accident and her doctor has instructed all of them not to interfere with letting it all come back naturally.

 

This includes her boyfriend Aaron, her redhead friend Justine who has no control flirting with Aaron around Martha, her exotic friend Adriana Petrakis and her older brother Ivan with his goatee and one pierced ear and Laura Winter, a dark-haired model. To Martha, all of her friends seem so different because of the accident and since they don't talk to her about it, she has her own worries worrying about everybody else!

 

Adriana and Ivan's parents seem to fight a lot so now straight-A student Adriana is having trouble sleeping and studying while Ivan has become late 1990's emo hanging out with a bad crowd, partying and possibly even stealing. Laura use to go out with Ivan but the winter before, shortly after the accident, she dumped him which is what Adriana thinks is bothering her big brother. Martha admits to us the readers that she use to have a crush on Ivan when she was younger and that she still may have those some feelings. When Martha fails to get Adriana concerned for her brother the day that Ivan almost gets himself and Martha killed giving her a ride home, possibly because he may have been suicidal, Martha decides to take her mind off this by drawing a self-portrait for her portfolio.

 



 

I wish I could be as talented as Martha in real life (my artistic skills are not anywhere near these cover art illustrators!) but perhaps that's a good thing when she starts drawing the face of a boy she doesn't know! Martha says it feels like her hand has a mind of it's own...as if being guided by some unknown force against her will! That's actually very eerie. 

 

 

 

Soon after she starts drawing the face, Martha starts to get bits and pieces coming back to her of the previous snowy year and of her kissing this mystery boy. Martha ends up showing Aaron the drawings and when she pushes him a little too hard to tell her who this boy is Aaron admits that he's dead and something horrible happened to him. As the memories keep coming back a little at a time, Martha is going to find out the truth and discover what was an accident...was no accident at all. Her friends won't go against the doctor's order not to push her memory but are they doing it for perhaps another reason besides protecting Martha from the ugly truth?

 

Body Count: We already know the dead boy (real name Sean) is sending the image of his face to Martha from beyond the grave to help her remember so that's one for sure.

 

Cameo Time!: Yes I know I have not mentioned other recurring characters from books I have not read yet and just the ones I have. It's not really a cameo more a mention but Bobby Newkirk form Double Date shows up at a party that Ivan goes to where he (Ivan not Bobby) gets super drunk and Bobby helps him onto a couch. Seeing what a pig Bobby is, I commend him for being an actual decent human being.

 



 

My Take: The Face is a pretty good read. Some details are easy to figure out but when we find out more of the accident as Martha remembers, you still wonder who is behind this awful tragedy. You may be able to figure it out but there are some nice red herrings until we get to the reveal. The kill in this book is one I've always remembered so I would put it at the top of the pile if you haven't read it and rate it as maybe one of my top 10 favorites.

 

THE SHADYSIDE HIGH TIME CAPSULE

 

 

It's mentioned in the book that when Martha is over at Aaron's house that they are watching a Lethal Weapon movie on TV while making out. Martha thinks Aaron looks like Mel Gibson (of course younger) and by this time frame it's clearly the third one.

 

Also, Justine worms her way into going to the movies with Martha and Aaron and they mention seeing a Jim Carrey movie. The last movie Carrey made before this was Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls so it can't have been the movie they were watching. I know I'm nitpicking these details but if it's an older movie type theater it could be plausible but I know there are two similar movies that did come out at the right time that the trio could have seen instead:

 

 

 



 

Martha mentions riding around with Laura and Adriana before a basketball game just listening to the radio and singing along, trying to remember the good days and have fun. If I was riding around with my friends at this time, here are some songs we would be enjoying (or even just me alone):

 

 

 

 

NEXT BLOG: I never had a Secret Admirer and in the Fear Street universe...I can't say I'm all too broken up about it.

 



Focusing On Fear Street: What Holly Heard

WELCOME TO FOCUSING ON FEAR STREET WITH THERESTHEGIRL

 

Book #34 in the Fear Street Series

Published January 1996

Cover Art by Bill Schmidt

 

 

A faded picture but still very clear with detail that I guess is supposed to be Holly Silva hearing a secret between Mei Kamata and her boyfriend Noah Brennan. Holly has her lucky blue scarf but Holly in the book has curly hair with bangs so that's one detail left to artist Bill Schmidt I guess. Mei looks the way she is described but this guy looks more like Jed Holman, the boyfriend of Holly's friend Miriam Maryles, than Noah. Jed is a basketball player with a maroon and white Shadyside High jacket while Noah is described as having long, shaggy black hair and earrings in his ears. Not trying to nitpick so much but also blue lockers when your school colors are maroon red and white? Now that I think about it my middle school colors were gold and purple and we had teal lockers so I guess it can slide. Besides that, I like this cover it looks more realistic in the art style.

 

Let's look at the French cover:

 



 

A terrified girl backed into a corner by an unknown crazy person with a hammer. This does happen in the book and the detail in that fish clenching the hammer is great and throws off suspicion as to just who in our cast of characters is about to do this girl harm. She looks a little young but I suppose the artist who illustrates these French covers figures since they are for young adults it works I guess?

 

Finally two different German covers the first is the original and the second is a reprint with only the key art: no titles at all which is always a real treat to find!

 

 

 

The first cover is very book accurate and very spoiler filled if you know that Holly always carries a blue scarf for luck. Brown hair, facedown with the scarf about her neck, hands clenched from clawing at her attacker and spilled paint. It's simple yet ominous. The second one has a girl on a phone looking toward us the readers as in the background, a dark figure stands in the doorway. The character of Ruth Carver, another of Holly and Miriam's friends, is the blonde in the bunch so I'm not sure if this is supposed to be her but the dark atmosphere is creepy and ominous and as always makes me adore these German covers.

Taglines: On the front: "It was too shocking to tell..." which is pretty simple and okay. On the back: "Do you want to hear a secret?" again it's pretty simple and goes into the blurb about the plot. It only spoils that someone is going to die and well the title itself already makes Holly a prime target doesn't it?

The First Line: "Guess what I just heard!"

Holly runs up to her friends, Miriam and Ruth, with the latest dose of gossip. Miriam is always open to hearing it while Ruth is not and it's kind of a surprise that the three girls are friends being just so different. So Holly dishes the dirt that Mei Kamata and her mother have been having huge fights over Mei going out with Noah Brennan, a boy from the poor side of town while both of Mei's parents are doctors and they are rich and want more for their daughter. Holly says Mei is thinking of running away from home and hoping that may cause the couple to break up.

 

 

Ruth suggests that Holly only hopes this will happen because she has a huge crush on bad boy Noah even though Holly has been dating her neighbor, Gary Foster. Miriam thinks Ruth is being protective like a sister but to me and anyone else it should be obvious that Ruth like-likes Gary. When Noah shows up, Holly flirts with him like crazy but the minute Mei shows up, he straight up ignores Holly and goes off with Mei who even flips her hair in Holly's face...ouch.

 

 That night, Mei is throwing a party and Miriam goes with Ruth, her cousin Patrick and her boyfriend Jed and run into Holly with Gary. Holly shows up in a very slinky dress to try and grab Noah's attention, totally ignoring Gary, and when the band blows out the breaker causing the lights to go off...she decided to wrap her arms around Noah in the dark.

 

 

 

The next night before the basketball game, Holly arrives at Ruth's and tells the girls that some of Noah's friends crashed the party, reeking of beer, which ended the party and caused Mei and her mom to get in a huge fight forbidding her daughter from ever seeing him again. This sounds good to Holly but Ruth can't stand it and decides not to go with them to the game where both Gary and Jed are playing. 

In the second plot line of the story, Miriam notices that her boyfriend, Jed Holman, has been acting different lately. Sometimes he's sweet and normal but other times he is stressed out about getting a basketball scholarship to the point where he is downright angry...and violent. At the game, he begins strangling one of the visiting team's players and punching him, which the whole gym witnesses.

 

After the game, Miriam goes to talk with Jed and he is violently poking her and almost breaks her hand and arm before the anger fades away. Jed is genuinely sorry and Miriam forgives him but says she won't tolerate him laying a hand on her like that again but Ruth and Holly think Jed needs help and Holly even tells Miriam she will try and find out what is going on with him.

 

This is not  going to be as tragic as this story but I'm getting that same vibe...

 

 The secret Holly learns seems to be that she overheard Mei and Noah at the game, Mei furious at her mom for making them break up and says she could just kill her mom...to which Noah mentions that might not be a bad idea. It shakes Holly up but Miriam and Ruth don't take her seriously as we can all admit we have said that about someone from time to time. However when Mei's mother ends up dead by falling down the stairs and breaking her neck...Holly believes it was no accident and is sure that Mei had Noah take care of her mother like they planned and that they know she heard them plotting.

 

Holly is now afraid for her life...but will another secret be the real reason she meets her end and can Miriam prove who silenced the Queen of Gossip for good?

 

 

 

Body Count: Poor Mrs. Kamata :( and then of course Holly which isn't that big of a spoiler...the title doomed her from the start. There are also two more casualties of a non-human variety and it's pretty gruesome...I still remember it vividly.

 

What Holly Heard is a pretty intense book with everything that is going on and you have a good amount of characters that could be responsible for the main death at the center of the plot. It was hard not to spoil the death but again...it's not hard to figure it out. I didn't see the ending coming and the actual ending is one of those cheesy ones that you could imagine ending it on a freeze frame with a laugh track. I'm not particularly fond of those kind of endings and with this one, it doesn't fit and should have been more bittersweet. It's an okay read … not that bad *shrug*

 

THE SHADYSIDE HIGH TIME CAPSULE

 

Since this is such a heavy subject matter kind of book why don't we lighten up the mood...maybe? Mei had a band called The Dustmites playing at her party so when they weren't perhaps these jams were on the radio or playing at the DJ booth...

 

 

NEXT BLOG:  We come face to face with The Face





Focusing On Fear Street: College Weekend

WELCOME TO FOCUSING ON FEAR STREET WITH THERESTHEGIRL

 

Book #32 in the Fear Street Series

Published July 1995

Cover Art by Bill Schmidt

 

 

Tina Rivers, our main character, sitting on a bench as she clutches her bag with an anxious expression. A dark silhouette in the window of the building behind her seems to be watching her and waiting perhaps to do Tina some serious harm. The color palette is of cool colors in blues and purples with just a small hint of mystery and suspense. I believe I had a similar dress to what Tina is wearing but it was pink and not yellow and I like how slender she looks compared to other girls I have seen on Fear Street covers...very frail like a true damsel in distress. Here her hair is a strawberry-blonde color and the book says it's a light blond but I think Tina looks beautiful.

 

So of course we have a German cover for the book:

 

 

Here Tina is the much lighter blonde described in the book and her face is turned from us but she is waiting under a streetlamp as someone watches her from the bushes...taking her picture without her knowing. Simple yet unnerving with such great detail...another favorite.

 

Then there is this one from France:

 

 

We have a studio light and a camera in a studio where there is a man chasing a woman with a knife in his hand. The lighting is this reddish-pink and it seems to be blazing like the red lighting in a darkroom which sort of reminds me of nighttime crime drama like Silk Stalkings.

 

 

Does anyone else remember this show or am I just old?

 

Next is the cover from Spain:

 

 

Looks like Tina in a studio with our other main character Chris photographing her while in the background someone is reaching out in terror for help. Does she notice this guy? Is he even alive or is he like already a stiff corpse? Also, is it just me or does Chris look like Rob Lowe?

 

Finally two covers from Russia:

 

 

 

 

The first is a knife in the ground of a college campus I guess? I found in my search for Fear Street cover art around the world that some of the Russian art might have been for a different book in the series or another book entirely. This one looks more appropriate for The Knife to me. The second I guess has Chris in the foreground with blonde Tina and her brunette cousin Holly in the background over a building on the campus. Holly is supposed to have curly hair but I guess Tina and Chris look fine? Most of these other Russian covers look like Teen Romance novels to me and just what is up with that fisherman slicker collar on the guy's jacket?

 

Taglines: "She was just dying to visit her boyfriend..." greets us on the front and I guess it's okay. Not original but not too corny. "Nightmare Weekend." is on the back as I guess a play on the title which is clever to tell us what we are in for. The blurb also gives us an idea of what the plot is going to bring us and I like how it calls Chris "Christopher" when that doesn't happen with how characters refer to him.

 

The First Line: Skipping the prologue which is a conversation between Tina Rivers and her boyfriend Josh Martin...missing each other and talking about the plans of the trip but also ominous warnings that this is how all of it begins...

 

"Tina Rivers checked her watch for about the millionth time."

 

Tina and her cousin Holly Phillips arrive at the train station in Patterson, the town that houses the college where Tina's boyfriend Josh is going to school studying geology. It's his freshman year and Tina is at Shadyside High in her senior year and it has been three months since she last saw Josh at Christmas time so this must be close to Spring Break but she's only there for a three day weekend because they missed each other I guess and couldn't wait for that?

 

Anyway, Tina's parents made her drag Holly along to keep Tina out of trouble but don't realize that Holly is more likely to get in trouble while Tina and Josh are all lovey-dovey. It's not off to a good start as Josh seems to be running late and the train station waiting room is empty until a man comes upon the two girls demanding their money but he gets scared away by Chris Roberts, Josh's roommate. Josh has told her all about Chris being rich but not how good looking he is with his "piecing green eyes" and dark hair pulled back in a short ponytail, which Holly and Tina both seem to appreciate. Chris can't help but keep staring at Tina and totally ignoring Holly, mentioning that Josh has pictures of his girlfriend all over their dorm room.

 

Why am I imaging it looks like this?

 

The million dollar question: why is Chris here and not Josh? Josh went out on a camping trip with their mutual friend Steve and was suppose to be back but they had trouble with the transmission of their car and won't be back until later tonight...maybe longer. Tina is disappointed but not that mad at Josh as Chris gives her and Holly a ride to the dorm in his expensive Jeep with its sound system and CD player. The conversation reveals that Chris and Tina like the same music and food and that Chris' uncle is a famous fashion photographer. Tina's dream is to be a model when she gets done with school and Chris offers to take some photos of her for his portfolio and pass them along to his uncle.

 

Getting some vibes here...again am I old?

 

Tina and Holly have been approved to stay in Chris and Josh's dorm while they stay at Chris' studio and Tina is surprised to see that all the pictures supposedly of her are not there except Josh's senior prom picture. A girl shows up and her name is Carla, who is Steve's girlfriend. She acts a little strange around Tina and ends up telling the other two girls about Chris' last girlfriend, Judy, and that she died by drowning while they were out sailing when the boat got caught in a storm. After learning that sad bit of information, Chris arrives and invites the girls to go out to a party while they wait for Josh and Steve to get back. Hanging up her clothes in Josh's closet, Tina finds a pair of hiking boots which send up a red flag.

 

 

 

When Tina mentions this to Chris, he informs her Josh bought new ones with money from his new on campus job. This makes Tina internally questions if people do change when they go to college because Josh doesn't seem to tell her anything anymore. At the party, Carla introduces Holly to the drama crowd and that leaves Tina alone with Chris where she seems at ease with him since they have so much in common and they end up kissing. Feeling guilty, Tina discovers that Holly is gone when she finds one of her beaded earrings on the ground and believes her cousin may have been abducted by some local townie bikers.

 

Carla tells Tina that Holly went off with a girl named Alyssa from Shadyside that she knew from Drama and not to worry. Tina goes back to the dorm and is completely alone so while trying to occupy herself she finds Josh's car keys on a quartz keychain she got him for Christmas. The morning comes and Josh is still not back but neither is Holly so Tina and Chris go about campus and town to find her when they can't get a hold of the girl named Alyssa she ran off with last night. Chris brings his camera to take some professional shots of Tina and the attraction between them is growing as they head to the fair. Everything really starts to become a nightmare when Tina runs into a guy named Jack she knows from Shadyside and he tells her that Alyssa Pryor now lives in Seattle...so where is Holly?

 

Her cousin is missing and her boyfriend is stranded in the mountains, Carla seems to be keeping secrets and Chris is starting to act strangely around Tina...what is going on? Can Tina figure it out before it's too late?

 

 

 

Body Count:  One and it's pretty obvious who it is...

 

 

College Weekend is suspenseful but it won't take a savvy reader long to figure out a major plot point and for a while you try and hope you were very wrong. You may figure out the answer to another twist in the story thanks to the changes in a certain character as well. As main characters go, I like Tina for she isn't whiny or bitchy so you do feel sorry for her. The ending is also pretty bittersweet and sad which to me is better than a happy ending or a character getting away with their actions. When the story has a pretty foregone conclusion of a down ending especially in a Fear Street book it seems wrong to say you hope for the best right then and there...it's not realistic. Still a very good book in the series...I recommend it.

 

 

 

THE SHADYSIDE HIGH TIME CAPSULE

 

 

Now I know I can get a little heavy handed or go a little dark in my comedy concerning these books but if I do one or the other or both...it's just my style. Now a certain film came out at this time and I think a few of the songs from its soundtrack work here. Tina is said to like two bands in College Weekend called Psycho Surfers and Spoiled Rotten who do not exist and I have no idea what sort of music it is supposed to be so I have a few choices.

 



 

 

 

NEXT BLOG: Hope you can wait to discover What Holly Heard...