Focusing On Fear Street - Cat

WELCOME TO FOCUSING ON FEAR STREET WITH THERESTHEGIRL

 

Book # 45 of the original Fear Street series

Published May 1997

Cover Art by Bill Schmidt

 

 

This cover is about the closest that an original cover by Bill Schmidt has gotten to rivaling the German cover art with its simplistic yet effective style. A woman with cat-like eyes holds a very mean looking cat with the same green eyes against a reddish-brown background with the book title in that same green. The feline and the cat-like woman look realistic but it also looks like a movie poster and even if there is nothing in the background the detail is wonderful so I like it. Sadly, only Germany has any different take on the cover art because other countries trying their hand would be interesting. The first is the original and the second is from an omnibus collection of Cat with Bad Moonlight but it fits better for the first title more.

 

 

 

The eyes of a cat peak out of the darkness with scratches on the door and a small puddle of blood on the ground while in the second, a black cat is on the stone wall of a cemetery looking like a staple of Halloween. Black cats are bad luck to some but the cat in the book is silver-gray with a black diamond on its forehead but the stereotype is fine for the atmosphere and the detail of both covers is gorgeous!

 

Taglines: On the front is "C-A-T spells murder" Oh my goodness this has to be the cheesiest one yet! because it's just so *erupts in laughter* On the back is "The cat came back..." I like it because it reminds me of the best thing ever:

 



 

Back to business now with the blurb. It gets the point of the story across to us and well it does sound interesting.

 

The First Line: "I never liked cats."

 

 

 

The prologue is being narrated by our main character, Martin "Marty" Harper. He tells us that he is allergic to cats and also confesses that it's mostly because they look so evil when they stare at you...he's just not a cat person. He may not like them but he admits that he never meant to kill that cat and we find ourselves getting a flashback to how this whole mess began.

 

I always thought the woman on the cover looked like actress Melinda Clarke...anyone agree?



 

A cat found its way into the gym at Shadyside High and has been staying under the bleachers, people giving it food and water and of course, the girls of the school love it. The ones who don't are the basketball team as the feline disrupts their practices by running out on to the court and tripping the players...it happens so often chasing the cat is part of practice in itself. On this particular day, Marty and his two friends, Dwayne Clark and Barry Allen, are being ridden pretty hard by their coach and I guess it's just being tough. Marty knows that he and his buddies are the best players on the team since they've been playing basketball since they were kids and he admits it's kind of hard not to get a big ego because of it.

 

Marty describes Barry as looking like "Superman on TV"...sounds good to me. Love Dean Cain ;)



 

Gayle Edgerton and Riki Crawford, two girls who are friends of Marty's, come by the gym to do a story on the "Three Musketeers" as the guys are called for the school paper. Gayle is the reporter and Riki the photographer, who just so happens to have gone out with Marty a few times and is still hung up on him, but they get interrupted when the cat shows up. The guys chase it for awhile until it disappears but when it shows up again, it trips Marty and he lands on his knee...badly

 

Dwayne wears Hawaiian shirts for good luck...Tommy Bahama or Hilfiger?



 

The nurse says it's just a sprain but Coach Griffin benches Marty to keep him from screwing up the leg even more and Marty is not happy. He told his friends he already had a basketball scholarship but he may have jumped the gun as another person is being considered as well but if he can't play, Marty knows he might not get it...and it's all that darn cat's fault.

 

This Darn Cat was the worst cat of 1997 IMHO



 

When he sees it, all Marty can see is red and the guys give chase again to trap the cat on the bleachers which makes Marty's knee even more painful as he grabs the cat. This is not a nice kitty it bites and scratches at Marty but I have to admit it might just be out of fear but the blood in his eyes and his knee buckling almost causes Marty to fall. Reaching out to grab Dwayne's hand, Marty lets go of the cat to see it tumble down the bleachers and fall on the ground with a sickening crack.

 

 

Art credit Casey Weldon



 

Gayle and Riki accuse Marty of throwing the cat off the bleachers with real intent to kill it but Marty admits it was just an accident. Barry and Dwayne are not as remorseful and have no tact saying that the cat was just a nuisance but Gayle is not amused...she is steaming mad. Riki is more shocked but still not happy with what Marty has done even when he pleads with her and Marty seems truly sorry even if he was angry with the cat. Barry and Dwayne say more awful things about the dead cat that send Gayle over the edge and it makes Marty angry how she won't even listen to him.

 



 

The next day, Marty arrives to school and gets hateful glares from a lot of girls and even one student's mom and his female homeroom teacher! Gayle works fast at getting the news about Marty killing the cat all around town that even Dwayne's little sister won't talk to him and it just so happens that Gayle is president of the Animal Rights Club at school. She also has put up a poster about a rally to stop cruelty to animals with not only pictures of said abuse but also one of MARTY for his killing of the cat.

 



 

Now Gayle says she saw what she saw with her own eyes but apparently not as I for one truly think Marty didn't do it on purpose. Even if the story is from his point of view, it was either drop the cat or both the cat and Marty could have fallen and DIED. Not all cats land on their feet but neither do most humans and the cat could have survived in that scenario but Marty most certainly would not have.

 

Back to the story from my little tangent, so...

 

Coach Griffin approaches Marty about the incident, listens to Marty's side of the story, and tells him that if he wants to play in next week's game he will have to go Student Court because basically the Animal Rights Club is putting him on trial for the cat's murder. Marty knows that if word gets to the school where he's hoping to get the scholarship from he most certainly will not get it and agrees.

 

The next day, Barry and Dwayne actually stand up for Marty (better than the other day) as witnesses and none of the boys are treating this as a joke but Gayle says that Marty was part of the teasing and that they even swung it around. I have no idea what this chick's problem is but Dwayne only held the cat's dead body by the tail and then they tossed it in a garbage can...they didn't skin it and throw the pelt at you!

 

After deliberating for fifteen minutes, the jury finds Marty not guilty of murdering the cat but guilty of cruelty to animals. His sentence is to do thirty hours of community service at the animal shelter which seems fair considering even if all he did was chase it with the intent of taking it to the shelter but fate went a little differently. Marty, on the other hand, even tells Coach Griffin that he was cruel to the cat and deserves to serve the full thirty hours when he says he'll try to get Marty's sentence reduced so he can rest up his knee.

 

It's mentioned several times that Marty has a dog named Teddy who is a Shar Pei so here you go!



 

For awhile, things go back to normal as if nothing ever happened except for Gayle and Riki being kind of jerky to Marty still. Riki's attitude is more towards Marty being flirty towards other girls and learning from Gayle that Marty lied about a date he broke off with Riki claiming he was sick. Okay so that might actually be the only jerky thing Marty has intentionally done but he doesn't deserve all this hate. When Marty begins his community service at the animal shelter is when things actually start to get kind of weird. The animals at the shelter start barking and hissing around Marty and well earlier he thought he saw the dead cat back underneath the bleachers and Barry did get attacked and scratched by a similar looking cat but that couldn't be possible...could it?

 

Marty keeps seeing cats following him...hearing them hiss on the phone late at night and long evil yowls...is he cracking up or did a cat just walk over his grave?

 

 



 

 

Body Count: Cats have nine lives...two humans lose their own.

 

 

MY TAKE: Cat is a really good Fear Street book...probably one of my favorites. It has a likeable male lead character in Marty, some actually good red herrings once you pay attention, and those twists...wow! The actual twist reveal is pretty easy to spot by some throw away lines but it is presented with something actually outside of the box that you don't really see in Fear Street books as most are actually more murder-mystery stories. The ending is again something out of Twilight Zone or Tales From The Crypt which is purr-fectly fine with me... I recommend you check this one me-out.

 

 

THE SHADYSIDE HIGH TIME CAPSULE

 

 

Seems Marty is a real ladies man and that he likes going out to the movies...many good choices this certain time of year!

 

 

 

Did you get my last little joke with the final movie? See the actress was in the 1982 remake of Cat People...so you know...it's funny.

 

 

Okay then so how about some music?

 

 



 

 

NEXT BLOG: We're going to dial it backward a little bit and talk about the first sequel to a Fear Street book that wasn't a Super Chiller or part of a trilogy. Time to call back for Wrong Number 2 

 

Focusing On Fear Street: Switched

This is the one that started me on reading Fear Street. I didn't want to start on it first...waiting for the right time to discuss it. Now is that time...

 

WELCOME TO FOCUSING ON FEAR STREET WITH THERESTHEGIRL

 

Book# 31

Published May 1995

Cover Art by Bill Schmidt

 

 

 

We have brunette Nicole Darwin and blonde Lucy Kramer, dressed in the same outfit and holding hands...a lightning bolt between them and electric bolts about the clasped hands. Nicole's face looks a little evil while Lucy looks a lot softer in her features...a great depiction of what we are about to find out within the books pages. Dark browns, reds and yellows provide a well balanced color palette to draw in your eye with a good use of shadow...one of my favorites and a memorable Fear Street cover.

 

In 2006 this was one of the books that got an update on the cover and well it's interesting...

 

 

 

 

I like that Nicole doesn't have to be white...it gives a nice contrast to the blonde Lucy but both of their eyes look a little off. It's okay but the re-issues don't compare to the original Bill Schmidt art work. So, of course, the German artwork is always so very good with the first being the original and the second from an omnibus collection in which Switched is collected.

 

 

 

A torn picture of Lucy and Nicole and a knife in a note written by Lucy and a cracked wall in the middle of the evil woods. Ominous, creepy imagery that is accurate to the book with only one critique...I wish the knife had blood to make it a lot more dark. Then there is the French cover:

 

 

 

Two girls jumping over a wall with either the full moon behind it or the glow of dark magic switching their bodies? The characters are always portrayed kind of young on these French covers but they have that creepy atmosphere so it works I guess. The last interesting cover I found was for a Greek edition:

 

 

 

This one is probably the most artistic with two conjoined women, one with an evil face the other with a helpless expression with some sort of evil root or tentacle wrapping about the body. It's sort of the comedy/tragedy masks in a more sinister turn.

 

Taglines: On the front: "A mind is a terrible thing to lose." On the back: "She traded places with a killer...". The blurb on the back has a nice buildup as to what we can expect: Lucy did something awful and is using Nicole's body to escape. The only thing is it talks about a cabin being the place where you body swap when in the book...it's a wall. A minus for that but the taglines are good and I'm intrigued.

 

The First Line: "My name is Nicole Darwin and I am a loser."

 

Very nice and chipper isn't it? Nicole seems to be a hard person to read. She seems to like the way she looks and cries if she breaks a nail but doesn't seem to enjoy her life very much right now. Nicole feels smothered by her parents' over protectiveness and her mother thinks she should smile more and she's wearing black clothes...sounds like late 1990s emo to me.

 

Nicole on the cover reminds me of an evil Kimberly Hart like in the Turbo movie when she was possessed...am I wrong?

 

Her teacher has called her in because Nicole didn't feel like writing her biology paper and now, even though he'll let her turn it in Monday, Nicole has to cancel a date with her boyfriend, David. Things only go from bad to worse as David breaks up with her instead and Nicole is feeling even more depressed feeling her life spinning out of control. Meeting her best friend since preschool Lucy outside, Nicole learns that Lucy isn't having a good time either and she has a suggestion for Nicole that may help:

 

"Let's switch bodies."

 

Well that sure was unexpected...a movie night might have been more conventional to me. Anyway, Nicole doesn't seem to be against it until her and Lucy head into the creepy Fear Street woods which would and should make anyone from Shadyside reconsider doing anything there.

 

 

 

Lucy tells Nicole that the old caretaker of the cemetery told Lucy's Grandfather about a wall in the middle of the woods where evil people would take unsuspecting victims to switch bodies and get away with doing horrible...terrible crimes. Against their will, these poor people would be forced to jump over the wall and have their lives taken from them by the dark arts (we'll get more into that as my book reviews continue...) but this instance is all mutual between the two girls.

 

Also is it just me or does Lucy on the cover look totally like Phoebe with that scrunchie?

 

Lucy's parents fight more than Nicole's "boring" parents so she has more freedom despite being ignored and Nicole is also kind of curious to what it would be like to date Luce's boyfriend, Kent Borden. Once they land on the other side of The Changing Wall, Nicole is amazed to stare back at her own face and body, looking down to see herself wearing Lucy's clothes and both girls agree when they get tired of living in each other's shoes for awhile...they'll switch back.

 

This is like a horror version of Freaky Friday if either the mom or the daughter were secretly evil...

 

When Nicole gets home to Lucy's house, her giddiness is soon turned into horror and finding Mr. and Mrs. Kramer murdered, violently in cold blood. Nicole has to tell Lucy what has happened but returns to her house to find nobody home and decides that Kent is the only one she can turn to. Once at his home, Nicole blurts out everything that happened and he surprisingly believes her but soon...she hears Kent on the phone with a police officer!

 

Feeling betrayed by Kent, Nicole runs off and decides to go back to Lucy's to clean up and then continue to try and find her best friend...but finds something even more terrible in her wake. All of Lucy's clothes are gone and a large, bloody knife is pinning down a note: a confession to murder. Nicole is now in the body of a killer and willingly gave her own body over to the one person she always thought she could trust. Nicole has to prove she isn't Lucy but will anybody believe her...or will Nicole have to face even more terror as Lucy seems to be covering her tracks with even more grisly murders?

 

Giving anyone else the same vibes or is it just me?

 

Body Count: Technically...I can't tell you as is my way but four out of five stars.

 

For anyone who has read Switched, like I have, I never saw that ending coming when I first read it and it has to be the most tragic. It also has some of the most disturbing images of kills ever described and they have stayed with me...not enough to give me nightmares but you just mention this book or show me the cover, I can vividly picture those scenes. I was about to turn twelve when Switched came out and in middle school so this was my first taste of what Fear Street had to offer...and I've been hooked ever since. This is in my Top 5 favorite Fear Street books if not my number one (it's so hard to choose though!) and I recommend it to anyone who has yet to read it.

 

 



 

 

THE SHADYSIDE HIGH TIME CAPSULE

 

 

When dealing with a bad breakup, grab your best gal pal and go see a movie:

 

 

 

Or maybe go out dancing in the club if that's more your scene. If not it never hurts to just drive around and listen to some of your favorite jams. Anything is better than heading out to the Fear Street Woods!

 



 

 

NEXT BLOG: Well the 4th of July weekend is long past but pretty soon school will be back in session. If you thought high school was hell...a College Weekend is no walk in the park either.













Focusing On Fear Street: The Mind Reader

Hello Everyone...I'm back!

 

I know it has been a long time but I have been busy what with my self-publishing and many works in progress as well as just laziness and my attention deficit disorder trying to handle so many things I want to do.

 

 

 

In any case, I am still wanting to blog about the Fear Street books I own since the 3 movies are definitely a go with casting news and the synopsis for what we can expect. I've been listening to some podcasts talking about the Fear Street books and as much as I would love to do something like that it would suck to do it by myself. Also, not a lot of funds on this end and personally, I like blogging to get all my ideas out and my personal take on each book. So I hope you are ready to join me back on Fear Street with the next book I read in chronological order.

 

WELCOME TO FOCUSING ON FEAR STREET WITH THERESTHEGIRL

 

Book #26

Published November 1994

Cover Art: Bill Schmidt

 

 

This doesn't exactly happen in the book but the ghostly figure looking down at our protagonist Ellie Anderson is in our story in some visions that she has. She doesn't look too horrified but scared enough at what she is seeing. I always liked Bill Schmidt's talent in these covers since I can't draw for beans but sometimes the girls don't look like high school students...they look older like college students or even moms. This doesn't show it much but on my copy it is much more noticeable. As always I have found that the German covers never let me down so what does it look like for this one?

 

 

 

 

A knife in the woods? Well the trees are very detailed and the knife as well and one does play a part in the story. There are also woods so...good for that. Probably not my favorite of the bunch or even the German covers so far. Let's see what the French cover is like:

 

 

 

 

A man with a knife shrouded in shadow going after a girl in the woods who I assume is Ellie. I guess it's okay with its ominous colors but it looks like standard slasher fare. Lastly, the cover for the book in Brazil:

 

 

 

These are never a disappointment...such warm colors that draw your eye! A bloody knife looming over Ellie's head, a figure in a window, a shadow looming behind, a bony skeletal hand reaching out, Ellie grabbing her head to clear the visions from her mind and I think blood dripping down in the upper right hand corner? This is my second favorite after the original US print.







 

 Taglines: On the front we have "Seeing too much is murder" and on the back we have "A bony hand beckons from a shallow grave..." The first is more the actually tag line while the second is more of a lead in to the blurb on the back. Personally I thin both work fine and the blurb on the back tells us what's going on without spoiling much of the plot. Intriguing enough that I want to read it...

 

The First Line: "Hi Sarah." Ellie Anderson greeted her best friend and slid onto a stool at the counter of Alma's Coffee Shop.

 

The Sarah in question is Sarah Wilkins and they engage in the normal girl talk, making fun of the jocks and their girlfriends who are her only customers in the burger joint (coffee shop but caters to high school kids...I'm calling it a burger joint.) The two girls are best buds with single dads and Ellie and her father have only recently moved back into Shadyside for Ellie's senior year. Ellie was born in Shadyside but her father left town with her when she was a toddler but is finally back in good old Shadyside thanks to his sales job and Sarah is the only friend Ellie has connected with.

 

A good-looking guy then enters the place and sits behind Ellie, staring at her with his dark eyes, and even though Ellie is drawn to him, Sarah goes to get his order and do a little flirting. Ellie is shocked that Sarah got his name: Brian Tanner and even though Ellie is shy this time...it's different. She literally bolts out the doors but it isn't embarrassment it's almost...straight up fear.

 

Ellie returns home and takes her black Lab (oh no...doggies in these books sometimes don't have good odds!) named Chaz out for a walk where he chases a squirrel to drag her towards the infamous Fear Street woods...but her mind keeps turning back to Brian. Ellie knows she shouldn't be thinking about a boyfriend after she broke up with her boyfriend Tommy last year...it was complicated. Ellie confronted Tommy and her best friend Janine about kissing behind her back all because...she saw it...in a vision.

 



 

Yep, Ellie is a psychic. As a kid, she could have fun with it until the day she saw her dog Jake get hit by a car in one of her visions (see what I mean about dogs in these books?) and then tried not to have them but when she gets around people she can see things and get feelings. So it becomes no walk in the park when Chaz finds a bone...a human bone and leads Ellie to where the remains of a human hand are rising out of the ground where her dog has been digging. Stopping a car filled with the same jocks Sarah and Ellie were innocently mocking, they take her to the police station to report the discovery and the main police officer in charge is Sarah's father, Lieutenant Wilkins, who doesn't treat Ellie like she is crazy.

 

Heading back to the woods, the rest of the body is discovered which pulls in a crowd to watch...Brian Tanner among them as well as Sarah. Brian soon disappears and when a swatch of red fabric is found, Sarah faints. The next day at school, Sarah isn't there and Ellie learns that her friend had an older sister, Melinda, who went missing wearing a red sweatshirt. Ellie tries contacting her at home but the phone keeps ringing and while at the library working, Ellie runs into Brian looking for a book on weapons. They flirt but when Ellie gets a vision of a bloody knife, she runs off and Brian calls after her...by name which she had yet to tell him. 

 

Heading to Sarah's job to see if she is there, Ellie runs into Brian again to flirt until Sarah's dad shows up to tell the owner that Sarah is going to miss work for awhile staying with her aunt and he leaves without a word. Ellie soon has to tell her dad that she found the body in the woods once it makes the paper and Mr. Anderson is not happy.

 

In his anger, he lets it slip that Ellie's mother was killed when she was little and the vision of the bloody knife comes back to haunt her. At her job, Ellie checks the microfiche (so 90s and old school before the Internet) and finds out that her mother was stabbed to death and she was the only witness sitting in her stroller. All of this with the body and finding out about her mother's murder leaves Ellie on edge and soon, she finds that Sarah is still at home completely devastated because it was her sister Melinda's body found in the woods. Her father lied about the non-existent aunt and has gone completely gung-ho in trying to find Melinda's old boyfriend, Brett Hawkins, believing he might have murdered his daughter. Sarah is being neglected by this discovery and Ellie tries her best to comfort her friend but finds Brian taking an interest in her to fill the void.

 

 

Brian's hair is described like this in the book...sounds so hot!!



 

Brian asks her out to a canoe date on Fear Lake to Fear Island along with Chaz and the two of them share a kiss (so romantic!) Things start turning less romantic when Brian pulls out a knife from their picnic basket to slice her an apple and the knife is the same one Ellie has been seeing in her visions! It freaks her out and once they leave, Ellie falls into the lake, Brian jumps in to save her, accidentally almost pulls her down grabbing her leg as he almost drowns and then Brian mutters the name Melinda while unconscious when Ellie kisses his cheek!

 

How does Brian know the deceased Melinda Wilkins? Why is Ellie all of a sudden having her visions again? Why is she seeing such horrible things?

 

 

 



The Mind Reader is a pretty good Fear Street novel. It is more a murder mystery-thriller than straight up horror but the paranormal visions of our protagonist Ellie bring in those horror elements. Some of the plot is easy to figure out what all the character connections and motives are with a couple of really good twists.

 

Body Count: Melinda Wilkins' dead body is what drives most of the plot and the death of Ellie's mother, Louise, happen prior to the actual story. No one dies in the story proper so no death toll on this one.

 

Cameo Time!: Again a cast of pretty straightforward characters...no special guests this time around.

 

 

SHADYSIDE HIGH TIME CAPSULE

 

 

I'm thinking that maybe Ellie and Brian should have gone on a movie date instead of the lake but that's just me or maybe gone dancing at the club. Music at the time was the best ever...

 

 



 

NEXT BLOG: Anybody up for a little game of...Truth Or Dare? 





 

 

Focusing On Fear Street: One Evil Summer

WELCOME TO FOCUSING ON FEAR STREET WITH THERESTHEGIRL

Book # 25 of the Fear Street Series

Published July 1994

Cover Art by Bill Schmidt

The cover may not be very big here but we have our main antagonist Chrissy Minor laughing evilly in her room as she holds a cat that is not very happy to be there. A moon at night and a lighthouse in the setting of Seahaven which is not in Shadyside but our protagonist Amanda Conklin lives on the titular street. I also like how an evil wind is blowing the curtains of the room and the teal coloring is nice with the popping yellow title. I found a couple of German versions with some nice artwork as always from either an original or a reprint or an omnibus edition:

Of course summer settings with a dark foreboding tone. The top is a little brighter but one simple spilled drink tells us danger is afoot. The second one has the bright hue of sunset but it's ominous with abandoned beach gear and a spooky lighthouse in the distance. The only other cover I could find was for the Brazilian/Portuguese edition and well I just love it! Check this out:

This actually does happen in the book! The blonde Chrissy is giving a smack down to brunette Amanda in the ocean with a speedboat and the cliffs in the background. Yes Chrissy is floating so this is not just a touch of awesome added to the cover. The sky in the background is just full of evil with those stormy tones! And for you male readers, hey a little skin from the ladies in some bared midriffs! This has to be my favorite even more than the original!

Taglines: On the front we have "Chrissy is perfect-perfectly evil." and on the back we have "Help! Wanted". The front is definitely better than the back and the little plot blurb will have you intrigued enough to read what's inside.

The First Line: "Amanda Conklin rolled over in bed. She opened her eyes and stretched slowly."

Not exactly gripping but we are introduced to our main character and we learn this isn't the beginning of the story. The first chapter tells us that Amanda is a juvenile detention center because apparently it's believed that she murdered someone but Amanda knows the real reason why she is there and we get the backstory as the main set up of the plot. So the Conklin family is heading off to Seahaven for the summer which is great except that Amanda sucks at algebra and has to attend summer school! I didn't know you could to summer school while on vacation I mean I had to come in on Saturdays for math workshops when I was in school but I could do that at the beach? Damn, I kind of want to live in this universe!

Amanda isn't the only one bummed because now her mother has to find a helper/nanny/babysitter to watch her eight year old brother Kyle and her three year old sister Merry because she can't. Apparently even going on vacation they plan on working a little and going out to dinner cocktail parties or something. So they arrive at the beach house to drop off their belongings but discover they need some food so Amanda's parents and her siblings go off into the town while Amanda stays behind to put their pet birds, Salt and Pepper, and their family cat, Mr. Jinx, out of their cages into their summer surroundings. A knock comes to the door where a pretty blonde girl named Chrissy Minor has come to answer Mrs. Conklin's ad and Amanda tells her not to leave as she tries to get her parents back home as Chrissy says she has another interview to get to. Amanda reaches them in time but she already has a bad feeling about Chrissy because the cat does not seem to like Chrissy.

Mr. Jinx hisses and reacts in fear at the girl and Amanda then sees unbeknown to Chrissy the girl hissing back in just the same aggressive fashion at the cat. Also, the birds don't chirp or sing around her either almost huddling together in a trance of fear. So this is a big red flag to me because animals are a very good judge of character and the flag goes even more haywire when Amanda's mother can't reach Chrissy's references and decides to hire her anyway. Amanda calls Mom out on this and gets a lecture about being just as irresponsible for failing algebra and putting her parents in the situation for help in the first place...harsh!

Of course Chrissy gets the job and the family falls in love with her but Amanda is still wary because of the animals and the fact that they still can't reach the other families that Chrissy has worked for. When she heads to summer school things look up for Amanda as there is a very cute guy in the class named Dave Malone who gets to be her partner. Being a local, Amanda asks Dave about Chrissy and he says he doesn't know anyone by that name or any other of the names that Chrissy gave for her aunt and her cousin. Later that day, while the family is playing badminton, a car almost kills Kyle and Merry as it lurches up onto the lawn! The driver says he couldn't control the speed as if the vehicle had a mind of its own and poor Mr. Jinx is the only casualty, which devastates Amanda. She thinks she sees an evil smile of satisfaction on Chrissy's face at the cat's death and later in the evening, Amanda swears she sees Chrissy floating off the floor in her room!

Her parents think Amanda is just stressed at the death of her pet and that maybe she thinks Chrissy is taking her place but Amanda is sure that there is something off and evil about Chrissy. The girl has old newspaper clippings about the death of her parents by carbon monoxide poisoning and how her twin sister Lilith is in a coma...what is she hiding? Amanda calls back to Shadyside to ask her friend Suzi if she can look up some more information than Amanda can find in the small town of Seahaven and she agrees while Amanda seems to be developing a summer romance with Dave. She tells him about Chrissy and he doesn't think she is crazy at all, they go out to a shed on an island where Dave and his brothers have taken over an old hunters' cabin. They kiss and Amanda has to hold on to his waist as they take a wave runner to and back and it's so sweet that Amanda has someone on her side. Dave also says he has a way that might get Chrissy out of the house by placing a hunting knife in her drawers that will have her parents kicking the girl out once they see it.

Getting back to the house, Chrissy throws herself at Dave and he uses this to distract her while Amanda can plant the knife but things take a turn to the weird and horrible as blood sprays out of the knife, all over Amanda and Chrissy's clothing and then the birds are found with their throats slit! So now basically Amanda's parents think their daughter is going crazy, killing the birds and trying to frame Chrissy for it along with everything else and send her to a shrink. Good Lord Amanda just can not get a break! Amanda knows that Chrissy has something sinister up her sleeve and that her family is in danger but what can she do when no one believes her? Is she really going crazy with jealousy or are her instincts right? Why is Chrissy out to get the Conklin family and when will her charade finally stop?

This was a very hard Fear Street not to spoil for those who haven't read it and it is a very suspenseful story with supernatural elements. Think of it as a combination of Jennifer's Body and The Hand That Rocks The Cradle with some of the same plot points here and there but not exactly like the first and teenage rehash of the latter. You know how The Best Friend is like Single White Female? Go with that! The ending is okay I suppose but I think a good twist might have made it a little better be it a downer ending or not. There is also a little bit of maybe inspiration from the Lois Duncan novel Summer of Fear and not anything outright plagiarized so in a nutshell a good read. When it comes to characters, I'm not too fond of Amanda's parents and we don't get a lot of time focusing on her younger brother and sister so I'm neutral on them.

I know the parents aren't really that bad but they don't really do anything in my honest opinion to deserve any praise. Chrissy is our villain but she just seems like a normal mean girl, alpha bitch so I don't really love her or hate her knowing her motives and back story either way. The only characters I like are Amanda and Dave because you are suppose to identify and feel for Amanda and well Dave, he is the only one who believes Amanda. They have chemistry and even if you think it is far fetched for him not to believe this girl he doesn't know is crackers, I still like him anyway.

Body Count: Well we have one dead kitty cat and two murdered birds :( Animal violence in books I don't get but it's just another way to kick Amanda when she is down. As for human fatalities, one definite and two maybes with two of them completely out of left field and totally unnecessary. After The Thrill Club, this is another Fear Street novel where a character death made me kind of sad so if I just gave away an unintentional spoiler...sorry :(

Cameo Time!: Blink and you'll miss it but Carter Phillips from The Cheater calls Amanda with some bad news. (Shutting my mouth as to why...)

SHADYSIDE HIGH TIME CAPSULE

Not to sound cheesy but it depends on what your taste in movies and music is whether you will agree this was one evil summer for both forms of media! In the book, Amanda is said to be wearing a red and black Pearl Jam t-shirt. She's got good taste in music I'll give her that so maybe there are some other songs to enjoy in the same vein:

There's also some stuff that I like:

One I just can't resist putting here:

And a song that truly is evil (middle school dances were evil too!) and terrifying:

When it comes to movies, they mention a totally fictional horror film called Blood Surfer. Sounds interesting but I can think of some better films to watch:

Before I finish, there is a movie from this time that was so evil it made one of the greatest movie critics go berserk:

NEXT TIME, NEXT BLOG: Might take a break from Fear Street with my next idea or maybe not. I guess only The Mind Reader would know for sure...wouldn't you like to know?

Focusing On Fear Street: The Thrill Club

So before I go into the book review like normal, I believe we should get the tiny white elephant out of the closest and out of the way. For those who do not know the book I will be talking about The Thrill Club was not written by R.L. Stine. In the early 90s even though Fear Street was big Goosebumps came along and kind of overthrew it in popularity and then of course R.L. also had the books he wrote for the Point Horror series, the Goosebumps TV series and other projects. It's kind of hard to have a new Fear Street book every month so this was the first instance where a ghostwriter was employed.

Now don't feel cheated because ghostwriters are nothing new...anyone like V.C. Andrews? Well the original author she passed away in 1986 with only the first two books of her Casteel series written so because of Flowers In The Attic being so big her estate hired author Andrew Neiderman to complete the series. So every book "written by V.C. Andrews" since 1988 was written by a ghostwriter who still continued to write novels under his own name.

When a franchise is so huge and the author you love sadly passes it is nice to honor them and continue the hard work but when you are still alive and swamped by ideas I see it as being nice to give aspiring writers a chance to help you out. The Thrill Club was written by author Tom Perotta and if you don't know who he is his biggest claim to fame is writing the book Election which was made into a film starring Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon. If you have never heard of either the book or the film, I recommend the film as it's one of my faves!

Until I learned this news, I thought it was a good story and the first one I can actually remember having more supernatural kind of elements instead of just being a murder mystery which was awesome. Also for future reference, most of the books in the Fear Street Sagas and all of the Ghost of Fear Street books are in fact ghostwritten but don't despair for R.L. is of course writing new Goosebumps and Fear Street books at this time. So if you still wish to see what this book has to offer let's get on with the show...

WELCOME TO FOCUSING ON FEAR STREET WITH THERESTHEGIRL

Book #24 in the Fear Street Series

Published May of 1994

Written by Tom Perotta

Cover Art by Bill Schmidt

Well there is a ghost bride mentioned, the cemetery in the Fear Street Woods and we do have blonde Talia Blanton and African-American Shandel Carter as characters in the book. Very 1990s clothing with the hat and the green vest over a white tee on Shandel and I believe I had a vest very much like Talia's sporting. For the longest time I didn't know what she was wearing under the vest but know I realize it's a maroon shirtdress. Everytime I see this cover I can only think one thing: Melissa Joan Hart and one of the Mowry sisters being haunted by the ghost bride of Stacey Q...am I the only one who thinks that? Any way, there are a few German covers from omnibus collections and reprints that do actually fit the story:

All of them are bleak and all of them have corresponding items and events described in the book which is something I always like and the focus is not on any people but an object where I can think of nothing scarier than that one detail. Be it a lone sneaker in a cemetery, a dummy and a noose in a dank basement or a tribal mask and a glinting hacksaw...it's uber creepy! As I always I enjoy the covers from Brazil:

The cemetery is bleak but the candles and photo of the members of the titular club bring some color. I like how all of the important characters are present and pretty much fit their descriptions from the book. Blonde Talia, her boyfriend Seth, Shandel, Nessa, Rudy with his glasses looking like Harry Potter and his girlfriend Maura. Now I found two interesting Russian covers but one sort of looks like it has nothing to do with the story while the other I swear looks like it could be the cover from some sort of supernatural romance. You be the judge I guess:

 

Personally I like the romance one better. I mean we do have a blonde girl as our lead character, creepy things happening at night and well yes a noose does play a part in the story. The first one I don't know it's suspenseful but not plot related a gun is not present anywhere in the narrative.

Taglines: On the front we have "They're dying to join." and on the back we have "Thrills and Chills..." I don't find the back one interesting at all but at least the front one has effort put into it as cheesy as it may be. If you read the blurb on the back, it will be enough to grab your attention and make you want to pick up the book.

Now there is no prologue but I guess you could call the first chapter kind of a fake out so I am going to do this just slightly different as there are no spoilers doing this.

The First Line of Chapter 1: "Shandel Carter shivered and glanced back quickly over her shoulder."

So Shandel is having to cut through Fear Street near the cemetery because she and bestie Nessa Troy got into a stupid argument...over ghosts. Nessa says she saw a ghost bride once and Shandel is like yeah right so Nessa tells her to leave if she can't believe her. What do you know? Shandel gets her throat slit by an unseen figure with a feminine voice...guess she should have listened to Nessa.

The First Line of Chapter 2: "Talia Blanton finished reading the story and gazed around the room with her blue eyes."

Turns out it was all just another story written by Shadyside's greatest writer...or is it? Talia usually has no problem writing but lately she has had severe writer's block and her boyfriend Seth has been writing her last couple of stories including tonight's presentation to The Thrill Club. Talia never usually puts her friends as the characters in her stories but since it's been Seth he says it makes the stories creepier...too bad Shandel is not amused at having her throat slit even in a tale of fiction. She and Talia get into a little bit of a heated argument and well I guess also trying to stab Shandel with a trick knife isn't going to help is it? There is also a lot of drama going on in this club because well you see Seth and Maura use to go out until Seth asked Talia for a date and she said yes so there is some tension there because even though Maura is with Rudy now she still flirts with Seth.

Not only has Seth been writing Talia's stories he has also been helping her with her math homework and apparently Maura thinks Talia treats Seth like a slave but apparently he likes to be treated like a loyal puppy dog. Talia's blonde, blue-eyed and beautiful so who wouldn't want that over a chubby ginger with freckles I mean this is Teen World right? Maybe Seth likes to feel needed seeing as how weeks ago his father just dropped dead at his work desk and it's messed with Seth pretty bad. His dad was an anthropologist into tribes from New Guinea and other countries so Seth has been going through his notes and tapes and finds one labeled TRANSFER TAPE with some real weird and creepy chanting on it that he makes Talia listen to.

It gets to the point where Talia thinks her ears are going to bleed as she feels weak and dizzy and nauseous from it and Seth shuts it off. Well it seems like Seth may be taking Dad's death even worse than Talia believed and she does feel guilty for almost maybe being tired of Seth and his needy tendencies. It also doesn't help that Seth doesn't defend her when Maura and the others begin to suspect the stories aren't hers and when a teacher asks her outright if she is cheating on her Math homework. These teen troubles are nothing compared to the terror about to come when Shandel is found dead with her throat slashed just like in the story and Talia finds a bloody knife in her drawer and bloodstains on her sweatshirt!

Talia has no idea what is going on especially when the police tell her that she called Shandel's mom and confessed to killing her daughter and Nessa says Talia also called to tell her that she can start dating Seth! Is Talia going crazy she says she didn't do either of those things? Everyone begins to look at her with much more suspicion that Talia can't help but kiss Rudy, the only one not treating her different or pulling away, but someone catches them! Who was it and is this person responsible for all of Talia's terror? It seems like horror is spilling over into reality when another member, the victim of another story, of the Thrill Club is found dead and this time Talia can't erase the evidence against her. Who is the villain rewriting Talia's story into one of horror and can she change the ending into a happy one?

As stated above, I really enjoy this story. Yes it has murder like most other Fear Street books but the supernatural element presented around the story's climax is refreshing and quite plausible: there is a lot about other cultures and the paranormal we don't understand. It's almost easy to pick out the antagonist of the story from the beginning but a few hints of another character being the villain are alluded to and maybe even a person not in the foreground. Soon that possibility is scrubbed and the more paranormal/fantasy element is introduced and you are like yeah I can see that.

The characters are good but I don't really get invested into them much. It's not that I don't care whether they live or die but only one death really doesn't seem deserved and I'm not sure if you can call the main character Talia completely innocent for some of the things she did. I'm also not really sure if the antagonist was justified in their motive as well but it doesn't mean the book isn't great either. I would recommend this Fear Street book it's engaging and all kinds of messed up (but in a good way!)

Body Count: Of course Shandel and as for the other character to die, I'll leave that one a secret. You'll probably realize who it is fairly early but it is so grotesque and sad :( It's one of the saddest deaths I have read in a Fear Street book...

THE SHADYSIDE HIGH TIME CAPSULE

I wouldn't say the music around this time was bad but nothing really pops out at me to talk about and the tone of the story doesn't really deserve anything to cheerful. Movies around this time are kind of another matter and one of them is of course the greatest films of cinema:

NEXT TIME, NEXT BLOG: A story that began One Evil Summer...