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...

Focusing On Fear Street: Double Date

WELCOME TO FOCUSING ON FEAR STREET WITH THERESTHEGIRL

Book # 23 in the Fear Street Series

Published April of 1994

Cover Art by Bill Schmidt

Our male protagonist Bobby Newkirk sitting on a bench in the park with Samantha, one of the Wade twins, In the background her sister Bree looks on with a very unhappy look on her face. It's a nice detailed cover and set in bright daylight but not very scary. You could switch this out with a teen romance cover! Of course German editions always give us something dark and bleak on the covers and this time we get two! One is an original and one is a reprint:

The top cover has a scene which does happen in the book and the bottom one does involve a cabin in the woods both with a very bare yet terrifying concept. As always you can get a very nice cover for Brazil editions:

Still dark even with some bright hues and almost blank faces. One of the Wade twins leading Bobby into a cabin in the woods as the other watches on with maybe some sinister intentions. Got some midriffs and boobs on display for the male readers and certainly eye catching. The one from Russia is kind of cool too:

Looks more like an advert for a Nightmare On Elm Street film with the way the girl is clawing and ripping at the poor guy's shirt. This dude isn't Bobby...he's got dark hair! You'll learn quickly that Bobby is a blond pretty boy. Besides some flaws it still has horror elements and is creepy.

Taglines: On the front we have "Two's company. But three can be murder." and on the back we have "2 Cool 2 Live 4 Long". The one on the front is kind of clever if cheesy but the back one...oh boy! You'll know you are definitely reading a book from the 1990s with that one and if you are lucky enough to find a used copy that someone decided not to take the temporary tattoos from. My copy is a later Simon Pulse print but the original Archway Paperback had blue butterfly temp tattoos because they play an important part of the story with the twins! It was very cool but very 90s...radical!

The First Line: "Bobby Newkirk pressed against the locker door with one hand, squeezing Ronnie Mitchell into her locker."

This is how we meet our main character, ladies and gentlemen. Manhandling a poor girl into her locker with aggressive charm to get a kiss and admiring himself in her mirror. Bobby is blond, broad-shouldered and boorish. He may look like Mr. All-American but he is Mr. Arrogance who dumps and dates all the girls at Shadyside High like they are trends going out of style. Right now, he has cheerleader Ronnie eating out of one hand and fellow cheerleader Kimmy Bass eating out of the other. He once dumped a girl just because she spilled Coke in his car and when his friends pick up his scraps, Bobby kind of hopes to have them come running back to him.

Bobby is in a band with his friends Paul and Arnie and is the lead guitarist who loves his guitar as much as he loves himself but doesn't take it as seriously as Paul and he even thinks Arnie stinks on the drums and they constantly change their band name more than they practice...mainly because Bobby can't say no to going on a date with a girl just to string her on. One day, the Wade twins interrupt band practice looking for the music teacher and Bobby is taken with shy Bree and sexy Samantha.

They just moved to Shadyside and are the only girls Bobby hasn't dated yet but he bets Paul and Arnie he can date both girls at the same time. In no time, Bobby is going out with both girls and finds that Bree is shy at first but she begins to fall for Bobby very easily. Samantha on the other hand is not shy but she may just be a little too wild for Bobby to handle driving his car recklessly without a license and even getting Bobby to steal her a bracelet from the mall after she five-finger discounts some earrings on one of their earlier dates!

Things get heavier when Sam tells Bobby he needs to drop Bree saying that she isn't right when she gets hurt and that she wants more time with Bobby...guess the twins were never taught to share their toys! Besides the trouble with the twins, Bobby finds that his perfect existence is falling apart in a disturbing manner after the tires on his car are slashed and he almost gets electrocuted to death by his own guitar! There's a way to tell the twins apart but soon not even that can help Bobby discover which twin is doing this to him...or could it be someone else? Bobby's friend Arnie is dating one of his old flings Melanie...could she be jealous enough or hate Bobby so much to kill him?

So the story is pretty much like a crazy Lifetime movie in the beginning but it has some good points where there are some characters that could be the real culprit besides the twins. There are a few twists and turns but when you get to the end it is just the best! Now this may just be me being a female but you can't help but liking karma biting someone in the ass! True it may seem a little harsh but it's not evil or malicious and as long as no one gets hurt fatally...you just have to see it for yourself without me spoiling it (worth it!)

Character wise, the only two I can't stand are of course Bobby and Arnie. Not too much hate for Arnie he's just simply immature and annoying with his only good point being he seems to actually care for Melanie. Bobby Newkirk is the worst male character I have seen so far in a Fear Street book. He is vain, egotistical, treats women like dirt, thinks everyone likes him and just like so many guys I went to high school with. His only good points are that he likes classic rock music (like back to 1950s Chuck Berry) and likes animals (he has a science experiment with two monkeys and treats them very humane).

My biggest reason for hating him is he makes fun of Melanie for being a little overweight and says that if she lost a few more pounds he might go back out with her! I am slightly chunky myself so I take offense to that (especially in high school and college) but maybe it's his fault she is. Bobby went out with her for three months before she found out he was going behind her back with other girls and broke up with him crying so obviously a year ago she was just fine to go out with.

I for one know what it's like to be heartbroken and drowning my sorrows in tubs of ice cream and candy bars so maybe that's what happened and Arnie seems to like her the way she is. I think Bobby gives her crap for her weight just because she won't go back to him because he mentions that she does still look good...I still don't/will never understand boys/men!

Body Count: No human casualties and no animals were harmed either. There was a scene where you thought some one was actually deranged enough to cut off the head of one of Bobby's monkeys (named Wayne and Garth...so 90s!) and leave it in his locker! Don't worry it was real, gross smelling blood but a plastic, realistic monkey head but effective enough that Bobby tossed his cookies! Now I don't particularly like Bobby but that was messed up just like electrocuting him! Also, I do not like monkeys but I would never hurt one especially by decapitation...sick!

THE SHADYSIDE HIGH TIME CAPSULE

Bobby mentions taking Samantha to see a movie called Eradicator Five. Sounds cool but not a real film sadly. I think if they wanted to catch a flick they could have gone to see a nice romance:

Or with the way this story is going maybe some dark comedy?

Maybe the Wade twins would like a very female driven cast - they seem like some tough girls who can take care of themselves?

So that's a great time at the movies we could have had! Driving in the car or dancing at the club, I've got some tunes you might enjoy as well!

NEXT TIME, NEXT BLOG: Dead men and dead women tell no tales in this club...The Thrill Club!

Focusing On Fear Street: Bad Dreams

 WELCOME TO FOCUSING ON FEAR STREET WITH THERESTHEGIRL

Book# 22 in the series

Published March 1994

Cover Art by Bill Schmidt

This cover is probably one that male Fear Street readers had to keep hidden from Mom under the mattress. Besides the showing of some skin it's still pretty modest but two girls in nighties in bed looking like victims of one of those Slumber Party Massacre films might have Mother wondering about her little boy. It's also actually a very girlie color scheme with reds, pinks and whites kind of almost a Neapolitan ice cream of terror but very detailed with girls and the four poster bed.

Is it just me or do the girls look like Shannon Elizabeth and Alyson Hannigan from American Pie 2? (but not in this pic obviously!)





I'm kind of glad you can't see what has the girls are afraid of because less is always more but it also is a lot more pulpy than some of the other covers I found from around the world. I always go to Germany first and I am never disappointed with what I find:

A bloody knife stabbed into a feathered pillow...so simple yet so terrifying! The only color you have is the blood everything else is just pure white...virgin white. That is also one very deadly but sleek looking knife! Next up, Brazil always has some very interesting covers in a style that shows faces but very obscured and just gorgeous:

Dark, foreboding atmosphere with more subdued shades of pink but a girl asleep in a canopy bed with another girl watching in the shadows. Is she a friend or is she something sinister about to hurt the obviously, sleeping girl having a bad dream? Also another cover you might want to keep out of mother's eye line...a little more cleavage outlined. I kind of like the cover for the French edition that I found or one of them anyway. I found one that has a young girl in bed with a shadow looming over her but the girl in question looks really...young. I have some reservations about that seeing how Fear Street is more oriented to the older teenage crowd so I won't post it (if you want to see it just leave a comment below and I will if anyone is interested.) Here is the one I do like:



 A little bit of the American cover, a girl asleep in a very luxurious canopy bed and a dagger looming in front of a creepy home you could surely find on Fear Street! Gorgeous, creepy and almost with a noir style to it...c'est magnifique!

Taglines: On the front we have "Don't go to sleep!" and on the back we have "It's just a bad dream-but it seems so real.". Not the most attention grabbing or wittiest way to grab the readers attention but the blurb on the back is good and not full of any blatant spoiler. I think the covers are good enough to get your attention on their own.

Totally unrelated plot but a movie worth checking out

So before I get into the first line of the story and begin my review I have to warn you that there will be spoilers for a previous Fear Street book I talked about The Prom Queen. There are recurring characters from that book that appear in this one and not as little one shot cameos so if you haven't read the previous book and don't want it spoiled, this may not be worth reading. If you have already read both books I'm sure it will be no problem for you. I'll try my best not to spoil it but once I start writing my thoughts are going to pour out so just letting you know before hand. That being said I am also skipping the prologue and its first line and going straight to the first chapter. Why? It's my opinion that if you read the prologue you may get the story spoiled only slightly. Not a bad prologue so I'm not saying don't read it but I only talk about the prologue if I don't think it will spoil the book for you.

The First Line: "Maggie Travers' bad dreams didn't start until the night she slept in the canopy bed for the first time."

Seventeen- year old Maggie Travers, her sixteen year old sister Andrea, their mother and Golden Retriever Gus move into a new house on Fear Street from the rich North Hills neighborhood in Shadyside after their father dies from a heart attack. The two sisters don't really get along like most sisters with Andrea I guess being jealous that her sister is prettier and gets the attention of boys while Maggie thinks Andrea is a brat who always whines and it's shown that she is known to treat others snobbily because of  where they live or rather...where they use to live.

The girls are also both on the swim team and Maggie is of course one of the stars while Andrea struggles. Once inside to unpack in their pre chosen rooms, Maggie finds a gorgeous, four-poster pink canopy bed in hers and Andrea gets totes jealous trying to make their mother give it to her but of course you know finders keepers. Besides the stress of sibling rivalry, there is also a big swim meet coming up and Maggie is determined to win and show up her best friend but rival by ego, Dawn.

As stated soon Maggie begins to have dreams about a blonde girl crying out for help in the same bed which soon become darker with an unseen attacker. Maggie learns from the old couple next door that the girl was named Miranda and she was murdered in the canopy bed! This makes Maggie a little paranoid and rightfully squicked out but she begins to think that maybe Miranda is sending the dreams beyond the grave to find her killer.

Soon, Maggie imagines seeing Miranda's ghost in the house at night hiding in the shadows, a malevolent presence stalking her and then going after her friends on the swim team! Is all of this in Maggie's head like her boyfriend Justin possibly thinks or is possible that little sister has finally gotten fed up with Maggie always getting everything she wants?

The story is pretty good and I like Maggie as the protagonist. She isn't annoying and relatable and even her sister Andrea has good points. They fight but both of the Travers sisters share in the loss of their father and do care about each other so Andrea isn't that bad of a character. We don't spend a lot of time with their mother but she seems caring and rightfully at her rope when her girls fight so I like her pretty much as a side character.

WARNING POSSIBLE SPOILERS! - Maggie's boyfriend is Justin Stiles from The Prom Queen and he seems to have changed slightly. Known for being a male whore when it comes to girls he appears to really care about Maggie and doesn't have a roaming eye for anyone else but when things get creepier he seems to become distant. I suppose this happens when your current girlfriend is friends with one of your ex-girlfriends and the one before that was a psycho killer who went after all your little flings.

The one character I still don't like and doesn't seem to have made any kind of progress is Dawn Rodgers, another Prom Queen alumna who is Maggie's friend and Justin's ex. She is still very competitive and doesn't seem to be as boy crazy but she is annoying and gets on Maggie's case if she does better than her than be supportive. She tells Maggie that Justin has a roaming eye but maybe she is just jealous that Justin isn't her boy toy anymore and is more faithful to Maggie than he was to any of the girls before her.

When Dawn becomes a victim of one of the accidents caused in the book to blame Maggie, she does blame her and avoids Maggie the rest of the time but caught giving her sour looks. By the book's conclusion, we never learn if Dawn forgives Maggie or if Justin stops being weird around her but at least I care if he and Mags get back together. I couldn't care less if Dawn continues to be a bitch and they stop being BFFs I'd rather have Maggie get closer to her sister Andrea.

Cameo Time!: Deena Martinson and Jade Smith from The Wrong Number appear in Maggie's geology field trip group exploring a cave and Claudia Walker from Sunburn is also on the swim team. I have to give these Shadyside teens a hand they are resilient when it comes to situations of almost being murdered to tackle dark places and water.

Body Count: Poor Miranda :( There is almost an instance when you think good old Gus is going to be hit by a truck but he lives! Maggie states she couldn't handle if they lost another family member (Gus is her dog but kind of became her father's dog...so sad).

THE SHADYSIDE HIGH TIME CAPSULE

So it is mentioned that Justin and Maggie go out on a date and it is some screwball comedy film to try and get Mags out of her funk and it doesn't work. Now there were a lot of good comedies out about this time but I think they went to see Naked Gun 33 1/2 The Final Insult it's about as screwball as you can get.

If not that then it definitely had to be Major League 2 another sort of spoof film and well Justin likes baseball...

This also was a great time for music and I would like to share some of my favorites. One to honor the late Mr. Travers, a personal favorite and one to honor the late and great Tom Petty.

NEXT TIME, NEXT BLOG: You know it's never a good thing when your friend asks you to go out on a Double Date...

Focusing On Fear Street: The New Boy

WELCOME TO FOCUSING ON FEAR STREET WITH THERESTHEGIRL

 

Book #20 of the Fear Street Series

Released January of 1994

Cover Art by Bill Schmidt

 

 

 

 

Okay it's not the best quality picture of the cover but I do like this cover. It has a good amount of suspense with Ross (the titular new boy) and Janie (our main heroine) playing almost a game of cat and mouse...they both know the other is there. The jean jacket and white sweater Janie is wearing are very detailed and realistic even if you can't see it here. As I have constantly said I love the German covers of the Fear Street books with their always bleak and dark covers...and this one is no exception to the rule.

 

 

A young man standing at the grave of some departed love one holding a blue scarf against a cloudy sky with the sun trying to beam through. Now the guy standing at the grave may or may not be the new boy because yes if you can believe it there are two separate blue scarves mentioned in the book and well it's a major spoiler. It's somber and melancholy, bittersweet and just priceless again so much in such simple imagery. Another country that I have discovered so far that has some great cover art is Brazil with bright yet thrilling atmosphere:

 

 

 

The only brightness is of course the yellow and skin tone of the main characters with little bits of brightness in the background. I like how all the main characters of the story are depicted because they do all play parts be it victims, killer and some red herrings. Going clockwise its Ross, Janie, Faith, Eve, Ian and Paul because you get some pretty good descriptions of what they look like and then throw in the artist's own interpretations. Another country that published Fear Street was Russia and even though most used the American cover art (some not even from the same book) a few had their own covers with interesting takes like the one for The New Boy:

 

 

 

 

It's nice, simple and creepy with showing the two different sides of the new boy that we do get to see in the book: brooding and good looking but with a dark side and a dark past. Of course not all covers can be good and even have some sort of subtlety and symbolism found within the story. I'm not really sure if these are alternate U.S. covers or maybe U.K. editions but the covers of these...I'm glad they stopped popping up.

 

A skull in a green science beaker...um...scary? Why do people think just putting skulls on something equals horror? I know that in the horror paperback age of the 80s and early 90s skulls were every where but *sighs* I don't know. We do find out in only one part of the book that Ross is good with chemistry but yeah that's it so um moving on...

Taglines: On the front we have "He was a hunk of trouble..." and on the back we have "He stole their hearts...Does he want their lives, too?" If you aren't familiar with early 90s speak a hunk was what you called a good looking guy and yes even though I have used that phrasing (hey I was eleven when this particular book came out) it really does date the series. I like the one on the back better it's more creative. The blurb will have me wanting to read the book for sure but it may be slightly full of spoilers.

The First Line: "Two weeks before the murder, Janie Simpson saw the new boy at Shadyside High for the first time."

So it's lust at first sight for Janie when she sees Ross Gabriel. He has dark hair and dark eyes, brooding features and the body of an athlete and poor Janie has no boyfriend so she is smitten. She's described as having long, red hair, blue eyes and if the illustration on the cover is any indication Janie is not that bad looking and her wardrobe is on point! Of course she has a little bit of low self esteem because both of her best friends Faith and Eve have boyfriends and are a lot more "pretty" as Janie explains in her thoughts she doesn't wear make-up and if she did she would only look like a "washed-out" version of her blond, cheerleader friend Faith. Also Eve has dramatic looks, blue-black hair and olive green eyes and did I mention they both have boyfriends?

Besides the obvious melodrama of teen romance, Janie, Eve and Faith just got done organizing a huge and very successful dance at school and have about twelve hundred dollars to show for it! Wow Shadyside seems to have the best parties and dances even if murder and paranormal activities are about in spades! So of course you know the money is going to play a back seat to this tale because well that is a lot of dough and it is established that both Eve and her boyfriend Ian are not the most financially set of their friends. Faith is described as filthy rich and it seems that her boyfriend Paul just might only be going out with because of her money even though he is a basketball player and could just get a scholarship anywhere he wants. If you couldn't see it coming a mile away, the dance money ends up stolen!

 

Oh no that's bad but the girls do not get in trouble as the principal was close at hand and doesn't suspect any of them as taking it even though Eve and Faith left at opportune times to take it. This is of little importance when you have a hot new guy at school as you see both Faith and Eve also had a chance to get to know Ross while taking him to the nurse's office earlier that day while shy Janie couldn't even muster up the courage to say two words to him. The other girls notice that Janie totally is into Ross and decided to make a game out of exploiting that crush by betting to see which one of the three can ask him out first. What great friends huh? They already have boyfriends and decide to use the obvious affections Janie has for Ross to get to first base with him...I knew all these girl code rules were made up to the advantage of the pretty girls and the disadvantage of their less than confident peers!

 

Janie has the chance to ask Ross out first because she shares chemistry class with him and her regular partner just happens to be sick...you go, Janie! Of course, she can't get up the courage fast enough and Eve ends up winning the bet which also doesn't sit well with Faith because even though she says she's joking when they talk later, she tells Janie she just might let her boyfriend Ian know his girlfriend is going out with another guy while he is working two jobs to try and save up for college. You know what I seem to think that Paul, Eve and Faith are the worst people in this book no matter how much farther we have to go.

 

Eve wins the bet, gets to go on the date and asks Janie if she can borrow her blue blazer to wear and is going behind her boyfriend's back? I don't care how poor you are that just is so not cool in my book! So what's my beef with Paul you might ask? Right now he just seems to be a cocky jock jerk who doesn't like Ross just because at his old school Ross was a football player who put on a the same kind of attitude Paul has now...pot calling the kettle black much, Paul? We don't know much about Ross and even though he was kind of big headed in chemistry class earlier everyone else but Janie were making jokes about taking the dance money which is missing and well it's just my honest opinion.

 

So the next morning after Eve's date with Ross, Ian calls Janie frantically saying that Eve never came home and that Ross is missing! Trying to go out and search for her they make a gruesome discovery of the girl's dead body and suspicion falls on Ross from pretty much everybody at school except for Janie. She just can't believe that the man of her dreams could be a killer but if not Ross then who? A complete stranger roaming about town? Could it have something to do with the stolen dance money? Is it someone from Ross' past trying to set him up or could it even be one of the people closest to Janie? Will it  take more murder to figure out the answer?

 

The New Boy is a pretty good read with more thrills than chills and not a lot of gore. It's a murder mystery and you might figure it out pretty quickly. In the end, the only character I like is Janie because she doesn't really do anything jerky to anyone and when she starts to think that maybe Ross did kill Eve, it's not out of spite but real fear that he could hurt her. Despite her friends having very weird morals, Janie is relatable to girls like me and out of everyone is never nasty or psychotic.

 

Body Count: It's the first line in the book and in the blurb on the back that there are murders in this book. Eve's murder is what sets the story in motion for suspense as the robbery of the dance money sets you up for what is to come. What other characters bite the dust? Let's just say I give this book four out of six stars with one more down to a dire fate.

 

 

THE SHADYSIDE HIGH TIME CAPSULE

 

 

The beginning of 1994 was not really a good year for movies but I believe it was an awesome year of music regardless. So it's established that there was a dance and that they actually had a live band and not just a DJ. Now they had 1,200 dollars spent on tickets and concessions but probably not some big named headliner in a small town like Shadyside. So if you'll indulge me, I have a playlist that I would have been more than happy to dance to thanks to my taste but in my case, I probably would have been crying in the corner with Janie that I didn't have a boyfriend either.

 

 

 

NEXT TIME, NEXT BLOG: It is the Halloween season so I thought perhaps you would have me wish you some Bad Dreams ? I most certainly will...





 

 











Focusing On Fear Street: Sunburn

WELCOME TO FOCUSING ON FEAR STREET WITH THERESTHEGIRL

 

Book #19 in the Fear Street Series

Published June of 1993

Cover Art by Bill Schmidt

 

 

Might not be the best image of the cover seeing how on mine the redheaded girl lying face down in the sand and surf has a purple swimsuit not a metallic blue like this one. The colors are mostly blue, red, black and flesh tones. Obviously the girls haven't gotten much sun yet and there are two more not pictured but the redhead is Claudia and the blonde is Marla. A scene like this sort of happens in the book but a little more blood and a little less seaweed but that almost feigned look of horror yeah it's there. The other US cover I found is well:

 

 

Um yeah a skeleton with sunglasses and a fiery background? Does the skull have a tan? I find this more funny than frightening because you know it's grinning at me and the blank pits of the eye sockets are covered by shades! Nice try, cover artist but those Bill Schmidt artworks far surpass this mess. You want something actually creepy? Check out this French cover:

 

 

That face of terror, those blue/green color tones of the skin almost give an undead look and that full moon are a perfect cover to give you chills. Kudos for also depicting a scene that happens in the book! My only hang up is that it's a log and not a rope bridge but still points for effort. I always love the German covers and I found two of them (one was a reprint I believe) but can't decide which I like better:

 

 

Both of them are bleak, dreary and menacing: a pair of hands holding on for dear life upon a dreaded peak to keep from falling on the rocks below and a girl running away from something or someone terrible with foreboding clouds and an eerily calm surf. I guess I like the second one best just because it goes more with the beach theme though the first one is good but not even close to anything depicted in the book.

 

Taglines

 

On the front we have "The perfect tan...or the perfect murder?" and on the back we have "You could get burned..." I guess both of them are okay and a little creative to the title of the book and might grab my attention.

 

 

The First Lines: "Claudia Walker surfaced slowly from a deep sleep. She felt something cool and damp covering her chest and legs. She could smell the salt air of the sea."

 

Okay I extended it past one sentence for a paragraph just to get a good description for any beginning reader. Also, some Fear Street books actually have titled chapters and well when you see the title of this one...*chuckles* We'll come back to that in a minute since that's exactly what the story does and it's not even a prologue!

 

Claudia receives a letter from her camp buddy Marla Drexler inviting her and the rest of their bunkmates to a reunion at her beach house in Summerhaven. Marla is stinking rich with a guest house and tennis courts along with a private stretch of beach and it sounds like a nice getaway from a messy breakup and the dreariness of Fear Street for Claudia. Besides Marla and Claudia we have Joy, an exotic looking girl with black hair and Sophie, frizzy brown hair with glasses but not described as "not pretty" so basically a makeover montage away from hottie town.

 

 

 

So in going back to that first line? Apparently the girls visited the beach and buried Claudia in the sand! They kind of forgot about her I guess and left her to not only fry in the sun by falling asleep but to then wake up screaming her head of in terror. I don't really blame her for that but it is kind of her fault as she did volunteer to be buried in the sand and her antihistamine for her allergies knocked her out. Don't worry about Claudia she gets free from her wet, sand prison thanks to a mysterious, tall, dark and handsome boy on the beach! He introduces himself as Daniel and helps Claudia back to Marla's mansion where he mysteriously knows the security code to let her inside. The other girls race out to meet Claudia and before she can introduce him...he's vanished like a ghost! Seems it was just a little misunderstanding as Joy and Sophie were told by Marla that Claudia had already gone back to the house...oh well mistakes happen!

 

Over the next couple of days, a few events happen that seem to make the week of fun and sun a little strange and unsettling. The girls go for a picnic on the beach and run into a pair of really hot deep diving hunksters named Dean and Sam...I mean Carl. Both Joy and Sophie get flirty and Claudia would too if not for her face being burned by her little "accident" the other day and having her face slathered in pink sunscreen. Marla on the other hand seems more than pissed about their arrival and tries her bitch best to get them to leave which isn't like her. The girls go to the boardwalk later and run into Carl and Dean again but Claudia goes off on her own and runs into Daniel! The two of them go to ride the Ferris Wheel and being up so high when they stop to let other people on breaks the romance as Claudia remembers just maybe why Marla is being so...weird.

 

I want an episode of Supernatural with Sam and Dean at the beach damn it!

 

 

The previous year at Camp Full Moon (nice subtle name huh?) the four girls were pestered all summer by Marla's sister Alison. She was a tag-a-long that was so bratty she even got under Sophie and Claudia's skin being the nice ones. When Alison threatened to tattletale if the older girls didn't let her participate in their Truth or Dare game, Marla dared her to cross a gorge at night. Sneaking out that night, Marla got caught but Claudia, Joy and Sophie met Alison at the gorge where she made it out halfway on a large log but got hit with vertigo. Trying to come back, the other girls got scared off by the counselors' flashlights and the last thing Claudia heard was a scream. The next morning, only Alison's bloody shirt was found on a jagged rock jutting out from the water.

 

 

 

This begins to make Joy think that Marla only invited them to get back at them for letting her sister die even if it was an accident and not directly their fault (it was Marla who dared Alison remember?) when Sophie almost gets electrocuted by the security gate and Joy finds leeches in her bed! Things come to a head when both Sophie and Claudia almost drown while water skiing but are saved by Carl and Dean. The tow rope had been cut but by whom? Is Marla really out for revenge at Alison's death or could Daniel, the boy who mysteriously vanishes be behind all of these nasty tricks?

 

I always enjoyed this book but you can see the ending coming from a mile away once the backstory is revealed but maybe not in the way that you think. There are some scenes that made me just as paranoid as Joy, Sophie and Claudia. Anything horror driven involving the beach does that to me and well let's just say there is a shark involved as well as a dog and a lot of detail and leave it at that. As I said you'll probably figure out the twist and of course you get a nice ending but it's more bittersweet then happy depending which characters you like. There's not really a reason to dislike any of the characters but again it's all up to your own opinion.

 

Body Count: Well there is a dead body or two and unfortunately, a poor Irish wolfhound meets its end in a scene that still has me traumatized to this day.

 

I'm beginning to think R.L. Stine doesn't like dogs?

 

 

Cameo Time!: Again another story around a main cast of characters set in a town that isn't Shadyside so no cameos the second time around.

 

 

THE SHADYSIDE HIGH TIME CAPSULE

 

 

So we aren't in Shadyside this time but there are still gems to highlight the nostalgic summer of the early 1990s! It's always nice to imagine that the teenage characters in these Fear Street books are/were just like us with their music and movies.

 

Not a part of the 90s but it is mentioned in the book that the girls rent the movie Bye Bye Birdie to watch. A 1963 movie musical based on a stage play that stars Dick Van Dyke, Ann-Margaret and Janet Leigh its one of my favorite films thanks to my mom!

 

 

 

Marla also mentions that there is a movie theater on the Boardwalk that does play some pretty good movies. Hopefully, Summerhaven plays the latest movies and doesn't wait to release them about two or three months later. If that's the case, there are a couple movies I think the girls would enjoy (I mean I love them!) from that certain summer:

 

 

 

 

 

As for the music that the girls could have been listening to in Marla's Mercedes or in her bedroom is unknown but I know for me the music of that summer I was listening to isn't completely forgotten because I still like them today:

 

 

 

 

 

NEXT TIME, NEXT BLOG: What's a girl to do when the terror that is high school has you facing...The New Boy?