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?

 

 

 





 

 

 

 

 

Focusing On Fear Street - The Cheater

WELCOME TO FOCUSING ON FEAR STREET WITH THERESTHEGIRL

Book #17 in the Fear Street series

Published April of 1993

Cover Art by Bill Schmidt

 

 

 

The girl on the cover is our main heroine, Carter Phillips, either receiving or making a call in terror. A menacing young man is looking in through the window, which is either the reason Carter is on the phone or she has yet to notice him. Awesome cover with lots of pale yellow shading.

 

I have this copy but I found a different piece of US cover art that is again simple but not as great as the artwork shown above:

 

 

Now of course I love the artwork on the German publications! They are always bleak and simple in the concept but always so well illustrated:

 

The color scheme of course isn't bleak in color but an overturned chair, scattered papers on the desk and floor...that is creepy enough. Who was sitting in the chair and just why is the studious person no longer at their desk?

 

I also found a Spanish edition with some interesting cover art:

 

Again our heroine on the phone with a shadow not looming outside but within her own house! Is she calling for help or has she just now noticed a stranger bent on doing her harm?

 

Taglines: On the front "Now she has to pay..." and on the back we have "No way out!" These are not very riveting *yawn* but reading the blurb on the back might make me interested in reading it.

The First Line: "The first time Carter Phillips thought about cheating, it was a joke."

 

So it seems that Carter has considered cheating before and no not on her boyfriend Dan Mason...but on anything involving math, her worst subject. She took a Math Achievement test and got a 570 (don't ask me if that's good I don't remember what I got for a score but seeing as Math is not my best subject...I don't think I even got that!) and that didn't sit well with Daddy.

 

Carter's father is a judge and an alumni of Princeton who of course wants his little princess to follow in his footsteps. Did I mention Carter is blonde and quite wealthy as she lives in the richest neighborhood of Shadyside? Her father wants Carter to retake the test and get a higher score while her mother is always running off to all sorts of fundraisers and other rich people activities and I don't think she could care either way. Carter doesn't seem to be as much a snob as people would believe and she even jokes that Dan could take the test for her which he doesn't seem to think she would do. When Dan leaves their date of shakes at the local hangout, Carter is told by a young man that he'll do it.

 .

We now meet Adam Messner, he's from the wrong side of the tracks but a whiz at math. He isn't the All-American type like Dan but with his long black hair he's mysterious and different so Carter takes him up on the offer. He asks for a date in return even though he has a girlfriend named Sheila and it also means Carter has to blow off her already planned date with Danny Boy. The day of the test arrives and everything goes without a hitch so the rich girl goes with the poor boy from Fear Street to some place called the Underground where they dance and then kiss in Adam's beat up Mustang.

 

Well that wasn't so bad! Wait...Adam wants to meet her at the country club to play tennis tomorrow? What for another date? Oh no what has Carter gotten herself into now? Adam does indeed show up and he also shows up one of the preppy, snobby guys which impresses Carter but she still has to explain to her friend Jill why someone like Adam got in their ritzy country club anyway.

 

So of course Adam wants more dates and Carter is also threatened by Sheila (remember Adam's girlfriend?) to stay away from her man or she will put Little Miss Rich Girl in her place. Carter handles herself pretty well until Adam gets a little too handsy and then things just go from bad to worse...the real Adam starts to surface and he isn't as nice as he seems. Soon a car starts following Carter around town with the intent to mow her down and she even finds a heart in her tennis bag! (That is so gross! It's not a human heart thank God but whatever animal had to be sacrificed for that...I don't wanna know!)

 

The straw that really breaks Carter's back is when she has to have Jill accompany her on a date with Adam and his buddy Ray and they take them to some dive bar. It's not the bar itself but when all of the guys get a little too rough with the girls where Jill is in hysterics and Adam doesn't even have any intention of helping...what a creepo! Carter and Jill make it out okay but the next day Adam has the gall to now just outright blackmail Carter for money or he'll tell her daddy what they did. In desperation, Carter has to pawn of her jewelry and even though I'm sure she has plenty to spare but when she has to pawn of the earrings her father gave her for "passing" the test a second time with a 730 is what is really sad.

 

 He was genuinely proud of her and even though I wish I could spend $3,000 on a pair of diamond earrings (not my speculation it's what Carter believes) it really is heartbreaking to part with a gift of a father's love just to pay some loser off. Being pushed to the edge, Carter is even beginning to have thoughts about just killing Adam to get him out of the way and when the police show up to her house one night to tell her that he has been shot dead...will Carter really finally have no way out and have to pay for something she didn't do?

 

I wouldn't say The Cheater is one of my favorite Fear Street books but it is a good read with some nice twists along the way but nothing too shocking. It has of course one of those cheesy endings about learning lessons but the characters aren't too obnoxious so you don't roll your eyes out of meanness.

Body Count: Of course I let it slip that Adam Messner bites the dust but does anyone else? In a word no unless you count whatever animal had to lose its heart to squick out Carter. As the words "warm" and "sticky" come to mind I'm guessing it wasn't from a butcher shop...*shivers in disgust*

Cameo Time!: No cameos this time around as the plot basically goes around a main and central cast of characters.

 

THE SHADYSIDE HIGH TIME CAPSULE

 

So it is mentioned that one of Carter and Adam's "dates" is going to see some horror movie that is more silly than scary with less than stellar effects. Now two movies come to mind and I guess it depends on your taste which one you think it would be. Either way it's still giving me the impression that the movie theater in Shadyside plays movies months after their original wide release. It's not that far fetched as I have been to theaters like that in very small towns and budget theaters where you get charged more for the concession than the tickets. Anyway it's a toss up between Leprechaun or Army of Darkness but I'm going more toward Leprechaun than AOD because well I love The Evil Dead series and have never seen the latter film except for a few clips when people talk about horror films but with the more absurdity of the sequels that's the winner.

 

 

 

 

 

Now if they had went to something released more around April, even though it wasn't a romantic date, there are a few choices I personally I would have rather seen (besides Army of Darkness that is).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dan rents a few movies to watch over at Carter's house for one of their actual romantic dates seeing as they really are a couple. The choices are Batman Returns and Wayne's World which Carter picks the latter as she really isn't in the mood for comedy with the situation she happens to be going through. I like Wayne's World but I would have gone with her choice regardless...Batman Returns never gets enough love.

 

 

 

 

I'm not really sure what kind of club Adam and Carter went to for dancing but Adam's vibe kind of makes me think he was more of a rock kind of guy you know like Aerosmith or Def Leppard. Maybe a Cranberries fan...or something like Lenny Kravitz or Radiohead? Looking for something a little more upbeat then how about some Spin Doctors?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't even want to think that any club they went to would have played the number on song around this time:

 

 

 

 

NEXT TIME, NEXT BLOG: Summer may be over but that won't stop me from or protect you from a deadly case of...Sunburn.



Focusing On Fear Street - The Best Friend

Hello blog followers! I know it has been awhile and I am so sorry! My life is now completely work free as I have joined the ranks of the unemployed but by choice to have some rest and relaxation. My last blog post came at a very bad emotional time in my life and I guess besides work it may have been why I stopped blogging for so long. Now that I am in a far better if still not so-so attitude and mental state I am returning to my blog and at least for awhile mainly doing my Fear Street arc. Now since I've been gone, it has been made known that at least 3 Fear Street films are going to be coming to the big screen! I am hoping they will be good ones and that maybe the series will finally get some love on the smaller screen (hello you got enough Fear Street books for a freaking show!) Also, seeing as my favorite month and holiday are around the corner, it would be appropriate to talk about the books and I am energized to start! So as I promised... 

 

WELCOME TO FOCUSING ON FEAR STREET WITH THERESTHEGIRL

Book #17 in the Fear Street series

Published December of 1992

Cover Art by Bill Schmidt

 

 

 

So since this came out in December we have a Christmas theme going with the tree in the back, lots of red and green and I guess even though it's yellow it's supposed to be gold? We have a merrily wrapped gift with a huge knife sticking out of it and a note saying "To my best friend". Now the girl on the cover is supposed to be Becka Norwood, our main character, and she does not look like she is in high school! I'm not saying the following to be mean but this...this is my Mom! Not literally but the hair, the makeup...this is what my mother looked like circa 1992! And no offense to Bill Schmidt because his artwork far surpasses anything I could draw but my mother could give a more terrified look than this! Becka looks like she's more upset that her gift is ruined and NOT THE BIG HONKING KNIFE STICKING OUT OF IT! Sorry so...moving on huh?

 

Okay I don't have major hate for the cover but there are just so many other covers that could be better like I don't know maybe the re-issue of the 2000s had a much better design:

 

 

What is with all this bold color they want to keep using? I know it's supposed to draw your attention but this overload of green makes me want to go blind or cross-eyed I can't decide which would be better at this point. I guess the negative exposure of the two girls in the picture frame is a nice indicator of its horror/thriller theme but I'd much rather know what they kind of look like. I can't tell if the brightness is supposed to be the glass broken or if it was part of the original picture like at a school dance maybe? Also that tagline...yes I know we use to do that in high school but...oh god such painful cheesy nostalgia!

 

As always I try to look for some good pictures of the various cover art and the German editions never let me down with their bleak yet beautiful illustrations:

 

 

 

 



I can't remember if a scene like this does in fact happen but going by the short blond hair this is Becka and her life is really turning into the same broken, disheveled and messed up state as her room. By far this is my favorite but I did find another cover that is still from the same 1992 era but through a different publisher than Archway that I think is pretty cool:

 

 

 

 

So simplistic yet it speaks volumes! A girl's eye colored a vivid green (you know like she's green with envy?) The light reflected in her eye is in the shape of a knife and just something about her face...you only see her eye and eyebrow. I don't think I have ever seen an eyebrow/eye ratio spaced that far apart which gives her that creepy factor, the shadow under her eye, the almost unhuman hue of her skin color...and the fact you can't tell if she is creeped out or maybe as calm as could be?





 

Taglines:  On the front we have "Sometimes friendship can be murder...": Ha it's so very original isn't it? I'm guessing tagline writer person (again hopefully not R.L.) thought they were being so very clever. On the back we get "Best friends...to the end!": My goodness I never thought the back tagline could be as boring as the front one! Is it so hard to come up with something witty or actually original that you won't find on some made-for-TV movie box? I know this is 1992 but come on get those brain juices brewing up a brainstorm! (although points for being earlier and WAY BETTER than the 2005 reprint!)

 

This was an awesome made for TV movie BTW!

 

 

The First Line:   "Ow-stop.You're hurting me!"

 

Well it seems we're off to a great start...physical violence! So we have our main character parked out in the cold with her about to be former boyfriend, Eric Fraser. No he was just trying to paw at her and got a little forceful but this isn't the reason Becka is about to dump her guy...no she just wants to get back with her ex, Bill Planter. Okay so I'm supposed to like Becka, right? Well torn between immature, hot to cold Eric or nervous yet fickle Becka as my favorite character so far. When Becka does dump Eric he handles it rather chill and drops her back at her home on our titular Fear Street, where Becka decides she's going to go see Bill (why so late Becks?) and she gets into a car accident!

 

Of course it's not as bad as it seems...just one busted headlight and a peeved Mr. Norwood but Becka still doesn't get punished (why don't we get that in the real world, Stine?) I mean the next day Becka's two best friends, Lilah and Trish, are hanging out in her room talking about her break up with Eric...she didn't even get grounded for taking the car without permission let alone get the headlight wrecked! Anyway, as the girls talk all of a sudden another girl bursts into the room and makes a beeline for Becka, hugging her and gushing how good it is to see her...except Becka has no idea who the girl is? She soon introduces herself as Honey Perkins, that she and her dad have moved back to Shadyside and how glad she is to see her childhood friend!

 

There is something off about Honey as she ignores Lilah and Trish after her introduction and she fawns all over Becka about her hair, her room and even an enamel parrot pin she owns (given to her by Bill because she's a bird lover...kinda sweet that this is all we know about him so far.) Soon Honey says she has to head back home next door and Becka and her puzzled friends try to remember who this crazy chick is. Not only that they make fun of her clothes and when they finally find a fourth grade picture and locate Honey, they remember how weird she was and nobody liked her. If you couldn't tell I'm trying to see if I like any characters and so far despite her cray-cray scene, Honey is winning along with the unseen Bill.

 

Well Becka freaks out more when she realizes her parrot pin is gone (oh no not Bill's present!) and she just down right accuses her of stealing it. I'm absent-minded so maybe Honey forgot she was wearing it like I might do (having been accused of stealing something without proof is just awful) but when she goes to get it *gasp* the house next door stands empty! Okay so maybe Honey did steal it...

 

The weirdness level starts rising as Becka comes home to find Honey trying on her clothes and talking to herself. It seems she lives in a fantasy world where she and Becka were almost like sisters with wearing each other clothes and played awful tricks on each other as part of a "Gotcha" game (which Honey demonstrates by almost choking Becka with her "man-hands"). Becka tries slowly to keep her cool as Honey almost breaks down that her best friend doesn't seem to remember all the fun things they did and of course when Honey insists that Becka gave her the parrot pin!

 

Things then seem to go from bad to worse for Becka when Lilah gets in a bike accident because her rear break cable has been...*horrified gasp* messed with. Lilah survives but has a broken leg. Becka is more than ready to blame Honey and on a date with Bill, Becka thinks Honey is spying on them! Okay Honey may be Mondo bizarro but I think that Becks is going a little cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs from paranoia (I think Bill is along the same train of thought as I but he really cares about Becka so again...points for him.) 

 

Everything comes to a head when Honey shows up at school with the same hairdo as Becka then starts dating her ex Eric! Becka has had it with Honey but at a Christmas party Trish is throwing, Honey also shows up wearing the exact same outfit (and party crashing too!) When Trish falls down the stairs and breaks her neck (but still survives...how? I'm not a doctor but really?) Becka knows for sure Honey did it out of spite and faints as soon as the police arrive.

 

 Usually at this point I would be kind of vague about the ending but in this case what with there being a The Best Friend 2 and most people knowing the ending which resulted in there being a sequel in the first place so...

 

SPOILERS AT YOUR OWN RISK!

 

Becka has a full on breakdown from seeing Trish fall down the stairs and of course dealing with the stress Honey has caused her. She is given tranquilizers and ordered to bed rest by a doctor but a call from Honey while her mother is out drags Becka from almost a dead sleep with the promise of a surprise and what is that Bill in the background!? So in the freezing snow Becka heads over to Honey's house and yes it is Bill sitting at the kitchen table with the two of them smiling and everything after that goes into a red screen of hate for Becka! Entering the house she grabs a big, honking knife planning to stab Honey to death but faints from being so weak.

 

Bill is not happy as he thought Becka knew he was over at Honey's (seeing as both of Becks parents hate him for past juvenile delinquency and thinking he broke Becka's heart when it was their fault in the first place pulling a Romeo & Juliet "you can't see him ever again!" rant.) When Bill tries to help Becka it is now Honey who has the big freak out telling him to stay away from her friend and they both go for the knife. In the struggle, Bill trips forward onto the knife and is stabbed deeply. In a panic, Honey places the bloody knife in Becka's hand and when she comes to Honey promises she'll protect her friend...saying she didn't mean to kill Bill. Still out of it, Becka looks to see her boyfriend in a puddle of blood and graciously thanks Honey because...what are friends for?

 

Body Count: There is The Best Friend 2 so *sigh* what do you think?