Focusing On Fear Street: Final Grade

WELCOME TO FOCUSING ON FEAR STREET WITH THERESTHEGIRL

 

 

Book# 30

Published April 1995

Cover Art by Bill Schmidt

 

 

 

That is one fierce expression on Lily's face...I'm assuming anger? Lily's hair is described as black in the book but a dark kind of brown here. She is lunging forward to strangle her teacher, Mr. Reiner, and I think he's supposed to be scared but it's more like a "whoa!" kind of face. I like how his tie is flying backward over his shoulder and those papers falling on the floor. Also, I believe Lily is wearing some Laura Ashley...so the 1990s. Plus, Mr. Reiner looks like Andy Dick...kinda. I like the green, yellow and mahogany brown colors to make an interesting cover



 

There aren't a lot of different versions of Final Grade cover art around the world but as always Germany has some nice art. The first is the original and the second I believe is from an omnibus collection:

 

 

 

 

I think that is supposed to be a zip up pencil case or notebook with a rose, sort of broken and wilting, and splattered with some blood. The second is just a looming and ominous looking school building but the atmosphere of both is very creepy and mysterious...A+

 

 

Taglines: On the front: "Will Lily get an A in murder?" and on the back: "Everyone thinks she killed her teacher." I like the front but hello spoilers on the back! And the blurb even spoils that there will be another death before we even open it...bogus! I guess you have no choice to read it once that happens.

 

The First Line: "Lily Bancroft smoothed back her thick black hair and forced herself to take a deep breath."

 

Lily is stressing majorly about getting a B on her honors social science paper and question her teacher, Mr. Reiner, as to why it was not an A hen she didn't get anything wrong. The handsome, young teacher says he suspects more of honor students and that Lily didn't put in the effort. This makes her have a little fantasy of strangling him to death and it kind of weirds Lily out.

 

Her older sisters, Melinda and Becky, were valedictorians and Lily wants to be one too and get the Shadyside Honors Scholarship. Her best friend Julie Prince and her boyfriend Alex Crofts think she's taking it a little too serious and it also doesn't help that they use to date and when they are all together it is awkward to add to Lily's stress.

 

 Her mother had a stroke and Lily has to work at her uncle's drugstore to help out, also knowing she'll need money to help even if she gets the scholarship. When she misses the bus to the other side of town, Lily accepts a ride from Julie's cousin, Graham, in his Porsche and we learn they don't really get along very well as they compete for the best grades since middle school and Graham is just as competitive and driven.

 

 

It may not be sea-green but damn some of these Shadyside kids are stinking rich!



 

Lily's night doesn't get better when a guy comes into her uncle's pharmacy and tries to rob the place, pulling a gun on her and Uncle Bob but her uncle pulls out a pistol to scare him off. An employee of Bob's, Rick Campbell, tries to go after the guy but loses him...he's a macho kind of guy. He hits on Lily but she tells him she has a boyfriend and Alex meets Lily on her way home to walk her to her door...so sweet.

 

Lily stays up real late to get her loads of homework done (a little talk with Dad putting no pressure on her really about how proud he is and that Lily does more than what she is capable of) and receives a call from a mystery man with stalker dialogue and it creeps her out.

 

Lily heads to Reiner's classroom the next day to try and talk to him about doing some extra work to raise her grade and finds the teacher dead on the floor. So after the funeral, everyone starts to act weird around Lily and well you know it's in the freaking synopsis on the back of the book!

 

Anyway, Lily believes it was just an accident because Reiner was thinking about fixing a faulty light fixture in his classroom and must have had a very bad fall standing on his desk to do so. Perhaps that's all it really is...until the mysterious voice calls again

 

"I know all about you, Lily," the voice whispered. "And I know you got what you wanted...didn't you?"

 

 

 

Lily has another run in with Rick at work and his pestering her for a date makes Lily snap at him but they end the conversation on amiable terms. Leaving work, Lily heads over to the newspaper printing press where Graham's dad lets the school paper print their literary magazine and she almost gets crushed by the large rolls of paper used in the press!

 

Side note: I use to work at a printing company and those machines are nothing to mess with!

 

Was this another accident or coincidence? Lily and Graham are going head to head for valedictorian...is he behind this to rattle her nerves or is someone else out to ruin Lily's life? The teacher she hated had an awful accident but what happens next is much more tragic...

 

 



 

Halfway through this one all of your theories go out the window and it's just a matter of what happens next and how  will it end. The ending is okay not really happy and no real lesson to speak of is learned.

 

Body Count: Mr. Reiner for sure, one possible and another definite in a very gruesome manner that still sticks with me all these years later.

 

Cameo Time!: Lisa Blume from The New Girl meets up with Lily before she discovers Mr. Reiner and let's just say I don't remember Lisa being such a gossip! I know she's the editor of the school paper but man I didn't know they had a gossip rag.

 

 

THE SHADYSIDE HIGH TIME CAPSULE

 

 

Lily goes to see a movie and it's suppose to be some romantic movie with Winona Ryder...so is it Reality Bites or The Age of Innocence at this behind the times movie theater?

 



 

 

Personally I'm thinking a horror movie is more appropriate for this situation than any romance or comedy laughs. Actually I have two in mind:

 

 

 

 

 

Here are a few songs that seem almost fitting to me...twisted romance depending on how you look at it:

 



 

 

NEXT BLOG: Have you ever wondered how your life could be Switched upside down by forces beyond your control? Oh boy...we tackle a personal fave ;)









Focusing On Fear Street: Dead End

WELCOME TO FOCUSING ON FEAR STREET WITH THERESTHEGIRL

 

Book #29

Published March 1995

Cover Art by David Jarvis

 

 

I'm not really sure if this is supposed to be our narrator and main protagonist Natalie Erickson. In the book she says she has black hair and blue eyes so maybe it is just the red hue of the brake light. If so she is looking out the back of the car in terror at what she is seeing and I just love her striped top BTW. The book has a red/tan/dark brown color scheme with a little bit of green it's very nice and warm and intriguing. There aren't a lot of different covers for this one in other languages except for the German editions which had two different covers:

 

 

 

 

 

I believe the top one is the first edition and the bottom one is the reprint. A pair of broken glasses with a blood stained shirt on the ground...a woman's body at the bottom of the stairs, door open and one shoe gone from her foot in the tumble or struggle. Dire, suspenseful and accurate to what happens in the book...always my favorites of the bunch along with the original 90s art.

 





 

Taglines: On the front: "There's no turning back..." and on the back "Accidents can happen...". Not exactly riveting but the blurb again gives a good synopsis of the plot without being full of spoilers and the whole package makes you want to check out the story.

 

 

The First Line: The prologue isn't full of spoilers but it kind of mimics the tagline on the back of the book so I am going to start with the story proper on the first line of Chapter 1.

 

"Friday night Talia Blanton's parents were away, so Talia threw a party."

 

So it's a typical party of Shadyside High seniors being crashed by a few uninvited guests but Natalie is having an okay time, there with her boyfriend Keith Parker. Her friends Gillian Rose, Carlo Bennett and Todd Davis are there as well as her best friend Randee Morgenthau milling about. We learn from Natalie that she writes poetry, Keith loves salt, we learn how Gillian set them up to dating and that Gillian is a hot redhead whom Carlo would like to be more than friends with.

 

A hot redhead named Gillian in 1995? You're welcome!

 

 

Soon the music gets louder and Keith goes off to find the guys who brought the beer. Natalie does not like Keith drinking because he acts stupid and giggles and this is cemented when Keith stumbles down the stairs, wasted after winning a beer drinking contest upstairs. He then proceeds to race into the bathroom and blow chunks, embarrassing Natalie to the point where she pretends not to know Keith. So when Keith mentions he's ready to go, Natalie says she won't ride with him being so messed up so she's smart but you really need to focus on trying to help Keith with his problem, Nat.

 

In all seriousness...don't drink and drive or ride with anyone intoxicated. PLEASE.

 

Natalie grabs a ride with Randee and the others, leaving Keith at the party as he comes after her saying he's not drunk. The ride home doesn't go the way Natalie planned. It is a wet, foggy night and Randee may have been drinking a little bit as well and when she makes a wrong turn down a dead-end street instead of Todd's...they slam into a car parked with someone inside of it breaking a taillight. Randee freaks out and drives off. Seems Randee is supposed to be grounded and doesn't want to get caught and all of the others have excuses not to go back and only Natalie feels something is a little off.

 

The next morning, Natalie receives a call from Todd with bad news. His father works for the mayor in public relations nd learns that the mayor's sister was killed last night...in a hit and run accident on the same dead end street. The five of them meet up in the park and decide that they must keep this a secret: Randee could go to jail, Todd's father could lose his job, Carlo's dad is already sick in the hospital and not even Keith can know what they did. Soon, the secret begins to eat at some where they want to go to the police and confess...then the murders begin. The tension begins to grow higher and soon Natalie wonders if all of them will take this secret...to the grave?

 

 

 

It is so very hard not to spoil Dead End for anyone who has yet to read it. You get a few red herrings as to who is behind the killings and threats and think you have the culprit pegged but you get a twist toward the end and even a swerve in the middle. When I first read this book, I was shocked and blown away at the very first bittersweet ending I had encountered in this series.

 

Body Count: Besides the mayor's poor sister there are 3. Two of the kills are some of the most gruesome I had ever read in the series and I watch horror films...a lot. The other character death is one that makes that ending bittersweet even down right depressing.

 

Cameo Time!: We finally get to se some familiar faces from past books this time! The party is at the home of Talia Blanton, our writer from The Thrill Club, who seems to be well adjusted. Janie Simpson from The New Boy is a guest at the party who gets a shout out and class clown Ricky Schorr from Halloween Party as well feeding chips to Talia's little brown cocker spaniel. Also a quick mention about male pig Bobby Newkirk from Double Date...peachy.

 

 

THE SHADYSIDE HIGH TIME CAPSULE

 

 



 The party at Talia's is booming and blaring with tunes to shake the walls...I wonder what kind of jams they were listening too? I have some suggestions...

 

 

 

 

NEXT BLOG: Will the next book make...the Final Grade?





Focusing On Fear Street: Truth Or Dare

Time for another stroll done memory lane with some more of this classic series so here we go!

 

 

WELCOME TO FOCUSING ON FEAR STREET WITH THERESTHEGIRL

Book #28

Published February 1995

Cover Art by David Jarvis

So first off the man behind this cover is not regular Bill Schmidt but David Jarvis as noted. His art style doesn't look that different and I wouldn't know if it didn't state so inside. The characters are brunette Jenny and blonde April dressed in ski gear on a lift over the perfect evergreen forest looking ahead in terror I would assume. Some teal, pinks and purple give off distinct female vibes but with a pulp cover that can grab your interest. The girls have a red windblown-cold weather hue to their faces and it is pretty okay I guess. Usually I would go to German covers first but there are three of them (reprints or omnibus ones as well as the original) so how about looking at the French cover first:

Two teens find a dead body in a wood shed...pretty simple. Semi accurate because that axe should be sticking out of the girl's back but maybe that's too much for a book aimed at teenagers. These French covers are always moody and dark...I think it's okay but not very eye-popping. Let's see what Spain has for us:

A very good recreation of the American cover except this Jenny is straight up ready to push this April off the ski lift! The color palette of the outfits is the same but I think the blonde looks more like the other girl in the group Dara because her hair is more crimped and curly. Also Jenny's hair is longer here but still I like it! So here are the three covers in German:

I'm not sure about the last one but the first two are listed on Goodreads as editions so. The first with a spilled bottle of red ink and the second with a note written in red ink found out in a snowstorm are present in the book so high marks and of course, very dramatic as always and full of foreboding suspense. The third one has a log on a table with a book covered in blood...some even on the wood as if it were used to bludgeon someone to death. Nice and creepy!

Taglines: On the front we have "It started as a game...and ended in death." and on the back we have "The truth hurts". Not too bad I guess and the blurb on the back sets up the plot pretty nice and leaves you intrigued enough to read so on we go!

The First Line: "The long, white stretch limo rolled over a pothole in the twisting country road."

Not exactly riveting but riding in a limo is always a plus so we have April Leeds, Jenny Byrd, Ken Knight and a kid named Josh Berman as passengers. The first three all go to Shadyside High and don't really know Josh as April, who is our narrator, explains and is riding with them to Dara Harker's ski house. Dara is rich, which is all we know at this point, but we also learn April would like a lime green or sky blue limo with blond interior when Ken jokes to by her a limo when he says he would like one like the one Dara sent to pick them up.

 

Even X thinks that would look awful on Pimp My Ride...

 

We also learn that Ken and Jen are one of those couples who make up, break up, finish each others sentences and make April a little jealous as a third wheel (been there and done that girl!) April tries to strike up conversation with Josh who is super shy but we learn that he knows Dara because their dads both work for the same law firm. Also, Dara hasn't been in Shadyside long and invited April to go skiing, Jenny and Ken as her guests, and Josh kind of invited himself out of boredom. Shortly after they arrive, Dara shows up without her parents and we finally get to meet this rich girl. She talks fast with a croaky voice, has pale blue eyes, crimped blonde hair with white-blonde streaks, is cute but not beautiful like Jenny and has a perky nose that April thinks may be a nose job. Don't you just love how girls work...April seems so jealous! Dara gives everyone a warm welcome except Josh and once they get inside...there are more people than expected. Another guy and a girl are caught making out and we learn his name is Tony Macedo and the girl is Carly Rae...Jepsen! No I'm kidding but her name is Carly Rae.

 



 

Dara knows him because their families share the ski house with hers taking it every other week and Tony says he forgot it wasn't his week (yeah right!) and April finds him very phony and doesn't like the cleft in his chin. She also doesn't think her red outfit goes with her red hair and that she has a lot of gums when she smiles...wow April is so judgmental! I have to agree that most redheads need to tone down the red in their wardrobe (especially with purple lipstick?) but damn. I'm not really liking April much. Dara isn't happy about the uninvited guests but they all decide to try and get along and I guess I gain some sympathy for April when she notes her Mom just lost her job (been there too) but I'm not surprised that her boyfriend broke up with her.

 

 



 

So as they are waiting for snow to fall Ken suggests they play the title game to break the ice and it's pretty tame with everyone answering truthfully but when April asks Dara who is the worst kisser of all the guys she's ever know and implies it's Josh...he does not take it well. He charges at Dara with a fireplace poker but doesn't attack her and Dara tries her best to calm Josh down claiming her humor is only mean-spirited to get a rise out of him and Josh accepts her apology but tells her not to make fun of him. Dara completely ignores the real answer to her question and turns another question to April asking her what secret does she know about someone that she wishes she had never found out and answers:

 

"I wish I didn't know about the girl on Sumner Island."

 

April hints to us the audience that it is about Ken and only Jenny reacts to April's answer...

 

 

 

Tony and Carly have finally stopped making out to join the game and Tony tells Dara he will take a dare being an obnoxious show-off which takes away from what just happened. So they all go outside and Dara dares Tony to go up to the roof to get a Frisbee he threw up awhile back that got stuck as snow starts to come down. Despite Carly and April's protests Tony does so and scares everyone when he slips but he makes it down okay but not very happy when Dara points out it is still there but eventually calms down as they all go or a walk where April reflects to fill us in about her secret. During the summer, April caught Ken with another girl who wasn't Jenny and never told her best friend so I guess I can understand not wanting to hurt her but another part of me thinks she should have let Jenny know.

 

The next morning a blizzard is hitting the slopes but the wind has shut down the lifts so after Dara and Josh don't show up to breakfast, the others find the pair missing as well as the Jeep...the only means of transportation. As time goes by, April gets worried and says they need to call the police but Tony is reluctant saying that he and Carly will get in trouble as neither one's parents know they are up at the ski house. When a knocking noise scares them, ken discovers a ski locker on the back porch is opened and when he and April go out to close it...the frozen corpse of Dara tumbles out with a hatchet in-between her shoulders! With their hostess dead, they prepare to call the police but the snowstorm has knocked out the phone and a killer is among the group!

 

 



 

There are two red herrings and a pretty illuminating twist before the big reveal and when I first read Truth Or Dare I was shocked! Going back and re-reading it for this post I realize it was obvious but I was much younger so it doesn't surprise me that I missed it. It's a pretty worthy read with suspense and an old fashioned whodunnit mystery so I recommend it highly.







 

Body Count: Dara's body brings about the plot and of course, in a game of Truth or Dare some more skeletons are bound to be found in the closet but I won't spoil it.

Cameo Time!: No callbacks to the previous books I have talked about. I know there are more pop-up cameos since I'm going over gaps but this is just how I'm rolling so...whatever.

 

 

THE SHADYSIDE HIGH TIME CAPSULE

 

 

Before the snow starts falling, Dara mentions that she sucks at Trivial Pursuit and knows nothing of The Brady Bunch or The Partridge Family. This was a time of Nick At Nite showing these kinds of shows she should know something! Well I mean the movie was out at the time...

 

 

 

 

If they had to be snowed in maybe they could have watched a nice movie rental:

 

 



 

 

Perhaps listening to some music could have prevented the game of Truth or Dare that brought about so many problems?

 

"Have you heard this song?" Ken asked cranking up the radio. "Isn't it awesome?

 

 

 

NEXT BLOG: You have to be careful on Fear Street for everyone will eventually meet their... Dead End







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?