There's The Girl With The Blog: 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...