There's The Girl With The Blog: Focusing On Fear Street: Secret Admirer

WELCOME TO FOCUSING ON FEAR STREET WITH THERESTHEGIRL

Book# 36 in the Fear Street Series

Published March 1996

Cover Art by Bill Schmidt

Not the best quality but it's what I could find for the original cover art. So again more photo realistic with our main character Selena looking up into the mirror with another lackluster "scared" expression as she sees the message scrawled on the mirror in lipstick while holding a makeup brush. Looking at my own copy I like the detail of her hair and the back of her low dipping blouse or maybe leotard/bodysuit but that expression...wow! I think she kind of looks like Jane Krakowski BTW.

This was one of the Fear Street titles that got a revamped issue with a new cover:

It's a photo negative gift box splattered with blood? Ooh...so scary...are we just not even trying anymore? At least the other ones at this time tried to be creative (if very badly) but this one is just so lame. Let's go to a country that at least is trying to give effort...like France!

A dressing table with a mirror, a bloody gift box with the picture of the sun and a terrified/confused Selena. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be Selena's room or backstage with maybe a prop door in the background but at least this is better effort that the previous cover art. Selena's face is still not conveying horror but that uncertain emotion is enough to work. So let's see what Brazil/Portugal can offer us (it's always something cool):

Stage lights, a ladder leading up to the catwalk, a bouquet of roses (dead or alive can't tell but both are book accurate), a dead rat, tattered curtains and Selena holding a note in her hand. I love the distrustful look on her face but what is going on with her hair? I like the warm colors and the spotlights focused on her so this has to be my favorite so far.

Next up with always some great covers: Germany!

A broken mirror with a smear of blood and dead roses resting on top of a letter with either a rose petal or a sun sticker? It's still a very moody atmosphere and very detailed as always but gets the point across. I'd say this is my third favorite after the Portuguese cover then the original US cover.

Last but not least is that grab bag of either good or bad covers...Russia!

So I see dead, black roses and a blonde girl who I suppose is Selena. Behind her is a full moon (Selena means moon) which is also the nickname her friend Jake calls her as a childhood callback. I'm not sure who the guy is suppose to be but it's either aforementioned friend Jake or another guy named Eddy as the only other male character Danny is blond. Still even if this may be from something unrelated it's nice looking so I'll tie it for fourth place with the French cover

Taglines: On the front: "Someone loves her to death." Short, simple...I like it. On the back: "Her number-one fan" it's sort of lackluster but leads into a nice blurb of what we can expect inside without too many spoilers of all the crazy things this fanboy has in store for Selena.

So again I'm going straight to the first chapter for the first line and skipping the prologue. It's mostly one of many notes that will be written to Selena from her secret admirer who addresses themselves as "The Sun" in contrast to her name (which is very clever IMHO).

The First Line: "He'll never hurt you again...I promise he'll never hurt you again"

This is actually the last line of a play uttered by our main character, Selena Goodrich. She is one of Shadyside High's star actresses since she has lost weight and ditched the glasses and pretty much gotten the lead in every production the last two years. Her friends since childhood, Katy Jensen and Jake Jacoby, are in drama too with Katy more behind the scenes and Jake more into character roles but her friend Alison Pearson is no slouch either in the acting department even though Selena always gets lead roles. The next play the drama teacher, Mr. Riordan, has planned is the staple of any Shakespeare high school production: Romeo & Juliet.

Selena is psyched to be able to perform Juliet when the teacher lets it slip that a drama coach from Northwestern University will be at the play and Selena hopes to get a scholarship to the school. Things have been tough since Selena's father died and her mother works so hard to make ends meet that Selena needs the scholarship if she wants to pursue her dream of being an actress but her mind turns to other things when she finds a bouquet of dead roses in her drama locker and a note from someone who calls themselves "The Sun" signing the creepy note with a sticker of the sun. Katy thinks it is again creepy but Selena treats it as a joke that might be Jake's work with his warped sense of humor or even a joke by her ex-boyfriend Danny Morris, who always annoys Selena every chance he gets.

The girls are followed to the cast party at Mr. Riordan's house and Katy thinks she and Selena are being followed by her stalker but it's just Danny being obnoxious. Things start to go better when Katy points out a "major babe" who we soon find out is Eddy Martin, a second year drama major from nearby Waynesbridge Junior College who will be an intern during the spring play tryouts of Romeo & Juliet. Eddy immediately takes an interest in Selena that makes her both tongue-tied and embarrassed but not as much as Danny when he pulls a prank that bruises her ego. Waiting for Katy to leave with her, Danny tries to talk to Selena again and ends up getting in a fight with Jake, who can't stand Danny even more than Selena. Danny leaves with a bloody nose and Jake apologizes to Selena for fighting with Danny but promises he won't let Danny get the lead as Romeo.

That surprises Selena the next day at try-outs when Jake does indeed go out for the role against Danny and when he snaps at her, Selena can't understand why her friend is being so strange. Selena doesn't have time for that when the wardrobe cabinet falls on top of Alison, nearly crushing her to death but she survives luckily! When Selena finds a sun sticker on the dresser and realizes Alison was sitting where Selena always rehearses her lines she knows the accident was meant for her and she begins to believe that Katy's stalker theory may be right. So things seem to have a good and bad theme going on when Eddy calls to ask Selena out on a date but then she finds a dead rat on her back porch with another calling card from The Sun admitting that Selena was supposed to be the one hurt to take her out from doing the spring play.

Selena has no intention of quitting the play, despite Katy thinking she should, and not even Danny winning the part of Romeo is enough to scare her off but when the lights fall on the stage almost crushing her and Katy getting hurt pushing her out of the way...Selena starts to become even more paranoid. On her date with Eddy, Selena learns he has been crushing on her for a long time and she tells him about her stalker to try and ease her worries. That doesn't last long when a car almost mows Selena down and Eddy claims he was trying to push her out of the way even though they were walking on the wrong side of the tunnel. Selena dismisses the thought of Eddy trying to hurt her when a bouquet of live red roses appear at her house the next day but they end up being bundled with some poison ivy leaves, which Selena is extremely allergic too...The Sun strikes again!

Now at the end of her rope, Selena's ready to find out who is behind all of this and what she finds out next will only make the situation worse as it leads to what could be her final curtain call if The Sun is able to black out this shining star...permanently.

Body Count: One fatality and again it's pretty sad. All deaths are sad but some characters in these Fear Street stories are pretty awful people so it's even more heartbreaking when nice characters get caught in the crossfire. If that kind of spoils it for you I'm sorry but you can get the point I'm trying to get across.

Cameo Time!: Again more of a mention but Simone Perry from The Prom Queen had a lead in a production in which Selena replaced her according to Eddy. Good call back but it may not have been for the one going on in that book but slightly after it maybe?

My Take: Secret Admirer is an okay book. It has a good amount of suspects for who "The Sun" truly is and you may spot who quite early on from a throw away line. Selena's an okay heroine and the plot sounds like many other books with an obsessed stalker and accidents so it's not particularly unique and it has one of those cheesy endings despite a good amount of action beforehand which just grinds to a halt.

THE SHADYSIDE HIGH TIME CAPSULE

For their date, Eddy takes Selena to a Chinese movie in Waynesbridge being shown at the college. I'm not really one for foreign films but it makes for a much more interesting date I guess. They also listen to jazz music in Eddy's car and Selena begins to enjoy it. Again, not really into Jazz but jazz elements can find their way into a song and I may like it. For me, there are some different movies and music that this point in time had to offer I would much rather enjoy!