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?