Tagline: Someone lovers her to death.
Back tagline: Her number-one fan.
Summary: Selena is on top of the world. Her acting career at Shadyside High is blossoming – everyone admires her. So when she starts receiving bouquets of dead flowers from a person called “The Sun”, she treats them as a joke.
But Selena soon realises that this is no laughing matter. Her understudy is injured in a suspicious accident. Then a speeding car nearly kills her. Selena knows “The Sun” is responsible.
And that her number-one fan has become her number-one nightmare.
First impressions: How did Selena not notice the message on the mirror before she pulled out a brush? I hope she’s not as dumb as she looks or else this is going to be a loooooooong book. [Also, this scene but it doesn’t even happen!! :(]
Recap
Let’s do a roll call:
Selena – Our protagonist and Shadyside High’s resident star.
Katy – Selena’s clingy best friend and stagehand for the play.
Jake – Another close friend who’s been acting strange lately.
Danny – Selena’s ex-boyfriend who won’t leave her alone.
Eddy – The mysterious, super intense intern and Selena’s love interest.
The book opens with a prologue in the form of a letter addressed to Selena from The Sun. Other than to describe what Selena looks like to the audience, there’s no point to it, especially because Selena never gets the letter anyway??? [We’re off to a great start, lol] Her name means ‘moon’, which was apparently a good choice on her parents’ part because like the moon, Selena is pale, beautiful and mysterious, with silvery hair reminiscent of the moon’s rays. Looks more yellow to me on the cover but OK. The Sun also vows to be the only person in Selena’s audience. *Cue sinister music*
We meet Selena as she swaps praises with Alison and Jake [whose last name is Jacoby btw, lol], two of her co-stars in the school play that’s just had its final showing. Alison is more an acquaintance than a friend, but she’s been friends with Jake for years and he’s the only person that still calls Selena by her childhood nickname, Moon. It would be way too obvious for him to be The Sun, so he’s definitely a red herring. It’s also really drilled into us that ‘Selena’ means ‘moon’. We get it, Stine.
Mr Riordan, the drama club director, praises everyone and reminds them about the cast party at his house later that night [Sounds super fun and I cannot wait]. He also lets everyone know that tryouts start next week for the spring play, ‘Romeo and Juliet’, which excites Selena. On the way to the cast locker room, she bumps into her ex-boyfriend, stocky, blonde senior Danny [Sxc]. Selena can’t believe that she managed to put up with his showing off and selfishness for six months. Pretty harsh reaction to a friendly conversation but OK. They briefly discuss the spring play before Katy, a stagehand and Selena’s best friend, arrives to save her from the small talk. As the two girls arrive at the locker room, where none of the lockers actually lock [For plot reasons I guess?], Katy gushes that surely Selena will get the part of Juliet in the spring play, but Selena is super humble and isn’t sure. Mr Riordan walks by and reveals that the drama coach from Northwestern University will be at the play to check out the talent. Wow, that’s where Selena is applying! She’s relying on getting a scholarship though, because money has been tight since her father died. We also find out that Katy is afraid of heights, which I’m assuming will be relevant later.
Selena eventually opens her locker and is pleasantly surprised to find a large bouquet wrapped up in blue-striped paper. Not so pleasant is that it’s filled with black, dead roses. The girls’ reactions are way too intense for a bunch of dead flowers – Selena dropping the bouquet and staring at it in open-mouthed shock is bad enough, but the real kicker is Katy, who presses her hands to her cheeks. Has anyone ever done that before in real life??? Calm down, Katy. Attached to the bouquet is a note:
Dear Selena, Congratulations! Enjoy your last curtain call. Did you know you are giving up the stage – to be with me? Forever.
There’s no signature on the note, just a sticker of the sun. Selena dismisses it as a stupid joke, probably by old mate Jake Jacoby because he’s been acting strange lately [Of course, he’s a red herring!], but Katy continues to overreact and thinks it’s someone else, someone really messed up. Shut up, Katy.
The girls head back to Selena’s house to get ready for the party at Mr Riordan’s place. Katy is still banging on about how Selena will for sure get the role of Juliet, and Selena encourages her to apply for a role instead of always being a stagehand. But Katy, who is 20 pounds overweight and very self-conscious, protests she’s too big to get a decent role. Because overweight people should hide in the shadows, I guess? Selena is supportive and tells Katy to stop putting herself down, and it’s revealed Selena herself used to be overweight and unpopular before she got involved in drama. Now she’s thin, attractive and everyone adores her [Because skinny = beautiful, ya know?]. Katy would rather complain about being fat than exercise or diet, though, so it’s hard to feel sympathy for her.
Anyway, as they’re getting ready in Selena’s room, Katy thinks she see someone watching through the window, even though they’re on the second storey of the house, and they hear a crashing noise outside. As they leave for Mr Riordan’s house, they find a ladder that had fallen over and deduce it had been set up beneath Selena’s window. On the bottom rung of the ladder is another sun sticker. You’d think they’d be more shocked/scared over this than the dead roses, but they barely react in comparison.
On the way to the party, Katy won’t shut up about Selena having a stalker, but Selena can’t think of a reason why someone would do that. And then it hits her — Danny! Selena decides that even though they broke up over a year ago, he must want to get back together since he’s always bugging her. I don’t see the logic in that but OK. Katy offers to take Danny off her hands, if only he’d look at her, and oh my god, Katy, shut the fuck up [Katy literally only talks about two things in this whole book — being ugly/overweight, and Selena. And why are you even considering dating your best friend’s ex, even if it is hypothetical???].
Anyway, Katy, who’s driving, notices they’re being tailgated. Is it The Sun?! No, it’s just Danny playing a little joke, as they find out once they arrive at Mr Riordan’s place. Great joke, Danny, super funny! His explains that he just likes being close to Selena, who takes the opportunity to immediately think about how cute he is. Selena, you’re an idiot. He moves in close and says he wants to tell her something, but she walks off, telling him to find her later. OK.
Inside, the cast and crew are introduced to Eddy, a second-year drama student from Waynesbridge Junior College who’ll be interning at Shadyside High. He’s suuuuuper cute, with “long, brown hair, intense, dark eyes and a soft, serious mouth”, which is a lot of adjectives. Selena encourages Katy to go talk to him, which she does briefly before heading to the snack table [OK]. Then Eddy sits down next to Selena. He knows a lot about her, which is weird since they’ve never met, but he explains that he’s seen a lot of her plays and remembers her first starring role two years ago. I think it’s weird still but he’s cute so Selena doesn’t mind.
Later, Selena confronts Jake about the flowers and the ladder, but he’s in a mood and pretty much bites her head off [Oop]. He suggests she tell Mr Riordan about the note but before she can, Danny walks in and drops to the floor, announcing he’d rather die than live without her as blood pools around him. Except it’s just a joke and he’s not dead [Unfortunately]. He then calls her an egomaniac in front of the whole room for believing him [???], humiliating her and making me wish him and Katy would get together so they can both fuck off. Eddy can’t believe Selena went out with Danny, and Selena decides she likes Eddy even though he’s way too intense.
Afterwards, Danny and Jake get into fisticuffs over which one of them will take Selena home from the party, except neither of them had consulted Selena about this [How good is toxic masculinity 🙂 If you’re new to these books, you’ll come to realise that Fear Street girls absolutely froth over controlling, borderline abusive bad boys just as much as they love an intense, mysterious stranger]. The fight ends when Jake whacks his head on the pavement after Danny pushes him over. He’s OK, but Selena doesn’t condone this behaviour and defiantly tells the boys she’ll be leaving with Katy. Humph!
The next morning, Selena is awakened by phone call from The Sun, who tells her they were together the previous night and will be together forever soon [How romantic!] and the poor girl is terrified. At school that day, she spots Danny trying to put a note in her locker and accuses him of stalking her. He denies it, saying this is an apology note, but now she can forget it because he’s not sorry after all, and storms off angrily with the note.
While rehearsing the lines for her audition for ‘Romeo and Juliet’, Jake and Katy encourage Selena to tell Mr Riordan about the stalker, but she refuses because if she does, he might not cast her in the play and she needs a drama scholarship to get into college. It’s only been a few notes anyway, nothing serious.
As the auditions begin, Selena discovers that Danny and Jake are both auditioning for the part of Romeo. Alison, who’s also auditioning for Juliet, is sitting in the exact spot where Selena usually sits to study her lines. She offers to move, but Selena isn’t a shithead who thinks she owns the seat, so tells her to stay. As Selena wanders off to find a new spot, a wardrobe falls on top of Alison, crushing her. Even though it’s completely obvious that the wardrobe was meant for Selena, our heroine’s a bit slow, so Jake has to point it out to her.
Alison is taken away in an ambulance and the police investigate, determining it was an accident – apparently the cabinet was too full and one of the front legs was weak. OK. But Selena knows better when she finds that pesky, little sun sticker at the scene.
Katy and Jake try to convince Selena that the wardrobe sticker was just a coincidence [Which makes absolutely no sense because they’ve been convinced she’s had a stalker since she got the dead flowers. Now that someone’s hurt, it’s just a random accident? They’re both idiots].
The next night, Danny calls Selena and asks her out. She declines and his toxic masculinity comes out again when he explodes, at her, saying she was nicer when she was fat. Selena stands up for herself, saying she doesn’t want to see him again before accusing him of being the stalker. He denies it, wondering what she’s on about, so she blurts out that someone is trying to hurt her and hangs up. Eddy calls next and tells her how good she was at the auditions. She got the part, and Alison should be back at school by next week. Eddy mentions that she’s a different person to what she was two years ago, commenting on her shyness and the clothes she use to wear. Me and Selena are both like WTF, because how would he know that, but she agrees to go on a date with him anyway. He says it has to be a secret though, because he doesn’t want to stir up trouble. [He’s not a teacher or anything though so I don’t see how it would matter, but fair enough, pal. I guess it is weird because as an intern at the school, he’s got more of a teacher role…]. She’s super excited about the date because she’s never felt this way about a boy before [OK, you’ve met him like three times, settle down]. She decides that it’s super cute that he remembers everything about her, [tehe!], but I still think it’s weird.
Later, she finds a present at her front door. It’s a dead rat with no head wrapped in brown paper with another sun sticker [Beautiful!]. Selena isn’t very grateful, though, as she reads the attached note:
Selena – This is you! This is you – unless you leave the play. I made a mistake yesterday. I crushed the wrong girl. But I’ll get it right. If i can’t be with you, no one else can, either. Don’t be a rat, Selena. Because…
The rest of the words have been washed out by the rain, but Selena has read enough to know that The Sun isn’t just playing jokes anymore, he really wants to hurt her. She calls Katy and tells her about the rat, and Katy vows to help her solve the mystery, but suggests maybe Selena should quit the play because her life is more important. Selena refuses, but agrees to tell Mr Riordan. Katy reminds Selena about their sleepover on Friday night, but oops, that’s the night she’s going out with Eddy! Oops again, it was supposed to be a secret. They agree to change their sleepover to Saturday night, because dicks before chicks, and as Katy puts it, “It’s not like I have any other plans.” This friendship is draining me and I’m not even part of it.
Before she hangs up, Katy warns Selena to be careful because she might really be in danger. As Selena goes to bed, she hears footsteps coming up the stairs [!!!!!]. But it’s just her mum, who’s home early from her night shift. They share a touching moment about Selena’s father, and Selena considers telling her mum about the stalker, but decides she’ll tell Mr Riordan instead.
At school the next day, Selena bumps into Jake who reveals Danny got the role of Romeo. Jake is super heated over this, which scares Selena. Later, Katy reveals that the reason Jake has been acting all weird and moody is because his parents are divorcing. That sucks, but even worse is that Selena never tries to comfort him or anything. Later at rehearsals, Katy saves Selena from a set of stage lights that crash to the ground. Katy’s arm is injured [good!], but other than that they’re both fine. Afterwards, Selena tells Mr Riordan about her stalker, and he dismisses everything as jokes or accidents, but promises to be alert [How good are adults that ignore the problems of teenagers?!].
Friday night comes and Selena has a great night with Eddy. He drives a red Honda Civic, which reminds her of him – warm and comfortable [OK]. He offers to coach her with her lines for the play, but again, she’s not allowed to tell anyone so Mr Riordan won’t think he’s playing favourites [Would anyone really would have a problem with the star of the play getting some coaching?]. She also confides in him about The Sun, and he suggests that maybe there’s a way he can help her feel safer [Hubba hubba!]. As he goes to pay for dinner, Selena spots Danny watching them. She think he’s following her, but it turns out he’s on a date of his own. For whatever reason, this is proof for Selena that Danny is not The Sun [I really don’t get why. He could easily be on a date as a cover so he could spy on her].
Afterwards, while they walk through a tunnel back to his car, Eddy, a true gentleman, pushes Selena into the path of an oncoming car [I’m sure that made her feel real safe lol]. She doesn’t get hit because we’re only halfway through the book, and Eddy explains he pushed her hard enough to get to the other side of the tunnel and out of the car’s way. Not sure why you’d push someone across the path of a car to avoid them getting hit, but sure, Eddy, sure. Selena absolutely froths over this and falls into the arms of her new hero, but simultaneously thinks he might be lying [He pushed you in front of a car, Selena, get out of there!].
The next morning, Selena finds a bouquet of beautiful red roses nestled in green leaves on her doorstep and just knows they’re from Eddy, even though there’s no note. She can’t stop burying her face in the roses, inhaling their scent, until her mum comes in and points out that those leaves are actually poison ivy [Hahahahahaha]. She’s really allergic to poison ivy and a week later, her face still hasn’t healed. But who could have possibly known about her allergy? she wonders [Probably Eddy, who seems to knows everything else about you].
Jake and Katy try to convince Selena to drop out of the play, but Selena doesn’t want to give The Sun the satisfaction and besides, it’s two weeks still opening night. Jake is still positive the stalker is Danny and promises to suss it out for Selena. Selena decides to do some sleuthing herself and snoops through the cast and crew’s lockers after school, where she finds a pack of sun stickers in… Jake’s locker [!!!!].
That night, Jake calls her and tells her he neEeEeEeeEEEEEeDS her to meet him at school right away because he can prove who the stalker is and can explain how the stickers got in his locker [I hate when characters do shit like this. If you have something to say that’s so important, just say it over the damn phone!]. Selena wants to give him a chance to explain and doesn’t want to get him in trouble, so she heads to over to meet him after calling Katy and telling her about it.
At the school, Selena stumbles across Jake’s lifeless body on the stage in the auditorium, and the poor boy has a broken neck. [Jake deserved better! I liked him :(] The police say it was an accident and he fell from the catwalk above, even though he had no reason to be up there, but we know better, don’t we, Selena? Apparently not, because she still thinks he was The Sun.
Selena feels sympathetic towards Jake rather than angry, blaming herself for not being there for him during his parents’ divorce [Too little, too late, girlfriend]. She takes a week off school, but the show must go on! She almost quits the play at the next rehearsal because her friends’ lives are more important, but Danny guilt trips her into staying. At home later, she has a glass of ice water to help her relax [So specific hahaha] and finds another note from The Sun confessing to Jake’s murder and threatening Selena. She vows to finish the play for Jake [Cute].
Selena is in a hurry after rehearsal the next day and shoves the contents of her locker into her bag. She later finds a note in her backpack from The Sun revealing another murder in the auditorium and promising to kill Selena on opening night. She realises The Sun meant for her to find the note tomorrow, since it was in her normal locker, not her locker used for the play, and decides Katy is the new victim. [Good, hope she dies xx] Selena tries to call Katy, but there’s no answer. Before she can head back to school to save her, Eddy calls, but she says she’s busy and hangs up [Selena is so worried about Katy that her name is literally mentioned 2949 times in this chapter alone].
Selena makes it to the auditorium and finds a puddle of blood at the ladder leading up to the catwalk. She also hears moans from above, so she puts on her big girl pants and braves her fear of heights by climbing up to the prop room [Why is the prop room so high? Is there another way to access it? How do they efficiently get props up there? We will never know]. Inside the prop room, Selena finds Danny tied up and semi-conscious. Before she can untie him, Katy comes up the ladder. Katy starts acting suspicious, even knocking Danny out, so she’s clearly The Sun, but Selena is oblivious until Katy pulls out a sheet of sun stickers and gives her bad guy monologue.
Katy feels like Selena has been a bad friend ever since she got skinny and popular two years ago [Which is stupid because throughout the book Selena has been nothing but supportive to Katy], accusing her of only caring about getting attention. She’s also mad that Selena is planning to go off to college and leave her behind [Clingyyyyyyyyyy. Newsflash Katy, you can be friends with someone and not have your life revolve around them].
Anyway, Katy thought that if she scared Selena into dropping out of the play, they could go back to being friends [Which is still stupid because they were never not friends]. She also knew Selena would assume the notes were from a guy, eliminating Katy as a suspect [Clever, but I still hate her]. Katy confesses to all the accidents that have happened, including pushing Jake to his death – turns out he’d found the stickers in Katy’s locker and put them in his own to show Selena [Again, I don’t know why he couldn’t just tell her over the phone, but OK]. Katy is glad Selena is here now because now she can axe her and Danny together, mirroring the fate of Romeo and Juliet [The whole reason Katy was doing all this was to keep Selena in her life, but now she’s happy just to kill her? Stupid].
The girls end up out on the catwalk and there’s a bit of a scuffle as Katy tries to push Selena off. Then Eddy arrives and Katy tries to push him off too, but it’s 2v1 and Katy is tied up after Selena overcomes her fear of heights again [Yay for character growth!]. I was hoping Eddy was in on it with Katy, but apparently he was just worried about Selena after their phone call earlier, so he guessed where she was heading and followed her [Lucky guess! I guess he’s just an intense guy, but I’d still feel weird if someone I’d just met knew everything about me from two years ago].
The book ends with Selena kissing Eddy and a witty remark that you’ll come to expect from these books [And more often than not, they’re super lame]:
With a burst of emotion, she ran over and wrapped her arms around Eddy. She kissed him.
[…]
“You’re not acting now – are you?” he demanded.
Selena pressed her face against his.
“No. I’m not acting,” she replied. “Thank goodness, the show is over!”
“Hey, don’t say that,” Eddy protested. He slid his arm around her. “This may only be Act One!”
[Shut uppppppppppppppppp, I hate it].
Final Thoughts
This is probably one of the better Fear Street/Point Horror books, and although Selena was an idiot at certain times, she was still more likeable than some of the other heroines we’ll meet. I wish Jake didn’t die though, he was probably the only character who didn’t annoy me.
There’s not as much toxic masculinity in this compared to a lot of others either, but we did have the jealous friend trope, which is also criminally overused in these books.
Katy’s motive was stupid and it sucked they made her so obsessed with Selena and so down on herself. There’s definitely some fatphobic undertones, but yet again, not as bad in some others.
As we go on you’ll realise that overweight = EVILLLLLLLLLLLL in these sort of books which sucks, but I’ll put it down to being sign of the times, I guess.
All up, I’ll give it 8 beheaded dead rats out of 12!
