Tagline: There’s nowhere to hide.Back tagline: She can’t run from her past.
Summary: Shadyside. It sounded like such a nice town, the perfect place for a runaway like Felicia. Nobody here would know about her dark powers. Nobody would know what she had done. For once, she could be a normal girl. She could be safe.
But someone in Shadyside discovered Felicia secret. Someone found out about the awful things her powers made her do. Felicia doesn’t want to run away again. But if she stays, she might lose control. And then people would start to die.
First impressions: I’m definitely intrigued by the blurb. I wonder what kind of powers Felicia has. Is she a witch? Has she unlocked her brain’s full potential like Chrissy? [Shameless plug: Click here to listen to the Fear Street Book Club podcast episode for One Evil Summer, and click here for the episode about this book!]. What did she do in her old town that made her run away? The cover’s pretty boring. Why is she looking so intensely at the driver when she’s the one standing in the middle of the road like an idiot? Let’s find out!
Recap
Roll call:
Felicia – Our runaway protagonist with a dark power and an even darker secret.
Dr. Shanks – A scientist who ran some experiments on Felicia.
Lloyd/Homicide – A giant loser who picks up a hitchhiking Felicia.
Nick – Felicia’s love interest and Zan’s boyfriend.
Zan – Nick’s girlfriend with a dark secret of her own.
Debbie – Felicia’s best friend from her old town.
We begin with our heroine, Felicia Fletcher, arriving at the ‘Welcome to Shadyside’ sign on the outskirts of town. She likes the name [Just don’t move to Fear Street hun] and wonders if she’ll be able to start over in this new town. Not that she wants to, mind you, but she’s got no choice, ‘Not after what she did’ [Spill your secrets hun, I’m all ears].
Fighting back tears, Felicia flashes back to the first time she ever met Dr. Shanks, who was running an experiment at Ridgely College to test Felicia’s telekinetic abilities [Ooooh, nice power to have!]. While hooked up to some machines, Felicia’s instructed to move a pencil with her mind, but she’s super argumentative because the researchers are rude and expect her to be able to turn her abilities on and off like a switch. Dr. Shanks gets right up in her face, so close that she can ‘smell the mix of onions and spearmint on his breath’ [Yuck hahahaha]:
“Young lady, whether you know it or not, you are blessed with one of the most remarkable talents on the face of this planet. I advise you to cooperate and concentrate. If you don’t, there are more important people who are waiting to see how your abilities work. And believe me, their tests will be much more painful than this. Is that clear?”
[OK, bossy boots] Felicia knows he’s right, because her father had told her the same thing [Why did she agree to this experiment if she’s not a willing participant though?] and starts concentrating on the pencil. Soon, she grips the pencil with her mind, lifting it from the table, and ‘forced all her anger, fear and frustration’ into the pencil before letting loose, sending it rocketing across the room toward Dr. Shanks’ left eye like a spear.
He manages to avoid it just in time and it sticks into the bulletin board behind him, and to Felicia’s surprise, he’s excited about the near-miss, imagining what Felicia can do if she learns to control her telekinesis. Felicia’s not very keen on the idea though:
A wave of relief swept over Felicia. She didn’t kill him. She didn’t kill him.
But I wanted to, Felicia thought. I wanted that pencil to tear into his eye.
Her stomach lurched at the thought. No! That couldn’t be true. She wasn’t a killer! It had to be the power. The power made her want to hurt and destroy.
The power was pure evil.
[Ooooooh, I like this] Unlike Dr. Shanks, Felicia doesn’t view her power as a blessing because her father was proof that it brings nothing but misery.
Back to the present, a car horn blares behind Felicia and as she turns around, her vision fills with bright headlights as a car speeds towards her [!!!]. The cherry-red GTO grinds to a halt just inches in front of her, and the passenger window rolls down. The driver is a young man with long, red hair, a thick goatee to match and crooked teeth, who peers out before offering her a ride. Felicia’s not sure about jumping into a car with a complete stranger, but his insistence and the fact she’s freezing cold and soaking wet from the rain makes her decision a little easier.
Felicia studies him as he drives, noticing the acne-scarred cheeks and the barbed wire tattoos circling his forearms from wrist to elbows, ‘drops of painted blood dripping from the fake wounds.’ [It sounds kinda cool, but at the same time doesn’t. Why matching tattoos on both arms, though?] They swap names and he introduces himself as Lloyd, ‘”But my friends call me Homicide.”‘ [Hahahahaha fuck right off, I can’t with this guy]
Like any of us would be in Felicia’s position, she’s unnerved by this deadset freak and asks him to let her out, but Lloyd has trouble understanding:
“Hold on a second.” Lloyd smoothed his goatee back into a sharp point. “I just want to get this whole thing crystal clear. You ask for my help, force me to offer it, act like you deserve it, and now you’re throwing it back in my face? Pull over, Lloyd, I don’t need you anymore.” Lloyd sneered and Felicia shrank back against the door.
[What the hell is wrong with this guy?!?! She didn’t ask for help or force him to do anything? In fact, He offered her a lift, forced her to take it by acting like she owed him something, and is now being super dodgy] If that wasn’t enough, old mate Homicide whips out a shiny six-inch knife and and presses harder on the accelerator, terrifying Felicia even more [God, I hope she kills him] before explaining that she has to pay for the ride [With what? A severed finger?].
He tells her she can get out as long as she leaves her wallet, but Felicia’s got no money so he refuses to let her out. Felicia can feel the power building up inside her [Can she only use the power when she’s angry/scared? Maybe it’s like self-preservation thing or something!], and although she tries to force it down, her mind fills with images of the knife flinging to the backseat and Lloyd steering into the other lane. Felicia tries with all her might to stop the power unleashing, especially since it could kill her too, but it’s no use; the knife shoots out of Lloyd’s hand and he’s forced to jerk the wheel, colliding front-on with a large tree.
Felicia’s uninjured but Lloyd’s out cold, blood dripping from his nose, mouth and a wound on his head. She’s grateful he’s alive, but an inner voice reminds her she killed once before back in Ridgely [Oooooh, naughty girl]. She can’t get her door open, so she climbs out the window of the crumpled car and makes it back to the road just as another car is passing by. Lloyd’s up and about by then, climbing out of the car himself and vowing to kill Felicia for destroying his car.
The new car slows but doesn’t immediately let Felicia in, with the driver instead asking if they need an ambulance. She begs him to open it and explains the guy had attacked her. She’s finally granted entry to the car and they speed off. The gentle-eyed, strong-jawed knight in shining armour makes sure she’s OK before politely scolding her because ‘”Hitchhiking is a pretty dumb thing to do.”‘ [And yet you picked her up anyway]
He introduces himself as Nick and offers to take her to the police, but they’re the last people Felicia wants to see so she assures him she’s fine and that Lloyd got what he deserved. Nick is super cute, but Felicia can’t afford to trust anybody right now [I think we can make an exception for our new hero, hehe]. There’s a brief scare with a police car who speeds up behind them, sirens on, and Felicia is terrified that they’ve found her so quickly, but when Nick pulls over they speed past [Luckyyyy].
Nick asks if she’s got family around here, but Felicia tells him to mind his own business. He wants to help though, sensing she’s in some kind of trouble after she practically had a heart attack when she saw the police car, and quickly determines that she’s a runaway. Felicia insists the best way to help her, and himself, is to forget he ever met her, but he’s just so sweet and cute that she can’t resist giving him a quick peck on the lips to say thank you [This is how I say thanks to my friends from now on].
She asks to be let out just up ahead at the Donut Hole [Creative name, Stine], and heads to the bathroom to change into some dry clothes. She orders a bagel and sits in a booth furthest from the door and tries to sort out what her next step will be. She’s got nowhere to stay and only a few dollars left, so she’ll definitely need a job. Luckily for her, there’s two college-aged boys nearby discussing how one of them is ruining their vacation because he forgot that he agreed to look after Dr. Jones’ house on Fear Street while the professor was on a safari for a month [How very convenient!].
Apparently the boy, Bobby, is being paid $100 for it, and Felicia wants that cash, so she approaches the boys and claims to know Dr. Jones. She offers to watch the house in Bobby’s place, and Felicia’s just so believable and charming that he accepts her offer after inadvertently telling her the address. Felicia won’t be doing it for free, though, and demands $50, reminding him he’s still making money by doing nothing. He grudgingly hands over the cash and explains he’ll return in two weeks before leaving the keys with her and heading off.
Felicia finds Dr. Jones’ mansion on Fear Street pretty easily and lets herself inside, making sure all doors are locked and the house is secure. She meets his cat, Miss Quiz [What a stupid name], and wonders ‘How could she ever feel safe in a place called Fear Street?’ [You don’t! Abort mission!].
The next morning, she walks right up to the front office at Shadyside High and successfully pretends to be a new transfer student, claiming her transcripts are on their way. Before long she’s having a great time attending classes, easily slipping back into a normal life. As school finishes, she notices Nick staring at her [Not gonna be easy for him to forget about you now, is it?!].
He’s sOoo00Oo0Ooo0OOo cute, so Felicia takes him up on his offer to go for burgers, although she reminds herself not to get too close. They head for the Burger Basket, where Nick’s late for his shift, and Felicia meets his boss, Barry [Nick just takes her behind the counter and into the back kitchen hahaha. As if that’d be allowed]. As Nick changes into his uniform, Felicia asks Barry if there’s any job openings, and Barry agrees to try get her a shift for the weekend, but warns Nick that Zan [Zan??? What’s that short for?] won’t like it. Who’s Zan, you ask? Nick’s girlfriend, of course, who happens to be standing right behind Felicia holding a knife and a lettuce. And if you’re wondering, Zan is short for Alexandria [Couldn’t go by Alex, like a normal person?].
Everyone else gets to work, leaving Felicia awkwardly alone with Zan, who points the knife at Felicia’s heart and warns her that Nick’s her man. Felicia feels the power start to swell [Uh oh] and backs up just as Zan swings the knife down. Nick notices this and cries out, but Zan laughs and plays it off like a joke [But is it a joke? Hmm…]. Felicia’s unable to keep the power restrained, but does manage to unleash it away from the others, making the french fry vat bubble and the lights flicker instead. Zan apologises again, reassuring Felicia she was just joking, and all is forgiven as Felicia heads home, promising to return tomorrow to find out about a shift.
We jump to what I’m assuming is Monday, after the weekend [I’m also assuming Friday was her first day at school], as Felicia sits with Zan and Nick at lunch. She worked at the Burger Basket both Saturday and Sunday, and Zan’s grateful because they never have enough people on on the weekends. Zan’s turned out to be pretty cool and Felicia’s glad to have friends again, but is still wary not to get too close.
After her last class for the day, Felicia heads to her locker to get her things, grateful to have the night off from work and homework. She wishes she could spend time with Nick, but scolds herself because he’s a friend’s boyfriend and she can’t do that [But you’re gonna do it anyway, aren’t you?]. And then she notices an envelope in her locker. Inside is a semi-burnt note saying ‘”I KNOW ALL ABOUT YOU”‘ as well as another little surprise:
Below the note was a crystal-clear photocopy of Felicia’s driver’s licence.
With her real name.
And her address in Ridgely.
A hot, sour taste hit the back of Felicia’s throat as she stared down at the photo on the license.
Her face…
Her face had been burned away.
But who could possibly know her last name is Fletcher, not Smith, like she’s been telling everyone, or that she’s from Ridgely [I think the more important question is how do they have a copy of your license?]. The power bubbles up again and Felicia can’t control it this time; all the lockers shake start to shake, the books inside banging against the doors. Lucky there’s no-one else around, and the power eventually stops after she shouts at it.
Realising someone is probably following her, Felicia does some window shopping around town instead of going straight home, glancing behind every so often, but there’s never anyone there. She heads to the Donut Hole for a soda and wonders what to do. Should she risk staying in Shadyside now that someone knows who she is, or should she move on? She needs to talk to someone and decides to call Nick at work, knowing she can trust him. He can tell something’s up and takes his break early to meet her, where she explains she may have to leave without giving him [Or us >:(] too much information, because that would be dangerous for both of them. He reassures her that he and Zan are here for her, even if she can’t tell him what she’s running away from, and heads back to work, and Felicia’s very grateful for her new friends:
They were her friends. Her only friends.
I’ll never let anything happen to them, she vowed.
And I’ll never hurt them…the way I hurt Andy and Kristy.
I’ll never use my power that way again. My power to kill.
[Who’s Andy and Kristy and what did you do to them, Felicia?! Tell meeeeeee] We flash back to Ridgely now, where Felicia’s walking along the beach with her best friend Debbie. Debbie is experimented on too, but she’s shown no display of power, so Felicia has no idea why she continues with it. Debbie is super smart, which Felicia thinks is a better skill, but Debbie would rather have telekinesis and Felicia hates how jealous she gets.
They walk past an old abandoned beach house that they hate because it’s such an eye sore, and Debbie suggests Felicia tear it down with her power, using reverse psychology when Felicia refuses to do it by saying she probably can’t handle it because ‘”It’s a lot bigger than a pencil”‘. Felicia’s up for the challenge though, and puts all her energy into imagining the house crumbling until it actually starts to. And that’s when they hear the screams coming from inside and notice two cars belonging to the school’s hottest couple, Andy and Kristy [Wait, so is Ridgely College a school for gifted people or like, a normal school? I’m confused. The experiments are held there, but it also seems like it’s a normal school? Also, I bet Debbie’s our bad guy in the present, trying to send Felicia as far away as possible so she can get all the attention! She pretty much made her destroy the house here, after all]. Felicia and Debbie search through the rubble for their friends, hoping and praying they’re alive, but alas, it’s too late:
One of the support beams had cut off Kristy’s arm. Felicia could see the white bone and the ragged layers of muscle.
Felicia knelt and slowly uncovered the rest of Kristy’s body. She found Andy lying close beside his girlfriend.
I wouldn’t have recognized him, Felicia thought. If I hadn’t seen his car, I wouldn’t have known this was Andy.
Bricks had crushed Andy’s face. His nose and lips and eyelids scraped raw. Tears stung Felicia’s eyes. I did this, she thought. I killed them.
[Oh wow, that is gruesome… I love it! Surely Debbie noticed their cars before she encouraged Felicia to crush the house for whatever reason] Back to the present, Felicia makes her way to her temporary residence but when she puts the key in the lock, the door swings open. Felicia would never forgot to lock the door, which can only mean one thing… someone’s been in the house!!! She creeps inside, arming herself with a fire poker, and as she’s walking down the hall, Miss Quiz pounces her on the shoulder and gives us the funniest line in the book [And maybe in any of them] when she jumps off:
Felicia moaned. “Oh, Miss Quiz, you almost got your head whonked!”
[Hahahahaha so fkn stupid. Great line, Stine :’)]. Continuing her search, Felicia flicks the light on in the den and finds all her belongings ripped to shreds – school books, clothes, cassette tapes, all ruined! And not only that, there’s some ‘dripping red letters’ covering the wall – ‘RUNAWAY! GET OUT NOW! I KNOW EVERYTHING!’ [Ooky spooky!]. The paint’s fresh so Felicia checks the rest of the house, but luckily our bad guy didn’t stick around to see her reaction to the message. By the time she’s done cleaning everything up it’s 5am so she doesn’t get much sleep before school.
At work that evening, Felicia and Nick take their breaks together and sit at the picnic table at the back of the restaurant [Cuuuute!]. Zan’s got the night off, so there’s nothing stopping Nick from grabbing Felicia’s hand and demanding to know what’s wrong after he notices how exhausted she is. Felicia explains how her mom died giving birth to her and her dad died 10 years ago, and although she loves her Aunt Margaret, they constantly fight. Nick is ready to accept this as the reason she’s a runaway, but Felicia continues [What happened to not getting to close?].
She reveals she was part of ‘”Something at the local college that no one knew about”‘, referring to it as ‘”an experiment in their psych department” [OK, so her old school was a normal one, but just the psych ward was running the experiments? Sounds illegal]. As badly as she wants to tell him the truth about the experiments, she doesn’t want him to think she’s a freak and lies that they just wanted to find out some stuff about the brain and for some reason were only interested in testing her. She explains that Aunt Margaret gave them consent to do it [Wouldn’t she need to consent herself though?], and soon all Felicia’s time was spent in the lab. She tells him she couldn’t take it anymore and fled to Shadyside, confident that he’s believed her lies [I mean I think most of it is true, besides the actual experiments, so it’s not like it’s a big lie].
To her surprise, Nick leans in and kisses her, but before it can turn into a full blown pash session, Barry opens the door to tell them break time’s over. At 10pm when the restaurant’s closed, Zan arrives to give Nick a lift home. Felicia waits a bit before beginning the walk home herself [She’s been offered lifts home throughout the book, but she doesn’t want anyone seeing where she’s living], but she should’ve waited a bit longer because she can hear Nick and Zan arguing:
“You watch yourself, Nick,” Zan warned him. “I know the truth about Felicia. I know everything!”
[I bet you don’t, Zan!] Feeling her power build up, Felicia manages to sneak by unnoticed and begins jogging home. Although she assumes Zan knows everything about Ridgely [She probably just means the truth as in how Nick and Felicia clearly like each other though], she rationalises that no-one at home even knew about her powers, besides the police who talked to Dr. Shanks and the others, but ‘they wouldn’t go around telling people she knocked down a building with her mind. That was top-secret stuff’ [Does she know for sure she’s a wanted gal? Surely an abandoned house collapsing could have easily just been ruled as a freak accident]. Felicia decides she needs to find out how much Zan knows before she’ll know what to do next.
The next morning at school, Felicia finds Nick alone mentions what she heard last night. Nick explains Zan’s just got a real jealous streak and has convinced herself Nick and Felicia are getting too close and have a secret relationship going on. Nick doesn’t agree that they’re getting too close [Dude, you literally kissed her?] and clarifies that he smoothed things over. He asks Felicia not to blame Zan though, because she’s been through a hard time and ‘”doesn’t mean to be mean”‘ [Lol same], but he won’t elaborate on the specifics because if Zan wants her to know, she’ll tell her herself [Oh now you wanna be all noble and protect her feelings after you kissed another girl? Nick is lame].
On Friday morning at school, Zan asks Felicia if she wants to have a sleepover tonight, since they never really get a chance to just hang out together. Felicia’s exhausted and isn’t sure how relaxing it’ll be now that she knows how Zan feels about her and Nick, but Nick had asked Felicia to be nice to Zan, so she agrees. After all, it might be fun! She hasn’t hung out with a girl since Debbie, who she really misses [Don’t miss her, she’s the bad guy!].
Shadyside’s newest gal pals have a great time watching a movie in Zan’s gigantic bedroom and pigging out on popcorn but eventually, Zan heads down to the kitchen for more soda and to “nuke some cheese and salsa”‘ [I’m assuming nuke means microwave, but like… they’re just going to eat a bowl of melted cheese and salsa? Is that a thing? Like, I love cheese and I love nachos but I would never think to heat up a bowl of cheese and salsa by itself? Gross lol].
While she’s gone, Felicia spots a yearbook from Zan’s sophomore year on the bookshelf and flicks through it. She finds a photo of Nick having a bad hair day and searches for a picture of Zan, and after pulling two pages that are stuck together apart, a photo of Zan stares back at her. The other half of the photo has been covered with brown marker, so she can’t tell who Zan’s with, but she can see half of the caption that reads ‘THE COUPLE MOST’.
Felicia’s feeling nosy and the ink feels crusty, so she licks her finger and rubs at it. The ink starts rubbing off on her finger, but she still can’t tell who’s underneath, so ‘Felicia spit on the page and spread the saliva around’ [Hahahahaha Felicia’s a bloody feral]. That’s when she gets a whiff of pennies and examines her finger, realising the substance isn’t brown, but red, because it’s not ink at all, it’s b-b-b-b-blood [!!!!].
She hears Zan coming back up the stairs and puts the yearbook back where she found it without seeing the other half of the picture. She needs to find a bathroom ASAP to wash the blood off her hands, but when she opens the bedroom door, Zan’s standing right there with two sodas and a plate of nachos [OK, thank god, it was nachos. Why the hell wouldn’t Zan just say that in the first place though?!]. Zan points her in the direction of the bathroom and Felicia scrubs her hand clean before returning to the bedroom, where she can’t stop wondering about the mystery person in the photo. She casually asks how long Zan and Nick have dated, but knows Zan’s lying when she says they’ve been together since freshman year:
She’s lying! Felicia thought. I know they haven’t been together that long. The part of the yearbook caption she could read said “the couple most.” So unless Zan and Nick had a big fight—and then made up—Nick couldn’t be the other half of the couple in the picture.
[Am I dumb or does her logic not make sense? Why couldn’t Nick be in the photo if they have been together since freshman year? It’s weird that there’s blood on it, but why can’t it be Nick?] At school on Monday, she tracks down the library’s copy of the yearbook and discovers the boy with Zan is Doug Gaynor, and the pair were voted the couple most likely to last forever [OK, so it’s not Nick, but I still don’t understand how she could completely rule him out? Please someone explain if I missed something here]. Felicia doesn’t recognise the face, but recognises the name from a small wooden bench in one of the school’s halls where a plaque reads ‘In Memory of Douglas Gaynor.’ [OK, so I guess Zan probably lied about how long she’s dated Nick because it’s too hard to think about Doug. But then does that really make sense, because she could have just told the truth without revealing anything about old boyfriends?]
After school, Felicia scabs a ride to work with Nick, who’s also on shift that night, and he notices that she keeps checking over her shoulder. She reveals she conned her way into staying at Dr. Jones’ house and either someone in Shadyside knows about her past or someone from Ridgely followed her here. She fills him in on the note in her locker and the words painted on the wall, and Nick promises he’s here for her no matter what before they kiss [Ugh, what about Zan?]. Nick pulls away pretty quickly though, saying he can’t do this because he loves Zan, but Felicia calls his bluff, suggesting he’s just scared to break up with her and asks if it has anything to do with Doug. Felicia wants to know the truth, so Nick flat out says ‘”Zan killed him.”‘ [Gotta love the cliffhanger chapter endings!]
Of course, straight away he says it was an accident and goes on to explain how he’s only dated Zan the last six months, while Doug was her boyfriend from seventh grade until his death a few years ago. Zan was totally messed up by it and didn’t come to school for a while. Anyway, Doug had gone on a date with another girl, but no-one’s sure if he’d broke up with Zan beforehand or not. The next day he went to Zan’s to talk, and they were arguing out on the balcony. Apparently he pushed her and she hit her head, got mad and shoved him back, sending him toppling over the railing to be impaled by the wrought-iron fence below:
“Four spikes sliced through Doug’s back,” Nick whispered. “Another slashed through his left arm.” He cleared his throat. “The TV news said that he didn’t die right away. It took some time.”
[I guess it still could have been an accident, despite the fact she purposely pushed him. Is it necessarily her fault he fell over the railing?] Anyway, Nick doesn’t think Zan is strong enough to handle a break up, since she hasn’t even been back at school for a whole year yet [Oh ok, so it’s better to just cheat on her behind her back? Do you think she’ll have a better response to that, Nick? Do you? Also, if Doug died a few years ago, that means Zan’s been out of school for a few years too, right? Wouldn’t her learning be seriously behind everyone else her age?].
Felicia reckons Zan’s behind the threats she’s been receiving, since she’s been jealous of Felicia from the start, and expresses concern that Zan will kill her like she killed Doug, which Nick doesn’t like:
“First you think some scientists are trying to track you down. Now you think Zan is trying to kill you. Get a grip on reality, okay?”
[What a dick! Kinda want him to die now]. Before they exit the car at work, he makes Felicia promise not to tell Zan he told her anything. Felicia agrees that ‘”Zan will never find out”‘ but guess what? Zan’s outside the car after being called in early to work, and she wants to know what she’s not allowed to find out [How did they not notice her earlier hahaha]. The two rascals think fast, claiming that Felicia was helping Nick come up with ideas for a special date for him and Zan, and Zan reluctantly accepts their lie and apologises for being so suspicious [I can’t believe they’re just blatantly lying to her like this and acting like she’s in the wrong here! Ugh].
Before Felicia takes her break later, Zan asks her to replace the light bulb in the storage room. Some idiot’s knocked a mop bucket full of water all over the floor, and Felicia ain’t cleaning that up, since she’s already in a bad mood from shitty customers. Using a metal ladder for easier access, Felicia reaches for the swinging light bulb, but a spark from the wire it’s attached to catches her eye, making her drop the new bulb. She hears a crackling sound and as she examines the wire, she sees that it’s been cut – no wonder the bulb is out! And then she realises how she was almost fried – ‘water on the floor… a frayed wire… a metal stepladder’ [Surely Zan didn’t do this though? It’s too obvious!].
She dashes to the circuit breakers at the back of the room and flings open the power box’s door. At the very same time, Barry [The boss] walks into the storage room and reaches for the light [!!!!!]. The poor man is sent flying backwards by the electricity. Felicia turns back to the power box to shut it off, but now that has sparks coming off it too! Realising the whole place will be on fire any second, Felicia runs back to the main restaurant and orders everyone to get out:
Felicia froze. She couldn’t run. Couldn’t move. The hair on her arm stood straight up.
Power shot to the restaurant’s wiring. The fluorescent lights shattered. Razor-sharp slivers flew. Flames shot out from the electrical outlet.
[…]
The electricity hit the microwaves. They exploded. Food, burning plastic, and glass rained down on Nick.
The heating lamps. They are going next, Felicia realized. Before she could shout a warning, they erupted.
White-hot sparks showered the deep fryers.
The oil burst into towers of flame.
Someone uttered a low moan of terror.
A chunk of the ceiling caved in and blocked the front entrance with a wall of fire.
[This could be Stine’s scariest scene ever! Being trapped in a burning building is one of my worst nightmares] Felicia heads back to Barry, not wanting him to burn to death if he’s still alive, and begins dragging him to the back door of the restaurant. Meanwhile, Nick heads to the front to help get the customers out [Even though the door is blocked? Why not let them out back too?].
Thick smoke and flames are quickly taking over the restaurant, but Felicia’s able to drag Barry safely outside. Realising Nick’s still inside [Where’s Zan though?], Felicia heads back in through a side door that opens directly to the dining area, knowing that ‘everyone in that restaurant would live or die depending on her actions’.
As the Burger Basket continues to be overtaken by fire, Felicia stands in the middle of the dining room and focuses on her power. In her mind, she wills the flames and smoke to retreat, which is exactly what happens, and everyone’s able to escape, except for Nick who refuses to leave her behind [He doesn’t know she’s keeping the flames at bay, I guess]. The fire quickly becomes too strong for her to keep back anymore and soon consumes the door the others had used to escape. With the last exit blocked, Felicia hurls a chair through a window, but as she and Nick stumble over to escape, the power pours out of her and Felicia’s exhausted body gives out, collapsing to the floor.
She regains consciousness 15 minutes later, Nick watching over her and firefighters extinguishing the ruins of the Burger Basket. Nick reveals Barry’s alive and was taken to hospital, before gushing over her heroics. He wants to know what she did in there, but doesn’t protest when she doesn’t want to talk about it. Suddenly, one of the customers points her out and a bunch of reporters start bustling over. Felicia can’t let anyone know who she is though, so Nick hands her his keys and stalls them.
As she walks to Nick’s car, she overhears one of the customers insisting ‘”The flames backed away from her!”‘ and Felicia starts worrying that if word gets out, the Ridgely police will find out where she is. She finally reaches Nick’s car, but someone’s waiting for her:
“Why didn’t you just die?” a voice demanded. A female voice she barely recognized. Full of anger.
Felicia turned.
Zan. Her face covered with soot. Her Burger Basket uniform stained with sweat and grime. Her blue eyes burning bright and hateful.
“What?” Felicia gasped.
“You were supposed to die!” Zan screamed. “All you had to do was change the stupid lightbulb!”
[Oh wow, so she did kill Doug then! We’ve still got like 30 pages left, so there has to be more to it than this. I’m still thinking Debbie’s a bad guy too, but Zan’s just another antagonist with her own agenda] Zan charges at Felicia, who can’t put up much of a fight because she’s still so exhausted and her power hasn’t replenished [Oh shit, Felicia], so Zan’s on top of her and choking her to death pretty soon.
Luckily, Nick appears and orders Zan to stop, who rushes over to him in tears because he cares more about Felicia than her. Nick assures her that ‘”She means nothing to me”‘ [Woooooooooow] and leads her away ‘without a glance at Felicia.’ Even though he’s obviously lying to calm Zan down, Felicia believes she’s got nothing and no-one and sets off on foot back to Dr. Jones’, resolving to run away once again. Then she remembers the only photo she has of her dad is in her locker at school, and she can’t leave without it! She decides she’ll go to school first thing in the morning and retrieve it, and then get as far away from Shadyside as possible [Soooo, is no-one gonna make a big deal out of the fact Zan almost murdered a bunch of innocent people, let alone Felicia, and destroyed a whole restaurant? OK…].
We flash back to Ridgely again where it’s 2am and our favourite telekinetic killer has just woken from a nightmare about Andy and Kristy. The poor girl is heartbroken about her actions earlier that day and knows she won’t be able to sleep again. Luckily, best friend Debbie appears at the window, urging Felicia to leave town right now. She’s just spent the last four hours at the police station being questioned over and over again about what happened because the police suspect Felicia had something to do with Andy and Kristy’s deaths. Felicia wants to turn herself in and explain the truth, suggesting Debbie can confirm what really happened, but Debbie’s got other ideas:
“I’m your best friend,” Debbie replied. “They wouldn’t believe me. Besides, they know about your powers—so they’re going to think you’re some sort of freak. They won’t believe you’re just a normal girl. They will think your powers make you dangerous—a killer.”
[This jealous bitch definitely set Felicia up]. They pack a bag for Felicia and Debbie kindly offers to let Felicia use her car for a day so Felicia can get as far as possible before mailing the keys and its location back. Then the girls drive to the outskirts of town where Debbie drops a bombshell that ‘”Dr. Shanks told the police you were out of control, a danger to other people”‘ and the police want her locked up [Are you sure you didn’t tell them that, Debbie? I’m onto you >:(].
There’s a heartwarming moment where Felicia thanks Debbie for helping her and Debbie apologises for daring her to destroy the building [She’s definitely not sorry] before Debbie heads off on foot. Felicia tries to keep her composure, but her fear is making the power surge inside her and the car begins to shake violently. Felicia’s sure it’ll tip over soon, but she can’t get out – is her power keeping the door jammed?!? No, the door’s just locked [Seriously? Felicia, come on]. And the idiot realises just in time, because she can smell gas and as soon as she’s out of the car, it explodes into a huge fire ball [Was that her power, or did Debbie sabotage the car?]. She escapes into the woods and keeps running, wondering if her powers really are out of control.
Back in Shadyside, it’s the morning after Zan tried to kill her and Felicia’s arriving at school just as the halls are starting to fill up [Wouldn’t you want to go super early so you’d avoid everyone?]. As she’s entering the combination to her locker, Nick grabs her. He wants to apologise and pulls her into a deep kiss, and ‘all the anger she had felt melted away’ [Girl, please]. He apologises for telling Zan Felicia means nothing to him, because she actually means everything to him and he wants to be with her. He had a long talk with Zan last night, and she’s promised to see a shrink and to never hurt Felicia again, but the dickhead still hasn’t broken up with her because ‘”I couldn’t hurt her anymore.”‘ [You’re literally hurting her worse by cheating on her lol]
Felicia’s not interested in being the side chick and begins to tell him she’s leaving town, but then Zan appears, ‘charging down the hall toward Felicia, a knife raised in her hand!’ [That long talk really helped, aye Nick?] Nick steps in to protect Felicia, raising his hands in protest, but Zan gets him out of the way with a slash to the hands and snags her target, pressing the knife to Felicia’s throat.
As horrified students watch on and scream for the principal, Nick and a captive Felicia try to calm Zan down, but she’s too worked up about their sneaking around [Should’ve just broken up with her, Nick!]. When Zan gets on her high horse and boldly claims she never lies [Even though she just said she lied about not wanting to hurt Felicia anymore last night], Felicia accuses her of lying about murdering Doug [Not a wise move to antagonise someone holding a knife to your throat]:
“Of course I killed him!” Zan shrieked. “He hurt me. So I hurt him back. Do you know what it’s like to watch someone realize they’re about to die? I stood on that balcony for 15 minutes watching Doug die. He kept trying to say he was sorry. Can you believe that? I mean, he was just a little late with that apology, you know?”
Zan also admits to being behind the threatening note and the break-in at Dr. Jones’ place [Wow, can’t believe the most obvious suspect turned out to be the bad guy? I’m surprised it was so straight forward though. I still think Debbie’s a separate bad guy that’ll be revealed soon though as a twist]. As Zan’s talking, Felicia’s been letting the power surge inside her, and soon the windows explode inward and the locker doors begin rattling on their hinges. Zan’s alarmed but undeterred and begins pressing the knife into Felicia’s flesh, who is able to focus her power enough to make the blade curl up instead.
Then she’s able to grab Zan with her mind and suspend her in the air against the lockers long enough for Nick and some other boys to hold her down until help arrives. With the principal coming down the hall and the police on their way, Felicia grabs the photo of her dad from her locker and flees back to Fear Street. She dumps some food out for Miss Quiz and grabs her stuff, planning to leave the key in the letterbox for Bobby, but just as she’s locking the door, she hears someone behind her [I bet it’s Debbie]. Felicia whirls around and comes face to face with… Debbie [!!!!].
Felicia wraps her old friend in a hug, but she’s quickly shoved away and notices the malice in Debbie’s eyes. She’d seen in the news last night about a heroic girl who saved a bunch of people from a burning building, seemingly willing the flames back from everyone. Debbie’s super glad she found Felicia before anyone else though, because she’s going to kill her, and she’s ‘”going to do it right this time!”‘ [So she did make the car explode. Does she have powers too, or did she tamper with something?].
Debbie quickly reveals she’s always had powers too, she was just smart enough not to let everyone know, unlike Felicia. She was in love with Andy, who didn’t even know she existed, so she decided to use Felicia to help her murder him and Kristy, framing Felicia when really, Debbie’s power was much stronger and Felicia’s power barely did anything to the house. She’d also made her car explode, unfortunately without Felicia in it, which she didn’t realise until she saw the news. We also find out that Debbie made the whole thing up about the police being after Felicia – she never spoke to them and neither did Dr. Shanks [Cheeky little devil!]. A telekinetic battle ensues, beginning with this masterpiece of literature as Felicia feels her power rushing through her veins:
She lashed out at Debbie—and Felicia heard a loud smack. Debbie fell back, holding her cheek.
“What was that?” Debbie demanded.
“The slap in the face you deserve!” Felicia cried.
[Hahahahahahaha so dumb]. The girls fight, telekinetically using tree limbs and light poles as weapons, and Debbie soon has the upper hand. Nick rocks up as Debbie’s about to finish her off, so she sends a mailbox at his head. The momentary distraction allows Felicia to use the last of her power’s strength and thrust it at Debbie’s mind itself, causing Debbie to collapse, blood trickling from her ears [Smart idea, Felicia!].
She’s not dead though, which we find out in the next chapter taking place an unspecified amount of time later as Nick and Felicia are driving towards Ridgely. Apparently Felicia just sent enough of her power out to shock Debbie’s brain, but she’s been in some kind of trance at an institution since, coincidentally the same one as Zan.
Felicia’s looking forward to her return to Ridgely, excited to learn more about her power now that she can control it and doesn’t feel like such a freak. She’s also chatted to Aunt Margaret, who only encouraged the testing because she thought it would help Felicia deal with it better.
The book finally ends with Felicia threatening to run away from Ridgely and hunt Nick down if he doesn’t visit her every weekend [Wow, clingy], and he promises that she’ll ‘”never, ever have to run away again.”‘ [You’ve known each other like, a maximum of two weeks, and probably not even that long lol, calm down]
Final thoughts
I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would! I’m surprised Zan did turn out to be the main bad guy, just because I don’t think we’ve ever seen something as straight forward as that so far. Debbie also being a villain was super obvious and I knew it would come up as soon as we met her, but I guess it’s a good little twist for those who aren’t as familiar with Fear Street/Point Horror.
Felicia was an OK protagonist – I didn’t like the whole cheating thing, but hey, Zan was a psycho so that makes it OK, right? Lol. And I guess it was Nick that instigated it more than Felicia, who did struggle with her feelings and friendship with Zan, so it made her more likeable/relatable for sure. I guess she was actually a pretty good character after all, as far as feeling like an actual person rather than a one dimensional heroine like some others we’ve seen. Nick and Zan were pretty shitty though.
Also, I’ve only just remembered, what the hell happened to Lloyd/Homicide? I totally forgot about him, and it seems Stine did too because he was literally never mentioned again, not even as a red herring. So weird.
It was a fun little read that strayed from the typical Fear Street formula, so 147 gobs of spit being spread around a yearbook page out of 182.
