Tagline: N/A
Back tagline: Somebody out there likes you!
Summary: Alicia has it all: good looks, talent and the star of the football team for a boyfriend. Why then, is she hanging around with “weird” Evan, the nerd? Evan is the biggest dweeb in school and Alicia feels sorry for him and for all the cruel jokes her friends play, but sympathy only makes it worse. The nicer she is to Evan the more they beat him up. Then Alicia’s friends begin to disappear. A dead cat with its eyes plucked out is found in the trunk of a car and a terrible accident is about to happen. But will it really be an accident?
First impressions: I am soooooooooooo excited to read this series! Freddy has always been my favourite killer out of all the big franchises. I grew up in the late ’90s/early 2000s so had only seen the first three films [Dream Warriors is 100% the best sequel] because I couldn’t find the later sequels at Blockbuster, so I had to resort to reading the plots on Wikipedia and looking up the death scenes on YouTube to get an idea of what I was missing out on. Then when I was around 12, for Christmas my mum got me this collector’s edition box set that had the first seven movies (It didn’t have Freddy vs Jason), a collector card for each one and a booklet with information about the franchise. The packaging has seen better days, but I still have the box set among my huge DVD collection [I’m a bit of a hoarder because I like owning physical copies of things hahaha] and watching the later sequels for the first time cemented my love for Freddy Krueger and Robert Englund even more. [Might be controversial but I really enjoy The Dream Master and The Dream Child, (me and my brother used to quote these two all the time) but hated Freddy’s Revenge and The Final Nightmare until I got older and learned to appreciate them more]
I didn’t even know this book series existed until sometime last year when I saw other bookstagram accounts posting about them, and I got super lucky on eBay a few months ago when I found someone selling all six books as a bundle for a reasonable price and in great condition. They’ve been sitting on my shelf waiting to be read ever since because I wanted to read them all at once, assuming this one is as good as I hope it is, and now’s the perfect time!
Now that that lengthy insight into my love for the franchise is out of the way, let’s talk about this book. Like the Nightmare Hall series, I love that the covers for the Tales of Terror books have a window that shows a snippet of a larger scene depicted on an inside cover. I’m not sure why they feature the New Nightmare version of Freddy, which was actually a demonic entity that modelled his appearance after our favourite wisecracking villain to stalk his victims, rather than use an older version of the character. Oh well.
For this book, we’ve got presumably our heroine looking terrified in a hospital bed. It’s quite reminiscent of Nancy Thompson on the first film’s poster, which is pretty cool. The blurb also gets me excited to read it too; it actually sounds like a horror movie in book form, mixed with a typical Point Horror plot. I’m not really sure how Freddy will play into it, though. The ‘Tales of Terror’ name makes me think it’ll be like the TV show, and Freddy will pop up in a prologue/epilogue as a framing device rather be within the actual story. Let’s find out!
Recap
Meet the cast:
Alicia – Our heroine with an awful group of friends.
Scott – Alicia’s boyfriend who is allegedly a nice guy, not that we ever see kindness from him.
Evan – The school punching bag with a huge crush on Alicia.
Ellen – Alicia’s frenemy and Johnny’s girlfriend.
Johnny – Scott’s bestie and one of Evan’s biggest bullies.
Tiffany – Alicia’s best friend and neighbour.
Boomer – Tiffany’s boyfriend who loves torturing Evan.
The book begins with a prologue as Freddy Krueger, wearing a trench coat and dark sunglasses, uses a cane to tap his way out of an old, boarded-up Elm Street house and into the rain. There’s a hearse waiting for him in the driveway, and Freddy climbs behind the wheel and asks us, the reader, if we’ve ‘”ever been on a blind date that didn’t exactly work out? A blind date from hell?'” Freddy hasn’t, [I’ve never been on a blind date, good or bad] and he’d never been on any kind of date when he was in high school. Maybe the girls were scared of him, and ‘”didn’t like the way I gave them the eye.”‘
Freddy slowly slid the dark glasses up and off his face to reveal the dripping, empty sockets where eyes should have been. They looked as if the eyeballs had been gouged out only moments before.
His sadistic cackle echoed down the empty street.
“Yeah, I never had a date. But maybe this time I’m gonna get lucky.”
The hearse coasted down the driveway, then disappeared into the gloom of the night.
[Ooky spooky!] The prologue continues further along down Elm Street as lightning strikes Weird Evan Walker’s house. Next door, Alicia Norris is woken up by a constant, loud banging, which upon investigation is a loose shutter blowing in the wind at Evan’s house. While looking out her window, Alicia notices a hearse slowly rolling down Elm Street that stops in front of her house. [Is this a nightmare then?] She wonders if Evan’s behind the wheel since the uncle he lives with owns a hearse and Evan sometimes drives it to school. [Love that!] It’s just one of the many reasons everyone calls him Weird Evan. He’s ‘the butt of virtually every joke told at Springwood High’ and definitely on the eccentric side, but Alicia is very against the bullying her friends dish out to him every day.
Evan has a crush on Alicia, which makes her think he might be spying on her from the hearse, but as a lightning flash illuminates the street, she spots Evan walking purposefully down the street, seemingly in his own world and cradling a kitten in his arms. He rescues strays a lot and has over a dozen pet cats at home. As if he can sense her watching, he glances up at her window and she steps back; by the time she glances down again, he’s gone. The hearse is still there, though, and Alicia is barely able to make out the silhouette of someone wearing a big floppy hat. The driver’s window rolls down and two empty eye sockets stare up at her, ‘glowing with a diabolical light, like tiny, twin boilers alive with flames.’ A sadistic laugh suddenly comes at Alicia like a wave before echoing away again, and the car window rolls up again.
The hearse moves further along the street and pulls into Evan’s driveway, and Alicia hears the familiar Freddy rhyme she hadn’t heard since she was a little girl. Frightened, Alicia reminds herself that Freddy’s dead and burning in hell, his corpse reduced to ashes thanks to a lynch mob that her mother was part of. So who’s in the hearse and why did they stop outside Alicia’s house? As if drawn by a magnet, Alicia has an overwhelming urge to find out, so she pulls on some clothes and makes her way outside to confront the peeping Tom. Instead of looking inside the hearse, she peers through the garage door window [??? You’re not gonna see who’s in the hearse that way, darl] before hearing soft laughter coming from Evan’s basement. She can see light through the basement window, so she makes her way over and peers inside. A fire’s raging inside an old rusty boiler, being fed by a tall, angular man wearing a hat that she recognises from the hearse’s driver. The figure cackles and starts to turn towards Alicia, and she ‘experienced dread as she had never felt it before.’ Just as the man’s face is about to be revealed, a cat shrieks loudly and Alicia bolts upright in bed. [That was a cool dream sequence! I wonder if we’ll get more]
Onto the main story now, which takes place seconds after the prologue as Alicia struggles to remember her nightmare. Much like in her dream, the rain is pouring down outside and coming through her open window. As she goes to shut it, she spots someone standing in the shadows outside her house, staring up at her window. Angry about the peeping Tom, she yanks the shade down and draws the curtains, but as soon as she’s back in bed, the shade snaps back up. The streetlight shines through the branches of the tree outside her window and casts scary shadows above her James Dean poster. [Did ’90s teens really have James Dean posters??] Alicia moves to the window again and just like in her dream, which of course she still can’t remember, she notices Evan walking through the rain carrying a kitten. [No mention of the shadowy figure though] She locks the window and crawls back into bed, feeling uneasy and praying for a dreamless sleep.
It’s Monday morning now, the next day, and Alicia’s eating her corn flakes and thinking about life. Her mother, who’s washing dishes at the sink, has been withdrawn and distant ever since Alicia’s father died of a heart attack an unspecified amount of time ago, and although Alicia understands her mother’s grief, she feels as though she’s lost both parents. Also on Alicia’s mind is her 17th birthday that’s coming up in a few days, which poses its own problems. It’s the day Coach Wilson will be choosing the cheerleading captain, and Alicia feels like no matter how hard she tries, she’ll come up short against tall, blonde and beautiful Ellen Sawyer, who probably has the homecoming queen vote in the bag too. Not that Alicia’s ugly, but compared to Ellen, she considers herself too skinny, small and pale, and she hates her freckles. At least she has her artwork though; not even Ellen can take that from her, and Alicia has a real chance of winning a scholarship for an expensive art school.
Anyway, Alicia is about to bring up her nightmare just for the sake of having a conversation, but she’s immediately interrupted by a horn honking several times. It startles her mother, who drops the mug she’d been washing, smashing it on the floor. Alicia helps her clean up and hurries outside to meet the honking Scott Martin, her boyfriend and ride to school. He’s the most handsome guy at Springwood High and Alicia can’t believe she’s dating him! There’s a disgusting smell coming from somewhere in the car, which Scott doesn’t seem bothered by, and then a cat darts across the road and Scott has to slam on the brakes.
Poor Alicia whacks her head on the windshield because she didn’t have her seatbelt on yet, [Tsk tsk] and she recognises the one-eyed black cat as Ignatius, who belongs to her neighbour and friend, Tiffany Clark. Scott jokes that the cat was probably fleeing from Evan, and although Scott’s usually a nice guy, Alicia has noticed there’s something about Evan that brings out a mean streak. She wants to know why he’s so cruel to Evan, and Scott reluctantly admits it’s because he heard a rumour that Evan beheads cats and displays them on poles in his backyard. Alicia recognises this detail from a TV special about serial killer Eric Betz [Who I don’t think is real, going off google results] and accuses Scott of starting the same rumour about poor Evan. Scott argues that Evan is weird either way, reminding her of the hearse he drives, [I would drive a hearse if I had the chance] and wants to know why Alicia’s in such a bad mood today. He tells her he wonders about her sometimes because she sticks up for Evan, and then she confronts him about honking so much this morning and scaring her mother. Scott is pretty insensitive about Mrs. Norris’s situation, so I don’t like him. [When are we gonna see this alleged nice behaviour, Alicia? Scott seems awful so far]
The pair drive past Fred Krueger’s abandoned house, which has a FOR SALE sign in the overgrown front yard, and Alicia tries to remember if he’d been in her dream last night. They notice Ellen and her boyfriend, Johnny Murphy, walking to school, and Alicia forlornly wonders how someone as beautiful as Ellen hasn’t bagged someone better, noticing that Ellen seems to be checking Scott out lately. Scott, knowing that Ms. Wilson is choosing the cheer captain this morning, [A few pages before it was stated the decision was being made on Alicia’s birthday though, which is a few days away?] suggests they get rid of Alicia’s biggest competition, Ellen, then veers the car off the road and onto the sidewalk, aiming for her and Johnny. [This guy is a fkn psychopath, Alicia, why are you with him?!]
Of course, Scott turns the wheel at the last second, and Johnny angrily confronts him with a switchblade. The boys muck around for a bit, apparently good friends, and Scott questions why they’re both walking to school. Ellen’s car’s being tuned and Johnny reckons he’ll have his jeep fixed up by tomorrow, and Scott reminds him he was supposed to pick up Boomer Harrison for their early football practice. Scott turns the car around so he can go pick up Boomer, and they find him beating up Evan in Evan’s driveway. Scott jumps out of the car to break it up, but Boomer’s got the poor boy in a headlock and Alicia notices his face is turning blue.
She screams at Boomer to let Evan go, and when that doesn’t work she runs over and kicks the big bully in the leg as hard as she can. [Hahahaha good] Boomer drops Evan and yells at Alicia, who tells him to pick on someone his own size, ‘”you big ape”‘! Evan shakily gets to his feet as Boomer angrily explains that the nerd made him flunk his biology test. Tiffany, Boomer’s girlfriend, [And Alicia’s neighbour who owns that cat] points out that Evan knows Boomer copies off him, so he flunked on purpose to make Boomer flunk.
Scott manages to get Boomer in the car, and Alicia says goodbye to Evan as she and Tiffany climb in the back. As they drive down Elm Street, Scott laughs about how you can pound Evan all day long and he won’t do or say anything, so he’s probably some kind of masochist. Alicia had wondered this herself moments ago, but decided Evan’s smart enough to know he doesn’t have a chance against bulky football jocks half his size. Alicia points out that Evan’s GPA could take the hit while Boomer’s couldn’t, and Scott warns Boomer that you need to be careful of the quiet ones. Meanwhile, Tiffany’s complaining about the awful smell in the car, and then Speed Racer Scott almost slams into a familiar hearse as it pulls into an intersection.
In a fit of road rage, Boomer climbs out of the car and tries to yank open the driver door of the hearse, believing Evan’s driving it, but it’s locked. He kicks the door instead, leaving a dent, then spits on the windshield and returns to Scott’s Chevy for a tyre iron. Just as he’s about to smash the hearse with it, Evan’s uncle, Dr. Manfred Hawke, steps out. A tall, distinguished-looking man with white hair and a moustache in a pinstriped suit, Dr. Hawke accosts Boomer for expectorating on his windshield and laments that today’s youth are too permissive. [This and ‘expectorate’ are the doctor’s words, not mine. He’s a fancy man!] Alicia’s never seen Boomer intimidated before, but he’s practically shaking in his boots as Dr. Hawke recalls how he used to harass his nurses for lollipops when he was a kid, and is clearly still a terror. He tells Boomer’ that his parents parent can expect a repair bill before driving off, and when a pale-looking Boomer climbs back into the Chevy, he reveals why he’s so unnerved — Dr. Hawke died last night.
Boomer’s father works at the hospital and as he was finishing his shift last night, Dr. Hawke was wheeled in, dead on arrival. The other teens argue that they all just saw him alive, so he must have been resuscitated. As they continue on to school, the gang discuss how weird Dr. Hawke and his Evan are, and Tiffany mentions her blind cousin who was cured by Hawke. Scott would kill himself if he went blind, [Do I smell foreshadowing?] and Tiffany reveals that Boomer’s eyesight was so bad, he was almost blind. He used to wear giant glasses and everyone called him four-eyes until he started wearing contacts and lifting weights. Alicia points out that Boomer clearly bullies Evan because he reminds him of himself, but Boomer insists Weird Evan just gives him the creeps.
Scott attempts to tell another tall tale about Evan now, which Alicia quickly points out is the plot of Psycho, and by this point they’re at school. During the eventful morning, the Chevy’s trunk had sprung open because the latch is broken, and as Scott moves towards the back of the car to close it, a dense cloud of black flies swarm out. The stench is overwhelming by this point and upon investigation, the teens find a dead cat under a rag, ‘torn apart, its internal organs exposed in multiple places.’ For whatever stupid reason, Scott turns the cat’s head with his bare hand to show that ‘the cat’s eyes—both of them—had been torn out at the roots.’ [Poor pussy 😭] Scott and Boomer immediately assume Evan’s responsible, but Alicia’s smart enough to realise anyone could have done it because the trunk is so easy to open. The football guys are always playing gross jokes on each other too, so she thinks it was one of them.
At lunch later that day, Alicia gracefully congratulates Ellen on winning cheer captain as the latter joins her in the cafeteria. Ellen thanks her but is more interested in where Scott is, and Alicia hides her annoyance while suggesting he’s probably running laps for being late to practice. Ellen notices Evan staring at them and because she’s so vain, complains that he always seems to be undressing her with his eyes, even though Alicia is who he’s really staring at. Ellen’s also heard that Evan’s dating Mary Aldrich — ‘”The skinniest guy in school dating the fattest girl in the state!”‘ [Ugh, Ellen sucks]
Disgusted, Alicia tunes Ellen out as she continues her bullshit and notices a group of footballers, led by Boomer and Johnny, walk in and make their way over to Evan’s table. Next to Evan on the table is something about two-feet high and covered in a lacy cloth, and Johnny makes a grab for it. Surprisingly, Evan fights back and whacks Johnny’s hand with his lunch tray, which only gets him a wedgie in return as the other jocks egg Johnny on. Evan kicks backwards at Johnny, then tackles him to the ground as the cafeteria starts buzzing about the fight.
A teacher breaks it up before anything bad can happen and later during her free period, Alicia spots Evan waiting alone in the principal’s office with whatever object he’d been trying to protect. Realising she’s never actually had a conversation with him despite being neighbours ever since his parents died when he was nine, Alicia decides now is as good a time as any. They make awkward small talk about the fight, and Evan expresses how much he hates the jocks. Alicia mentions what Boomer said about his uncle dying last night, and Evan explains that after a bolt of lightning hit their house, he found Uncle Manfred on the floor. His heart apparently stopped on the way to the hospital, but they were able to revive him and the doctors couldn’t find anything wrong with him; it wasn’t a stroke or heart attack or anything like that, his heart had just stopped. He looked healthier than ever when Evan had visited this morning, and Dr. Hawke was released at his own behest.
When Alicia asks about whatever’s under the lacy cloth, Evan explains it’s an extra credit project for biology to make up for failing the test. He agrees to show it to her, and Alicia notes the closeness she feels with him already that she’ll never achieve with Scott — ‘Evan’s sensitivity appealed to her, and she felt his total acceptance of her, something she had never felt before with another human being.’ Evan lifts the cloth to reveal an anatomically correct clay model of a young woman with a cutaway view displaying her internal organs. The model looks amazing and lifelike, and it even has somewhat of a resemblance to Alicia with it’s windswept, auburn hair. She asks if it’s supposed to be her, and Evan assures her it’s not based on anyone, and he’d cut the fur off one of his cats to make the hair. After giving him an encouraging hug, Alicia heads off, wishing the clay model didn’t look so much like her.
Later in biology, Alicia’s sure the jocks will be searching for Evan after school, so she asks to borrow Scott’s car while he’s at football practice. He agrees, oblivious to the real reason she wants it, so that’s one problem solved! The other issue is the clay model; she’s hoping that their teacher won’t get around to having Evan show off his extra credit project, knowing the class will bully him for it’s striking resemblance to her. Unfortunately her prediction comes true when Evan falls asleep in class and Boomer yanks the lace cloth off the model, and there’s snickers all around when Johnny scribbles Alicia’s name on some paper and leans it against the clay woman. Boomer also sticks a pencil in its head before the teacher finally notices that he doesn’t have everyone’s attention. Johnny wakes Evan up with a pencil jab, and after plucking the pencil out of the clay model’s head, Evan throws it across the room, accidentally hitting the teacher in the face. Boomer then picks up a bit of paper that had fallen from Evan’s desk and announces it’s a love letter to Alicia! Evan angrily jumps out of his chair to grab the letter, but he suddenly collapses instead.
Evan quickly comes to and snatches the letter from Boomer, giving him a shove for good measure. The teacher scolds Evan for today’s behaviour, and Boomer comments on how violent Evan is and the pornography he’s written, referring to the letter. The teacher suggests Evan read it to the class, but Evan eats the paper and storms out of the room instead. Mad about how cruel everyone’s being to him, Alicia chases after Evan and finds him crying under a table in an empty classroom. [Poor Evan 😥 ] Her heart breaking for him, she tells him to wait for the halls to empty after school and meet her behind the stadium so she can drive him home, and she agrees to go back to class to collect his clay girl. The bell has run by this point and when Alicia reaches the now-empty classroom, the clay girl has disappeared. [These teens are so cruel to this poor boy for no reason]
Shortly after, Alicia realises she chose a pretty dumb meeting spot because it’s right near the locker room, where the footballers are getting changed. She was hoping to get Scott’s keys and learn what happened to the clay girl before Evan showed up, but she spots Evan approaching in the distance. She goes to meet him as the footballers are exiting the locker room, hoping to intercept Evan before they notice him, but a football comes flying overheard and hits poor Evan in the face, breaking his glasses and knocking him to the ground. Scott’s responsible, and he approaches Alicia to give her his keys, but she ignores him and rushes to Evan’s aid.
Alicia reprimands Scott as she dabs her hanky at the cut above Evan’s eye, and he reluctantly apologises after first denying it was on purpose. [I really hope Scott dies. Seriously, where’s the nice behaviour Alicia mentioned? We’ve seen nothing but bullying] He insists it wouldn’t have happened if Evan didn’t stick the dead cat in his car and offers to forget about the whole thing if Evan admits it was him. To Alicia’s annoyance, one of her least favourite people, linebacker Charlie Chadwick, who has a terrible mean streak, arrives to back Scott up, and both boys threaten to bash Evan unless he admits it. Alicia’s protests are ignored and Evan refuses to admit to it, and Charlie confesses that he was the one who put the cat in Scott’s car. An angry Scott wants to kick Charlie’s ass, but Charlie quickly grabs him in a wrestling hold and dangles him above the ground, taunting him. Alicia looks away because ‘watching her boyfriend hanging like that was a real embarrassment’ [Hahahaha hopefully it humbles the flog a bit] and spots Evan walking away, ignoring her calls to wait up.
Meanwhile, Ellen and Tiffany have been watching the altercation from afar, and Ellen can’t believe her good luck; she’s grown bored of Johnny and now has her sights set on Scott, and by defending Evan so much, Alicia is surely pushing Scott into Ellen’s open arms. All she has to do is exaggerate a little, so she quickly claims to have just seen Alicia kiss Evan. Ellen declares that she’s got an idea of how to teach Weird Evan a lesson, and it involves the clay girl Johnny stole from the classroom, although we don’t find out her plan just yet. [Boooo, I’m impatient]
On his stroll home, Evan is told by some dark voices in his head to punish everyone before Ellen and Tiffany pull up beside him in Ellen’s car. Evan’s wary of the girls, knowing they probably have something evil planned for him, but Ellen’s fake concern for his injuries is somewhat reassuring. Ellen tells him that Alicia has a thing for him and invites him to a surprise birthday party they’re throwing for her tomorrow night at Tiffany’s house. Tiffany assures him that no-one will do anything to him in her home, and he reluctantly agrees. Ellen tells him to bring roses for Alicia and offers to show him where to get some. The car is a two-seater, so Ellen suggestively states she’ll have to sit on his lap, and poor clueless Evan seems to forget all about being cautious of them.
The next evening is Alicia’s birthday, and we find her doing the dinner dishes after her mother’s gone to bed. She regrets not being able to help Evan yesterday and is annoyed that her friends seem to have turned their backs on her for defending him all the time. She’s still adamant that Scott’s a good guy, unlike Boomer and Charlie, [You keep insisting that, Alicia, but you’re yet to be proven right in any way] but he’s also on her case about Evan. The phone rings, and on the other end is Tiffany — ‘”Evan Walker is in my backyard with a hatchet. And he’s threatening to kill Scott with it!”‘ [These people all SUCK!]
Tiffany needs Alicia to come over right away because Evan will listen to her, and he’s swinging the axe at Scott already! Alicia rushes over to Tiffany’s backyard and spots Scott slumped over with a hatchet buried in his skull. He’s still moving so she rushes over to him, and he grabs her ankle and pulls her down for a smooch. ‘”Surprise!”‘ everyone cries, appearing from behind the trees and inside the house. Alicia’s too relieved to be mad, and Scott heads inside to wash the ketchup off his face. Everyone wishes Alicia a happy birthday, including Charlie, and Alicia hopes Tiffany’s cat is safe around him. Charlie laughs and explains he’d found the cat already dead in the street and has no idea what happened to its eyes, then starts teasing her about Evan. Alicia’s not in the mood for his shit heads inside to fetch one of Tiffany’s sweaters, since it’s a chilly evening.
Upstairs, she pauses at Tiffany’s parents’ open bedroom door, noticing Scott towelling off inside. She’s captivated by his physique and is overcome by a delicious thrill as she pushes open the door, only to find Ellen in the room already! Scott looks sheepish while Ellen nonchalantly explains she came to use the bathroom since the boys were hogging the one downstairs. She quickly disappears inside as Ellen storms over to Tiffany’s room and grabs a sweater. When she reaches the top of the stairs again, she spots Evan at the bottom with his hands behind his back, standing with Tiffany. Alicia hurries down the stairs and thanks him for coming, glaring at Tiffany, and Evan presents her with the bouquet of roses from behind her back. Alicia immediately starts sneezing and explains she’s severely allergic to that particular flower. [Those bitches!]
At Ellen’s instruction, Johnny brings out Evan’s present — his clay girl, except now it’s been ruined by makeup smeared on it’s face and candles stabbed into its torso. Everyone sings Happy Birthday before they swoop Evan up and pass him over their heads in a long line that ends with him being dumped into the pool. Things happen so quickly that Alicia barely has time to react, and when she finally makes her way to the backyard, Evan scurries over the back fence before she can reach him, leaving behind the crowd of bullies celebrating his humiliation. [They all need to die. Alicia needs to ditch these assholes too, otherwise she’s really no better]
Alicia somewhat redeems herself by forcing Scott to drive her around in search of Evan; there’s no signs of life at his house so Alicia figures he’s still walking around somewhere. It’s raining by this point and of course Scott is speeding, which pisses her off even more. She tells Scott he’s lucky she’s even speaking to him right now and silently realises no-one at that party is actually her friend:[All the more reason they should die soon!]
Tiffany was probably just using her birthday as an excuse to throw a big party. And Ellen certainly wasn’t her friend—not the way she was making passes at Scott. And Boomer and Johnny and Charlie were barely human. Alicia just had to find Evan. She’d never forgive herself if something terrible happened to him and it was her fault.
Scott insists he didn’t do anything to Evan, but Alicia’s positive he knew about it — ‘”You probably masterminded the whole thing.”‘ She also saw him put his arm around Ellen at one point earlier, but she doesn’t tell him that. [Yeah, he’s such a nice guy, Alicia!] As the car approaches the same intersection they almost ran into Dr. Hawke at, they crash head-on into another car. [Lol, hopefully Scott’s dead now]
A short time later, from inside the badly damaged car, Alicia hears footsteps outside and pleads for help. Only a cackling laughter answers her, and Alicia senses that whoever it is isn’t there to assist them before she blacks out. When she comes to, she’s outside the car and unable to see, but can hear Evan explaining to an officer how the second car sped away after hitting Alicia and Scott. Apparently Evan had pulled Alicia from the wreckage just before Scott’s car had exploded into a fireball, and Alicia wonders if Scott is OK. [I hope not] As she tries to sit up, Evan rushes to her side and she’s quickly placed on a gurney and moved into an ambulance. As the vehicle lurches away from the scene, she hears the cackling laughter again and begins to scream, but then she’s jabbed with a needle and quickly falls unconscious again.
Alicia finally wakes up after drifting in and out of consciousness for a few days and finds herself still unable to see. She can hear the usual hospital sounds around her as well as the voices of her mother, Boomer’s father Dr. Harrison, and Evan, and quickly argues back when she’s told her her eyes are fine. Dr. Harrison informs her the blindness seems to be trauma-induced, since her eyes are physically OK — ‘”Your eyes could see, but for some reason, your brain won’t let them.”‘ [This would be so scary!] She’s also informed that she kept mumbling about Freddy Krueger while she was in and out of sleep, but that isn’t elaborated on any further.
Evan assures her his uncle will be able to help her see again, which annoys Dr. Harrison because Hawke is retired and out of touch with today’s technological advances. Alicia refuses the sedative she’s offered, preferring to stay awake because her nightmares will likely be even worse than reality, and demands to leave the hospital today. After some back and forth, Dr. Harrison gives in, since there’s nothing more he can do for her at the moment. Alicia states that she’s got things to do, but quickly corrects herself, placing her hand over Evan’s and saying ‘”We have things to do.”‘ [Like what? Go on the titular blind date? I have no idea what she could possibly be talking about here]
Alicia spends the next few days growing resentful about everything: her blindness; her mother’s depression; her father’s death; her awful friends etc. She finally starts asking about Scott, but is only met with vague answers about his recovery in hospital, [Damn, he’s alive] and no-one comes to visit her except Evan. [Wtf is this friendship group?] Evan eventually admits that Scott dumped her for Ellen [I bet he’s lying though… Did he cause the crash, or is he just taking advantage of the situation?] and Alicia realises he’s the only one she can trust to be honest with her. [Alicia, plz] She begs to see Dr. Hawke, so Evan brings her to his house the following morning. Evan leads her into the basement of the mouldy, ramshackle house, where Dr. Hawke’s office is, and is forced back upstairs so his uncle can examine Alicia in private. Evan had given him copies of her X-rays so he’s already familiar with her situation, and upon careful inspection he concludes that her blindness is a result of damage to the optic nerve. He believes the nerves are receiving scrambled messages, but isn’t sure why; ‘”This is a very strange case.”‘
Dr. Hawke believes her sight will return if they replace the optic nerves, but it’s a delicate procedure [That I’m pretty sure isn’t an real thing] and the chances of success are about 1 in 3. Alicia will need at least two eye donors, perhaps more, [As in at least two people have to give up an eye each?? Or four potential eyes? Why?] and a desperate Alicia resolves to do anything necessary to regain her vision. Meanwhile, Evan’s stashed himself inside the crawl space next to the basement stairs and has been eavesdropping the whole time. He feels responsible for blind Alicia now, especially because she’s almost exclusively depending on him, ‘just as he had planned.’ [Oop… so he was the driver of the other car?] He stares at Alicia through the peephole that gives him a view of the examining room and vows to do anything to help her see again, ‘to make the blind girl his.’ [Because women are objects to be owned!]
Evan asks Alicia to the homecoming dance as he escorts her home, and Alicia can’t believe he wants to go with a blind girl. She turns him down because she doesn’t feel stable enough to have a good time due to her blindness, and she can sense his disappointment. Tiffany suddenly appears, wanting to talk to Alicia, and drags her over to her house after being standoffish to Evan. Inside, Alicia scolds Tiffany for being so rude to Evan when he’s been such a big help, which Ellen, who’s also there, thinks is hilarious. The girls tell Alicia she wouldn’t think he’s such a big help if she knew what Evan did to Scott, and Alicia demands to know what they’re referring to.
Of course, we have to jump over to Evan, [Because SUSPENSE!!!!!] who’s suddenly confronted by Boomer and Johnny in his driveway after they pull up in Johnny’s Jeep. The bullies kick and punch him, declaring it payback for Scott and Alicia and ordering him to stay away from them. Evan only pisses them off more when he insists Ellen’s been making moves on Scott since day one and even sat in Evan’s lap in her car last week. Johnny pulls his little knife out and wonders if he should Evan for what he did to Scott — ‘”an eye for an eye.”‘ [Does he mean literally? Did Scott lose an eye?] Instead, Johnny pulls Evan’s clay doll out of his car, jams the knife into its head and then backs over it with his Jeep. Boomer and Johnny are scared off by Old Man Murphy, Johnny’s grandfather, who suddenly appears and fires a warning shot from his shotgun, ordering the boys piss off. They drive off, and Evan thanks Old Man Murphy, who reveals he’s never liked Johnny [Mood] before departing himself. Johnny retrieves the mangled clay doll from the gutter, which still has the knife jammed into it:
Evan removed a handkerchief from his pocket—Alicia’s handkerchief—and gingerly pulled the knife out of the clay girl’s head. He noticed the red dragon design on the handle of the knife and decided he liked it. The knife was his now, as far as he was concerned.
He carried the clay girl into his backyard and dug a hole next to where he had buried the cats.
Yes, he would give the girl a proper burial.
He would give them all proper burials.
[Oop, I guess he is a cat murderer] Back to Alicia, who’s just been told about Scott’s mangled face. According to Ellen, it looks like it’s been raked with a sharp fork, and that was when the bandages were still on. I have no idea how she knows what’s beneath the bandages because he hasn’t let anyone see him since they’ve come off, but okeh. Alicia refuses to believe them because ‘they’re not the most devoted, trustworthy friends a girl could ask for’ and they haven’t really explained why they think Evan’s responsible, but the girls insist they’re telling the truth. Tiffany argues that sure, a lot of the rumours about Evan were made up by the guys, but there’s truth to some of it, like his connection to dead cats — Tiffany’s seen him bury one in his yard and Charlie’s seen him carrying one late at night. He also talks to himself a lot, like whole conversations, as overheard by Boomer, and Boomer’s father the night Dr Hawke flatlined and was brought back to life. The whole group is scared for what Evan might do next, not only to them but to Alicia as well. Tiffany thinks Evan’s schizophrenic, but Alicia’s sure she doesn’t even know what that means and insists it’s all lies and hyperbole because that’s what she needs to believe.
Meanwhile, Evan’s greeted by his uncle as he enters his home and upon questioning, confirms his love for Alicia. Unfortunately, she doesn’t share those feelings, to which Dr. Hawke adds, ‘”Not yet,”‘ and reminds Evan there’s no gain without pain…
Sometime later, Evan’s waiting for the voices in his head to give him some ideas of how to dispose of his tormentors and decides to call Alicia. Not that they needed a reason, but the boys had beat him up because of what happened to Scott, and ‘now Alicia would know. Or suspect.’ [Does that mean he did injure Scott’s face himself? Maybe Evan witnessed the crash and decided to have a little fun while Scott and Alicia were passed out. But surely he was the other driver] Alicia seems awkward on the phone so Evan admits he knows about the rumours and assures her that everything is a lie – ‘”I actually saved a guy’s life, and they still hate me. Still tell lies about me.”‘ Alicia tells him not to worry about it, and a relieved Evan asks about homecoming again. Alicia’s demeanour seems to change as she explains she’ll think about it, and he reminds her several times he’s here if she needs him at all, confident she’ll get her sight back one way or another.
The next day, Evan takes Alicia to the hospital so she can have some more tests done. She’s super nervous and is reminded of her nightmare last night as she’s lead into the examination room. In the awful dream, she was leaving the hospital as two corpses were being wheeled in on gurneys — Boomer with his legs reduced to bloody stumps, and Tiffany with her eyes missing. [Maybe Freddy can make it a reality] After some arguing, the doctor allows Evan to stay in the room for the scans, and as the machine whirs loudly, Alicia overhears him tell Evan not to mess with something, and Evan replies something about wires being frayed. At that same moment, Alicia’s entire body is painfully shocked several times:
Another shock hit her and something that smelled like rotten eggs filled the air. She felt tiny sizzling-crackling sparks raining down on her face and into her hair—
Alicia gagged back the bitter taste of bile that filler her mouth.
And then her head floated away into an ominous dark cloud.
Evan apparently saves her life by pulling the machine’s plug, and she’s super grateful to him as he drops her off at her psychiatrist appointment a short time later. [Umm, is she even OK right now? Was she even checked over?] Alicia has to go through everything that happened all over again with the doctor, and an hour later she leaves the appointment feeling worse off. On the drive home, Evan mentions homecoming again, and Alicia tells him if she does go, it’ll be with him. She’s still in the running for homecoming queen apparently, and Alicia dryly remarks that she’s got the sympathy vote locked down. As Evan’s escorting her to her front door, her mother burst out, relieved she’s OK. There was a hit-and-run accident about an hour ago and Boomer’s legs were run over. [It seems Evan was a busy boy while Alicia was with the psychiatrist!] Tiffany had been with him but she hasn’t been found, [Is she in Evan’s basement having her eyes plucked out??? Did Freddy make this happen, or is it just a coincidence Boomer and Tiffany have seemingly ended up how they were in the dream?] and Alicia faints from the shocking news.
Sometime later, Alicia’s alone in the living room despairing over her friends. She’s completely helpless to do anything to help find Tiffany, and she realises that her nightmare had come true. As she’s wondering if Tiffany had been right about Evan, Ellen knocks on the door. Ellen reveals there’s still no word on Tiffany and that Boomer’s lost his legs, but he’ll live. [Lame] Ellen complains about not being able to see either boy at the hospital, although Charlie was able to, and then she offers to take Alicia to visit them. It dawns on Alicia that no-one’s offered to take her to see Scott and she’d never even thought of asking, but politely declines, wanting to wait because she’s in such bad shape as well. Before Ellen leaves, Alicia asks her to come by tomorrow, to which she agrees. [Is this the start of an actual friendship?!]
We briefly follow Ellen now as she regrets visiting Alicia; she’d done it to be kind, but feels like she only made things worse. Alicia’s probably being smothered by attention right now, compared to Ellen who’s getting none because her problems are invisible:
Nobody could possibly understand. The rise and fall of Ellen. One day nothing. Then suddenly a curling iron, some lipstick and a bra, and she was captain of the cheerleading squad with a good chance of dating the best-looking player in the school.
Now it was gone. All of it. The football player was a mess. Football games were being cancelled. Ellen was living in such a state of constant fear that she could barely remember to put her lipstick on in the morning.
Tears came to her eyes and began to roll down her cheeks as she walked toward home. Nobody even knew that she was terrified for her own safety. Nobody knew that she was starting to have nightmares of her own. Probably no one would even care.
Ellen allowed the tears to keep falling. Captain of the varsity cheerleaders, she thought to herself. Some thrill. Some honor. She hadn’t even gone to practice all week.
[Poor, selfish Ellen] At the same time, Old Man Murphy is having his nightly cigar underneath the elm tree in his front yard as Ellen walks past. He calls out a hello, recognising her as his grandson’s girlfriend, but Ellen appears startled and quickens her pace. As he’s heading back toward his house, he hears what may have been a muffled scream or an animal screeching coming from the direction Ellen was walking. [I think we’ve found another eye donor!] Unsure because of his bad hearing, Murphy decides to investigate but can’t see much in the darkness. There’s another sound, like a dragging noise, and as he turns back towards his house so he can get his shotgun, he glimpses someone running away…
Sometime the next day/evening, Alicia’s on the swing set in the backyard, wondering why Ellen hasn’t visited yet. She can’t believe she’d even been looking forward to a visit from a girl she doesn’t even like! She hears footsteps approaching, and she’s quickly embraced by Scott’s powerful arms. Alicia kisses him long and hard and notices that one of his hands feels like a big round club. Scott pulls away, explaining the hand is in a cast because of what Evan did to him. He came to warn her about how dangerous Evan is, and as usual Alicia refuses to believe it, even though she was having her doubts earlier.
Alicia runs her hands all over Scott’s face to conjure up an image of what he now looks like. His cheeks are pitted with lines and there’s a deep gash along his forehead, his nose is smashed flat and he has some teeth missing. Scott explains that Evan ‘”did my nose and forehead, my teeth, and my hand with the tire iron while you were out cold.” Scott had passed out himself by then, so he’s not sure what Evan did to the rest of his face. He admits he didn’t see Evan do it, but he knows Evan saved him so he could torture him and live the rest of his life horribly disfigured. This is the first time Scott’s left the house since the bandages came off because he can’t even look in the mirror without throwing up, and he’s only here now because Alicia can’t physically see him. He’s positive Evan’s gone after Boomer, Tiffany and Ellen too, but Alicia would rather discuss why Scott hasn’t been here for her when she needed him most. Scott reiterates that he doesn’t want to be seen in public and pulls away as Alicia swears she loves him and doesn’t care what he looks like.
Scott rudely disappears without another word, and then Alicia hears the phone ringing. She makes her way into the kitchen and answers it to hear Evan once again asking her to the homecoming dance, which is tomorrow night. Alicia can’t believe the kind, gentle boy is still asking this somewhat insensitive question when it’s the last thing on her mind, but she finally confirms that she’ll go with him anyway.
It’s time for the homecoming dance now, which is in the school gym at 9pm, with the queen crowned at 10:30. [This seems pretty late for a school event… is this normal? We don’t have proms or homecomings in Australia] Evan smells like mothballs, and Alicia can hardly believe she agreed to come with him. She’s a girl of her word, though, so here they are. She just knows everyone’s staring at Evan and his blind date, the only date he could get. [We love when the title is mentioned!] Alicia surprises herself by having a little bit of fun, and before she knows it it’s time for the queen to be crowned. She hopes to win, even if it is by a sympathy vote, because she really doesn’t want her pretend-friend Ellen to win. Unfortunately for Alicia, Ellen is named the winner, but Evan points out that Ellen isn’t even here, which means if Alicia is runner-up, she’ll be crowned. All of a sudden there’s a big commotion nearby and using her ears, Alicia figures out that Johnny has attacked Evan. As he’s finally pulled off and led away, Johnny accuses Evan of killing Ellen and promises that he’ll pay for it.
A short time later, Alicia and Evan are with the principal in his office. Alicia’s worried about Ellen, who wouldn’t miss tonight unless something extreme kept her away. The principal informs Alicia that she’s the official homecoming queen now, but Alicia’s not in any mood to celebrate. Neither the principal nor Evan seems worried about the newly missing girl, which concerns Alicia even more. Given everything that’s happened, she can’t believe it when Evan suggests they stop for ice cream on the way home — ‘He had just been hit and kicked, beaten up at the homecoming dance. Ellen was missing, Tiffany was missing, Boomer was tragically crippled, Scott mutilated, and she was blind!’
Alicia just wants to be alone so thankfully, Evan drives her straight home, but she’s startled and pulls away when he leans over and tries to kiss her while parked in her driveway. This doesn’t stop Evan, who’s basically trying to climb on top of her despite her protests and insistence that she likes him only as a friend. As she fights him off, she manages to get the passenger door open and sprawls out, then is saved by her mother who turns on the porch light and asks what’s going on out here. As Alicia walks unsteadily toward her mother’s voice, the hearse tears out of the driveway and into the night.
Evan calls to apologise the next morning and tells Alicia he’d die for her, and although Alicia forgives him, she thinks seeing each other again probably isn’t a good idea. To her surprise, Evan doesn’t seem upset and tells her the second reason he called: it seems Dr. Hawke has spotted something on her X-rays he didn’t notice before, so he’d like her to return for another examination, because there’s a very good chance he can help her! [Or is he planning on swapping her eyes out for Tiffany’s or Ellen’s?!] Alicia is ecstatic but isn’t sure whether she should go because although she’s grateful for everything he’s done for her, she feels like she’d be taking advantage of Evan. He assures her it’s fine and offers to come get her right now.
Meanwhile, Scott’s on his way over to visit Alicia, hoping she’ll be home. It’s night time now, so I’m confused when he spots Evan leading Alicia into his house, because their phone call took place in the morning. [And he was planning on getting her as soon as he hung up, so it can’t be the evening now…] Although he wants to rush over and grab her from Evan’s clutches, he remembers her reaction last time he tried to warn her and decides to park across the street and wait for her to return home so he can talk to her away from Evan’s influence.
In Evan’s basement, Dr. Hawke explains he’ll use use an ophthalmoscope to examine the interior of Alicia’s eyes. It will be a little painful, so he wants to put her to sleep first. [Yep, they’re gonna do a transplant!] Alicia’s nervous, but doesn’t even have time to protest before Evan’s holding her shoulders and an apparatus is fitted over her nose and mouth, and soon she’s drifting off to sleep.
It’s time for a nightmare now, as Alicia watches Dr. Hawke standing over her wearing a surgical mask. She can hear him sharpening some kind of instrument as she takes in the rest of the room. A boiler roars to life behind him, and from the high ceilings she spots three pulley chains dangling down, a sharp hook gleaming at the end of each one. Alicia blinks, and when her eyes open again a corpse swings on each hook — Tiffany, with tyre tread marks over her crushed chest; Ellen, with Johnny’s switchblade embedded in her skull; and Evan, a sad, peaceful smile on his face. All three have empty eye sockets, and Alicia realises she needs to escape before she ends up like them.
The doctor, his attention now on Alicia, chuckles and raises the surgical instrument he’d been sharpening — a razor glove:
One by one the razor-tipped fingers unfurled from a tight fist. At the tip of each spike was an eyeball—four in all.
“These wouldn’t do,” said the doctor in a gravelly voice, casually flicking the eyeballs away. “So I had to use Evan’s.”
His face was very close to hers, now, and she could see a face ravaged by burnt scar tissue.
The doctor cackled madly. “What a shame. You know, I could see he had eyes only for you.”
Dr. Hawke ripped off the surgical mask.
Except it wasn’t Dr. Hawke.
A scream ripped out of Alicia’s throat.
“Freddy Krueger!”
Outside, Scott is woken from a horrible nightmare of his own [Or was the nightmare we just read his? It’s super unclear] by a scream that he recognises as Alicia’s.
Back to Alicia, who feels strong arms around her and wonders if it’s still a nightmare. The last one she’d had was the worst one of all — she’d dreamt that Freddy Krueger had killed Dr. Hawke the night of the lightning storm and had been ‘living inside the doctor’s hollow shell. Living to kill. To kill her friends. Then her.’ [OK, so that’s what really happened then?] Opening her eyes, she realises she can see again, and it’s Scott who’s currently embracing her. [Whose eyes does she have? Or did this whole ordeal fix the mental block preventing her from seeing?] As she takes in her surroundings, she can just make out three human forms burning inside the blazing boiler. [Who? Tiffany, Ellen and Evan? Where’s Dr. Hawke?] She wonders if the nightmare was actually real and turns back to Scott, taking in his disfigured face. Instead of repulsion, she just feels love, which is nice I guess. He unties her from the shackles keeping her bound to the chair, and Alicia realises he mustn’t know she can see again because he’s clearly not self-conscious. [I mean, you haven’t mentioned you can see and he has no idea wtf you were doing here, so why would he assume you could?] Then he takes her in his arms and carries her outside, and the book ends with a brutal epilogue for poor Weird Evan Walker:
In the hellish void of the boiler room, amid the damp rot smell and clots of dried rat droppings, within the cold, gray walls and next to the bright, crackling furnace—inside the house of terror that Freddy ruled—sat Evan—or what had once, in another lifetime, been Evan. He was strapped into an examination chair.
“Evan?” a girl’s voice called.
“Watch us,” said another.
Dr. Freddy had replaced Evan’s eyeballs.
Tiffany’s body was crushed, and Ellen still had Johnny’s knife embedded in her skull. Dead Tiffany and dead Ellen were both dressed in cheerleading uniforms, practicing their jumps for Evan. They moved in a mechanical, rag-doll kind of way. Then Evan noticed the strings that were attached to their limbs. Each time a string jerked, their arms and legs would move.
Evan followed the strings up toward the rafters of the basement. He saw Freddy Krueger sitting comfortably astride one of the wooden beams, his legs dangling.
He was the puppeteer.
Evan had always wanted to be noticed by these beautiful girls, and now, at last, he had them all to himself. Unfortunately, they were now so grotesque looking that they made him want to puke.
But Evan had no choice but to keep watching. Uncle Freddy had sewn his eyelids open.
Evan would spend the rest of eternity gazing at what he could never have in real life.
Be careful what you wish for….
Final thoughts
This was a fun read, although the pacing was a bit weird. Alicia and Scott’s crash didn’t happen until 86 pages in, and Boomer and Tiffany’s accident was 40 pages after that. It’s only a 156-page book, too, so I would have preferred if stuff kicked off a lot earlier. On the other hand, the first 86 pages didn’t feel like filler or anything like that because they were beneficial to fleshing out the characters and show us the extent of the bullying Evan suffers through. Even the most minor characters, like Old Man Murphy and Charlie, were given clear personalities, which to me is a sign of a good writer!
I enjoyed how we were made to feel sympathy for Evan for most of the book, until we finally got to see things from his perspective and learned that he really is somewhat deranged. I think it’s a little unfair how Tiffany and Ellen were murdered when they were nowhere near as bad as Boomer and Scott, who were disfigured for life. But knowing these two, they probably think their fates are worse than death, so maybe the girls got off easy in comparison. Not sure why Charlie and Johnny were able to avoid punishment, though! Evan got a really bad ending, too, which I don’t think is entirely warranted — if we overlook the cat murders, he wasn’t too bad a guy, and for all we know the relentless bullying made him that way in the first place!
I’m still unsure whether Evan caused Alicia and Scott’s crash or not. I don’t think it’s clearly stated one way or another, so I’m not sure what to believe. I also found the Freddy Krueger/nightmare aspect confusing. He was clearly causing Alicia’s nightmares, showing her the fates of her friends and all that stuff, but his end goal seemingly wasn’t to kill Alicia? Why was he trying to help her get her eyesight back? Or was he going to kill her, but she was conveniently saved by Scott? Also, what even happened to Freddy in the end?? If we’re taking Alicia’s dreams as the truth, then he really was living as the deceased Dr. Hawke but there was no mention of him when Alicia woke up at the end. I’m also not sure if it even was Evan or Freddy-Hawke killing the teens, so some clarity there would have been nice too.
Oh well, all in all there’s some glaring issues there but it was still a good read and I’m looking forward to the rest of the series! 63 unfortunate cats buried in the backyard out of 81!
Check out my recaps for the rest of this series here or by clicking the corresponding tag to the right.
