Tagline: Getting into college can be murder…
Back tagline: They knew cheating would be risky.
But they never thought it could be deadly.
Summary: When Shelli and her friends cheat on their college placement test, they think they have just secured their future. Until Shelli’s best friend, Jennifer, threatens to turn them all in. Now they must prevent the truth from being revealed. And they will stop at nothing, even murder…
But their plan backfires.
And they suddenly realize that they are the ones in danger!
First impressions: OK, that giant screaming face is fkn hilarious hahahaha. This cover feels so, like, ’90s teen soapie? It was published in 1998, but it definitely has a sort of 2000s/millennial vibe. I prefer the drawn covers of the original series, but I’m not totally against this new style. Maybe Stine was trying to appeal to a newer audience? Either way, I’m not really sure what we’re looking at here. Is that shattered glass, just a random pattern, or something else entirely? I really can’t get over that big screaming face, it’s so funny hahaha. Out of the four New Fear Street books, this one looked and sounded the most interesting, because as we know, I’m all about a group of teens trying to keep a secret with deadly consequences. Let’s hope it’s a good one!
Recap
Roll call:
Shelli – Our protagonist who gets caught up in the murder plot.
Jennifer – Shelli’s best friend and the target of the murder plot.
Mayra – The anxious friend.
Liam – The cool, calm and collected friend.
Del – The strong, muscular friend.
Danny – The intimidating friend who comes up with the murder plot.
We begin with our protagonist, Shelli Hayes, arriving at her good friend Liam’s house for a bit of partying. There’s three reasons for Shelli and her group of friends to celebrate tonight – it’s Friday, the start of the weekend; it’s winter break, which means a week off school; but most importantly, the college prep test is over! With Liam’s parents in the Bahamas, his house is the perfect place to celebrate with some potato chips and soda [I hope no-one brought alcohol, that’s a big no-no for Shadyside teens!].
Inside Liam’s house, we’re introduced to Shelli’s friends – redheaded Danny; muscular, shy Del; worrywart Mayra [What’s with these dumb names?] and cool, casual Liam. Shelli’s fun-loving bestie Jennifer is in the bathroom, but the others are eager to kick off the festivities so they bust out the cans of soda, and Liam makes a toast to ‘”Perfect scores for everyone!”‘ on the college prep test. As they all joke around about the test, Jennifer returns from the bathroom and she’s not impressed with their gloating:
“Jen! What is wrong with you?” Shelli asked.
“The prep test—that’s what’s wrong,” Jennifer replied. “We bought it from somebody over the Internet, remember? We already had the answers. We all cheated.”
[Geez, what a buzzkill]. Liam points out that no-one twisted her arm, but Jennifer feels super guilty about the whole thing. Shelli insists what’s done is done and they can’t change anything, but Jennifer’s never cheated on anything before and just feels soOooOo00OOoOo000Ooo horrible. Unfortunately for the gang, Jennifer’s already made up her mind and is going to admit what they did to the principal as soon as school starts back [Woooooow, Jennifer. Confess to your part in it, but don’t ruin everyone else’s lives too! What a bad friend].
We learn that the gang all make good grades, so would have all been accepted into college regardless, but the outside pressures they each felt to get into the best colleges lead them to cheat [I feel like American kids are under so much pressure to do well in school just to get into an expensive college and sign up to a lifetime of never-ending debt. And the whole Ivy League thing is silly to me too, an education is an education, ya know? I’m so glad the education system is so different in Australia]. Everyone begs Jennifer not to turn them in and when that doesn’t work, they plead with her to just leave them out of it, but Jennifer refuses because that would be a lie and she needs to tell the truth [I mean, I can understand how she’s feeling but it’s really unfair to screw over your friends for something you were more than happy to take part in???].
Shelli fidgets with the heart-shaped pendant around her neck, which Jennifer made for her back in first grade, and although Jennifer notices it, even the thought of backstabbing her lifelong bestie doesn’t deter her from her plan to tattle. Danny’s super mad and insists they won’t let her do this, but Jennifer sneers at him because ‘”What are you going to do? Kill me?”‘ [Apparently they will, darl, don’t worry about that xx].
Jennifer heads home, leaving the others wondering what to do. Since it’ll be their word against Jennifer’s, they could say she bought the test but told them it was last year’s, so they used it to practice not knowing they were cheating, but they realise this won’t work because the school will want to know why they didn’t say anything when they realised the prep test was the same [I doubt the school would have expected them to jump up and announce they’d used this same test for practice. It’s not like they could give every student a brand new test then and there, right? I guess they could get a new test at a later date though]. Mayra hates Jennifer for what she’s doing and hopes she has an accident on the icy roads on her way home [Wow Mayra, tell us how you really feel], and this gives Danny boy an idea:
“Jennifer practically said it herself. The only way to stop her is to kill her,” Danny replied. “Well, what if we set up an accident for her?” His eyes flashed excitedly. “And what if she does die?”
To Shelli’s horror, Danny’s completely serious and it doesn’t take long before Liam and Del are on his side, too [Yes, let’s murder our friend instead of facing the consequences of our actions!]. Jennifer’s planning to kill them academically, so what’s her one life for their five? Shelli argues it’s not the same thing at all [Which is true], and Mayra points out they’d never get away with it anyway. The boys argue they can make it look like an accident, like cutting her brakes or something [Cutting someone’s breaks is definitely a deliberate murder and would not look like an accident at all lol] and Shelli’s disgusted at how quickly they’ve gone from whether to kill Jennifer to how to kill Jennifer [It was a pretty fast jump!].
They decide only one of them needs to kill Jennifer while the others provide the murderer with an alibi, and seeing no other choice, Mayra eventually sides with the boys. Rightfully, Shelli’s still not keen on killing her bestest friend in the whole wide world, but Danny implies they’ll kill her too if she goes against them [I love how quick these people are to turn on each other hahahaha], so she reluctantly agrees.
The gang holds a lottery with numbers written on bits of paper to determine who the unlucky murderer will be, with the highest number doing the deed, and big Danny is the chosen one. He quickly comes up with a plan to kill Jennifer at her job at a secondhand clothes store in a little strip mall. She finishes at 9pm Saturday nights, which is tomorrow, and all the other stores are usually shut by then, so Danny can wait for her in the empty car park and run her down as she leaves.
If anyone else is there, he won’t do it, but he’s willing to risk someone recognising his car anyway since the gang already has plans to hang out at Shelli’s place tomorrow night, so the rest of them can provide an airtight alibi. Liam promises they’ll all back him up because ‘”We’re all in this together”‘.
Shelli’s still against killing her best friend, but a creepy look from Danny scares her into submission:
A shudder rushed through her body as Shelli realized that she was a little afraid of him.
I have to pretend to go along with everyone, she said to herself. If I go against them, Danny might even kill me too!
[You’ve got a great group of friends here, Shelli]. The next night before the gang comes over, Shelli finds herself wondering what Danny’s doing at that moment. Would he really go through with killing Jennifer? [Have you really not tried to warn your best friend that her friends are trying to kill her, Shelli? Wow]. Shelli’s parents are heading out for the night, but as she says goodbye, Mrs. Hayes notices how tense Shelli is. She suspects her daughter is nervous about how well she did on the college prep test and instead of comforting her, reinforces how important doing good on the testis and reminds her to make a start on her application essays as well [It’s that kind of attitude that forced Shelli to cheat in the first place, Mum!].
Later, Shelli, Liam, Mayra and Del are anxiously waiting for 9pm to come and go. None of them are feeling very social and instead are super nervous about their plan and whether or not Danny can go through with the murder. Shelli wants to believe he’ll change his mind, but can’t stop herself imagining the hit-and-run that will kill her best friend [Have I mentioned that Jennifer’s Shelli’s best friend?]. The gang is expecting Danny to arrive around 9:15ish, but there’s still no sign of him by 10:30, so they decide to drive to Jennifer’s work to see what happened [Maybe he’s been busted already!], and sure enough, something’s gone down:
A big crowd of people stood behind a string of yellow tape, chattering excitedly and craning their necks to see into the parking lot.
Three police cars and an ambulance sat inside the lot, their red and blue lights flashing through the darkness.
Shelli can’t believe Danny went through with it after all and feels guilty that she didn’t try to warn her Jennifer [I reckon Jennifer would have been too scared to tattle if Shelli told her their plan. Then no-one finds out about the cheating and no-one dies! I’m sure Jennifer would value her life more than telling the truth, like anyone else would]. And that’s when Shelli notices who the police are interviewing – Jennifer [!!!].
The gang also spots Danny’s car ‘crumpled like paper’ against a light pole, a puddle of blood pooling on the road beneath the driver’s door. They watch in horror as a policeman pries Danny’s door open with a crowbar and his mangled body is revealed:
He was hunched in the drivers seat. Pinned by the steering wheel. “Ohhh,” Shelli moaned, seeing that the wheel had crushed his chest.
His head was thrown back, the neck twisted at a weird angle.
Strips of skin hung from his face, oozing blood.
A jagged shard of glass stuck into one eye like a dagger. The other stared blindly across the parking lot.
[Oooh, I wonder how that happened! Did Jennifer have something to do with it?]. As the others drive past, Jennifer spots the car and stares directly at Shelli, who notices the ‘cold and empty’ expression on her face as well as the blood all over her jacket.
Back at Shelli’s, Liam turns on the news, which just so happens to be conveniently reporting on Danny’s death. It’s believed he was instantly killed when his car ‘”swerved out of control on the icy pavement” and crashed into the light pole, a tragic accident that serves as ‘”a reminder to us all to drive carefully”‘. Del notes that nothing was said about Jennifer and mentions the blood all over her jacket, which no-one can explain. Liam points out their luck that Jennifer didn’t know what they were up to [One of you just died, Liam. That ain’t luck] but they’re still in the same mess they were yesterday and something has to be done about her.
Shelli can’t believe they’re still considering murdering Jennifer after what’s just happened, and the group decides that maybe Danny’s death will make Jennifer reconsider snitching on them. Instead of Shelli [You know, Jennifer’s best friend] being the one to talk to Jennifer, Del offers to do it, since they’re both on the tech crew for the school play and will be helping build sets on Monday afternoon [These people are stupid. Shelli’s been friends with Jennifer the longest, so why wouldn’t you get her to talk some sense into Jennifer??].
On Monday, Shelli, Liam and Mayra arrive at Shadyside High at 4:30pm, eager to catch Del leaving to suss how the conversation went. Over the next half hour, they see other students leaving, but none of them are Del. Shortly after five, Liam gasps and points at the second storey of the school:
Shelli glanced up.
It all happened so quickly. But to Shelli, it seems like slow motion.
She saw the dark figure in the high window.
Then she heard a scream. The shrill crash of shattering glass.
Then she saw the body tumble out.
Arms flailing. Legs thrashing.
The body dropped straight down.
Screaming the whole way.
The scream ended in a heavy thud.
The body bounced once. Trembled. Then lay still.
It’s Del, Shelli knew without even seeing his face.
It’s Del. I know it.
We find out later that night as Shelli, Mayra and Liam talk back at Shelli’s place that Del’s survived the fall. He’s currently in a stable position with ‘a cracked shoulder and collarbone, a broken leg, and a bad concussion’ [Luckyyyyyy!]. Soon Jennifer arrives, wanting to be with her friends after everything that’s happened. Shelli notices she still has a cold, flat expression on her face, but decides she’s just in shock after seeing Danny die.
Jennifer asks how Del’s doing, and Shelli explains that authorities believe that because Del was in the old part of the building [Was Shadyside High rebuilt at some point?], where the window frames were rotting, the window must have given way when he leaned on it [Seems like a bit of a stretch, but unless anyone knew Jennifer was up there, it’s the most likely explanation I guess. In that case though, wouldn’t they think it’s weird he was up there in the first place? And can’t authorities tell when someone fell from a height vs jumped or being pushed by how far away they landed? Wow, not Shadyside police being incompetent again!].
The gang asks Jennifer what exactly happened Saturday night when Danny died, and she explains how she recognised Danny’s car, but got worried when it began speeding on the icy road. It ended up smashing into the pole, and Jennifer gives them the gory details about the blood seeping from the car door [Grosssssss, but a cool visual to imagine!]. Jennifer also reveals she’s got something to tell them – she knows why Danny was there that night, and she knew it the second she saw his car moving towards her[!!!!]:
“And I know something else, too—I know that you guys sent him.”
“B-but…” Mayra sputtered.
“Shut up!” Jennifer snapped. “Don’t try to deny it. Danny came to kill me, and you all were in on it.” Her mouth twisted bitterly. “So, friends, you leave me no choice. Now I have to kill the rest of you—one by one.”
[Hahahaha good on her, tbh. Love that it took her less time to figure out they were trying to kill her than it took them to come up with the idea, lol. Hard to believe these people were all close friends once]. Although they think she’s joking and that it’s not funny, Jennifer assures them ‘”Del didn’t think it was funny either”‘, and Shelli realises it’s not so hard to believe that Jennifer would try to kill them, especially if she’s correctly guessed they were trying to do the same to her [It’s what you all deserve xx].
Jennifer leaves and Liam insists they do another lottery to see who gets to kill her this time, but Shelli insists Danny’s dead and Del’s injured because they’ve already taken things too far. Liam believes that Jennifer was just saying all that to scare them and argues that whether she knows the truth or not, she could go to the police with her suspicions at any point, so they absolutely have to kill her before she can strike [I’m honestly #TeamJennifer, she’s just trying to protect herself. They made their beds, now they gotta lay in it! >:D].
Unfortunately, fate allocates Mayra the highest number in this new lottery, which works out perfectly because since she’s a nervous wreck 24/7 anyway, she’s the least suspicious of the three and the last one Jennifer would expect to try murder her. Liam and Shelli agree to help her, and Liam formulates a plan for Mayra to phone Jennifer tomorrow night, claiming to be on her side now and wanting to go to the principal. Mayra will arrange a meeting at a certain bridge that doesn’t get many visitors this time of year, where once she gives the signal, Shelli and Liam will come out of hiding behind some trees, run across the bridge and all three will shove Jennifer off [It makes sense, but like, surely Jennifer will have her own plan to push Mayra off instead, right?].
The next evening, Liam picks Shelli up to go hide at the bridge, with Mayra and Jennifer set to meet there at 6:30. Shelli secretly hopes that Jennifer doesn’t show up so she has more time to think of another way out of this mess, ‘a way that doesn’t mean killing her’ [Bruh, just warn her. Danny was the one you were scared of going against and he’s dead now anyway?].
When they arrive at the bridge, there’s a bunch of police cars there and they’re told to move along. As they try to leave, Shelli spots a man with a dog that police were talking to earlier walking away from the scene and asks if he knows what’s going on. He tells them he was walking through the gorge when something went flying over his head ‘”and landed at the bottom of the gorge”‘. It was a girl about Shelli’s age, with so much blood everywhere that the man suspects ‘”every bone in her body must be broken”‘. Shelli’s desperate to know who it was, and the man reveals the dead girl’s name is Mayra [Did Jennifer trick Mayra into going there earlier and then shove her off? Why wouldn’t Mayra have told the others?].
Later that night, Shelli tunes in to the 10pm news for the full story on Mayra’s death. Turns out it’s been ruled a suicide after her parents found a note on her computer:
I’M SORRY I CHEATED ON THE EXAM. I CAN’T LIVE WITH MYSELF ANYMORE.
[Oooh, did Jennifer sneak into Mayra’s room and forge a suicide note? Sneaky sneaky]. Shelli wonders if maybe Mayra did commit suicide [She was very anxious and hesitant to go through with the bridge plan after all, so it’s definitely a possibility], but Liam calls in a panic to announce he’ll be killing Jennifer tonight! It’s their only choice – the police will want to talk to all of them soon, since they were friends with Mayra and Danny, and it’s only a matter of time before Jennifer tells them what she knows. Shelli urges him to calm down so they can think of another way, but Liam’s made up his mind and tells her he can handle Jennifer before hanging up.
Jennifer decides she’ll try to stop Liam and jumps in the car, heading to his place [He literally just told you he was going out to kill Jennifer, why would he be home??????]. Of course his car isn’t there, so she tries Jennifer’s place. HIs car’s not there either, but Jennifer’s mum’s home and reveals Liam was here a few minutes ago looking for Jennifer too, but she’s at the school helping to build sets for the play again.
Arriving at the school, Shelli sees Liam’s empty car alone in the car park and heads inside the auditorium. It’s dark and empty, and there’s a constant creaking sound she can’t explain. Shelli eventually finds the lights and is greeted by what’s causing the creaking:
A long, dark shadow swept across the backdrop. From one side to the other.
Back and forth, creaking with every sweep.
Shelli shaded her eyes and gazed up.
“No!” She screamed. “Noooo!”
[…]
The rope creaked in rhythm as Liam swayed across the sky-blue backdrop.
Back and forth. Twisting and turning.
His head flopped to one side. His swollen lips hung open.
The rope bit deeply into his neck.
His dark eyes stared through half-closed lids.
Empty eyes.
Lifeless.
[I don’t know what he thought would happen, tbh. Jennifer’s shown several times she’s capable of taking care of herself]. Shelli decides she’ll use the payphone in the auditorium’s lobby to call the police, but finds Jennifer at the bottom of the stairs when she attempts to leave the stage. Jennifer’s been waiting for her best friend, but Shelli wants to know how Jennifer managed to kill all the others, to which Jennifer explains ‘”It’s not hard to kill the ones who killed you.”‘ Shelli’s just as confused as I am [Because wtf], so Jennifer elaborates further:
“Don’t you see?” Jennifer climbed up another step. “I’m dead, Shelli. I’ve been dead this whole time. Danny killed me.”
It turns out that for some inexplicable reason, only Jennifer’s body died in the crash, so she’s now able to do anything, inside her body or out [She’s a g-g-g-g-g-ghost! Also, that’s not how ghosts work lol]. That explains why her eyes are so lifeless and the her blood-drenched jacket the night of the accident. She explains that she didn’t push Mayra from the bridge, just coerced her into jumping, which was so easy because Mayra ‘”was always such a wimp”‘ [Poor Mayra]. Liam was harder though, but she still managed, and Jennifer vows to make sure Del dies too [Is he gonna make an appearance and save the day? Why didn’t Stine just kill him off when he fell earlier?].
Jennifer scolds Shelli over how stupid they were to kill her – they probably would have been able to take the prep test over next year, and everyone would still be alive. Shelli tries to explain that they just panicked [Seriously, I love how they thought murdering someone was a better option than owning up to cheating hahaha. I guess college is super important, and with all the outside pressure to succeed, I can understand why they did what they did], but Jennifer isn’t interested, and now it’s Shelli’s turn to die [!!!].
Shelli tries to get away, but Jennifer has a firm grasp on her hair. With no other choice, Shelli pulls free, a mass of hair tearing from her scalp. Jennifer falls back, the clump of hair flying from her hand, ‘blood dripping from the roots’ [Good description, Stine! That would fkn hurt]. Shelli manages to shut the lights off and find her way to the door, but i’s locked! She ends up falling over on the stage as she tries to find another exit, and Jennifer manages to grab her after switching the lights back on. With an inhuman, iron-like grip, Jennifer begins to strangle Shelli [!!!].
Jennifer notices that Shelli’s still wearing the heart pendant she’d made her years ago and can’t bring herself to kill her best friend [Huh?! How fkn anticlimactic >:|]. Instead, she wraps Shelli in a hug and then fades away [What. The. Fuck. So she didn’t cross over to the other side as soon as she died because I guess she had unfinished business, but now she’s just gonna cross over without even completing it? Is this the worst final showdown ever? I’m mad. Also, why didn’t the others become ghosts too? A better showdown would have been for all their spirits to appear and banish Jennifer’s spirit or something, The Secret Bedroom style!].
We cut to later that afternoon as Shelli heads home from the school. She’d called the cops, but knew they wouldn’t believe her about Jennifer, so she’d suggested to them that Liam accidentally hung himself while working on sets […OK]. Similar to Mayra, it’s ruled a suicide, and Shelli heads home to move on with her life [Hang on. Jennifer’s body just vanished into thin air, how is that going to be explained? Like, everyone thinks she’s alive? What will her family think now that she’s suddenly disappeared? Shelli should have just said she killed all her friends then ran off?].
At home, Shelli’s father calls her into the living room – the college prep test results are back! Turns out the little cheater got a perfect score [Wouldn’t that have been super suspicious anyway when six students, all friends, each got a perfect score? Like, the smart thing to do would be to get a few questions wrong, right?]. But unfortunately, there’s bad news:
“There was an investigation,” he told her. “It turns out that Mayra did cheat on the exam. And so did a kid in another state. You know what that means, don’t you?”
Shelli shook her head. She couldn’t speak.
Her father rose to his feet. “This test has been disqualified.”
“Huh?” Shelli gasped.
“It’s being thrown out. They’re going to write a new one,” he explained.
He crossed the room and put his hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Shelli. Everyone’s score has been thrown out. You’ll have to take the whole thing all over again.”
[Bruhhhhhhh I’d be raging if I was Shelli! Literally four people dead and all that trauma for no reason!].
Final thoughts
This one was OK. I feel like it had a lot of potential, but it didn’t quite reach it in the end. The plot was as over the top as some of the original Fear Streets and it was super funny how quickly the gang decided to kill Jennifer, but overall it was a bit of a letdown.
I love the idea of Jennifer killing everyone off before they can kill her, but the twist at the end was pretty dumb. I stand by my The Secret Bedroom style ending, or at the very least it would have worked better if Jennifer had been alive the whole time. Like, she was hit by a car, her body would have had sever injuries. How would she have explained that to the police? And why did her whole body fade away at the end and not just her spiritual form? And while we’re looking at stupid plot points, what was the purpose of Del being kept alive? His survival made no difference to the story, he should have just died when he fell from the building?
I also liked how quickly the story kicked off, although that meant we lost out on getting to know the characters. Shelli was a decent protagonist I guess, but I think the whole thing could have been avoided if she’d told Jennifer the gang’s plan. But then I’d have no book to complain about!
I think Stine captured the pressures American teens face in the lead-up to college [I’m just assuming; as an Australian, I don’t think it’s entirely as big a deal over here] – with how serious education is over there, I can understand why the group cheated and were so desperate to keep it a secret. Teens have a lot of pressure on them to do well in school, to go to a good college, to get a good job etc; and it’s all super overbearing, especially at such a young age. Who the hell knows what they want to do with their lives at 18? I’m 25 and still have no idea what I’m doing.
Another issue I have is book’s title. My theory is that the original title was Die, Jennifer, Die but it was deemed too inappropriate for teenagers or something. Oh well. I probably won’t read the other New Fear Streets anytime soon since this one seemed the most interesting but was a big letdown. I didn’t hate it, but it was just kind of a nothing book I guess.
24 ghosts somehow continuing to live inside their bodies to enact revenge out of 50!
