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Summary: Delle has always been a cheerleader. And so she wants more than anything to make the squad at Salem U.
Until she hears the horrible truth about what happened to last year’s cheerleaders…
Once Delle thought she would die to make the team.
Now she realizes she may have to.
Welcome to the scream team, Delle.
First impressions: It’s been a while since we’ve been to Salem University! This blurb is great and has me super keen to read it, although a quick look inside tells me this was actually ghostwritten by Deathkins, my arch nemesis. This makes me significantly less keen, but The Roommate was the best of her work I’ve covered, so hopefully this is better than that… I wonder how it will compare to the Fear Street Cheerleaders?
Cover-wise, it’s not the most interesting Nightmare Hall we’ve seen. What’s with the smoke? Why is she sprawled out so perfectly? Is she dead? Let’s find out!
Recap
Meet the team, accompanied by some select quotes to help give you an idea
Delle – Our heroine who doesn’t smoke, she tells you!!
Mojo – Delle’s kooky new best friend who believes in everything except voodoo.
Greg – Delle’s love interest who does his best kissing in the dark.
Joy – A horny girl who hates most vegetables except bananas.
Marla – The bitchy co-captain who really doesn’t like Delle.
Rory – The other co-captain who doesn’t do much of interest.
Jennifer – A bus crash survivor who’s sure the Lady in Red is back.
Susan – A heavy sleeper desperate to join the squad.
Charles – A gymnast who’s also highly determined to make the team.
Coach Truite – The new coach who’s extremely intimidating.
The Lady in Red – A rumoured ghost said to haunt the gym.
The book begins with a prologue where our unnamed bad guy/gal is watching a recording of a cheerleading competition, pausing it when the Salem junior varsity team is onscreen. They’ve all got big grins plastered on their faces, and our bad guy wonders if they had been smiling when they died [Oooooh, how’d they die?]. Bad guy is also keen to know how the new team will fare as he/she sniffs a blood-soaked pom-pom [Lol gross. Whose blood is it? One of the dead cheerleaders? Why does our bad guy have that?] and caresses ‘the deliciously death-stained strands delicately.’ [That is some satisfying alliteration there, Deathkins!]
Onto the main plot now, and it’s day one of cheerleader tryouts, a week-long cheerleading bootcamp that will test their skills and teamwork abilities, with an actual tryout at the end. Coach Truite, who’s new to Salem, takes the sport very seriously and reminds the attendees that they are athletes who should be as proud of themselves as any other athlete would be [Very true! It’s a sport, after all]. The cheerleading hopefuls are all staying at Abbey House for this period, and six of them will be selected to join the two remaining cheerleaders from last year, co-captains Marla Pines and Rory Hanahama [A boy! The Shadyside Tigers never had one of those on their team! Also, do I smell diversity with Rory’s last name?]. Jennifer Li [That sounds like a non-white last name too. Also, there was a Jennifer on the Shadyside squad!], a former cheerleader now on crutches, is also assisting the coach with the tryouts, and our main heroine, Delle Arlen, feels that something isn’t right about those three girls [I think she’s no longer part of the squad though, due to her injury].
Later, after a gruelling day of training, Susan Worth is laying in bed [Oh, are we going to have multiple protagonists? Note from future: No, so this part is weird], staring at the ceiling and wondering if college is going to be this hard. Susan’s usually so confident and prepared for anything, but today has really dwindled her faith in herself, especially because all the other would-be cheerleaders were just as good. Susan’s determined to win a spot on the squad no matter what it takes, because the thought of failure is ‘almost as unbearable as being a nobody at this big new school.’ [That’s a very high school attitude, Susan!]
Back to Delle, who’s in the lounge of Abbey Hall with a bunch of other candidates, dreading tomorrow because it’s supposed to be even tougher than today. Being a cheerleader here would make her freshman year at Salem almost perfect; the only thing missing would be a hunky boyfriend!
Her high school boyfriend, Warren, had proposed to her on prom night, and Delle had been so surprised that she laughed in his face. How could he ask her to marry him when there was a whole world outside their town waiting to be explored, and they weren’t in love with each other [Is a marriage proposal not a sign of being in love? Is Delle a gal who dates people just for fun, rather than romantic interest?]? Warren had stopped talking to her after that, but she kept seeing him around, as if ‘he were lurking, watching. Following her.’ [Girl, you went to the same school of course you were going to see him around! Fuck, is Delle gonna be as unbearable as Dore and Vicki? Of course, there is the possibility that Warren is totally creepy, but Deathkins protagonists tend to be self-centred and obnoxious, so…] Delle wonders where he is right now, because three months after they broke up, right before she left for Salem, he’d packed up his truck with a camper on the back and disappeared [Maybe he’s camping in the woods around Salem so he can stalk her!].
Anyway, Marla walks into the room with her cropped blonde hair and pale blue eyes [Similar to Shadyside cheerleader Debra‘s short blonde hair and icy blue eyes], alongside Rory, who doesn’t get a description outside of being tall and athletic, but he’s certainly turning Delle on! Marla announces how she and Rory became default captains and why the squad needs six new members – ‘”Practically the entire junior varsity team was killed in a freak bus accident this summer.”‘
Marla had gotten the flu and left cheerleader camp two days early and Jennifer, who was on the bus, was somehow thrown clear and doesn’t remember a thing [Sounds convenient!]. Rory, on the other hand, caught a ride with a friend from State University which, as Marla sweetly points out, was very last-minute [There’s a lot of animosity between Marla and Rory… but why? What’s the goss?]. Delle’s not about to let Marla attack the new subject of her wet dreams like that and demands to know exactly what Marla means:
Marla looked slowly around the room, letting her gaze come to rest on Delle at last. For a long, measured moment, the two girls studied each other.
Then Marla said, “What I’m saying is that some people say that it wasn’t an accident. That someone meant for the team — or someone on the team — to die.
“That the Salem junior varsity was murdered.”
Rory disagrees, prompting Marla to remind him that according to the police, it couldn’t be ruled out that someone had tampered with the breaks. Then Coach Truite appears, and she’s clearly as fond of Marla as the rest of us. She confirms the bus crash much more matter-of-factly than Marla’s dramatic delivery – the bus apparently skidded out of control while returning from the annual Regional Cheerleading Camp and Competition. Then she orders everyone to bed, since the 11pm curfew is approaching and they’ve got another big day tomorrow.
As everyone heads to their rooms, Delle meets Morgana Faye, who prefers to go by Mojo [Jojo], a girl with ‘a thousand tiny braids’ [More diversity? In a YA horror from the ’90s? I’m shook. Especially because it’s from my least favourite author!] who’d been ‘fingering a crystal’ on a chain around her neck earlier [Debra used to finger a crystal on her necklace too!]. She’s a real chatterbox and thinks Abbey House is kinda creepy, but not as creepy as the off-campus Nightmare Hall. Mojo is sensitive to vibrations, and she got bad vibes from that place. She explains to Delle why people say it’s haunted, then fills her in on the history of Peabody Gym, where most of this week’s training is taking place.
Apparently Salem University used to be divided into two schools, one for men and one for women. Abbey House and Peabody Gym are all that remains of the girls’ campus, and although the gym is still used by cheerleaders and sports teams, Abbey House is basically empty except for conferences and things like that. At the turn of the century, Peabody Gym burnt down with a cheerleader trapped inside, and the new one built in its place is apparently haunted by the girl’s spirit, nicknamed the Lady in Red because of the way she died. Word around campus is that the Lady in Red appears when something terrible is going to happen [I love this. Is Deathkins redeeming herself?! 🤯], and while Abbey House was being used for some math conference last summer, the people in the rooms facing across the lawn to Peabody Gym saw the Lady in Red… right before the cheerleaders died [Ooky spooky!]
Delle’s not really a believer in that stuff but Mojo’s already in her room before she can voice her opinion… and then the lights in the hall flicker [!!!!!]. It’s just Marla playing with the switch, reminding Delle there’s only five minutes before lights out before disappearing. Delle wonders if she’d heard the conversation about the Lady in Red and is a tiny bit unsettled by Mojo’s revelations as she heads to bed. Delle wakes up sometime later to the smell of smoke coming from a fire in the corner of her room:
And then she saw it.
A tall, translucent figure in flowing red garments. Garments that moved eerily in the steadily increasing flame.
“No!” croaked Delle. She rolled clumsily to her feet and lunged toward the figure.
It stepped back toward the door.
And vanished.
[Terrifying. Why did Delle lunge toward the figure? Fuck that. Also, was the figure standing in the fire, or like, next to it and the light from the fire was illuminating her outfit? It does seem like a genuine ghost because it just vanishes (or was the door open, and it just wasn’t mentioned?), but the fact that it’s wearing all red makes me suspicious. The cheerleader probably died in her uniform, right? Do they have clothes stores in the afterlife?] Delle tries to open the door, but the handle is freezing, ‘so cold it burnt her hand.’ She wraps the tail of her nightshirt around her hand as the flames grow stronger and tries it again, but the doorknob won’t turn!
Delle screams for help and attempts to smother the flames with a blanket, and eventually the doors bursts open, and someone uses a fire extinguisher on the flames. To Delle’s embarrassment, it seems like all of Abbey House has come to see what the heck is going on, and Marla points out that the fire was coming from the trashcan. Coach Truite arrive and instantly accuses Delle of smoking, which she denies, but she’s got no explanation for the cigarette butt and blackened newspaper the coach finds in the garbage can. Coach Truite is absolutely disgusted and doesn’t want any ciggie butt brains on her cheerleading squad, but Delle insists it’s not hers – ‘”I don’t smoke, I tell you!”‘ [Hahaha I have never heard someone say “I tell you!” in real life].
Delle blurts out that someone in a red dress had been in the room when she woke up and had disappeared, but Coach Truite isn’t impressed with ‘”This pathetic attempt to cover up the fact that your careless and disobedient smoking causes a fire in your room.”‘ Jennifer and her crutches appear looking ill with terror, and she reminds everyone that the Lady in Red appeared before the fatal bus crash, but she’s never ventured outside the gym before [So maybe it is someone in a costume. But who?]. Jennifer’s voice rises and she’s soon shrieking that the cheerleaders are going to die!
Coach Truite’s had enough of this nonsense and orders everyone back to bed, warning Delle that she’s got no time for troublemakers. Mojo and a boy named Greg Childs hang back and although Rory’s cute, he’s nothing compared to Greg, who’s making Delle’s heart go ballistic [Delle please, you’ve literally just met him]. Mojo thinks Delle is super lucky to have seen the g-g-g-g-ghost and practically froths at the mouth as she hears all the details of Delle’s encounter. She fingers the crystal around her throat and asks the important questions – why Delle? Why would the Lady in Red appear somewhere she’s never been seen before and start a fire? Was it a warning to Delle specifically? ‘”Are you fated to die in a fire, like she did?” [Great, make her more scared. Mojo!].
Mojo also thinks it’s strange that Susan, whose room is next to Delle’s, apparently slept through the whole incident despite the fire alarms going off [Maybe someone should check on her?], and then heads back to bed. As Delle and Greg clean up what they can, he gives her more details about how the Lady in Red originally died. She was a student, as we already know, at the Salem Girls’ Normal School [That’s a dumb fkn name], and had been with her fellow squad members practicing a routine in Peabody Gym. This particular cheer used a hoop of fire, and the girl had been goofing around with it, which caused it to get out of control. Everyone escaped except her, although some were badly burned and scarred for life. He tells Delle that he believes what she saw, but also agrees with Mojo – why did the Lady in Red decide to visit Delle? Was she trying to kill her, or warn her?
Time for a very quick bad guy POV now, who’d really, really enjoyed Delle’s screams and silently vows that Delle is just the first that’ll be screaming [😉]. OK.
The next morning at practice, Delle and Mojo meet Joy Ferguson, a giggly, cheerful girl with silvery hair who’s sore from yesterday and ‘”it is not in all the right places.”‘ [Hahaha I like her already! I can’t believe Deathkins is giving us likeable characters]. During practice, Rory’s walking around filming everyone for “training purposes” and also to use in a piece for film class [Seems suspicious to me!], while Marla takes pleasure in giving Delle constructive criticism. Jennifer, on the other hand, gives feedback in a way that doesn’t make Delle want to knock her block off, and also lets it slip that Marla’s probably being so hard on Delle because Delle’s pretty good and Marla’s insecure. Being a cheerleader is the most important thing in the world to her, so she was furious when she wasn’t elected captain last year after making the squad, and immediately started trying to cause trouble among the rest of the squad [Hate her].
Later, everyone’s split into small groups that Coach Truite works with one at a time while everyone else rests, and when it’s Delle’s group’s turn, it’s clear the coach has it out for our heroine. When Delle’s group is finally done Mojo, who’s sitting against the wall at the end of the gym, beckons Delle over. Delle thirsty for a drink though, so Mojo heads on over to join her as they head for the foyer:
A horrible shriek suddenly filled Delle’s ears. She jumped instinctively, grabbing Mojo’s arm and making a dive for the open door.
‘W-what the — ” Mojo gasped just as someone else screamed, “Look out!”
The splintering crash of metal against wood followed Delle, along with a crescendo of screams.
Delle looked back. For a moment nothing registered. Then she realized that had she gone over to join Mojo, or had Mojo not gotten up to join her, they would have been crushed beneath the old basketball backboard that had just torn loose from the gym wall and crashed to the floor below.
Mojo’s asks how Delle knew that was going to happen, and Delle, noticing Jennifer staring at her over by the fallen backboard, explains that someone had screamed. Mojo’s adamant that no-one screamed until they were already out the door and suggests Delle either has extremely bad luck or someone’s out to get her…
Later when practice is finally over, Marla approaches Delle to be a bitch, and we get this great interaction when Mojo sticks up for her friend:
“Go away, poison breath,” said Mojo unexpectedly.
It was so totally out of left field that everyone was stunned into silence. Then Marla, her face a deepening crimson, sputtered, “You can’t call me that. Do you know who I am?”‘
“A public nuisance, right at the moment,” said Mojo.
Marla storms off in a huff [I hope she dies soon tbh], and then Mojo and Delle get talking to Susan Worth, who explains she missed last night’s drama because she’s a heavy sleeper. A red-headed boy whose name we don’t learn yet offers his opinion that someone wants to make the cheerleading squad so badly they’re trying to scare the competition away [Sounds more like they’re trying to kill the competition tbh].
Greg arrives, wanting to know if Delle’s up for some off-campus food and fun tonight. Before Delle can accept the date Joy, who also thinks Greg’s a hunk, pipes up and says everyone going out together sounds wonderful [Hahaha Joy, plz].
Another quick bad guy POV regretting that no-one was hurt this time but the fear is starting, and then we cut to Vinnie’s, ‘the funky pizza parlor’ in town [So funky!]. A large amount of would-be cheerleaders have shown up, but most important among the group is Delle, Greg, Mojo, Joy, Marla [Ew, why’s she here?] and the redheaded boy, who’s name is Charles Pike [A reference to Christopher Pike, maybe?]. Joy’s doing her best to make Greg fall in love with her while Marla’s taken a liking to Charles.
Rory and Jennifer had shown up later than everyone else, and she’s having a flirty chat with a guy named Peter Nordstrom [We’ve had three different Petes/Peters in five Nightmare Halls now (The Roommate and Deadly Attraction), and two of them have been from Deathkins!] while Rory saunters on over to Delle and asks what exactly happened in her room last night. Soon they’re talking about the bus crash last year, and Rory comments it’s probably best that Jennifer doesn’t remember anything between boarding the bus and waking up in hospital. He clarifies that he means because of the trauma, but Delle is suspicious, especially when he asks her not to encourage Jennifer if she brings up the Lady in Red again. Is it genuine concern for Jennifer, or is there a reason he doesn’t want her to remember the crash [Yeah he’s definitely suspicious, but Delle being suss makes me think he’s just a red herring]?
Soon, Marla and Charles interrupt for a chat, and Marla bangs on about how talented he is and how she’s made sure Coach Truite’s noticed too. Charles is a talented gymnast who’s determined to join the squad, especially since he didn’t make it onto the gymnastics team. The graceful way he moves contrasted with the abruptness of his personality reminds Delle of her old boyfriend Warren, who’s been brought up just enough times now to make me think he’s going to be important [Note from future: He’s not lol].
Delle can’t find Mojo or Greg anywhere to accompany her back to campus so strolls back on her own, passing ooky spooky Nightmare Hall and the Quad, where she lives on campus. She’s looking forward to moving back there after cheerleader tryouts because there’s a lot of fun girls on her floor, including Lacey Sakurada.
As she’s approaching Abbey Hall, Delle tells herself that ghosts aren’t real and decides it was a person dressed up as the Lady in Red last night and set the fire. But who could it be? Marla seems unhinged enough to do it, but Susan’s also on her suspect list – had she really been asleep the whole time, or was she hiding out in her room, enjoying Delle’s screams for help? But what would Susan’s motive be [Fear you’ll be chosen over her?]? She also considers Mojo, but Delle decides that just because Mojo is strange doesn’t mean she’s behind what’s been happening. One thing’s for sure, though – Jennifer’s definitely not responsible, since Delle would have noticed if the Lady in Red was on crutches [Or maybe that’s her covering her tracks, like Jennifer Daly’s wheelchair!].
Delle’s yanked from her thoughts when a movement catches her eye across the lawn – ‘a faint, red shimmering light passing from window to window, high in Peabody Gym,’ as if someone were pacing… or signalling. It’s either an actual ghost or someone’s unfolded a section of the bleachers and is walking across the top row, so Delle decides to investigate. There’s no-one around and, realising the g-g-g-g-ghost could be gone by the time she fetches someone, she enters the gym alone, finding it conveniently unlocked. It’s pitch black inside and the lights don’t seem to work in the foyer, so she fumbles her way over to the gym doors and lets herself in:
And Delle saw, high in the far corner of the gym, a figure in flowing robes that glowed red and horrible in the dark.
Slowly, slowly, the figure turned. Now Delle could see…
No, it wasn’t possible.
But it was.
The thing was clothed in red from head to foot. A hood of red enveloped its head.
But there was no face beneath the hood.
And then the red figure disappears as someone grabs her [!!!!!]. It’s just Greg, who finds the light switch and explains he’d seen her pass while he was at the Student Center. He confirms he saw the Lady in Red too, but neither of them can figure out how whoever it was got up there – the bleachers are all neatly folded in place and there’s no rope or ladder or anything that could have helped someone get up or down [So the ghost is real?!].
Greg turns the lights off again and kisses Delle in the dark, which she thoroughly enjoys because nothing says romance like an encounter with a ghost. Then the lights flicker back on and Coach Truite, Marla and Rory are standing there. Coach Truite demands to know what’s going on while Marla just stands there smirking, and Delle’s grateful that Greg doesn’t mention the Lady in Red and instead lies they just stopped by because the door was open.
The coach is just glad that Delle wasn’t in here smoking and burning the place down [Hahahaha], refusing to believe that Delle enjoys healthy lungs despite her protests. She orders them back to the dorm and warns them against entering the gym without her permission. As Delle and Greg head back, they discuss how convenient it was that they were caught. Delle suggests Marla set the whole thing up, but Greg points out that Rory could also be responsible. Delle’s all like, “No, not my Rory, why would he do something like that?” [Delle, you don’t even know him] but Greg flips it around and asks the same thing about Marla; the only reason Delle can think of is that it just seems more on brand for Marla [And Marla definitely doesn’t want Delle on the squad]. Whoever it is, they’re both sure that the culprit will continue trying to ruin tryouts [They seem sure it’s a person doing all this. I mean, it probably is, but the Lady in Red seems to float and disappear way too easily to not even consider a ghost. Could there be two separate mysteries going on?]. They’ve reached the dorm by this point and Greg walks Delle to the second floor landing, where her room is. He glances up at the glaring overhead light and tells her ‘”I do my best kissing in the dark,”‘ then heads back downstairs to his own room [Hahaha OK, Greg].
The next morning at practice, Coach Truite gives everyone a lecture that seems heavily directed at Delle about being too focused on nocturnal activities, gossiping and absurd superstitions rather than cheerleading. Coach Truite thinks it’s utterly disrespectful to link the deaths of an outstanding coach and seven fine athletes to a ghost [Seven cheerleaders died? Why are they only after six new cheerleaders then?], and she won’t tolerate it anymore, promising to disqualify anyone who mentions ghosts again [So stern!].
At lunchtime, we get to know Joy a little bit more as she, Delle, Mojo and Susan feast in the cafeteria – ‘”I hate vegetables,” said Joy. “Except carrots. And zucchini. And cucumbers. And bananas.”‘ [Oh, Joy, how did you make it through high school? Also, these are all phallic foods… Joy is one horny cheerleader]. Joy’s also heard about Delle’s little rendezvous in the gym with Greg last night and Delle realises Marla’s probably blabbed to everyone. Joy smiles slyly and clearly wants to know more, but Mojo saves the day by pointing out lunch is almost over, prompting a grateful Delle to flee the table.
During afternoon training, Delle’s secured into a safety harness and spotted by Mojo and Peter as she struggles with a flip off a mini-tramp. She feels humiliated when Coach Truite brings Marla over to demonstrate how to do it and instructs Delle to keep trying before heading off to bark at someone else. Peter offers to go, encouraging Delle to rest for a bit while Mojo encourages her to go again, like Coach said [Something bad is about to happen, and Mojo is seeming awfully suspicious to me!], but Delle’s eager to to change places and assumes the spotter position:
Peter took a few tentative bounces, went up into a spin — and the harness came loose from its mooring on one side.
Delle and Mojo both lunged to catch him, but the uneven jerk of the harness had sent him spinning out of control. A millisecond later he came flying down with an ominous thud on the floor beside the mat.
“Peter!” gasped Mojo.
But Peter didn’t answer. He lay there, white and still, his body at an ominous, unnatural angle.
“He’s dead,” Mojo screamed. “Peter is dead!”
Another super quick bad guy POV tells us Peter isn’t dead and was taken away in an ambulance, but you better believe our little criminal relished every moment of the panic the accident caused!
Delle tosses and turns in bed that night, trying to make sense of everything that’s happened. If the Lady in Red she’s been seeing really is a ghost, is she trying to warn everyone, or just Delle? Is the intent to actually warn, or to harm [Maybe the Lady in Red is trying to warn them about whoever’s responsible for all these accidents]? The most logical explanation is that one of the cheerleading candidates is trying to scare off the other 66 people but if that’s the case, why does Delle seem to be the main target? Or what if someone is trying to make it all seem random, to disguise who the real targets are? Maybe the bus crash last year wasn’t an accident, and now someone wants to finish off the rest of the original squad [Well, if that’s the case, hurry up and kill Marla!!]. Again, she rules out Jennifer being responsible, but Rory or Marla could have secretly ran the bus off the road, right?
After a nightmare where she’s on the bus being driven by Warren filled with the dead cheerleaders, Delle wakes up to Greg tapping on her door, requesting her assistance to search the gym for clues. Greg unlocks the door with a credit card and tells Delle not to use her flashlight unless absolutely necessary [How are you gonna be able to see clues in the dark, though?] as they slip inside and wait for their eyes to adjust to the darkness. Greg’s allowed to use his flashlight though, because it’s got a tiny, pencil-thin beam [Surely that’s not really helping?]. After finding nothing suspicious around the newly replaced backboard and harness, they approach the bleachers, where Delle takes Greg’s flashlight and climbs to the top to look for any clues. Nothing seems out of the ordinary at first, but she eventually discovers a catwalk, along with a trapdoor to the roof. It’s a fair distance away from where Delle is and she tells Greg ‘”you’d have to be a super gymnast with nerves of steel to make that jump,”‘ which is clearly to make us suspect Charles.
She slides back down to the floor and soon Delle and Greg are kissing again, but they’re quickly interrupted by Coach opening the door, coming to investigate after presumably seeing the minuscule beam from Greg’s flashlight. Delle and Greg hide in the boys’ locker room and remain undetected as she searches around. Delle and Greg wait a while after she’s gone before heading back to the dorm, just in case, and Delle kisses him again before slipping back up to her room [Not cool, Delle, he’s no good in the light!!].
The next day, Delle and Mojo have a discussion about about some of Mojo’s beliefs – she believes in fate, destiny, luck, karma and ghosts, but she draws the line at voodoo and hexes and that sort of thing [How are you gonna believe in literally everything else but voodoo, Mojo?]. There’s been no accidents since Peter’s fall and he’s recovering from his concussion and two cracked ribs quite quickly, which is nice, so maybe the horror is over [Don’t be so sure, Delle, there’s still over 50 pages to go!] Later as Delle reaches her room, Susan suddenly bursts out of her own looking incredibly frightened. Delle’s never seen Susan look anything but calm, so pushes open the door to investigate:
For a moment, nothing registered except the extreme neatness of the whole narrow space. Which in a way made what lay on Susan’s bed all the more horrifying.
It was a doll.
A doll dressed in a little cheerleader’s uniform. Red and white.
The red of blood, splashed on the pillow, where the doll’s head had been grotesquely severed from its body.
And next to the doll, a bloody piece of paper, crudely lettered.
Go. Fight. Win.
DIE.
[So Delle just had a discussion about voodoo dolls with Mojo and now a decapitated doll just shows up in Susan’s room? Suspicious, Mojo, very suspicious… But it’s also very convenient timing that Susan bursts from her room just as Delle is arriving… And we did have that random section about Susan near the start that was weird because we haven’t gone back to her perspective at all. But I feel like they’re both too obvious?! I hate that Deathkins is outsmarting me] Susan says she just got back herself and the door was locked, so she doesn’t know how anyone got in. She also refuses to tell Coach Truite, not wanting to ruin her chances of making the team. They decide to get Mojo [Why? What’s she going to do?], who suspiciously answers the door the moment Delle knocks, and then freaks out when she sees what’s in Susan’s room. She thinks they’re making fun of her [Why? Does she think it’s a reference to her past?], and Delle has to pull her into her room to avoid the attention of some Nosy Nellies poking their heads out of their dorms to see what the fuss is.
Susan and Delle convince her she’s not being Punk’d and ask her to get rid of it [Lol what? Get rid of it yourself]. Mojo agrees to as long as they come with her, but as soon as they open the door to Susan’s room again the only trace that anything was wrong is the blood-smeared pillow; the doll and note are gone [Our bad guy is very fast!]. Personally, I’d go knocking on the Nosy Nellies’ doors to see if anyone saw/heard anyone approach Susan’s room, but that thought apparently doesn’t occur to these three.
Over that night and into the next morning, which happens to be the final day of training, Delle adds to more people to her suspect list: Greg, because he’d easily unlocked the door at Peabody Gym, had conveniently been around the first night she went to the gym, and had stuck around to help with the clean-up of her room fire, possibly removing evidence; and Jennifer – did she miraculously survive the bus crash because she was the one who sabotaged it, and is now waiting for the perfect chance to off Rory and Marla?
After another brief bad guy POV where they reiterate that they want the cheerleaders to die [Relax, the squad hasn’t even been chosen yet], we cut to the afternoon as Coach Truite congratulates everyone for making it through her gruelling training. The tryouts are tomorrow, and she’s sure the judges will have a hard time narrowing down the six new squad members [Wait, judges? So it’s not the coach’s decision? Is that normal?].
That evening, half of Abbey House is hanging around in or around Mojo’s room, eating pizza and drinking soda to celebrate. Delle doesn’t appear to be enjoying herself, so Mojo asks, ‘”Why so glum, chum?”‘ [Which is something I’ll be adding to my vocabulary] Delle’s watching what looks like a tense conversation between Jennifer and Rory that, judging by the way Jennifer keeps glancing at Marla, is about the bitchy cheerleader. I would have definitely sneaked closer so I could hear what they’re saying, but I guess Delle isn’t that kind of girl. Greg suddenly appears and when questioned where he’s been, he just tells Dell, ‘”Around.”‘ [Why you being suss, Greg?] Marla also pops over to see how bad luck charm Delle is doing, and Delle wonders why Greg doesn’t jump in to defend her [Is he supposed to? Fight your own battles, girl]. Delle pointedly reminds Marla that she was around when all the cheerleaders were killed, not Delle, and then heads off to bed, hoping the bad stuff is all over.
Delle is woken later that night by the sound of footsteps above her on the third floor, which should be empty. It could be some people having a post-curfew date up there, but the footsteps ‘moved haltingly, with no rhythm or purpose,’ so it might also be a g-g-g-g-ghost, which she still doesn’t really believe in. So what does Delle do? Goes up there to investigate, of course, not bothering to wake up a friend for company and forgetting to bring a flashlight.
Delle waits for her eyes to adjust to the dark before stepping onto the third floor, where she spots movement further down the hall ‘as if something were writhing in the dark. Something trapped. Or in pain.’ Delle’s absolutely terrified now and realises that maybe she does believe in ghosts. She’s sick of being afraid, though, demands to know who’s there, but the only reply is a blinding flash of light that disorients her. Someone grabs her wrists and shoves her into the wall, her head slamming against it before she slides to the floor and falling unconscious as a harsh voice tells her ‘”Before I’m through, you’ll be glad to die…”‘
A short while later she’s roused by Susan and a flashlight, who must have heard Delle up here and came to investigate [Or was already up here…?]. They hear a long groan from further along the hall, so Delle Nancy Drews down there and finds Jennifer sprawled on the floor, broken pieces of a crutch scattered around her (apparently she’s only been needing to use one lately, so lucky she’s got a backup crutch!). The poor girl has a nasty bruise behind her ear and one of her earrings have been torn out [Ouch], but she insists she’s OK and just wants to get out of there ‘”Before she comes back.”‘ [She? The Lady in Red? Or our bad guy? Or are they one and the same?!?]
In Jennifer’s room, she cleans up her injuries and tells Delle and Susan that she’d gotten a note asking to meet her on the third floor. She thought it was from Rory, probably wanting to speak about their earlier fight, but no-one was up there. As she was coming back down the hall, the Lady in Red appeared out of nowhere [!!!]. Jennifer’s crutch slipped as she tried to escape and the last thing she remembers is being bonked on the head. Delle explains how she ended up knocked out on the third floor too, and Jennifer’s worried that the Lady in Red’s constant appearance this week means something worse than what happened to the last batch of cheerleaders is heading their way.
Back in bed, Delle realises she’s not going to be able to sleep tonight and spends the next few hours trying to make sense of everything that’s happened, but gets no closer to answers. Then there’s another bad guy POV, regretful that the chills and thrills and screams are ending soon. But on the plus side, ‘the ending would be the bloodiest, most painful, most fun part of it all…’ [Sounds promising!]
It’s time for tryouts now, which many people have come to the gym to watch, and Delle easily makes it through the first two elimination rounds to the final 16. Despite Marla clearly trying to influence the judges against Delle based on her glances towards her, our heroine is selected for the team along with Mojo, Joy, Greg, and two boys we’ve never heard of, Paul Mori and John DeLucca [I guess we can’t have all our characters be chosen, right?], while Susan and Charles are chosen as alternates. While everyone celebrates, Jennifer congratulates Delle before mysteriously warning her to be careful – ‘”Winning isn’t everything. Staying alive is.“‘ [Does she know more than she’s letting on?]
There’s a ceremony later that night to unveil the new squad to the whole school, which also doubles as a memorial to the bus crash victims. The assistant dean reveals a plaque dedicated to the dead cheerleaders, and lists of some names for us – Kathy Butler, Louise Veniero, Sally Ann Smathers, Reginald Trout and David Carlson [I wonder if they’ll ever get mentioned in other books for continuity]. We don’t hear the other victims because Delle’s unable to focus, sensing something terrible about to happen and feeling claustrophobic. Sure enough at the end of the ceremony, the smell of smoke alerts everyone to a fire on the far side of the gym. The crowd panics and surges towards the doors, which have been locked from the outside [Oop], but Delle manages to calm everyone down by creating a cheer that the other cheerleaders quickly pick up:
“SALEM U, SALEM U!
THIS IS WHAT WE’RE GOING TO DO!
DON’T PANIC, STAND STILL, DON’T PANIC, STAND STILL, DON’T PANIC, STAND STILL…”
[It’s no RAZZMATAZZ, but it’ll do] Everyone starts to calm down, but suddenly the lights go out! The smoke starts to get thicker as the flames climb up the far wall, illuminating a figure on the catwalk – Coach Truite [Whaaaaat?!?! I wasn’t expecting that. What the hell was her motive? This seems like a complicated way to get revenge lol. Also, I really can’t believe Deathkins got one over on me. How dare she!]
The coach yells that they’re all going to die and laughs hysterically while Delle and Greg scramble up to the top of the bleachers. The catwalk hangs from the ceiling, not connected to any reachable part of the gym [Then how’d Coach Truite get up there? Through the trapdoor? Did she have a giant ladder outside to get onto the roof?], so Delle calmly asks the coach to tell them how to open the doors. Unfortunately for Delle, the hard, stern coach she’d had come to respect during the week has been replaced by an unhinged maniac, her eyes black with hatred and her lips drawn back and bloody ‘where she kept biting them, as if gnashing her teeth.’
Coach Truite gleefully claims responsibility for the fire in Delle’s room, the decapitated doll and the faulty equipment [But doesn’t mention the Lady in Red… did we have a real ghost?! She also doesn’t mention luring Jennifer to the third floor of Abbey House, but I assume she did that] as Greg quietly points out the rope attached to the catwalk, ‘looped over a ring high on the wall above the bleachers.’ Realising Greg plans to use it to get to the catwalk, Delle keeps Coach Truite talking, demanding to know why she’s done all this.
Well, it turns out she had a little brother, Reginald [Ohhhhh, how did I not figure this out when the victims names were read out at the ceremony? We learned a lot earlier in the book that Truite is French for Trout. I should have put two and two together! I’ve let myself down], who she had raised and was her only family. She didn’t want him to leave but he came to Salem anyway, and ended up one of the cheerleaders who died in the bus crash. Coach Truite came here to get revenge and make everyone suffer [I guess she’s so unhinged that she just blames all cheerleaders or something? I wonder if she was even a coach before Salem, or if she faked her qualifications to have access to the team. Again this is such a big effort to go to or revenge] because she hates them all, ‘”stupid cheerleaders in your stupid cheerleaders.”‘
Without warning, Greg launches himself at the rope and swings across to the catwalk, where he grabs onto the edge and tries to hoist himself up. Coach Truite is preparing to kick him off when suddenly ‘something red seared Delle’s eyes, her brain.’ [The Lady in Red?!] As Delle watches in horror, Coach Truite stumbles back and falls off the catwalk, down to the flames below.
Sirens can be heard outside and moments later, firefighters burst through the doors and attempt to extinguish the flames while leading everyone out, also helping Delle and Greg down from the bleachers and catwalk respectively. Outside, the pair discuss how easy it was for Coach Truite to torture everyone after ensuring everyone would be staying at Abbey House – as coach she was always around, watching them, and had master keys to to the building to slip into whoever’s room she needed to.
As flames consume Peabody Gym Greg, who it becomes clear didn’t see the Lady in Red up on the catwalk, observes that she won’t have anywhere to haunt anymore. Delle realises that the ghost really had been warning her each time she’d appeared after all, like the fire in her room, and the scream Delle heard right before the backboard fell. And now tonight, ‘appearing one last time to save Greg’s life, and Delle’s, and everybody’s.’ [How do you know it’s the final time? She wasn’t confined to the gym, as we’ve been shown? Surely a ghost can’t burn to death lol] The book ends as Delle remarks that the Lady in Red is at peace now – ‘And she knew it was true. The Lady in Red wouldn’t have to haunt this world anymore.’ [Again, how could Delle possibly know that, and why would she assume it? Does she really think the ghost stuck around for like 100 years just to save everyone from Coach Truite? Come on]
Final thoughts
I really enjoyed this one, and I cannot believe I’m saying this but it’s true… I? actually? liked? a? Deathkins? book???!?!?! Could it be possible that Deathkins hired a ghostwriter herself for this one? Personally I think that would make way more sense than me actually liking a Deathkins book lol. Is this the fluke and everything else is bad? She’s written several more Nightmare Halls, so I’m interested in finding out if any others will be good.
I enjoyed the Lady in Red aspect, although the whole is-she-or-isn’t-she-real thing got a bit repetitive. Now that we know she really was a ghost, the question remains – how is she in a different outfit to the one she was wearing when she died? If she was practicing cheers at the time, there’s no way she’d be in a hooded, flowy outfit that was completely red, head to toe. It’s probably just a reference to her burning to death and I guess looks like the flames that consumer her, but has anyone ever seen a red fire in real life? I guess ‘Lady in Yellow’ or ‘Lady in Orange’ doesn’t have the same spookiness to it, though.
I liked the characters, which is seriously shocking considering the awful ones Deathkins usually sticks us with [I’m looking at you, Dore and Vicki!]. But there were waaaaaaay too many characters, which meant many of them lacked development beyond being a basic stereotype: Marla the bitch; Mojo the kooky best friend; Joy the horny idiot, etc. So many characters could be justifiable if some were being killed off, but no-one dies here. Less characters and stronger characterisation next time please, Deathkins!
Also it was super weird that we got a random few paragraphs with Susan at the start and then didn’t see her again for ages… I guess it was to make us suspicious of her but like, it would have been more mysterious without that because she was kind of suss anyway? We were with Delle the whole rest of the book, excluding the brief bad guy POVs scattered throughout, so it sticks out like a sore thumb and I was constantly wondering, “are we going back to Susan soon?”
My last main gripe is that Delle thought about her list every few chapters, but basically cited the same reasons over and over each time. Seemed like a lot of page filler that could have been better used elsewhere.
Anyway, Deathkins gets bonus points because I didn’t guess the killer. I feel like it’s been a while since that’s happened. 153 of Greg’s best kisses in the dark out of 194.
