Tagline: The first part of a shocking two-part special!
Back tagline: A special message from R.L. Stine…
Summary: Dear readers:
Come with me to FEAR HALL. That’s the creepy college dorm built many years ago by the cursed Fear family.
Hope and her roommates live in Fear Hall.
Hope’s boyfriend lives there, too. They’re all good students and best friends. Everything is going great…until one of them becomes a murderer!
Now Hope is about to find out that life at Fear Hall can be a real scream!
I hope you’ll join me for FEAR HALL. This story has so many scares, it took me two books to tell it all!
P.S. You’ll never believe what I came up with for the next book….
First impressions: This cover is sooooo boring. I guess Stine wanted to try his hand at a college setting after Diane Hoh released her Nightmare Hall series. The format of the summary is interesting though – Stine’s really hyping it up to be different than a standard Fear Street, but I can’t imagine Fear Hall will be much different to the typical Shadyside shenanigans. Let’s read, shall we?
Recap
Let’s start with the roll call:
Hope – Our troubled protagonist who’s dating Darryl.
Angel – The promiscuous friend/roommate.
Eden – The grungy friend/roommate.
Jasmine – The shy friend/roommate.
Darryl – Hope’s abusive boyfriend.
Melanie, Mary and Margie – The nosy girls across the hall that Hope can’t stand.
Looks like this one changes POV every few chapters, which will be interesting. It’s also told in first person – I can’t remember the last Point Horror I read told from that perspective [Has it really been that long? Or has every book I’ve recapped so far just blurred into one, affecting my memory?].
We start with Hope Mathis, a student at Ivy State College, who lives on campus at Fear Hall. The dorm got it’s name because Duncan Fear, from Fear Street, Shadyside, about 50 miles away, donated the money to have it built [I guess that’s our only Shadyside connection for this book lol]. Naturally, the dorm has a bad reputation – ghosts, disappearances, the usual stuff [Classic!].
Hope lives on the 13th floor, because of course she does. It’s the girls’ floor, apparently. She lives in 13-B with her roommates, Angel, Eden, and Jasmine. They’re all freshmen and best friends because they went to high school together [How did four besties from high school manage to score a room together in college? Also what’s up with those names? Hope, Eden, Angel; very religious-sounding.]. Hope kindly takes the time to describe herself and her friends for us [Who’s ready for a description dump?!]:
Well, maybe I should start with me. I’m about five seven. Not to tall, not too short. I have blonde hair — long and straight, because I don’t like to spend a lot of time on it.
I have light brown eyes and an okay face. I think it’s a little too round. And I think my eyes are too close to my nose.
I guess I could lose a few pounds. Maybe more than a few. But I don’t mind being a little chubby.
[Well, at least she’s honest. Very self-depreciating though, but not in the humorous way]. Hope’s very different to Angel, who’s always watching what she eats [Don’t judge please, Hope]. Angel is ‘skinny and blond and very hot-looking’ [‘Hot-looking’ hahahaha]. Angel gets all the boys’ attention on campus and she ‘slinks around in tights and midriff tops, even though it’s fall’ [I guess we’re slut shaming today].
Eden’s the opposite of Angel, ‘plain and grungy’ with curly light brown hair. She doesn’t wear makeup and dresses in oversized sweaters, lots of flannel shirts and chinos. Hope has never even seen her talk to a boy [Stine really said “How do I include lesbian representation without explicitly saying she’s a lesbian?”]. She’s always writing letters to her mother because they’re really close, unlike Hope and her mother, which Hope doesn’t elaborate on [I guess that little tidbit is for later!].
Last we have Jasmine, who’s super pretty and smart but has no confidence. She’s taking advanced classes and wants to get into pre-med but doesn’t think she’s smart enough. She has wavy, straw-coloured hair and is really shy – despite knowing her for three years and now living with her, Hope ‘can barely tell you a thing about her’ [Red herring? Bad guy? Or is Hope just a bad friend?].
Hope explains to us [The style of writing here is like a one-sided conversation, which I’m not used to after so many third person books] they were all so happy until the night the trouble started.
That night [I guess we’re moving back in time to tell the story from there?], Hope was shaken awake at 1am by her boyfriend, Darryl, who lives on a different level of Fear Hall and right now smells like beer [Ooooh, so he’s a bad boy ;)]. No boys are allowed on the girls’ floor after 10pm, so Hope is totally shocked! But he keeps repeating that he’s in big trouble:
“I followed you,” he confessed. “I followed you tonight. I saw you out with that guy Brendan.”
I gasped. “But that wasn’t me!” I protested. “I didn’t go out with Brendan. Angel did.”
Darryl grabbed me. His fingers tightened around my arms. “Don’t lie to me!” he shrieked. “I saw you!”
[Would it be a Fear Street book without an abusive boyfriend? Also, Angel is skinny, has short hair and wears revealing clothes, so I don’t know how Darryl could mistake her for the long-haired, chubby Hope]. Even though Darryl can be caring and kind, he has a temper and can be ‘a total lunatic’ too. But they’ve been together since high school when he rescued her from a guy named Mark. ‘But that’s a very long story’ she tells us, [What’s the bet we don’t get that until the second book?]. Hope bangs on to the reader about how great it’s been to have Darryl at Ivy State with her, but sometimes he really scares her:
If only he weren’t so jealous. So possessive.
He never wants any other guy to look at me!
[Hope, I’ve got one thing to say to you:
Axe him! You’re not from Shadyside, you should know better!]. Anyway, Darryl says he did something terrible. Hope asks what he did, and his reply and her reaction is hilarious:
His pale eyes locked on mine. “I carved him, Hope,” Darryl whispered. “I carved him.”
I couldn’t help myself. I let out a scream. And sank back onto my bed, my head spinning.
[“I carved him, Hope.” /Screams. Hahahaha this is so stupid]. Her scream wakes up her three roommates, who are all both mad and worried to see Darryl standing over Hope. Hope explains that Darryl thought he saw her with Brendan earlier, and we get another great passage:
“But I was out with Brendan!” Angel protested. “I was wearing Hope’s red outfit. You’re so weird, Darryl. How could you think-“
Darryl’s angry stare silenced her.
“I think I killed him,” he murmured.
“Noooo!” Eden shrieked, pressing her hands to her face.
[Why are they all so damn dramatic? Imagine this stuff happening in real life hahaha]. Darryl demands that they help him because he’s pretty sure he killed Brendan from all that carving. Then he’s all like, ‘”You know how I get sometimes, Hope.”’ [What does that mean exactly? It really seems like he’s an abusive. I don’t like this]. The girls tell him they can’t do anything to help him, but he explodes, tearing off his leather jacket and throwing it at the wall [Hahahaha I can’t with these people]. The reason he’s so scared is because he thinks someone saw him attack Brendan [Well you shouldn’t have done it sweaty xx].
Angel has no sympathy, since it was her friend he killed, and moves to the phone to call the police, but Darryl shoves her away and threatens to kill her too [Hope, are you really gonna let your man treat your friend like this?!]. Then there’s a knock at the door, and Hope immediately thinks it’s the police, so she hides Darryl in the closet and asks who’s there. It’s just Melanie, ‘one of the nosy girls from 13-A across the hall’. Hope and her friends call them the three Ms – Melanie, Mary, and Margie [Wow, so clever]. Hope can’t stand any of them:
All three of them are so smug and superior. Real preppies. I mean, the worst kind. They all went to fancy, private high schools. And they really turn their noses up at public school kids like me and my roommates.
Hope’s had a few run-ins with Melanie, so she hates her the most, and isn’t impressed that she’s ‘pounding on my door in the middle of the night, snooping as usual’. Hope opens the door but doesn’t let Melanie in, blocking the doorway to give her as little view into the room as she can [Wow, she really doesn’t like her].
Melanie thought she heard screaming and some commotion coming from the room, and her and Margie got worried because Mary isn’t home yet. She keeps trying to see past Hope into the room, but Hope continues to block her path and apologises, explaining that she and her roommates forget how late it is sometimes when they’re having so much fun. This gets some uneasy looks from Melanie [Melanie seems really nice and caring here so I don’t know why Hope hates her so much. Unreliable narrator maybe?], and just as she’s about to head back to her own room, Mary comes screaming down the hall.
She’s found Brendan’s body outside, and he’s been ‘”cut to pieces!”‘. Her hollering apparently wakes the whole floor up and everyone heads outside to see the body for themselves:
There was the body.
Or what was left of it.
Cut up. All cut up. All slashed and torn and cut up.
Cut up. Cut up.
[Don’t you mean carved up, Hope?] Melanie reveals she saw Hope with Brendan earlier, and Hope accuses her of spying on her before telling her to get her eyes checked [Another person who’s mistaken Angel for Hope tonight? Something’s suss…]. Hope storms back to her room where she’s threatened by Darryl not to go out with another guy or he just might carve up someone again [I swear to got this guy better die]. Then he leaves, and the police arrive soon after.
We’re now following Jasmine’s point of view, and it’s two days later. She’s currently at her job, waitressing at a coffee shop on campus. When she’s not thinking about the murder, she’s thinking about how shy she is [Is being shy her entire personality?]:
My mother always called me Fish.
Isn’t that a disgusting nickname? She called me that because she said I had the personality of a fish. A dead fish.
[Hahahahahaha I shouldn’t laugh, but that’s hilarious]. Sadly, her mother was always tearing her down, which I guess is why she’s so self-conscious [Hope doesn’t get along with her mum either, maybe that’s why they’re such good friends?]. The three Ms are in the coffee shop talking about Brendan, but every few seconds they look up at Jasmine.
Eventually she confronts them about it, and Melanie explains that ‘“We just wanted you to come take our order,”‘ [Well, it is your job, Jasmine]. Jasmine judges Melanie’s order of a tossed salad and Diet Coke but finds the other girls’ orders of fries and cokes acceptable [Why do they all hate Melanie so much?!].
Then Angel and Eden arrive and Jasmine takes her usual ten-minute break to sit with them. The three discuss Brendan’s murder and their roles as accessories as well as Hope’s unwillingness to betray Darryl to the police [Yes, they’re really discussing these things in public…]. Soon, Jasmine notices that the three Ms as well as her boss, are all staring at her strangely [I think I’ve figured out this story’s big plot twist! I’m thinking Hope has multiple personalities stemming from whatever trauma her mother caused, and each roommate is a different personality. That would explain why Darryl and Melanie thought they saw Hope with Brendan instead of Angel and why Marty and the three Ms are looking at her weird right now – if I’m right, she’s talking to herself. Darryl’s probably another personality as well, because he’s been calling Hope and her roommates by their individual names when all five of them have been together. But that would make Hope the killer!].
After closing the coffee shop later that night, Jasmine is walking through the back alley to get to the main street when she hears footsteps chasing after her. The back alley is dark so she doesn’t see who it is until he’s pushed her against the wall. It’s Darryl, who smells like sweat and peppermint [Hahahaha love that]. He demands to know if she’s going to turn him in and she promises the girls won’t, but he needs to get his temper under control [You’re alone in an alley with a guy who threw you against a wall, I don’t think now’s the right time for criticism, Jasmine]:
His pale eyes shimmered in the dim light. “Hey, Jasmine?”
“What?” I asked impatiently.
“I promise.”
“Promise what?”
“I promise I won’t kill again,” he told me.
Then he gripped my wrist and squeezed it really hard. And whispered, “Unless I have to.”
[OK, this whole book could be over by now if they just went to the police?? He can’t kill anyone else if he’s in custody? Fuck Darryl]. We now move to Eden’s perspective, who’s writing a letter to her mother while Jasmine studies and Hope bitches about how her mother’s nickname for her was Buttertubs [Hahahahaha I shouldn’t be laughing but this book is so stupid]. Eden is shocked by this and drops her felt pen [Another over-the-top reaction!]. Hope goes on to lament about how her mother was obsessed with Hope’s weight, but she has no idea why, and launches into a story about fourth or fifth grade, when Hope had brought three friends home one hot day. They were all hungry, so she made them each a bowl of ice cream.
“We had just started eating the ice cream when Mom popped in. She looked around the table at my friends. Then she had a total fit that I was eating ice cream.
“She started screaming and carrying on, calling me Buttertubs in front of my friends. Then she grabbed up their ice cream bowls. Took the ice cream away from my friends and shoved all the bowls in front of me.” ‘You like ice cream so much?’ Mom screamed. ‘Well, go ahead—eat them all.'”
[…]
“She made me eat all four bowls of ice cream while my friends started in shock.
“Then, when I had choked down the last spoonful, Mom grabbed my head—and shoved my face into the ice cream carton. She pressed my head down and made me finish the carton. Made me lap it up—like a dog—until I’d finished it all.”
[What. The. Fuck. Poor Hope! No wonder she’s attracted to Darryl; abusive “love” is the only kind she’s ever known :(. I wonder if the friends she mentions here were figments of her imagination, and her mother wasn’t equipped to deal with her daughter’s mental illness and just got frustrated? Not that that excuses it, I’m just trying to make sense of it all. I hope Hope gets the help she needs by the end of this two-parter and Stine isn’t implying mental illness = crazy murderer].
Hope then wants to go out, so Eden agrees to go with her and they head to the Blue Tavern, a pizza place that serves beer and is always bathed in blue light inside [Sounds horrible]. Two boys named Dave and Gideon start up a conversation with Eden, which makes Hope want to leave. Eden protests that their pizza hasn’t even arrived yet, but Hope says that Darryl is watching them from outside [Fuck off, Darryl]. Eden turns to look, and when she turns back, Dave and Gideon have approached the table.
“Can we join you?” Dave asked.
“Well…” I hesitated. “I’m sorry, but my friend—”
Dave’s smile faded. “What friend?” he asked.
“Huh?” I turned back to the table.
Hope had disappeared.
[OK, Eden, Jasmine, Angel and Darryl are definitely just different personalities coexisting within Hope. Did Stine really think he was being sneaky? It’s so damn obvious!]. Eden’s super worried about her friend, thinking maybe Darryl snatched her away, but then her pizza arrives and she decides to stay and flirt with the boys [Wow, great friend]. Here’s how funny they all are:
I tugged on Dave’s beard. I just couldn’t resist. “I had to see if it’s fake,” I told him.
“The beard is real,” he said. “The rest of my head is a fake!”
We laughed like lunatics at that. It wasn’t that funny. But it was the way he said it.
I tugged his bed again, and we all laughed some more.
Gideon said that his bandana was holding his head together. We laughed at that too.
[Hahahahahaha omg these guys are so funny ROFL XD. Also I hate these abrupt sentences, it just doesn’t flow how it should. Also, for someone who Hope’s never seen talk to a guy, Eden certainly knows how to flirt. If that’s what you want to call it…]. A while later, Eden remembers the friend she potentially abandoned to a murderer and starts to worry. She splits from the guys and hurries home, where she finds Jasmine and Angel asleep in their beds. Hope, on the other hand, is wide awake and terrified, because Darryl’s currently in the room and he’s found the unfinished letter Eden had been writing to her mother, where she’d mentioned the murder on campus.
Darryl is curious what else she was going to write and threatens her, grabbing her arm and bending it behind her back [If Eden was a Fear Street gal she’d be so turned on right now]. He eventually lets go and shoves her against the wall, and the chapter ends with ‘and that’s when I decided to kill him’. But then the beginning of the next chapter has Eden immediately correcting herself [Fuck me I hate when he does this], because she doesn’t want to murder him, she just wants to get him out of the girls’ lives [Whatever you’re gonna do, make it quick because I’m so over this book now that I’ve solved the mystery. I’m dreading Nightmare Hall: The Conclusion :(].
There’s a knock at the door, so Darryl and for some reason, Hope, scurry to the bathroom to hide. Before Eden can answer the door, it’s flung open by Melanie and Mary, who thought they heard voices and got worried [If my theory is correct, which I’m 100% sure it is, they think they’re talking to Hope right now, who must be the sole occupant of the room. Otherwise it doesn’t make sense for them to be so alarmed by hearing voices from the room. And I guess it explains why Hope thinks they’re so nosy too! Realistically, they’re just checking up on Hope. Nice gals].
Eden makes up a story about the radio being on, and Melanie and Mary explain how they’ve been so freaked out since the murder. Eden’s like, ‘“We are too”’, which gets strange looks from the girls [Just further proof of Hope’s split personalities]. M&M tell her they’re setting up a meeting to discuss getting more security for the dorm and ask her to come, and when Eden says ‘“We’ll all come”’, she’s once again met with strange glances before the Ms head back to their room, leaving Eden to wonder why they kept looking at her like that [Poor girl doesn’t even know she’s not well :(].
The next day, on her way to History class, Eden bumps into Dave from the Tavern and they agree to meet for a coffee later [♫ This could be the start of something new ♫]. In class, the professor is enforcing his usual seating chart, but when he gets to Eden, he calls her Hope [Stine’s really not making his twist subtle, is he?]. Eden protests that she’s been in this class all semester while Hope has never taken it, but the professor is adamant that Eden Leary is neither on his seating chart or the enrolment list, suggesting she head to the dean’s office to sort out the mix-up [Ok, but if Eden thinks she’s been going to this class the whole time, why is it only coming out now that Hope’s the one enrolled in it when the professor is such a stickler for his seating chart? How have they not noticed this before? Maybe the different personalities have only just surfaced recently, but then it wouldn’t make sense that Jasmine’s boss knows her as Jasmine, not Hope…].
Eden leaves the class, confused about what just happened, and decides to call the police about Darryl because it’s his fault she hasn’t been thinking clearly [Should have done it a few chapters ago, hun]. Hope’s at the payphones though, and when Eden tells her what she’s planning, Hope begs her to wait until tonight when all four girls can discuss it and take a vote [Bruhhhhh]. Hope agrees to go with the group decision, whatever it may be, and Eden accepts this and leaves to meet Dave.
Later that night, Eden is getting ready for another date with Dave [Are they gonna ROFL at her tugging his beard again?]. Hope lets her borrow her silky black top, which Eden pairs with a black skirt and some purple tights [So ’90s!]. She then meets Dave and they head to a coffee shop for some dinner [Go to a restaurant]. On their way, they pass the three Ms who say hi, but call her Hope. Eden calls back ‘“It’s me! I’m only wearing her clothes!”’ and laughs it off [How many times does this have to happen?].
After dinner, they‘re strolling along when a figure jumps out and attacks Dave [!!!]. But it’s just Gideon, playing a joke [Hilarious].
He soon leaves and Dave and Eden decide to go to the driving range to hit some golf balls [Gross, sport]. They’re the only ones there, and as Dave is showing Eden how to hit a golf ball correctly, Darryl appears:
Darryl raised the metal club—pulled it back and swung it like a baseball bat.
Swung it at Dave’s head.
The club made a solid thunnnk as it hit. And then I heard a disgusting ripping sound.
“Ohhhhh!” I uttered a horrified moan as the club caught Dave behind the ear.
The ripping sound… the horrible ripping… like Velcro being pulled apart… And Dave’s ear sailed up… up… into the bright glare of the spotlights.
[…]
Darryl swung again. The club grazed the top of Dave’s head, scraping off a patch of his auburn hair.
Dave was hunched on his knees. Rocking back and forth. Hands raised. Blood dripping from his head. Flowing down his jacket.
[Love all that gore! But Velcro? lol. I wonder if a golf club could really slice off someone’s ear and part of their scalp]. After her protests that she’s Eden, not Hope, fall on deaf ears, Eden runs away, leaving Darryl to continue practising his golf on Dave’s head [RIP Dave and his beard].
We pick up from Hope’s POV back at the dorm as she calms Eden down by telling her another story about how cruel her mother was [Why would that make her feel better?]. Mother dearest used to buy all Hope’s clothes for her, but in sizes too small so that Hope was always reminded that she was fat [Oof, what a cunt. I wonder if we’ll get an actual explanation for the mum’s behaviour? Not that there’s any excuse, but some information as to why she was like this would be nice]. Now, if you’re anything like me, you’ll be wondering “What the fuck does this have to do with Eden’s horrible night?”. Well, it’s simple – ‘”..because Darryl is the first person in my life who doesn’t care that I am overweight.”‘ [It’s been a while since we were reminded how gross fat people are. I didn’t miss it].
Hope tries her luck as a travel agent and sends Eden on a guilt trip about wanting to go to the police, but Eden just falls asleep. And then Darryl appears [!!!]. He tells Hope to strangle Eden to prevent her from calling the police, but Hope says she’ll deal with Eden tomorrow and instructs him to burn his clothes and wash up, so off he goes [Since when is she calling the shots?].
The next morning, Eden and Hope argue about calling the police. Jasmine and Angel have early classes apparently, so they’re not there. Hope tries to tell Eden another story about her mother, but Eden refuses to listen and dials the operator [Why doesn’t she just call the police directly? Is this a ’90s thing I’m too young to understand?]. Hope starts to feel dizzy, but there’s only one thing for her to do at this point:
Frantic, I whirled around.
Picked up Angel’s hair dryer.
Grabbed it by the nozzle—and swung the heavy handle at Eden’s head.
It connected with a loud thonnnnk.
Her skull made a cracking sound. Like eggshells breaking.
[Wowwwww, Hope]. Eden isn’t dead though, and an increasingly feverish Hope sort of blacks out or something because next thing she knows she’s restrained Eden with towels and is dragging her to the closet [Hahahahaha]. After calming herself down, Hope realises the bedroom door is open and Melanie is outside, staring at her [Omg lol]. Hope isn’t sure how much she’s seen, but Melanie only reminds her that the dorm meeting is tonight. She quickly dismisses her and when Melanie leaves, Hope spots Darryl through her window, on the ground below and surrounded my policemen.
She decides to go down there to give him an alibi or something but realises she’s still in pyjamas. Then she remembers her prisoner in the closet, but when she opens it to try to explain herself to Eden, the closet is empty [Will this book never end?!]. Hope is super confused, even more so when she hears a noise behind her and discovers Eden waking up in bed […….]. Hope wonders how it could all have been a dream when she remembers it so vividly and it felt so00OoooO0oOooO0 real [Hallucinations will do that, darl]. Then she looks out the window and sees Darryl again, this time not surrounded by police but instead staring up at her with a nasty look on his face [Fuck off, Darryl].
Then we move to Jasmine’s point of view [I guess Angel’s too busy slutting about for her own chapters]. Jasmine’s running late for work and when she arrives, she’s fired by her boss. Apparently she didn’t show up for work at all yesterday! But Jasmine has no memory of the previous day, so she heads to the campus cafeteria for a coffee as she tries to remember. Darryl finds her, and Margie is nearby being a stare bear, which Jasmine still doesn’t understand. Darryl tells her he had an argument with Hope and ‘”hurt her real bad'” [Did he carve her?].
We change back to Hope now, who’s crying in the dorm when Jasmine bursts in and asks what happened:
I didn’t want to scream or cry anymore. But I couldn’t hold in my pain. “No. He didn’t hit me. He did much worse, Jasmine. He called me names!”
[Fuck me]. Like the rest of is, Jasmine is confused about how upset Hope is, but Hope explains she’d ‘”rather be slugged unconscious that be called horrible names by him”‘ [Omfg I can’t].
We can’t focus on her hurt feelings any longer though, because it’s time for the big meeting to discuss safety in the dorm! Woohoo! Hope can’t bear to go when she knows who the murderer is though, so instead she tilts her head back ‘in a long, shrill scream’ and runs down the hall, down the stairs and out of Fear Hall [Hahahaha imagine witnessing that].
We finally follow Angel’s perspective now, and in case you forgot that she’s the slutty one, she’s currently making out with a random guy against his car in an empty parking lot. They’re at the back of the coffee shop, where they literally just met [Love that for you, Angel!]. They take a break from kissing to ask each other’s name [Hahahaha]. His name is Billy Joe, but B.J. for short. Angel asks if he’s from Texas, because ‘”Guys from Texas are always called B.J. or T.J. or something'” [Are they?]. Apparently this is just more filler, because B.J. is from Oklahoma. Cool.
They start kissing again, but are soon interrupted by Darryl. Angel starts shouting at him to go away, and B.J. is super freaked out [B.J doesn’t acknowledge Darryl at all, so Darryl is definitely one of Hope’s multiple personalities. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if the three Ms aren’t real people either lol]. B.J. jumps in his car and drives off, leaving Angel to face off with Darryl, but then we shift to Hope’s perspective again.
She’s in the elevator heading up to the dorm, and Melanie’s in the elevator too, banging on about what Hope missed at the meeting. Hope’s not listening though, instead deciding that she and her roommates need to turn Darryl in to the police [Finally. It’s not like he’s real though, so how’s this gonna go down?].
No-one else is home, so Hope showers while she waits, and when she returns, everyone’s home again [We love filler pages!], including Angel who reveals Darryl had followed her that night [And we get no more information on the matter]. They girls all quickly agree to call the police, and as Eden makes the call there’s a knock on the door. Hope answers it to find Ollie, the night guard, standing there. He wants to know if the jacket he’s holding belongs to her – a boy dropped it off and had said it was a blonde girl’s. Hope tells him it’s her roommate’s and takes it off his hands [Did he go to every door looking for blondes, or did he just know it belonged to her? Hahaha].
After he leaves, Eden tells the girls the police will be there in 10 minutes, but that might be 10 minutes too late because Darryl’s crawled up the fire escape and is climbing through the window right now [!!!]. He heard the whole thing and he’s super mad at Eden:
He lifted Eden off the floor.
Lifted her. Lifted her.
Lifted her above his head with both hands as she squirmed and thrashed her arms and legs.
“Let her go!””
Put her down!”
He lifted her higher. Held her above his head.
And then brought her down hard against his upraised knee.
I heard a sickening crack.
“Ohhhhh.” A moan of pain escaped Eden’s throat.
He cracked her back, I realized.
He cracked her. Cracked her in two.
He then tosses her out the window and she lands 13 stories down with a thud [Hahahahahahahaha this is the best part of the book]. There’s another knock at the door, and the police announce themselves from the other side. For whatever reason, the three remaining girls climb out onto the fire escape with Darryl to hide [Why are the girls hiding?]. Hope watches secretly through the window as two officers barge in, followed by the three Ms who want to know what’s going on. The officer’s tell the Ms that Eden had called them because she and her roommates are scared of Darryl, the murderer on campus:
A girl named Hope lives in here, Officer,” Melanie told him. “But, look—it’s a single room. One bed—see? Hope doesn’t have any roommates. She lives in here by herself.”
[Ayyyyy, I knew it!]. The three Ms reveal they’ve never heard of anyone named Eden, Jasmine or Angel on campus, and no-one named Darryl lives here, because Fear Hall is an all-girls dorm! They also explain how they often hear Hope talking to herself at night, or see Hope arguing with herself in public, and the police reckon Hope’s ‘”a dangerous loony'” [Well, she is dangerous and delusional, so I’ll allow this judgement] with multiple personalities, and is most likely all four girls and Darryl [Exactly what I’ve been saying since like page 30. This is 130 pages later. Ugh].
Out on the fire escape, Hope, Angel, Jasmine and Darryl vow to make the Ms pay for calling them crazy:
“And by the time the police find us,” I continued, “Melanie and her roommates will be dead.”
And then the book ends as the police spot Hope on the fire escape.
Final thoughts
Wow. This was wild, lol. The death scenes were pretty entertaining, but the mystery just wasn’t there because it was so obvious what the twist was from the start. At least they’re not dragging out the same twist over to the next book, though, so maybe that’ll be more fun! Hopefully it focuses on Hope’s revenge plot against the three Ms, I feel like that will be entertaining, whereas this one more set the scene.
It is kind of sad how poorly mental health is portrayed in Point Horror. It’s probably more justified here, though, since Hope has a lot of horrible childhood trauma that is manifesting now in a dangerous way. I’m surprised they’ve actually given Hope that sort of backstory to explain it, rather than just saying she’s a psycho killer simply because she has a mental disorder.
43 solid thunnnks out of 78!
Let’s see how Fear Hall: The Conclusion turns out next week!
