Warning: Spoilers Ahead!!! This is a recap blog which means I read the book and tell you everything that happens so you don't have to read it yourself. Do NOT continue to read unless you want to know who the bad guy/girl/haunted jewelry is.
Tag Line: You can keep it.From the Back of the Book: Jennifer is not herself. Ever since she got the antique necklace, she has been living in a nightmare. She believes the necklace is forcing her to commit terrible crimes. But will it make her kill?
What the hell is that tag line? Is that really the best they could do? It doesn't even really make sense. Also, I need to put a picture of the back of the book here because I have no idea what these two people are doing.
I mean, I suppose maybe she's holding a paper snowflake and he's holding crepe paper and they're decorating for the party but.....never happened in the story for one thing and for another, he looks like he's holding duct tape and she's about to find herself on a milk carton.
This book was published in 1998 and
this is my first time reading it. It's book 6 in the series and
there's no way I'm doing that many reviews so here's some links.
The beginning of each book gives us a
“yearbook” with all the characters. I'll summarize.
Trisha – lists her likes as
shopping and her dislikes as “rich girl jokes”
Clark – lists his likes as
Debra and his dislikes as garlic
Jennifer – lists her likes as
basketball and her dislikes as being a Fear in a Fear-hating town
Jade – lists her likes as
cheerleading and her dislikes as ghosts
Gary – lists his likes as art
class and his dislikes as cops
Kenny – lists his likes as
Jade and his dislikes as kids who torture camp counselors
Stacy – lists her likes as
sports and her dislikes as pyscho killers
Josh – lists his likes as
Debra and his dislikes as funeral homes (uh oh, that's two for Debra)
Josie – lists her likes as
standard goth fare and her dislikes as being compared to stepbrother
Josh
Mickey – lists his likes as
partying and his dislikes as studying
Marla – lists her likes as
writing and her dislikes as goth girls
Mary – lists her likes as
running and her dislikes as rich girls
Dana – lists her likes as boys
and her dislikes as “private cheerleading performances”
Deidre – lists her likes as
mysterious guys and her dislikes as “being a good girl”
(Dana's twin BTW)
Will – lists his likes as
clubbing and his dislikes as the clinic
Ty – lists his likes as
cheerleaders and his dislikes as Valentine's Day
Clarissa – lists her likes as
art and her dislikes as Mira
Matty – lists his likes as
computers and his dislikes as “people who can't take a joke”
Phoebe – lists her likes as
cheerleading and her dislikes as liars
Greta – lists her likes as
football players and her dislikes as ceramics
Justin – lists his likes as
The Beastie Boys and his dislikes as having his face shoved in the
toilet
In the last book, Mary is experimented
on in an unethical and quite possibly illegal way by her teacher Mr
Morley. After cheating on a test that she wasn't able to study for
because of work and practice or something like that, Mr Morley
“catches” her and threatens to turn her in unless she does a
favor for him. She can't risk getting in trouble because she's on
probation for shoplifting so she agrees to the favor. Morley has her
do a series of bizarre and increasingly illegal activities for him all
while manipulating the results. He even sends in his research
assistant Rob to get close to her and help him deceive her. She
finally finds out it's all been an elaborate set up and then she fake-poisons them to give them a taste of their own medicine. It was a
fucking train wreck of a book and I'm not expecting this one to be
any better.
This book begins on Boxing Day with
Jennifer Fear running up Trisha's staircase. She's eager to show
Trisha her very favorite Christmas present. It's an amulet with a
big garnet that her father found in some “junk shop in the Old
Village”. Yeah, that's totally not haunted or anything. Sigh.
On the back is inscribed “Dominique Fear” which Jennifer
thinks is cool. It's like a family heirloom somehow found it's way
back to her family.
Jennifer normally doesn't care for
anything having to do with her family history. The Fears are kind of
infamous in Shadyside and a lot of sinister stuff has happened around
them. A lot of people in the town think they are evil or witches or
something but Jennifer's family is just a normal family. The
necklace is so pretty that she doesn't mind it's an heirloom.
I'm sure she'll come to regret this little fit of superficiality by
the end of the book.
Trisha and Jennifer start to discuss
the New Year's party Jennifer is having at her house in a few days.
Jennifer takes this opportunity to tell us that she's dating Ty now.
Things didn't end so well with his last girlfriend (although, to be
100% transparent, I can't remember if she died or if she's the one in
the “clinic”). Jennifer is pretty gaga over Ty but Trisha warns
her not to give her heart away completely. Ty has a bad habit of
cheating on his girlfriends. I'm not sure Trisha really has a leg to
stand on here since her current boyfriend (Gary) never really
bothered to break up with his long-time girlfriend Mary before
starting to date Trisha.
Trisha randomly asks to try on the
amulet and, of course, has one of her “psychic visions”.
I put that in quotes because I think she's a pretty crap psychic. In
the vision she sees a woman being hanged. It's not a huge stretch of
the imagination given the necklace used to be belong to a Fear and
the Fears have been considered evil and witches in the area pretty much
always. So it would make sense that one of them was hanged.
Later that night, Ty takes Jennifer to
a cemetery to make out. He's a romantic, that boy. As he's kissing
her neck he suddenly jumps back and there's blood on his chin.
Jennifer tells him that he must have cut his chin on the amulet
because the edges are sharp. He seems annoyed and drives Jennifer
home. She asks him if he wants to do something the next day and
suggests the mall or ice skating. Ty is all fidgety now and tells
her that he thinks they should “slow things down” and not see so
much of each other. Jennifer is crushed. She asks him if he's
seeing anyone else and he admits he is. She gets super pissed and he
tells her they should just break up entirely and then he leaves in a
huff. I'm not exactly sure how he expected that conversation to go.
I'm sure he thought he was so amazing that she'd just be okay with
him screwing a bunch of other girls while they dated. He's kind of a
douche.
That night Jennifer dreams that she's
walking over to the old, abandoned, burned down Fear Mansion. She
wakes up outside in Ty's backyard. She's scared to death and can't
figure out how she got there. Apparently she used to sleepwalk as a
toddler but hasn't done it since Kindergarten. She gets up and goes
back home.
Later that morning, Jennifer heads to
the library to do some research for a college application essay she
needs to turn in soon. Trisha, Deirdre, Phoebe and a few other
people are there. She tells Trisha about the sleepwalking incident
and then Phoebe approaches. Apparently the rumor mill is saying that
Ty was attacked the previous night in his own backyard. Jennifer is,
of course, convinced that she attacked Ty in her sleep or
something.
Jennifer and Trisha go to a more
secluded area to discuss everything that's going on. Trisha touches
the amulet and has another vision. For some reason she gets all
short-tempered and annoyed with Jennifer and tells her that she has
to leave. Jennifer can't figure out what happened. She's sure it
was some kind of vision but she doesn't have a clue what it might
have been.
Later the two meet back up at Pete's
for pizza. Trisha still won't talk about the vision she had in the
library and the two of them are just trying to move past it. Ty
comes in and Jennifer is happy to see him even with his bandaged
head. She starts to rush over to him but then notices he's making
horny eyes at Greta. Ty joins Greta and Jennifer is left teary eyed
with Trisha. Trisha gets all upset and keeps saying “how dare he”
over and over. She can't believe Ty would have the nerve to flaunt
his new relationship in front of Jennifer. Again....pot meet kettle
because that's exactly what Trisha and Gary have been doing to poor
Mary. They were even flaunting before Gary and Mary broke up.
We skip ahead in time. I don't know
how much. Stine didn't even bother starting a new chapter. Suddenly
Jennifer is at basketball practice with Stacy. It's cold and foggy
or something so she offers Stacy a ride home. As she's leaving
Stacy's place, she gets upset all over again about Ty. Suddenly a
man steps into the road directly in front of her car. She doesn't
have time to swerve and she smears the man all over the pavement.
{{{GASP}}}
I finally get to use this.
LOLZ
She doesn't actually kill the guy. He
manages to get out of the road and everything's fine. It turns out
to be Ty and he's trying to flag someone down because his car broke
down. He's not interested in Jennifer's help, however, and tells her
to leave him the hell alone.
That night Jennifer has another dream
that she's out walking somewhere. She has a box in one hand and some
matches in the other. She tells herself she has to hurry and do what
must be done.
Jennifer wakes up late the next
morning. She's freezing cold but her feet are free of mud and her
slippers are dry. She decides this time the dream was just a dream.
She hurries to get ready because she's going to be late picking up
Trisha. They're supposed to go to the mall to get supplies for the
party. On her way out the door she realizes one of her gloves is
missing and she can't figure out where she might have dropped it.
Before she can leave the house, Trisha
shows up. She's had another vision. In the vision Jennifer did
something bad to Ty's house so Trisha decides she's clearly a
murderer and basically shakes her by the shoulders screaming “you're
the attacker” over and over.
Trisha tells Jennifer that someone set
Ty's house on fire last night. Luckily Ty smelled the smoke and
called the fire department before too much damage was done but people
are saying it was arson. Jennifer runs down the street toward Ty's
house. Several of the other seniors are there already. As Jennifer
approaches, she sees something in the rubble. It's her missing
glove.
The next chapter alternates between
Jennifer's dramatic internal monologue as she laments OVER AND OVER
AND OVER that she couldn't possibly have burned Ty's house down and
Jennifer and Trisha rehashing EVERYTHING THAT'S HAPPENED for us.
The only new thing that happens is that
Trisha tells Jennifer the amulet is basically haunted by Dominique
and she wasn't a very nice person. She fears Dom is taking Jennifer
over in her sleep and doing bad things to get revenge on Ty.
Jennifer goes into her family library
to search for info about Dom. Luckily her father is obsessed with
the Fear lineage and has collected a massive amount of books on the
subject. She finds a handwritten journal of sorts detailing all the
births and deaths of the family. Dom was born back in 1863. In 1879
there's another entry saying that Dom almost disgraced the entire
family by having an affair with Nigel Fetherston. She had a
baby in 1880 and then was hanged for the murder of Nigel two years
later. Apparently Dom starting having visions as a child. One day
she had a vision of Nigel slipping on some wet rocks and falling over
a cliff. She went to warn him but he wasn't home, so she told his
wife in an effort to keep him safe. Two days later it really
happened and she was arrested for his murder. At the gallows, Dom
swore that someone would pay for her death someday. Jennifer wonders
if she's trying to take that revenge on Ty for some reason.
Jennifer decides the amulet is causing
all of this and she tries to take it off. The clasp is stuck so she
tries to break the chain. It seems unbreakable and she's in a
complete panic when her mom comes into the room. Her mom easily
unclasps the necklace and takes it off. Jennifer puts it in a sock,
ties a knot in the top and hides it in the back of a dresser drawer.
The next day Jennifer and Trisha are
shopping for those party supplies. Jennifer recounts EVERYTHING she
learned about Dom for us even though it isn't even a new chapter. We
don't need a review from three paragraphs before, Stine. She's finished up her shopping but Trisha is still going so she takes her
bags out to her car. Ty confronts her in the parking lot saying he
knows she's the one attacking him. He tells her to leave him alone
or she'll be sorry. She gets into her car and prays that it's all
over now that she's not wearing the necklace.
Later, Jennifer and Trisha get the
house decorated for the party. Jennifer is still upset about her
encounter with Ty and she worries that just taking off the necklace
isn't enough to break Dom's control over her. Trisha offers to put
the necklace on again to see if she can get a helpful vision.
Odds of Trisha's vision being actually
helpful: 15%
Trisha puts on the necklace and starts
to channel Dom who basically just says that someone will pay over and
over again until the end of the chapter. Jennifer takes the necklace
off Trisha and everything goes back to normal. They hide the
necklace again and hope that's enough to keep Dom's spirit out of
them and away from Ty.
It's New Year's Eve now and the party
is going full swing. Ty shows up at Jennifer's party in Jennifer's
house with Greta which is just a massive dick move. I'm now firmly
anti-Ty because he clearly has no empathy at all. Trisha is furious
and wants to throw them both out but Jennifer doesn't want to make a
big deal of it. She's hoping this means Ty doesn't think she's out
to get him anymore.
It's weird that Trisha seems to be more upset by Ty's betrayal than Jennifer is. I guess maybe she's a really good friend but it seems out of place given the whole Gary/Mary/Trisha story.
The party goes on and Jennifer dances
with Kenny since Jade is home sick. As she's dancing she begins to
feel really hot and dizzy so she steps outside on the back porch
afterward to cool down. She's feeling pretty good about the way
things are going when she hears Trisha scream inside. Everyone goes
running toward the sound and they find Trisha and Kenny in the guest
bedroom staring down at Greta's dead body.
This isn't a GASP/LOLZ situation.
Greta seems actually dead. At least for now. There's some kind of
heavy ceramic bowl in shards around her busted head and Ty
immediately accuses Jennifer of braining her. The police come and
that's when everyone notices that the shelf where the bowl was
sitting is hanging by one bracket. Apparently it came loose and
Greta just happened to be right under it when it did. But what was
she doing in the guest bedroom in the first place? Hmmmm.
Despite the police being satisfied it
was an accident caused by a falling shelf, Ty screams at Jennifer
that she's doing all this crap because she can't handle the fact he
dumped her. He says she's “crazy” of course and everyone leaves
the party without even looking at Jennifer. Jennifer stops Trisha at
the door to protest her innocence again and Trisha reveals that she
had a vision of the murder and she saw hands pulling the shelf down.
Trisha thinks Jennifer is still being controlled by Dom.
(((((**My manager just pointed out to
me that Greta's yearbook dislike mentioned ceramics and she was
killed by a falling ceramic bowl. Also Danielle listed her dislike
as being cold and when she died it was mentioned that her body was
super cold. So there's little clues in there I guess.**)))))
The next morning, Jennifer tells her
parents everything. She starts at the beginning and just lays it all
out there, concluding that Dom is using her to kill because she's a
Fear. That's when her father drops the bombshell. Their last name
isn't really Fear. Apparently Jennifer's grandfather just adopted it
because being a Fear in this town opened certain doors at the time.
They don't really share the blood or the lineage. Jennifer is
furious. She's been teased and bullied her entire life because of
her last name and now she finds out none of it is true.
The only other person who has been
around when Dom makes an appearance is Trisha. Could Trisha be
related to Dom instead of Jennifer?
Odds that Trisha is related to Dom
instead: 50%
Jennifer goes on a rampage and starts
flinging books around the library because she hates everything Fear
related again. One of the books has a picture of a house in it and
she recognizes it as Trisha's house. The caption says it was given
to Dom and Henry when they got married. Jennifer jumps on my
little theory real damn quick and assumes that it's Trisha that's
related to Dom instead.
She goes back to the journal to take
another look and realizes that she missed an entry. Apparently Dom
married a man named Henry Conrad. Which is Trisha's last name.
Jennifer still worries that she might be involved, though, and she
goes through the spell book to see if she can find some kind of
solution. She finally finds one for “ridding this plane of the
spirit's evil” and thinks maybe she can use it to get rid of
Dom.
She picks up the necklace and realizes
for the first time that there's some kind of compartment behind the
stone. It just happens to have a lock of hair which is what the
spell requires!!!
She isn't sure if the hair is Dom's but
she knows she has to take a chance. Basically she has to burn the
hair to ash and then blow it in the face of the possessed person. So
she puts the hair in a jar and burns it, intending to go blow it in
Trisha's face. When she gets to Trisha's house, however, she finds
out that Trisha is out with Ty. Jennifer panics and knows she has to
find them. There's one place she knows that Ty like to take girls.
The cemetery.
She gets there and parks her car. She
doesn't see any sign of Ty or Trisha so she goes wandering around the
gravestones for some reason. I have no idea what she's doing to be
honest. But the bizarre choice pays off because she hears a cackling
sound and follows it to a clearing where the 👯Trisha/Dom hybrid👯 is
holding sharp scissors over the prone body of what Jennifer assumes
to be Ty. She begs 👯Trisha/Dom👯 not to hurt anyone, Then, for some
reason, Jennifer tells Dom's entire story TO DOM as if Dom doesn't
know why she's pissed. It's surreal.
The typical fight scene occurs with
Jennifer and 👯Trisha/Dom👯 fighting over the knife. Jennifer finally
manages to blow the ashes into 👯Trisha/Dom's👯 face and the entity
starts howling that her eyes are on fire. Then Trisha sinks to her
knees and it's all over. She's back to herself.
Trisha says she doesn't remember coming
to the cemetery with Ty and Jennifer believes her. She says that it
was Dom controlling Trisha and everything is okay. They manage to
get Ty into his car and drive him back to his house. He comes to
when they get there and the girls manage to convince him that he
drove Trisha out to the cemetery, got batshit drunk, passed out and then she called Jennifer to help her get him home. He ends
up apologizing to both of them for being such a drunk douche.
Jennifer tells Trisha the entire story
later and Trisha doesn't seem too phased about her new lineage.
Given her visions, it kind of makes sense that she's genetically a Fear. Then,
in the last chapter, we take our only head hop of the entire book and
land in Trisha's head. She tells us that she was definitely seeing
Ty behind Jennifer's back (and I guess Gary's) and that the two of
them got down and dirty in the cemetery more than once. I guess that's the real reason she got so upset about Ty being with Greta in the pizza place and him bringing her to the party. She wasn't pissed that Ty was flaunting his new girlfriend in front of Jennifer. She was pissed because Ty was cheating on her.
Oh, and she also
tells us that she's filled with rage now and she's not so sure that
Dom is really gone. Blah blah blah.
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