**This blog contains adult language.**
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. Please do not continue to read if you don't want to know who the “bad guy” is.
From the Back of the Book: Carter Phillips is under a lot of pressure to ace her math achievement exam – so much pressure that she gets Adam Messner to take the test for her...in exchange for one date. But Adam wants more than a date – much more. Carter has no choice. She has to do whatever he asks. If not, he'll tell her secret and ruin her life. Adam's control over her gets more and more unbearable. Carter is desperate to get rid of him – but how? Is murder the only way?
This book was published in 1993 and this is my first time reading it. It's part of the Fear Street series but the books aren't connected by anything other than geography so we don't need to worry about not reading the ones before it. The cover is....bizarre. Check out the turtleneck our bad guy is wearing. And is he standing inside a tree? Also, who puts lamps on a table like that? Psychopaths obviously.
We begin with our protagonist Carter feeling overwhelmed in her advanced math class. Math has never really been her best subject but she's under immense pressure from her father to do well. The teacher announces that retakes for the Math Achievement Test (MAT) will be Saturday. Carter's dad, Judge Dad, wants her to retake it to improve her score. (((By the way, there's a typo on page two where Judge Dad is referred to as “Judge Carter” instead of “Judge Phillips”. Do better, Stine.))) Carter's boyfriend Dan and her best friend Jill try to make her feel better about the retake but Carter is morose. She worked really hard to get a 570 and was proud of the score but Judge Dad says she needs at least 700 to get into Princeton. It's been his dream for her since she was born.
Carter and Dan go for ice cream after school and, for some reason, she starts talking about a case her dad is presiding over. The accused is a gang leader named Austin who is on trial for murder and it's been a bit of a circus. Her dad has been extra stressed out lately so Carter is more determined than ever to please him. She mentions the test again and jokes that Dan should take it for her since he got a 720 the first time. He isn't amused by the suggestion and ends up leaving shortly after to do an errand for his mother or something.
I'm sure that gang leader totally won't come up again or anything.
Also......
Stine's never been subtle.
A boy named Adam approaches the table. He's in Carter's advanced math class and he was clearly eavesdropping on their conversation. He offers to take the test for her in exchange for a date. Carter doesn't even ask him what he got on the test. She just assumes he did well because he's doing well in the class. She thinks it over for a bit and decides it's worth it. Adam lives on Fear Street and hangs with a “rough crowd” but he's “mysterious and sexy” so she figures a date with him won't be so bad. They arrange for the date to take place the evening after he takes the test for her.
You know, Carter really should have stipulated that he had to get at least a 700 on the test for the deal to be valid. What if he bombs it? What if he never actually takes it at all? She's not very good at this.
We skip to Saturday morning. Carter leaves the house for three hours so she can pretend she's taking the test. She doesn't go to the testing location to make sure Adam actually showed up and she has no proof whatsoever that he actually did what he said he was going to do. When she gets home, she calls him to see how it went. He says the test was fine but they asked for ID on his way out and now they're both busted.
{{{GASP}}}
LOLZ
He was joking. He says everything went well but provides zero proof. Still, she agrees to uphold her end of the bargain without really knowing for sure that he upheld his. Dumb. Very dumb.
That night, Adam takes Carter to a secret club called The Underground that's located in an abandoned warehouse. It's not really her scene or her crowd. In fact, she feels like she stands out because her ripped jeans are “clean” and her skin has a “pampered glow”.
Despite her being a fish out of water, Carter has fun dancing with Adam all night because he's just ever so dreamy. He eventually takes her home and asks what she's doing the next day. She says she's playing tennis with Jill at the club and he says he'll meet her there. She thinks he's joking. He kisses her, she gets out of the car and he drives off.
Carter walks up to her porch and is startled when Adam's girlfriend Sheila comes jumping out of a bush. She asks what's going on between Adam and Carter and Carter denies even knowing Adam. Sheila buys this and stomps away.
Um.......Stine, did you just forget that Carter just got out of Adam's car? Surely Sheila saw her do that. As his girlfriend, she would recognize his car. This makes no fucking sense.
DO BETTER!!!
We skip to the next day. Carter is stunned to find Adam is, indeed, waiting for her outside the club with his cut off jeans and his “battered wooden racket”. She takes him inside the club where they meet up with Jill who is confused. Carter mentions that they need to find someone to play doubles with them and a douche named Richard volunteers. Carter and Adam take on Jill and Richard and they're all surprised when Adam turns out to be a really good player. Richard is pissed at losing and stomps away.
Jill wanders off to the locker rooms to shower, leaving Adam and Carter alone. He asks her to go out with him again the following Friday but she turns him down because her end of the deal has been satisfied. He tells her that she really needs to keep him happy or he'll tell everyone she cheated. She feels trapped.
This is what happens when you break the rules, Carter.
Carter goes home and finds Judge Dad waiting for her. He wants to call the testing center to get her results instead of just waiting for them to be mailed. It turns out “Carter” got a 730 this time around. I'd think an almost 200 point jump would raise some red flags but apparently Judge Dad is colorblind. He gives Carter a pair of diamond earrings from Tiffany's to celebrate.
We skip to the next Friday. Carter and Adam go see a movie and then he takes her back to his house. He tells her that his friend Ray has a crush on Jill and he wants Carter to set up a double date for them. She refuses because Jill already has a boyfriend and because she doesn't want to go out with Adam again. He gets a little rough with her and gropes her very non-consentingly which scares her. He orders her to call Jill from his phone to set up the date and she complies because she's terrified of him.
Jill is reluctant and confused but Carter keeps insisting that it will be fun. Jill eventually agrees to go because she wants to find out what's going on with Carter and Adam. As she's on the phone, Carter fiddles with the handle of a nearby drawer. It pulls open and she sees a gun inside. She's so freaked out that she runs right out of the house and gets on a very convenient bus that just happens to be pulled up outside.
A car follows her home from the bus stop but she can't identify it or the driver.
Odds that it's Adam: 50%
Odds that it's Sheila: 25%
Odds that it's related to that case her dad is on: 25%
The next day Carter meets Dan for tennis at the club. These kids sure play a lot of tennis. He says that a friend of his saw Carter with Adam at the movies but she denies it and changes the subject. After they play, she goes back into the locker room and finds a bloody, human heart in her gym bag.
{{{GASP}}}
LOLZ
It's an animal heart. There's a note pinned to it that says: “Careful – or you'll break Daddy's heart.”
Okay then.
Protagonist gets creepy anonymous notes? Check.
Carter and Jill meet up with Adam and Ray at a dive bar that evening. Ray drags Jill onto the dance floor and gropes her until she starts to cry. Carter asks Adam to do something about it but he refuses so Carter gets up to rescue Jill. Men surround the girls, leering and groping and saying gross things. They struggle to get free and a fight breaks out. The girls get away in the melee.
Jill naturally demands answers and Carter says that she bet Adam that he couldn't beat Richard in tennis and that's why Adam showed up at the club that day. Since she lost the bet, she had to go on a date with him and she didn't want to go alone so she asked Jill to double. Jill buys it but she shouldn't. If she just thought about it for half a second, she would remember that Richard randomly volunteered to play with them. There's no way they could have set up this bet beforehand when they didn't know Richard was going to play.
Whatever.
We skip to Monday. Adam has decided that dating Carter isn't really worth it so he demands $1000 instead. Carter decides to sell her new diamond earrings. She conveniently manages to get exactly $1000 and she gives it to Adam like an idiot. Clearly Carter doesn't understand that blackmail never truly ends because she thinks everything is resolved.
A week passes. Carter thinks she's free and clear because she's clearly an idiot. On Friday night, Carter goes to Dan's house to watch videos and make out. She leaves at midnight. A car comes up behind her and starts driving aggressively. It forces her off a bridge and Carter prepares to meet a watery grave.
{{{GASP}}}
LOLZ
She manages to stop the car on the bridge and the other car just drives off. She's fine. The car's fine. When she gets home, Adam is in her driveway. She accuses him of trying to kill her and he denies being anywhere near her. He says he's been there waiting on her to come home for half the night. He wants another $1000 by the next evening.
Odds Adam was the driver: 33%
Odds Sheila was the driver: 33%
Odds it has to do with that court case: 34%
I would have given them all even odds but it bugs me when it doesn't add up to 100%. Plus, Stine clearly shoehorned that earlier conversation in there for a reason.
The next day Carter tries to sell more jewelry but only gets $200. She takes it to Adam's house but we don't learn what happened. She drives around aimlessly for awhile and then goes home to find Dan waiting for her. Not long after she pulls up, two police officers arrive to tell her that Adam has been shot and killed.
The cops say neighbors saw her car at Adam's house but she denies being there. She says she was with Dan all day. He looks surprised at her lie but backs her up. The cops leave. Carter swears to Dan that she didn't kill Adam but he seems suspicious. Dan leaves and Carter is alone. She frets for awhile and then the phone rings. A creepy voice whispers that they know what Carter did.
Protagonist receives creepy anonymous phone call? Check
We skip to Monday. Everyone in school is whispering about Carter. Even Dan and Jill are avoiding her.
Time passes. We aren't told how much but it seems to be several days. One evening Carter's parents are out at some charity event so she's home alone, fulfilling her protagonist contract with PH. Around 9:00 the lights go out. Carter hears footsteps in the house and tries to call the police but the line is dead. She hears a voice whisper: “Careful – or you'll break Daddy's heart” and assumes that Adam is back from the dead. As you do.
Carter knows her dad has a gun in his office so she runs to get it. It's gone. A man grabs her by the throat and puts her against the wall. He says he tried to run her off the road but she escaped so he's going to have to send his message another way. Carter hears sirens outside and screams. Police rush in to save the day and arrest the intruder. I guess he tripped some kind of alarm when he came in. It turn's out he's working for that Austin guy who is on trial for murder and he was supposed to scare Carter to send a message to her dad. Unfortunately, Carter wasn't telling her dad because she assumed that all the scary things were Adam's doing.
I told you Stine isn't subtle.
Time passes again. Carter thinks life is finally going back to normal but then Sheila calls her. She says she has proof that Carter killed Adam and she wants $500 to stay quiet. Carter doesn't have any jewelry left to sell but she's able to conveniently sell her stereo for exactly $500. Carter's one lucky bitch.
The proof turns out to be a gold locket that Carter pointed out to Dan one day in the mall. Sheila was the one who discovered Adam's body and she found the locket beside it.
Carter calls Dan and asks him to come give her moral support while she tells her dad about cheating on the test and about Adam blackmailing her. Dan shows up and Carter takes him immediately into her father's office where she confesses everything. She even confesses to Adam's murder.
{{{GASP}}}
LOLZ
She only confessed to trick Dan into confessing. It works because he doesn't want her to go to jail for something he did. Dan says he went to see Adam to get him to stop blackmailing Carter. They argued and Adam pulled a gun on him. Dan tried to get it away from him and the gun went off, shooting Adam. Judge Dad says that Dan can probably argue self defense and he promises to do whatever he can to help Dan, including recommending a good lawyer.
When Dan leaves, Judge Dad apologizes to Carter for putting so much pressure on her. We never learn if Carter gets in any trouble for cheating or if she had to retake the test. Stine just leaves it hanging.
The book ends with Carter and Dan playing chess together. I don't know if he's out on bail awaiting his trial or if he got off or what. Stine doesn't bother to tell us.
Seriously, Stine. Did you forget to write an ending for us? This was a really dumb book filled with dumb people and now we don't even really know how it all wrapped up.
DO BETTER, STINE!!!
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