**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: Dance of death... A spring night...soft moonlight...five beautiful Prom Queen candidates...dancing couples at the Shadyside High prom – these should be the ingredients for romance. But stir in one brutal murder – then another, and another – and the recipe quickly turns to horror. Lizzie McVay realizes that someone is murdering the five Prom Queen candidates one by one – and that she may be next on the list! Can she stop the murderer before the dance is over – for good?
{{{Note from future me: Our protagonist's name is spelled “Lizzie” on the back of the book but “Lizzy” in the actual text. I'll be using “Lizzy” since that's how it appears while I'm reading.}}}
This book was published in 1992 as part of the enormous Fear Street series but this is my first time reading it. I kind of like the cover. It's pure 90's and that's my favorite era for these books.
We begin with a group of girls discussing a recent murder. Someone named Stacy was murdered in her bedroom and then the body was dumped in the Fear Street Woods. It's the second murder of a young teen girl and authorities think it might be the work of a serial killer. They've urged all young girls to take precautions and never go out alone. A lot of the parents in Shadyside are freaked out and imposing new rules on their daughters to try to keep them safe.
But just the daughters of course. The boys are allowed to do whatever they want as usual.
The girls go to an assembly where the nominees for Prom Queen (I'm capitalizing it because Stine did) are announced and we finally get everyone's name: Simone the drama girlie who is a little too possessive of her boyfriend Justin, Elana the super-rich smarty-pants, Dawn the star athlete, Lizzy who is our protagonist and Rachel who is poor. Just poor. That's all she gets for a personality.
Do better, Stine.
Prom is going to be held in five weeks at the Halsey Manor House in the Fear Street Woods. The students aren't too excited about the location since a body was recently found near there. I can't really blame them. Why do people in this town keep having events in these woods? It never goes well.
Elana invites all the nominees to go to Pete's Pizza to celebrate. It's so wild to me that this series had Pete's Pizza and the Canby Hall series had Pizza Pete's. I guess if your name is Pete, you are statistically more likely to own a pizzeria than your average Joe. Mostly because all the Joe's own coffee shops. Anyway, I'm way off topic here. Stine ends the chapter with Simone getting pissed at Justin for flirting with another girl during the assembly. She threatens to kill him. As you do.
The nominees go for pizza. Dawn is super cocky about winning Prom Queen. Lizzy tells us that Dawn is always competitive and hates to lose at anything. Rachel keeps making bitter little comments about Elana's new car and how it must be nice to be a spoiled little princess. I kind of hate everyone but Lizzy and Elana so far.
Talk turns to the “prize” that the prom queen will receive. For some reason she gets $3000. The girls keep calling it a scholarship but it sounds like the money just gets handed to her and she can use it for whatever she wants. It's bizarre and not really how scholarships work. Clearly Stine wants us to suspect Rachel because she's the poor one.
Rachel's boyfriend Gideon stops by the table while they're eating. He makes some reference to the Prom Queen money and asks if Rachel's going to buy him dinner with it when she wins. Dawn says he'll be going hungry because there's no way Rachel will win. Dawn's a bitch, y'all. Right after he leaves the table, Simone spots Justin outside flirting with yet another girl. She runs out to confront him while the others watch from inside. They talk about how hot Justin is and then Dawn reveals that she went out with him the week before. She just casually throws that out as if she weren't cheating with her friend's boyfriend. Then Rachel shocks the table by admitting she went out with him too despite having a boyfriend.
What is wrong with these people?
Elana feels left out because Justin hasn't tried to cheat with her yet. Lizzy's just sitting there wondering what the appeal of a guy like Justin is – beyond the hotness of course. Lizzy is technically dating a guy named Kevin but he moved away earlier in the school year. It sounds like they can see other people if they want to but Lizzy is pretty devoted to him. At least for now.
I think a couple of days pass. Stine's never been good at making his timelines clear. Lizzy is in the school auditorium working on the sets for the upcoming musical. I think she's set design and prop master because it seems like she's handling everything but the actors. Simone has the lead role naturally but she hasn't shown up for rehearsal. Robbie, the student director, asks Lizzy where she is. Lizzy has no idea but she volunteers to go look for her. As she leaves the auditorium, she notices that Justin isn't there either. He's not in the play but he comes every day to watch Simone rehearse.
It's evening so most of the school is dark and locked up. Lizzy wanders around a bit, trying to figure out where Simone and Justin might be. Justin in on the baseball team so she thinks they might be in the gym. Somehow she manages to get locked in the stairwell and hysterically screams for help. The janitor comes to free her.
Lizzy decides the parking lot is the next most logical place to look. She sees Dawn heading for her car and yells out a hello. Dawn ignores her which is totally fucking weird. Lizzy rushes over to catch her to see what her problem is. Dawn tries to keep her back to Lizzy but eventually turns and reveals that she has scratches all over her face and blood on her tennis whites. Lizzy asked what happened and Dawn says she ran into the fence trying to get the ball.
Lizzy sees the rest of the musical cast leaving the building and asks why everyone's taking off so early. Apparently Robbie canceled rehearsal since Simone wasn't there. I'm not sure why. Shouldn't the understudy have rehearsed in this situation?
Lizzy decides to go to Simone's house to see if she's there. She pulls up right behind Simone's parents who are just getting home. Simone's dad points out that there's a light on in Simone's bedroom window and tells Lizzy to go on up. Lizzy opens the door to find Simone's room completely trashed and a pool of blood on the floor. Through the window, she sees someone in a maroon satin jacket run off into the woods carrying a large bag.
One down, four to go.
We skip to the next day. Lizzy, Justin, Robbie, Elana, Dawn and Rachel have been summoned to Simone's house for questioning. Why would they do it there? That makes no sense and it puts her parents in the uncomfortable position of hearing things they might rather not know about their daughter. That's exactly what happens when one of the girls basically tells the police that Simone could be a real bitch.
Ouch.
True....but her parents don't need to hear that when their daughter is missing.
The teens are asked where they were the night before. Justin and Elana were doing 'homework' together. I'm not sure how much studying got done but that's between them and their GPAs. Rachel was working at the 7-11 and then she was home. Dawn was playing tennis and faceplanting into fences. Robbie was at rehearsal and then he went home. We know where Lizzy was because we were with her.
No one mentions the scratches on Dawn's face and Lizzy doesn't tell the police that she saw Dawn with blood on her clothes. I guess she believes her friend. Seems like a dumb move, but whatevs. It's not the first time that someone has withheld vital information from the police in one of these books. In fact, it's kind of the norm.
Lizzy is one of the last ones to leave. As she's getting into her car, a guy named Lucas runs up screaming that he's the one who killed Simone.
{{{GASP}}}
LOLZ
He's just kidding. Lizzy tells us that he's weird, has no friends and dresses almost entirely in brown because that's his last name. Oh, and he's depressed. She says this as if it makes him suspicious in some way.
DO BETTER, STINE.
Lucas grabs her arm roughly and tells her that she's either going to go grab a soda with him or she's going to go to his house to make out with him.
Um....
Not feeling good about Lucas Brown.
Lizzy jerks away from him and gets into her car, driving away. She tells us that Lucas and Simone used to date but she broke up with him as soon as Justin asked her out. Apparently Lucas and Justin are both on the baseball team and Simone used to go to all of Lucas' practices in the hopes that Justin would notice her in the stands. So she was using Lucas apparently.
Everyone sucks in this book.
Lizzy suddenly remembers something about the person she saw running away from Simone's house on the night of her disappearance. We don't get to find out what she remembered, though, because the chapter ends there.
I guess we have enough info to make up our suspect list now. Stine wants us to suspect everyone he's named but most of them have absolutely no motive. The quest for Prom Queen feels like a weak motive to me but I'll take it into consideration along with Dawn's injuries and bloody clothes and everyone's alibis.
Odds Dawn is the bad guy: 40% (based solely on injuries and bloody clothes)
Odds Rachel is the bad guy: 10% (based on her wanting the PQ money so bad)
Odds Justin is the bad guy: 20% (based on their relationship issues)
Odds Simone faked the whole thing: 30% (no body has been found and she's an actress)
I know Elana gave Justin an alibi but everyone talks about how charming he is so maybe he talked her into lying for him. Who knows?
We hop ahead two weeks. Dawn, Rachel and Lizzy head to the mall to shop for prom dresses. Along the way, Lizzy tells them that Lucas asked her to prom. Well, 'asked' is a misleading word. He actually said: “Guess who you're going to prom with? Me.” She turned him down, telling him that she's still hoping that Kevin will be able to come back to take her to the prom.
We finally learn what Lizzy remembered in the last chapter. The person running away from Simone's house was wearing a maroon jacket. We um.....we already knew that. But I guess that's significant because the baseball team wears jackets like that. Lizzy immediately suspects Lucas because he's an asshole but she's forgetting Justin is also on the team and so is Gideon. And, to be technical, Rachel could have borrowed Gideon's jacket and Elana could have gotten her hands on Justin's since he was at her house. For that matter, Simone would also have had access to Justin's jacket since they were dating. This really didn't narrow the suspect pool at all. I think my odds still stand.
Both Lizzy and Rachel are really upset about Simone's disappearance but Dawn is tired of talking about it. She reminds them that they weren't really friends with Simone and it's dumb that they're acting like she was their best friend now that she's gone. Lizzy gets pissed at her for saying it but deep down knows it's the truth.
The girls try on prom dresses. The whole time, Dawn is running her mouth about how she's definitely going to win prom queen and the others might as well drop out now. She's completely insufferable and I really hope she's next. Lizzy finds the perfect black dress but Dawn literally rips it out of her hands and buys it herself.
The girls leave the dress shop and go to a movie. They run into Justin who is there with a random girl. He doesn't seem happy to see them. To be fair, I wouldn't be happy to see Dawn either.
Dawn gets halfway through the movie and then gets up to get another drink. I want you to remember that. Stick a pin in it. Time passes and Dawn doesn't come back. Rachel finally decides to go find her. A few seconds later, she comes back, screaming for Lizzy to help her. Dawn is at the back of the theater passed out cold. An usher gets the manager and they wait for Dawn to come to. When she does, she explains that she was coming back from the bathroom.....
Bathroom? I thought she went to get a drink.
I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, maybe she went to the bathroom after she got her drink. No, friends. She doesn't have a drink with her. Stine forgot where she was going entirely.
I guess we'll ignore that. She was coming back from wherever the hell she was and someone hit her over the head. The cops are called because Dawn is convinced that whoever killed Simone tried to kill her. I mean, Simone has never been a confirmed kill but whatevs. The cops think it's unrelated but can't really offer a theory as to why someone would have bonked Dawn on the noggin.
I can think of a few reasons........
Everyone goes home. Lizzy has a letter from Kevin telling her that his dad won't let him come back to take her to the prom. She's devastated. She settles in to do some homework and then Rachel calls sobbing. She begs Lizzy to come over immediately and then hangs up without explanation. Lizzy races over there in a torrential rainstorm where visibility is almost zero. Because she can't see where she's going, she accidentally runs over a child standing in the road.
{{{GASP}}}
LOLZ
Come on, Stine. That wasn't even a good fake out. What the hell would a child be doing standing in the middle of the road at night in a torrential rainstorm?
It was a raccoon. RIP to the raccoon.
Lizzy finally makes it to Rachel's house. She's distraught because Gideon is breaking up with her to date Elana.
This is quite the incestuous little friend group.
Lizzy tries to cheer her up but Rachel is inconsolable. I'm not sure I understand. I mean, she went out with Justin. Does it really matter that Gideon is going out with Elana?
Lizzy goes back home. Her dad tells her they caught the murderer. It turns out it was someone who escaped from the state prison. They have evidence to link him to the two murders from the beginning of the book but nothing to link him to Simone. Her body still hasn't been found either.
Odds Simone is dead: 20%
Lizzy goes to sleep. At midnight, the entire house is woken up by a police officer at the door wanting to question Lizzy. Rachel is dead.
Two down, three to go.
A week passes. Lizzy fills us in on Rachel's death. After Lizzy left, Rachel's family decided to go out for ice cream. In a torrential rainstorm. With zero visibility. And raccoons with no sense of personal safety. (MAKE IT MAKE SENSE, STINE) Rachel didn't go because she was too sad. When her family got back, they found her stabbed to death in her room.
So her body was found but not Simone's?
That changes things.
Odds Simone is dead: 0%
Odds Simone is the one who killed Rachel: 100%
Dawn has taken over the lead in the play. I didn't even know she was into acting. Whatevs. Stine just did it because he needed it for the plot. Anyway, before rehearsal one day, she talks to Lizzy about Simone's “disappearance” and Rachel's murder. Dawn believes the link is Prom Queen but I'm not buying it. What would the purpose be? The $3000 “scholarship”? It doesn't seem like enough of a motive for me. I guess Lizzy disagrees because she thinks the “murders” are because of the money. Dawn just thinks some unpopular girl is murdering the candidates because of jealousy. Both these motives are so weak they couldn't lift a pancake.
Dawn gets called to rehearsal by an annoyed Robbie who I almost forgot was even in this book. While onstage, a sandbag almost falls on her head. Why does Dawn keep escaping her fate? Why are the awful ones so fucking hard to kill?
Dawn is understandably shaken by this and tells anyone who will listen that an attempt was just made on her life. Robbie argues that it was an accident but Dawn says that two of the Prom Queens are already dead. Robbie responds with “Two of who?” which is just an odd fucking thing to say. {{{Note from future me: It never gets explained either.}}}
Lizzy leaves the school and heads home. As she's driving down the road, a hand grabs her shoulder from the backseat. She screams and Lucas pops up. She almost wrecks the car because she's so startled. He just laughs. Lucas tells her that he wants to get to know her better. She turns the car around and drives back to the school. Lucas tries to put his arms around her neck in order to stop her. She makes it to the school parking lot and orders him to get out. He refuses at first but eventually gets out of her car when she threatens to tell the principal and the police.
What a creep.
When Lizzy gets home, her parents are gone. She walks into the kitchen and almost pees her pants when she finds Justin sitting at her table. He says her parents let him in and told him to wait for her. They went to the airport to pick up her aunt. Lizzy asks him why he's there and he asks her not to tell anyone he was at the movies with that random girl the other night. I don't know why the hell it matters. Lizzy is confused as well. Justin then starts caressing her cheek and neck.
Why is every boy in this book so fucking creepy?
Justin says he knows she's into him. She laughs and calls him an “egomaniac”. He's stunned that she's rejecting him. She accuses him of cheating on Simone and being a general man whore. He gets pissed and tells her not to run her mouth again.
I know Stine wants us to add Lucas and Justin to our suspect list but it's Simone. We all know it's Simone. Otherwise her body would have been found.
We skip to the next day and spend way too many pages following Lizzy from class to class. It's boring. Lizzy goes home afterwards and then returns to the school after dinner for another rehearsal. The auditorium is dark when she arrives so she turns on the light. Elana's body is face down on the stage. Her arm is bent at an unnatural angle and her face is smashed in.
Three down, two to go. (Even though one of those 'three' is definitely the bad guy.)
Police are called and determine that she fell from the catwalk above the stage. There's a small bit of maroon satin clutched in her hand.
Lizzy still thinks the deaths are because of Prom Queen so she tells Dawn that she's going to drop out of the race.
Seems wise.
But what if none of this is because of Prom Queen? I know it's the title of the book, but hear me out. Rachel, Elana and Dawn all have something in common that has nothing to do with prom. They all dated Justin. Simone's boyfriend Justin. What if Simone is killing them because they dated him behind her back?
This sounds like the plot of a dark romance.
Days pass. Nothing happens. Lizzy does get a letter from Kevin saying he can take her to prom after all. So, yay, I guess.
On the day of the dress rehearsal for the play, Justin corners Lizzy in the prop room and asks her to prom. Clearly this man cannot read a room. She turns him down, saying Kevin is coming to town. He leaves and Dawn comes in. When Lizzy tells her about the prom invite, Dawn gets all weird. I think she was hoping Justin would ask her. I don't know why.
The rehearsal goes super bad but that's supposed to be good luck. Dawn decides to wait for Lizzy afterwards. I guess Lizzy has to collect all the props and put them away or something. Stine tells us that the prop room is connected to the catwalk and I have to call bullshit on this one. You access the catwalk by climbing a fucking ladder up the wall. How the hell is she carrying props up and down that thing? (MAKE IT MAKE SENSE, STINE!)
While Lizzy is up in her improbable prop room, she hears Dawn scream. She rushes out to see Dawn struggling with someone in a maroon satin baseball jacket. There's a knife. During the struggle, Lizzy realizes that the person in the jacket is Simone.
Simone stabs Dawn and then starts to do her bad guy monologue for Lizzy. Simone was pissed at Justin for cheating and felt neglected by her parents so she staged her disappearance and started targeting the girls Justin cheated with. She's been living in the prop room so she heard Justin ask Lizzy out and now she wants to kill Lizzy too.
But she also heard Lizzy turn him down. (MAKE IT MAKE SENSE, STINE!)
They struggle. Lizzy gets to the ropes and drops a sandbag on Simone's foot. Simone pretends to pass out from the pain. Lizzy goes to check on Dawn who is still alive. Lizzy tries to go for help but Simone jump scares her and tries to choke her out. Dawn stabs Simone in the leg. Lizzy runs off and Simone tackles her. They do some girl wrestling and Lizzy ends up on top. She pins Simone down and then the calvary arrives, led by the janitor who heard all the screaming.
That guy always comes in clutch.
The book ends at the prom. The school decided against having a Prom Queen due to all the murders and stuff. Instead, they are turning the $3000 scholarship into a $3000 scholarship. Yeah, I don't know either. I guess it will be in Rachel and Elana's name though. Dawn gives Lizzy the black dress to wear so I guess we're not supposed to think she's a bitch anymore. She still is, though. Lizzy has a great night with Kevin who is the only male in this book that didn't suck.
The end.
Honestly, I could have liked this one if it hadn't been so obvious and there hadn't been so many plot holes. Lizzy was a likable character at least. We don't get that very often in these things.
I still enjoyed it more than Sweet Valley.
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