**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: Five close friends...one murder. All Julie’s friends hated Al. They all wished Al were dead. But that doesn’t mean one of them killed him. Julie knows her friends. She knows they are innocent...Until one of them confesses. Julie and her friends promise to keep the killer’s secret. After all, they know he would never kill again. Or would he?
This book was published in 1996 as part of the never-ending Fear Street series and this is my first time reading it. I tried to read two different Cooney books for the blog, but one of them was super rapey and the other one was just so cuckoo that I couldn’t make heads or tails of it. I needed something that I knew I could get through and Stine is always my go-to for situations like that. You always know what you’re going to get when you pick up a Stine. That can be pretty comforting for people like me who have anxiety.
My notes for chapter one are a complete mess because of the way Stine opened this book and introduced the cast. I’ve decided to spare you guys that chaos and just introduce the cast in a way that makes actual sense. So this is the only part of the recap that’s being written post-reading. The rest of the recap will be as usual – you get my thoughts as they actually happened.
The friend group in this book originally started with five members – Julie, Hillary, Vincent, Sandy and Al. Julie is our protagonist, Hillary is described as “intense”, Vincent is always joking around, Sandy is a nerd and Al…..well, Al fell in with “some hard dudes” and kind of went off the rails. They gained a sixth when Sandy started dating Taylor. By the way, Sandy is a guy and Taylor is a girl. Taylor is described as gorgeous and a flirt. That’s pretty much all we ever learn about any of these people. Stine has never pretended to be about well-defined, fleshed-out characters. He is what he is.
The book begins with Julie, Hillary and Taylor hanging out at Julie’s house after school. Julie tells us that she still can’t believe that someone as pretty as Taylor is dating someone as nerdy as Sandy. She really seems to be a huge Taylor fan despite the fact that they barely know each other. If this were a book written today instead of in the 90’s, I would think that Julie was secretly in love with Taylor. Alas, such things weren’t allowed to exist in this kind of book back then, so Julie is secretly in love with Vincent instead. She’s had a massive crush on him for a long time but he’s given her zero indication that he feels the same way, so she keeps chickening out before she can say something to him.
The girls talk about a party that someone named Reva is throwing that weekend. Oddly enough, I think we’ve met Reva before but I can’t remember what book she was in. The entire Fear Street universe is very loosely interconnected and sometimes you’ll see a name you recognize but you can’t pinpoint where you know them from. As they’re discussing the party, the kitchen door opens and Al walks right in. None of them are happy to see him. He’s holding a beer which none of them seem too surprised about so I guess this is a common thing for him. He starts hitting on Taylor and being generally obnoxious. Julie asks why he came over and he says he needs $20. She says she doesn’t have it. He tosses the beer can in the sink and lights a cigarette. The beer didn’t seem to faze Julie too much but the cigarette freaks her the fuck out. Apparently her parents caught her smoking freshman year and made her a deal that if she didn’t smoke again until she graduated, they’d give her $1000. If her mom comes in and smells smoke, Julie might lose the money.
When Julie refuses repeatedly to give him money, Al tries to blackmail her. He says he’ll tell her parents he saw her smoking with some friends at the mall. She panics but still has nothing to give him. He threatens to burn the kitchen table with his cigarette. Hillary and Taylor wrestle him away and he drops the lit cigarette on the floor. He then asks Hillary for the money and says if she doesn’t give it to him, he’ll report her for cheating on her chemistry exam. She gives him the money and he leaves. Almost immediately, Julie’s mom comes home. She finds the cigarette and the beer can and flips out. The girls tell her that Al was the one who was drinking and smoking but she says that Julie is responsible for her guests. Julie ends up grounded which means she has to miss the big party.
We skip ahead a week. Julie is bitter about missing the party and gets mad whenever she hears someone talking about how awesome it was. Hillary tells her that Taylor cheated on Sandy at the party and instead of getting mad about it, Sandy just started fawning all over her. Taylor took advantage of it by ordering him around and he did everything she told him to do. Hillary is pretty upset about how Taylor is treating Sandy but Julie defends her. She says that Taylor is just having fun and Sandy needs someone to boss him around because he’s so shy.
I told you she was up Taylor’s ass.
Hillary reveals that Al has continued to blackmail her. She’s given him a lot of money and even loaned him her car at one point. Julie agrees that Al is awful but doesn’t offer her friend any real sympathy. She’s more focused on her unrequited love for Vincent who we haven’t even met yet.
Taylor and Sandy join them with the news that Al got suspended for fighting. First they say he’s suspended permanently but then they say it’s for a week. Just Stine being Stine. They end up at Sandy’s house and Vincent joins them. I’m not sure what Julie sees in him. He seems pretty obnoxious to me. Taylor flirts with him a little bit which irritates Julie. Sandy continues to be at Taylor’s beck and call and she’s obviously enjoying it.
Al shows up. He’s drunk and heads straight to Sandy’s fridge to get another beer. Sandy stops him. They tussle a bit and Al ends up hitting Sandy hard enough to knock out his tooth. Hillary gets pissed and shoves Al. Al threatens to kick her ass. She’s ready to fight him but he backs off.
We skip ahead several days again. Julie is supposed to meet Vincent after school to work on a chemistry project but she gets held up by Corky the cheerleader. We’ve definitely met Corky before. You don’t forget a name like that. Julie's super late getting to Vincent’s house and finds him angrily pacing in his driveway. At first she thinks he’s mad at her, but it turns out he got blackmailed into loaning out his mother’s car and Al is late returning it. Vincent’s mom is going to be dropped off by her car pool at any moment and he’s going to be dead if the car isn’t back by then. (In case you’re wondering….Vincent is being blackmailed because he borrowed his mother’s car without permission one afternoon and got a ticket that he didn’t pay that Al conveniently knows all about.)
Al does return the car but it's all smashed up. He says he didn't see a stop sign. Vincent jumps Al but Julie pulls him away. Al takes off. Julie tells us that she killed Al the very next day.
{{{GASP}}}
LOLZ
She takes it back immediately and says she didn’t kill him – people just accused her of doing so.
Julie calls Vincent the next day and invites him to go rollerblading with the group. He says he can’t because he’s grounded. He also has to spend the entire summer working at his dad’s shop to pay for the damage to the car. Julie makes it all about her and laments that she won’t be able to see him now and he'll never know she's in love with him.
I mean.........she could just stand under his window with a boombox or something.
Sigh. You're all tragically too young to get that reference. Alas.
Julie meets up with Hillary, Sandy and Taylor to tell them about Al wrecking Vincent’s mom’s car and Vincent getting in trouble. They’re all super pissed at Al. While they’re at the rink, Julie notices that Sandy is running himself ragged to please Taylor. Anything she asks for, he does. Taylor seems to be enjoying the power she has over him. Taylor and Sandy end up making out for awhile and then they both disappear.
Hillary ends up seeing some boy she knows from another school. He says there’s a party nearby and Hillary wants to go. Julie wants to skate some more so she tells Hillary to go without her even though Hillary drove them there. Julie ends up skating until 11:00pm. There’s still no sign of Taylor or Sandy so she decides to catch the bus home. There’s a shortcut to the bus stop through the alley behind the rink so she heads that way. Halfway down the alley she discovers Al’s body. He’s been strangled with the laces of his rollerblades.
Julie kneels over his body just as more people come out of the rink. They see her leaning over the body and accuse her of murder.
We skip ahead a few hours. Julie is at the police station being questioned by Officer Reed. Her parents are present and her mom can’t stop crying. Officer Reed says that robbery wasn’t a motive for Al’s murder and asks Julie if she knows of anyone who might wish him harm. Julie blurts out that everyone hated Al, including her.
Not the brightest thing to say to the police officer investigating the crime.
Also, not to be nitpicky, but why is an officer investigating this and not a detective?
We immediately skip ahead to the day of the funeral. Taylor spends the entire service sobbing which is definitely weird since she didn’t seem to like Al much.
Afterwards they all head to Sandy’s house, including Vincent who was given a reprieve for the day. Taylor is still sobbing. Sandy is tense and even quieter than usual. He keeps fidgeting with a bronze bust of himself. Apparently his mom is a sculptor and she’s made multiple busts of Sandy and his sister. They’re all over the house.
Sandy puts down the bust and gets all their attention. He rather dramatically announces that he’s the one who killed Al.
It was definitely Taylor. She's acting way too weird for it to be anyone but her.
I can hear you arguing with me. "But, blogger," you say, "it's been established that Sandy will do Taylor's bidding. Maybe she asked him to kill Al and he did." I considered that. I just think the level of histrionics she's displaying indicates a deeper level of remorse. I could be wrong. I've confidently declared a bad guy before and been super wrong.
Pandemonium breaks out. Taylor starts screaming “no” over and over, Vincent and Julie are stunned and Hillary’s pissed because Sandy has made them all complicit. Sandy is irritated at her censure and says he mainly did it for her because Al was ruining Hillary’s life most of all.
Dude.
No one’s buying this.
It’s so obviously…….
Hillary doesn’t care why he did it. She says he’s put them all in a terrible position. She wants to call the police immediately. Justin….ahem, Taylor...says they have to protect Sandy. Julie agrees. She says there’s no reason for Sandy’s life to be ruined when it won’t bring back Al. Taylor says they have to pretend like none of this ever happened. Besides, it’s not like Sandy is a dangerous person. He’s not going to kill anyone else.
The chapter ends with Julie telling us that Sandy killed again a week later.
{{{GASP}}}
.
.
.
LOLZ
It was just in Julie’s dream. So I guess we’ve skipped ahead another week. Cool.
Everyone goes to graduation rehearsal and then Hillary and Julie splinter off to discuss how they feel weird around Sandy now. Hillary feels like the secret is eating her up inside. Julie says she’s actually afraid of Sandy now and doesn’t know how he’s living with the knowledge that he killed someone.
He’s fine because he knows he didn’t kill anyone. Taylor did. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.
(If I’m wrong, this is going to rank right up there with the time I didn’t mention Pete in the recap because I didn’t think he was important and then he turned out to be the bad guy. 😂)
The two of them head back to Julie’s house and find Officer Reed standing on the front porch getting ready to knock. As soon as Julie sees him, she blurts out that Sandy killed Al.
{{{GASP}}}
.
.
.
LOLZ
She didn’t say it out loud. Officer Reed wants to ask her a few follow up questions but Julie doesn’t want to talk to him so she lies and says her parents aren’t home, knowing he can’t question her without one of them being present. Her mom ruins the whole thing by opening the front door and inviting Officer Reed inside.
Officer Reeds asks the girls if they’ve heard any rumors going around school about who might have killed Al. They say no one is really talking about it because of all the excitement around graduation. They give him a false lead about the “tough dudes” Al hangs out with and he leaves. Julie looks out the window to make sure he’s gone and sees Sandy hiding in the yard watching the house.
We skip ahead a couple of days. Julie walks past Sandy and Vincent playing basketball after school with some random classmates. Sandy and Vincent seem to be mad at each other. They’re exchanging words and playing more aggressively than usual. At one point, Sandy throws a ball directly at Vincent’s head. Julie is terrified that Sandy is losing it again and might harm someone else.
We skip ahead again to Saturday night. Julie meets Hillary at the mall for a movie. They invited Vincent but he’s back to being grounded. They didn't invite Taylor or Sandy because they didn't want to spend the evening with a murderer. When they get to the theater, though, they run right into Taylor. She’s mad because everyone is treating Sandy horribly and nothing is like it was before.
Murder will do that, Taylor.
Stine just skips right to Monday night from there. Graduation rehearsal runs super late and Julie doesn’t get home until 11:00pm. I swear that must be Stine’s favorite time or something. Her parents are in Europe….ahem….excuse me, I meant visiting relatives….so Julie is home alone. She parks in the garage but doesn’t close the door for some reason. She’s standing by the door to the house, digging through her purse for her house keys when the garage door starts to close. She watches in horror as someone ducks under the door.
Wait.
How did they engage the garage door from outside the garage?? I know some garage doors have a keypad on the outside but how did they know the code?
Sigh.
Whatever.
It’s Stine.
The person is Sandy and he’s holding Julie’s rollerblades somehow. Did she leave them outside? Did he pick them up once he got inside? Who knows. Julie does a lot of shrieking because PH authors loved that word in the 90’s. He tells her he was just picking them up so she wouldn’t trip over them.
OOOOOkay.
Sandy asks why she was talking to the police. She asks why he was spying on her. He asks why they can’t all get over it and go back to how things were. It’s a pointless conversation.
We skip to the next day. Stine is flying through the timeline here but very little is happening.
Apparently Sandy also “threatened” Hillary and Vincent if that’s what you want to call whining about them not getting over him confessing to murder. These kids really found him saying “things have to go back to normal” super frightening, y’all. They’re traumatized. They all agree that they can’t be Sandy’s friend anymore.
Taylor confronts Hillary and Julie after school. She calls them awful people for hurting Sandy’s feelings. I guess he should have thought this one through. I mean, how did he expect everyone to act? Clearly he did this to show Taylor how devoted he was to her but did he really think everyone else was just going to forget about it and move on? Hillary yells that she doesn’t care about Sandy’s feelings and Taylor straight up throws hands. They start fighting and Julie manages to pull them apart. Taylor runs off.
Hillary says she’s not going to keep Sandy’s secret anymore. Julie tries to talk her out of going to the police saying they shouldn’t ruin Sandy’s life over a stupid mistake. This is a common thing said about young men who commit sexual assault and every time I hear it, I feel rage. I’m just going to move on.
Hillary insists that she’s going to talk Sandy into turning himself in and asks Julie to drop her off at Sandy’s house. Julie protests that she shouldn’t go alone but Hillary won’t change her mind. Either she’s SUPER dumb or she knows Taylor is the murderer.
Julie leaves her there and goes home to fret. An hour or so later, Hillary’s mom calls to ask Julie if she knows where Hillary is. Instead of telling the truth, Julie lies and says she has no idea.
I hope my kiddo never has a friend like this.
After dinner, Julie finally gets a call from Hillary. Hillary is upset and says she just killed Sandy. She begs Julie to come to her house.
Odds Sandy is really dead: 0%
Julie drives over and finds Taylor and Vincent have already arrived. Hillary tells them all to sit and then confesses that she killed Sandy. She says she asked him to turn himself in and he refused so she told him she was going to go to the police herself. He picked up one of those bronze busts and they fought over it. It ended up hitting Sandy in the head.
Taylor loses it and starts screaming that Sandy didn’t even kill anyone. She’s the one who killed Al.
Taylor does her bad guy monologue and revels that she was dating Al behind Sandy’s back because she loves bad boys. At one point, Al got into some trouble so Taylor stole $100 from her parents and gave it to him. He was supposed to pay her back but started demanding more money instead. When she balked at giving it to him, he threatened to tell her parents about the money she took.
The night he died, he asked her for another $100. She refused and he started to get aggressive with her. He threw her against the wall of the alley and then threatened her with his rollerblades. She got them away from him and then strangled him with the laces.
I'm not real clear on whether Sandy found her directly after committing the murder or if she just told him about it later. Sandy promised he wouldn’t tell anyone and then he later took the blame to impress her.
The doorbell rings and suddenly Sandy walks through the door.
It turns out, Sandy started to regret taking the fall for murder. When Hillary finally figured things out, they came up with a plan to get Taylor to confess.
Except….she hasn’t really. I mean, she told them she did it, but the cops still have no idea. Shouldn’t they have arranged for Officer Reed to be there? I guess that would have been hard to do without admitting they’ve all been withholding evidence in a murder investigation. Stine doesn’t tell us what happens to Taylor. He just says her parents come to drive her home.
Sandy apologizes for being a little intense with them. He really just believed that they’d all be able to forget his confession and move on as if nothing happened. When that didn’t happen, he got angry.
We skip ahead two weeks. Vincent is walking Julie home and he says he has a confession to make. She has a little PTSD about people confessing things but it turns out he’s had a crush on her for a long time. She responds to this by screaming.
The book just ends there.
This book was honestly pretty boring but at least it was readable. Stine never really lets me down.
Remember the fucking piranhas?
That was awesome.
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