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Fear Street #48
Who Killed the Homecoming Queen?
Tania is having the best year of her life. She has a hot new boyfriend, she landed the starring role in a student film, and she's just been voted homecoming queen. But someone is jealous of Tania. Someone plans to ruin her perfect year--even if Tania must be killed. Will Tania live to see the homecoming dance?
147 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 1, 1997
About the author
R.L. Stine
1,537 books17.6k followersRobert Lawrence Stine known as R. L. Stine and Jovial Bob Stine, is an American novelist and writer, well known for targeting younger audiences. Stine, who is often called the Stephen King of children's literature, is the author of dozens of popular horror fiction novellas, including the books in the Goosebumps, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, The Nightmare Room and Fear Street series.
R. L. Stine began his writing career when he was nine years old, and today he has achieved the position of the bestselling children's author in history. In the early 1990s, Stine was catapulted to fame when he wrote the unprecedented, bestselling Goosebumps® series, which sold more than 250 million copies and became a worldwide multimedia phenomenon. His other major series, Fear Street, has over 80 million copies sold.
Stine has received numerous awards of recognition, including several Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards and Disney Adventures Kids' Choice Awards, and he has been selected by kids as one of their favorite authors in the NEA's Read Across America program. He lives in New York, NY.
http://us.macmillan.com/itsthefirstda...
R. L. Stine began his writing career when he was nine years old, and today he has achieved the position of the bestselling children's author in history. In the early 1990s, Stine was catapulted to fame when he wrote the unprecedented, bestselling Goosebumps® series, which sold more than 250 million copies and became a worldwide multimedia phenomenon. His other major series, Fear Street, has over 80 million copies sold.
Stine has received numerous awards of recognition, including several Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards and Disney Adventures Kids' Choice Awards, and he has been selected by kids as one of their favorite authors in the NEA's Read Across America program. He lives in New York, NY.
http://us.macmillan.com/itsthefirstda...
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May 23, 2022
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R.L. Stine is sometimes called the children's Stephen King, and just like Stephen King, he has his share of both swings and misses. This one, sadly, was a miss-- and it doesn't even have the benefit of nostalgia on its side, since this is one of the Fear Street books that I've never read as a kid.
The summary of this book is incredibly misleading, as it makes it sound like Tania is going to be the main character. The main character is actually one of Tania's friends, a girl named Eva. Eva is a living lie detector test with "the shining"-- but, for the sake of trademarks, let's call it "the deus ex machining." It's high school, in the 90s, or what someone who went to high school in the 50s thinks high school in the 90s is like, so there's a lot of "hey gang" and "let's meet up at the pizza parlor" with the hint of a "golly gee" or a "holy crow" hanging seductively on the wind.
Tania is a beautiful girl who has been crowned homecoming queen. And this is a Big Deal(TM). Suddenly, everyone can't stop talking about Tania, and she's being offered a starring role in an independent movie by a high school creep who just wants in her pants. The movie's title? Who Killed the Homecoming Queen? (Go ahead and roll credits, now.) It's a-- you guessed it-- horror movie where Tania gets murdered. Except, somebody didn't get the memo that art echoes life and not vice-versa, because Tania shows up dead.
Whoops.
I've really enjoyed some of R.L. Stine's books, but not the "golly gee" sorts. I think Stine is a lot better when he's writing for more of a YA than a middle grade audience, because in books like these, it really feels like he's pulling all the punches instead of the stops, and really dialing it in. The deus ex machining was a really lame twist, and the ending ended up being a cop-out sundae (with cop-outs on top of cop-outs on top of cop-outs). I was pretty disappointed, tbh.
1.5 to 2 stars
May 12, 2023
2 stars upon reread
This book was not the best Fear Street book and I definitely never finished this one and after getting to ending I felt like I should've left my iconic memories of an unfinished book turning me into a reader as my only memory with this book. I love the Scream franchise and this is Stine's lackluster and half-assed desired attempt to portray it. It doesn't go anywhere.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This book was not the best Fear Street book and I definitely never finished this one and after getting to ending I felt like I should've left my iconic memories of an unfinished book turning me into a reader as my only memory with this book. I love the Scream franchise and this is Stine's lackluster and half-assed desired attempt to portray it. It doesn't go anywhere.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Once there was a little girl in the fourth grade. Her mom dragged her to a library in a city far away. She sat in the library not knowing what to do, so she looked around the children section. She spotted a book called Who Killed the Homecoming Queen? and she noticed it was by R.L. Stine. 'I love Goosebumps, but this isn't Goosebumps,' the little girl thought. She picked up the book and sat down with it. Before she knew it her interest was piqued. Then they had to leave and she left this book behind unfinished and sad, but she went to her local library the next day and she found several more Fear Street books. The obsession began. The little girl hasn't stopped reading books since.
March 28, 2023
Spannende Geschichte
In dem Buch Der Fimstar: Ihr Tod stand nicht im Drehbuch (Fear Street) von R. L. Stine, geht es um Tania, welche beliebt und hübsch ist. Außerdem ist sie mit dem Highschool Football Capitän Spieler Sandy zusammen und wurde gerade zur Homecoming Queen gewählt. Alles könnte super laufen, wenn es nicht jemand auf ihr Leben abgesehen hätte. Bei einem Film wird Tanja ausversehen von ihrem Freund erwürgt. War es wirklich ausversehen ?
Meine Meinung:
Ich fand die Geschichte spannend geschrieben und flüssig zu lesen. Die Fear Street Bücher könnte man alle immer an einem Tag durchlesen, weil jedes Kapitelende mit einem Cliffhanger endet und man immer sofort weiterlesen möchte. So vergeht die Spannung fast nie und es bleibt immer spannend und so gibt es auch immer neue Wendungen. Auch von dieser Geschichte war ich wieder begeistert, weil ich mit dem Ende nicht ganz gerechnet habe. Ich bin und bleibe einfach ein Fan der Fear Street Reihe.
Fazit:
Wieder eine spannende Story über Beliebtheit, die doch nicht immer einfach ist und nicht nur Vorteile hat.
In dem Buch Der Fimstar: Ihr Tod stand nicht im Drehbuch (Fear Street) von R. L. Stine, geht es um Tania, welche beliebt und hübsch ist. Außerdem ist sie mit dem Highschool Football Capitän Spieler Sandy zusammen und wurde gerade zur Homecoming Queen gewählt. Alles könnte super laufen, wenn es nicht jemand auf ihr Leben abgesehen hätte. Bei einem Film wird Tanja ausversehen von ihrem Freund erwürgt. War es wirklich ausversehen ?
Meine Meinung:
Ich fand die Geschichte spannend geschrieben und flüssig zu lesen. Die Fear Street Bücher könnte man alle immer an einem Tag durchlesen, weil jedes Kapitelende mit einem Cliffhanger endet und man immer sofort weiterlesen möchte. So vergeht die Spannung fast nie und es bleibt immer spannend und so gibt es auch immer neue Wendungen. Auch von dieser Geschichte war ich wieder begeistert, weil ich mit dem Ende nicht ganz gerechnet habe. Ich bin und bleibe einfach ein Fan der Fear Street Reihe.
Fazit:
Wieder eine spannende Story über Beliebtheit, die doch nicht immer einfach ist und nicht nur Vorteile hat.
October 1, 2023
"Well, excuse me, I suppose you think it’s normal to have dead bodies falling out of lockers."
This was spine tingling good. RL Stine will never disappoint this horror loving ghoul.
This was spine tingling good. RL Stine will never disappoint this horror loving ghoul.
July 10, 2024
1 star for the cool re-issued cover
1 star for the boring plot
Soz Stine, not the best.
1 star for the boring plot
Soz Stine, not the best.
August 10, 2012
Moral of the Story: Cheaters (real or fake) never prosper.
Body Count: 2
The Usual Suspect(s): Leslie, Tania's archrival
Tagline: And the new queen is... dead!
Plot: Our motley crew consists this time of Tania, the Homecoming Queen, Eva, her best friend who is in love with Jeremy, Keith, a filmmaker who's in love with Tania, Jeremy, Tania's overprotective stepbrother, Sandy, Tania's boyfriend, Leslie, Homecoming Court and Eva's rival, and Cherise, Sandy's girl on the side. Whew! RL Stine gives me a workout recapping these books with all these characters.
We open with the announcement of Homecoming Queen. Good, get us right to the action! Blonde-haired, green-eyed Tania is the favorite to win. Her court consists of four other girls, one of them Leslie and DEIRDRE BRADLEY! I know, I know... consistency!! I was so stoked. Tania, the fairytale princess, wins. I was so bummed because I totally wanted Deirdre to win after watching her battle the immortal Robin Fear in the Fear Park trilogy. Stine spelled her name wrong in this one, though. He spelled it Dierdre. Oh well. At least she's still around! Awesome.
Anyway, we learn right away that Jeremy has a past he doesn't want to talk about it. I was instantly suspicious of him. Nobody had yet died, and I was already blaming him. Eva has psychic tendencies, and gets a weird bunch of feelings before the Homecoming Queen is announced. One time she got a bad feeling in the mall right before some shoplifters were convicted, so clearly she knows her shit. You can imagine that this might come in handy later on in the story.
Well, Eva is proved right pretty quickly about something being wrong: she spots Cherise and Sandy making out in the bleachers! She knows that Tania needs to hear this news from her and not the grapevine, but every time she gets a chance to tell her in the book, she wusses out or gets interrupted. Leslie finds out too and wants to spoil Tania's good time, but Eva makes her promise not to. I'm not sure how, but okay.
Keith must be the psychic one, though, because his current movie is called Who Killed the Homecoming Queen? (original!), and it's about Sandy cheating on Tania and him getting so furious when she breaks it off that he strangles her to death. Or does he for REAL? Tania falls over a lot due to her low-blood sugar levels, but one time she actually doesn't get up. Everyone immediately calls the police (I like these kids!), but when they come back to show the police Tania's body, she is gone. When the police leave Sandy confesses that it was all supposed to be a joke. He was in on the strangling too hard part, but Tania was supposed to jump up afterwards and scare everyone. She wasn't supposed to disappear. Leslie was also at the scene of the crime, but she claimed she only ran from the cops because she was afraid of them. Way to NOT be a suspect, Leslie.
Eva realizes that Keith's camcorder (ha!) was on the whole time, and that she and Keith can watch it to see what really happened to Tania. Only when they get to his house they find that the tape is jammed. This whole lack of technology thing is quite a bummer in these books. Jeremy pops by and tells them he left out crucial information to the police - that he overheard Cherise and Sandy plotting to kill Tania. Eva decides to go over and talk to Cherise. I love when characters on Fear Street believe that a rational approach is a good idea. Cherise tells Eva that she was merely rehearsing her lines for Keith's film with Sandy, and that she would never kill Tania. Riiiighhhtttt. Except that you are whoring around with her boyfriend. Anyway, at that moment Eva and Cherise receive a call from Ghostface telling them YOU are next, but they don't know which one of them the killer means.
In school the next day Eva bumps into Leslie... who is covered in blood. Whaaa?? Well, folks, turns out she just broke her locker mirror and the shards got all over her. That's a lot of bad luck! Right afterwards Eva finds Sandy's corpse in her locker with a knife in his back. He WAS a backstabber. Makes sense. Cheaters never prosper!
Everyone gathers at Eva's house in the wake of Sandy's murder. Another call from Ghostface comes in. He tells Eva that she is next. And, lo and behold, while filming with Keith the next day Eva backs up into the railing of the bleachers and almost falls off! The railing has been sliced clean in two. As they wrap up filming who should appear before Eva and Keith but the quite undead Homecoming Queen Tania! Turns out she knew about Sandy's cheating ways all along. He WAS in on the first part of the joke, which was to pretend to strangle her to death. He didn't know, however, that she planned to disappear to Waynesbridge for a couple of days. She wanted to pay Sandy back for cheating on her, and she wanted to pay everyone else back for refusing to tell her what was really going on. And it was her making all the Ghostface calls. She also cut the railing. Way to go, Tania! What if you'd actually killed your best friend? Truthfully, that would have been a really cool twist.
Eva's psychic eye starts acting up again, and they all race to the Batmobile to go and save Cherise. Eva just knows she's in trouble! At Cherise's house they find her screaming that Jeremy was about to kill her. I just knew it!! But wait... Cherise keeps insisting Jeremy is the killer, but he backs her into a corner and tells everyone that SHE is the killer. Yep. Turns out Cherise was also the victim of a cruel joke. Sandy WAS seeing her on the side... as part of a video for Keith. Cherise never really meant anything to him at all, so she killed him for revenge. Then she just decided she wanted to kill everyone else too, because why not? So the police are called (really, super smart kids!), and Cherise confesses that she did it since Keith says that they have the whole altercation on tape. When they all leave the house to go watch the tape (the police forgot to take it) Keith tells them that it's jammed once again. Oops. Thank god VCRs are a thing of the past. Talk about scary!!
Gaping Plot Holes: None that I could tell. I suppose I wasn't looking hard enough.
The Actual Suspect(s): Cherise
Body Count: 2
The Usual Suspect(s): Leslie, Tania's archrival
Tagline: And the new queen is... dead!
Plot: Our motley crew consists this time of Tania, the Homecoming Queen, Eva, her best friend who is in love with Jeremy, Keith, a filmmaker who's in love with Tania, Jeremy, Tania's overprotective stepbrother, Sandy, Tania's boyfriend, Leslie, Homecoming Court and Eva's rival, and Cherise, Sandy's girl on the side. Whew! RL Stine gives me a workout recapping these books with all these characters.
We open with the announcement of Homecoming Queen. Good, get us right to the action! Blonde-haired, green-eyed Tania is the favorite to win. Her court consists of four other girls, one of them Leslie and DEIRDRE BRADLEY! I know, I know... consistency!! I was so stoked. Tania, the fairytale princess, wins. I was so bummed because I totally wanted Deirdre to win after watching her battle the immortal Robin Fear in the Fear Park trilogy. Stine spelled her name wrong in this one, though. He spelled it Dierdre. Oh well. At least she's still around! Awesome.
Anyway, we learn right away that Jeremy has a past he doesn't want to talk about it. I was instantly suspicious of him. Nobody had yet died, and I was already blaming him. Eva has psychic tendencies, and gets a weird bunch of feelings before the Homecoming Queen is announced. One time she got a bad feeling in the mall right before some shoplifters were convicted, so clearly she knows her shit. You can imagine that this might come in handy later on in the story.
Well, Eva is proved right pretty quickly about something being wrong: she spots Cherise and Sandy making out in the bleachers! She knows that Tania needs to hear this news from her and not the grapevine, but every time she gets a chance to tell her in the book, she wusses out or gets interrupted. Leslie finds out too and wants to spoil Tania's good time, but Eva makes her promise not to. I'm not sure how, but okay.
Keith must be the psychic one, though, because his current movie is called Who Killed the Homecoming Queen? (original!), and it's about Sandy cheating on Tania and him getting so furious when she breaks it off that he strangles her to death. Or does he for REAL? Tania falls over a lot due to her low-blood sugar levels, but one time she actually doesn't get up. Everyone immediately calls the police (I like these kids!), but when they come back to show the police Tania's body, she is gone. When the police leave Sandy confesses that it was all supposed to be a joke. He was in on the strangling too hard part, but Tania was supposed to jump up afterwards and scare everyone. She wasn't supposed to disappear. Leslie was also at the scene of the crime, but she claimed she only ran from the cops because she was afraid of them. Way to NOT be a suspect, Leslie.
Eva realizes that Keith's camcorder (ha!) was on the whole time, and that she and Keith can watch it to see what really happened to Tania. Only when they get to his house they find that the tape is jammed. This whole lack of technology thing is quite a bummer in these books. Jeremy pops by and tells them he left out crucial information to the police - that he overheard Cherise and Sandy plotting to kill Tania. Eva decides to go over and talk to Cherise. I love when characters on Fear Street believe that a rational approach is a good idea. Cherise tells Eva that she was merely rehearsing her lines for Keith's film with Sandy, and that she would never kill Tania. Riiiighhhtttt. Except that you are whoring around with her boyfriend. Anyway, at that moment Eva and Cherise receive a call from Ghostface telling them YOU are next, but they don't know which one of them the killer means.
In school the next day Eva bumps into Leslie... who is covered in blood. Whaaa?? Well, folks, turns out she just broke her locker mirror and the shards got all over her. That's a lot of bad luck! Right afterwards Eva finds Sandy's corpse in her locker with a knife in his back. He WAS a backstabber. Makes sense. Cheaters never prosper!
Everyone gathers at Eva's house in the wake of Sandy's murder. Another call from Ghostface comes in. He tells Eva that she is next. And, lo and behold, while filming with Keith the next day Eva backs up into the railing of the bleachers and almost falls off! The railing has been sliced clean in two. As they wrap up filming who should appear before Eva and Keith but the quite undead Homecoming Queen Tania! Turns out she knew about Sandy's cheating ways all along. He WAS in on the first part of the joke, which was to pretend to strangle her to death. He didn't know, however, that she planned to disappear to Waynesbridge for a couple of days. She wanted to pay Sandy back for cheating on her, and she wanted to pay everyone else back for refusing to tell her what was really going on. And it was her making all the Ghostface calls. She also cut the railing. Way to go, Tania! What if you'd actually killed your best friend? Truthfully, that would have been a really cool twist.
Eva's psychic eye starts acting up again, and they all race to the Batmobile to go and save Cherise. Eva just knows she's in trouble! At Cherise's house they find her screaming that Jeremy was about to kill her. I just knew it!! But wait... Cherise keeps insisting Jeremy is the killer, but he backs her into a corner and tells everyone that SHE is the killer. Yep. Turns out Cherise was also the victim of a cruel joke. Sandy WAS seeing her on the side... as part of a video for Keith. Cherise never really meant anything to him at all, so she killed him for revenge. Then she just decided she wanted to kill everyone else too, because why not? So the police are called (really, super smart kids!), and Cherise confesses that she did it since Keith says that they have the whole altercation on tape. When they all leave the house to go watch the tape (the police forgot to take it) Keith tells them that it's jammed once again. Oops. Thank god VCRs are a thing of the past. Talk about scary!!
Gaping Plot Holes: None that I could tell. I suppose I wasn't looking hard enough.
The Actual Suspect(s): Cherise
July 16, 2015
I'm a sucker for R. L. Stine to kill some quick time.
December 27, 2022
Wonderful read.
August 17, 2023
That was frigging stupid
January 23, 2023
Cliffhanger City with Fakeout Festival and Plot Twist Parade. Good ol' strangling makes several appearances. Sadly, no car crashes. Awful "friends". A pretty decent FS book overall.
September 3, 2023
I now declare this to be Stine-tember and I will read and reread a random selection of books from the Fear Street series.
It use to be that September was back to school time until they decided the beginning of August would be better I guess. So why not go back in time to when Fear Street books were interesting and even the history of the Fear family was something to celebrate.
So Homecoming is usually in September so why not start with this one that I read wayback when it first came out from the library but couldn't remember it very well...
Eva Whelan always gets these weird feelings. It's not really ESP but she just knows when something is going to go wrong.
As an opposite, everything seems to be going just fine for her BFF Tania Darman. Her parents got divorced but now her mother is remarried to a nice man and they live in a nice new house and Tania even has herself a stepbrother, Jeremy, after being an only child.
Tania is also dating handsome Shadyside football team captain Sandy Bishop and she is up for being voted Homecoming Queen. The only thing that could ruin this run of good luck is the jealousy of Leslie Gates.
Leslie and Tania use to be friends but Leslie couldn't handle that Tania always seemed to have better luck in grades and even guys...like Sandy. What chance does a bitter brunette like Leslie have when the Golden Girl of Shadyside High is always on top?
So imagine how jealous Leslie will be when Tania is declared Homecoming Queen over her. Keith Hicks, wannabe film director, has a huge crush on Tania and wants her to be the star of his movie he plans to make to try and earn a scholarship to film school.
It just so happens to be called Who Killed The Homecoming Queen? ... so why not have the actual school homecoming queen be the star?
There are just a couple of things wrong with the whole thing.
First, Leslie wanted that part since she is an actual student interested in acting but of course, the one girl she hates takes the part out from under her.
Second, the script that Keith has written has the homecoming queen's boyfriend cheating on her and finding it out with dealy results.
Guess who's boyfriend is caught cheating on her by not only her best friend but her new stepbrother and possibly the whole school? Tania.
Sandy has been sneaking around with Cherise Colby. Eva can't bear to tell Tania because she knows it would crush her best friend but also because Tania has low blood sugar. The slightest bit of over excitement and stress causes her to pass out. Eva and Leslie catch Sandy and Cherise in the act so now Leslie has the perfect thing to send Tania's perfect world spiraling.
Jeremy is the same age as Tania and he is pretty fond of his new stepsister and his stepmother after his own mother died when he was little and being on his own with his workaholic dad all this time.
It's kind of sweet but also kind of creepy in a way just how devoted Jeremy is...so much that he can't even tell that Eva has a huge crush on him and flirts with him like crazy.
The filming isn't going well due to technical issues and bratty little sisters getting on the director's nerves so Keith keeps having them film the scene where the boyfriend strangles the homecoming queen with Sandy and Tania in the roles.
Tania slumps to the ground, Keith yells cut, Sandy steps back but Eva and Jeremy don't see Tania...get back up. It isn't a blood sugar episode that a candy bar can fix because she isn't breathing and Sandy can't find a pulse.
Jeremy freaks out and runs off with Eva on his heels as Keith and Sandy run off to call an ambulance. When the ambulance and the police arrive because an accidental death has been reported, everyone comes back to find Tania's body...gone from the bottom of the bleachers.
Sandy tells the police officers and the others that this was supposed to be a prank that he and Tania came up with. Tania isn't really dead but the joke wasn't supposed to go this far and Sandy has no idea where Tania is...
Eva knows that somebody has to be lying because Tania wouldn't put her friends and loved ones through this kind of pain. Is it a cheating boyfriend? Is it the other girl? Is it the rival or could it even be a director or a stepbrother with more than friend feelings?
If Tania was alive but now she might be dead...who was it that really killed the homecoming queen?
There are twists and turns all through out the book and it does keep up the suspense. Also a lot of crazy teenage drama but not really a lot of horror yet just enough to happily satisfy the reader as we near the climax.
The reveal is a little lukewarm but the ending has just enough punch with an ironic note to go out on. It isn't bad but obviously it wasn't really that interesting since I didn't remember any of what happened in this book. Being that it came out toward the end of the original run in 1997 isn't an excuse as there are other books in that year that I remember things quite clearly.
Who Killed The Homecoming Queen isn't one of my favorite Fear Street books but I enjoyed it enough that I could recommend it to anyone who has yet to even read it. It's also pretty decent that anyone who hasn't read it in awhile like myself should pick this one up just for nostalgia trip alone.
It use to be that September was back to school time until they decided the beginning of August would be better I guess. So why not go back in time to when Fear Street books were interesting and even the history of the Fear family was something to celebrate.
So Homecoming is usually in September so why not start with this one that I read wayback when it first came out from the library but couldn't remember it very well...
Eva Whelan always gets these weird feelings. It's not really ESP but she just knows when something is going to go wrong.
As an opposite, everything seems to be going just fine for her BFF Tania Darman. Her parents got divorced but now her mother is remarried to a nice man and they live in a nice new house and Tania even has herself a stepbrother, Jeremy, after being an only child.
Tania is also dating handsome Shadyside football team captain Sandy Bishop and she is up for being voted Homecoming Queen. The only thing that could ruin this run of good luck is the jealousy of Leslie Gates.
Leslie and Tania use to be friends but Leslie couldn't handle that Tania always seemed to have better luck in grades and even guys...like Sandy. What chance does a bitter brunette like Leslie have when the Golden Girl of Shadyside High is always on top?
So imagine how jealous Leslie will be when Tania is declared Homecoming Queen over her. Keith Hicks, wannabe film director, has a huge crush on Tania and wants her to be the star of his movie he plans to make to try and earn a scholarship to film school.
It just so happens to be called Who Killed The Homecoming Queen? ... so why not have the actual school homecoming queen be the star?
There are just a couple of things wrong with the whole thing.
First, Leslie wanted that part since she is an actual student interested in acting but of course, the one girl she hates takes the part out from under her.
Second, the script that Keith has written has the homecoming queen's boyfriend cheating on her and finding it out with dealy results.
Guess who's boyfriend is caught cheating on her by not only her best friend but her new stepbrother and possibly the whole school? Tania.
Sandy has been sneaking around with Cherise Colby. Eva can't bear to tell Tania because she knows it would crush her best friend but also because Tania has low blood sugar. The slightest bit of over excitement and stress causes her to pass out. Eva and Leslie catch Sandy and Cherise in the act so now Leslie has the perfect thing to send Tania's perfect world spiraling.
Jeremy is the same age as Tania and he is pretty fond of his new stepsister and his stepmother after his own mother died when he was little and being on his own with his workaholic dad all this time.
It's kind of sweet but also kind of creepy in a way just how devoted Jeremy is...so much that he can't even tell that Eva has a huge crush on him and flirts with him like crazy.
The filming isn't going well due to technical issues and bratty little sisters getting on the director's nerves so Keith keeps having them film the scene where the boyfriend strangles the homecoming queen with Sandy and Tania in the roles.
Tania slumps to the ground, Keith yells cut, Sandy steps back but Eva and Jeremy don't see Tania...get back up. It isn't a blood sugar episode that a candy bar can fix because she isn't breathing and Sandy can't find a pulse.
Jeremy freaks out and runs off with Eva on his heels as Keith and Sandy run off to call an ambulance. When the ambulance and the police arrive because an accidental death has been reported, everyone comes back to find Tania's body...gone from the bottom of the bleachers.
Sandy tells the police officers and the others that this was supposed to be a prank that he and Tania came up with. Tania isn't really dead but the joke wasn't supposed to go this far and Sandy has no idea where Tania is...
Eva knows that somebody has to be lying because Tania wouldn't put her friends and loved ones through this kind of pain. Is it a cheating boyfriend? Is it the other girl? Is it the rival or could it even be a director or a stepbrother with more than friend feelings?
If Tania was alive but now she might be dead...who was it that really killed the homecoming queen?
There are twists and turns all through out the book and it does keep up the suspense. Also a lot of crazy teenage drama but not really a lot of horror yet just enough to happily satisfy the reader as we near the climax.
The reveal is a little lukewarm but the ending has just enough punch with an ironic note to go out on. It isn't bad but obviously it wasn't really that interesting since I didn't remember any of what happened in this book. Being that it came out toward the end of the original run in 1997 isn't an excuse as there are other books in that year that I remember things quite clearly.
Who Killed The Homecoming Queen isn't one of my favorite Fear Street books but I enjoyed it enough that I could recommend it to anyone who has yet to even read it. It's also pretty decent that anyone who hasn't read it in awhile like myself should pick this one up just for nostalgia trip alone.
August 2, 2020
Maybe R.L. Stine isn’t for me anymore?
June 22, 2021
I actually randomized two picks to from, to give myself more of a choice. One was a re-read but I wanted to balance out those and try out one I hadn't read so I went with this. This was one of the last few in the main series.
And unlike the others this month, I am know I want to review it. Somehow the ones that end up review-able are not the ones I expect. I'm unsure where to rate this on my scale, I do know however ti thoroughly enjoyed it. The thing the title makes you expect doesn't come in til like midway through, and before then it's more about character relationship stuff. Tania is living her best life, protagonist Eva is okay with it, but on the flip side a girl named Leslie is jealous, boyfriend Sandy may be a cheater and whoops later Tania's body vanishes and may be dead. Oh and they are filming a student film called, you guessed, The Prom Queen....
Wait. There's a lot I can say, mostly little things that pile up. It's very typical in a lot of ways, but kept a reasonable level of engagement for me. It borrows stuff from The Prom Queen, even down to one of the twists. This has similar pros and cons, better in some ways, weaker in others. Each char4ecter had fine enough motivations and reasons to be suspected.
The ultimate killer was fine but their motivations were weird and relied on a forced reveal, that to be fair did address something I had a problem with, even if it created new ones. It gets so complicated that it's hard to talk about in a quick way like this, so hopefully someday I'll get to into detail on all the insanity going on here.
It was fun though, especially as it keeps throwing in new twists to keep you on your toes. It causes problem aplenty but they were fun to make fun of, and I was interested enough that it doesn't ip over to piss me off, mostly.
So a lot going but as I'd hope, it was mostly fun and I was engaged enough with everything going on. Sorry to be vague, but there's a lot going on here. Like Eva having...powers I guess, one of the most confusing fake outs in these, and the cops being even more useless than usual. Like, wow.
For now, yeah, it's a fun read, if overly complicated and mixed in some ways, but not in a way that wasn't enjoyable. It's both standard and out there at the same time, basically what I want sometimes.
CONTINUITY WATCH: Among the homecoming queen nominees are Mei Kamata (What Holly Heard), and Deidre Bradley (Fear Park trilogy). These didn't do references this deep into the series so that was cool.
REDHEAD WATCH: Cherise.
POP CULTURE WATCH: Tom Cruise.
BODY COUNT: 1
And unlike the others this month, I am know I want to review it. Somehow the ones that end up review-able are not the ones I expect. I'm unsure where to rate this on my scale, I do know however ti thoroughly enjoyed it. The thing the title makes you expect doesn't come in til like midway through, and before then it's more about character relationship stuff. Tania is living her best life, protagonist Eva is okay with it, but on the flip side a girl named Leslie is jealous, boyfriend Sandy may be a cheater and whoops later Tania's body vanishes and may be dead. Oh and they are filming a student film called, you guessed, The Prom Queen....
Wait. There's a lot I can say, mostly little things that pile up. It's very typical in a lot of ways, but kept a reasonable level of engagement for me. It borrows stuff from The Prom Queen, even down to one of the twists. This has similar pros and cons, better in some ways, weaker in others. Each char4ecter had fine enough motivations and reasons to be suspected.
The ultimate killer was fine but their motivations were weird and relied on a forced reveal, that to be fair did address something I had a problem with, even if it created new ones. It gets so complicated that it's hard to talk about in a quick way like this, so hopefully someday I'll get to into detail on all the insanity going on here.
It was fun though, especially as it keeps throwing in new twists to keep you on your toes. It causes problem aplenty but they were fun to make fun of, and I was interested enough that it doesn't ip over to piss me off, mostly.
So a lot going but as I'd hope, it was mostly fun and I was engaged enough with everything going on. Sorry to be vague, but there's a lot going on here. Like Eva having...powers I guess, one of the most confusing fake outs in these, and the cops being even more useless than usual. Like, wow.
For now, yeah, it's a fun read, if overly complicated and mixed in some ways, but not in a way that wasn't enjoyable. It's both standard and out there at the same time, basically what I want sometimes.
CONTINUITY WATCH: Among the homecoming queen nominees are Mei Kamata (What Holly Heard), and Deidre Bradley (Fear Park trilogy). These didn't do references this deep into the series so that was cool.
REDHEAD WATCH: Cherise.
POP CULTURE WATCH: Tom Cruise.
BODY COUNT: 1
May 17, 2024
Eva is happy that Tania, her best friend, gets to be the homecoming Queen. It sure looks like everything's going good with Tania's life. Of course, not all are happy about Tania. Leslie is jealous that she didn't win and upset that Keith chose to use Tania as a star if his video project. Their rivalry and hatred for each other may mean one of them will not live to see homecoming.
I was kind of glad to see a few other old Fear Street books started to get reprinted, due in part because of the Netflix Trilogy. This was one of the lucky ones from the later years that never got that reissue until now. Initially I didn't have much interest in it, but the plot twists that came, were quite surprising, amd here I thought I figured things out after reading so much in the series! Pretty standard Fear Street story, with decent twists to keep you guessing, even though this doesn't even take place during homecoming at all.
I was kind of glad to see a few other old Fear Street books started to get reprinted, due in part because of the Netflix Trilogy. This was one of the lucky ones from the later years that never got that reissue until now. Initially I didn't have much interest in it, but the plot twists that came, were quite surprising, amd here I thought I figured things out after reading so much in the series! Pretty standard Fear Street story, with decent twists to keep you guessing, even though this doesn't even take place during homecoming at all.
June 9, 2024
This one was good!! I really liked this one, probably my favorite so far in the series! I thought the premise was really good and the twists were interesting. I definitely did not see the ending coming!! Also...that damn camera.
October 1, 2023
Not one of my favorites!
June 1, 2024
Re-reading all the nostalgic Fear Street books, unfortunately this one was just not for me.
October 6, 2024
Second RL Stine today. He’s still a misogynist with no understanding of plot structure.
August 17, 2023
Absolute madness, Cherise what are you doing
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 4, 2018
Tania is having the best year ever, new family, hot new boyfriend and elected homecoming queen. Eva, her best friend is happy for her but her supernatural gift of detecting trouble tells her something is not right. Tania keeps fainting due to low sugar, hypoglycemia is grossly misrepresented here. Then she dies and her body disappears. Only one main suspect with good motive. There were twist and misdirection which I enjoyed.
January 9, 2012
I liked this Fear Street book, but there were definitely quite a few plot points that didn't make any sense. I liked that . Eva's "feelings" didn't have any place in the story, though, and it would have been easy to take them out so I don't know why they were included. There is one glaring plot point that, without it, there wouldn't have been much of a story. It would have saved a lot of trouble.
June 10, 2018
This book was a hot mess. Who Killed the Homecoming Queen is the title of a student film starring the actual Shadyside Homecoming Queen. It's a poorly written take on a who-dunnit, except there was so many ridiculous twists and misinformation that it begs the question of if editors ever even glanced at this one. No horror, weak suspense and forgettable characters this ranks as one of the worst Fear Street titles.
June 13, 2019
You know it's good when it's RL Stine because he's the best in horror in my opinion. I read others and they got nothing on him. Only got 4 cause the ending and disappointed on them thinking Jeremy did it.
Tania gets elected homecoming queen and things are looking up til she turns up dead. She was making film for friend with her boyfriend Sandy. It's called Who Killed the Homecoming Queen? She dies during filming and everyone panics starts blaming people. Then her boyfriend Sandy dies and this time cops have to believe where they didn't before. They thought was prank or ran away.
Turned out Tania was playing the prank along with Jeremy her new step brother. He told her where no one else would that Sandy was cheating on her with another girl. Then gets deeper cause Eva her best friend gets bad feeling they rush to Sandy other girlfriend house find Jeremy and her there. She's yelling that Jeremy's the one did it all at first but then Eva sees the holes in her side of it.
She goes nuts and tries kill Keith who's the one had film project. They stop her call cops with the video that Keith made they got proof so she confesses said she killed Sandy cause he was falling with her making a second film with Keith and didn't mean nothing. Well cops left with her and what you know they forgot tape so before taking to cops they watch. The camera jammed again nothing's on it.
That how ended which why got 4 star. I was guessing everybody and even thought Tania was really dead then thought the whole thing was part Keith's film maybe defiantly keeps ya guessing
Tania gets elected homecoming queen and things are looking up til she turns up dead. She was making film for friend with her boyfriend Sandy. It's called Who Killed the Homecoming Queen? She dies during filming and everyone panics starts blaming people. Then her boyfriend Sandy dies and this time cops have to believe where they didn't before. They thought was prank or ran away.
Turned out Tania was playing the prank along with Jeremy her new step brother. He told her where no one else would that Sandy was cheating on her with another girl. Then gets deeper cause Eva her best friend gets bad feeling they rush to Sandy other girlfriend house find Jeremy and her there. She's yelling that Jeremy's the one did it all at first but then Eva sees the holes in her side of it.
She goes nuts and tries kill Keith who's the one had film project. They stop her call cops with the video that Keith made they got proof so she confesses said she killed Sandy cause he was falling with her making a second film with Keith and didn't mean nothing. Well cops left with her and what you know they forgot tape so before taking to cops they watch. The camera jammed again nothing's on it.
That how ended which why got 4 star. I was guessing everybody and even thought Tania was really dead then thought the whole thing was part Keith's film maybe defiantly keeps ya guessing
December 10, 2024
Who Killed the Homecoming Queen was an okay book. It didn’t have much to the plot compared to other Fear Street books. So personally it is not on the top of my list of favorite Fear Street books. As time goes by I think it will be one of those books that doesn’t really stick out from others.
Something that was kind of disappointing too
is that I honestly expected it to have the setting take place like at the homecoming dance or something suspenseful and interesting like that but that never happened. The story took a different route than what I hoped for. It was still an entertaining book to read but overall I was just expecting more. There is a bit of suspense and twists and turns here and there, but most of the scenes felt kind of repetitive. The imagery and detail of the story was good and so that is something I appreciated. The characters were okay too but not really memorable. There is a part at the end that is kind of confusing and didn’t make the whole story make sense. It was kind of dumb and made me lower my score for this book. It was not a boring book either it’s just not the best. With that being said.. I will be giving Who Killed the Homecoming Queen 3 out of 5 stars! :)
Something that was kind of disappointing too
is that I honestly expected it to have the setting take place like at the homecoming dance or something suspenseful and interesting like that but that never happened. The story took a different route than what I hoped for. It was still an entertaining book to read but overall I was just expecting more. There is a bit of suspense and twists and turns here and there, but most of the scenes felt kind of repetitive. The imagery and detail of the story was good and so that is something I appreciated. The characters were okay too but not really memorable. There is a part at the end that is kind of confusing and didn’t make the whole story make sense. It was kind of dumb and made me lower my score for this book. It was not a boring book either it’s just not the best. With that being said.. I will be giving Who Killed the Homecoming Queen 3 out of 5 stars! :)
June 7, 2022
I hate to say it, but this book was okay. There wasn’t really anything special about it one way or another. I actually read it, then read another Fear Street, and completely forgot the title of this one.
I did remember that the cover is pretty birtchin’.
You know, I will say that I thought I had it figured out. One of the characters is into film and it’s a running theme throughout the book. He’s making a movie about a prom queen that gets killed while the prom queen gets killed in real life.
Or DOES she?
She doesn’t.
Anyway, I thought that the twist reveal would be that the whole book was the movie and the guy was so into movies that he went full meta and made a movie about making a movie about a prom queen dying when she actually dies.
But instead, the twist is that the boyfriend’s side piece was being manipulated for a humiliating video.
It felt cheap AND sleazy.
Definitely not my favorite Fear Street.
I did remember that the cover is pretty birtchin’.
You know, I will say that I thought I had it figured out. One of the characters is into film and it’s a running theme throughout the book. He’s making a movie about a prom queen that gets killed while the prom queen gets killed in real life.
Or DOES she?
She doesn’t.
Anyway, I thought that the twist reveal would be that the whole book was the movie and the guy was so into movies that he went full meta and made a movie about making a movie about a prom queen dying when she actually dies.
But instead, the twist is that the boyfriend’s side piece was being manipulated for a humiliating video.
It felt cheap AND sleazy.
Definitely not my favorite Fear Street.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 22, 2021
Full review at: https://www.jackreacts.com.au/post/fe...
Snippet: There's a lot of things wrong with this one, but it was still a fun read. I'm convinced whoever wrote the blurb only read the first few chapters, though, because that is not a good summary at all. There were a few silly typos and I'm also mad the scene on the cover never actually happened, but besides those superficial issues, the story was pretty interesting!
The story was interesting and kept me turning the pages and I liked all the characters, except for Sandy. I was expecting more Homecoming stuff based on the title and the cover, but I wasn't disappointed with what we got instead and I would recommend this one if you want something with less obvious plot twists.
Check out my full review linked up top for an in-depth recap :)
Snippet: There's a lot of things wrong with this one, but it was still a fun read. I'm convinced whoever wrote the blurb only read the first few chapters, though, because that is not a good summary at all. There were a few silly typos and I'm also mad the scene on the cover never actually happened, but besides those superficial issues, the story was pretty interesting!
The story was interesting and kept me turning the pages and I liked all the characters, except for Sandy. I was expecting more Homecoming stuff based on the title and the cover, but I wasn't disappointed with what we got instead and I would recommend this one if you want something with less obvious plot twists.
Check out my full review linked up top for an in-depth recap :)
July 5, 2023
"nothing is wrong. nothing bad is going to happen"
a hour ago I decided to start another fear street novel because this year I became obsessed with them, and I was in a mood for a fast easy read. so I choose this book because it was available for my kindle and read this with a creepy ambiance that made the vibes of the book way better!
"I'm going to kill you, Tania! a voice cried. I'm going to kill you!"
and wow, I loved the story a lot the plot is very interested and what is done in a lot of books but for this one it had me hooked from the start to the finish and it took a lot of different turns what I liked. it's very sad that you can't really buy the novels anymore I would have loved my own collection. now I need to choose a next read and alway's have a hard time with that
" I'll kill you! cherish screamed. I'll kill you too!
a hour ago I decided to start another fear street novel because this year I became obsessed with them, and I was in a mood for a fast easy read. so I choose this book because it was available for my kindle and read this with a creepy ambiance that made the vibes of the book way better!
"I'm going to kill you, Tania! a voice cried. I'm going to kill you!"
and wow, I loved the story a lot the plot is very interested and what is done in a lot of books but for this one it had me hooked from the start to the finish and it took a lot of different turns what I liked. it's very sad that you can't really buy the novels anymore I would have loved my own collection. now I need to choose a next read and alway's have a hard time with that
" I'll kill you! cherish screamed. I'll kill you too!
May 21, 2023
I am happily working my way through the Fear Street books by R L Stine. I love the writing style especially the way each chapter ends. It always ends on a twist.
“What do you do when someone you know turns out to be a murderer”
A vengeful stunt leads to murder
Truths that need to be told are not
Suddenly the telephone calls start saying you are next
A group of students together
One is lying, but which one
Who killed the homecoming queen was an enjoyable read leaving me wanting to read more.
4 Stars
“What do you do when someone you know turns out to be a murderer”
A vengeful stunt leads to murder
Truths that need to be told are not
Suddenly the telephone calls start saying you are next
A group of students together
One is lying, but which one
Who killed the homecoming queen was an enjoyable read leaving me wanting to read more.
4 Stars
June 4, 2017
in 2013 my local library was getting ride of all paperback books and they had all the R.L. Stine / Christopher Pike books so I bought all of them and read them with a massive teen book marathon .. I really hope that a whole new generation of teens gets to fall in love with these books !!! as they are simply the best I loved all of these books in my teens .. :) and I really enjoyed going down memory lane re reading them as an adult ... :)
November 24, 2021
This is the only Fear Street book left that I've never read. I've requested it for years through Interlibrary Loan, and been declined every time. But then, to my surprise and glee, my request was accepted, and I finally had this book in my hands!
So imagine my disappointment when I had to admit that I didn't really like it. It borrows very heavily from earlier Fear Street books such as "Prom Queen", and as such was wholly unoriginal.
Oh well, at least I can FINALLY mark it as "read"!
So imagine my disappointment when I had to admit that I didn't really like it. It borrows very heavily from earlier Fear Street books such as "Prom Queen", and as such was wholly unoriginal.
Oh well, at least I can FINALLY mark it as "read"!
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