We have some more bad romance from Fear Street to deal with. And after Broken Hearts was just okay, I'm hoping we score a bit better this time. But at this rate, if the book makes it to the finish line that's more than enough to satisfy me. So, let's pucker up to Killer's Kiss.
After Delia leaves, Karina shows up. But she doesn't stay long as Vincent did a pretty bad job of hiding evidence that Delia was at his house that night. She leaves in a huff as Vincent wonders what she's going to do to Delia. Speaking of Delia, we cut to the next day as she's talking with her friend Britty Myers (Britty?) and her friend Gabe Denver about the Conklin Award which goes to the most exemplary student in Shadyside High. Delia needs to win that award to ensure she'll be able to go to college the next year given her parents can't afford it. Delia notices Gabe staring at her. She's not as interested in Gabe, but is his friend, even if it's mostly to get help with her homework.
That's where Karina is a major issue. She's also gunning for the Conklin and may be able to beat out Delia. While Delia's done a lot this year and is front page editor of the school paper, Karina runs the paper and does much more. It turns out that Delia and Karina have been rivals for years, with Britty in the middle as friends to both of them. They tried to call a truce, but that failed. And speaking of which, Karina confronts Delia about her being with Vincent. And by confront, I mean straight up strangles her until she almost passes out while almost tearing off her earlobe. She manages to get Karina off of her, but not before Karina screams at Delia to stay away from Vincent.
So now Delia's aware that Karina's trying to take Vincent too, but doesn't believe she's with him just yet because we're way too early in this book to blame the actual problem of this, Vincent the lothario. The next night, Delia talks with Vincent about Karina and he definitely acts strange about it, but not enough for Delia to put two and two together. She thinks Karina is spying on them, but it's actually Delia's fifteen year old sister Sarah, who like damn near all of these kids is on the swim team. The two argue before Delia makes a comment about how Sarah isn't with anyone. To which Sarah almost destroys the drawings of Vincent and Britty that Delia's made for the Conklin Award. As Sarah goes up the stairs with Delia's self portrait, Delia tries to apologize and asks her no to spy on them again, but Sarah says she'll do something worse than spying.
The next day, while still having issues with Sarah, Delia runs into Stewart Andrews, who is also in the running for the Conklin Award. He asks her out, but she tells him she's with Vincent. Later, she soon sees Andrew again talking to Karina. Britty shows up just as Delia begins to suspect that Karina told Andrew to ask her out, so that Karina would get confirmation about being with Vincent. Britty says that maybe Andrew and Karina were just talking about the award, which calms her down a bit, but she still has her suspicions. Which given Karina literally Homer Simpson'd her earlier on, she's in the right to think it was sinister.
And then Delia gets an idea. A super stupid idea. She tells Britty to explain to Karina about Delia and Vincent being together. She's the middle woman here and she's more cool with Karina than Delia is, this should go off without a hitch, right? R-right? Britty says she tried that after the incident, but Karina blew her off. Delia thinks that maybe trying again should work, so Britty talks with Karina again. That doesn't work as Karina yells over to Delia that she'll win the Conklin and have Vincent. Well if the Conklin award was for negotiation skills, Delia would have lost super easy.
And then we get the weirdest goddamn nightmare I've had from these books yet. Delia dreams that Karina enters her room and grabs her by the mouth. She pulls out what looks like a silver revolver, but it's actually a tube of Delia's brand of lipstick that Karina uses to smear all over Delia's cheeks. R.L. Stine projecting his fetishes on main again. After whatever the hell that was, we go to the Conklin competition, which also has a talent show portion, including Andrew doing tricks with his pet beagle and a parrot. Next comes Karina who performs a song, all while Delia is jealous of Karina and her pretty dress and slender body. Between that and the dream, there's definitely a tsundere-ish lesbian vibe going on. If the book just ends with Karina and Delia as a couple, then it'll be worth it.
Delia's performance is a song called "Vincent", while playing her guitar. She opens the case, only to find that her guitar strings were cut! And also there's a dead rat in the guitar because Stine's got to have an animal corpse in this book somehow. Delia blames Karina, who says she has no idea what Delia's going on about, only to then leave the auditorium with Sarah. Delia's confused, but now she's certain that Karina doesn't just want the award. She wants everything Delia has, even her life! You know, halfway into this book and neither of these two girls are dealing with the real problem here. Just saying, I was hoping for more "kill Vincent" so far.
Delia returns home to find a note from Vincent inviting her to Red Heat for a date. Despite this being a red flag, she's so high on Vincent that she heads out. Not before stopping at Britty's to get her black skirt. She sees Gabe and Britty making cookies and having a flour fight and this is honestly the most wholesome Fear Street moment ever and I love it. That wholesomeness gets kneecapped when Delia drives off, only to see Karina making out with Vincent. She freaks out, but in her haste, her Jetta slides on an icy patch and the car goes careening downhill and crashes as Delia fades to black.
Karina goes to Delia and helps her out. She mentions that Vincent went off to get Mr. and Mrs. Easton. It's there that the two of them finally realize what the audience knew all along. Vincent's been two-timing the both of them. While they still have their issues (The Conklin), they both decide to have a truce. The next day, Delia talks with Vincent about missing out on the date to Red Heat and asks to move it to the weekend. Vincent also tries to claim that it was Karina that made out with him, but he resisted. No seriously, how did either of these girls fall for this schmuck? But he says that there's nothing between him and Karina as Delia hangs up. We then see that Sarah is with Vincent now and says that Delia will get over it. Because we still have one girl who still buys Vincent's nonsense, I guess.
We move on to the art competition for the Conklin as Delia shows off her works, only to find them all smeared with purple lipstick. Either it's the work of Slappy, or someone's still out to get Delia! And sure enough, Delia spots Karina again with Vincent, so she thinks that truce came to an end quickly. Britty suspects Karina as the saboteur, but Delia isn't entirely sure, plus she has no evidence. Britty makes a chapter ending comment to just kill Karina, but it was a joke, because my god do most of Stine's chapter stingers just suck. But Britty does mention that Delia is going overboard with how serious she's taken everything. Given two sabotages and, you know, driving off a cliff, maybe she's within reason, so maybe shuddappayouface?.
But Delia still wants to talk with Vincent to get some answers, only to find Vincent making out with Sarah, who has dressed up like Delia and is even wearing the same lipstick. Delia's pissed at Vincent, but then digs at Sarah, saying that even in her clothes she's nothing special. Ouch. Vincent says he was just... teaching her some make out tips. Yeah, that's the ticket. He also says that, again, Karina is crazy for him, but he's trying to get her to take no for an answer. Delia tells him to call it off with Karina before it's too late. Before Karina does something horrible!
Vincent's birthday party is underway and it's just coincidentally the Fear mansion on Fear Street because at this point we haven't really mentioned Fear Street at all, huh? After I just did three books about the origins to go back to it feeling less important feels a bit sad, really. No sign of Delia, but Karina is there with Vincent. Time passes and still no Delia, to which Britty tells Vincent that it might be concerning that one of his girlfriends is missing on his big day. The night continues on with no sign of her until Delia arrives at the doorway, dress and shoes torn apart and blood on her face.
After Delia is helped up, she says that this was all Karina's fault. Karina invited her over so they could reconcile, only for Karina to hit her with a blunt object and tie her up in the bed-Stine, you're projecting again-then left for the party. Karina denies all of this, but given Delia's state, it's hard for anyone to say she's telling the truth here. Delia says that there's more evidence at Karina's, but Karina tells them not to go. Vincent tries to intervene, but Karina attacks him before storming out. The next day, Delia, Britty and Gabe show up to the Fear Street mansion to clean up after the party. Only they find Vincent. Or, should I say Vincent's corpse, collapsed amongst the garbage. Knife in the chest. Well, at least this book has a happy ending. Oh wait, there's still about 40 pages. Proceed.
The cops arrive as sure enough, Vincent is stone cold dead. Multiple stab wounds, but more importantly, Delia's lipstick on his face. The cops suspect Delia, but Delia is certain it was Karina. The cops take her in where she continues to please her case. The cops soon discover that the lip prints are a perfect match with Delia. She double checks them and says that she knows how to prove the lip prints on Vincent didn't come from her. Because the print on Vincent's was reversed. Someone took a napkin with Delia's lip print and planted on Vincent's corpse to frame her. Delia then tells the detectives that it must have been Karina, given everything we know. They head to Karina's and find her volleyball trophy which was used on Delia to knock her out, as well as a piece of paper with Delia's lipstick print on it. Karina panics and says that she's innocent as the cops take her away.
Delia sabotaged her performances to make it look like Karina did it. When she saw Vincent with Sarah, that was the last straw. So she made it look like Karina attacked her on the night of the birthday party. Then it was Delia who murdered Vincent and framed Karina. It all worked great except for one thing. Delia perhaps shouldn't have bragged about this IN A PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL WITH DOCTORS PRESENT! Sure enough, the doctor heard it all and tells Gabe that he'll call the cops. Holy crap this twist kind of rules.
I really liked this one. Maybe not to the level of The Rich Girl, mainly for a bit of a sluggish start and middle, but Killer's Kiss makes up for that with a strong final act and what might be my favorite twist so far in this series. Granted, it's not the most original, and given Rich Girl comes after this chronologically, it's clearly one Stine loved to ape a bit too much. But I will say, save for her colossal muck up at the end, Delia wins the award for one of the best gaslighters in all of Fear Street that I've read so far, and given some of the competition that is an accomplishment worthy of more than just the Conklin Award.
Though I do wish it was both Karina and Delia working together to screw with Vincent. Even if you look at Karina as a villain, given her actions early on, having her be framed at the end feels a bit lame. Like, both of them were wronged by Vincent. The moment at the car accident (which feels superfluous Clay as all hell) should have been the moment where all of this was a long con to get revenge on Vincent. I mean, he does die at least, and yes, it would feel like Double Date, but Delia just deciding to screw over Karina because she's still hung up on Vincent and only turns on him after he's with Sarah (on the grounds that Delia straight up treats Sarah like garbage so I'm on Sarah's side too somewhat) feels like a really weak reasoning.
So instead we have to end with her being crazy the whole time, fixated on Vincent. If she can't have him, no one can. Which, if we ended just there, would have been a lame way to end this. But her hubris biting her in the ass and her being caught does make this twist incredible. Once again, nobody wins! Except maybe Sarah because she dodged a bullet... and probably a knife as well. I mean, wouldn't it put it past Delia. She's that obsessed. So we get a book that takes a while to get going, but when it gets going it offers, at least to me, one of the better experiences I've had with Fear Street.
So, overall, Killer's Kiss is one third of a great story. It suffers from wheel spinning and some superfluous scenes, but hits with one of Stine's better thought out mysteries and a twist that gives us a happier ending than we overall would have gotten. With some tweaking, it could have been higher, but when the book still satisfies, it's a book I wouldn't kiss goodbye any time soon. Killer's Kiss gets an A-.
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