And as if Kerry isn't allowed to feel enough like shit, Sal's girlfriend Sharon Spinner is also pissed since this could mean the end of Sal's future. She then says that Sal is dead! But that's just hysteria. Also, that part isn't a chapter stinger. It's like midway through a page, so yeah. That's a thing Bob would improve on (for lack of a nicer term). As Kerry waits in the coach's office, he notices a picture on the wall of a former lineup for the team, which includes Kerry's brother Donald, who was actually a successful player. Was being the operative term here since something tragic happened to him recently. But we move from that as the coach says that due to everything, it's not wise to keep Kerry on the team, so he's bounced.
Being "bounced" might also be the least painful thing the other players want to do to him. As Kerry heads home with Josh, one of the players named O'Brien warns Kerry to not go out in the dark any time soon. He heads home as his younger brother Sean is watching the Brady Bunch and barely reacting to anything else because I guess in the 80s Brady Bunch reruns were the shit. We learn that Kerry's mom divorced her father and left not long after Donald "left". So it's just been a continual cycle of the worst possible luck. Kerry hears the phone ring and picks it up, with a "sexy voice" on the other end saying it's his [[TITLE OF THE BOOK]]. I mean, we all know where this is going, but we're only a chapter deep, let's see how it progresses.
The voice on the other end with a voice that Kerry says sounds like a Nadia (?). She says she was given Kerry's info by a Margo (Kerry's friend who moved away recently because the point hasn't been made that his life sucks I guess). Despite all the warning signs that this is an obvious prank, Kerry still falls for it and decides he'll date her on the coming Saturday. She gives him her information, with her name being Amanda, and Kerry's excited about this. As he's on cloud nine, his dad comes back, which Stine makes sure to tell us that he looks like Andy Renko on Hill Street Blues, even after his dad went bald. Lt. Hart chastises his son for having beer and chips for dinner, then listens to Kerry's ordeal with being kicked off the team. His dad's not happy about that, especially since Donald was a god to that team. In fact all Lt. Hart talks about is Donald, except what happened one year ago that caused Donald to disappear, that is.
Later that night, Kerry gets a phone call with a high pitched female voice mocking him about the injury in a threatening manner. He thinks it's Sharon and calls her house, only to get berated by her dad which, okay the kid's been getting shit on this whole book so far, that one is on him. The day of the blind date arrives and Kerry is dressed well and driving his dad's Mustang. He also thinks about Amanda's name, finding it old fashioned and again pressing on her sounding more like a Nadia. He imagines her as rich and sexy and everything he'd want. But he also wouldn't want to go all the way with her on their first date. Which might be the closest thing to Stine talking about sex that I've seen in any of these books so oh yeah, this definitely feels like a first book for him in so many ways. As he drives, we go back to Kerry mentioning the blind date to Josh and getting an update that Sal is still in a coma with a compound fracture in his leg, so yeah. Kerry's still a future corpse.
He arrives on, where else, Fear Str-Oh right, this is way before that, Sycamore Street. Amanda's house is a mess. Unkempt lawn, broken porch. Like someone died or something. Turns out that might be as an older couple arrive at the door. When Kerry asks for Amanda, the couple panic and tell him that Amanda's been dead for years. They then recognize him, saying he was here before. As they call the cops, Kerry rushes back to the car and floors it. However, he starts to remember the interior of the house, as if he actually was there once before but doesn't remember. He begins to wonder if he imagined everything, if he knew of any Amanda, or if this was just a prank from Sharon. But, for now he thinks maybe he got the wrong address and there is an Amanda waiting for him. He thinks to call Margo, but he gets another "Leg bone's connected to the foot bone" call again.
That night, Kerry gets a call from Amanda, now calling herself Mandy. She was waiting for him, but she stood him up. Kerry wants to try this again, so he asks for her real address, to which she says it was Sizemore Street, not Sycamore. But she promises to see him before school starts. Of course, this is despite the fact that he still doesn't know what she looks like, so he's not doing a very good job in not letting himself be gaslit. Then another threatening call saying "Stick and stones will break your bones. Are you ready to die?" Which Kerry is sure is Sharon. Or maybe O'Brien's involved. The next morning, Sal's coma is in the paper and it's all an extra reminder, in case it hasn't been made apparent, that Kerry is a dead man walking. I know this is Stine's first book but the redundancy in the first 50 pages is more than his usual constant repetition. But thankfully the coach didn't put Kerry's name in the paper or else it'd be a full on lynch mob.
While playing basketball with Josh, Kerry relays his odd evening when Obrien, another jock named Malick and the other football players come to kick Kerry's ass. However, it turns out that Kerry just kicks their asses. Well, at least he's good at self defense. Before he can escalate it, Sharon shows up and says that Sal is recovering and that he'll be okay. And also not to bother Kerry anymore. It's all water under the bridg-none of that happened. It was Kerry's imagination. Again, something that feels like an end of chapter sting that's just in the middle of a chapter. No, Kerry gets his ass kicked by the jocks who then threaten him to keep his mouth shut. Which given this is the son of a cop, you'd think they'd be smarter as to not to assault him, but I guess if Kerry squealed and got them in shit, he'd probably really wind up dead. Reader beware, you're in for conflict.
Kerry arrives at school and finally meets Mandy, who is described as looking very childish, like Alice in Wonderland, but with purple lipstick. He apologizes for missing their date and they talk for a bit. She's still very tight-purple lipped about herself, but she says she used to go to a very private school and lived all over the place. She also seems really into him which feels weird to Kerry. So if this is all just leading to Kerry getting himself murdered, she's not doing very well on the poker face. But Kerry's enough of a moron to fall for it. He shows her the school and heads to his locker where he finds all of his stuff covered in blood, which is, of course, just red paint because this is still a Stine book, no matter how early. He talks with the principal, Mr. Conquest, which sounds like a supervillain name if ever there was one. Mr. Conquest mentions that Sal is out of a coma, but his leg's still screwed. There's still no visitors allowed which is book language for "We gotta pad out the shit kickings that Kerry is going to get." Kerry runs into Sharon to ask about the threatening calls, but she's confused and this is gonna make things worse, isn't it? We're 80 pages deep into this 200 page story by the way. Put on a pot of coffee, this'll take a while.
That night, Kerry has a dream where he's in a canoe with Donald and rowing super fast into a waterfall. Kerry's the only one who notices the oncoming waterfall while Donald and his parents are all encouraging him. This apparently is a recurring dream. He gets awakened by a phone call from Josh wanting answers as to what happened and are you seeing what I mean by padding and repetition? He then thinks more about Mandy and realizes that he's never seen her carrying a backpack or any school supplies that would suggest she goes to school. But never mind that, Lt. Hart tells Kerry that Donald's escaped. Kerry's confused as this is the first he's heard of Donald being anywhere. That's when Lt. Hart mentions that Kerry's been recovering from amnesia for some time now. He doesn't remember any specific incident other than some headlights. After a phone call that Lt. Hart answers so whoever is on the other line just hangs up, he finally tells Kerry a little about the accident a year prior.
It was during July and it was an incident involving Kerry, Donald, and Donald's girlfriend. It was late at night and on the drive home, the car got into a nasty collision. Donald's girlfriend died instantly. The shock of the incident drove Donald insane to the point that he was put in a mental hospital, which he recently escaped. Kerry doesn't have any memories other than the headlights of that night. Kerry thinks this means Donald's coming home and maybe he's all better, because I guess you gotta have some optimism. He asks Lt. Hart what Donald's girlfriend's name was, and it was, as you'd likely have guessed by now, Amanda. So either Kerry's dating a ghost, or I think I already see where this book is going. And with 103 pages to go it'll be a bit before we get there.
Kerry then heads to the school dance and spots Mandy. They enter the school and Mandy finally meets Josh, so we can check off ghost... for now. The two dance and Mandy grabs him forcefully, giving him a really painful kiss, having bitten his lip really hard. So, maybe not a ghost but a vampire then. She then runs off. Kerry goes to find her, but runs into O'Brien and Malick, who chase after him. However, instead of kicking his ass again, they apologize. They finally talked to Sal who said that it was all an accident and that you really shouldn't be kicking Kerry's ass over it. He finds Mandy shortly after and they dance before Mandy asks about Kerry's dad's car. They head out to find the tires slashed. Mandy is freaked out about it while Kerry is confused. Josh and his girlfriend Jessie show up as Mandy makes a run for it. Despite Mandy's hasty exit, Kerry begins to suspect that this might have been Donald's doing. That he really is crazy and maybe he's come to kill Kerry.
He returns home to get another threatening call from a girl saying she's going to break every bone in his body. He thinks it's Sharon again, despite, you know, Sal already admitting Kerry's not at fault, but he also thinks the voice sounds familiar. Like someone he knew. Like someone who ran off, slashed your tires then returned to run off again. The next day, Kerry finally runs into Margo who now goes to a different school. And not the same school as Mandy because she doesn't know who Mandy is. Which also means she never set Kerry up for any blind date. But because Kerry's an idiot, he doesn't put two and two together yet because he has a hot, sexy, not telling you jack shit, date. I get it. 65 pages left, but come on man, stop thinkin' with your dick. He talks with his dad over everything, including the strange calls. His dad suggests laying low, but Kerry is more focused on laying pipe with Mandy. After his dad leaves, Kerry gets a call. This time from Donald who says he's coming. Wow, this paragraph went places, didn't it?
Mandy shows up and the two take a drive where she finally opens up a bit, saying that she knows she's been weird around Kerry this whole time, but she has a reason to, because she believes that Donald is stalking her. Despite not really knowing Donald that well, or anything that should be an obvious red flag. But she does say that she saw Donald at the dance and thinks he was the one who slashed the tires. Kerry then mentions that Margo didn't know Mandy, which causes her to swerve into oncoming traffic. Which means it's a perfect time for Kerry to get his memory back. To which he realizes that the one who was driving the car that night was himself. He killed Amanda. He caused Donald's mental snap. And it explained why Amanda's parents freaked out. Back to the present, Mandy hadn't run into anything, but she definitely seems pleased with Kerry's anguish to a point that even he's starting to think something's wrong. Shouldn't have thought with your dong there, fella.
So now Kerry realizes he killed his brother's girlfriend, his brother is looking for him, and he's in a relationship with a really strange girl who seems to be hiding something. More importantly, he remembers everything about that night. They were at Amanda's place and Donald had dared Kerry to drive, despite Kerry only being fifteen. So now it's racking on Kerry's mind why Donald was sent away and he got away with it? I mean... cop's son... but I digress. But Kerry lost control of the car and it crashed. And the last memory he has is of Donald screaming. Lt. Hart tells Kerry later that the reason Donald went away is because he literally was trying to kill Kerry after the death of Amanda. So now Kerry is extra worried, though he does think that Donald did it because of the confusion and shock, so maybe he doesn't want to kill him? I mean that's probably the swerve here, but shush.
After Lt. Hart leaves, Kerry gets a call from Mandy who says that Donald found her and to head to her place. He arrives and finds no sign of Donald, but a panicked Mandy who says they have to go to a cabin in the woods to hide. As they head to the car, Kerry notices something in the truck. A large wooden mallet. Ah, she's gonna give him the old Tom and Jerry. But a wooden mallet is hardly something needed for a trip to the cabin. But she says maybe they'll need a mallet to pitch a tent in case they get lost. Okay, that's a decent save. They rush to the cabin where they get a fire going. Mandy gives him some hot chocolate. OLD family recipe. She mentions that this is exactly how she imagined it would go, then gets more vague as Kerry passes out. He wakes up to discover that he's tied to a chair and, as you all guessed, Mandy's our villain!
Yes, Mandy was the one making the threatening phone calls, she was the one threatening to break every bone in Kerry's body, and, as I guessed, she's also Amanda's sister Nancy. She blamed Kerry for the accident, and believed that he got out of jail time because his dad's a cop which, fair fucking point. She then takes the mallet and smashes his foot before taking a moose head off the wall and shoving it over his head. Okay then. As she's about to continue, however, Donald shows up and says that he's going to finish this. He pulls off the moose head and has the mallet in hand. Kerry awaits his fate, but Donald just unties him, noting that he knocked Nancy out. Turns out that this ISN'T Amanda's sister, but a mental patient who heard what happened to Amanda and had a mental breakdown believing her to be Amanda's sister and thus wanted revenge. Um, sure. Turns out Nancy's been in the mental hospital almost her entire life. She escaped from the hospital and came after Kerry. That's why Donald escaped. He kept tabs on her, but couldn't stop her in time, mainly for book convenience, but sure. Nancy recovers and tries to attack, but Kerry tackles her until the cops arrive.
Some time passes and Kerry is still recovering from his broken foot, and is even on great terms with Sal, so that's resolved. Josh shows up and says that he set him up for a blind date with his cousin Sarah, to which Kerry's down for. I mean, at least he KNOWS someone who knows her but...
Granted, the added swerve that Nancy wasn't even related to Amanda is interesting as far as swerves go. Though I wonder if that was a last minute thing because that whole "Sounds like a Gina" thing early on would have made sense if we learned that Amanda's sister was Gina. I wonder if Stine, even in such an early stage of his career, realized that would be a hack way to finish the story and pivoted it to being a mental patient who heard the story from Donald? Maybe older Stine should have taken younger Stine's advice for down the line is all I'll say. Though younger Stine's story structure's a frigging mess so maybe that's why Stine doesn't look to the past that often. Mid-chapter stingers, constant need to recap what's going on, and a mystery that lacks enough vagueness. Though that last one was something he's always tripped over.
Kerry is an interesting protagonist, but I do feel the book goes a bit overboard with him getting shat on. The whole stuff with Sal and the injury and everyone wanting to kill him just ends mid-book, which feels like it was added there for padding. It also makes Sharon being the culprit of the vague calls make less sense for something that Kerry considers after he gets the all clear. He also suffers from dumb horny teen syndrome where even when there's way too many obvious examples that Mandy might be a threat, he rarely considers it until it's too late. Even when he sees the mallet he barely thinks too much of it. Though it's not as bad as say, Brenda from Halloween Night II, who should have known better that the pumpkin looking like one of the threats might be a concern.
Nancy/Mandy is kind of frustrating. Honestly, I liked the idea of her as the villain. How it was obvious that she was out for revenge for what happened to Amanda. And what little we get gives us one of the more intense Stine villains. Mainly because she actually gets to cause bodily harm to Kerry. I just hate that it's not anyone related to Amanda. I guess it would have meant that there would be conflict. I mean, you could argue there was some justification for wanting revenge on Kerry, even if in the grand scheme this was all Donald's fault. It just really feels deflating when it's "just some mental patient". I get part of a reason to pivot, but it just feels like a swerve for swerve's sake and it does hurt the book somewhat. It's not his worst "bad mental health" pivot, I mean, he did write The Babysitter III, but it's still a very weak twist to me at least.
The rest of the cast is fine. I like the relationship that Kerry has with his dad, that it feels more open than what kid/parent relationships would ultimately wind up as in Stine books. Though it feels more like Lt. Hart is more here for an excuse to post exposition than any real character. Donald not being the villain felt obvious. I like the build for Kerry's concerns after he gets his memory back. Though yeah, the build to get to him did feel like forced padding. Speaking of padding, Josh is mainly just fine as the best friend. He's not Superfluous Clay because the book needs Kerry to relay things to him to pad the book to 200 pages. Sean just exists to watch TV.
I'd say Sharon and the jocks feel like Superfluous Clay. They start the whole book, but disappear and become unimportant to the threat mid-book. You could have started the book without them and not lost much. I also expected some form or revenge that was more elaborate than just throwing paint and beating the shit out of him. In a book where they mattered more, they likely would have been looked at more as the ones who wrecked the car, or some of the later threats. It just feels like once they leave and it's all Mandy, the book loses that important piece to make it feel like a mystery. Would it have also been padding? Sure, but it's better than pages where we're just recapping stuff.
So, in the end we do have a unique situation here. This is the first Stine YA horror, so it needs to be judged both on its own merits and for how it compares to Stine's later works. As it's own book in a vacuum, it's clunky. It has a neat concept, and even some decent horror by the end, but does feel like a mess when it comes to pacing, suffers from a lot of really bad trappings and feels like its final twist underwhelms and ultimately hurts the overall product. But it also feels like the first horror book of someone like Stine and you can definitely see that this book both inspired much of how he would handle thrillers like this down the line, especially in Fear Street and later Point books. I do think he saw what didn't work and tried to improve later on to what he felt did work in terms of horror. It would explain the shakiness of so many of them, I'll say that.
I think I would recommend this one, just to see how Stine began. But that's really it. I think there's too many major issues with it for me to be overly positive. A lot of decent little ideas in an otherwise unbalanced package. And at 200 pages for a book that could have at least been 150-160, it's not the most glowing recommendation I've ever given, that's for sure. But I'm glad to have read it to see proto-Stine in action. So I guess that's a plus? Maybe I'm suffering from too much blind devotion. Blind Date gets a C.
IT WAS ACCEPTABLE IN THE 80S: Brady Bunch, Gilligan's Island, Hill Street Blues, Andy Renko, MTV, Donna Summer, "The Last Dance"
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