Fear Street: Killer’s Kiss (R.L. Stine)

I was 17 when this book came out and had absolutely no business reading Fear Street books and yet I remember almost everything about this book, including the ending. I think I probably borrowed it from a library back when the blog was a thought, but I was still a few years away from actually starting one.

Delia is completely obsessed with her boyfriend Vincent who’s also dating Karina and also obsessed with her dark purple lipstick. She’s constantly applying and reapplying her lipstick and based on the color, I was sure she was goth for half the book. Delia wants to sit around and plan Vincent’s birthday party, but he wants her to get going because Karina is on her way over. Vincent keeps thinking about how he likes both girls and can’t choose between them, but he does admit that Karina is prettier.

Karina shows up and freaks out when she sees purple lipstick on his cheek, but he says Delia was there earlier for homework help and kissed his cheek on the way out. Ugh, I hate to admit that I was stupid enough to fall for this as a high schooler. Karina buys it, but then threatens Delia and claims she’s always trying to steal crap from her.

Cut to Delia talking about the Conklin Award, which is some huge scholarship that she and Karina are both in the running for. She wants to go to a big deal fashion school and not the crappy community college in town. It’s really lame how they decide the winner, with each candidate having to perform in a talent show, do something artistic and have good grades. Delia starts yelling about Karina, even though they used to be friends. Then Karina shows up and starts screaming before attacking Delia. I could so see this happening in my high school.

The next night Delia and Vincent are making out when she starts freaking out over Karina yet again. She wants Vincent to promise that nothing happened and that he only wants to be with her. He keeps trying to change the subject because exclusivity isn’t something on the mind of most teenage boys. They start kissing again and her 15 year old sister Sarah pops up. Delia turns bitchy and tells her sister to get lost.

Delia gets asked out by Stewart, one of her competitors and she considers it, but then realizes that she loves Vincent way too much to go out with anyone else. Later she sees him talking to Karina and thinks that it was all a setup. Karina wanted her to go out with Stewart so she could run and tell Vincent, who’d break up with her. She then gets her friend Britty to talk with Karina and try to get her to lay off, but Karina figures it out and starts yelling at Delia about how she’ll never give up Vincent. I cannot believe how stupid these two are!

They finally have their talent competition and Delia turns green because Karina sings like a real opera song. She plans on playing a love song she wrote about Vincent, but finds a dead rat stuffed in her guitar and the strings cut. Just as she flips out, she sees her sister Sarah walk off with Karina. Ooh.

Delia hangs out with her friends, happy because she has a date with Vincent for later. She drives by Karina’s house and sees her making out with Vincent. She has an accident and Karina comes running out to check on her. She says that she now knows Vincent was dating them both and doesn’t want a guy coming between them. Delia agrees, but then secretly decides that she’s going to keep dating him anyway.

Vincent then calls Delia and tells him they can’t go out. He thinks about how he saw them talking and it won’t be good if they become friends again. He tells Delia that Karina just started kissing him and Delia fucking believes him. Then he starts making out with her sister, who just so happens to be there.

Delia then goes to the art section of the Conklin Award…does this seem like a lot of work for one school to anyone else? Anyway, Karina nails it and then Delia discovers that someone covered all of her work with purple lipstick. As she runs off, she sees Karina and Vincent kissing yet again. She decides to go back and see him against the judgment of everyone else and finds him making out with her sister. Yuck. Delia goes off on her sister about how he won’t pick her, even if she wears Delia’s clothes and makeup. Vincent claims nothing happened and that he’s worried about Karina being obsessed with him and Delia completely buys it.

Delia shows up late to Vincent’s birthday party, with her clothes ripped and in obvious pain. She tells everyone that Karina kidnapped her and tied her up. Karina denies it, but then runs off when no one believes her. The next day everyone goes back to Vincent’s and finds him dead on the floor. Delia tells the police that she last saw him when he dropped her off the night before.

The cops eventually arrest Delia because her lip print was found on his cheek. She points out that it’s an exact match and should be reversed. She then tells them all about how Karina’s been doing horrible things to her and the cops go to her house. They find a napkin with Delia’s lip print on it and arrest her for killing Vincent.

A few weeks later Delia gets ready to go to prom with Gabe. First though, she wants to stop by the psychiatric hospital and see Karina. Nothing says we love you like rubbing our happy lives in your face. Gabe congratulates Delia on winning the Conklin award, she makes a cryptic comment and then confesses everything. She framed Karina and killed Vincent herself for not loving only her. She starts kissing Gabe and tells him that she trusts him not to tell. Then a doctor pops up and says he heard it all and called the cops. Yes because he has so much proof…