Tagline: Her lips were sweet and deadly.
Back tagline: Kiss life good-bye…
Summary: Delia and Karina have always been rivals. For the best grades, the most friends, the hottest guys. This year, they both want Vincent—the most popular boy at Shadyside High.
Karina is determined to win—no matter what it takes. And if she can’t have Vincent, she’ll make sure that no one can.
First impression: I’ll be honest, just like The Confession, the reissued print of Killer’s Kiss was one of my first Fear Street books, so it holds a very special place in my heart. I have fond memories of this one and recall being shocked by the twist ending when I read it for the first time; I don’t remember the specifics but I know I wasn’t expecting it! R.L. Stine was a genius in my eyes and I remember being so excited to discover there was a whole new horror series I could graduate to from Goosebumps, which I’d been maturing out of for a while. I wasn’t even in my teens yet, but had been was exposed to horror from a young age and desperately needed the thrills and chills that Goosebumps didn’t offer.
I still have my reissued copy, but also managed to find an original print a few years ago, and this cover is much more fun! The colour scheme is extremely pleasing to the eye, just like Vincent in that polaroid.
It’s been well over a decade since I’ve read it, so I’m interested to see how it holds up and if the ending is actually more predictable than my 10-year-old brain could understand. Let’s find out!
Recap
Roll call:
Delia – Our heroine who’s desperate to win the Conklin Award and Vincent over Karina.
Karina – Delia’s rival for the Conklin Award and Vincent’s affection.
Vincent – A two-timing bastard with no morals when it comes to dating.
Britty – Delia’s supportive best friend who’s also friends with Karina.
Gabe – Delia’s other bestie who’s harbouring a crush on her.
Stewart – Another contender for the Conklin Award.
Sarah – Delia’s younger sister who hates her.
The book begins with Delia Easton and Vincent Milano making out on his couch. They pause for air, and Delia takes the opportunity to reapply her purple lipstick, called Midnight Wine, before blotting with a tissue, staining it with her lip print. He gives her one of his trademark smiles, keen to get back into the kissing, [I wouldn’t wanna be covered in purple lipstick lol] but Delia wants to plan his birthday party. It’s late though, so maybe she should leave, since his parents will be home soon. Vincent protests that it’s only 8:30, insisting they have plenty of time. Little does she know his parents will be gone for hours, but he is expecting Karina Frye at 9pm, and he doesn’t want the girls to cross paths.
Delia and Vincent make out again, and he tries his best not to think about Karina. The two girls are totally different, and he’ll never be able to choose between them. Delia’s got long dark curls and is outgoing, while Karina’s a blue-eyed blonde. Vincent’s never seen anyone prettier than super sweet, smart Karina, who reminds him of Michelle Pfeiffer. Hopefully his luck will continue and he’ll be able to keep dating both of them!
Speaking of Karina, Delia can’t believe she was dumb enough to think Vincent would like her, and hopes he’s not mad about it. Vincent assures her he’s not — ‘”You and Karina fight over everything. It figures that you would both want the same guy.”‘ Delia complains that Karina’s been jealous of her since they were kids and pretends to be such a goody-goody. As soon as she’d found out Delia was dating Vincent, she had to go after him too.
Vincent’s never felt guilty about anything and he’s not about to start now, but all this Karina talk is making him nervous. He checks the clock on the wall again and discovers it’s still 8:30. He realises the clock is broken and doesn’t know the time, and quickly ushers Delia out of there, lying that she was right, his parents will be home soon and they’ll kill him if they find out he had a girl over instead of studying for his calculus test! Luckily, there’s no sign of Karina yet, and Delia plants a Grimace-coloured kiss on his cheek, promising to see him tomorrow at school.
The second she’s gone, Vincent tidies up the living room until there’s no evidence that Delia was ever here. Except there’s one thing he forgot, and Karina notices it straight away upon her arrival; there’s a lip print on his cheek, and she’d recognise that lipstick colour anywhere! Delia came over to steal Vincent away from her! Thinking on his feet, he lies that Delia showed up asking for help with her American civ homework, and kissed his cheek when she was leaving. It was no big deal. He insists he didn’t kiss her back and it was just a peck on the cheek, then tries to hug Karina, but she pulls away. She reckons Delia only likes him because he’s Karina’s boyfriend, since she wants everything Karina has. Her eyes fill with tears as she declares she’s sick of Delia; ‘”I hate her! I won’t let her win this time!”‘ Then Karina races out of the house, leaving Vincent to stare after her as she jumps in her car and drives off. Vincent’s never seen her like this before, so angry, so out of control. What’s she going to do?!? [I wonder if he chose them specifically to date since they hate each other, so there’d be less risk of them finding out they were both dating him?]
It’s the next day now, and Delia’s on the bleachers in the gym watching an intramural basketball game with her two friends, Britty Myers and Gabe Denver. They’re discussing the Conklin Award [Any relation to Amanda Conklin’s family?], which Delia is one of the eight candidates for. The winner not only has to display exemplary school spirit, but must also be an outstanding all-around student, an accomplished performer, and a talented artist. [That’s a lot of traits for just one teenager lol] Gabe’s sure Delia has it in the bag, but she secretly wonders if that’s just because he has a crush on her. He’s a great guy, and helps her with her homework almost every night and listens to her bang on about Vincent for hours, despite not liking him. She’s sure lots of girls would be interested in dating Gabe, just not her.
Delia touches up her lipstick and searches for a blotter. Britty’s notebook is open on the bench, so she rips out a page and uses that. Athletic, honey-blonde gymnast Britty complains she has to by a new notebook every week because of Delia’s habit, and rather than apologise, Delia offers to buy the next one. [If you’re blotting your lipstick every five minutes why not carry tissues with you instead of disrespecting your best friend’s property?] Conversation returns to the Conklin Award, and Delia’s super nervous about it. She’s wanted to go to the hottest and most expensive fashion school ever since she was 12, and without the Conklin Award she’ll have to go to Waynesbridge Junior College, and even that will be hard to afford! [It sucks how many people in the US never go to college because they simply can’t afford it, or have to go into crippling debt just to attend]
The Conklin wasn’t just an award. It was a ticket to all her dreams. The most important thing in the entire universe.
Well, except for Vincent.
[Delia, please. Never prioritise a man over yourself] She asks her friends if they really think she has a chance of winning the award, and they’re both super supportive. Delia agrees that most of the other candidates aren’t a threat, but Stewart Andrews is an amazing artist, and is apparently doing a magic show for the talent portion of the competition, while Karina’s singing voice makes her a standout. Britty and Gabe point out that grades are important for the Conklin, and Delia’s are better than anyone else’s; somehow they’re even better than Gabe’s, who tutors her! Britty and Gabe remind Delia of all her extra-curricular duties which are sure to give her an edge over the competition, but Delia’s not so sure — she’s front-page editor of the school paper, but Karina’s editor of the whole paper. Delia manages the volleyball team, but Karina’s the star player. Delia was in charge of the homecoming dance, but Karina was the homecoming queen. Gabe interrupts, asserting that Delia is much cooler than Karina will ever be; ‘”So what if she’s beautiful and sweet? Sweet is boring. Sweet is easy to forget. I hate sweet!”‘
Britty’s tired of talking about it now and questions why Delia and Karina hate each other so much when they used to be friends. Delia reminds her that she’s tried to be friends with Karina, and Britty points out that Karina’s also tried to be nice to her. Delia’s Britty’s best friend, and she’d do anything for her, but she’s friends with Karina too, and it’s not good for them to be fighting each other all the time. They both get so freaked out just thinking about the other one! Delia can’t believe Britty’s defending Karina and looks to Gabe for support, but he backs Britty up instead. He remembers that the girls seemed to have had a truce last year and tolerated each other, and before that it had been a friendly competition between them. Delia’s heated now and replies that she doesn’t trust Karina after she’d tried to steal Vincent — ‘”And she only did it because she couldn’t stand the fact that I had something she didn’t. That’s nasty.”‘
The gym door suddenly opens and Karina bursts in, her hair wild, eyes red, mascara running down her cheeks. She shrieks at Delia, calling her a witch, before marching right up to her and wrapping her hands around Delia’s throat. She shouts that Delia isn’t going to win or take anything that belongs to her, squeezing harder as Delia fights for breath, struggling to free herself. Delia yanks Karina’s ponytail, which gets her to loosen her grip. Gabe tries to grab Karina, but he’s not quick enough, and as Delia scrambles away, Karina manages to grab one of her dangly earrings and jerk it down, tearing Delia’s earlobe. [Oof] Karina throws herself at Delia again, screaming that she’s going to kill her.
Delia manages to shove Karina away and Gabe finally intercepts, keeping Karina away from her. Delia’s confused by the attack and Karina asserts that not only will Delia not win the Conklin, but she’ll ‘”never, never, never get Vincent. He’s mine, Delia.”‘ Delia realises Karina must have snapped and tells her she’s sick and needs help, and Karina orders her to stay away from Vincent. Ms. Bates, a gym teacher, appears and takes Karina away after learning of the attack, instructing Delia to get her ear checked out at the nurse’s office. Gabe thinks someone should go with Karina so follows her and Ms. Bates, while Britty comforts Delia, admitting she’s never seen anyone act like Karina just did. Delia thinks Karina’s gone insane, which is the only explanation for why she thinks she’s dating Vincent. [Yes, Vincent couldn’t possibly be seeing both of you, he’s such an angel!] She’s worried Karina will escalate further, and Britty promises to talk to her and find out what happened. [I wonder how the school will punish Karina, this seems like a pretty big offence!] The girls head off to the nurse’s office, but not before Delia fixes her lipstick, leaving her lip print on a napkin on the bleachers. [That goes in the bin, Delia]
The next night, Vincent’s at Delia’s house watching a basketball game while she looks over her paintings, wondering if they’re good enough to beat out Stewart Andrews for the Conklin Award. His art is realistic and perfect down to the last details, whereas Delia’s are more imaginative, with bold colours. Vincent assures her she wouldn’t be in the finals if they weren’t good enough, and Delia can tell he seems upset. She assumes it’s about Karina, since she was the talk of the whole school today, but didn’t bother to show up. Delia expresses her concerns for Karina, explaining how weird it was that she seemed to believe she was dating Vincent. Vincent agrees it was weird and slips his arm around Delia’s shoulders, clearly trying to distract her from the Karina talk, but it doesn’t work. He tells her not to worry about Karina, who’s ‘”basically okay.”‘ His words make Delia spiral inwardly, wondering how he could think that after the girl had attacked her. How does he know so much about Karina, anyway? [He hasn’t said anything that indicates he knows anything about her other than that she seems ok… calm down, Delia] Does he feel sorry for her?!
Delia quickly scolds herself for thinking Vincent cares about anyone other than her and wraps her arms around him, hoping out loud he won’t let whatever is going on with Karina come between them. He snaps at her to forget about Karina and then kisses her hard to shut her up. Her lipstick is smearing, but she doesn’t care — she only cares about Vincent! And the Conklin award! She pushes him away and asks if he’ll visit her if she goes to college in New York, but before he can reply, she notices someone watching them over his shoulder. Delia immediately assumes it’s Karina, but it’s just her 15-year-old sister Sarah, who mimics Delia’s voice and begs Vincent not to let Karina come between them. [Hahahahahaha] Delia tells her to get lost, but Sarah wants to keep slinging insults, but she ends up getting her feelings hurt when Delia suggests she’s just jealous because she hasn’t been out with a guy all year! Delia regrets her words immediately, knowing that unfashionable and non-make-up-wearing Sarah is sensitive about the lack of interest from boys at school. Sarah rages that Delia’s embarrassed her in front of Vincent [What’s the bet he’ll try date her too? Or secretly is? I don’t remember if that’s a plot point but sounds like a Vincent thing to do] and kicks Delia’s paintings, declaring that she hates her. She then runs off with one of Delia’s self-portrait, and Delia chases her to the stairs but doesn’t follow her up. She orders Sarah to stop spying on them, and Sarah promises that she’ll do something much better than spy. [Like date Vincent!]
At school the next day, Delia’s at her locker feeling bad about embarrassing Sarah, who hasn’t spoken to her since or returned the drawing. Delia’s never seen her sister so angry! She’s got other drawings she can use to replace the self-portrait for the art competition portion of the Conklin Award, but she doesn’t like them as much and she needs any advantage she can get. Stewart appears and asks her out for Saturday night, but she turns him down because she’s dating Vincent. Stewart blushes and heads off, and Delia finds it weird that he didn’t know she was dating Vincent, because everybody knows. [Karina probably thinks the same thing]
After returning a library book, Delia heads to the geology lab to meet Britty, but stops when she hears her name. The hallway is empty, but there’s an open storage room, so she creeps closer after hearing her name again. She spots Stewart inside with a serious expression on his face, deep in conversation with someone. Delia hears a girl’s voice too, and wonders if he’s asking someone else out already. Stewart shifts his position, revealing that he’s talking to Karina. Karina looks angry, and Delia realises they must be planning something against her! [I think the plan was for him to ask you out and see what you said, so Karina will know if Vincent is cheating. Maybe?] Britty appears, and Delia drags her into the geology lab to explain her suspicions that Karina’s trying to use Stewart to get between Delia and Vincent. Why else would he immediately go to Karina after she turned him down?
Britty thinks that maybe they were talking about the Conklin Award, which explains Delia’s name coming up, but she doesn’t have an answer for why they’re talking in the storage room other than that it’s not the strangest thing Karina’s done this week. Britty notices Stewart leaving the storage room, but Karina doesn’t follow, and the girls wonder what she’s doing in there. Delia asks Britty to tell Karina that Delia and Vincent care about each other, and maybe Karina will leave her alone. Britty tried that already, having visited Karina’s house the other day, but Karina told her to go away. They watch as Karina finally leaves the storage room and heads down the hall, and Delia begs Britty to talk to one more time. Britty doesn’t want to be in the middle of the situation but eventually agrees, hurrying out of the room to catch up to Karina.
Delia listens from the geology lab as Britty asks Karina to hang out after school. Karina’s already got plans, and Britty admits she was hoping they could talk like they used to. Karina wants to know what Britty would like to talk about, and Britty reminds her of how she’d attacked Delia the other day. Karina laughs it off as no big deal, and Britty insists she should talk to someone, since she’s acting quite different lately. Karina says that Delia needs to face reality and tells Britty to pass on a message — Delia will never win the Conklin, and she won’t get Vincent away from Karina either. [All of this could be cleared up if the girls just had a damn conversation lol] Delia’s shocked; it was bad enough hearing it when Karina was going wild, but it hits different now that she sounds like normal, confident herself. ‘”Did you hear me, Delia?”‘ Karina calls out, knowing Delia’s eavesdropping nearby:
“I know you’re standing there listening,” Karina called. “Listen all you want. Do you really want to hear something?”
Her voice grew shrill, angry. “I’ll give you something to listen to, Delia. I’ll do anything. Do you hear me? I’ll do anything to keep you from winning!”
We jump forward to Sunday night now as Delia struggles to get to sleep. It’s the talent portion of the Conklin competition tomorrow, and she’s super nervous. She wonders if Karina’s lying awake, anxious about tomorrow too, but dismisses that — ‘she probably went right to sleep because she knew I’d be awake!’ [Hahahaha true] She finally drifts off after thinking about popcorn floating down from the sky like snow, which always does the trick! [Never heard that one before!]
She wakes up some time later to a scraping sound and a cough, realising someone’s in her room. Suddenly a hand is pressed over a mouth and nose, and as Delia thrashes about in the dark, she recognises her attacker — Karina! With an angry burst of power, Delia shoves Karina away and demands to know what she’s doing. Karina’s eyes flash as she raises something metallic; a pistol! She tells Delia it won’t hurt, and Delia realises it’s a tube of lipstick, not a pistol. [Easy mistake to make, Delia, it’s not like they have completely different shapes or anything!] Karina smears the lpstick all over Delia’s face, and Delia becomes aware that this is just a dream. She wills herself awake, alarmed that Karina’s scaring her when she’s awake and when she’s asleep now. Whatever will Delia do?!
It’s time for the talent show now, and Delia’s sweating bullets as she watches Stewart’s magic show. Karina’s next, and then Delia is lucky last in the seventh slot. She wanted to be last, but she’s regretting it now because the nerves are getting to her — her palms are sweaty, knees are weak, arms are heavy. There’s not vomit on her sweater just yet, though! She wishes Vincent was here, and complains to Britty that his mother forced him to take his little brother to the dentist instead. [Bullshit] Britty reminds her that she’s here for support, and Gabe is backstage, and he promised Delia will look great under the lights he’d set up for her original song. [Yeah, how about being thankful for your friends’ support]
Karina takes the stage now, accompanied by the piano she’d had shipped from her home, [There’s no piano at the school?] and her vocal teacher, who’ll be playing it while Karina performs. Karina looks beautiful in the blue satin dress she’d worn to homecoming, and the audience and judges are spellbound by her beautiful singing voice. Even Delia’s impressed, since she’s able to tell it’s a love song despite not understanding the Italian lyrics.
Delia spots Sarah in the audience and wonders why she’s here. Britty thinks it’s for support, but that’s not the type of sister Sarah is, so Delia’s unnerved by Sarah’s pleased smile. Is she happy that Karina is doing so well? She doesn’t have time to dwell on it, because Karina’s performance wraps up to a lengthy applause, and Delia has to head backstage to grab her guitar case. Gabe tells her she’ll do great before heading back to his post, and Delia enters the stage when her name is called. She smiles at Karina, now sat in the audience with Stewart, before announcing she’s written an original song — ‘”It’s a song about a boy and a girl and how much they mean to each other. It’s called ‘Vincent.'”‘ [Hahahahaha]
Delia opens her guitar case and screams because all the strings have been cut, ‘HA HA’ has been scribbled across it in red paint, and a decomposing rat has been stuffed into the centre hole. [That pesky Sarah! When did she do this? If it was backstage, was someone not looking after it, like Gabe? If it was at home, wouldn’t Delia have checked the guitar and case before bringing it to school?] Gabe and Britty rush over to comfort her, but Delia heads for Karina and accuses her of doing this. Karina plays innocent, and the judges announce that they’ll get to the bottom of it. Karina assures Delia that she doesn’t need tricks to beat her before heading off, and Delia watches as she stops where Sarah’s sitting and says something to her. Then Sarah gets up and follows Karina out of the auditorium. [Oooh, what’s going on there?]
Delia can’t believe Karina and Sarah may be in kahootz and turns back to the stage where she spots Stewart in the wings packing up his magic props, and she thinks he’s smiling, but can’t see him that well in the darkness. Britty and Gabe suggest they go get a soda while they wait to see what the judges want Delia to do, and as they head outside, her friends joke that they’ll be her bodyguards from now on, at least until the Conklin Award is given out. Delia suspects Karina wants more than that; she wants everything Delia has, — ‘”She wants the award. and Vincent. And everything I have. Everything. She wants my life!”‘
Later that day, with her talent act being postponed to next week, Delia arrives home to a note from Vincent on her door, wishing he could have been there, knowing she would have been awesome and suggesting they celebrate at Red Heat tonight. Delia knows just what to wear — a black suede miniskirt over a purple lace bodysuit, with a black suede fringed vest and funky red platforms she’d found at a thrift store! [I don’t know about that outfit, Delia] The only problem is Britty borrowed the skirt a few weeks ago and hasn’t returned it yet. So Delia gets back in the car and drives over to Britty’s house in North Hills, where she’s supposed to be studying with Gabe. Instead, though, they’ve been baking cookies, which were going to be a surprise to cheer Delia up. [What nice friends!] Delia hugs them for their sweetness, but bitterly tells them the only thing that’ll make her feel better is getting revenge on Karina. Gabe tells her she’ll be just as bad as Karina if she does that, and Britty thinks it might be dangerous, since Karina seems out of control. Delia supposes they’re right, especially since she doesn’t know Karina was the one who ruined the guitar, [Isn’t it obvious Sarah did it? Karina may have suggested it, but I’m not even sure about that. They did seem buddy-buddy in the auditorium, though…] and helps herself to a cookie.
On the drive home, Delia spots Karina on the street with a tall guy… Vincent! And they’re kissing!! She tries to slam on the breaks, but the idiot hits the accelerator instead. The car skids on an icy patch and spins around, sending Delia crashing into a tree. The airbag saves her, and the next thing she knows, Karina’s helping her out of the car, asking if she’s OK. The car’s not too badly damaged, but Delia’s more concerned with Vincent’s whereabouts, and Karina points to the house where Vincent went to call Delia’s parents. Delia tells her she didn’t know Vincent had been seeing both of them, and Karina admits she hadn’t either until a few days ago when she found Delia’s lipstick on his cheek — ‘”He made it easy for me to believe what I wanted to believe. He should have told me. He should have told you too. He lied to both of us.”‘ They agree that the only thing to fight over now is the Conklin Award, and Karina apologises for her recent behaviour, but swears she didn’t ruin Delia’s guitar. They agree to a truce, but Delia still doesn’t trust Little Miss Perfect completely. Karina has to head home now, and Vincent appears from the house across the street, heading towards Delia. Her pulse speeds up, like it always does when she sees him, and she decides the truce doesn’t mean she has to give Vincent up. They’ll have a great time at Red Heat tonight, and she’ll throw him a great party for his upcoming birthday, and he’ll forget all about Karina. [Karina probably has the same idea about the truce, lol. He can’t be that great. Why do you want to be with someone who was cheating on you and lying about it? Where’s your self-respect, Delia?]
Later, Vincent calls Delia to break the news that he can’t go to Red Heat tonight after all; he lies that carpet cleaners are coming in the morning, and his mother is making him stay home tonight to help move all the heavy furniture out of the way. He’s not sure if Delia’s buying it and is worried about her conversation with Karina earlier. He tells her that if Karina said they’d been dating, it’s a lie, and she’s really messed up. And just in case Delia saw their kiss, he lies that he bumped into Karina on the street, and she just grabbed him and kissed him! She’s so pathetic! Delia admits Karina had said they were together, but she knew Karina was lying. Delia can’t believe she’d believed her! She must have been shaken from the accident. He tells her he’ll make it up to her for bailing on tonight, and ends the call:
“That wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be,” he admitted. “She was really angry.”
“She’ll get over it.” The girl next to Vincent snuggled closer to him. “She always does.”
Vincent nodded. He forgot all about Delia and slid his arm around the girl’s shoulders. He gave her a big smile. The Vincent-Milano-trademark smile.
The girl giggled. She kissed him on the corner of his mouth.
Vincent laugh. “You’re really evil, Sarah.”
[I actually couldn’t remember for sure if Sarah was seeing Vincent behind Delia’s back because I feel like this happens in another book too. What a little shithead!] We jump to the artwork portion of the Conklin Award competition now, and Delia’s pacing back and forth outside the art room after school, nervously waiting for her turn when Stewart arrives, up next after her. Karina’s currently in there showing off her art to the judges, and Delia learns from Stewart that Karina’s stuff is good; oil paintings of flowers and trees. Stewart hasn’t seen Delia’s work, but says the artist looks great, and Delia thanks him for the compliment. We learn that she replaced the self-portrait Sarah stole with a new one, and she’s worn the exact same outfit she’s wearing in the painting, hoping that will help her stand out. She also can’t help but notice how cute he looks in his shirt and tie!
The art door opens, and before Delia heads inside, Stewart asks her to Pete’s Pizza afterwards so she can show him her work, but she politely declines, mentioning Vincent. She then heads inside, returning Karina’s smile as she leaves the room. Karina’s paintings are lined up against the wall, each one a garden so beautiful Delia can almost smell them! Delia carries her portfolio over to the judges as she opens it , she notices a smear of purple on the first painting. Panicking, she flips through her other drawings, each one smeared with purple that she recognises as lipstick. [I’m assuming it’s her trademark Midnight Wine, but she doesn’t acknowledge that, so we can’t be sure] She’s devastated when she reaches the self-portrait, which has lipstick ground into the eyes, gouging a hole in one spot. Underneath is a message scrawled in purple: ‘HA HA. COULDN’T YOU JUST DIE?’
The judges ask how this has happened, but Delia has no answers and instead flees the room with a hoarse cry. She bumps into Stewart and tells him her paintings are ruined before continuing down the hall. She skids to a stop as she rounds a corner, spotting Karina and Vincent up ahead. She quickly backs against the wall so they won’t notice and overhears Karina’s excited confidence that she’ll win the Conklin Award, which she’s basing on the judges’ faces when they saw her paintings. Vincent leans closer and whispers something in her ear, and she kisses his cheek:
Delia swallowed hard. It’s true, she thought. Karina is a winner. She’s standing there with Vincent. The judges love everything she’s done for the Conklin Award. And they haven’t even seen anything of mine.
Some truce, Delia thought.
[Delia, you weren’t sticking to the truce either, shut up] Later that afternoon, Delia’s at Britty’s house wondering if she should just drop out of the competition. Britty urges her to tell the judges that Karina’s been sabotaging her, but Delia doesn’t want to because she can’t prove that Karina’s behind it. Britty offers to back her up since she’d heard Karina threaten her, and reminds Delia that a lot of people saw Karina attack her in the gym, but Delia argues that that Karina’s behaviour would probably just get worse if Delia got her thrown out of the competition. Britty reckons there’s only one thing they can do, then — ‘”We have to kill Karina.”‘ [Oop] She’s just joking, of course, and Britty suggests letting Karina win the Award — everyone will know she cheated to get it. But the Conklin Award is Delia’s only chance to get into college in New York, and without it she’ll never become a fashion designer! She decides she has to go see Vincent, which Britty can’t believe after all the lies and what Delia saw today; ‘”Let Karina have him. They deserve each other.”‘ Delia just can’t do that, and wishes she could make Britty understand how much she cares about Vincent. Britty insists lots of guys would love to take Delia out, like Gabe and Stewart, and she shouldn’t waste her time on a loser like Vincent, but it falls on deaf ears because Delia absolutely has to give Vincent a chance to explain. [You mean a chance to lie again? Delia’s genuinely a fkn idiot]
She’s sure Vincent will have a good explanation [???] and drives over to his house, knowing he’ll be home because he loves watching basketball on Thursday nights. As she passes the front window on her way to the door, she notices a dark-haired girl sitting on the couch with him. Who could it be?! The front door is unlocked, so she sneaks in and tiptoes over to the living room, finding Vincent and the girl wrapped around each other. She orders Vincent to get away from her, and the startled canoodlers to jump apart, revealing that it’s Sarah who was just all over Delia’s boyfriend.
Vincent hops to his feet, looking uncomfortable, but Sarah actually has a smug smile on her face as she strolls over to Delia and asks, ‘”How’s it going?”‘ Delia notices Sarah’s wearing her clothes and Midnight Wine lipstick, but doesn’t give her the satisfaction of an angry response. Vincent says Sarah was just leaving and tries to lie about why Sarah was here, but Delia cuts him off, saying she knows exactly why Sarah’s here. Delia heads to the front door and opens it for Sarah, grabbing her arm as she passes; ‘”You didn’t think he would really choose you over me, did you? Even in my clothes and my makeup, you’re nothing special.”‘ [Oop] Delia had meant to hurt her this time, and Sarah’s clearly upset as she marches out of the house, Delia slamming the door behind her.
Delia quickly turns on Vincent, who lies that he was just giving Sarah some pointers so the sophomore guys might not think she’s such a geek. Delia isn’t buying it and points out that she also saw him with Karina in the hall earlier today. He lies that Karina thinks they’re dating and he has no idea why, and he’s not sure what to do — ‘”You know how out-of-control she can get.”‘ Delia isn’t sure what more Karina can do, since she’s already destroyed her guitar and paintings, and urges Vincent to tell Karina to back off. He says he will, and Karina insists he has to do it as soon as possible, before she does something really bad. Delia’s just so frightened of Karina, and needs Vincent to talk to her before it’s too late: ‘”I—I’m so worried about what she might do next,” she choked out.’
We jump forward to Vincent’s birthday party now, held at an abandoned mansion on Fear Street that luckily never had the electricity cut off. [Who was paying the bill??] Britty and Gabe have just arrived, and Vincent leads them to the ballroom where the party is. Delia isn’t here yet, as far as Vincent’s aware of, and Britty finds it weird because she’d said she was coming early. Vincent isn’t too bothered, though, because Karina’s just arrived! Britty and Gabe head to the dance floor, and Karina drags Vincent there too because she loves this song. Later, Britty interrupts the dancing to pull Vincent aside, worried because Delia still hasn’t rocked up The mansion doesn’t have a working phone, so they can’t contact her either. Over Britty’s shoulder, Vincent spots Stewart and Karina getting a little too friendly for his liking and is eager to get back, so tells Britty that it’s still early and Delia’s probably planning a dramatic entrance.
Hours pass and Delia still doesn’t show up, and Vincent is actually happy about it because it means the drama between her and Karina won’t ruin his party. [Wooooooooow] He figures she’s done a no-show to get back at him for the Sarah thing, and she’ll reach out eventually because she can’t stay angry at him. The partiers start leaving around midnight and Britty, who’s been pacing by the door for the last hour or so, has grown more worried. She tells Vincent she and Gabe are gonna stop by Delia’s house on the way home to check on her, but suddenly the doors fling open and Delia stumbles in. One of her heels has snapped off, her dress in torn at the shoulder, and her arms are covered in scratches. There’s also blood trickling down her face as she moans for help and collapses to the ground. Britty, Gabe, Stewart and Vincent all rush to her aid as a small crowd gathers, everyone wanting to know what happened. Delia points Karina out to everybody and says to ask her, but Karina claims to have no idea what she’s talking about.
Delia reveals that Karina had invited her over before the party, allegedly wanting to apologise and be friends again. Karina’s parents were out for the evening, and after leading Delia up to her room, Karina bopped her over the head with something, and Delia later woke up tied to the bed. Karina interrupts constantly to deny Delia’s accusations, but Delia holds up her wrists to show the rope burns, claiming she’d managed to loosen the ropes to break free. Stewart and Gabe grab Karina so she can’t run, and she continues to deny what Delia’s saying. Stewart points out that they all saw her arrive late to the party, but she insists it doesn’t mean anything; she was trying to decide what outfit to wear! [I feel that]
Delia suggests they go to Karina’s house so everyone can see the ropes and Delia’s blood all over the carpet, but Karina screams that they can’t go there! Why not? ‘”Because it’s crazy! It’s all a crazy pack of lies! Delia is a liar!”‘ Delia insists she’s not lying and again holds up her wounded wrists before showing off the blood coming from her head, her torn dress and skinned knees, and Karina lunges for her. [That won’t help your case, Karina] Vincent intercepts, promising they’ll get Karina the help she needs, but she declares that she hates them all and flees the house with a furious roar. [That also won’t help your case!] Britty and Gabe go after her while Stewart disappears to find a phone to call Karina’s parents. Delia leans back against Vincent, wanting to rest for a moment; she can’t believe that Karina would go this far…
The next day, Delia inhales deeply as she swipes a brand new tube of Midnight Wine onto her lips; she loves the smell of a new lipstick! She’s in her room with Britty, getting ready to head over to the mansion to help clean up the mess from the party. Britty compliments Delia’s outfit, a purple, pink, yellow and brown sweater, because only she could get away with wearing those colours together! [Not sure if she’s getting away with it, it sounds awful] Gabe arrives to pick them up, and Delia assures Britty she wants to help clean, [I wouldn’t, I hate cleaning] otherwise she’d just sit around thinking about last night. She’d told her parents but begged them not to go to the policy, and they said they would discuss the matter with Karina’s parents. Delia confides how scared she was last night that she’d never escape; it was only a few hours, but it felt like days, and she has no idea what Karina planned to do when she returned from the party.
The trio arrives at the mansion and call out to Vincent as they make their way inside, but there’s no response. They assume he’s not here yet and decided to wait outside, but as they turn to leave, Britty and Delia spot Vincent facedown on the floor, surrounded by empty soda cans and pizza boxes. Delia rushes over to him, but Vincent’s skin is cold and there’s no pulse — ‘”Vincent is dead.”‘
Gabe approaches and turns the body enough to spot the stab wounds in Vincent’s chest before gently returning him to the floor, and the trio head off to call the police. They wait on the porch until the police arrive, then lead Detectives Bender and Jamison to the corpse. After donning gloves, the detectives turn the body over to reveal three stab wounds, two in the ribs and one in the heart, with the knife still buried in his chest [The knife wasn’t mentioned when Gabe turned him over, which is weird]:
“Delia,” Britty whispered.
Delia followed Britty’s gaze down to Vincent’s cheek.
To the lip print on his pale cheek.
A purple lip print.
Midnight Wine.
“Delia, that’s your lipstick!”‘ Britty cried.
The detectives eye Delia suspiciously and ask when she last saw Vincent, and she tells them he drove her home last night. Britty mentions that Delia was still in her pyjamas when she’d arrived at her house this morning, so couldn’t have been here early enough to kill Vincent, [That’s not really proof, Britty] and Gabe confirms the trio arrived her together. The detectives go back to the body, and Delia suggests to her friends that someone is trying to frame her; ‘”Everyone at Shadyside High knows that I always wear Midnight Wine”‘. [Do lips have an individual print, like fingerprints? Could they match the kiss mark on Vincent’s cheek to Delia’s lips?] She wonders if Karina killed Vincent, since she’s been so out of control lately, but Britty isn’t sure that Karina would kill Vincent when she’s so crazy about him. [So no-one else can have him if she can’t. Duh, Britty] Gabe tells Delia not to throw around accusations when the police take their statements, as it could make her look guilty. When Detective Bender returns, he eyes Delia’s rope-burned wrists, which sets her off. She starts hollering that she didn’t do it! She didn’t kill Vincent! But they all think she does! But she didn’t! Doesn’t anyone believe her?! [Britty and Gabe literally just told you they believe you, you idiot. You’re just making yourself look guilty now]
A short while later, Delia’s in an interrogation room answering the same questions over and over for Detective Bender. [Who earlier referred to the police station as the office instead of the station when he asked them to all come down to make statements, which I thought was weird] She’s over it, and soon Detective Jamison summons Bender from outside the room. Detective Bender leaves, and a few minutes later an officer enters and pins two photos onto the corkboard across from Delia. One is a close-up of Delia, and the other is a photo of the lip print on Vincent’s face. Detectives Bender and Jamison return and study the photos before they tell Delia her parents should probably call a lawyer — Delia’s lips and the lip print are a perfect match! [OK, so Delia either did kill him and is making it obvious as a twisted way of proving her innocence, like we’ve seen on the blog before in All-Night Party, which is the very next Fear Street book, or someone is framing her with one of the 240550996898790598779 napkins/pieces of paper/tissues she leaves lying around after blotting her lips. But then the print on his cheek would be reversed, wouldn’t it? The police should know that. I honestly can’t remember which one is correct]
Delia insists that’s impossible and gets up to examine the photos herself. After closely scrutinising the images, she points out that while it is a match, it shouldn’t be — ‘”the lip print on his cheek wouldn’t appear the way my lips do in the photo. The print would be reversed.”‘ [Ayyy, called it!] To prove her point, she applies some Midnight Wine to her lips and kisses a piece of paper, showing that the print is reversed. To further her point, she kisses a napkin, which also shows the print is reversed. She then demonstrates that if the print is pressed against something flat, like the table, the print left behind would be a perfect match. Detective Bender is apparently an idiot, so Delia has to make something very clear even more clearer: ‘”What it means is that someone got hold of a lip print of mine. Off a napkin or a piece of paper or something. I blot my lips all the time. I leave papers all over the place.”‘ [Ooh, maybe it was Britty, who’s crushing on Gabe, who is crushing on Delia, and she wants Delia out of the picture!] Someone pressed the print against Vincent’s face to frame Delia, and she’s got a very strong idea about who may have done it! She quickly explains her rivalry with Karina and everything that’s happened over the last few weeks. To her relief, they believe her and agree to go talk to Karina, although they do point out that there’s no evidence to link Karina to Vincent’s death.
Delia really wants to go with them, but they decline her company since if what she’s saying is true, it could be dangerous. Delia absolutely has to know what happens, though, so she refuses a lift home with her parents, lying that she wants to walk to Britty’s, who must be so worried! Her parents leave, and Delia runs to Karina’s house, arriving as Mrs. Frye and Karina are leading the detectives inside. Delia moves to a side window and peers inside, but can’t hear the conversation. It goes on for a while before Mrs. Frye and Karina lead the detectives upstairs. Nosy Delia remembers the layout of the house from when she and Karina were friends, and sneaks in through the side door, creeping upstairs as she hears the group in Karina’s room. She moves over to the door and peers through the crack, watching as the detectives looking through Karina’s things. Karina appears calm, but her mother is growing impatient and asks what they’re looking for; ‘”This is such a waste of your time. We agreed to cooperate. But I had no idea you were going to take Karina’s room apart.”‘
The detectives ignore her and Bender, who’s examining the bottom of a dresser drawer, calls Jamison over, having found something interesting. Everyone goes over, and Karina instantly denies that whatever it is belongs to her. Detective Jamison lifts out a sheet of notebook paper, holding it by the corner to touch it as little as possible, and from her vantage point Delia can see that it has a set of purple lip prints on it. Jamison dips into the drawer again and pulls out a tissue with a purple lip print on it. He pulls out print after print of Delia’s lips, and Delia wonders how Karina could possibly explain this.
Detective Jamison explains that a lip print this colour and shape was found on Vincent’s cheek, and they believe the killer placed it there by pressing a sheet of paper with the lip print on it against his face. Karina insists she didn’t kill Vincent; she cared about him more than anyone else in the world, and he cared about her. Delia’s not having that and bursts into the room, shrieking that Vincent didn’t care about Karina at all — ‘”He didn’t. And so you killed him! You killed him! The only boy I ever loved!”‘ Karina demands to know what Delia’s even doing here, and the Detectives aren’t impressed either. Karina suddenly charges at Delia, tackling her to the ground and raking her nails across Delia’s cheek before she’s pulled off. Karina dashes to her mother’s arms and cries that she didn’t kill Vincent as Mrs. Frye tries to calm her down. Detective Jamison tells Mrs. Frye that she and Karina will need to come down to the station, advising them to call an attorney. Delia then follows the detectives downstairs and outside, wondering if the whole ordeal is finally over.
An unspecified amount of time later, Gabe and Delia, who have been dating for three weeks now, are arriving at Shadyside Psychiatric Hospital. It’s prom night, but Delia wanted to stop here to visit Karina before heading off to the prom. Gabe apparently visits Karina every week or so, and Delia plants a kiss on his cheek for being such a sweetie pie. Delia takes a seat on a couch near the waiting room door while Gabe heads over to the registration desk to tell the nurse they’re here to see Karina. The nurse advises that she’s with the doctor at the moment, but he’ll be finished in a minute or two, and Gabe returns to Delia.
Delia admits that while she’s glad Karina is getting the help she needs and she doesn’t have to worry about her anymore, school isn’t the same without her, and she can’t imagine Karina not being part of graduation. Gabe tells her she shouldn’t feel sad on prom night and reminds her that she’ll be at that fancy fashion school in New York next year, having won the Conklin Award. Delia sighs and says it’s now how she wanted to win the Conklin Award, and Gabe asks what she means. A strange smile appears on her face, one Gabe’s never seen before. A knowing, almost cruel smile… Delia says that Karina would have won Vincent and the Conklin if she’d let her, and to Gabe’s horror, she inexplicably confesses to being behind everything.
Yes, Delia put the rat in her own guitar and smeared the lipstick all over her own paintings, but she knew that wouldn’t be enough because the judges really loved beautiful, talented Karina. Then she caught Vincent kissing Sarah, and she knew she had to kill him; if she could pin the blame on Karina, all her problems would be solved! As she talks, she swipes a fresh coat of Midnight Wine over her lips and blots it on a tissue. She continues on to confess that Vincent never drove her home after the party, and she’d actually killed him after everyone left, planting the lip print on his face using a piece of paper. [Did the police even investigate his time of death? The teens made it seem like he had to have been killed the morning after the party, but if it was the night before he would have been in the same outfit. In which case, wouldn’t Karina have of alibi? Britty and Gabe chased after her, so surely she was with them or at home with her parents when he was killed] She’d had it all planned out; she snuck into Karina’s house while Karina was at the party and planted the lip prints, then ripped her own dress and injured her wrists, which really hurt, but it was all worth it.
She suddenly pulls back and stares at Gabe, as if seeing him for the first time — ‘”Wow. I’ve been talking and talking.” She raised a hand to her face. “What got me started? I don’t know…”‘ [I don’t know either, but it was a very stupid thing to do, especially here when anyone could walk past and overhear] She supposes she just had to tell someone, ‘”But you won’t tell on me, will you, Gabe?”‘ Gabe is completely speechless, and the book ends as Delia starts smothering him with her Grimace-coloured kisses while continuously asking him to confirm he won’t tell anyone:
Gabe stared helplessly at his reflection, at his face, smeared with thick, purple stains.
“Will you? Will you?” She continued to rub her lips over his skin. “Will you, Vincent? I mean Gabe.”
A sound made Gabe turn.
Gazing over Delia’s shoulder, he saw a white-coated doctor standing grim-faced at the doorway.
“I heard the whole story,” the doctor told Gabe. “I’ll phone the police.”
[I was legit gooped and gagged as a 10-year-old reading this for the first time. Karina was innocent the whole time?! Delia was an evil mastermind?! What a plot twist! I’d never read anything like it before! I think it would have been a better ending if a doctor didn’t hear the confession, though. But I guess Stine didn’t want a villain to go unpunished after the backlash from The Best Friend‘s ending!]
Final thoughts
It might be the nostalgia talking but this one holds up pretty well! Admittedly there’s not a lot of excitement going on, but the rivalry between Delia and Karina was interesting enough and I wanted to see what happened next. It all 100% could have been resolved if the girls simply had a conversation though, lol. I don’t know how they both thought they were exclusively dating Vincent, when both relationships seemed pretty public. Like, surely the whole school knew he was dating both girls? Why did no-one tell them?
Without prior knowledge of the ending I’m not 100% sure I would have guessed it, [I remembered one girl frames the other at the end, but couldn’t remember who] since it’s not your Fear Street usual twist. But maybe I would have, since after so many years of reading these books you learn to pick up on the signs. But it’s still great twist, and those who don’t overthink everything might not see it coming! This book is also written in a way where you wouldn’t necessarily realise Delia’s the bad guy, because her inner thoughts are cleverly framed so that everything still makes sense without her having to internally admit she’s responsible (most of the time!). Most of her thoughts would be interpreted as innocent, but in hindsight you can see how manipulative she’s actually being, like when she’s explaining things to the detectives at the station. Delia’s a smart gal! Karina really did make it easy for her, though, since her behaviour leading up to Vincent’s death had been pretty alarming.
As I said in the first impressions, Killer’s Kiss is near and dear to my heart, which may influence my opinion. But overall, 233 pieces of litter with Delia’s lip print out of 271!
