Twice Burned

Freddy Krueger's Tales of Terror #4

by David Bergantino

DON'T PLAY WITH FIRE.

Springwood High sophomore, Colleen Martini is plagued by a recurring dream… of being burned at the stake.

When a psychic tells Colleen that she was Joan of Arc in a previous life, she begins to suspect that her history book report on the same topic is more than just a coincidence. Fueled by fear, Colleen desperately searches the library to find the truth.

Engulfed by an inferno of mysterious accidents, she soon hears a death knell summoning her.

Knowing she must solve this mystery before her fate is sealed, Colleen comes to understand that sometimes the line between truth and fiction can be deadly…

Genres: Horror, Young Adult

154 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Paula Brandon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an odd one, and mostly a bore. The main character is Colleen Martini, who is dealing with a mean girl at school who won't leave her alone, bullying her viciously. Her close friend Kirk is in love with her, but she's not interested in him in that way. She's actually dating his cousin Lance, who is in college. There's also some brief nonsense to do with being burned at the stake in her dreams, which could connect to the book report she's doing on Joan of Arc. In any case, the people around her begin to meet mysterious fates. And this could be considered a spoiler, since it's such a long time coming!

I nearly gave this only 1 star, because it just seemed to drag and drag and drag, with nothing interesting really happening. A lot of time is taken up with mean girl Vicki Stratton quite sociopathically bullying Colleen, and it got a bit wearying. I wanted something to happen! I'm supposed to be reading a Freddy Krueger tale of terror! Where's the terror? Finally, some plot elements come together for a reasonably exciting final 20 pages....but in a 154 page book, that's just too long to wait!

Colleen's friends were being killed in the same fashion as the historical figures they were doing reports on for a history assignment. It's the work of the librarian, who we're supposed to think was recovering from a stroke. Of course, like all the other books in this franchise, Freddy Krueger himself is behind it all, having possessed the librarian, and it's frustrating. With some obvious links to Joan of Arc and Colleen's own martyrdom in not standing up to Vicki, her dreams etc, this could have gone some interesting places. Instead, it's all taken up with rather ho-hum high school romance woes and that cop-out it-was-all-Freddy ending. Sigh.

Those slight pluses in the final 2o page stretch save this from 1 star, but with all the books in the series ending the same way (ignoring all the plot elements to just have it all be the work of Freddy), it's no wonder this petered out after six books. Lots of wasted potential, because some of these books had some original ideas!

[Armand · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the movies, Freddy's kills are straightforward affairs. He moves in on sleeping prey, turns their dreams into nightmares and shreds/hacks/mutilates/etc them there. In this series tho, he has a different MO that nevertheless works. I shan't spoil anything by revealing it, but if you've read the first two books, it shouldn't be difficult to solve this whodunit. Reading this on its own though, it's a deuced clever plot.

I also like how the author can be thorough in his research. There's a scene where the lead got a Tarot card reading. It's a detailed 9-position spread which aside from giving accurate descriptions of the cards (which I can surmise as the Rider-Waite-Smith) is pretty spot on, with a consistent reading style that extends to its reversal interpretations. I'm impressed.

I'm rating this 6/10 or 3 stars out of 5.

[Mikepottz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Springwood high studen Colleen dreamt alot about being burnt on top of a bunch of books by a murderous mob screaming " witch". She could smell the books burning and feel her legs on fire. Denny a mute, scarred by an abusive foster parent with battery acid is used as a boogeyman reference by parents to scare them into doing things. A tarot card reading session will see the death card appear twice. People associated with Colleen will disappear, bleed to death, strangled, garden shears to the neck, these people will die just like the person they are writing about for a history report in class. Finally all will become test crash dummies in a car repeatedly crashing over and over again for all eternal.

[Jack Reacts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full review at:https://www.jackreacts.com.au/freddy-...

Snippet: Another great Tale of Terror, although it might be the weakest one so far. They’ve all been very slow to get to the main murder plot but this one felt like it took the longest. Even though I enjoy the characters and the world-building, it can be a bit of a slog to get through when the murders don’t start until halfway through the book. This story also had the biggest disconnect between the blurb and the actual story; based on the description you’d think the whole Joan of Arc has a big role in the plot, but Colleen’s direct connection to the historical figure could be completely removed and it wouldn’t make a difference to the story. She finds out about the connection way too late in the story to actually have any relevance...

Check out my full review linked up top for an in-depth recap :)

[Gabriel · Rating 3 out of 5]

These Nightmare on Elm Street YA novels are really fun, I like them as much as the Halloween YA Series I read last year. Even if they don’t quite match up to the movies in any capacity, they put a more teen friendly spin on everything, and have a flavor that reminds me why I love slashers so much to begin with. This one is one of the weaker ones but it’s still fun, my only really issue with the books is it’s very mean spirited towards nerds or overweight characters, it’s very dated in that regard. Especially with how the main character is almost mean about it, and yet we’re supposed to be on their side? I don’t know it’s odd. I think I like the final book in the series the most.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a lifelong Freddy fan I had to pick this one up. And the story behind? Colleen has dreams of burning as a witch. Friends of her suffer mysterious deaths. Who's behind all this? Well, as you can easily guess the famous child killer from Elm Street. The book was okay but nothing too extraordinary. I rather prefer watching an episode from The Nightmare films. But good to have met Freddy again in quite a while!

[Rose 'I Have Too Many Books To Read And No More Room' Barrientos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haven't read this in years and it's still good!