The Prom Date

Fear Street Seniors #11

by R.L. Stine

Trisha Conrad is dating Gary Fresno but is forced to attend the prom with Matty Winger, the biggest geek in school, just because his father is an important business partner of Mr. Conrad. Trisha goes with Matty, but at the prom she humiliates him in front of the whole school. Soon Trisha begins receiving threatening notes, and assumes Matty is responsible until he is found dead. Trisha later finds out that Mary O'Connor is the culprit; she hates Trisha for stealing her boyfriend Gary.

Genres: Horror, Young Adult, Teen, Horror Thriller, Paranormal, Childrens, Mystery

145 pages, Paperback

First published February 9, 1999

About the author

Robert Lawrence Stine known as R. L. Stine and Jovial Bob Stine, is an American novelist and writer, well known for targeting younger audiences. Stine, who is often called the Stephen King of children's literature, is the author of dozens of popular horror fiction novellas, including the books in the Goosebumps, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, The Nightmare Room and Fear Street series.

R. L. Stine began his writing career when he was nine years old, and today he has achieved the position of the bestselling children's author in history. In the early 1990s, Stine was catapulted to fame when he wrote the unprecedented, bestselling Goosebumps® series, which sold more than 250 million copies and became a worldwide multimedia phenomenon. His other major series, Fear Street, has over 80 million copies sold.

Stine has received numerous awards of recognition, including several Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards and Disney Adventures Kids' Choice Awards, and he has been selected by kids as one of their favorite authors in the NEA's Read Across America program. He lives in New York, NY.

http://us.macmillan.com/itsthefirstda...

Reviews

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just finished another Fear Street Seinors book.This one is called Prom Date.For those of you that don't know,I haven't been super fond of this series.There are a few that i really enjoy,but most of them were either super mediocre,or just plain bad.The story starts off with these ghost decapitating Trisha and climbing inside her head.This is of course a dream sequence.Trisha is awoken by her maid and her mom comes upstairs and we learn her mom and dad are going away to europe on a trip.Her mom ends up giving her this wishing well mini statue thing made out of glass that she claims is a good luck charm.Trisha learns her mom had this in her family for years.There is also a minor spoiler that does relate to another book earlier in the series.I'll just say that this wishing well was passed down somehow through a Fear.We cut to school and Trisha is talking to Jenifer about her dreams.Some other characters stop by and we learn that there is an upcoming prom.It seems everybody has a date except for Jennifer.Trisha has a random vision and it's of her prom date  and boyfriend Gary.She has a vision of him dying.Trisha tries to tell Gary about this vision,but he brushes it off.Jennifer is kinda bummed about not having a date.Trisha lets Jennifer borrow her glass well charm thing and she ends up telling another friend of hers that she wants a date and describes the perfect guy for a prom date.She describes him and she eventually gets a phone call.The guy says his name is Duke and wants to take her to prom and claims they've met before.Jennifer dosen't remember him and wants to get together before prom to meet him.He agrees to meet her but never shows up.This gets jennifer super upset and she drives home.This scene was really good I actually felt a little bad for her.He calls her and says he had to get a new battery for his car.She asks him to come over now that he got his car fixed but he says its also out of gas and i found this funny.She eventually does get to go to prom and everything is good,until everyone wants to meet at fear lake to make out and stuff.Duke randomly attacks one of the characters.This leads to the climax,so i wont say much but I loved the climax to this .It was super engaging and pretty gory.We find out where Duke came from and there is an awesome reveal about the limo driver.I will say this one had some stuff that potentially spoils some of book number one and the other book with the name twist,so if you decide to not read these in order be warned.The rest of these books I'd say are pretty much stand alone books unless you count the beginning of each book,where it tells you whose dead and who is not.Overall,Id give The Prom Date a four out of five stars.The first half of this book was pretty boring,with a little bit of redeeming qualities,but the build up was done pretty good.

[Chelsea · Rating 2 out of 5]

They are drawing at straws at this point in the series. :/ Jennifer wants a date to prom and wishes on one from one of Trisha's trinkets and her dream guy appears. But he's evil. A stupid climax that made zero sense, I'm kind of glad to see this series ending. One more book to go to see if Trisha's prediction comes true and the entire senior class will die. A good number have bit the dust by this point in the series. But also, will Trisha ever ask her family about actually being a Fear? And what of Josie's stupid Doom Spell? I have read this series before but I can't remember the ending...

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my favorite... Jennifer's date—that she supposedly created by wishing on a glass wishing well charm—tells her that he knows her and wants to take her to Prom, and even though she has no recollection of him, she not only agrees to go to Prom together, but she barely questions the peculiarity of the situation. The fact that her date too just randomly gets angry and starts murdering (or at least attempting to murder) her friends is too far-fetched of an escalation, even for him supposedly being some demon created by a Prom date wish.

[Kelsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Join my Patreon to watch my full review/recap of this book! Patreon.com/ogwnostalgia

What the actual hell is that Goodreads synopsis? That's not at all what this book is about! Like at all! Here's what it really is: Jennifer Fear (who isn't actually a Fear, but only Trisha Conrad, who actually *is* a Fear, knows this, and Jen is super angry that everyone thinks she's a Fear but for some reason she can't just *tell* anyone she's not? I dunno, maybe something in the first 10 books in this miniseries gives that some context, I'm just trying to read this as a stand-alone) wishes on a magic glass wishing well charm for the perfect boy to take her to prom, because for some reason she can't just go alone or with her friend Josie, who also doesn't have a date (until *she*, not Trisha, decides to go with Matty). Heteronormative dates are required, okay y'all?

Enter Duke, who claims he and Jennifer spent an amazing day together in Waynesbridge last year. She has no memory of him, and honestly at certain points it sounds like he might have roofied her and *that's* why she doesn't remember him, but this is R.L. Stine, so he probably doesn't even realize that's how this is coming across. Anyway, she goes to the prom with him, bad things happen, yada yada.

Legitimately, nothing in the Goodreads description up there happens in the book. At all. I cannot stress that enough. What the actual fuck.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jennifer Fear doesn't have good luck with dating. Only two books ago she was being tormented by prankster college students; now she's created the dream date who turns out to be a nightmare. (Yes, I did steal that phrasing from the teaser on the back.) I guess when a guy's name sounds as unlikely as Duke Carpenter, you should probably be suspicious of him.

I enjoyed this one. I mean, it's true that, in typical Fear Street style, the plot doesn't really pick up until there are only 50 pages left. But I enjoyed the first half, which is mostly spent hanging out with Jennifer as she frets about her inability to get a date. Girl, same. I was also relieved that this didn't turn out to be one of the non-supernatural ones, as those are the most boring.

[Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, I'm the Prom Date guy on the cover. Don't get all that excited though. I'm killed off in the first chapter. My 15 minutes of fame, albiet with 15 year olds.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually really liked this one.

ETA: I just read the summary for this one on Goodreads, and it is so far removed from the actual book! Was this supposed to be the original plot?

[Matthew MacIntyre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another book in the Seniors series that let me down. It’s prom for the senior class, what do I hope this prom is like? Well I want Carrie level bloodshed, so I now I’m not gonna be happy haha. We mainly follow Jennifer who has no date for the prom so she’s miserable because everyone is looking forward to it and she’s bummed out. We also follow Trisha who has another vision this thing of boyfriend Gary dying and nightmares about being a fear and telling her to use her powers. The only person Trisha can confide in is Jennifer because Jennifer is the only one who knows Trisha is really a fear. Trisha’s parents are going out of town and her mother gives her a family heirloom, a crystal whisking well. When Trisha and Jennifer get together Jennifer notices the wishing well and as she’s holding it Trisha asks her who her perfect guy would be. And of course who shows up the exact guy Jennifer wished for. Idk I just didn’t like this book it was a book that could have been omitted but I feel like they wanted to include prom because it’s such a senior year staple. Fairly predictable and doesn’t do much to move the plot along. Now we have one book left and with graduation one week away I want carnage. *spoilers* only nine seniors have died over eleven books I’m let down for a doomed class.

[Jack Reacts · Rating 3 out of 5]

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

Snippet: This one was pretty average and felt more like filler than any of the previous books. It was good to be back with Jennifer, but it was all just pretty meh. The wishing well stuff could have been explored a lot more.
It was nice to see the return of the evil skelly, although he didn’t really do anything...

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

[Sreypich Van · Rating 2 out of 5]

That was my least favorite in the serie. Jennifer really had poor taste in men.

[Hope Vollm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually the prom date from hell

[Morgan Sherrill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why is the description for this one completely wrong?

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book and really shocking at what happened to the characters. Duke was seriously messed up!

[Jaime · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a huge R.L. Stine fan in my early teens! I loved all the fear street books! They are what got me into reading again! :)

[*_Kathleen_* · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good part but.. To much action and less around the story.. While the hole story was more about the Prom Ball anyway.. But it was good. But not my favorite...