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Zodiac #1
Stage Fright
A series of freak accidents cause seventeen-year-old Lydia to suspect that someone is trying to kill her, and when auditions for the annual school production are announced, Lydia fears her time may be running out. Original.
- GenresHorror
Paperback
Published July 1, 1995
About the author
Jahnna N. Malcolm
101 books76 followersJahnna N. Malcolm is the pen name for husband-and-wife team Jahnna Beecham and Malcolm Hillgartner. Together they've written four musicals, two movies, three CD-ROM games, and nearly one hundred books, including the popular series The Jewel Kingdom. They met in the theater and were married on the stage using Marlowe's famous love letter from "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" as their wedding vows.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 9, 2022
Basically a retelling of All About Eve with a Single White Female twist. Not much to get excited about. Very lacking in the thrill department.
April 13, 2021
Thriller, Interesting to see how things unfolded. Lydia was not the most liked character but i enjoyed the story.
June 1, 2025
You never know what you will find at Half Price Books.
This book and another one in this Zodiac series got turned in by a person and I lucked in on it for my birthday shopping trip. In the UK, the series tackles the whole 12 but it seems that only four of them were here in the US. Sort of reminiscent of the Zodiac Chillers that fizzled out after only doing half of the zodiac, each main character is born under a certain astrological sign and given really bad luck.
The books are penned by husband-and-wife writers Malcolm Hillgartner and Jahnna Beecham hence the punny pen name and they are very good at crafting the story. As it progresses, you will be able to fairly deduce what is going on, but it doesn't make it any less entertaining.
Lydia Crenshaw is a Leo and all her life she has been acting and singing and dancing to be enrolled at a performing arts high school with plans to go to Juilliard. Her home life isn't the best with her parents divorced, dad remarried, mom always working and her twelve-year-old brother left home alone while Lydia is always at rehearsals for plays, performances and cast parties.
On stage she has always been the lead and her best friends Robin and A.J. are her biggest supporters but Lydia doesn't have that big of a swelled head even if it seems the case. She doesn't appreciate that her ex-boyfriend Keenan cheated on her and is now flaunting off his new girlfriend Jill, a strong competitor for leading roles.
At the cast party of the closing play, Lydia is introduced to new girl in town Paige who sees Lydia as her idol having caught every performance. Lydia makes small talk, but her main goal is to go over and talk to Eric, a handsome boy who goes to her school but that she has never seen at the Youth Theater before. Lydia isn't completely rude and finishes her polite conversation first yet still being bombarded by the director Bill and everyone else's praise.
When Eric invites Lydia to join him and a bunch of friends for going out to eat, Lydia goes back to get her purse and ends up going over the now dismantled set on the stage. The trapdoor is left open, and, in the darkness, Lydia falls through it and almost gets asphyxiated by her own scarf.
Shaken, Lydia says she's fine, but Eric tells A.J. to drive her home...date busted.
Things only get worse when Lydia learns that A.J. has a huge crush on Eric as she invited him to watch the play where she was the stage manager. She doesn't mince words in stating that she doesn't want Lydia going after him and they both end up not speaking to each other.
Back to school on Monday, Lydia is late and runs into Eric when her locker erupts all over the place and he tries to help her clean up. The conversation turns when Eric spies a doll and hands it to Lydia which then unnerves both of them when it is discovered to have a tiny dagger shoved into the stomach.
Lydia soon has another problem when Paige becomes enrolled in her school and appears to have a talent for acting that gets under Lydia's skin despite how nice Paige is toward her adoration of Lydia even being a fellow Leo. Yet A.J. is giving Lydia the cold shoulder as it appears she has noticed Eric getting closer to Lydia as well as Paige.
When Lydia receives a note that she believes is from Eric to meet her at the park, someone tries to run her down and kill her! The next day at school, Lydia is called out of class when her scared brother Jake calls to tell her that their house had been robbed but all Lydia finds is her own things broken and destroyed.
Lydia is now on edge as auditions for the Dallas Youth Theater's next play, Evita, go into full swing but her own audition gets botched and soon, it seems no one is on her side.
It isn't hard to figure out that Paige is behind all of this and Lydia does end up with one ally: Eric.
Lydia has no hope of being the star this time around, but it actually builds up her character development as it leads up to a very harrowing climax. Even then, the book still isn't over, but some pieces begin to fall into place for a rather bittersweet ending that leads more toward the sweet.
Stage Fright comes out like a lion as the first entry of this Zodiac series and even though I don't have the next two (as of yet) I get to see just how strong of a finish the US run received when it is time to check out the scope for Scorpio.
This book and another one in this Zodiac series got turned in by a person and I lucked in on it for my birthday shopping trip. In the UK, the series tackles the whole 12 but it seems that only four of them were here in the US. Sort of reminiscent of the Zodiac Chillers that fizzled out after only doing half of the zodiac, each main character is born under a certain astrological sign and given really bad luck.
The books are penned by husband-and-wife writers Malcolm Hillgartner and Jahnna Beecham hence the punny pen name and they are very good at crafting the story. As it progresses, you will be able to fairly deduce what is going on, but it doesn't make it any less entertaining.
Lydia Crenshaw is a Leo and all her life she has been acting and singing and dancing to be enrolled at a performing arts high school with plans to go to Juilliard. Her home life isn't the best with her parents divorced, dad remarried, mom always working and her twelve-year-old brother left home alone while Lydia is always at rehearsals for plays, performances and cast parties.
On stage she has always been the lead and her best friends Robin and A.J. are her biggest supporters but Lydia doesn't have that big of a swelled head even if it seems the case. She doesn't appreciate that her ex-boyfriend Keenan cheated on her and is now flaunting off his new girlfriend Jill, a strong competitor for leading roles.
At the cast party of the closing play, Lydia is introduced to new girl in town Paige who sees Lydia as her idol having caught every performance. Lydia makes small talk, but her main goal is to go over and talk to Eric, a handsome boy who goes to her school but that she has never seen at the Youth Theater before. Lydia isn't completely rude and finishes her polite conversation first yet still being bombarded by the director Bill and everyone else's praise.
When Eric invites Lydia to join him and a bunch of friends for going out to eat, Lydia goes back to get her purse and ends up going over the now dismantled set on the stage. The trapdoor is left open, and, in the darkness, Lydia falls through it and almost gets asphyxiated by her own scarf.
Shaken, Lydia says she's fine, but Eric tells A.J. to drive her home...date busted.
Things only get worse when Lydia learns that A.J. has a huge crush on Eric as she invited him to watch the play where she was the stage manager. She doesn't mince words in stating that she doesn't want Lydia going after him and they both end up not speaking to each other.
Back to school on Monday, Lydia is late and runs into Eric when her locker erupts all over the place and he tries to help her clean up. The conversation turns when Eric spies a doll and hands it to Lydia which then unnerves both of them when it is discovered to have a tiny dagger shoved into the stomach.
Lydia soon has another problem when Paige becomes enrolled in her school and appears to have a talent for acting that gets under Lydia's skin despite how nice Paige is toward her adoration of Lydia even being a fellow Leo. Yet A.J. is giving Lydia the cold shoulder as it appears she has noticed Eric getting closer to Lydia as well as Paige.
When Lydia receives a note that she believes is from Eric to meet her at the park, someone tries to run her down and kill her! The next day at school, Lydia is called out of class when her scared brother Jake calls to tell her that their house had been robbed but all Lydia finds is her own things broken and destroyed.
Lydia is now on edge as auditions for the Dallas Youth Theater's next play, Evita, go into full swing but her own audition gets botched and soon, it seems no one is on her side.
It isn't hard to figure out that Paige is behind all of this and Lydia does end up with one ally: Eric.
Lydia has no hope of being the star this time around, but it actually builds up her character development as it leads up to a very harrowing climax. Even then, the book still isn't over, but some pieces begin to fall into place for a rather bittersweet ending that leads more toward the sweet.
Stage Fright comes out like a lion as the first entry of this Zodiac series and even though I don't have the next two (as of yet) I get to see just how strong of a finish the US run received when it is time to check out the scope for Scorpio.
August 24, 2023
Full review at: https://www.jackreacts.com.au/zodiac-...
Snippet: I have mixed feelings about this, but I think I disliked it more than I liked it. The whole star sign/horoscope aspect was super annoying because Lydia seems to have based most of her personality on being a Leo. She was a pretty awful protagonist, but she redeemed herself a bit by the end, so there was some character development. It was the opposite for her friends; I liked A.J. and Robin at the start, but...
Check out my full review linked up top for an in-depth recap :)
Snippet: I have mixed feelings about this, but I think I disliked it more than I liked it. The whole star sign/horoscope aspect was super annoying because Lydia seems to have based most of her personality on being a Leo. She was a pretty awful protagonist, but she redeemed herself a bit by the end, so there was some character development. It was the opposite for her friends; I liked A.J. and Robin at the start, but...
Check out my full review linked up top for an in-depth recap :)
August 25, 2018
My least favorite of this series but still a quick nostalgic ride.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews