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Zodiac #4
Death Grip
Sabrina is as passionate and private as her Zodiac sign, Scorpio, suggests, so when her soul mate Matt mysteriously dies, his ghost and the Scorpio inside her must try to stop the killer before he strikes again. Original.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
44 people want to read
About the author
Jahnna N. Malcolm
100 books74 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
June 4, 2025
Everything about this entry into this Zodiac series is not what you would think after reading the very first book.
Death Grip seems to be an illogical choice of title for this book.
Sabrina and her father have moved back home to settle in a small California town after traveling all over the world but that was before her mother died. Sabrina has been in mourning by wearing black and her father has channeled some of his grief into writing a book about their romance.
For her birthday, Sabrina goes to see an astrologer and the old woman is very accurate about everything in Sabrina's past which makes her nervous about the future. Her first day at school, Sabrina meets Matt and there is an instant attraction despite his very clean-cut look to her more gothic chic. Matt proves to be intelligent and kind with an interest in old movies, oceanography and Ray Bradbury.
Sabrina is introduced to Matt's best friend Osgood who is not exactly thrilled about his recent SAT scores, but he is a nice guy if a little high strung. Matt invites Sabrina to be his date at the dance on Friday and she gets to observe the other students.
Cheerleader Jodi takes Sabrina's ticket at the door, and she is drunk, a boy named Jeff is fighting with his girlfriend Heather enough to make her cry and then flirt with an underclass girl named Mandy. A girl named Blair, who is an ex-girlfriend of Matt, is there bragging about her older college boyfriend Charles when she sees Matt has interest in Sabrina.
The punch has been spiked so Oz is now drunk and demanding that the other students protest about retaking their SATs, Sabrina and Matt get him out of there and Matt drives Oz home in his old Buick. With Matt's car in the shop, he takes Oz's car up to the romantic yet badly named Lover's Leap overlooking the ocean.
All of the happiness is shattered when a car runs into the back and pushes the car over the cliff.
Sabrina is thrown from the car but receives a concussion that keeps her in a coma for two whole days, yet Matt was trapped in the wreckage and died. The day of the funeral, Oz is a mess, and Sabrina can barely keep her composure when she spots Matt while standing at his grave.
Coming around, Sabrina realizes that no one else can see Matt and everyone thinks she has now gone crazy. Matt can't leave because he feels that Sabrina is in danger and that his death was not an accident and if the person behind it meant to kill them both, there is a loose end to clear up...
Read enough YA Thrillers and you will figure the main detail out pretty quick but there is a lot to go through before the actual culprit is revealed. It is soon revealed that if anyone touches Sabrina, they can see Matt as being a Scorpio makes her a conduit to the other side.
I like it as a nice touch because it develops the bond not only between Sabrina and Matt but between Sabrina and Oz, who need each other after now losing someone close to them. The other teens are petty for no other reason to be suspects in Matt's "accident" but a few of them do get redeemed.
The ending is beautifully sweet but rather sad more than bitter. Compared to Stage Fright, Death Grip is far more tragic than mean-spirited with a far more poignant conclusion than forcing a happy ending. Out of the two, it is my favorite one.
Death Grip seems to be an illogical choice of title for this book.
Sabrina and her father have moved back home to settle in a small California town after traveling all over the world but that was before her mother died. Sabrina has been in mourning by wearing black and her father has channeled some of his grief into writing a book about their romance.
For her birthday, Sabrina goes to see an astrologer and the old woman is very accurate about everything in Sabrina's past which makes her nervous about the future. Her first day at school, Sabrina meets Matt and there is an instant attraction despite his very clean-cut look to her more gothic chic. Matt proves to be intelligent and kind with an interest in old movies, oceanography and Ray Bradbury.
Sabrina is introduced to Matt's best friend Osgood who is not exactly thrilled about his recent SAT scores, but he is a nice guy if a little high strung. Matt invites Sabrina to be his date at the dance on Friday and she gets to observe the other students.
Cheerleader Jodi takes Sabrina's ticket at the door, and she is drunk, a boy named Jeff is fighting with his girlfriend Heather enough to make her cry and then flirt with an underclass girl named Mandy. A girl named Blair, who is an ex-girlfriend of Matt, is there bragging about her older college boyfriend Charles when she sees Matt has interest in Sabrina.
The punch has been spiked so Oz is now drunk and demanding that the other students protest about retaking their SATs, Sabrina and Matt get him out of there and Matt drives Oz home in his old Buick. With Matt's car in the shop, he takes Oz's car up to the romantic yet badly named Lover's Leap overlooking the ocean.
All of the happiness is shattered when a car runs into the back and pushes the car over the cliff.
Sabrina is thrown from the car but receives a concussion that keeps her in a coma for two whole days, yet Matt was trapped in the wreckage and died. The day of the funeral, Oz is a mess, and Sabrina can barely keep her composure when she spots Matt while standing at his grave.
Coming around, Sabrina realizes that no one else can see Matt and everyone thinks she has now gone crazy. Matt can't leave because he feels that Sabrina is in danger and that his death was not an accident and if the person behind it meant to kill them both, there is a loose end to clear up...
Read enough YA Thrillers and you will figure the main detail out pretty quick but there is a lot to go through before the actual culprit is revealed. It is soon revealed that if anyone touches Sabrina, they can see Matt as being a Scorpio makes her a conduit to the other side.
I like it as a nice touch because it develops the bond not only between Sabrina and Matt but between Sabrina and Oz, who need each other after now losing someone close to them. The other teens are petty for no other reason to be suspects in Matt's "accident" but a few of them do get redeemed.
The ending is beautifully sweet but rather sad more than bitter. Compared to Stage Fright, Death Grip is far more tragic than mean-spirited with a far more poignant conclusion than forcing a happy ending. Out of the two, it is my favorite one.
November 11, 2025
Astrology, ill fated romance, a mystery, and a ghost story! I loved this. It made me cry, just like the Libra one did. I love a good cry from a sad romantic ghost story with a nice ending.
November 12, 2025
Another sad one. The 90s were really obsessed with ghost romances.
The SAT plot ehhhh. The teenage alcoholic. Osgood was a goof. So many mean girls in Innisfree.
The main character was Lydia Deetz coded but not very Scorpio. Unless you count liking the color black, being psychic (have foreboding feelings), or having the ability to see ghosts as Scorpio. Where’s the secret keeping? The revenge plotting?
The SAT plot ehhhh. The teenage alcoholic. Osgood was a goof. So many mean girls in Innisfree.
The main character was Lydia Deetz coded but not very Scorpio. Unless you count liking the color black, being psychic (have foreboding feelings), or having the ability to see ghosts as Scorpio. Where’s the secret keeping? The revenge plotting?
June 27, 2015
All in all, superb prose for the ya horror genre by the married tandem of Jahnna Beecham and Malcolm Hillgartner. After the dire presage foretold by the cataract eyed astrologer, the astrological elements were ultimately abandoned in the central plot of murder.
Sabrina, an aloof, goth-type, transfers to a new high school on the california coast. She quickly starts dating the first guy that fawns at her and off we go with a good-'ol-fashion teen fling.
Eventually, tragedy bestows a deathly blow on her new boyfriend, which results in a paranormal ghost plot where, i jest not, the boy comes back as a phantom to help solve his own murder. His version of investgation was to point the finger at potentially jealous ex-girlfriends, which were blatant red herrings.
Simply put, the plot just becomes stagnant in the middle chapters. Furthermore, the superfluity of characters injected into this short novel incurs a convuluted plot. By the finale, the motive for murder is desperate academia stratagem.
PS. the novel features a dweeb that's incessantly obnoxious. You know the type--always had his hand up in class, often ready to contradict the lecturer.
Sabrina, an aloof, goth-type, transfers to a new high school on the california coast. She quickly starts dating the first guy that fawns at her and off we go with a good-'ol-fashion teen fling.
Eventually, tragedy bestows a deathly blow on her new boyfriend, which results in a paranormal ghost plot where, i jest not, the boy comes back as a phantom to help solve his own murder. His version of investgation was to point the finger at potentially jealous ex-girlfriends, which were blatant red herrings.
Simply put, the plot just becomes stagnant in the middle chapters. Furthermore, the superfluity of characters injected into this short novel incurs a convuluted plot. By the finale, the motive for murder is desperate academia stratagem.
PS. the novel features a dweeb that's incessantly obnoxious. You know the type--always had his hand up in class, often ready to contradict the lecturer.
October 7, 2012
It's a really nice and interesting book. It's got a lot of mystery in it which makes you want to never put it down once you've picked it up to read it.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews