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Horror High #8
Final Curtain
Jan Matthis is slightly unsettled by the fanatical dedication of fellow teen actor Philip Devereaux to his role as Dracula, but when a teacher is found dying, drained of blood, her uneasiness is transformed into terror
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
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74 people want to read
About the author
Nicholas Adams
16 books19 followersNicholas Adams is a collective pen name created by Daniel Weiss Associates and used by several authors of YA horror written in the 1990s. These include John Peel, James D. MacDonald and Debra Doyle, and Sherwood Smith.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 19, 2020
A favourite of mine from my teen years. I loved it then and though I've matured and can see the flaws in the protagonists attitude towards the unfolding events, I still love it as a guilty pleasure read.
April 29, 2023
As the last Horror High book, this one goes out with a pretty good tale.
Jan Mathis is new to Creswell High School in the middle of the year but parental divorces are never easy on the teenager. I find it funny that junior Jan has brown hair and is moving from Arizona to the east coast where winter is awful.
Change it to the rainy west coast and have her living with her dad, I'm getting very early Twilight vibes.
Just me? That's fine.
Jan thinks the best way to make friends is to try her hand at joining drama since she took theater at her old school and to tryout for the play.
If getting lost and late for all her classes and having no one to eat lunch with is bad enough, Jan walks into the play tryouts and is clearly dismissed by the popular drama crowd. Most of them being fashionable, cheerleader type girls with big, bouncing early 90s hair and not braided back hair in worn jeans.
The males don't seem interested in Jan either but more because the other girls try hard to stand out. It doesn't keep Jan from noticing Philip Devereaux, obviously the star drama hunk with his dark hair and blue, almost silver eyes. He has confidence and manners and can quote from Hamlet like a true thespian.
Jan meets a nicer girl named Mary with curly red hair and they hit it off pretty well to be friends.
The drama teacher, Ms. Slater, arrives and says they still need to choose a play. They do have three options to vote from: The Sound of Music, Dracula and apparently...there's a play version of Rock And Roll High School? The one with The Ramones on the soundtrack and in the film?
There is a silent ballot vote and Dracula wins. It happened to be Philip's suggestion and everyone got on board when he performed a small piece of the main character for them and well...slayed it.
Jan reads with Mary to do the lines of the main female characters of Mina and Lucy. Jan decides she'll try out for Mina even though horror like Dracula isn't her favorite. Ms. Slater auditions the male characters first and Jan gets to see that Philip is actually pretty good as Count Dracula while the other guys don't seem half as good.
The only other young man to do good is broad shoulder and buff Frank Donnenfield with his glasses and hair in a ponytail, his face buried in a copy of the book earlier. When it is time for the girls to audition, with not too much time left in the day, Jan feels that she did well despite it being made clear that Ms. Slater has her favorites and not just because they have been here longer.
Main mean girl Alyssa Perry has an influential daddy in town but as an actress, she isn't very good.
Philip compliments Jan on her audition for Mina but ends up leaving with Alyssa and her friends so Jan isn't quite sure what to think. The next day, Jan decides to take Mary's offer to sit with her at lunch. It doesn't turn out well when Jan discovers that someone broke into her locker and decided to dump blood on her lunch...barf.
It does turn to Jan's favor when Philip offers to share his lunch with her and sits with her and Mary to the dismay of Alyssa and her main cronie, Toni, who chews gum loudly and obnoxiously. At the second round of tryouts, Jan gets paired with Toni and she seems to make her tryout even worse.
Yesterday, Jan was paired with a girl named Barbara from Alyssa's clique. She seems to be the nicest of the girls as she was really nervous to try out for a lead part but compared to Toni, Barbara was so much better.
Ms. Slater casts Philip as Count Dracula, Barbara as Lucy, Frank as Van Helsing and surprise (not really) Alyssa as Mina. Jan is regulated to being the understudy for the Mina role and is part of the inmates at Dr. Seward's asylum.
Favoritism is not uncommon in Drama. Sadly, I know it can be hard to get a certain role in a high school production. Teachers may tell you that they were fair but they do have their pets...especially if that one has a family with a fortune.
It soon becomes clear that Alyssa just wants to try and have Philip as man candy on her arm but he takes his role as Dracula very seriously. It's also clear that Jan really should have been Mina when Frank asks her to run the Mina lines with him as Van Helsing. They go off to rehearse away from the stage now being shared with the art department doing the sets but get found by the teacher supervising the painting, Mr. Kane.
He doesn't treat Frank very nicely but he isn't really a drama fan or more, a Ms. Slater fan. He had his kids work hard on doing sets for The Sound Of Music and wasn't very happy. I think he takes most of his frustration out on the kids because Philip and Alyssa get some words from him too and Philip isn't too happy but Alyssa is clearly a spoiled brat.
Rehearsal is brought to a screeching halt when the next day, Mr. Kane is found. He had a little accident but not life-ending...yet it could have been. Electrocuted and almost garroted by an electric cable that came loose.
It turns out to be the first in a long line of...accidents plaguing the production of Dracula. As if the play were a curse but that is just some stupid theater superstition or Jan's overactive imagination, right?
There is a full cast of suspects but most of the suspicion seems to fall on Frank, the kid from the wrong side of the tracks. His past is marred with arrests and jail and being held back so naturally it has to be him and Jan can't help but feel a little sorry for judging him like everyone else at first.
Alyssa is use to getting what she wants and Philip seems a little too enthusiastic about putting on Dracula, a little anxious for it to be picture perfect. It could be anyone especially those not in the spotlight and Jan can't be sure who to trust.
Will the play make it to opening night?
The answer is yet to be clear but that final curtain could end up being the final nail in the coffin and it just might be Jan's...
We do get some misdirection but it is very clearly implied just who is behind all the horror...it is made obvious from the get go if you have read enough of these. The justification is all out crazy but the subtext of the why is just a little heartbreaking.
There is a lot of tension in the book, both romantic and amongst the teens putting on the play. I feel a little sorry for most of the teachers in varying ways but the only adults I like are Jan's mom and Philip's uncle.
Jan, Barbara and Frank are the only teens I like. Mary isn't that bad but she gossips too much and they make Philip just too good to be true that you shouldn't ignore the huge red flags when he gets a little too in the moment and starts waxing poetically...
I just happen to be a sucker for anything with a Gothic vibe, any kind of vampire vibe so that's probably why I like Final Curtain with all the theatrics being the former drama geek that I am.
For a series ending, it could have been a whole lot worse but I think Final Curtain is a read I could recommend. I still have yet to find the only other two Horror High books, Sudden Death and New Kid On The Block, but as of this moment?
Horror High is a pretty good series and if you are lucky to find any of the books, it is worth it.
Jan Mathis is new to Creswell High School in the middle of the year but parental divorces are never easy on the teenager. I find it funny that junior Jan has brown hair and is moving from Arizona to the east coast where winter is awful.
Change it to the rainy west coast and have her living with her dad, I'm getting very early Twilight vibes.
Just me? That's fine.
Jan thinks the best way to make friends is to try her hand at joining drama since she took theater at her old school and to tryout for the play.
If getting lost and late for all her classes and having no one to eat lunch with is bad enough, Jan walks into the play tryouts and is clearly dismissed by the popular drama crowd. Most of them being fashionable, cheerleader type girls with big, bouncing early 90s hair and not braided back hair in worn jeans.
The males don't seem interested in Jan either but more because the other girls try hard to stand out. It doesn't keep Jan from noticing Philip Devereaux, obviously the star drama hunk with his dark hair and blue, almost silver eyes. He has confidence and manners and can quote from Hamlet like a true thespian.
Jan meets a nicer girl named Mary with curly red hair and they hit it off pretty well to be friends.
The drama teacher, Ms. Slater, arrives and says they still need to choose a play. They do have three options to vote from: The Sound of Music, Dracula and apparently...there's a play version of Rock And Roll High School? The one with The Ramones on the soundtrack and in the film?
There is a silent ballot vote and Dracula wins. It happened to be Philip's suggestion and everyone got on board when he performed a small piece of the main character for them and well...slayed it.
Jan reads with Mary to do the lines of the main female characters of Mina and Lucy. Jan decides she'll try out for Mina even though horror like Dracula isn't her favorite. Ms. Slater auditions the male characters first and Jan gets to see that Philip is actually pretty good as Count Dracula while the other guys don't seem half as good.
The only other young man to do good is broad shoulder and buff Frank Donnenfield with his glasses and hair in a ponytail, his face buried in a copy of the book earlier. When it is time for the girls to audition, with not too much time left in the day, Jan feels that she did well despite it being made clear that Ms. Slater has her favorites and not just because they have been here longer.
Main mean girl Alyssa Perry has an influential daddy in town but as an actress, she isn't very good.
Philip compliments Jan on her audition for Mina but ends up leaving with Alyssa and her friends so Jan isn't quite sure what to think. The next day, Jan decides to take Mary's offer to sit with her at lunch. It doesn't turn out well when Jan discovers that someone broke into her locker and decided to dump blood on her lunch...barf.
It does turn to Jan's favor when Philip offers to share his lunch with her and sits with her and Mary to the dismay of Alyssa and her main cronie, Toni, who chews gum loudly and obnoxiously. At the second round of tryouts, Jan gets paired with Toni and she seems to make her tryout even worse.
Yesterday, Jan was paired with a girl named Barbara from Alyssa's clique. She seems to be the nicest of the girls as she was really nervous to try out for a lead part but compared to Toni, Barbara was so much better.
Ms. Slater casts Philip as Count Dracula, Barbara as Lucy, Frank as Van Helsing and surprise (not really) Alyssa as Mina. Jan is regulated to being the understudy for the Mina role and is part of the inmates at Dr. Seward's asylum.
Favoritism is not uncommon in Drama. Sadly, I know it can be hard to get a certain role in a high school production. Teachers may tell you that they were fair but they do have their pets...especially if that one has a family with a fortune.
It soon becomes clear that Alyssa just wants to try and have Philip as man candy on her arm but he takes his role as Dracula very seriously. It's also clear that Jan really should have been Mina when Frank asks her to run the Mina lines with him as Van Helsing. They go off to rehearse away from the stage now being shared with the art department doing the sets but get found by the teacher supervising the painting, Mr. Kane.
He doesn't treat Frank very nicely but he isn't really a drama fan or more, a Ms. Slater fan. He had his kids work hard on doing sets for The Sound Of Music and wasn't very happy. I think he takes most of his frustration out on the kids because Philip and Alyssa get some words from him too and Philip isn't too happy but Alyssa is clearly a spoiled brat.
Rehearsal is brought to a screeching halt when the next day, Mr. Kane is found. He had a little accident but not life-ending...yet it could have been. Electrocuted and almost garroted by an electric cable that came loose.
It turns out to be the first in a long line of...accidents plaguing the production of Dracula. As if the play were a curse but that is just some stupid theater superstition or Jan's overactive imagination, right?
There is a full cast of suspects but most of the suspicion seems to fall on Frank, the kid from the wrong side of the tracks. His past is marred with arrests and jail and being held back so naturally it has to be him and Jan can't help but feel a little sorry for judging him like everyone else at first.
Alyssa is use to getting what she wants and Philip seems a little too enthusiastic about putting on Dracula, a little anxious for it to be picture perfect. It could be anyone especially those not in the spotlight and Jan can't be sure who to trust.
Will the play make it to opening night?
The answer is yet to be clear but that final curtain could end up being the final nail in the coffin and it just might be Jan's...
We do get some misdirection but it is very clearly implied just who is behind all the horror...it is made obvious from the get go if you have read enough of these. The justification is all out crazy but the subtext of the why is just a little heartbreaking.
There is a lot of tension in the book, both romantic and amongst the teens putting on the play. I feel a little sorry for most of the teachers in varying ways but the only adults I like are Jan's mom and Philip's uncle.
Jan, Barbara and Frank are the only teens I like. Mary isn't that bad but she gossips too much and they make Philip just too good to be true that you shouldn't ignore the huge red flags when he gets a little too in the moment and starts waxing poetically...
I just happen to be a sucker for anything with a Gothic vibe, any kind of vampire vibe so that's probably why I like Final Curtain with all the theatrics being the former drama geek that I am.
For a series ending, it could have been a whole lot worse but I think Final Curtain is a read I could recommend. I still have yet to find the only other two Horror High books, Sudden Death and New Kid On The Block, but as of this moment?
Horror High is a pretty good series and if you are lucky to find any of the books, it is worth it.
August 26, 2021
Jan joins the drama club at her new school in hopes of making some friends. But she only seems to anger the most popular senior, Alyssa, by trying out for a lead role in the play.
Despite Alyssa's rudeness throughout the production, Jan can't help but fight for the attention of the leading boy.
What she doesn't realize is that she may be putting herself in more danger than she expected when a string of accidents begin happening.
My favorite corny line in this book:
This guy was so cool, he could have made ice cubes in his pockets.
This final book of the Horror High series was a bit disappointing for me. The story felt a bit too slow and dragged out. The ending also wasn't the typical fast paced twist ending I was expecting either.
Despite Alyssa's rudeness throughout the production, Jan can't help but fight for the attention of the leading boy.
What she doesn't realize is that she may be putting herself in more danger than she expected when a string of accidents begin happening.
My favorite corny line in this book:
This guy was so cool, he could have made ice cubes in his pockets.
This final book of the Horror High series was a bit disappointing for me. The story felt a bit too slow and dragged out. The ending also wasn't the typical fast paced twist ending I was expecting either.
August 15, 2008
Again, I read the horror high series as well as a lot of christopher pike books when I was a teenager. Not heavy reading, but fun anyway.
March 13, 2023
Jan is starting at a new school, and she joins the school play. They have a vote and choose to do the play Dracula. Jan makes friends with a girl called Mary, and likes the look of a boy called Phillip. She really doesn't like a girl called Alyssa who is automatically given the lead (that Jan wanted).
la, la, la,
la, la, la,
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews