Last Date

Nightmare Hall #11

by Diane Hoh

High on a hillside overlooking Salem University, hidden in shadows and shrouded in silence, sits Nightingale Hall. Nightmare Hall, the students call it. Because that's where the terror began.

A night you'll never forget. Call me.

Demi does it on a dare. She places an ad in the personals column of the Salem Chronicle.

Lots of guys call. And the nights are everything she advertised.

Unforgettable.

Unforgettably frightening.

Because one by one, Demi's dates start having nasty little accidents.

Disappearing.

Even. . .dying.

Genres: Young Adult, Horror, Teen, YA Horror, Thriller

150 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published January 1, 1994

About the author

Diane Hoh is the author of fifty-seven novels for young adults. She grew up in Warren, Pennsylvania but currently resides in Austin, Texas. Reading and writing are her favorite things, alongside gardening and grandchildren.

Reviews

[ItzSmashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25
Really enjoyed this one, proper 90s cheese! A compelling narrative and quick pace made this one very easy to get through. The reveal let it down slightly as I thought it was the obvious choice. But would deffo reccommend for point horror fans.
Bored on campus, demi decides to put a personal ad in the college paper and write an article about the dates she goes on. But when all of those dates start having horrific accidents after meeting her, Demi realises something sinister is at play. Who is responsible? And what do they want with Demi?

[Grace Chan · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first foray into the world of Nightmare Hall and it was decent!
Home girl Demi is our protag (I totally wanted to picture a young Demi Moore but this Demi has “pale, red-gold hair”). She places a Personals ad in her school paper not just for kicks, but also to do a feature story on how her dates go. WELLLL, You’d think after going out with 4 different dates and having each guy befall a terrible fate afterwards, she’d have stopped much sooner? One guy gets run over right after leaving his date with Demi. Another gets drowned. You get the idea. What’s funny to me is that it takes 4 times for Demi to realize the “price of a date with her is death” 🤣🤣💀💀

The ending is a little clunky and convoluted and I have questions 🤣🤣If you’ve read it, can we talk about it? If not, you’ll still enjoy this read. There is a moment towards the end that veers strictly into Pike territory with the suspenseful mood and writing, which I appreciated. I’ve heard rumblings that’s perhaps author Diane Hoh had ghost writers for some of the Nightmare Hall series, but I have a feeling she wrote this one… the scene I mentioned above was totally reminiscent of “The Accident” for me (a great Hoh if you’ve read that one!) 💀

3 out of 5 calls to the dating hotline to answer this girl’s personals ad, but don’t bother, dude. She doesn’t look like Demi Moore 🤣 And she’s not worth dying over or at best, an exorbitant hospital bill 💀💀

[Nattie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've noticed that the titles written by Nola Thacker are very problematic, they just aren't like the ones written by Diane Hoh. The Roommate was good, but it was off, just like Last Date, which isn't that good. The Nola Thacker books usually have less pages and tries too hard to be hip, you know, down with the lingo of the time. The writing style also seems to suffer. I take it Diane and Nola are two different people.

As for the story, it got on my nerves. If you think that going out on dates from the personals is getting the guys killed or nearly, why keep doing it? Why not stop since it's only for an article?

[Erica Leigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

- Girl sets up a personal ad for dates bc she thinks it’ll make for a good article in the campus newspaper (she’s v funny—I’d read it) but her dates start getting taken down in very violent ways oops

- She’s so committed to journalism, she keeps accepting new dates even tho all her previous dates are literally in the hospital or missing

- There’s a character named KEVIN BORK

- Ending feels rushed and slightly ambiguous to me…like, I have questions

[Donald Tate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a tension-filled thriller with an interesting premise-individuals being stalked/attacked, with the only thing in common being that they went on a date with the same girl. Someone has it out for Demi-although the culprit ended up being someone I figured out early on in the book. Regardless, I still enjoyed it, and would recommend it to YA thriller fans.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fun little throwback read this was! Wasn't as frightening as when I was 10, of course, but I still really enjoyed the trip down memory lane (was there anything better than the Scholastic Book Fair around Halloween?!) and I'm glad I kept a few of these on the shelf all these years.

[Liam Underwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've quite liked all of the Nightmare Hall books I've read so far, and Last Date is no exception. It's briskly paced and a fairly fun frolic, with an interesting array of characters and an intriguing concept. With this being the eleventh Nightmare Hall book so far, I can safely say that I'm a fan of the concept Diane Hoh is striving for her. Well... I say Diane Hoh, but the copyright page reveals Last Date was actually written by Nola Thacker, who previously penned the disappointing The Experiment and the actually rather good The Scream Team and the totally okay The Roommate . Still, I love the college campus setting and the variety of mishaps that seem to occur (although it's a shame that more of the previous books aren't really referenced, with only The Silent Scream being a consistent touchpoint throughout the series) and I enjoy spotting minor background characters cropping up.

However, Last Date does feel a little rushed in places and the book is sorely lacking some editorial polish, with a good few instances of punctuation absent. I also felt like the climax was incredibly clumsy - it's clear what Thacker is shooting for with a big dramatic dilemma to solve, but the way she manoeuvres the players into position didn't really work. I also would've liked a bit more time with some of the secondary characters.

There's enough of Last Date that works for this to be a fairly okay Point Horror book. Our protagonist, Demi, maybe isn't the most likeable main character, but Thacker weaves an engaging plot around her and also introduces stakes and actual consequences. Eleven books in to the Nightmare Hall series and it does appear that the series might be starting to run out of ideas, but currently I'm still plenty keen to see what the next tale will bring.

2.5/5

Point Horror Ranked
1) The Girlfriend - 4/5
2) Thirteen More Tales of Horror - 4/5
3) The Dead Game - 4/5
4) Trick or Treat - 3.5/5
5) Camp Fear - 3.5/5
6) Nightmare Hall - The Silent Scream - 3.5/5
7) Dream Date - 3.5/5
8) Fatal Secrets - 3.5/5
9) Teacher's Pet - 3.5/5
10) The Baby-Sitter II - 3.5/5
11) The Cheerleader - 3.5/5
12) The Hitchhiker - 3.5/5
13) Nightmare Hall - The Scream Team - 3.5/5
14) April Fools - 3.5/5
15) My Secret Admirer - 3.5/5
16) The Lifeguard - 3.5/5
17) Freeze Tag - 3/5
18) Thirteen Tales of Horror - 3/5
19) The Accident - 3/5
20) The Vampire's Promise - 3/5
21) Funhouse - 3/5
22) Nightmare Hall - Sorority Sister - 3/5
23) Nightmare Hall - The Nightwalker - 3/5
24) Nightmare Hall - Pretty Please - 3/5
25) The Stranger - 3/5
26) Nightmare Hall - Deadly Attraction - 3/5
27) The Window - 3/5
28) Nightmare Hall - Guilty - 3/5
29) The Invitation - 2.5/5
30) Nightmare Hall - The Wish - 2.5/5
31) Help Wanted - 2.5/5
32) Nightmare Hall - Last Date - 2.5/5
33) The Perfume - 2.5/5
34) The Train - 2.5/5
35) The Waitress - 2.5/5
36) The Snowman - 2.5/5
37) Nightmare Hall - The Roommate - 2.5/5
38) The Yearbook - 2.5/5
39) Halloween Night II - 2.5/5
40) Silent Witness - 2.5/5
41) Halloween Night - 2.5/5
42) Beach House - 2.5/5
43) The Mall - 2.5/5
44) Nightmare Hall - The Experiment - 2.5/5
45) The Boyfriend - 2/5
46) The Fever - 2/5
47) The Cemetery - 2/5
48) Mother's Helper - 2/5
49) The Baby-Sitter III - 2/5
50) The Phantom - 2/5
51) The Watcher - 2/5
52) The Witness - 2/5
53) The Dead Girlfriend - 2/5
54) The Baby-Sitter - 1.5/5
55) Hit and Run - 1.5/5
56) The Return of the Vampire - 1/5
57) Beach Party - 1/5

[Paula Brandon · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is another Nightmare Hall book actually written by Nola Thacker (aka D.E. Athkins). I don't know why they would get one of the weakest Point Horror writers to ghostwrite for one of Point Horror's best writers, as the difference in quality is highly obvious. Diane Hoh's books have good characterisation (for its genre, anyway), natural dialogue and well-described suspense set-pieces. Nola Thacker/D.E. Athkins tries way too hard to do hip teen speak and her descriptions are vague and sometimes non-sensical. Last Date is her worst by far. If you want a halfway decent Nola Thacker Nighmare Hall book, try The Roommate or Truth Or Die.

[Stacy Simpson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not take me long to read this book...It was awful...out to the thrift store it goes...

[Courtney Gruenholz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another Nola Thacker written story for the Nightmare Hall series.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 for GR.

The Salem University newspaper now has a personal ad for dating: CALL ME.

Put a blurb in the paper, get your own personal mailbox to check phone calls and go out on blind dates.

Seems like a joke to Demi's friend Shannon but Demi is looking for the perfect story to write for the paper and has found it. She will answer some ads and go out on dates and then write about them for an article. Shannon is afraid Demi might hook up with some psycho, but Demi isn't the type to scare easily. She pitches the idea to her editor Kevin, and he loves the angle, so Demi goes through with it but the two keep it under wraps for now.

Demi's first date is with a guy majoring in French, so they go to a film, and he translates everything to Demi even though there are subtitles. He's not really a jerk about it just oblivious to the fact it is torture for Demi. The guy named Lance walks her back to her dorm and soon, he's hit by a car!

Demi is unaware of this fact as we see she has other obstacles in her path to give us a group of suspects. A guy she has been dating named Jack isn't thrilled that Demi is going out on blind dates with other guys and another member of the paper, Marge, is a snippy blonde who is crazy jealous about Kevin. It isn't hard to see that Kevin has a crush on Demi, but she only sees Kevin as her friend.

Demi sets up a date with another guy who calls himself Lawrence, but Demi meets up to find that he is a guy she knows named Phillip, using his middle name, for a pizza and movie date. Demi has been nice to him in the past but he's a creepy guy who use to call her like crazy and he doesn't take the news well when Demi wants to cut the date short.

First, he begs and pleads and then he grabs at Demi's arm to push her to the point of exasperation and calling him a loser. The next morning, Demi gets a call that there are two police officers wishing to speak with her downstairs.

They inform Demi that Phillip was found in the garage with his car running, possibly trying to commit suicide yet with a blow to his head. The other possibility is that someone attacked Phillip, knocked him unconscious and then put him in the car with the engine running to make it look like an accident.

Still reeling from that news, Demi finds out by looking at the police blotter that Lance was the victim of a hit and run on campus. Two guys who answered Demi's ad are now in the hospital in critical conditions and then Demi starts to get the creepy phone calls.

Slightly shaken, Demi continues on with her dates for her story. Her next date is a rich frat boy who asserts control over their date by picking the movie, ignoring Demi's request not to go out to dinner and then almost getting them killed Hot-Roding in his car to go and shot some pool.

Demi lashes out and learns it was a prank to see what sort of hot mess would answer his ad but since Demi was hot, he kept up the date. The guy named Andrew insults Demi about being desperate for dates and then drives off to abandon her in the parking lot. Not a real winner but it is inevitable that he soon turns up...missing.

Demi does start to feel like abandoning her idea of the story as a mix of the bad things happening to her dates with the fact that none of them were exactly the most pleasant or exciting. Her mind does halt on writing the piece but when she answers one last ad, Demi finds it to be with a really nice guy named Brant, who is a friend of Kevin's.

Demi is now in a real pickle because it is clear that someone is out to seriously hurt any guy trying to date her, but could she have found "the one" in Brant? Even if Demi has found love, could her next date be their last?

A lot of misdirection as to whom the culprit might be, but the payoff is actually the most likely suspect reading between the lines. The best part of Last Date is actually that Demi is a pretty solid and confident main character in that you hate to love her, but she isn't whiny and can stick up for herself. The other character I like is a girl named Gigi who is French and attending the school that happens to be one of Demi's friends.

A rather short Nightmare Hall book but it packs a lot of suspense and thrills.

[Sarah Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think Nightmare Hall was mentioned 🤔

* Kevin has started a new dating section where people can leave messages in the university paper.
* Demi thinks it's a cool idea to date people that way, and then write an article about it. Her friends think it's rather dangerous.
* Demi goes on some boring dates, but after each date the guy she went out with gets injured or killed. Demi thinks the only way to find out who's doing it is to keep dating!
* At the end we find out that the person doing it is Kevin! He likes Demi, and didn't like seeing her date other men. Never mind that he's got his own girlfriend!

[Kirstie Cooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another throwback from my younger years and I wasn't disappointed.
So many twists and turns throughout - can see why these were a firm favourite when I was younger, although they are very simple compared to what I read now.
Still enjoyed it though and I think I suspected every single character at some point ...... And still wasn't sure 🤷 Obviously losing my touch!

[KatieFace]

All of these books are horrible and I love them! It is fun to reread books from my preteen years.

[jessicateresa98 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good, enjoyable read! This is the first 'Point Horror' book I’ve read and plan on reading and collecting many more, a great selection of vintage books for young horror fans!

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is really bizarre.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last date was a good read. I liked our main character Demi, she was tough and smart to catch on to what was happening.

[absolutely _ grim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I like the more supernatural storylines in the series but this was mostly entertaining.

[Kelsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Devri · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first Nightmare Hall read was a hit!
Demi’s bad dates made me feel better about the bad dates I’ve been on.

[Kasey Loftis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one. This series is one of my favorite series.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another awesome installment in this vintage series. Demi is a gorgeous redhead with attitude who works at the school paper. she decides to do an article on dating and the personal ads the paper has just begun running. However, someone doesn't want Demi to date...because each of her dates is attacked afterwards. I actually did know who the bad guy was in this one, but it was still pretty amusing.

[Caitlin]

Last Date (Nightmare Hall, No 11) by Diane Hoh (1994)