My Secret Admirer

by Carol Ellis

Jenny is new in town. Her parents go away, leaving her all alone in an isolated house. The mountains surrounding the town loom ominously, guarding the secret of what really happened the day of Diana Benson's accident. Then the phonecalls start...

Jenny has a secret admirer, who courts her with sweet messages and flowers. But she also has an enemy, who chases her on a lonely road. Does she know too much about the 'accident' on the cliffs? and is there anyone she can trust?

Jenny has no one to turn to.

Except her secret admirer...

But who is he?

Genres: Horror, Young Adult, Thriller, Mystery, Fiction, Childrens, Suspense

184 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1989

About the author

Carol Ellis is an American author of young adult and children’s fiction. Her first novel, My Secret Admirer, was published in 1989 by Scholastic as part of their popular Point Thriller line.

She went on to write over fifteen novels, including a few titles in the Zodiac Chillers series published by Random House in the mid-1990s, and two titles in The Blair Witch Files series for young adults, published by Bantam between 2000 and 2001.

Reviews

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jenny Fowler just moved with her family into a new house in a town called Rimrock. She makes some new friends. Her parents have to go away on business leaving her alone for a few days in the new, isolated house. Jenny doesn't like the rimrocks that are outside, surrounding the house. They give her the creeps. Soon Jenny starts receiving phone calls from a secret admirer. At first she is happy about this. Her admirer leaves her presents...flowers, wind chimes, and leaves sweet messages on the answering machine for her. But eventually she starts receiving gifts that are gruesome, like a dead snake. Her dog Peaches is almost killed, another girl falls off the rimrocks and is now in a coma. Who could be doing all of this?

This was an interesting read for young-adults. I liked the rimrocks setting. I didn't care for Jenny's parents, they were quite careless, leaving her all alone in an unfamiliar isolated house without even putting the curtains up yet. The story had some mild suspense. I was curious to find out who the "admirer" was. An entertaining read.

[ItzSmashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars
This one felt a little off to me. I have read an awful lot of point horror books recently and this one really failed to grip me at all. I was interested to begin with, but that initial mystery was dropped and isn't really solved until the end. This lead to an unfocused and disjointed middle section in my opinion. There are so many more books in this serious that are worth spending your time on then this.

Jenny is new in town and disheartened when her first meet with the local kids doesn't go well. She gets a call from a secret admirer and everything seems a little bit better. But someone seems to be stalking jenny and harrasing her, is this her admirer? Or somebody else with a grudge?

[Chelley Toy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this with my book club that I run on Instagram where we revisit Point Horror and other books from our childhood - @talespointhorrorbookclub

Tagline - He was crazy about Jenny. Crazy enough to kill her.

Memorable For - Unique romantic gifts, bluffs & PEACHES the dog! 🐶


Some Thoughts -

Everyone could take a tip out of Jenny’s secret admirers Guide To The Best Valentines Present EVER and make your valentine ohhh and ahhh at how romantic you are and make your valentine fall in luuuurrvvve..You know give her dead flowers, a headless snake or even try and run your loved one over with your motorbike whilst she’s trapped in a glass phone booth! Swwwwooonnn! 😂

Other highlights include the star of the book, a cute dog called Peaches, an MC who thinks things through (we will forgive her at the end 😂), a love interest obsessed with the colour blue, a lesson in how to barricade your door 90s style, parents who leave their daughter in a strange house to deal with some creepy painters & lots and lots of climbing those bluffs!

Also how many showers did Jenny take 😜

It was fun to revisit this one and reaffirms Carol Ellis as a great writer of her time and of 90s YA!

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shockingly, this is actually good. Real tension, real fear, and a nice avoidance of some Point Horror tropes.

I read this for our podcast Teenage Scream, which dissects the best (and worst) of 90s Teen Horror.

https://soundcloud.com/teenagescream

[Mehsi · Rating 3 out of 5]

New girl in town gets secret admirer, but does that guy have the right intentions or not?

So, me and the story got reunited again. Long time ago I read a ton of these Point Horror books in Dutch, including this one. I bumped against this one again, and thought it would be nice to read it again and see if I liked it as much as I did back then. Mm. Yes and no. It was still good, still creepy at points, but also very easy to figure out, the MC was just dumb as hell, and who the hell leaves their 16/17 year old alone in a new place for so long?

Jenny is the new girl in this tiny town, I should say tiny tiny tiny tiny town. She lives in a gorgeous house, far far away from things. Yes, her new friend lives down the road, but that road is apparently (going by the descriptions) pretty long. The first day she meets someone (Sally) and so gets to join the annual scavenger hunt but things happen there that will stay with her for much longer. She thought she would have a nice time, but from that moment things go wonky.

Jenny should really just have shut up her mouth that she heard something when she was on the cliffs. But then we wouldn't have had a story. :P

There were tons of spooky and scary parts that had me on the edge of my bed (sick and mostly in my bed these past days). When Jenn's dog went bonkers (which just gave me goosebumps, it is the middle of the night and the dog is whining and scratching at one of the doors like a mad man), when she found those presents (the good and the bad presents both), when all sorts of other things happened that escalated as the story continued.. Yes, despite me rolling my eyes at times because of how cliché it all was, it was still very exciting to read. It has been years since I last read this one, so I had no clue how it would end. Would she survive? Would someone save her? Would Diana live?

As I said in the first part, I can imagine you can leave a 16/17 year old alone in a home for 2 or so days, but this long? And in a new place? With no real connections if something goes wrong. Oh and you just let her deal with some painters (who you don't know). It just felt weird and off. Convenient plot device so that all the events could take place. Plus, conveniently, Jenny just stays at home throughout everything. Barricading her home with cans of food and forks. :P She did try to get her new friend to stay over, but her new friend is just very suspicious and seems to have plans all day and all night. But I still wish she would have talked to her parents. Sure, they seemed to be a bit too busy to care about their daughter, but I am sure one of them could have come home if she had at least told them about her worries. About the gifts.

The admirer? Gee, it was just so obvious what kind of guy that was and what his plans were. But I had a laugh that Jenny truly thought he was some kind of sexy dude who wanted to give her attention. Sorry, but this guy just screamed stranger danger to me. I guess no matter the time kids make stupid mistakes like this. These days it is people pretending to be good people on the internet, back then you just left presents and messages. And if you are lucky and got a dumb person, they will meet up with you. *sighs*

The ending was pretty good, though also a bit anticlimatic. I kept waiting for something else to happen, but then the book was over and we got to the author's note.

But all in all, even with a dumb MC who annoyed me at times, a suspicious best friend, cliché stuff, I still had fun reading this one. There were plenty of exciting and scary parts, and I had fun figuring out who the baddie was in the story (so many red herrings).

Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/

[Alex (The Bookubus) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Jenny has just moved house and is left home alone while her parents have to travel back to the old house to take care of some business. She starts receiving messages on her answerphone from a secret admirer who also leaves her gifts at her house. But soon things turn nasty and she has to figure out who the secret admirer is and if she can really trust them or not.

This was well written and enjoyable. I liked the cast of characters and the suspense. I would have given this 4/5 but part of the story was too similar to another Carol Ellis book so the reveal wasn't as impactful as it should have been and I knocked off half a star.

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one. Admittedly it's best to overlook the fact that the main character Jenny who has just moved to the area has been left by her parents who need to tie up loose ends at the other end.
Found the story to be well paced and enough tension to keep me hooked.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent addition to the Point Horror collection.

I'm trying really hard not to be too judgemental when rereading these books. They haven't dated particularly well, and quite frankly there a lot of plot holes.

This one is no exception. Given the apparent age of the protagonist (which I gather is somewhere between 15-17), she is incredibly stupid and immature. Also far too trusting. If she were a real person, she would probably have been awarded a Darwin Award by now.
The lack of adult supervision (or even adults in general) seems to be a running trope with these books. I know teenagers don't need to be watched 24/7, but running off to different cities at short notice and leaving your (stupid) children home alone is just asking for trouble.

This wasn't the best in the Point Horror collection, but very readable. I just need to get used to stupid characters and their stupid decisions.

[Niko · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm almost positive I read this as a teen but I still didn't remember who it was. Great quick read

[Glen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title says it all. The new girl in town lives in an isolated house, and starts getting weird stuff at her door.

Wasn't very scary.

[D · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked MY SECRET ADMIRER despite the fact that I think an anonymous someone leaving messages on a machine about watching them and liking them is incredibly creepy. Chalk that one up to the invention of the internet and becoming less tolerant of stalkers. I think the notion of a secret admirer used to be wistful and desirable but now it’s off-putting and sometimes terrifying that someone’s creeping around, watching your every move, leaving “gifts” for you on your doorstep. *shudders*

What I liked most about this book was the setting. It reminded me of some kind of Sedona hybrid with how the rocks were described as glowing red when the sun was setting and how intimidating they were yet still beautiful. I couldn’t get a visual layout of how Jenny’s house was set up, though. It seemed like the rocks were pretty much in her backyard but I had a hard time telling if they were cliffs going up or canyons going down. Or both. It seemed like both sometimes. And apparently everyone in that little down is a good climber and thinks nothing of just crawling up the rocks when they need to. Yeah, let’s just go for a picnic at the bottom of the cliffs that we’ll have to climb down to. Pass.

But yeah, the way Jenny viewed them, since it was from her point of view, was as being intimidated by them and it really came through. They were these looming objects in her peripheral that everyone seemed to want to be involved with but her latent fear of them kept her at arm’s length, making her an even greater target for this secret admirer. Add in the exceedingly small town feel and how isolated her house was it was a good backdrop for something terrifying to happen.

As the story went on Jenny became suspicious of everyone and that came through in the writing. People she’d gotten close to in such a short amount of time appeared standoffish and anxious to get away from her or seemed to be hiding something. That subtle level of paranoia worked itself nicely into Ellis’s words. Everyone was a suspect because that’s how Jenny came to look at them and I think Ellis did a good job of portraying that.

For all the build-up the ending was kind of lackluster, not all that big of a reveal or a surprise. I think the perpetrator was made a little too obvious throughout the book so it was just a matter of waiting for the truth to come out as opposed to finding out who did it. So the ending left me wanting but short of that I don’t really have any other complaints (aside from Jenny not thinking to put her secret admirer and her assailant into the same basket, or just standing down the motorcycle that attacked her because . . . it’s a motorcycle, there isn’t much a driver can do to someone or something without causing themselves a lot of harm but whatever).

I’ll call MY SECRET ADMIRER one of the better old school YA horror books. Solid characters, an unreliable narrator, good scene-setting, a pretty decent plot. I liked it.

4

[Rajiv · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creepy but Frustrating (3/5 Stars)

Carol Ellis delivers a stalker thriller with some genuinely scary moments, though the main character makes it a bumpy ride.

What Works: The book really nails the atmosphere in certain scenes. When Jenny is alone in her new house and senses someone watching, it gave me actual goosebumps. That slow-building dread is Ellis at her best. The phone booth scene is similarly unsettling. The mystery itself pays off well; the culprit’s identity caught me completely off guard, which doesn't happen often. Moreover, the author gives you plenty of suspects to consider, making the final reveal genuinely satisfying. Sally also stands out as Jenny's loyal friend, bringing some much-needed normalcy.

What Falls Short: Jenny herself is tough to root for. Instead of finding her secret admirer's messages creepy, she actually starts looking forward to them, even as scary things keep happening. It makes her seem more foolish than sympathetic. Her parents are equally baffling; they move to a new town and immediately leave her alone constantly? Additionally, the painters subplot takes up space without adding much. And looking back after reading, some characters behave so strangely throughout that the explanations given at the end feel pretty weak.

Verdict: My Secret Admirer works as a quick horror read with solid scares and a good mystery payoff. Ellis knows how to build tension. But Jenny's questionable decisions and the story's logic gaps keep it from being truly gripping. Worth a read for the creepy highlights, though you might find yourself yelling at the main character.

Perfect for: Fans of stalker thrillers, 90s YA horror, and guessing games with suspects.

[Isabelle Rancourt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ahhhh .... Doux souvenir......!
J'ai décidé de les relirent (Les frissons) un par un, en ordre...
C'est donc le 2e, L'admirateur secret
Un bon ptit roman simple et qui me rappelle effectivement pleins de souvenirs d'ado...🥰
La belle julie arrive dans une nouvelle ville ou elle sera abandonné pour quelques jours à elle même par ses parents qui doivent quitter.... Une personne commencera alors à lui faire quelques "surprises".... mais es ce que ce sont tous de belles surprises ?....
à voir....
Belle ptite lecture dado ou enfant je dirais entre 8 et 15 ans.

[Sharron Joy Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jenny has moved with her parents to a little town in the shadow of the Rimrock mountains, their brooding presence looms over her. She makes friends with a group of teens but on a night scavenger hunt, one of them, Diana, falls and is found the next day in a coma. Meanwhile Jenny starts receiving messages and gifts from a secret admirer and someone else is out to hurt her.

I enjoyed this Point Horror although Jenny is both brave and immensely dumb 🤣 Parents are absent of course and her new friends are odd, chatty Sally, nerdy Sean, hotheaded Brad and handsome but distant David.

More thriller than horror, poor Jenny is stalked and really makes some stupid decisions but it’s a great story. My favourite character, Peaches the dog!

[C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

These books feel ANCIENT now. I don't know, this could as easily have been written in the 1960s as the 1990s. But it was enjoyable, and reasonably well-written. I was less creeped out by the dead-snake-and-dirt-bike stalker than I was by what felt like an ever-present threat of rape. What the hell kind of parents leave their teenage daughter alone in a new, curtain-free house in the middle of nowhere, to be leered at by painters? I wanted to buy the main character some mace, and not even to deal with the "secret admirer," just to defend herself from the locals.

[Georgina Barnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Average for a Point Horror, lead character makes stupid decisions and the red herrings are really obvious. It made me look up Rimrocks, the focus and most interesting part of the book.

Don't leave dogs in hot cars :(

[LG (A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jenny's parents are adventurous and enjoy living lives that involve moving from one place to the next in a relatively short amount of time. Jenny, on the other hand, would like it if they just stayed put for a while. She'd really like a chance to get to know people, make friends, and put down roots.

Jenny's not really sure that the latest town they've moved to will be a good fit for her - the rimrocks near their new home make her a little anxious, and it seems like everyone at her new school has known each other their whole lives. Still, she does her best to settle in, and it's not long before Sally, a teen who's both an extrovert and a chatterbox, is introducing her to everyone. Jenny instantly finds herself a little drawn to David, the guy she's teamed up with during a scavenger hunt. She's also intrigued by a secret admirer she seems to have acquired, a guy who confesses his feelings for her via a message on her answering machine but who isn't quite brave enough to talk to her in person.

Everyone and everything around Jenny starts to take on a more sinister feeling when Diana, the school's queen bee, is injured in an apparent accident at the cliffs. She doesn't actually know any of these people, their relationships with each other, or what they're really like. Can she really trust her new friends?

As an anxious worrier and overthinker myself, I found Jenny to be a very relatable character. Initially, she wasn't sure whether she was just working herself into a panic over nothing, simply because she was home alone in a new house while her parents were dealing with things back at their previous place, or whether there was actually something to be worried about.

I was, however, a little annoyed that this wasn't as focused on the "creepy secret admirer" aspect as I thought it would be. Jenny's fears were pretty all over the place for a while - her new home was fairly isolated, the perfect place for someone to sneak around at night and watch her (if I remember right, her parents hadn't even had time to get blinds up in most of the windows), and then there was Diana's scarily angry ex-boyfriend, as well as some moments with David and Sally that threw her off.

The motives of the person behind everything weren't well thought out, and it would have made more sense if their aim with Jenny had been to kill her rather than just terrorize her. Now, if Jenny had been an adult who could have chosen to go somewhere else, that would have been another story. As it was, this didn't really work with teen characters.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know I read this book when I was around 12 or 13 years old, but I remember absolutely nothing about it, so it has been fun to reread it this week. The main character is Jenny, a teenager who has recently moved to town with her parents and elderly dog. They live in a big, fairly isolated house on the outskirts of town, overlooking the rimrocks. As they have just moved, they haven't yet put up any curtains or blinds, making the cover of this book nonsensical; why is she peeping out of curtains when its mentioned frequently that they don't have any? But, the lack of window covers does add to the creepy feeling of the setting.
When a local girl has a terrible accident on the rocks and Jenny begins to receive phone calls and gifts and becomes the target of a nasty prankster, she must work out who is messing with her and also who her secret admirer is. Could it be outgoing Sally, sporty Brad, nerdy Dean, dreamboat David, or the inappropriately creepy local decorators?
I really enjoyed rereading this book. The setting is unique and adds a lot to the story, the dodgy behaviour of all of the suspects, and the final showdown and unmasking of the culprit are very typical of the Point Horror collection of books.
Let's also not forget the usual trope of the Point Horror absent parents! Poor Jenny is left to cope with her ordeal all alone when her parents fly off for a few days. I don't actually think there are many Point Horror books where a responsible parent is present throughout!!
An extra special mention must go to Peaches, the most loyal and brave of dogs 🐶 💖

[D.L. · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 stars rounded up because I am feeling generous. Honestly, the heroine in this book was TSTL (too stupid to live).

[Beatriz Oliveira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast paced and enjoyable. Do not let the old covers fool you, it’s a good book.
I loved the mention of Rebecca and Manderley! #booksthatmentionotherbooks

[Ely Paz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un tanto predecible, dirigido a un público más bien infantil/adolescente.
La prota es bastante imbécil.
Ni Fu ni Fa.

6,5/10

[Katrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great point horror book!! I really liked the FMC in this one, she made sensible choices most of the time and had logical thought processes. The point horror boys weren’t too despicable and the best friend was fairly normal. Even with this the plot was exciting, built tension well and had a good ending that I didn’t see coming.

[Trisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally, I got around to re-reading another Point book! I actually didn't remember much about this one, except I had a vague recollection of the cliff area (the Rimrocks). But I didn't remember they were called the Rimrocks.

This was one of those Point books that wasn't too bad, but wasn't one of my favourites either. It was interesting to me how Jenny had a case of insta-love with David, but then he didn't really show up much in the whole story. But I was still convinced by their insta-love, for whatever reason. haha.

I liked that every guy she knew was a suspect, because it wasn't one of those lame stories where the stupid heroine suspects everybody except the one that she should suspect. That said, Jenny was pretty stupid, for a number of reasons:

1. Leaving her dog in the car
2. Not being in the least bit suspicious of the messages left on her answering machine
3. Going to the Rimrocks to meet her "admirer", I mean WTF
4. Taking a while to catch on when her admirer revealed himself
5. "Yeah, sure, I'll climb in the dark! What could go wrong?" (paraphrase)

Some things that made me go "aww" in this book were things relating to the sheer 80s/90s-ness of the story. Dean and his "computer print-out", the telephone booth being a lifeline, everyone calling around on their house phones (no mobiles, no social media), Jenny's fashion wins (white shorts and a rainbow-striped shirt; later there's a washed out denim jacket). Oh, and the VCR!! "Let's watch a tape." The mere fact that the telephone with its "built-in answering machine" was something fancy at the time.

I had no recollection whatsoever of the painters, and how disgustingly creepy the younger one was. Wow.

Anyway, I think that's all I've got to say for now - but these were my notes as I read through the book (I'll put them behind a spoiler tag):

My Secret Admirer

p.37 - radio on in car, “Don’t worry, be happy” (lame)
p.39 - looking up Howell in the phone book to call him. Also, house phones and hitech built in answering machine 😂
p.41 - creeeeeeepy
p.49 - “computer print-out” 😂
p.51 - aww, Peaches
p.60 - weird time for Dean to be flirting with the new chick? They’ve just had the bad news about Diana
p.89 - rattlesnake! Why does it never occur to Jenny that her secret admirer may be a psycho?!
p.94 - good ole days of one phone line, no mobiles 😳
p.96 - the painters are gross!! A 30 yr old cracking onto a 16 yr old, yuck!
p.103 - “she’d just waked up”
p.107, 110 - VCR, watch a tape. Nawww
p.121 - nooooo, don’t do it! Don’t leave her in da car!!! It’s illegal now!
p.130 - telephone booth. So old skool
p.131 - “she was glad she was wearing white shorts and a rainbow-striped T-shirt.”
p.147 - iiiiiidiot!
p.168 - you’re a bit slow, Jenny!
p.175 - more good fashion: “washed-out denim jacket”
p.181 - “rotten thoughts” ... not very teenagery
p.183 - everyone on the phone, eg no chat, insta, etc ☺️

[Sati Marie Frost · Rating 4 out of 5]

One-Line Review: Don’t trust people who shower you with gifts. (Note to self: take own advice.)

Full Review:

One of the first Point Horrors I read, and still one of the best.

Jenny's just moved to an unspecified town in an unspecified state, somewhere out west where big red cliffs, called rimrocks, surround the town. She's scared of the rimrocks, but when she gets invited to a school-organised scavenger hunt and gets partnered with handsome dark-eyed David, he talks her into climbing them to look for a bird's nest. A storm comes up and they get separated in the dark, and while Jenny's alone she thinks she hears someone cry out, although she can't make out any words.

The next day, the group find out that beautiful, bitchy Diana had a fall from the rimrocks that night, and is in a coma. Jenny immediately mentions the scream she thinks she heard, but no consensus is reached as to whether she was just hearing the wind.

Jenny's parents go away for a few days, leaving her alone with the dog. She starts receiving gifts from a secret admirer: sweet, thoughtful presents like flowers and wind chimes. But someone is also trying to scare her, leaving a dead snake wrapped like a present in her mailbox, closing the windows and shutting her dog in a hot car, and trapping her in a phone box while he - a sinister, leather clad figure on a black motorbike with a full-face helmet - repeatedly rides towards the booth, threatening to run her down if she tries to leave.

Jenny can't trust anyone in town but her secret admirer - but who is he? And who is threatening her?

As I mentioned, I think this is a great book. It's simple and cleanly-written enough for kids to follow, with enough action to stop them getting bored, yet it has a lasting appeal for me; at 28 I still enjoyed it. Jenny's an odd one; her personality is not particularly well-developed, yet what you do see of her has its own certain charm that makes me want to root for a happy ending for her. The scary scenes are quite chilling, and unique enough to be memorable, particularly the phone booth scene. I remember drawing cartoon strips of this book when I was 8 or 9, and having my dad draw the motorbike for me. I didn't do that with many books, but these were particularly powerful images that stay in the mind after reading.

I enjoyed the setting a lot, too. It's never specified exactly where the book is set, but I have in mind Utah or Arizona. I've always felt particularly comfortable in those places, so I may be attaching my own emotions when I say that the setting, despite its starkness, is very comforting and provides a really nice contrasting background for the scaries.

A great book, really nicely written.

Verdict: A shining example of early suspenseful Point Horror.

[Liam Underwood · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

I'm currently alternating between a Goosebumps book and a Point Horror book, and I must confess that now, after reading two of each, I'm much preferring the Point Horror books. Which is surprising to me, as I have very vivid memories of events that occur in the Goosebumps books, and practically zero memories of what happens in the Point Horror books. I know I definitely used to own My Secret Admirer, but I have no memory of actually ever reading it. Maybe I didn't? I don't know.

Anyway, the most important and shocking thing about this book is how much the author, Carol Ellis, hates Peaches, the dog. Poor Peaches is relentlessly fat shamed throughout this book, and let me tell you something - Peaches is the best. In all honesty, the treatment of Peaches is only so obvious because so little else actually happens in this book. Compared to The Lifeguard , by Richie Tankersley Cusick, which I described as 'basically an '80s slasher movie in book form' (and had a lot of fun reading), the pace here is way slower and events of note are remarkably infrequent. However, that said, I did still enjoy reading My Secret Admirer and I did find it to be better written than The Lifeguard .

I'm still not particularly wise to the mystery elements, so once again I didn't guess who did it. I don't know if that's a comment on the book being well crafted with good red herrings, or, (more likely) a comment on my inability to guess who did it. Thankfully most of the frustrating tropes in The Lifeguard are absent here. So, to summarise: Carol Ellis hates Peaches and needs everyone to know how fat the poor dog is; My Secret Admirer is, in several ways (but mostly the writing), better than The Lifeguard ; but I still found The Lifeguard to be a more enjoyable book overall. Both have been an absolute joy to read though and I'm so excited to see what the next Point Horror book brings.

3.5/5

Point Horror Ranked
1) My Secret Admirer - 3.5/5
2) The Lifeguard - 3.5/5

[Casey Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE WORKS OF CAROL ELLIS, 1945-2022

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

My mother, Carol Ellis, passed away on November 5th, 2022. While she'd been retired for some time, she spent years making her living as an author for children and young adults. When I was a kid, I was tremendously proud of her status as a writer, but she always seemed vaguely embarrassed by it. As I grew older, she told me she didn't enjoy the process of writing, and I'm sure that was part of the problem but there was also something deeper. My mother was an extremely self-deprecating person, inclined to critique herself to a fault. As such, I think she was uncomfortable with her public status. Also, as an avid reader herself, I think she decided early on she would never measure up to the books and authors she admired. It saddened and confused me to hear her dismiss her writing and, from time to time, even become cynical about the whole concept of telling stories. This never lasted very long because she enjoyed reading too much, but it was still depressing. Later on, I would occasionally try to change her perspective by pointing out the long and (in my view) proud tradition of popular fiction authors, people who, yes, wrote largely for money but gave years of joy to millions of readers. She would just shrug and say something like "Sure, but I wasn't even that good." Even in the past few years, when I would tell her how so many people online would respond with comments like "Oh wow, I LOVED your mom's books growing up!" if I mentioned her in a comment to a post or video, she would brush it off. "Doesn't it make you happy, knowing people still like your work?," I'd ask. She'd shrug or look away and reply, "Sure, I guess so."

Despite her indifference, my mother's career as a YA and children's author was substantial. A conservative estimate would put the number of books she wrote or co-wrote somewhere north of 50, and there were shorter works as well. She's best remembered as a fixture of Scholastic's Point Thriller line from the late 80s to the mid 90s, but her work ranged over several genres and publishers, her career lasting from the late 1970s till 2017; in the weeks following her death, I started discovering material she never even mentioned to me.

Through the years, despite sharing my mother's passion for reading, I rarely read her work. While she didn't exactly come out and say so, it was pretty clear she'd prefer I not. There were occasional exceptions and, towards the end of her career, I sometimes assisted her, both as a researcher and as an uncredited co-author. But her main body of work seemed like something she didn't want to get into much, so I largely avoided it. Now I've lost her forever and, partially to distract myself from the grief but also to try and create some sort of memorial to her, I've decided to read through her works and comment on them here.

As I mentioned, my mother's writing career was extensive. A large portion of her work was ghostwriting for others and even a fair amount under her own name were series works where she was more less told what to write. There were also nonfiction works which were pretty tightly controlled by the editors as well. While I know she gave every project her all (no matter how little she enjoyed some of them) and no doubt put her stamp on all she wrote, I'm primarily interested in the peak of her career, that is novels written under her own name and over which she had at least some degree of artistic control. This comes out to 20 or so books. While I have most of these works, there are still some I'll have to search for online and in used bookstores.

There's no point in pretending these "reviews" will be objective. All the books will get 5 stars, although I will be honest about elements of my mom's work I don't care for. Mixed in with my comments on the books will be memories of the creation of those I was old enough to be aware of, memories of my mother and her thoughts and comments on the books, and thoughts about the culture and industry that shaped her career.

I have no illusions that my mother was some sort of literary genius. But her work touched many readers nonetheless. She was also an incredible human being, one of the kindest people anyone could hope to meet. I will miss her terribly for the rest of my life. My hope is these commentaries will act as a tribute to her and bring back some good memories for those who grew up with her work, just as they preserve some cherished memories for me of a very cherished person.

MY SECRET ADMIRER

If my mother had a signature work, I believe this would be it. It was her first book in Scholastic's famous Point Thriller line and, according to my parents, her biggest seller. I don't know if that was a solid fact or just an impression, but I do know the book was still being reprinted quite a bit after her other novels had gone out of print. Uniquely for her work, there were also two British editions with different covers. In her wonderful 2018 book "Paperback Crush: The Totally Radical History of '80s and '90s Teen Fiction," Gabrielle Moss disparages my mother as one of the top purveyors of "the horror stalker teen novel," a subgenre Moss dislikes for its "cartoonishness." While Moss also knocks my mom's "Silent Witness" and "The Stalker," "My Secret Admirer" is the only one covered in detail. Even though Moss is not a fan, as a serious historian of YA/Teen fiction from that era, it's clear she saw "My Secret Admirer" as my mother's most significant book.

I was around seven or eight when "My Secret Admirer" was written and published so I only have hazy memories of its creation. We would have just recently moved from Long Island to the house in Westchester where my mom would spend the rest of her life. Writing this book during that period must have made it an intensely busy time for her but I don't recall much of the tension that would come up later in her career. While I remember only a little of the actual writing, I have surprisingly vivid recollections of my parents talking about the book after it was published. I recall it being around the house a great deal after we were sent copies. There seemed to be some genuine pride in it and its reception, something I think my mother rarely experienced. The original American cover, with the sinister shadow creeping up on the teen girl in the phone both, with hilly terrain in the background, has hefty emotional weight for me. It transports me to another era in my life with my mom. Images of rooms in our house altered decades ago, long gone pieces of furniture, and even certain smells and tastes, come rushing back to me when I look at that cover.

All that aside, how does "My Secret Admirer" hold up as a novel? I found it significantly better than "The Stalker," my mom's last Point Thriller, which I read for the first time late last year. While Gabrielle Moss clearly didn't agree, and making allowances for my natural bias, I thought the setting and situation of "My Secret Admirer" were quite superbly painted. My mother did a fantastic job creating the small town the heroine finds herself plopped into due to her father's changing job situation. The descriptions of the forbidding mountains near the protagonist's house create a genuine sense of place. Typically, I have some trouble visualizing places when reading.
Here I had virtually none; the book might as well have been illustrated.

But this vividness isn't just descriptive. The heroine, Jenny Fowler, is incredibly likable and easy to root for. Unlike the protagonist of "The Stalker," Jenny and her life felt fully fleshed out. The romance angle, an important part of these books which were heavily marketed to teen girls, was organic and believable, unlike the love story in "The Stalker" which felt kind of superfluous to me. My mom also skillfully depicts Jenny's isolation in a way that the reader senses early but which only later becomes fully apparent to the character. To me at least, this sense of vulnerability doesn't give off "damsel in distress" vibes, especially since Jenny is depicted as confident and sharp. Rather, it emphasizes how hard it can be to accurately analyze our situations, especially when we're younger. My guess is that this relatability was a major factor in the book's success. To be sure, none of this is heavy handed; it's all just well deployed material for a good mystery.

That all being said, there are problems. I was quite surprised to find that the stalking element plays a relatively minor role in the story. It actually felt like something shoehorned in to justify a predetermined title, a very real possibility. More seriously, the pace, admirably taut for the first half, slackens too much in the middle. Worst of all, Jenny makes a decision late in the book that is simply absurd, especially considering how she's been previously established as a character and what has happened in the plot up to that point. However, none of this lack of polish damaged my enjoyment of the book, nor was it likely to have irked its earliest readers.

Above all, "My Secret Admirer" gives off feelings of excitement and promise. It was the start of something for my mother, and I think that sense of a new beginning, personally and professionally, pervades the novel's pages. Maybe all of that would only be apparent to someone with an inside view like myself but, for most readers, it should still provide a lot of fun.

[Blue · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually remember this one fairly vividly, even though it's been at least 20 years since I read it. So it may even qualify for a 4 star, but I can't give those out unless I'm certain.

I think there are some questionable situations like the girl being left alone at all, and even a time when she really should stay with someone else/not alone, but doesn't (or doesn't until something strange happens). I am reminded of a Scream sequel where Neve Campbell thinks she's safe up in some house with a picturesque view. So it must be a well-described, vivid setting, or it wouldn't have stuck in my mind. And the main character is relatable/likable, because I remember feeling for her, not just wondering what was going to happen next.

I recall that the author is fairly good at providing believable red herrings, which is hard to do in general and even harder in these fast-paced YA novels. If you're a fan of the YA suspense genre, this is worth a read.

[evinha . · Rating 4 out of 5]

i absolutely adored this book. the pacing, the characters, the suspense; i was reading this book everyday.

this book has me guessing all the way through. i was suspicious of every character. and then, the plot twist. i am in love with every page of this book.

100% would read this again!

[Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok...

I'm sure many readers were disappointed by the lack of death and gore. But that's honestly why I loved it. I'm a huge fan of good whodunit's and Gothic reads and this really did read like a mix of Daphne du Maurier (whose famous work got a mention in THIS book, btw) and that slasher flick ,Valentine (2001).

And now... the list!

-Aww! Peaches 😍
*The whole time reading this, I was like "Peaches better not die". It's an unfortunate hallmark of a certain PH writer 👀
-I'm so cynical, I was like "sharing all of your hopes and dreams during hour one? Jenny NOOO! Keep your guard up!"
* Don't tell me what that says about me 🤐.
-Missed opportunity to have the song on the radio be "867-5309(Jenny)" by Tommy Tutone.
-I wanna go to a grocery store that has thick gothic paperbacks. Where is she?
-There's a lot of "D" names 'round these parts:
1.Dean
2.David
3.Diana
-Jenny getting all excited to meet her secret admirer/calling him "harmless" to Sally (as well disregarding the fact that she is telling total strangers-to her, at least-that she's all alone), taking him on BY HERSELF reminded me of "Where are You Going? Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates, and the subsequent film Smooth Talk (1985).
-The isolated setting combined with the "I don't know any of them" moment made me want to keep reading.
-Our girl has the right idea for momentary insomnia: "Do you want the house tour?"
*And yes, I did sing THAT song 😜.
-Everybody and their mama is fat shamin' this poor dog.
*Who do you think contributed to that, Richard? And that "f" word is an ugly word 🤬.
-Jenny's idea of "just make it till morning". Yes. Just Yes. As someone who hates spending nights alone, that checks.
*Setting up soup can booby traps, though? That's a sprain waiting to happen... Ooh! Adjacent foreshadowing, ya'll 👻!
-...Speaking of, I unfortunately felt Jenny's sprain when she tumbles down the rims.
*I could hear the crack! Big ol' Yikes😱!
-Just a few funnies:
*"At least she hadn't joined a group of gun totters." That's a very good point, given where you live now.
*"It's August. Who's got a jack-o-lantern in August?"
"More importantly, who's got a pumpkin?" 🤣
-Maybe I'm a bitch, but I saw Sally as Diana's pusher more than I ever saw Dean or David.
*She was just so unfeeling towards Jenny's fears (that line of "guess that's for you to find out" kinda gave me the chills), not to mention her egging on the hatred of Diana after one bad interaction... and she was never willing to provide a voice for her own game of "Guess the voice". Girl, don't be suspicious...
-Jenny, most grocery stores don't allow dogs that aren't service dogs. Just get your food, and then swing back and take Peaches for a drive. Poor dog nearly died of heatstroke. Like, WTF?!?
-Not her reading Rebecca in bed and saying "She'd never read it, but the end of the first page, she was hooked". YAAS!!! VALIDATION!!
*Also, same, girl, same. I can quote that opening line back to you (but whoever you are, you don't really care, right 😉?)
-Dean's winking should've been the clue, correct?
-What happened to Brad?
*Did anyone check to make sure he made it home safe?
-Who was at Jenny's door the night?
*Was it Brad???
-Snacks in bed while reading a good book.
*A truly underrated joy ❤️


I was bit confused as to how Dean got Jenny's number (seeing as she's new in town and they never talked), but him being a computer wiz, he probably hacked into the school's online directory that might've been updated? But besides the me not quite buying Dean as the big bad, I really enjoyed this. I felt the isolation in Jenny's life/her family's big new house. Just the idea that she can't trust anyone because she is so new in town, and there's no one to help her out of danger (who believes her, anyway) because of the physical isolation made for a really spooky read.

[Courtney Gruenholz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was Carol Ellis' first entry into the Point Horror series and I think her first for young adult/teen fiction maybe not sure because it said she wrote for other series in her bio but I digress...

I think her writing in this particular type of genre grew stronger as she continued and it was interesting enough for me to read it late at night once my child was asleep to kick back and relax.

Jenny Fowler and her parents just moved to Rimrock but they are about to go back out of town to close on the sale of their old house...leaving Jenny on her own. High school is weeks away and Jenny gets invited by her fellow teenage neighbor Sally to a scavenger hunt with the other teens from the high school.

Some of the people Jenny meets are really nice but this one girl named Diana is very rude to Jenny but when the news comes that Diana had an accident during the scavenger hunt when a storm suddenly hit...Jenny realizes it might not have been one.

She swears she heard Diana scream and it seems sort of strange that just before this Jenny starts getting phone calls and gifts from a "secret admirer". The messages are sweet, the flowers are a nice touch but then...a dead rattlesnake! There's no way these could be from the same guy...right?

We get a good, small group of suspects and suspicion even falls on Jenny (which is sort of ridiculous but the other teens don't really know her and Diana was kind of snooty to Jenny so...) but we know better.

Tension builds, we get a perfect red herring and then a twist reveal. After the climax, the ending drags out a little too much to get some exposition out of the way and sort of fizzles out to a typical ending for one of these books...you know the "it's all over now and life can go back to being mediocre and mundane"

Oh and I know they are in other Point Horror books but if you are a dog lover or owner such as myself...you'll get a freak out moment and that's the only spoiler I'll give. It's also why I didn't give the book four stars...I almost cried.