Secret Admirer

Fear Street #36

by R.L. Stine

Fear Street – Where your worst nightmare lives... Selena has it all. She just scored the lead in her high school play, and everyone adores her. So when she starts receiving dead flowers from a secret “admirer” named The Sun, she just assumes it’s a harmless fan. But Selena soon realizes that The Sun is serious… dead serious. First, her understudy is injured in a suspicious accident. Then, a speeding car almost kills her! Selena doesn’t know what this psycho wants… All she knows is that her number-one fan has become her number-one nightmare.

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

160 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1996

About the author

Robert Lawrence Stine known as R. L. Stine and Jovial Bob Stine, is an American novelist and writer, well known for targeting younger audiences. Stine, who is often called the Stephen King of children's literature, is the author of dozens of popular horror fiction novellas, including the books in the Goosebumps, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, The Nightmare Room and Fear Street series.

R. L. Stine began his writing career when he was nine years old, and today he has achieved the position of the bestselling children's author in history. In the early 1990s, Stine was catapulted to fame when he wrote the unprecedented, bestselling Goosebumps® series, which sold more than 250 million copies and became a worldwide multimedia phenomenon. His other major series, Fear Street, has over 80 million copies sold.

Stine has received numerous awards of recognition, including several Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards and Disney Adventures Kids' Choice Awards, and he has been selected by kids as one of their favorite authors in the NEA's Read Across America program. He lives in New York, NY.

http://us.macmillan.com/itsthefirstda...

Reviews

[Monica]

Este libro forma parte de mi lista de favoritos de la colección de la calle del terror.
R.L. Stine nos da una historia llena de suspenso y plagados de teatro.
Lo que más me gusta de este libro son las cartas que el "admirador" le va dejando a Selena, le dan un toque bastante diferente ya que en el resto de los libros no contiene este formato.
Disfruto estos libros cada que los vuelvo a leer.
Me encanta cuando al fin llegamos a la parte de las revelaciones y podemos saberlo todo.

[Monica]

Otra historia que me encantó, su trama y la ambientación con la chica del teatro te engancha de inmediato y eso de que como firma deje una calcomanía de sol es super intrigante, necesitamos saber quién es y sobre todo sus intenciones.

[Ken]

It's great to see some Fear Street novels getting reissued after the Netflix trilogy.

Whilst this is a perfect example of what you'd expect from a 90's teen horror novel, I feel that there were much better titles that they could have chosen from.

The simple plot sees popular star of all school productions Selena recieve numerous threats throughout as she prepares for the latest production of Romeo and Juliet.

The threats certainly felt plausible but the identity of the stalker was pretty easy to figure out quite early on.

[Just A Ginger]

Nope.

This one just wasn't very fun. A girl has someone stalking her leaving her gifts, notes and trying to kill her.


Is it her crazy ex boyfriend? Is it the new mystery guy who knows way to much about her?

Which by the way was really creepy, really.



Or was it her best guy friend who is going through a rough time at home, and keeps saying "Danny can't have everything that I want!"


Nope it was the best friend the entire time! Who was jealous and thought Selena was conceited and forgot about her these days. She wanted her best friend back I suppose.

But don't worry of course the problem was solved by the killer being killed, per usual in the Fear Street books. They don't really believe in arrests or justice do they? Just killing people off left and right.


This one was just to bland for me, no new ideas, and although the characters were actually not annoying (okay they were a little) they were just so flat. The problem with these books, like always, is I don't care if anybody dies because they all seem like idiots.




I basically just read these for their twists at the end, and this twist was bland and boring.

[Chantal]

Not the best story I have read from RL Stine. At times the main character was arrogant and weird. Also the conversations between people was unusual.

[Obsidian]

I can't help it, the Fear Street books are some of my favorite reads. Maybe because I will forever be amused that people live anywhere near Fear Street or Fear Woods. And that the FBI has not just come in and taken over since the Shadyside Police don't seem to have the ability to solve crimes without a teen coming to the solution first.

"Secret Admirer" follows Selena, a high school senior at Shadyside High School. Selena we find out is the best drama student at the school and has successfully finished a role and is now ready to audition for Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. However, someone called "The Sun" wants to make sure that Selena does not try out for the play. He keeps warning her that someone will pay if she doesn't back out of the play. But Selena just thinks it's someone messing with her, until the accidents start and someone is murdered.

As one of my friends on Twitter says this series is so bonkers but you got to love it. The reasons behind some of these murders are sometimes the most petty things ever. And this one I thought was no different, but with a slight twist to it. I liked following Selena and of course her fear that her ex (Danny) her close friend (Jake) and her new love interest (Eddy) may be The Sun.

The other characters are given bare bones back development (come on, at this point you know how Stine writes so it's not a shocker). I will say though that Stine writing Eddy as way way too obsessed with Selena did not endear the character to me. He was creepy.

These books are always a fast read, and I do enjoy reading them at this time of the year when the days are getting shorter and the evenings longer. This was a great spin again with Fear Street.

I read this for Halloween Bingo 2021, "Trick or Treat" square.

[Zoey De Leon]

Secret Admirer follows the typical formula of a Fear Street story that deals with an unknown stalker but not considered a killer as nobody dies in this book, just threats and critical injuries, kinda disappointing since I am expecting atleast a body count on every Fear Street book I read.
This also lacks with the over horny teenagers presented throughout the other Fear Street books and it may seem irritating when it's always present, I kinda missed those character thoughts as there's nothing to be find here.

All in all, it's an alright and mainly a bland Fear Street book it's kinda disappointing because of the lack of what I expected common tropes especially the killings, atleast it was never boring and it's just irritating at times.


I also want to note that it's funny that the climax reminded me a bit of Scream 2, just a little bit because of the setting of the climax and this book was relased one year before the Scream sequel was shown

[Tara]

Bonus points for having a character named Jake Jacoby aka Jacob Jacoby aka yikes.

[Brandon]

Secret admirer starts with a prologue, so you no it's going to be good .The prologue is really a letter written to a girl named Selena, whose nickname is Moon . It's a weird creepy, stalkery letter. After this we get the main story. It begins with Selena, a girl who used to be overweight but is now super popular with everyone because of her acting skills .She just ended a play with all of her other friends that are in the play, or stage hands. Some of her friends ask her if she's going to the after play party and she decides to go, but not before she gets a letter and some dead flowers. she assumes it's just a prank. There's a little yellow sun sticker on the card and is signed by the sun. She brushes It off as a prank presumably by this guy named Danny who used to date her and wants nothing more to get back with her. They get to the party and she meets this guy named Eddie ,who she is attracted to. but she can't help but wonder why he looks so familiar to her .They find out that there's another play coming up Romeo And Juliet. Selena and a girl named Allison are both auditioning to be Juliet. There's a couple of guys auditions to be Romeo including one of her friends named Jake Jacoby which is a really stupid name . She ends up getting more letters and other stuff in the mail intending to hurt her including poison ivy flowers and a dead rat. There are also people getting hurt because of Selena ,accidents intended for her. The story follows a similar formula that we've seen countless of times with Stine. A bunch of red hearings and a very engaging plot ,and some very good atmospheric moments and generally creepy ones.I honestly did guess the killer, but I didn't expect it really be that person .Secret admirer was a really fun book, up until the end. It was very left feild with a rushed climax . I still had questions that I wanted answers for. Other then that the book was just fine. I give it a three out of five stars.

[Mindy G.]

MM $8.67 Ebay 7/3/25

[فرفری موی غزل ساز]

آخرین کتابی که توی ژانر وحشت خوندم، مربوط به 10 سال پیش و مجموعه‌ی لردلاس از دارن شان بود. البته باید بگم این کتاب به اندازه‌ی اون مجموعه ترسناک نبود ولی به هر حال، خوب بود.
داستان در مورد دختر نوجوونی به نام سلناست که استعداد فوق‌العاده‌ای توی تئاتر داره. سلنا به عنوان نقش اول نمایش رومئو و ژولیت انتخاب میشه ولی به طور همزمان، یادداشت‌های تهدیدآمیزی به دستش می‌رسه. یادداشت‌هایی که بهش هشدار میدن توی نمایش بازی نکنه.
سلنا به این تهدیدها توجهی نمی‌کنه اما با گذشت زمان، تهدیدها خطرناک‌تر میشن و چندتا از دوستانش آسیب جدی می‌بینن. چیزی که برای من قابل قبول نبود، این بود که سلنا این موضوع رو به صورت جدی با پلیس یا معلمش در میون نذاشت. معلمش خیلی سرسری از این موضوع رد شد در صورتی که سلنا می‌تونست یادداشت‌های تهدیدآمیز رو به عنوان مدرک بهش نشون بده. می‌تونم درک کنم که این نمایش براش خیلی مهم بوده، اما نه اون‌قدری که بخاطرش دوستانش آسیب ببینن.
آیا سلنا می‌تونه بفهمه فردی که تهدیدش می‌کنه کیه؟ این فرد خطرناک، دوسته یا دشمن؟

[Kweeby]

I’ve read one other book in this series and it had the exact same twist. Can’t wait to read a third and see if they’re all the exact same book

[Layla]

This book wasn’t too bad. The main character was a little bit weird and it wasn’t my favorite.

[Flakita94]

Secret Admirer, by R.L. Stine is a book about Selena. Selena is a senior with a great talent. After getting in drama and taking parts in big roles she has become the star of the whole school. Everything in her life seems just fine then the night of her play someone leaves her a gift. This gift isn't like any other. She comes to find a bouquet of black dead roses. She is so angry and disgusted by what she finds. To her surprise there is a note in it. At first she thinks this is all a sick joke. Selena thinks it could be one of her friends who has known her for a very long time. She as well thinks it could be her ex-boyfriend. At a point she is so confused because they both tell her that they would never do that.
That very same night she is going to a party. Everything seems fine till her and her friend get chased. At this point they are scarred and don't no what to do. When they finally arrive to the party they see it was just someone playing a joke on them. At this party they see this one guy who they have never seen before. When she finally gets to meet him she is a little frightened on how much he knows about her. So many weird things happening to her but it doesn't stop there. She keeps on finding all these sick gifts and feels like she is being stalked with all the things that are going on around her. Who could it be her dear old friend, Her ex-boyfriend, Or the oddly new guy who knows a little to much about her.
This book is a great book. Stine is one of my favorite authors. He really knows how to keep me on my toes. I would really recommend this book to anyone why likes suspense. The author is trying to say in this book is to trust the people you know. They may seem like they might do so many things to you but then again you may be wrong. Also that whenever you are in this kind of things that maybe you should tell some one. You should also be a little protected because you never know who may be watching you.

[J.D.]

Selena is the star of the school's drama department. While she does have a couple different boys fighting for her attention, it's her new secret admirer that really frightens her.

Not only does her admirer send her disturbing gifts and threatening letters, they also seem to be behind the deadly accidents at the school's theater.

High school drama at it's finest in this Fear Street book. While I did think the story itself was okay, there were a couple of things I didn't like so much...

The way the guys behaved towards the girls by grabbing them and getting angry when told no is a bit disturbing. Also there was quite a bit of fat shaming in this one.

I do realize though that back when these books were published it wasn't such a big deal to put those kinds of things in books so I'm not going to hold those things against the book.

I was also however able to figure out who the admirer was almost right away.

Overall I have to say I LOVE these Simon Pulse shiney covers! They are by far my favorite!

[Eric]

I miss when YA books took an hour and change to read and were horror instead of fantasy. This one was a good palette cleanser after The Night Circus, which, while enjoyable, was incredibly slowly paced and pretty long at over 500 pages. Fear Street books are quick and dirty gut punches, devoid of insight or character development, every chapter ending with a scream or a dead body. As usual I found myself wishing there was just a tad more to cling to--relationships are bare-bones, and you wish you knew a bit more about the characters. The identity of the stalker becomes obvious within ten pages. But our main character almost gets hit by a car, and that's pretty exciting.

[Ross Bethune]

I unfortunately saw the plot twist coming but that aside I still really enjoyed it, Selena was a good character but a little ehh at some points

[Michelle]

4.5⭐️
“Gott sei Dank ist diese Vorstellung jetzt vorbei!“
“Hey,sag das nicht!“/“Vielleicht war das auch nur der erste Akt!“
Mir gefällt das eher offene Ende, sodass man sich selber ein Bild machen kann von dem was als nächstes geschieht. Zum Beispiel:
Was passiert mit Katy? (Schafft sie es sich zu befreien? Stürzt sie sich womöglich aus dieser Höhe um den Konsequenzen zu entkommen? Oder wird sie ordnungsgemäß der Polizei übergeben?
Was ist mit Eddy? (Ist er vielleicht ein Verbündeter von Katy? Plant er selber etwas?)
Um ehrlich zu sein vertrau ich diesem Kerl nicht ganz, alle Charaktere haben sich sonderbar verhalten und ich habe jeden mal verdächtigt, aber Eddy war mir am meisten suspekt. Ich dachte wirklich fast bis zum Ende das er und Katy unter einer Decke stecken und dieser Verdacht steht bei mir immer noch im Vordergrund, ich meine so viel wie er über sie wusste, wie er sie manipuliert hat als er sie vor das Auto gestoßen hat + wie er sie ständig angestarrt hat🤨
Ob Machenschaften oder kranke Besessenheit, Selena sollte schleunigst die Beine in die Hände nehmen und Adieu zu ihm sagen.
Und auch wenn ich verstehe das dass Buch sonst vielleicht nur 3 Kapitel lang wäre, verstehe ich nicht wie sie nicht schon ein bisschen in die richtige Richtung denken konnte, ich meine komm schon Selena, du erzählst Katy als einziger Person das du Jake treffen willst und als du ankommst ist er tot?🤨
Zudem dachte ich auch Katy wäre einfach nur hinter der Rolle von Julia her, und nicht das sie so wütend ist über eine Situation über die man hätte reden können.
Der Schreibstil war gut, an manchen Stellen hat er etwas nachgelassen, aber trotzdem ist es einfach zu verstehen.

[Zach Vaughan]

Similar to the other Fear Street book, it’s nice to be in the same world and have a sense of familiarity. Predictable outcome from the beginning but a bunch of twists to attempt to throw you off. I suppose it is written for kids/teens so may surprise them.

Again characters aren’t particularly likeable but I enjoyed this book slightly more. Not an overly original or intricate story but a short and fun read. Silly character names again.

[V. Arrow]

I just don't like RL Stine's writing. I want to. I try to. I keep reading him thinking I'll find the thing that everyone else sees that I'm missing. But no, I just think he's weird and trite and bad at emotions and bad at women and not actually creepy or eerie or spooky unless you're very, very, very young. I hated his Man-Thing run, but I thought maybe I'd like him better on his own turf. I WANT so badly to like Fear Street! I really do! Maybe I just started with a bad one.

[Roman]

I loved this book especially since it’s the first fear street book I’ve read I thought it was a fun read and would recommend for beginners it was a fast paced book with understandable characters and overall a good read the only thing I did kinda guess who the killer/bad guy was at the end but atleast I didn’t guess that in the middle.

[Maryam]

سکوت میکنم که این سکوت منطقی تره :||||

[Iulius Caeser]

Oh this book makes me angry. I hate everyone in this book. I don't even know what to say. I mean it had me going "one more chapter" but bro...

[abbi-gayle ౨ৎ]

I LOVED IT SMMM

[Courtney Gruenholz]

Selena Goodrich is one of Shadyside High's star actresses since she has lost weight and ditched the glasses and pretty much gotten the lead in every production the last two years. Her friends since childhood, Katy Jensen and Jake Jacoby, are in drama too with Katy more behind the scenes and Jake more into character roles but her friend Alison Pearson is no slouch either in the acting department even though Selena always gets lead roles. The next play the drama teacher, Mr. Riordan, has planned is the staple of any Shakespeare high school production: Romeo & Juliet.

Selena is psyched to be able to perform Juliet when the teacher lets it slip that a drama coach from Northwestern University will be at the play and Selena hopes to get a scholarship to the school. Things have been tough since Selena's father died and her mother works so hard to make ends meet that Selena needs the scholarship if she wants to pursue her dream of being an actress but her mind turns to other things when she finds a bouquet of dead roses in her drama locker and a note from someone who calls themselves "The Sun" signing the creepy note with a sticker of the sun. Katy thinks it is again creepy but Selena treats it as a joke that might be Jake's work with his warped sense of humor or even a joke by her ex-boyfriend Danny Morris, who always annoys Selena every chance he gets.

The girls are followed to the cast party at Mr. Riordan's house and Katy thinks she and Selena are being followed by her stalker but it's just Danny being obnoxious. Things start to go better when Katy points out a "major babe" who we soon find out is Eddy Martin, a second year drama major from nearby Waynesbridge Junior College who will be an intern during the spring play tryouts of Romeo & Juliet. Eddy immediately takes an interest in Selena that makes her both tongue-tied and embarrassed but not as much as Danny when he pulls a prank that bruises her ego. Waiting for Katy to leave with her, Danny tries to talk to Selena again and ends up getting in a fight with Jake, who can't stand Danny even more than Selena. Danny leaves with a bloody nose and Jake apologizes to Selena for fighting with Danny but promises he won't let Danny get the lead as Romeo.

That surprises Selena the next day at try-outs when Jake does indeed go out for the role against Danny and when he snaps at her, Selena can't understand why her friend is being so strange. Selena doesn't have time for that when the wardrobe cabinet falls on top of Alison, nearly crushing her to death but she survives luckily! When Selena finds a sun sticker on the dresser and realizes Alison was sitting where Selena always rehearses her lines she knows the accident was meant for her and she begins to believe that Katy's stalker theory may be right. So things seem to have a good and bad theme going on when Eddy calls to ask Selena out on a date but then she finds a dead rat on her back porch with another calling card from The Sun admitting that Selena was supposed to be the one hurt to take her out from doing the spring play.

Selena has no intention of quitting the play, despite Katy thinking she should, and not even Danny winning the part of Romeo is enough to scare her off but when the lights fall on the stage almost crushing her and Katy getting hurt pushing her out of the way...Selena starts to become even more paranoid. On her date with Eddy, Selena learns he has been crushing on her for a long time and she tells him about her stalker to try and ease her worries. That doesn't last long when a car almost mows Selena down and Eddy claims he was trying to push her out of the way even though they were walking on the wrong side of the tunnel. Selena dismisses the thought of Eddy trying to hurt her when a bouquet of live red roses appear at her house the next day but they end up being bundled with some poison ivy leaves, which Selena is extremely allergic too...The Sun strikes again!

Now at the end of her rope, Selena's ready to find out who is behind all of this and what she finds out next will only make the situation worse as it leads to what could be her final curtain call if The Sun is able to black out this shining star...permanently.

Some characters in these Fear Street stories are pretty awful people so it's even more heartbreaking when nice characters get caught in the crossfire. If that kind of spoils it for you I'm sorry but you can get the point I'm trying to get across.

Secret Admirer is an okay book. It has a good amount of suspects for who "The Sun" truly is and you may spot who quite early on from a throw away line. Selena's an okay heroine and the plot sounds like many other books with an obsessed stalker and accidents so it's not particularly unique and it has one of those cheesy endings despite a good amount of action beforehand which just grinds to a halt.

I recommend this Fear Street book if you have yet to read it and I still can't help but give it five stars.

[Miranda]

I knew what this was/what was happening/ whodunit when they were taking about going away to college !
Maybe I read , watch, live to much in this world and maybe my teen self wouldn’t have spotted it immediately but this one was much less complex or tricky than the others

[Lea]

This book was a real page-turner. It really did keep me hooked. But unfortunately I already guessed the ending 50% into the book. For me it was kinda obvious🤷‍♀️
My favourite character was definitely Jake. Just pointing that out😂
2.5⭐️

[Liwisko]

boring ogarnęłam po 15 stronach

[Mandilynn]

As a victim of stalking IRL, you would think this one would have been a bad one for me to be reading, but I gave it a chance. I don’t really think you could say that the main character is being stalked. The “stalker” leaves some notes and kills someone but that’s kind of about it. Pretty weak for an alleged stalker. If anything, the main character is just being harassed. She’s not even technically followed since the majority of her time is at school and obviously the “stalker” happens to go to the same school. Being in the same place at the same time because you both are *supposed* to be there isn’t technically stalking.

At any rate…

I figured out who the “stalker” was pretty early on in this one. And okay, no big deal since these are usually predictable for most readers, but I’m generally pretty bad at guessing so that says a lot. My guesses are usually way out into left field, and for once I would like to be right about it being someone no one would ever suspect, because that would make things more interesting. This one just wasn’t it. You know it’s not someone random. It’s glaringly obvious.

There’s no draw to any of the characters because they are flat and boring. The twist ending isn’t much of a twist and it just ends weird. Culprit is caught, someone may or may not be dead but we aren’t going to check on them to make sure, make out session in front of culprit instead of calling the cops, end of book.

[Smiley08]

Secret Admirer is written R.L. Stine. So there is this girl she used to be a normal girl not much friends and a little fat. It all cahnged she lost weight and became popular. It was all because she started doing plays. She had a best friend her name was Kathy. They have been best friends since elementary. She was involved with her plays.
She has been the star of every play. She does it perfect. There is going to be another play which is Romeo and Juliet. Of course this is a good opportunity for her because a professor is going to watch and give a scholarship. The problem is that there is someone wanting her to quit or else. "It" is watching her every move. The auditions came and this guy showed. He was really cute well she actually met him in some party that was held after the play.
The guy and her liked each other. He asks her out on a date and she says yes. The stalker is following more and more because she did the audition for the part of Juliet. She can't trust anyone. When she thought she figured out who it was he dies. So who is it now. Everyone close to her is getting killed or hurt. The thing is she doesn't suspect of who it really is.
Secret Admirer is a really good book. It keeps you guessing and guessing who the "admirer" is. I recommend this book to anyone who likes suspense and horror. Thumbs-up to everything about the book.