Final Exam (Point Horror)
Kelly has always been afraid of final exams. Now she’s scared to death. Something strange has been going on all week…something weird. It started with someone playing a few pranks on her at school. Trashing her locker. Stealing her purse. Then the pranks turned deadly.
Someone doesn’t want Kelly to graduate. They’ve prepared a very special final exam, just for her. And she’d better not have any wrong answers…because her life depends on it.
GOT U COVERED 📗
Author: A. Bates
Published: 1993
Series: Point Horror
Tagline: If you fail…you’ll just die.
Description: Columbine High School building, with a girl sitting by an open classroom window.
It’s gone, she told herself. Someone took it. They egged my car, ruined my locker, and stole my purse.
What is going on? Why me? What do they want? - pg. 41
SYNOPSIS 📖
Kelly and her friend Talia are stressed. It’s final’s week and the pressure is on to do the best they can before they are thrust into the world.
Luckily she’s already certain on what career path she wants to take and knows where her natural talent lies. There aren’t many female mechanics and she’s determined to be a success at it. Cars are easy to figure out. Easy to fix.
People, however, are unpredictable.
When Kelly stumbles across a book titled WINNERS, she has no idea who it belongs to. Perhaps she can find out and return it. But someone saw her take it and they want it back. They’ll do anything to have it…even if it means putting her life in danger.
There can only be one winner, so Kelly will just have to lose.
After a series of threats, there is no way that this is just some of her peers goofing around and playing jokes. This is personal. But who could it be?
Is it her jealous sister? Her angry ex-boyfriend? Who could it be?
She better find out and quickly…or this could be her final week.
It’s not just vandalism anymore, she thought. I can’t think why someone would want to hurt me. But someone does. Someone is serious. Someone hates me. If I don’t know why, can I figure out who? How would I go about figuring who? There’s no starting place. - pg. 78`
THOUGHTS 💭
Kelly, our main character, was a nice surprise. She’s funny, has a good sense of self-awareness, is ambitious in her career and very perceptive. I like the fact that she isn’t your traditional girl’s girl, but still has this confidence in who and what she is, without having to compromise her appeal or likability. Very early on when she starts to experience the attacks against her, she is in detective mode. Her suspicion on everyone, even those close to her, has you guessing and suspecting alongside her rather than yelling at her to open her eyes because we clocked who the antagonist is. And yes, while I did clock who it was pretty early 🧐, it was still enjoyable to read how Kelly rationalized certain people’s motives for being possible suspects. She was even able to have me second guessing myself quite a few times.
The book has many set pieces, but takes place mainly in the high school (for obvious reasons), but what I found interesting is that although it isn’t stated within the book itself, the cover suggests that this is set in Columbine High School. Yes, that Columbine! Which added an eerie underlying layer given what would sadly happen in real life years later.
It’s paced fairly well. It's 43 chapters which at first I was like WHOA!, however they fly by pretty quickly and don’t feel longer than they should be. Every chapter has events that feel intentionally placed and part of the overall plot and story, rather than some random filler sub-plot which isn’t necessary. I also like how the antagonist’s dialogue was used as a marker for where we were in the days of the week. It allowed the story to breathe and settle at the intended pace even though it went by pretty fast.
I loved it when Kelly had a moment of heartfelt reckoning with the characters at the party, especially with her younger sister Susan and love-interest Tad. She took accountability for her own actions and missteps within the relationships she has built. It showcased a true level of maturity, which fit with the secondary theme of growing up and changing.
Another moment (or rather moments) from the book I found amusing was the internal thoughts and paranoia of the antagonist. It was actually amusing how intensely they felt about this WINNERS book and had me puzzled as to what was actually inside it that made it so special that they were willing to kill for it. What made this great was that the reader knew the version of events (as told through Kelly) and how they actually took place, however our antagonist has their own skewed and unreliable idea of what took place, so we get to experience and see their descent into paranoia and irrational thoughts all while knowing the truth.
A writing choice I appreciated and thought was a clever callback to the antagonist’s book was using the word “winner” in each of the suspects’ dialogue within the final act of the book. This still kept the detective hat on the reader as to who the culprit was, until the final reveal.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. I think that this is definitely one of the better written books I’ve read thus far. What I’m noticing is that female authors within the Point Horror series definitely write their characters more realistically than their male peers (not surprising I guess); but I really loved how Kelly was able to have layers in her actions, thoughts and logic. It made me really enjoy her character and the story that much more.
I would definitely recommend this book as a fun weekend read to get lost in a story that on the surface seems silly, but actually has plenty of moments where you will laugh out loud, keep guessing who the antagonist is and gain a lesson on how to write a relatable teen girl who is multi-layered and complex.
My grade for the Final Exam is an A+
