The book opens with a strange, first person chapter that gives away the entire book. Corey Brooks is a gymnast at Shadyside high and a joke, and he sees a beautiful new girl at school. He has a friend of the opposite sex named Lisa Blume who obviously likes him, but he completely misses it. He's obsessed with the new girl after seeing her once, and her name is Anna Corwin. Corey literally begins to stalk her, getting the operator to give out her address and phone number (this was back when all houses had 1 one for the entire house and you could look up someone's address in a phone book unless the number was unlisted). Corey calls and the person who answers is rude and hangs up and claims there's nobody there named Anna. A few days later, he's legitimately obsessed enough to call her again and hears her screaming in the background. Instead of calling the cops, he decides to go to Fear Street to her house and meets a young man who says that Anna is dead.