Famous Last Words

Famous Last Words (2014) is a young adult supernatural thriller by Katie Alender, an acclaimed American author known for her work in the paranormal young adult genre, including the Bad Girls Don’t Die series and Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer. Drawing on her background as a graduate of the Florida State University Film School, Alender sets the novel in a version of Hollywood where cinematic history provides a blueprint for contemporary murder. The story follows teenager Willa Cresky, who moves into a historic mansion and becomes plagued by ghostly visions that connect her to a serial killer who recreates scenes from classic films. The novel explores themes of The Haunting Power of Unresolved Guilt, The Value of Intuition, and The Tension Between the Self and the Persona.

This guide refers to the 2014 Point e-book edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of graphic violence, illness, death, and death by suicide.

Plot Summary

High school student Willa Cresky moves from Connecticut to a lavish Hollywood mansion with her mother, Joanna, following Joanna’s marriage to wealthy film director Jonathan Walters. The house was once owned by the 1930s actress Diana Del Mar. Willa feels isolated and is secretly tormented by guilt over her father’s death two years prior, which she believes she caused. She performs nightly rituals with a special ring and candle, trying to contact his spirit. She has also been plagued by recurring headaches and visions since his passing, which she hides from her mother.

During their first dinner, Jonathan discusses the “Hollywood Killer,” a serial murderer who targets young actresses and poses their bodies to recreate scenes from classic films. Later, Willa is disturbed when her ritual candle is mysteriously relit, so she goes for a swim in the backyard pool to calm herself. While swimming, an unseen force pulls her underwater, and she sees the floating corpse of a young woman. Terrified, she escapes and lies to her mother and Jonathan, claiming that she was struggling after her necklace got caught in the pool filter.

Willa begins attending the elite Langhorn Academy, where her new friend Marnie Delaine warns her to stay away from their classmate Wyatt Sheppard, who is known for his obsessive research on the Hollywood Killer. In chemistry class, Willa is paired with the standoffish Wyatt and accidentally takes home his notebook. Inside, she discovers meticulous, non-public details about the murders, including the victims’ names, their dates of disappearance, and crime-scene specifics.

The supernatural events escalate. Willa experiences a vivid vision from the perspective of Brianna Logan, the killer’s first victim, reliving the terror of being held captive. Her headaches intensify, and she begins hearing whispers and seeing cryptic messages written on the walls, including “THIS IS THE KIND OF DREAM YOU DON’T WAKE UP FROM, HENRY” (83). While investigating a dripping sound, she finds the bathtub in Jonathan’s office filled to the brim with water, in which she sees a stranger’s face reflected. When she brings Jonathan and Joanna to see, the tub is empty and dry.

Willa finds a friend in Jonathan’s handsome and kind assistant, Reed Thornton. Soon, their mutual attraction culminates in a kiss. At the same time, her friendship with Marnie grows, and they attend a glamorous movie premiere together. During the event, Marnie fabricates identities for them as rising starlets, leading to Willa being photographed by the paparazzi.

Willa continues to have visions from the perspectives of the killer’s other victims, Faith Fernandes and Lorelei Juliano. She discovers a list in Wyatt’s notebook containing words related to her visions. Wyatt reveals that the list came from a psychic named Leyta Fitzgeorge. Willa visits Leyta, who explains that Willa’s rituals have opened a portal, attracting spirits. Leyta tells her that the ghost haunting her is trying to communicate something important. She also relays a message from Willa’s deceased father, “[L]ook for a shepherd” (125), which Willa interprets as a reference to Wyatt.

Willa and Wyatt discover that the sentence “This is a dream you don’t wake up from, Henry” is a line from a lost, unproduced screenplay written by Diana Del Mar. After another terrifying haunting, Willa realizes that the ghost is not Diana but Paige Pollan, a young blogger whose murder was staged as a suicide to mimic Diana’s. Paige is desperately trying to reveal the truth about her murder.

Willa’s suspicion falls on Jonathan when she learns that he owns all four movies that inspired the killer’s scenes and that the DVDs are missing. Her fear intensifies when she finds a file on his computer containing a chart with the victims’ initials, their disappearance dates, the names of the fake talent agencies used to lure them, and the inventory numbers of the missing DVDs. The chart includes Paige’s name and a new entry for Marnie, who has just gone missing.

While left home alone for the weekend, Willa is stalked by someone who has cut the phone lines. With guidance from the ghost of Paige, she escapes the main house and hides in the guest cottage, where she discovers Diana’s hidden film studio. There, she finds a film reel with the working title The Dinner Party. She remembers Reed mentioning this obscure title as a favorite movie, a detail that he could only know if he had been in the studio. With horrifying certainty, Willa realizes that Reed is the killer. Reed captures her, drugs her, and prepares to reenact the murder scene from Diana’s script. Jonathan returns home unexpectedly, and Reed attacks him, attempting to drown him in a bathtub.

Fueled by rage and a desire to save Jonathan, Willa frees herself and stabs Reed with a carving knife from the dining room. He pursues her up the stairs, but just as he corners her, Paige’s ghost materializes. The spectral vision startles Reed, causing him to slip on a wet footprint left by the ghost and fall down the stairs, knocking him unconscious. Willa rescues Jonathan from the bathtub, and together, they restrain Reed. They then find and rescue Marnie, who was being held captive in the chauffeur’s quarters. The police and paramedics arrive, taking Reed into custody.

In the aftermath, Willa, Joanna, and Jonathan move out of the house. Willa and Wyatt’s friendship deepens into a romantic relationship, while Marnie, traumatized, distances herself. Willa learns that her father’s death was the result of an undiagnosed, genetic heart condition and thus absolves herself of guilt. Before leaving the property for good, she and Wyatt return to bury the ring and book, believing that the act has brought peace to Paige’s ghost. Having faced the truth about her past and survived a horrific ordeal, Willa feels a new sense of strength and belonging as she looks toward the future.