We open once more in the head of a killer. Not just any killer this time, but a serial killer with his next victim. As soon as he’s dispatched her, it’s on to the next town: Shadyside. Ah, opening narrative from a killer, how I missed you. From there, we move on to Chelsea Richards. She plays saxophone, doesn’t have many friends, hates her life, and feels like an outsider in her family. Basically, she’s a teenager who plays saxophone. Her family recently moved into […]
Shadyside’s Real Secret
I’m not sure if this was the first Fear Street book I read or not. I do know that it was the first book I ever got to pick out brand new. I remember sitting on the floor in the bookstore (Walden Books in the mall in my grandparent’s town), looking through all the Fear Street books and trying to pick the right one. I don’t know if I was already familiar with Fear Street or if that was the moment I discovered it. I […]
You Can’t Trust Anything in Shadyside
Full disclosure: this is the first of the Fear Street books so far that I know for sure I read as a kid. I clearly remembered the cover and one particularly gruesome scene, but I completely forgot the whole plot. This one opens with a prologue, but we’re with a victim fleeing for her life instead of with the killer stalking her. This particular trick–opening with a scene from the climax of the story–irritates the crap out of me. It may be possible to do […]
Murder By Ghost
This is, I think, exactly what I expect out of a Fear Street book. Or maybe a Goosebumps book, since they seem to have a lot in common in this case. Lea and her family have just moved to Shadyside. Her parents bought a house on Fear Street, despite the fact that the attic contains a boarded up room that’s been closed off for the last hundred years because there was a murder committed inside it. That right there? That’s the Fear Street I know […]
Wonder What the Adults Would Care About
There’s no killer to introduce us to this story, but we do get to learn about how much Emily hates her hair. And pretty much everything else about herself. She’s especially wound up at the moment because her new stepfather is bringing home her stepbrother and sister, who are going to be living with them. Emily’s older sister Nancy is keeping her own room to herself, their new step brother Rich is getting put into a closet, and Emily is going to share her room […]
It’s All So Familiar
Eight books in and the plots are already being recycled. 44 more books to go. Yay for me. The similarities between The New Girl and Halloween Party are greater than having a male POV character. Lisa even makes an appearance. I’m pretty sure she should have graduated by now, but she’s also still dating Cory, so I don’t know what to do with her. There’s no use trying to keep a timeline going. There’s no introductory narration from a murderer, but there is a new […]