while other small towns might have a creepy house or two, shadyside has an entire neighborhood full of them. Fear Street seems harmless enough (the most glaring exception is the burned down mansion that serves as a reminder of Fears misfortune), but ghost stories say otherwise. the townspeople have good reason to stay away from the area.
With a renewed interest in r.l stine‘s series of young adult horror books, both experienced and new fans of fear street they might want a roundup of books to read while exploring the darkest end of shadyside. Spin-offs like cheerleaders, sagas and 99 fear street are recommended, as is anything that details the curse of the family of fear. these other standalone books help demonstrate why fear street is still revered after so many years.
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the surprise party (street of fear#2)
new readers can get familiar with something simple and grounded like the surprise party. other books frequently show characters evading a general assailant or supernatural threat, but here, the story’s only death occurs in the past. Stine watches close-knit friends deal with the one-year anniversary of someone’s death; Evan accidentally shot himself. When protagonist Meg learns that Evan’s ex-girlfriend Ellen is visiting Shadyside after moving in, she plans a surprise party at a restored mansion in the woods of Fear Street. however, someone in meg’s group doesn’t like the idea and intimidates her with phone calls before escalating to bigger scare tactics.
The author boldly reveals the identity of the supposed villain shortly before the final act. with fear street, nothing is what it seems. grief, loss and trauma are studied with special attention. on top of that, surprise party has a minor exposé on shadyside, including why the woods on scare street are so grim and weird; the birds’ refusal to enter the forest defies science, apparently people disappear there all the time and “fearful animals [attack] with strange ferocity.”
haunted (street of fear #7)
While it might seem like the high death rate would keep Fear Street depopulated and cheap, the neighborhood is more diverse than expected. bad dreams depicts a widow and her daughters who move there because they can no longer afford their house in the wealthier section of the northern foothills, but as seen in haunted , Fear Street hosts a variety of incomes. Rich girl Melissa is anxious for school to start, but one summer, around her seventeenth birthday, a menacing ghost named Paul haunts her bedroom. The spirit claims that Melissa killed him even though she has no recollection of doing such a thing, and he has no idea how she did it. However, he promises to help Paul solve the mystery.
in particular, enchanted addresses the economic divide in shadyside (for example, old town is considered the poor part of town) and inserts real-world dangers, as evident when melissa is harassed repeatedly by a group of drunk, young men. what seems like a simple ghost story turns out to be a harsh clash between social classes, and also shows how redemption is never too late. Furthermore, Paul is abnormally nuanced; stine tends to simplify his characters to help readers identify with them more easily. however, in this book, he goes even further in figuring out his very troublesome antagonist.
lights out (street of fear #12)
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lights out and the movie fear street: part two – 1978 are set in camp nightwing. In the book, Holly leaves Fear Street to help out at his Uncle Bill’s summer camp, though he is inexperienced and has an aversion to snakes. his friend thea is there, but the other counselors make their disdain for holly apparent. In addition to personal conflicts, Holly suspects that someone wants to sabotage his uncle’s camp; he leaves behind a trademark red feather when litters collapse, canoes are damaged, and another councilor is killed.
bill schmidt handled many of the original fear street book covers, and his eagerly realistic illustration for lights out is found among the best. He anticipates what lies ahead for Holly as he hopes to survive Camp Nightwing. while only one character, other than the killer, is killed in the story, his death (his entire face is obliterated by a potter’s wheel) is one of the most gruesome in the entire series. stine pays homage to Friday the 13th in more ways than one with this entry.
prom queen (street of fear#15)
stine can be accused of writing boring or shallow characters, but lizzy and her friends in prom queen have no such problem. the author gives each of the protagonists a distinct, if not unpleasant, personality. Fans of sorority row‘s caustic wit may enjoy the wickedness of this particular group. As authorities deal with a possible serial killer roaming free on Shadyside, Lizzy and her closest friends, Rachel, Dawn, Simone and Elana, are nominated for prom queen. the competition then turns fierce as the candidates begin to die, one by one.
stine’s morbid and often overlooked sense of humor helps to score prom queen. Lizzy’s companions, while certainly mean, entitled, and self-absorbed, elicit a few laughs with their harsh one-liners and treacherous behavior. the story itself feels more like a contemporary teen slasher. And before Stine finally gave up the practice, she had characters appear in several books; for example, lisa blume from the new girl and the surprise party is mentioned here.
sunburn (street of fear #19)
Claudia, Sophie, and Joy are invited to stay at Marla’s family’s beachside house for the weekend. The four teenagers first met at summer camp and have struggled to keep in touch ever since something terrible happened there. that terrible incident may also be related to the strange events of this weekend; All three guests suspect that Marla is actually punishing them for her involvement.
Several fear street stories employ a basic whodunit format. it is true that not all of them are as effective as sunburns. moving the story to the beach and away from the show’s namesake neighborhood or shadyside high school is a good move; it just goes to show how the residents of fear street are doomed no matter where they go. Stine drops some viable red herrings and even establishes a prom night revenge motive, but ultimately, the book takes a different direction.
an evil summer (street of fear #25)
once again, fear street is in the rearview mirror for a young resident, at least during the summer. Amanda Conklin and her family travel from Shadyside to Seahaven; the mother wants to finish writing a magazine article for work and the daughter is taking up algebra again. While at their summer home, the Conklins hire a babysitter named Chrissy for the kids. However, Amanda gets the feeling that Chrissy is not who she says she is and investigates her past in an attempt to save her family’s future.
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A Wicked Summer and Lois Duncan’s Summer of Fear share similarities; the teenagers in both books fight against young usurpers who may or may not possess supernatural powers. A series of bizarre incidents fuel Amanda’s paranoid accusations and alienate her from her parents. it is clear who the perpetrator is and the explanation behind her abilities is overlooked. however, unlike other fear street entries where the villain’s identity is revealed at the end of the story along with the final stretch of his master plan, the book deals its cards early to ensure a sustained and terrifying cat and mouse. to the end.
changed (street of fear #31)
stine has stated that switched is one of his two favorite fear street books, the other being silent night. after reading this fast-paced and twisted story, it’s understandable why the author singles it out. Nicole is having a hard time lately, so when Ella’s best friend Lucy de Ella convinces her to switch bodies, she accepts her offer. After walking into the forest of Fear Street, holding hands, and jumping over a magical wall, the minds of the two teens are swapped. However, Nicole soon discovers why Lucy wanted to change in the first place: she has committed a heinous crime and wants Nicole to take the blame for her.
using a first-person perspective, stine taps directly into nicole’s innermost thoughts and pathos when she is suddenly trapped inside lucy’s body. The book is not like other body-swapping narratives, in that there is a considerable twist to Nicole’s ordeal. switched is an energetic, heady, and surprisingly downbeat read.
bad moonlight (fear street super chiller #8)
It’s been three years since Danielle’s parents died in an accident, and she and her brother now live with their aunt. Danielle defers college so she can sing in a touring indie band. meanwhile, her fantasies are becoming too realistic; Danielle dreams that she is an insatiable animal who may or may not be responsible for the death of her bandmates. Hypnosis therapy doesn’t seem to be helping her problem, and Danielle’s bloodlust is out of control.
The thirteen books in the original super chiller collection are slightly longer than the standard fear street books, and were often set around specific themes. Holidays (Christmas, New Year, Valentine’s Day) or during the summer. Bad Moonlight is unique in that it introduces werewolves to the franchise. fans of the howls series can find delight in this beastly mystery.
trapped (street of fear#51)
a bright student named elaine is sentenced to Saturday detention, along with four other troublesome students, by the new principal, mr. wild. once there, she follows the others into what turns out to be a labyrinthine tunnel under the school. Her innocent truancy case quickly turns into a day of terror when they accidentally release something hidden in the walls, something disembodied and ferocious. Soon, the teenagers are stalked by the relentless red mist that can wrinkle someone’s body in seconds. however, getting out alive seems pointless, because the way they got in is no longer accessible.
Although the original fear street series unfortunately came to an end in 1997, it didn’t go out with a whimper: the last entry is a total scream. the series had no qualms about mixing things up by offering both tangible and supernatural threats; harmful humans roamed the shadow side as much as paranormal forces did. trapped falls squarely into the latter category. This well-paced book features a common setup – students stuck in detention have to work together to overcome a problem – and adds a touch of horror to it. furthermore, the monster in the story fits in with amorphous creatures like the one in the stain.
the stepbrother (new fear street#1)
yet another teenager suffers premonitions of her death in her stepbrother; Sondra is convinced that she is experiencing flashbacks from a tragic past life after a friend hypnotizes her as a prank. just as sondra’s stepfather and stepbrother eric move into her house, she is overwhelmed by these visceral but vague memories of her previous life. She seeks the help of a professional hypnotist, but this only compounds her memory and makes her suspect that Eric is involved. are their souls entangled, not to say unlucky? Sondra’s paranoia grows until fate finally takes over.
The series returned as new scare street in 1999, with an unreleased holdover from the original series, the stepbrother, kicking off. however, the return was short-lived, as there were only four books. Still, Stine doesn’t miss a beat on the first one. she maintains her propensity for unexpected and outrageous twists, and the one here is great.
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