IT CAME FROM THE MULTIPLEX was a super fun book that had my nostalgia feelings all a tingle. I couldn’t help but be immediately sucked in by that coveIT CAME FROM THE MULTIPLEX was a super fun book that had my nostalgia feelings all a tingle. I couldn’t help but be immediately sucked in by that cover. Look at it. Isn’t it fantastic? While I was never super into the B-movie level creature features that were just dripping in gouda, I appreciated the level of fun that some of these stories wished to recreate here because, let’s face it: they just don’t make movies like these anymore.
I also liked how everything centered around the super grimy movie theater of years past. As an adult now I pretty much won’t go to anything other than an Alamo Drafthouse, although I certainly remember those discount theaters where you were thankful the lights weren’t fully up because you just didn’t want to know what could potentially be all over your seat. And what the hell did you just step in? Anyone else’s LA Gears get spot-welded to the floor if you kept them in place for too long? No? Just me? So yeah. I totally get it.
On of my favorites was The Devil’s Reel, simply because I’m a sucker for Christianity vs the devil type stories and how those whacky plots can go so terribly wrong. I also liked the one about keeping the Old Ones in check in an old movie theater. I think that one was Creature Feature. Special Makeup was a good one too. I thought it was really unique and I liked how it was set in 1950s (I think) Hollywood.
I was totally in the mood for something like IT CAME FROM THE MULTIPLEX and I was not disappointed. It has that certain level of kitsch that pokes the nostalgia button while at the same time still being a little on the creepy side too. I liked it. I liked it a lot.
4.5
I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. ...more
SILENT NIGHT is about a morally repugnant girl named Reva who does shitty things to others and has cruel jokes played on her in return. Can’t say I feSILENT NIGHT is about a morally repugnant girl named Reva who does shitty things to others and has cruel jokes played on her in return. Can’t say I feel bad for her. From her casual disregard to anyone else’s well-being except her own, her lack of caring in doing her job, openly playing with the relationships of others, and her overwhelming selfishness, Reva’s pretty much an impossible character to like. Of course she’s practically the main character.
There’s also Pam, Reva’s cousin, who Reva shits on for seemingly no reason. All she wants is a job at the department store Reva works at/her dad owns and since Reva’s handing out jobs anyway, why not give one to her cousin? Nope. Sorry. None left. Because that would mean Reva would need to look at poor, literally, Pam and feel bad about herself and that can’t happen.
Things start happening, like a needle being stuck in Reva’s lipstick and Reva getting sent a perfume bottle filled with blood. And then bigger things. Like a robbery. And blackmail. And then people start dying. It’s anarchy!
Like most Fear Street books, SILENT NIGHT is ridiculous. It wouldn’t have been half as bad if it weren’t for the totally unlikeable main character, Reva. I mean, I guess she has a little bit of a redemption arc, but too little, too late. She sucks. But, points for death by Christmas tree. If nothing else, Stine sure knows how to kill his characters rather creatively.
Be sure to check out my recap of SILENT NIGHT going up over at The Devil’s Elbow on the 23rd!
I was super in the mood to read a Fear Street book so I picked up HAUNTED, trying to keep with the beginning of my spooky season theme I have going onI was super in the mood to read a Fear Street book so I picked up HAUNTED, trying to keep with the beginning of my spooky season theme I have going on, and was only vaguely disappointed. Ultimately HAUNTED is peak Fear Street. Melissa, basic Shadyside rich girl who’s so skinny she gets “made fun of,” is haunted by some greaser-looking dude in a Canadian tuxedo. He claims she killed him but she has no memory of killing anyone.
Considering this is Fear Street I would not have been surprised that Melissa had killed him in some blase sideswipe of her car or something and she just ditzed out and drove away from the scene/committed a felony that she got away with. Not outside the realm of expectation. But that wasn’t the case, thank god. I won’t give away the twist, but I do think it’s that twist that ultimately amped up the story from mediocre to decent.
Without that twist it would have just been a rich girl gets her comeuppance story and would have been really boring. As it stands she does spend a fair amount of time justifying the crappy personality traits of her paper weight boyfriend and even Paul the Ghost. Girl has no self-worth, apparently. But what she lacks in confidence she makes up for in hair volume. Because she has a ton of that. Another of her “flaws.” On noes. What’s a girl to do with all that luscious body???
Totally lame, but totally hit the spot in my Fear Street fix. The story was actually decent even though the characters left something to be desired (par for the course with these books) and the ending wrapped the book up nicely.
This is definitely a meh Fear Street book. The characters are just too much over the top, the plot itself is way too far-fetched, and it wasn’t that eThis is definitely a meh Fear Street book. The characters are just too much over the top, the plot itself is way too far-fetched, and it wasn’t that enjoyable. Or even really all that creepy.
None of the characters in THE DEAD BOYFRIEND are all that well-developed. They’re all pretty much parodies of people. There are the two best friends who hang out in the background and act concerned. Caitlin, the main character, who has really weird reactions to things that show she’s a bit of a psychopath but that’s not really the point of the story. She’s off the handle because REASONS and fails to suffer repercussions for anything, really. The weird chick who dresses all in black and may or may not be into some really weird stuff.
Blah.
It was just all really ridiculous. Caitlin kills Blade and then Deena Fear brings him back from the dead. But once she does that he starts stalking Caitlin out of retribution and just when you think Stine’s written himself into a corner a MAJOR PLOT TWIST happens and everything’s all better. OR IS IT?
Not Stine’s best showing. I mean it’s definitely reminiscent of the old school Fear Street books, but not the good ones. No character development, very cardboard characters that don’t even feel real, a grandiose plot that’s too ridiculous even for my suspension of disbelief. THE DEAD BOYFRIEND is probably my least favorite out of the relaunch at this point.
2
I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review....more
Another addition to the Fear Street Relaunch! CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET? mixes the more non-supernatural thriller aspects of Stine’s writing with a hint oAnother addition to the Fear Street Relaunch! CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET? mixes the more non-supernatural thriller aspects of Stine’s writing with a hint of the supernatural but they don’t quite seem to match up here. I think the story would have been fine without the added werewolf aspect but I guess it fit in okay. But just okay.
I feel like these new Fear Street books are a little more grounded than the originals. The characters don’t feel like caricatures although their development is still a little thin. At least here, though, the only seemingly ridiculous character is Danny, Emma’s ex-boyfriend and Eddie’s best friend. When things start to go south his mind is only one track for that money and it comes off as exceedingly cold. But I guess there’s always one?
For what was presented in the book I think the rest of the characters were developed enough. I got into the story just fine and I found myself trying to guess who was doing what. When the officials came into play they ended up being a bit much, rather cartoonish in how they went about their business, but considering the whole Fear Street aspect it’s not surprising.
The werewolf part . . . on its own was okay and even kind of interesting. But I felt like it was shoved into this otherwise real world storyline for reasons unknown. I think it was trying to be a subplot? I don’t know. The two storylines do end up merging at the end but it felt like that was forced. The werewolf part could have been a story of its own without mixing in this whodunnit piece and it would have done just fine. As it was that piece of the book felt rushed. So much attention was given to the money piece of the story that the werewolf part didn’t get much of a chance to develop.
Overall really not a bad new Fear Street book. I wouldn’t call it scary (really because I think it was trying to do too much at the same time) but it was entertaining and that’s all I really look for with these short read Fear Street books.
3.5
I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review....more
THE LOST GIRL seemed a bit tonally different from Stine’s other Fear Street books. A little more serious, a little better developed, a little less cheTHE LOST GIRL seemed a bit tonally different from Stine’s other Fear Street books. A little more serious, a little better developed, a little less cheesy overall. And I like it.
THE LOST GIRL was a bit more robust in the same way that I was finding Stine’s GOOSEBUMPS books more fleshed out than Fear Street. I got some decent backstory here, with a family drama playing out, and a young girl stuck in the middle of it. It teeters a little bit between the past and the present throughout but for the most part the two are very distinct and it becomes not a matter of who Lizzy is (because that’s really obvious from the beginning) but how it all came to be and how it’s actually going to end up.
This Fear Street book is different from a lot of the older ones in that the group of friends that we go through the story with are actually friends. No backstabbing or backbiting, no one’s trying to undermine the other. They genuinely care for each other and when the poop starts hitting the fan there are some serious emotions that fly around that really hang on to the characters. It’s a good place for this relaunch to be. It’s keeping to the standard Fear Street model with horror and suspense but making the characters far more relatable.
In true Stine fashion the body count in THE LOST GIRL is up there and people do die in a rather spectacular fashion. The man is rather inventive with his teenage deaths, if I do say so myself. I wouldn’t say they’re gory because he really doesn’t go into a ton of detail with them but they are gruesome and one especially elicited a shiver from me.
I have a rather blackened soul so I really wasn’t scared by this book but it had its suspenseful and thrilling moments. The end is where the real cheese of Fear Street came in and the story wrapped itself up. It definitely wasn’t out of nowhere like a lot of his past Fear Street books were but there was a little bit of corniness going on and it all came to an end rather quickly but it was good fun. I enjoyed myself reading this one.
While I appreciate the throw back to the original Fear Street books I can definitely sense the tone shifting with the series to accommodate a more demanding YA market. I fully support this relaunch and I look forward to seeing how Stine adapts it to this new generation of readers. So far things are looking good and THE LOST GIRL is a fantastic edition to the Fear Street bunch. A far better story with far better characters than the books of the past and I think it’s my favorite of the relaunch so far.
4.5
I received this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review....more
I really hate the ‘make her his bride’ part. Because it’s less about that now and I think Julian just wants to finally win a game against Jenny. Odds I really hate the ‘make her his bride’ part. Because it’s less about that now and I think Julian just wants to finally win a game against Jenny. Odds aren’t in his favor here since she’s got two out of three, but points for perseverance.
THE KILL is probably my favorite book out of the whole series. I thought it was the best written, had the most heart, the best character development, and it was certainly the creepiest. An amusement park of nightmares? Yes, please. You had me at amusement park.
I like THE KILL because the characters have real consequences for their actions. People aren’t unscathed as they go through all of this. There are repercussions to things. They’re not just coasting through, trying to hit certain tasks and getting out of tight spots through a series of conveniences. For how unrealistic the story it, this only works to ground it more in reality.
The setting is killer. I love me a good creepy amusement park. I think they’re sinister anyway but to have this mock up of one in the Shadow World is just perfect. I especially liked the museum arcade with all the really old arcade games with creepy clowns and dolls in them that made all these weird clanking, grinding sounds when you used them. There’s a place in San Francisco that it reminded me of, Musee Mecanique, that’s also a penny arcade that doubles as a museum with really creepy dolls that repel and fascinating at the same time.
Jenny’s morphed into total BAMF territory and is so fed up with Julian’s crap that she just barrels through this world with only thoughts of Tom and Zach driving her. She stands firmly on her own two feet and I love how it’s the woman rescuing the men. Michael is actually the only man in the rescue party and he’s effectively worthless (still). So it’s Jenny, leading a charge of angry women into Julian’s world to take back what’s theirs. And Smith’s othering of Dee has been brought back down to a minimum. It’s still there but nowhere near as pervasive and cringe-worthy as it was in the last book.
My recap will be going up on 11/23 over at The Devil’s Elbow so be sure to check that out when it posts! The Forbidden Game is an excellent series that I think with just some small tweaks would stand up in today’s market. It’s creepy and empowering and unlike many series it actually gets better as it progresses. Love that.
I reviewed the first book a while ago and my recap for it just went up last month at The Devil’s Elbow. This month I’m recapping THE CHASE and having I reviewed the first book a while ago and my recap for it just went up last month at The Devil’s Elbow. This month I’m recapping THE CHASE and having never read it before, of course it needed to be reviewed here too. Oh such Labyrinth-y goodness.
Granted I was a bit torn with THE CHASE. The pacing was a little all over the place and the first sentence in that blurb is really misleading. Jenny doesn’t have dudes falling all over her now. One guy asked her to the prom who wasn’t Tom. The blurb could have started with the second sentence and have been fine. Anyway, pacing. It lingers on minutiae in this book where it didn’t in the last, giving me drawn out scenes when they were postering (as in handing out posters with Summer’s face on it because everyone thinks she’s just missing) that didn’t really advance the plot at all, or the whole thing with this guy pursuing Jenny, which really wasn’t much of a thing. There’s a fair amount of cigarette lighting in the book and things don’t really start to get rolling until a little more than halfway into the book, which is far. I often felt like telling Smith to get on with it up to that point.
However, I did like the total mindfuck going on up to Game #2. They were just spaced far enough apart in that first half that they didn’t connect too well and too much time passed between them to really maintain interest. Plus Smith likes to drag on with unnecessary physical details and expounding a little too much on what’s going on in people’s heads so that slowed the plot down too. But the mindfucking was good. I wish she spent more time there.
About a third of the way through the book I started having real issues with the type of focus Smith was giving Dee, her Aba, and then a Polynesian woman. It seemed like every POC that popped up in her books were in some way otherworldly and deserving of this . . . other type of description that no one else got. Then I remembered Wing from DE mentioning not liking Smith’s othering of Dee. Not sure what that meant I looked it up. Yup. That’s it. That’s what was really bothering me. It’s almost like Smith’s overcompensating by making all of the POC in her book mystical and gorgeous and unreachable . . . except that just plays into typecasting, doesn’t it? Dee, the angry but beautiful black girl who’s regularly described as having lioness and panther-like qualities, who wants to fight constantly, and who is regularly described as having a savage or barbaric smile (OMG NO). Aba, the mystical black grandma offering pearls of wisdom to help the children along. And the Polynesian women, a cop and there for a second, was described as being model beautiful. It was just so glaring and off-putting.
Meanwhile Michael has some variety of spaniel eyes, Audrey has spiky lashes and bangs, and everyone else kinds of blends in. Smith has a real bad habit of using rather unique descriptors repeatedly. They stand out “nicely.”
Anyway, I’m a big fan of psychological thrillers and horror and THE CHASE fits better into that arena than anything else. I really, really liked the mind games Julian played, wearing the group down before taking them one by one. Truly, it’s perfect. But then we get sort of a repeat ending from book one and I want to say it’s lazy but it also plays into Julian’s character so I’m not sure which way to sway on that one. But I like that Smith went with the brain game with book two. Considering how mentally mangled those kids would be after what they went through, and with losing Summer (I have a feeling she’s not actually dead . . .) their brains would be ripe for poking. And Julian did just that. It’s demented and dark and it made me like the story even more. Jenny is standing more on her own two feet and barreling headfirst into things. Tom is no longer her crutch. Instead she stands on her own and that’s kind of awesome.
I’m looking forward to working my way through book 3 next month. Be sure to check out my recap going up at The Devil’s Elbow on the 23rd!
So kind of a turd sequel to the turd first book, Brenda is losing her mind thinking that her cousin, who’s a pretty crappy person, is out to get her fSo kind of a turd sequel to the turd first book, Brenda is losing her mind thinking that her cousin, who’s a pretty crappy person, is out to get her for reasons. I mean I can see it because Halley is stealing every guy that Brenda dates, takes her room, steals her clothes, Brenda’s parents don’t support her at all, and is an all around jerk to her so it’s really no surprise that when Brenda starts getting threatened again she immediately zeros in on Halley. Except she didn’t learn all that much from history. She had a total hard-on for it being Halley last time and it wasn’t. Why would it be the case this time? Who knows.
The plans that these kids cook up in order to frightening each other would only ever work in this Fear Street world that Stine cooks up. We’re all going to dress as skeletons and then go to Angela’s house to scare the jerk boyfriend. I’m not sure where the skeleton costumes come in, maybe I glazed over that part, but they were largely irrelevant. Really, this sequel was mostly a repeat of the last book, including the crazy chick who did it last time.
Apparently she’s okay now and wants to be friends again but gets all butthurt when Brenda’s like YOU STABBED ME GO AWAY as she should rightly do. I did like the ending of HALLOWEEN NIGHT II, though. I will give it that. It had a creepy, broken edge to it that I didn’t see coming (do I ever? no) that made things just a little uncomfortable, which is good. I shouldn’t be bored or blasé about a horror book. I want to almost say that the ending came out of nowhere but in hindsight there were enough hints dropped throughout the book that pointed to it in some way. Far better than being completely blindsided by the “twist” ending, that’s for sure. This one was actually a twist.
If I’m honest with myself this sequel was better than the first book, if for nothing more than the ending. Aside from Halley and Jake (the boyfriend) you don’t have crappy characters being crappy to each other who are supposed to be friends with each other so that’s nice and refreshing. And the ending wasn’t so outrageous and ridiculously planned that I laughed at it. So yes, an improvement. Still not Stine’s best showing but it’s better than some.
I know I read this in some Super Chiller anthology or something. Like one that combined three or four similar stories of Stine’s. But this is not the I know I read this in some Super Chiller anthology or something. Like one that combined three or four similar stories of Stine’s. But this is not the first time I’ve read THE DEAD LIFEGUARD in the last couple of years, and it was just as cheesy as I remembered it being.
The broader premise is a girl named Lindsay is starting her summer job at the country club as a lifeguard, but she shows up with a two year old ID and not on the list of lifeguards. While the other lifeguards are dying she’s finding out that maybe, just maybe, she might already be dead. DUN DUN DUN.
THE DEAD LIFEGUARD is classic Fear Street, with superficial characters that say huh a lot, weird characters that don’t really know how to people but act like how they’re acting is completely normal, and a really thin premise and resolution that, especially reading with today’s eyes, is laughable at best.
I’m not going to get into how Stine likes to play around with mental illness for the sake of plot (he does, especially in this one), or how he writes really weird teenagers as if he’s never come in contact with one and has no idea how they act. I’ll just say that this was actually a fairly creepy story as it built, until the big reveal happened and then it was just like “oh that’s dumb.” Proof that endings are everything and can kill an otherwise decent story if done poorly.
Not my favorite Fear Street book. Definitely not one of the best. Maybe somewhere in the middle, because it’s not the absolute worst, but it’s still kind of bad. Be sure to check out my recap of THE DEAD LIFEGUARD over on The Devil’s Elbow on the 23rd!
It was a different and good breath of fresh air to see someone who wasn’t perfect as a protagonist in a Fear Street book. Because I don’t really have It was a different and good breath of fresh air to see someone who wasn’t perfect as a protagonist in a Fear Street book. Because I don’t really have any experience with blind people I don’t know how accurate a representation Paulette was but I can say while reading her blindness posed a different perspective to the world in the book. While I was able to picture certain things because I know what they look like, when it came down to a character I was left with a blank slate. Paulette didn’t really know and neither did I. So I saw into the world with a curtain over my eyes and it was definitely a different reading experience as a result.
Of course, like all good Fear Street books it was silly as hell with a lot of suspension of disbelief needed to get through the plot (mainly to do with Brad but if you’re even half paying attention you’ll know what’s going on long before it’s revealed in the story). It potentially goes down the Jekyll and Hyde route or, at the very least, split personality/Sybil issues and because the character is blind it adds to the tension of what’s really going on and who’s really doing what.
Even though it’s a later Fear Street book it lends itself to its original successors. The characters aren’t irredeemable or are competing against each other for something or playing at friends but really aren’t. This could possibly be because the main character is blind and a bid to not add insult to injury and canonize her a little bit but really it was a refreshing departure from the rest of them. Friends were actually friends, no one in that friends circle had selfish ulterior motives or anything. They relied on each other and they counted on each other and I liked seeing that.
Because I figured out the “twist” (seriously, it was laughably obvious what was going on so it wasn’t any surprise) the suspense was blown for me so I didn’t find the story at all scary or thrilling but I liked the characters. Genuinely liked them. Paulette’s friends were rather standard issue but and the villain was on a level of mustache-twirling but the people who weren’t SUPPOSED to be stabbing each other in the backs weren’t and I just loved that so.
So really not the best Fear Street book in terms of story but after a string of crappy characters it’s a breath of fresh air and I just really enjoyed reading it just for the non-poop stain characters.
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