"Cheating on a test can be MURDER!!"
Fear Street Seniors: Last Chance (Book 5)
Fear Street Seniors: Last Chance (Book 5)
Coming off of "No Answer" (Book 4) I had a bit more hope, maybe not a lot but some, for the series overall. This didn't live up to that hope. Stine has done the student stealing tests in other books and here it just feels like him trying to fill in part of a twelve book series with something to make his money as a writer and meet his contract deadlines.It just isn't a very good book in my opinion and lacks any real character development, but as I have stated previously about the Fear Street books this seems to be the way Stine writes these characters. He wants to be able to interchange characters as he needs. Characters that didn't seem friendly in previous volumes suddenly are best friends even though someone else was saying they were that person's best friend in the previous volume. It gets a bit overwhelming trying to figure out who really is best friends in this series, but I guess that is sorta like high school where it could change every single day depending on what the person is doing for you. Popularity is a winding road and if you want to stay on it I guess you have to keep the right people around you and change your friends every book.
This book focuses on Mary O'Conner stealing a test from one of her favorite teachers. He starts blackmailing her. That is the entire premise of the book and what is sad is I am not really spoiling anything for the reader here because this happens pretty quickly within. For a 150 pages you wonder why all of this is occurring and if there is even a point to what is happening. When you reach the final conclusion you will probably have the same sour taste left in your mouth that I did. It seems a little silly and stupid. The ending could have been significantly stronger had he let it be a true horror story, but instead he settles for the normal "teenage" read. I wish he would have started to grasp that teens are okay reading horror novels that actually contain some violence and parents will not be upset with mild violence either. They will embrace it as long as it is not gratuitous. Parents allow their children to watch half the crap that is on TV. I recognize these were made several years ago, but even then we had shows like Buffy, The Vampire Slayer that actually showed a significant amount of violence. Children are capable of handing this. This book would have been better with a more impressive ending that adhered to the name of the series FEAR street. Alas it doesn't though and thus it falls rather flat on its face.
To date I would recommend only "No Answer" as the must read book in the Fear Street Seniors series. Considering this is nearing the halfway point of the series (only one more book) I do not hold a lot of hope for it improving. It is sad when a love dies when reading a series when you are an adult, but it does happen. Sometimes it is better to not revisit something and allow the nostalgic feelings that it brings to remain, so you always enjoy whatever the thing is. Be it a book, a tv show, or a toyline we enjoyed as a child. If I had done this I may have still had a deep love for the Fear Street series.
To date I would recommend only "No Answer" as the must read book in the Fear Street Seniors series. Considering this is nearing the halfway point of the series (only one more book) I do not hold a lot of hope for it improving. It is sad when a love dies when reading a series when you are an adult, but it does happen. Sometimes it is better to not revisit something and allow the nostalgic feelings that it brings to remain, so you always enjoy whatever the thing is. Be it a book, a tv show, or a toyline we enjoyed as a child. If I had done this I may have still had a deep love for the Fear Street series.
Until next time... Stay Optimistic!!!
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