Series Books- Fear Street Seniors: Last Chance by R.L. Stine

"Cheating on a test can be MURDER!!"


Fear Street Seniors: Last Chance (Book 5)

by R.L. Stine

available from Amazon and Barnes and Noble. (Not available from Half Price Books)

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.

Until next time... Stay Optimistic!!!

Series Books- Fear Street Seniors Book 4: No Answer by R.L. Stine

"The phone line is DEAD!!"


Fear Street Seniors: No Answer (Book 4)

by R.L. Stine

Most of the plots and stories in the Fear Street Seniors series to date have felt contrived or just played out in other Fear Street books that I had read in the past. This one though felt fresh and interesting. This book focuses on one of the girls in the senior class that has recently been released from a mental health institution after the death of her sister. There is a part of the book where you understand that the main character, Clarisse, had a bond with her sister which doesn't happen frequently with Stine's books. Many of them simply are devoid of human emotion. You could literally change the name of any character and fit them into another role without taking something away from the book. This isn't true with "No Answer". The main characters are not interchangeable. Each has a personality and serves the purpose of the plot to discover who killed the person in the book. 

The book continues with the cliched surprising chapter endings with a not so shocking reveal of what really is happening at the beginning of the next chapter, but some of that has dwindled in this volume. There is actual payoff with some of the chapter endings. We see that horrible things are really happening to Clarisse, which makes this by far a better book than the three previous volumes of the Senior series. To date if you only wanted to read a single book in this series this would be the one to read. This story is quick to read, interesting, and leaves you gasping at the ending. I wish more of the series was like this one, but alas most to date have just been fun trips down a street that used to be entertaining for a young high schooler. It is ceasing to be as entertaining to a 31-year old adult who wants a little bit more thoughtful plot development. I still plan on finishing out this series, but Fear Street may be a road I don't find myself going down as often in the future.

Until next time... Stay Optimistic!!!

Fear Street Friday- "Fear Street Seniors: The Thirst" by R.L. Stine

Fear Street Seniors #3: The Thirst

by R.L. Stine

3 Faerie Points

These books can get a little mundane as an adult reading them because of Stine's chosen style to be shocking at the ending of every single chapter. Chapter Ends: "Becky shrieks" Next Chapter Opens: "Becky saw a spider is why she was shrieking". Sometimes this makes you want to yawn very hardcore. This book does pick-up some of the steam for the series overall though. We finally have a real death and we can see where things might be going for the rest of the series. Trisha Conrad, a girl in the senior class that had a psychic vision about all the seniors dying, is obviously going to be an important character throughout the series since she has been mentioned in every single book to date, while many other characters haven't made even the first appearance. 

This book focuses on the horror stereotype of the vampire. It is funny to read this particular book now because of "Twilight" being so huge still, but this follows some of the cliched things we immediately associate with vampires, though the ones here can indeed step into the sunlight (no they do not sparkle jeeze). In this book you are trying to figure out who the vampire is that is draining the blood of people, but it is pretty apparent if you follow the formula of the first two books or if you have read any other Fear Street book. By the end you go "Okay, so (insert character name) is the vampire thanks captain obvious". *Not giving you any spoilers since you know you should actually read these things I post about hehe*

The main reason that this volume gets 3 points instead of 2 is it picks up the pace a bit, as previously mentioned. Characters actually die in this book, which makes you start to believe the series will have a bigger pay off at the end. This is still in the first 1/3 of the 12 book series, so I wasn't expecting these first few books to be all that great. They have to build to something, but the nice thing is that they are not direct continuations of each other. They all to this point have independent stories that can be read singularly, so anyone can pick up one in the series that sounds interesting to them without having to read all of them. 

I should also mention that anyone that enjoys reading about twins this book does feature twin sisters prominently. They go through it, but they are the main characters here, so you will see how they interact with each other. The issue is do not go in expecting a lot of characterization of them as twins because they are pretty much different as night and day. Also Stine tends not to give his characters a very clearly distinct personality for some reason. I think this could be because of the fact that there are 12 books in the series and he isn't sure which characters he will need for what yet, so having them to defined could result in them being unusable in future books. 

The Fear Street books are easy reads. You can read them in the matter of an hour or two, so don't worry about wasting your life away from reading this drivel, but if you like a quick horror story that will tantalize you you can pick these up. There are ones you will enjoy and others you will not. It all depends on what tale Stine is weaving at the time. 

On My Shelf Book Review: Fear Street Seniors- In Too Deep (Book 2)

Fear Street Seniors: In Too Deep (Book 2)

by R. L. Stine

2 Faerie Points

Another of the senior books bites the dust. In this book we see the cliche of a summer camp introduced. A senior is working at it. The first two books are basically the summer before senior year, which makes sense because you technically become a senior at that time. It appears though that the real story doesn't start until the next book called "The Thirst" when the seniors it appears actually start to die and the mystery of who is doing it gets introduced (I read the blurb for the next book that was in this one, so shoot me). 

This book is very predictable with the horror aspect of it. You won't be left going "Oh I didn't see that coming." At least not if you are familiar with any other horror story in existence. There will be a part of you that yawns through this particular book in the series as it feels like mainly filler because they wanted it to be a year long series. The only nice thing is for most of the book you are laughing at the main character because you know that the troubled kid in the book is not the kid he thinks it is. It became apparent while reading this book that I have developed as a reader and understand good writing, which this is not. To fit into stereotypes of your genre isn't a pretty thing, which makes this a less joyful read than the first book in the series that actually spent time to introduce us to all the characters in a reasonable fashion (a simple party without focusing on them). This book had little redeeming qualities about it though. 

This book would have received 1 faerie points if it hadn't been for the nostalgia of reading a Stine book.  As previously stated I devoured these books as a child, but I recognize now that sometimes our taste matures. I have definitely found stronger and a lot better fiction than this. I am going to read the rest of the series because it has been on my bucket list for far too long and it is time to knock it off, but I hope that they are not all as painful as this particular book or I may have to kill someone myself. 

On My Shelf Book Review: Let's Party by R.L. Stine (Fear Street Seniors Book 1)

Fear Street Seniors: Let's Party (Book 1)

by R.L. Stine

3 Faerie Points

As a teenager I used to devour the "Fear Street" books. I would go to the Muncie Mall bookstore and always turn the corner to the young adult section looking for one of these books that I hadn't previously acquired. I would devour them in no time at all and wish that I could read the next one. There are some good memories attached to these books thus I decided to purchase them again as an adult. 

I never had the opportunity when I was reading the series previously to read the Senior series, so I wanted to start my trip back down Fear Street with it. One of the important things that it has been important for me to recognize is that I am not the same reader that I was when I used to read these horror books. I can spot bad writing or a bit lousy writing better than I could back then. Stine is not bad writing, but he uses a formula at the end of every chapter that gets frustrating to read. He always had to finish the chapter with some horrible thing happening only to reveal that it wasn't what you thought in the beginning of the next chapter. This takes away from the writing, but it also is what makes the Fear Street books unique. They try to keep in invested and guessing what is real and isn't. 

Some of the joy of the books obviously has waned with the passing of time, which is only natural. I was shocked that I still enjoyed them as much as I did. They still hold my interest enough to get through roughly 200+ pages, but now I do so with a few eye rolls. Eye rolling is not always a bad thing in fiction writing, especially with a horror element. 

This first book in the series mainly sets the stage for the upcoming books. We are introduced to numerous members of the Shadyside High Senior class. This feels appropriate and not at all confusing since there are 11 other books featuring these characters. Stine did the intelligent thing by having the characters go to a party. This feels natural for high school students and allows us to gain a lot of names at once without being too concerned about who each of them are just yet. 

Stine made a solid first book in this particular series for young adults. Do I recommend this for the more adult reader? Probably not. There is better stuff out there to read, but for those that just want a short horror book this will keep you entertained. You won't gain any deep meaning about life, but you will be wondering if anyone will die. That is the ultimate question though in this series: Will the senior class make it to graduation? Welp, I guess I have to continue reading to find out for sure.