Bless. There’s a point in this book when you want to shake Corky, Debra, and Kimmy. And I just shook my head. But honestly though, most of the book works. I do love that when I think of Christmas these days, my first thought goes to crazed killers though. Reading R.L. Stine as a teen will do that to you. This is the fourth book in the Fear Street Cheerleaders series. Just a continuation of the prior installments with Corky and her friends trying to put to rest the evil all over again. The main reason why I gave this 4 stars though is that at one point it felt like Corky didn’t even care that [redacted] died. It just happened and she was like but now the evil is gone. And I went…um so is [redacted] maybe stop kissing [redacted] and being all now it’s Christmas Eve. One of the main reasons why I didn’t really gel with the Fear Street movie that came out last year was that I thought the adaption really just ignored the fact that teens kind of suck and do stupid stuff. Also they didn’t even have any absentee parents just randomly missing for days on end while their kids were trying to outrun murderers.
“The New Evil” follows Corky and Kimmy as they leave cheerleading one snowy night with their friend and fellow cheerleader Hannah. But after their car is in an accident, Hannah is thrown through the windshield. This is enough for the girls to worry that somehow the evil has escaped all over again though Corky drowned it last time. Debra seems obsessed with calling up something that will protect them this time, and Corky just wants to focus on her sort of boyfriend Alex. With the accidents piling up, followed by some deaths, Corky knows she is going to have to try to defeat the evil one more time.
Corky is kind of….not smart in this one at all. She seems really worked up most of the book, but wants to ignore what is going on and focus on Alex, who is not all that. I think a few times I went if I have to read about his dimple one more time. I just felt like this Corky was more diminished than the girl we got to know through 3 books to this point. Kimmy and Debra feel weirdly absent in this one too. We focus too much on the new cheerleaders and Alex and his best friend Jay. I get why Stine does that later in the book, but it does slow things down a bit.
The writing is typical Stine. You are going to get some weird/gross deaths and he doesn’t care who dies. So if you have a favorite going into this one…well, I wish you well that they make it out alive.
The flow was fine though things dragged for a bit here and there. And then the book just moves a lot faster.
The setting of Shadyside or as I call it, that town no one should live if if they were smart stays feeling ominous. We do get some shout outs to prior characters like Deena and Jade though.
The ending as I said above was weird. I don’t know if Stine was going for some macabre humor or what.
