R.L. Stine

Shadyside High Administration Is the Real Villain

First Date by RL Stine

June 5, 2014 by TyburnBlossom 1 Comment

We open once more in the head of a killer. Not just any killer this time, but a serial killer with his next victim. As soon as he’s dispatched her, it’s on to the next town: Shadyside. Ah, opening narrative from a killer, how I missed you. From there, we move on to Chelsea Richards. She plays saxophone, doesn’t have many friends, hates her life, and feels like an outsider in her family. Basically, she’s a teenager who plays saxophone. Her family recently moved into […]

Shadyside’s Real Secret

The Prom Queen by RL Stine

June 5, 2014 by TyburnBlossom Leave a Comment

I’m not sure if this was the first Fear Street book I read or not. I do know that it was the first book I ever got to pick out brand new. I remember sitting on the floor in the bookstore (Walden Books in the mall in my grandparent’s town), looking through all the Fear Street books and trying to pick the right one. I don’t know if I was already familiar with Fear Street or if that was the moment I discovered it. I […]

You Can’t Trust Anything in Shadyside

The Knife by RL Stine

June 5, 2014 by TyburnBlossom Leave a Comment

Full disclosure: this is the first of the Fear Street books so far that I know for sure I read as a kid. I clearly remembered the cover and one particularly gruesome scene, but I completely forgot the whole plot. This one opens with a prologue, but we’re with a victim fleeing for her life instead of with the killer stalking her. This particular trick–opening with a scene from the climax of the story–irritates the crap out of me. It may be possible to do […]

Murder By Ghost

The Secret Bedroom by RL Stine

May 11, 2014 by TyburnBlossom Leave a Comment

This is, I think, exactly what I expect out of a Fear Street book. Or maybe a Goosebumps book, since they seem to have a lot in common in this case. Lea and her family have just moved to Shadyside. Her parents bought a house on Fear Street, despite the fact that the attic contains a boarded up room that’s been closed off for the last hundred years because there was a murder committed inside it. That right there? That’s the Fear Street I know […]

Also Not A Fear Street Book

Lights Out by RL Stine

May 10, 2014 by TyburnBlossom Leave a Comment

Lights Out opens in familiar territory–we get a narration from a killer, this time in the form of a letter addressed to Chief. Then it immediately yanks us away from Shadyside to Camp Nightwing. Yup, like Ski Weekend, we’ve got another book that’s only related to Fear Street in that the main character lives there. There’s a practical joker who no one thinks is funny because of course there is, and he lampshades Friday the 13th pretty quickly. How many Shadyside High students have lived […]

Not How Explosions Work

The Fire Game by RL Stine