Bobbi and Corky Corcoran are new to Shadyside High, and all they want is a chance to join the cheerleading squad. When the captain of the squad, Jennifer, makes the executive decision to let them join, there are bad feelings among the rest of the squad, who have been practicing their routines all summer. Before long, terrible things start happening to the cheerleaders, beginning with a tragic accident outside Fear Street cemetery and ending in screams. Spoilers will be clearly marked. Trigger warnings: death, severe injury, paralysis, burns, drowning, broken bones, grief, gaslighting, ableism.
Fun fact: When I was a kid, I was too afraid of these covers to even read these books. (Yet I devoured Christopher Pike, which is much gorier and more gruesome than any Stine novel I’ve ever read.) I wasn’t totally certain I had never read it until I started, because all those library books have run together by now, but it turned out to be a first. And it’s a bit underwhelming. Then again, I settled on the Pike side of Pike v. Stine decades ago. Fear Street might have gotten more traction, but it’s got nothing on characters eating ground glass or being pushed into a pool of acid. Just saying.
All that aside, this is a fine novel, and it’s on the better side of 90s horror paperbacks with coherent plots and relatively believable characters. I liked Bobbi and Corky and the emphasis on their sister relationship, and I was interested to see them alongside the core group of cheerleaders and its varying personalities. From an adult perspective, the villain is obvious, but that doesn’t make it unenjoyable. There’s some appropriately creepy scenes, fair tension-building, and one genuinely horrific death. Really, what more can you ask from a horror novel?
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS. TURN BACK BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE.
Another fun fact: I can’t tolerate horror that is also sad. I could never get into Pumpkinhead (1988) because the premise is too tragic, and I have never forgiven I Am Legend (2007) for killing the dog. (The Mist (2007) gets away with it by being abrupt and just fucking gnarly.) I may have a horror movie heart, but I’m also a big ‘ol softie. I admire Stine’s guts for killing off one of his main characters and the lead narrator of the book, Psycho (1960) style, but Corky grieving her sister greatly detracted from my enjoyment of the novel.
Then there’s the issue of Stine’s wheelchair-bound character, Jennifer, who’s a stock portrayal of the brave, suffering victim who always has a smile on her face. Worse, she turns out to be the villain, which is pretty blatantly ableist. Representation was not at its best in the 90s, and I hope the series moves away from that in the next books. I’m also a little confused about how standing near an open grave traps an ancient evil inside it, but okay.
I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.