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The Fear Street Saga #3
The Burning
The end…and the beginning
Simon Fear thought changing his name would stop the evil. He was wrong—dead wrong.
After generations of unspeakable horror, it is up to Daniel and Nora, brought together by their fateful love, to unite the feuding families. But is their forbidden love strong enough to withstand such awesome evil?
Poor Nora—desperate to tell the truth and bury the family curse…before it buries her.
Simon Fear thought changing his name would stop the evil. He was wrong—dead wrong.
After generations of unspeakable horror, it is up to Daniel and Nora, brought together by their fateful love, to unite the feuding families. But is their forbidden love strong enough to withstand such awesome evil?
Poor Nora—desperate to tell the truth and bury the family curse…before it buries her.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1993
94 people are currently reading
3268 people want to read
About the author
R.L. Stine
1,679 books18.7k followersRobert Lawrence Stine known as R. L. Stine and Jovial Bob Stine, is an American novelist and writer, well known for targeting younger audiences. Stine, who is often called the Stephen King of children's literature, is the author of dozens of popular horror fiction novellas, including the books in the Goosebumps, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, The Nightmare Room and Fear Street series.
R. L. Stine began his writing career when he was nine years old, and today he has achieved the position of the bestselling children's author in history. In the early 1990s, Stine was catapulted to fame when he wrote the unprecedented, bestselling Goosebumps® series, which sold more than 250 million copies and became a worldwide multimedia phenomenon. His other major series, Fear Street, has over 80 million copies sold.
Stine has received numerous awards of recognition, including several Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards and Disney Adventures Kids' Choice Awards, and he has been selected by kids as one of their favorite authors in the NEA's Read Across America program. He lives in New York, NY.
http://us.macmillan.com/itsthefirstda...
R. L. Stine began his writing career when he was nine years old, and today he has achieved the position of the bestselling children's author in history. In the early 1990s, Stine was catapulted to fame when he wrote the unprecedented, bestselling Goosebumps® series, which sold more than 250 million copies and became a worldwide multimedia phenomenon. His other major series, Fear Street, has over 80 million copies sold.
Stine has received numerous awards of recognition, including several Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards and Disney Adventures Kids' Choice Awards, and he has been selected by kids as one of their favorite authors in the NEA's Read Across America program. He lives in New York, NY.
http://us.macmillan.com/itsthefirstda...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 218 reviews
July 13, 2021
Jaw-dropped, heart-pounding! That was me for all 179 pages. An epic finale to the trilogy that surpasses even the most grandiose desires of Fear Street fans. I remember loving The Burning in the '90s, but I don't remember it being this deliciously gruesome, overflowing with Gothic aesthetics and characters so evil they're almost funny -- but in a good way (Goode way?).
Maybe it's my adult understanding of historical context or improved reading comprehension from when I was reading Fear Street as an eight year old, but this is one of those extremely rare situations where a book from childhood only improves with age. The Fear/Goode family curse is a fabulous premise of Evil vs. Evil that just works. We delight at the high body count, the inventive murders, the silly rationales, because nobody is really innocent and they're all a product of their own dark arts.
The purpose of the trilogy was no doubt to give backstory for why Shadyside is cursed, how Fear Street got its name, and the origin of the mysterious, burnt corpse of Fear mansion. The Saga trilogy answers all of those questions, but manages to not just explain (the fault of almost all origin stories) but to also add fresh perspective on modern day Fear Street adventures. Again, it's easy to say that these three books combine to form what is probably Stine's magnum opus.
That said, there are 16 more historical novels published as the "Fear Street Sagas" which I also remember fondly as a kid. Perhaps somewhere in these are books even better than the original trilogy. Only one way to find out!...
Maybe it's my adult understanding of historical context or improved reading comprehension from when I was reading Fear Street as an eight year old, but this is one of those extremely rare situations where a book from childhood only improves with age. The Fear/Goode family curse is a fabulous premise of Evil vs. Evil that just works. We delight at the high body count, the inventive murders, the silly rationales, because nobody is really innocent and they're all a product of their own dark arts.
The purpose of the trilogy was no doubt to give backstory for why Shadyside is cursed, how Fear Street got its name, and the origin of the mysterious, burnt corpse of Fear mansion. The Saga trilogy answers all of those questions, but manages to not just explain (the fault of almost all origin stories) but to also add fresh perspective on modern day Fear Street adventures. Again, it's easy to say that these three books combine to form what is probably Stine's magnum opus.
That said, there are 16 more historical novels published as the "Fear Street Sagas" which I also remember fondly as a kid. Perhaps somewhere in these are books even better than the original trilogy. Only one way to find out!...
August 3, 2021
An epic finale to a fantastic trilogy! 4.5 stars!
November 23, 2014
At this point you’d think someone would be like JUST MARRY ALREADY because we’re creeping up on 250 years of bad luck and dead bodies and it’s about time to let this shit go instead of keeping the home fires burning, you know?
Nora is our storyteller throughout the series and now, in this last book, we finally get to her story that was introduced at the beginning of the first. Like all the others it involves two lovebirds wanting to marry after a few hours of knowing each other but shenanigans ensue and people burn to death. You know, the usual.
Except Nora does end up locked in an attic by her father, Rapunzel-style but Daniel just busts down the door and rescues her. The good thing about Nora is that her crazy is a little more sedate. Stine had a bad habit of showing the lady folk and their brain squishees completely disintegrating in the face of calamity. Whether they screamed constantly or repeated names until the end of time or became entirely catatonic, the men survived a little better in Stine’s world. Although one of the original Fiers from book one did get a rather epic death in that he laughed himself into insanity and bricked him and his wife into a single room in their house and was left to rot.
Another bonus for Stine, he certainly has some creative deaths at his finger tips. I was constantly entertained by the way people died in this series. My favorite was the little Beetlejuice head in book two that replaced a normal head by popping it. Love. It.
I didn’t see the small twist at the end of this book coming, although maybe if I paid a little more attention to the details I would have but that’s me for you. It’s not a surprise, really, but it was probably the safest route for Nora because the Fears and the Goodes are just a shitbag combination and shouldn’t be trusted in the same room together.
Ultimately this series saturates the land in blood and sets the stage for the whole of Fear Street to come along (albeit having been written after the start of Fear Street, prequels, yay!) and get more people killed. So many deaths and in such interesting ways. God, I love my cheese.
Nora is our storyteller throughout the series and now, in this last book, we finally get to her story that was introduced at the beginning of the first. Like all the others it involves two lovebirds wanting to marry after a few hours of knowing each other but shenanigans ensue and people burn to death. You know, the usual.
Except Nora does end up locked in an attic by her father, Rapunzel-style but Daniel just busts down the door and rescues her. The good thing about Nora is that her crazy is a little more sedate. Stine had a bad habit of showing the lady folk and their brain squishees completely disintegrating in the face of calamity. Whether they screamed constantly or repeated names until the end of time or became entirely catatonic, the men survived a little better in Stine’s world. Although one of the original Fiers from book one did get a rather epic death in that he laughed himself into insanity and bricked him and his wife into a single room in their house and was left to rot.
Another bonus for Stine, he certainly has some creative deaths at his finger tips. I was constantly entertained by the way people died in this series. My favorite was the little Beetlejuice head in book two that replaced a normal head by popping it. Love. It.
I didn’t see the small twist at the end of this book coming, although maybe if I paid a little more attention to the details I would have but that’s me for you. It’s not a surprise, really, but it was probably the safest route for Nora because the Fears and the Goodes are just a shitbag combination and shouldn’t be trusted in the same room together.
Ultimately this series saturates the land in blood and sets the stage for the whole of Fear Street to come along (albeit having been written after the start of Fear Street, prequels, yay!) and get more people killed. So many deaths and in such interesting ways. God, I love my cheese.
November 27, 2024
The Burning brought the epic Fear Street Saga to a fiery conclusion, and I was not disappointed. The Secret had started getting a bit repetitive with its “love at first sight” narratives and forgettable characters, but The Burning< successfully shook up the formula. The characters felt more complex, and the love stories were more compelling. There were some truly gruesome and creative death scenes, and I really appreciated the ties to Sarah Fear and the Cheerleaders trilogy. The story sidestepped any mention of slavery in the pre-Civil War south, which was unnecessary but not entirely surprising. I hope they fixed this in the newer omnibus releases. I also found myself wanting to better understand the magic and dark arts being used, but it was kept vague all the way to the end. None of that stopped me from enjoying the book overall. Even though I knew how it was all going to end, the mystery of how it would get there kept the pages turning. The Burning was a really satisfying conclusion to the trilogy and a solid book in its own right.
Score: 4.5
As always, there's a full review with recaps, spoilers, and memes is on my blog:
https://www.danstalter.com/fear-stree...
Score: 4.5
As always, there's a full review with recaps, spoilers, and memes is on my blog:
https://www.danstalter.com/fear-stree...
February 4, 2012
I must admit this book certainly lives up to its expectations. The story of Simon Fear and his family is finally told in all its graphic horror. The twist regarding Simon and Angelica was interesting. Regarding the curse, again it seems self-fullfilling and yet there are supernatural aspects to it. I don't think what happened to Nora would really happen, though. It made me wonder: Is the curse really gone? According to the Cheerleaders series, there are Fears still around, so wouldn't the curse still be attached to them? Or has the curse kind of seeped into the ground and that's why so many things happen on Fear Street?
September 24, 2009
That was one of the first books i ever read from R.L. Stine and it's still my favorite till this day. You cant really explain what this book is about because it has so many twists and turns that it leaves you stunned at the end. When i read this book it was like a movie in my head because i could see exactly what she was describing. She made The Burning with so many vivid details that I actually thought i was watching it and forgot to close the turn of the T.V when i finished.I think this was one of her most greatest books i have ever read and it did make me love the genre mystery thanks to this book I love reading mysteries. I think everyone should read this book i loved it and it's and its a 5 star rating for me!
August 19, 2020
This trilogy comes to a thrilling conclusion. While this one had 30 more pages than the other two in the set, I feel the ending was a tad rushed. We didn't get much time to care about Daniel or the love between he and Nora because it wasn't developed enough. The story definitely could have benefitted from another hundred pages or so. It was awesome to see why Fear Street was so cursed and to get so wrapped up in the feud between the Fiers and the Goodes.
January 20, 2025
And with that I'm done with this trilogy. Whew!
May 29, 2012
I remember when I was little waiting, very impatiently, for this book to be published. It November of 1993 and this was the third, concluding, book of the Fear Street Saga, the historical horror trilogy that explained why Fear Street, in R.L. Stine's Fear Street series of books, was so haunted. I got it for my birthday, immediately tore in, and was not disappointed.
This book continues the story of the Fears (who have now changed the spelling from Fier) and the Goodes, two feuding families not opposed to using the "dark arts" to exact revenge upon each other. This book mostly deals with Simon Fear and his immediate family. In the previous book, 'The Secret', Simon's two sisters both fell in love with the same Goode and paid the price, now Simon's heart is hardened. When he meets Angelica Pierce in New Orleans he knows she's for him, he just doesn't realize how much. But the curse follows them, even when they settle into the notorious Fear mansion in Shadyside.
So, I mean, was this written in, probably, a month and then released only in mass backs for a bunch of thirteen year olds to pour over? Yes. Is it good? I'm going to go ahead and say yes. This whole series is good. It's creative. And to a kid who liked ghost stories, I couldn't have asked for better.
This book continues the story of the Fears (who have now changed the spelling from Fier) and the Goodes, two feuding families not opposed to using the "dark arts" to exact revenge upon each other. This book mostly deals with Simon Fear and his immediate family. In the previous book, 'The Secret', Simon's two sisters both fell in love with the same Goode and paid the price, now Simon's heart is hardened. When he meets Angelica Pierce in New Orleans he knows she's for him, he just doesn't realize how much. But the curse follows them, even when they settle into the notorious Fear mansion in Shadyside.
So, I mean, was this written in, probably, a month and then released only in mass backs for a bunch of thirteen year olds to pour over? Yes. Is it good? I'm going to go ahead and say yes. This whole series is good. It's creative. And to a kid who liked ghost stories, I couldn't have asked for better.
August 12, 2007
The final book in this series, I ended up picking it up after reading the other two, wanting to see how these horrible series of events would end (though knowing it couldn't be very well, because otherwise we wouldn't have the Fear Street series of books).
February 17, 2025
what an insane ending to the trilogy
August 27, 2021
Full reviews for the trilogy:
The Betrayal: https://spongey444.wordpress.com/2021...
The Secret: https://spongey444.wordpress.com/2021...
The Burning: https://spongey444.wordpress.com/2021...
The Betrayal: https://spongey444.wordpress.com/2021...
The Secret: https://spongey444.wordpress.com/2021...
The Burning: https://spongey444.wordpress.com/2021...
August 14, 2019
Same old same old. This one is divided into three parts like the previous book in the trilogy. We start off with Simon falling in love with Angelica who, shockingly, is not a Goode. She is, however, a witch with dark powers. Simon decides he will take out the two suitors in her life so that he can be with her, because that’s true Romance, don’t you know? So in the beginning we think that Angelica is this innocent girl who doesn’t really want to be with Simon. Her family doesn’t want her to be with him because he’s poor. Tale as old as time. But it turns out that Angelica is the one who killed her two suitors so that she could be with Simon. At the end of this first section they both drink blood instead of wine and cackle at how amazingly dastardly they are.
In the second section of the story they now have children. They have some boys, but it’s the girls that matter here. The two girls who are the focus of the story are Julia and Hannah. They end up getting a maid who is a Goode, and at first Julia is the one who thinks that the maid is out to get her when she learns the story of the Fears and the Goodes. But then it’s Hannah who believes that the maid is out to get them. She gets glass put in her shoe and her dog gets poisoned by a meat pie. But as they are coming back from the picnic in which her dog dies from eating a meat pie, Hannah finds out that Julia is jealous of her and wants to kill her just because she hates her. It’s as random as the first section of the book. So Julia and Hannah tussle and Julia almost kills Hannah, but then Hannah gets the upper hand and whacks Julia on the head with a shovel. She then sees a freshly dug grave nearby and throws Julia into the coffin. Later that day Simon is asking where Julia is, but Hannah doesn’t say anything. Simon goes outside when he hears a wailing and he discovers that Julia is in a coffin and was buried alive. She is dead when he finds her, though. Shortly after that he learns that a Goode was working for them as a maid. He grabs a knife and runs inside to kill the maid. But he is in such a rage that he does not pay attention to what he’s doing. It’s all very Hamlet. So, as you can imagine, he ends up stabbing Hannah and not the maid. Now both of his daughters are dead. And that’s how we end the second section of the book.
For the final section we have the story that has been told in the other two books ad nauseum. A Fear falls in love with a Goode and the love is verboten. This time it is Daniel Fear and Nora Goode that are in love with each other. Since it is a number of years later, none of them know the story about the curse on the Fears and the feud between their families. Daniel’s grandfather is Simon, and Daniel comes to visit for Simon’s birthday party, or so he thinks. The maid there ends up telling Daniel about the story between the families. Joseph Fear, who was a brother of Julia and Hannah, ends up telling Nora about the story of the Fears and what they did to the Goodes (recap: burned a family alive at the stake). Joseph forbids Nora and Daniel from ever seeing each other, and he locks Nora in the top of the house and boards up the windows. But Daniel comes looking for Nora, and he finds her in the top of the house. They are actually finally able to get married, which is supposedly the only way to end the feud between their families. They plan to go to the Fear mansion and announce it to Simon and Angelica that they are married and the feud is over. But when they get there there is no party; there is only Angelica and Simon pretending that there is a party and acting like complete lunatics. Daniel finally comes down with Nora and introduces her as his wife. Simon screams, “NOOOOO,” and then knocks over his cake with the 75 birthday candles on it, which seems like overkill to me. In addition to that, the entire room is covered in candles, so a fire immediately breaks out. Nora is able to escape, and she screams for Daniel, but she knows that he will not make it out, and he doesn’t. The book ends with Nora finishing her story about the legacy of the two families. But then we find out that she’s been in an insane asylum this whole time, and once they find her writing they immediately throw the work in the fire. They then tell her that the local street is going to be named Fear Street, and that’s where the book ends.
In the second section of the story they now have children. They have some boys, but it’s the girls that matter here. The two girls who are the focus of the story are Julia and Hannah. They end up getting a maid who is a Goode, and at first Julia is the one who thinks that the maid is out to get her when she learns the story of the Fears and the Goodes. But then it’s Hannah who believes that the maid is out to get them. She gets glass put in her shoe and her dog gets poisoned by a meat pie. But as they are coming back from the picnic in which her dog dies from eating a meat pie, Hannah finds out that Julia is jealous of her and wants to kill her just because she hates her. It’s as random as the first section of the book. So Julia and Hannah tussle and Julia almost kills Hannah, but then Hannah gets the upper hand and whacks Julia on the head with a shovel. She then sees a freshly dug grave nearby and throws Julia into the coffin. Later that day Simon is asking where Julia is, but Hannah doesn’t say anything. Simon goes outside when he hears a wailing and he discovers that Julia is in a coffin and was buried alive. She is dead when he finds her, though. Shortly after that he learns that a Goode was working for them as a maid. He grabs a knife and runs inside to kill the maid. But he is in such a rage that he does not pay attention to what he’s doing. It’s all very Hamlet. So, as you can imagine, he ends up stabbing Hannah and not the maid. Now both of his daughters are dead. And that’s how we end the second section of the book.
For the final section we have the story that has been told in the other two books ad nauseum. A Fear falls in love with a Goode and the love is verboten. This time it is Daniel Fear and Nora Goode that are in love with each other. Since it is a number of years later, none of them know the story about the curse on the Fears and the feud between their families. Daniel’s grandfather is Simon, and Daniel comes to visit for Simon’s birthday party, or so he thinks. The maid there ends up telling Daniel about the story between the families. Joseph Fear, who was a brother of Julia and Hannah, ends up telling Nora about the story of the Fears and what they did to the Goodes (recap: burned a family alive at the stake). Joseph forbids Nora and Daniel from ever seeing each other, and he locks Nora in the top of the house and boards up the windows. But Daniel comes looking for Nora, and he finds her in the top of the house. They are actually finally able to get married, which is supposedly the only way to end the feud between their families. They plan to go to the Fear mansion and announce it to Simon and Angelica that they are married and the feud is over. But when they get there there is no party; there is only Angelica and Simon pretending that there is a party and acting like complete lunatics. Daniel finally comes down with Nora and introduces her as his wife. Simon screams, “NOOOOO,” and then knocks over his cake with the 75 birthday candles on it, which seems like overkill to me. In addition to that, the entire room is covered in candles, so a fire immediately breaks out. Nora is able to escape, and she screams for Daniel, but she knows that he will not make it out, and he doesn’t. The book ends with Nora finishing her story about the legacy of the two families. But then we find out that she’s been in an insane asylum this whole time, and once they find her writing they immediately throw the work in the fire. They then tell her that the local street is going to be named Fear Street, and that’s where the book ends.
September 20, 2025
12 year old Emileigh thought this trilogy was the best literature on planet Earth. 32 year old Emileigh isn’t so sure 🤣 it certainly is entertaining.
September 12, 2023
Spoilers ahead as the trilogy wraps up...
Getting to the heart of the horror behind the legend of Fear Street and the old burned out Fear Mansion as well as the man himself, Simon Fear.
A few years before, Simon lost his parents and his younger sister Kate to the wrath of Franklin Goode but was able to kill him with a poisoned dagger. It was given to him by a woman named Old Aggie, a witch living in the woods, as well as insight to his cursed family.
The family will be destroyed by fire for it is in the letters of his name.
Simon believing he has finished the Goode family off changes the spelling of his name to the now famous Fear to seek a new destiny. His only surviving sister, Elizabeth, gives him her silver amulet as a protection charm.
She didn't know what the Latin words on the back meant but well learned Simon does but right now he decides not to use its power. Goodness is weakness but what could evil bring him that he can't earn on his own?
Simon is a bit full of himself if you couldn't tell and Lord only knows what happened to Elizabeth because we sure don't hear anything about her anymore...
Now twenty-one, Simon has traveled south to the beauty of New Orleans and decides to crash the party of one of the city's most wealthy residents, Henry Pierce. He is throwing it during Mardi Gras for his eighteen year old daughter Angelica and once Simon catches a glimpse of the dark-haired beauty with her green, cat-like eyes...he is driven to have her.
Angelica is already set upon two young men trying to woo and wed her though to Simon's chagrin once he is kicked out of the party and does some discreet spying. Hamilton Scott with his curly red hair and freckled face but a mind for business and politics on one hand and blond, handsome and smoothly charming James Daumier.
Using the amulet to take care of a man threatening to kill Simon and take the charm from him in a very graphic way, it now convinces Simon that the only way he can have Angelica is to get rid of her suitors.
On Angelica's end, we find out she's not the complete delicate blossom people perceive her to be.
She plays up being frail and easily frightened but she is intelligent and there is something about forlorn, shabbily dressed Simon Fear that interests her. His confidence to crash her party and his arrogance that he can win her hand in marriage is also amusing.
Yet once horrifying things start to happen, Angelica finds Simon a comfort despite her father's disapproval. Also the fact that we already know beforehand that Angelica is very skilled in The Dark Arts and Simons wife is a foregone conclusion...
Embracing the power of evil, Simon weds Angelica after getting rid of her father and they soon become even more wealthy thanks to the dark knowledge in Angelica's Tarot cards and winning prestige especially when moving their family to the small village of Shadyside.
Now House of Whispers was set in October of 1863 and the next part of The Burning is said to take place in 1865 toward the end of The Civil War but hints the family has lived in Shadyside for awhile so make of it what you will...
The Fear family live back in their mansion in the woods away from much of the town but Simon is always entertaining the mayor and the local reverend and all the people of stature so it is clearly before all of the talk about the evil surrounds them.
Seventeen year old Julia is the eldest of the couple's five children and the older sister of Hannah yet she seems to not be earning much of her father's favor the same way it is established that Angelica overlooks her as well. She is the more reserved and plain of the two girls so Simon would rather have bright and vivacious Hannah serve as his hostess when Angelica can't be present at parties...which is now very often.
Her brothers, fourteen year old Robert, eleven year old Brandon and five year old Joseph are just allowed to be boys and it is clear that Julia is despondent and jealous of those facts. Yet strange things begin to happen once a new maid starts to work in the Fear Mansion...
Her name is Lucy but only the housekeeper, Mrs. Mackenzie, knows her last name is Goode and instructs that she keep it hidden. All of these years and Simon still can't help but be angry over the murder of his parents and sister which is understandable but twenty years and all this money later...you are still bitter, Simon?
Lovely wife and five children and respect of an entire town just isn't enough it seems...
Julia is sure that Lucy is behind some of these accidents but doesn't have the proof to show her father and at first Hannah laughs it off until...they start happening to her.
Once Hannah's little dog meets a very heart-wrenching end however, she is ready to expose Lucy but the cruelest joke is about to be on Hannah and her sister Julia...
Thirty five years later and we are now in the final act which brings about how poor Nora Goode became entangled in all of this horror and losing her beloved Daniel.
Only son of Simon's youngest son Joseph, Daniel comes to Shadyside to pay respects to his grandfather on what is to be his seventy-fifth birthday. Raised well, Daniel still can't understand why his father couldn't come instead but he soon finds that perhaps it was a mistake...
Simon is wheelchair bound and a cantankerous old man while Angelica has gone completely crazy with her hair gone stark white, talking to her own grandson like a servant. Mrs. Mackenzie is still alive and is apparently the only employee of the Fears and has been for quite some time...
Dinner is eaten alone by Daniel and the time up to then dreadfully boring so it seems he is left to amusing himself for the days leading up to the big birthday celebration. Daniel finds Shadyside to be a beautiful town with friendly people but nothing is more lovely than the young woman who works in her father's general store...Nora Goode.
Daniel is lovestruck but, while playing dumb tourist, can't bring himself to tell Nora he is a Fear once she tells him that people in the town are afraid of his grandparents since the deaths of their two daughters when all of the evil things began to take place.
Daniel's father never talked much about his childhood and Daniel never even met his uncles before they also mysteriously died or "disappeared"...heck he never even knew he had aunts!
Daniel needs to prove that all of this is just frightened gossip before he can tell Nora the truth and Mrs. Mackenzie is more than happy to give Daniel all the information he needs...
When she tells him that there is a way to end the curse, Daniel believes he can finally free his family and Nora's from all these centuries of hate and bloodshed. Such good intentions from a young man in love not knowing the terror that awaits to torture his young bride and a whole town for years to come...
The conclusion to this trilogy is so sad but it was told so beautifully you almost forget that R.L. Stine wrote this! After The Betrayal, The Burning is the next best book in The Fear Street Saga with all of the sort of Southern Gothic charm in the beginning and the turn of the century doomed romance towards the end.
The middle with the stuff between Julia and Hannah reads like any normal Fear Street story just in a different time period but it is still effective in that it does show perhaps the only bit of humanity we can see in Simon before it all clearly became washed away. He loved his children, if not in a perfect way, but he did love Angelica if in a twisted way as well so once all of his children started to drift out of his life and Angelica had perhaps maybe some sort of dementia setting in...
Can any of us out there say we wouldn't perhaps feel the same? Probably not enough to turn to evil but once your very heart and soul become black with pain and grief...it can be a very relatable feeling.
This is Stine's Magnum Opus and a trilogy worthy of your time.
Getting to the heart of the horror behind the legend of Fear Street and the old burned out Fear Mansion as well as the man himself, Simon Fear.
A few years before, Simon lost his parents and his younger sister Kate to the wrath of Franklin Goode but was able to kill him with a poisoned dagger. It was given to him by a woman named Old Aggie, a witch living in the woods, as well as insight to his cursed family.
The family will be destroyed by fire for it is in the letters of his name.
Simon believing he has finished the Goode family off changes the spelling of his name to the now famous Fear to seek a new destiny. His only surviving sister, Elizabeth, gives him her silver amulet as a protection charm.
She didn't know what the Latin words on the back meant but well learned Simon does but right now he decides not to use its power. Goodness is weakness but what could evil bring him that he can't earn on his own?
Simon is a bit full of himself if you couldn't tell and Lord only knows what happened to Elizabeth because we sure don't hear anything about her anymore...
Now twenty-one, Simon has traveled south to the beauty of New Orleans and decides to crash the party of one of the city's most wealthy residents, Henry Pierce. He is throwing it during Mardi Gras for his eighteen year old daughter Angelica and once Simon catches a glimpse of the dark-haired beauty with her green, cat-like eyes...he is driven to have her.
Angelica is already set upon two young men trying to woo and wed her though to Simon's chagrin once he is kicked out of the party and does some discreet spying. Hamilton Scott with his curly red hair and freckled face but a mind for business and politics on one hand and blond, handsome and smoothly charming James Daumier.
Using the amulet to take care of a man threatening to kill Simon and take the charm from him in a very graphic way, it now convinces Simon that the only way he can have Angelica is to get rid of her suitors.
On Angelica's end, we find out she's not the complete delicate blossom people perceive her to be.
She plays up being frail and easily frightened but she is intelligent and there is something about forlorn, shabbily dressed Simon Fear that interests her. His confidence to crash her party and his arrogance that he can win her hand in marriage is also amusing.
Yet once horrifying things start to happen, Angelica finds Simon a comfort despite her father's disapproval. Also the fact that we already know beforehand that Angelica is very skilled in The Dark Arts and Simons wife is a foregone conclusion...
Embracing the power of evil, Simon weds Angelica after getting rid of her father and they soon become even more wealthy thanks to the dark knowledge in Angelica's Tarot cards and winning prestige especially when moving their family to the small village of Shadyside.
Now House of Whispers was set in October of 1863 and the next part of The Burning is said to take place in 1865 toward the end of The Civil War but hints the family has lived in Shadyside for awhile so make of it what you will...
The Fear family live back in their mansion in the woods away from much of the town but Simon is always entertaining the mayor and the local reverend and all the people of stature so it is clearly before all of the talk about the evil surrounds them.
Seventeen year old Julia is the eldest of the couple's five children and the older sister of Hannah yet she seems to not be earning much of her father's favor the same way it is established that Angelica overlooks her as well. She is the more reserved and plain of the two girls so Simon would rather have bright and vivacious Hannah serve as his hostess when Angelica can't be present at parties...which is now very often.
Her brothers, fourteen year old Robert, eleven year old Brandon and five year old Joseph are just allowed to be boys and it is clear that Julia is despondent and jealous of those facts. Yet strange things begin to happen once a new maid starts to work in the Fear Mansion...
Her name is Lucy but only the housekeeper, Mrs. Mackenzie, knows her last name is Goode and instructs that she keep it hidden. All of these years and Simon still can't help but be angry over the murder of his parents and sister which is understandable but twenty years and all this money later...you are still bitter, Simon?
Lovely wife and five children and respect of an entire town just isn't enough it seems...
Julia is sure that Lucy is behind some of these accidents but doesn't have the proof to show her father and at first Hannah laughs it off until...they start happening to her.
Once Hannah's little dog meets a very heart-wrenching end however, she is ready to expose Lucy but the cruelest joke is about to be on Hannah and her sister Julia...
Thirty five years later and we are now in the final act which brings about how poor Nora Goode became entangled in all of this horror and losing her beloved Daniel.
Only son of Simon's youngest son Joseph, Daniel comes to Shadyside to pay respects to his grandfather on what is to be his seventy-fifth birthday. Raised well, Daniel still can't understand why his father couldn't come instead but he soon finds that perhaps it was a mistake...
Simon is wheelchair bound and a cantankerous old man while Angelica has gone completely crazy with her hair gone stark white, talking to her own grandson like a servant. Mrs. Mackenzie is still alive and is apparently the only employee of the Fears and has been for quite some time...
Dinner is eaten alone by Daniel and the time up to then dreadfully boring so it seems he is left to amusing himself for the days leading up to the big birthday celebration. Daniel finds Shadyside to be a beautiful town with friendly people but nothing is more lovely than the young woman who works in her father's general store...Nora Goode.
Daniel is lovestruck but, while playing dumb tourist, can't bring himself to tell Nora he is a Fear once she tells him that people in the town are afraid of his grandparents since the deaths of their two daughters when all of the evil things began to take place.
Daniel's father never talked much about his childhood and Daniel never even met his uncles before they also mysteriously died or "disappeared"...heck he never even knew he had aunts!
Daniel needs to prove that all of this is just frightened gossip before he can tell Nora the truth and Mrs. Mackenzie is more than happy to give Daniel all the information he needs...
When she tells him that there is a way to end the curse, Daniel believes he can finally free his family and Nora's from all these centuries of hate and bloodshed. Such good intentions from a young man in love not knowing the terror that awaits to torture his young bride and a whole town for years to come...
The conclusion to this trilogy is so sad but it was told so beautifully you almost forget that R.L. Stine wrote this! After The Betrayal, The Burning is the next best book in The Fear Street Saga with all of the sort of Southern Gothic charm in the beginning and the turn of the century doomed romance towards the end.
The middle with the stuff between Julia and Hannah reads like any normal Fear Street story just in a different time period but it is still effective in that it does show perhaps the only bit of humanity we can see in Simon before it all clearly became washed away. He loved his children, if not in a perfect way, but he did love Angelica if in a twisted way as well so once all of his children started to drift out of his life and Angelica had perhaps maybe some sort of dementia setting in...
Can any of us out there say we wouldn't perhaps feel the same? Probably not enough to turn to evil but once your very heart and soul become black with pain and grief...it can be a very relatable feeling.
This is Stine's Magnum Opus and a trilogy worthy of your time.
July 27, 2021
Fear Street Saga
Book Review
The Fear Street Saga trilogy (The Betrayal, The Burning, and The Secret) basically is about love, marriage, a death curse spanning over 200 years, and a rivalry between two families, (the Fier’s & the Goodes’).
In all honesty these books have been collecting dust on my bookshelf about 7 years, and if it wasn’t for the new Fear Street films on Netflix, these books would still be forgotten on the shelf. I fell in love with the first movie and the love affair continued all the way through to the end credits of the third movie. The idea was about bringing the old formula back to the horror movie genre, which worked incredibly well, so I was really excited to jump on board with the novels. Unfortunately, other than the mention of the Goode’s family name and the town of Shadyside there were no other notable similarities between the films and the books, which was a letdown.
R.L Stine however does bring some excitement to the story by creating very imaginative, scary death scenes that at one point sent a shiver down my spine (a little goosebumps reference right there for you sports fans). What really frustrated me to my very core (and maybe because I’m a cynical divorcee), but I feel like there is more to life then pledging your undying love to a complete stranger by promising marriage. Seriously if this happened once out of the 200 years okay, but this happens in every generation and it made my stomach recoil in revulsion. It essentially made the characters appear weaker, and deviated from the horror element of the novel.
In the end what saved this book from receiving a poor rating was the story of Simon Fear and his wife Angelica, as their part in this trilogy of horror is what made me smile wickedly. They were the perfect fearsome couple.
3/5 ⚰️⚰️⚰️.
Book Review
The Fear Street Saga trilogy (The Betrayal, The Burning, and The Secret) basically is about love, marriage, a death curse spanning over 200 years, and a rivalry between two families, (the Fier’s & the Goodes’).
In all honesty these books have been collecting dust on my bookshelf about 7 years, and if it wasn’t for the new Fear Street films on Netflix, these books would still be forgotten on the shelf. I fell in love with the first movie and the love affair continued all the way through to the end credits of the third movie. The idea was about bringing the old formula back to the horror movie genre, which worked incredibly well, so I was really excited to jump on board with the novels. Unfortunately, other than the mention of the Goode’s family name and the town of Shadyside there were no other notable similarities between the films and the books, which was a letdown.
R.L Stine however does bring some excitement to the story by creating very imaginative, scary death scenes that at one point sent a shiver down my spine (a little goosebumps reference right there for you sports fans). What really frustrated me to my very core (and maybe because I’m a cynical divorcee), but I feel like there is more to life then pledging your undying love to a complete stranger by promising marriage. Seriously if this happened once out of the 200 years okay, but this happens in every generation and it made my stomach recoil in revulsion. It essentially made the characters appear weaker, and deviated from the horror element of the novel.
In the end what saved this book from receiving a poor rating was the story of Simon Fear and his wife Angelica, as their part in this trilogy of horror is what made me smile wickedly. They were the perfect fearsome couple.
3/5 ⚰️⚰️⚰️.
December 24, 2023
Ini buku ketiga, tapi masih nyambung aja dibaca 😁
Ceritanya terbagi jadi tiga dekade(?), pas Simon Fear masih muda terus ketemu Angelica, terus pas Simon udah jadi bapak-bapak, sampe dia jadi kakek-kakek. Aku pernah nonton filmnya, jadi sedikit tahu tentang sejarah keluarga Fier di tahun 1600-an. Dan itu dijelasin lagi di sini, dan mereka percaya kematian mereka--baik keluarga Goode maupun Fear--disebabkan karena kutukan. (Meski menurutku kematiannya tergolong 'normal' sih, mostly karena pembunuhan, bukan pure dari unsur mistis.)
Ceritanya padet, berasa lama dan lengkap, padahal "cuma" 190 halaman. Aku tetep ketagihan sepanjang baca, dan gabisa berhenti. Seneng aja gitu bisa baca novel ini.
Kapan-kapan pinjem lagi deh yang lain dari perpus. 😆
Ceritanya terbagi jadi tiga dekade(?), pas Simon Fear masih muda terus ketemu Angelica, terus pas Simon udah jadi bapak-bapak, sampe dia jadi kakek-kakek. Aku pernah nonton filmnya, jadi sedikit tahu tentang sejarah keluarga Fier di tahun 1600-an. Dan itu dijelasin lagi di sini, dan mereka percaya kematian mereka--baik keluarga Goode maupun Fear--disebabkan karena kutukan. (Meski menurutku kematiannya tergolong 'normal' sih, mostly karena pembunuhan, bukan pure dari unsur mistis.)
Ceritanya padet, berasa lama dan lengkap, padahal "cuma" 190 halaman. Aku tetep ketagihan sepanjang baca, dan gabisa berhenti. Seneng aja gitu bisa baca novel ini.
Kapan-kapan pinjem lagi deh yang lain dari perpus. 😆
June 17, 2020
Ridiculous. A few plot holes. Uses the word “servants” to describe the help that the wealthy characters in 1845 New Orleans had working in their homes. (Insert eye roll)...
Overall, though, this was a delightful anxiety-reducing, escapist, comfort re-read in the time of quarantine, and it did not disappoint.
Overall, though, this was a delightful anxiety-reducing, escapist, comfort re-read in the time of quarantine, and it did not disappoint.
July 25, 2021
titular sentence:
p119: But she had to watch, she had to bear witness as the other victims of the past emerged in the burning ballroom.
I think I've never seen a wedding used as a vehicle for horror before.
p119: But she had to watch, she had to bear witness as the other victims of the past emerged in the burning ballroom.
I think I've never seen a wedding used as a vehicle for horror before.
June 18, 2022
no bc how do they have a son if they didn’t even fuck once. also i remember them fucking on a horse??? but whatever
December 9, 2021
epilogue was literally so fun. i liked the origin for fear street. i liked angelica being evil crystal lady. i liked hannah and julia being so dumb and gaslighting each other. other than that, it was just blah blah blah to me. def felt like a lot of filler for a book that wasn't even that long.
February 20, 2021
Random thoughts on the trilogy:
All of the teens throughout history are chastely horny and it's quite charming.
Some legit twists I did not see coming. (Or remember)
Referring to "servants" in 1845 New Orleans is ... A choice.
Referring to "creamy pale skin" is ... Also a choice.
Parents are depicted as old and absolutely busted at the age of (checks math) 38.
All of the teens throughout history are chastely horny and it's quite charming.
Some legit twists I did not see coming. (Or remember)
Referring to "servants" in 1845 New Orleans is ... A choice.
Referring to "creamy pale skin" is ... Also a choice.
Parents are depicted as old and absolutely busted at the age of (checks math) 38.
December 16, 2015
Posted originally on my blog:
The Writer's Inkwell
In the final installment of the Fear Street Saga, Nora begins to tell the tale of Simon Fear and how the Fear mansion mysteriously burned down one evening. This is my least favorite of the three books. It claims Simon’s story is the evilest of all, but in truth, you get only samplings of his life. To be honest, I wish Stine had a companion series of the Goodes during these same years. It would be extremely interesting to discover how the timelines converge the way they do throughout the books and what happened to the Goode family during the years away from the Fiers/Fears.
Also, in looking back on the stories, there are only two instances in all of the tales, in which the Goodes actually did any harm to the Fier/Fear family. The first is in book one, when Susannah Goode’s father used magic to look like a young man and worm his way into the Fier’s household. He tricked Mary Fier into loving him and murdered two members of the family. The second takes place at the end of book two, in which Simon’s family takes in a stranger, who says he’s the last remaining Goode and he proceeds to murder most of the family. Truth be told, most of what happens to the Fiers is of their own making.
In this particular book, one of Simon’s daughters sets out to murder the other. When she fails and her sister believes she’s accidentally killed her in self defense, she’s buried alive. All of this is blamed on the young maid who happened to be a Goode, but she didn’t actually do anything wrong. Also, how was she a Goode if Simon killed the last one decades earlier?
This is why a companion to this series is needed. There are a ton of holes in this story and it would be that much better if you could fill in the blanks.
The Writer's Inkwell
In the final installment of the Fear Street Saga, Nora begins to tell the tale of Simon Fear and how the Fear mansion mysteriously burned down one evening. This is my least favorite of the three books. It claims Simon’s story is the evilest of all, but in truth, you get only samplings of his life. To be honest, I wish Stine had a companion series of the Goodes during these same years. It would be extremely interesting to discover how the timelines converge the way they do throughout the books and what happened to the Goode family during the years away from the Fiers/Fears.
Also, in looking back on the stories, there are only two instances in all of the tales, in which the Goodes actually did any harm to the Fier/Fear family. The first is in book one, when Susannah Goode’s father used magic to look like a young man and worm his way into the Fier’s household. He tricked Mary Fier into loving him and murdered two members of the family. The second takes place at the end of book two, in which Simon’s family takes in a stranger, who says he’s the last remaining Goode and he proceeds to murder most of the family. Truth be told, most of what happens to the Fiers is of their own making.
In this particular book, one of Simon’s daughters sets out to murder the other. When she fails and her sister believes she’s accidentally killed her in self defense, she’s buried alive. All of this is blamed on the young maid who happened to be a Goode, but she didn’t actually do anything wrong. Also, how was she a Goode if Simon killed the last one decades earlier?
This is why a companion to this series is needed. There are a ton of holes in this story and it would be that much better if you could fill in the blanks.
September 12, 2016
Nomadic SA Chick's Book Reviews
Review
I loved this series as a teenager. I probably read the trilogy a hundred times in my teens. I don't know what it was about these books, but I was hooked. Reading them 10 years later as an adult I gave myself a migraine from all the eye rolling I did. I couldn't believe all the cheesy romance lines and easy swooning these ladies did. I mean good lord, a man said hi to these ladies and they wet their knickers with the excitement of wedding planning. It's laughable, but I can see how teen Manda was swept up in this, because what teenage girl doesn't want to believe in love at first sight. While grown up Manda is bitter and critical of love and laughs in its face. Stine has always been one of my favorite authors, and while I don't read much of his works these days, I've kind of aged out of them, I still appreciate everything he's written and all the joy he brought me as a child, starting with my very first Goosebumps book.
These books aren't something I will probably ever pick up again, but they will always have a special place in my library, and I would encourage every young girl to read this series. While the ladies in this book fall foolhardy in love like it's going out of style, Stine also manages to write some very strong and fierce women in this book that will help bring courage to the young woman reading it.
Ratings (based on a 10 point scale)
Quality of Writing - 6
Pace - 6
Plot Development - 5
Characters - 6
Enjoyability - 5
Insightfulness - 5
Ease of Reading - 8
Photos/Illustrations - N/A
Overall Rating - 3 out of 5 stars
Review
I loved this series as a teenager. I probably read the trilogy a hundred times in my teens. I don't know what it was about these books, but I was hooked. Reading them 10 years later as an adult I gave myself a migraine from all the eye rolling I did. I couldn't believe all the cheesy romance lines and easy swooning these ladies did. I mean good lord, a man said hi to these ladies and they wet their knickers with the excitement of wedding planning. It's laughable, but I can see how teen Manda was swept up in this, because what teenage girl doesn't want to believe in love at first sight. While grown up Manda is bitter and critical of love and laughs in its face. Stine has always been one of my favorite authors, and while I don't read much of his works these days, I've kind of aged out of them, I still appreciate everything he's written and all the joy he brought me as a child, starting with my very first Goosebumps book.
These books aren't something I will probably ever pick up again, but they will always have a special place in my library, and I would encourage every young girl to read this series. While the ladies in this book fall foolhardy in love like it's going out of style, Stine also manages to write some very strong and fierce women in this book that will help bring courage to the young woman reading it.
Ratings (based on a 10 point scale)
Quality of Writing - 6
Pace - 6
Plot Development - 5
Characters - 6
Enjoyability - 5
Insightfulness - 5
Ease of Reading - 8
Photos/Illustrations - N/A
Overall Rating - 3 out of 5 stars
June 19, 2019
I really love the stories set during the time when the Fears were alive. They have an aura of doom to them and you find decent Fears and nasty ones.
Simon and Angelica are nasty Fears. They use dark magic to harm others so that that they can get what they want. Their eldest daughter, Julia is overcome by jealousy which leads to her and her family's destruction. I feel like after Julia and Hannah the family couldn't recover. What happened was too despicable. Simon and Angelica's dark magic and the curse seem to be responsible.
Enough about the nasty Fears. The tragedy comes with the destruction of the decent Fears. Robert, Brandon and Brandon's son are destroyed. Another book speaks of Robert's son, Thomas and his demise. Simon and Angelica's youngest son Jospeh escaped only to have his son Daniel later visit his grandparents for the fateful burning. Daniel is a good person and he falls in love and marries Nora Goode, a daughter of the Fears' enemy. It should have ended the curse but clearly it did not.
Nora's story is ruined and we are told that the village is going to construct Fear Street where the curse and all of the dark magic will linger and devour others.
Does this book have flaws? Yes. But I am very nostalgic and I enjoyed it so I'm giving it a 5. I feel like it could have been longer and more fleshed out. A lot of stuff was mentioned and deserved more development. I'd like to know how the rumour came about that the skin of Julia and Hannah were found - without bones. Who were the people who disappeared? More on Brandon and his son.
The romance of the weirdos Simon and Angelica were alright. The romance between Daniel and Nora, however, needed way more development. I feel like these two stories should have had their own books.
Simon and Angelica are nasty Fears. They use dark magic to harm others so that that they can get what they want. Their eldest daughter, Julia is overcome by jealousy which leads to her and her family's destruction. I feel like after Julia and Hannah the family couldn't recover. What happened was too despicable. Simon and Angelica's dark magic and the curse seem to be responsible.
Enough about the nasty Fears. The tragedy comes with the destruction of the decent Fears. Robert, Brandon and Brandon's son are destroyed. Another book speaks of Robert's son, Thomas and his demise. Simon and Angelica's youngest son Jospeh escaped only to have his son Daniel later visit his grandparents for the fateful burning. Daniel is a good person and he falls in love and marries Nora Goode, a daughter of the Fears' enemy. It should have ended the curse but clearly it did not.
Nora's story is ruined and we are told that the village is going to construct Fear Street where the curse and all of the dark magic will linger and devour others.
Does this book have flaws? Yes. But I am very nostalgic and I enjoyed it so I'm giving it a 5. I feel like it could have been longer and more fleshed out. A lot of stuff was mentioned and deserved more development. I'd like to know how the rumour came about that the skin of Julia and Hannah were found - without bones. Who were the people who disappeared? More on Brandon and his son.
The romance of the weirdos Simon and Angelica were alright. The romance between Daniel and Nora, however, needed way more development. I feel like these two stories should have had their own books.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 23, 2025
Well this was a major disappointment! After a decent middle book, this last book of the trilogy reverts back to type and we’re rushed through basic outlines of a story that could’ve been much more interesting, if the author had bothered to take the time to actually write it.
We start with Simon Fear, who has traveled to New Orleans for some strange reason. He claps eyes on Angelica Pierce at her debutante ball and decides that he will marry her, no matter what. Angelica isn’t very angelic – she seems to be a horrible, catty gossip – and she has two well-born suitors, so why would she even give a poor nobody like Simon the time of day? After Simon thwarts a would-be mugger with his magical pendant, he decides to unlock the old Fier family dark magic to get his way, and proceeds to murder both of the men standing on his path to Angelica. He has a moment of conscience and confesses this to her, but she reacts very strangely. She tells him that he wasn’t the one who killed her suitors, she was! Even though she has heretofore so no malice beyond being bitchy to her social equals, she tells us that she’s “practiced the dark arts” since she was a child, and decided that Simon was the man for her. For the cherry on top of the cake, they murder her wealthy father and then take off with all his money to start life over again somewhere in the North.
Twenty years later, in 1865, the Civil War is winding down, and the Fear family has set up shop in the village of Shadyside, where they are more prosperous than ever. Simon and Angelica have 5 children, but they seem to have little use for them. Angelica is falling into random trances and reading tarot cards, convinced that she is at the mercy of “the spirits.” Simon uses his daughters like pawns, try to curry favor with the town bigwigs. The eldest, Julia is a plain jane, but the other, Hannah, is beautiful and charming (and inexplicably blonde). There’s also a new maid in the house, one Lucy Goode, whom the girls quickly believe is trying to kill them.
Actually, Julia is trying to kill her sister, whom she is apparently ragingly jealous of, though until she wraps her hands around her throat and tries to strangle her, she gives no such notion in her bit of narrative. Hannah ends up killing Julia in self-defense, and stuffs her in a coffin of a servant who is being buried that day. When Julia is missed around the house, Simon goes out in search of her and finds her buried with the servant, but with marks on the coffin lid that imply she was buried alive. He spots the Goode name on a handy dandy list of servants and declares that Lucy is responsible for Julia’s death, and take a sword and goes looking for her, striking the first young girl he sees. Joke’s on him, though, because he ends up stabbing Hannah to death right in front of her younger brothers, the servants, and the screaming Angelica. He’s informed that Lucy left earlier that day after Hannah accused her of Julia’s menacings.
The final section opens with Daniel Fear arriving at the spooky old Fear mansion 35 years later, in 1900. He has been invited by grandparents he heretofore did not even realize he had, and hears frightening stories about aunts he never knew existed died at the mansion and that it was closed up soon afterwards. His father, Joseph, was the youngest child and was sent away to school at six years old; he never returned or spoke of his childhood. Daniel is 18 years old when he is invited to meet the legendary Simon Fear, and when he is greeted by a lone servant and lead through the dark, mysterious mansion, he wonders if he made the right decision to come.
Turns out both Angelica and Simon have gone completely nuts following the deaths of their daughters, but Simon wants to hand off the amulet to a living Fear so that he can carry on the family mission of “power through evil!” It’s not until he meets and falls immediately in love with local village girl Nora Goode that he learns the full story of his ancestors, and how he might be able to break the spell and end the curse forever. He and Nora do manage to marry, but when he brings Nora to the Fear mansion on the night of Simon’s 75th birthday, and Simon sees that his precious family amulet is around Nora’s neck as the newest member of the Fear family, all hell truly breaks loose. The fire from 75 birthday candles on a cake, along with thousands of candles lighting the cavernous ballroom of the old mansion, set the place on fire. Nora experiences the visions that all wearers of the amulet have – of Susannah Goode burning at the stake, along with all the horrendous deaths that have occurred since then. She flees the mansion, but Daniel and his grandparents are trapped inside and they all burn to death.
The villagers of Shadyside have always given the Fears a wide berth, and they continue to do so even now, allowing the mansion to burn for days until the fire puts itself out. Nora is hauled off to the loony bin and spends all night writing out the history of the feud, only for her nurses to chuck her manuscript into the fire. They tell her that the mansion has been pulled down and that a street will run through the creepy old property instead, bearing the name of the last owners: Fear Street.
The end.
So, all in all, we learn that a lot of people needlessly die over the centuries, but we never learn what the evil powers are, or where they originated; we never learn about Angelica’s particular flavor of occult; we never learn how the Goode family seems to resurface after the death of the last known member in Book #2, and we never learn the fates of the other branches of the Fear family tree, which are just hanging around out there. And why did the village of Shadyside decide to pave a road through there? Automobiles were in their infancy!
It was 547 pages of cruel deaths, without a cohesive explanation, only a bunch of handwaving “dark magic.” Bleh. So glad I got this from the library!
We start with Simon Fear, who has traveled to New Orleans for some strange reason. He claps eyes on Angelica Pierce at her debutante ball and decides that he will marry her, no matter what. Angelica isn’t very angelic – she seems to be a horrible, catty gossip – and she has two well-born suitors, so why would she even give a poor nobody like Simon the time of day? After Simon thwarts a would-be mugger with his magical pendant, he decides to unlock the old Fier family dark magic to get his way, and proceeds to murder both of the men standing on his path to Angelica. He has a moment of conscience and confesses this to her, but she reacts very strangely. She tells him that he wasn’t the one who killed her suitors, she was! Even though she has heretofore so no malice beyond being bitchy to her social equals, she tells us that she’s “practiced the dark arts” since she was a child, and decided that Simon was the man for her. For the cherry on top of the cake, they murder her wealthy father and then take off with all his money to start life over again somewhere in the North.
Twenty years later, in 1865, the Civil War is winding down, and the Fear family has set up shop in the village of Shadyside, where they are more prosperous than ever. Simon and Angelica have 5 children, but they seem to have little use for them. Angelica is falling into random trances and reading tarot cards, convinced that she is at the mercy of “the spirits.” Simon uses his daughters like pawns, try to curry favor with the town bigwigs. The eldest, Julia is a plain jane, but the other, Hannah, is beautiful and charming (and inexplicably blonde). There’s also a new maid in the house, one Lucy Goode, whom the girls quickly believe is trying to kill them.
Actually, Julia is trying to kill her sister, whom she is apparently ragingly jealous of, though until she wraps her hands around her throat and tries to strangle her, she gives no such notion in her bit of narrative. Hannah ends up killing Julia in self-defense, and stuffs her in a coffin of a servant who is being buried that day. When Julia is missed around the house, Simon goes out in search of her and finds her buried with the servant, but with marks on the coffin lid that imply she was buried alive. He spots the Goode name on a handy dandy list of servants and declares that Lucy is responsible for Julia’s death, and take a sword and goes looking for her, striking the first young girl he sees. Joke’s on him, though, because he ends up stabbing Hannah to death right in front of her younger brothers, the servants, and the screaming Angelica. He’s informed that Lucy left earlier that day after Hannah accused her of Julia’s menacings.
The final section opens with Daniel Fear arriving at the spooky old Fear mansion 35 years later, in 1900. He has been invited by grandparents he heretofore did not even realize he had, and hears frightening stories about aunts he never knew existed died at the mansion and that it was closed up soon afterwards. His father, Joseph, was the youngest child and was sent away to school at six years old; he never returned or spoke of his childhood. Daniel is 18 years old when he is invited to meet the legendary Simon Fear, and when he is greeted by a lone servant and lead through the dark, mysterious mansion, he wonders if he made the right decision to come.
Turns out both Angelica and Simon have gone completely nuts following the deaths of their daughters, but Simon wants to hand off the amulet to a living Fear so that he can carry on the family mission of “power through evil!” It’s not until he meets and falls immediately in love with local village girl Nora Goode that he learns the full story of his ancestors, and how he might be able to break the spell and end the curse forever. He and Nora do manage to marry, but when he brings Nora to the Fear mansion on the night of Simon’s 75th birthday, and Simon sees that his precious family amulet is around Nora’s neck as the newest member of the Fear family, all hell truly breaks loose. The fire from 75 birthday candles on a cake, along with thousands of candles lighting the cavernous ballroom of the old mansion, set the place on fire. Nora experiences the visions that all wearers of the amulet have – of Susannah Goode burning at the stake, along with all the horrendous deaths that have occurred since then. She flees the mansion, but Daniel and his grandparents are trapped inside and they all burn to death.
The villagers of Shadyside have always given the Fears a wide berth, and they continue to do so even now, allowing the mansion to burn for days until the fire puts itself out. Nora is hauled off to the loony bin and spends all night writing out the history of the feud, only for her nurses to chuck her manuscript into the fire. They tell her that the mansion has been pulled down and that a street will run through the creepy old property instead, bearing the name of the last owners: Fear Street.
The end.
So, all in all, we learn that a lot of people needlessly die over the centuries, but we never learn what the evil powers are, or where they originated; we never learn about Angelica’s particular flavor of occult; we never learn how the Goode family seems to resurface after the death of the last known member in Book #2, and we never learn the fates of the other branches of the Fear family tree, which are just hanging around out there. And why did the village of Shadyside decide to pave a road through there? Automobiles were in their infancy!
It was 547 pages of cruel deaths, without a cohesive explanation, only a bunch of handwaving “dark magic.” Bleh. So glad I got this from the library!
September 20, 2018
I thought the first two parts of this were pretty interesting , but the last part was honestly a pretty disappointing way to finish the trilogy, especially when all these books were supposed to explain why bad things happen on Fear Street in the future. I am confused as to why the love between a Goode and a Fear didn't break the curse. Also, in the last part it mentioned how the bones were taken from the bodies Simons dead daughters or something and yet that was never explained! That was creepy for sure and I would have loved to get the story behind that.
Overall I would say that these Fear Street Saga books are not my favorite out of all of R.L. Stine's books. The stories got way too repetitive and I just wanted it to end already.
Overall I would say that these Fear Street Saga books are not my favorite out of all of R.L. Stine's books. The stories got way too repetitive and I just wanted it to end already.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 12, 2018
The previous book in this series made me quit the series and almost killed RetRead. It was bad. This one? It's better and fills in more of the Fear family story. Except Simon Fear is a massive creep and it's great that he found his OTP. RL Stine has a real issue writing women and relationships and it's never more apparent than in this stupid saga. Thank goodness it's over. Oh wait...gotta record...............................................
November 20, 2008
This is an amazing great book because it had a lot of colonial times events.It was during the time period which made it very non-fictional because stories like this happened during those time periods!!!!!
August 6, 2011
It was a good read but not as interesting as the previous two. Sometimes it felt like more of the same. The conclusion was not very satisfying for me, either. I would recommend it as a light read and if you want to find out what finally happens to the families involved. I give it 3.5/5.
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