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Fear Street #44

Ricca da uccidere

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Cosa faresti per diventare ricca?

Emma e Sydney sono amiche per la pelle e tra loro non hanno segreti. Adesso ne hanno uno davvero grande. Hanno trovato una sacca da viaggio piena di soldi.

Hanno giurato di non dirlo a nessuno. Ma Sydney ha infranto la promessa. Ha detto dei soldi a Jason, il fidanzato.

Ora Emma ha paura. Non si fida di Jason e pensa che lui farebbe qualsiasi cosa per prendersi i soldi. Perfino uccidere...

123 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1997

45 people are currently reading
2369 people want to read

About the author

R.L. Stine

1,679 books18.6k followers
Robert 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...

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 177 reviews
Profile Image for Zain.
1,884 reviews287 followers
February 10, 2025
While the Rich Get Richer

Sydney and Emma are bffs. They find some money and Emma wants to keep it right away. Emma is poor and her mother needs an operation.

But Sydney has a problem with keeping the money. She is rich. She wants to turn it in to the police. Emma talks her out of it.

The girls decide to keep the money. Against her better judgment, Sydney agrees to let Emma suggest a place to hide it for several weeks. Until the person who lost it gets farther away.

Big mouth, Sydney, tells her boyfriend, Jason, about the money. And Jason, immediately, says he wants to get some things with the money.

Sydney makes him promise to keep quiet about the money, but then strange things begin to happen to Emma. Are they accidents? Or is someone trying to keep more money for himself?

Four stars. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Profile Image for ItzSmashley.
142 reviews9 followers
September 2, 2024
I was pleasantly surprised at how good this one was! The pace was thrilling, the characters were relatable, and there were some genuinely good horror scenes. The twist reveal was very good and the final ending was absolutely perfect. Honestly floored at how much i enjoyed this one and will be keeping It to read again in the future! Couldn't reccommend enough.

Sydney and her friend Emma find 100 thousand dollars. But when syd's boyfriend finds out he tries to take the money and the girls accidentally kill him. The girls start receiving threatening notes and jason seems to return at night to haunt Sydney. But is everything as it seems?
Profile Image for kylajaclyn.
705 reviews55 followers
August 5, 2012
Oh my god, you guys. The most epic Fear Street so far. I tore through this in about an hour, from 9:30 to 10:30. Wow.

Moral of the Story: RL Stine is a fucking badass.

Gaping Plot Holes: Who the fuck cares? This one is amazeballs.

Body Count: 1 : Jason, Sydney's boyfriend

Usual Suspect(s): Jason

Actual Suspect(s): I can't spoil it here this time!! Read on below.

Plot: Meet Sydney and Emma. They are best friends who work at a movie theater. I don't know if RL Stine has ever worked at a movie theater, but the description was very accurate. You smell like popcorn, you deal with screaming kids, and you have to take out gobs of gross trash into creepy alleyways. This was all in the first three pages. As they are putting the trash in the dumpster, Sydney's family heirloom bracelet gets caught on a bag and falls into the trashcan. She proceeds to rifle through the trash and bugs Emma into helping her get the bracelet back. When she finally finds it, she discovers that it is caught on a greasy duffle bag. She rescues the bracelet, which would make a really boring story UNTIL... Emma sees a dollar bill poking out of the edge of the bag. A FIFTY dollar bill.

I have to back up now and tell you that Emma is poor and Sydney is rich. Well, her parents are rich. Rich enough to buy her a Miata. She works at the movie theater because her parents want her to know responsibility. Emma works at the movie theater because she has to. This isn't Sweet Valley standards of poor, mind you. After all, Emma's parents aren't the town drunks, and Sydney doesn't really care whether or not Emma has tons of money. Emma's house does have cracked concrete steps, and she drives a beat-up VW, but that sounds like pretty much every broke college student that I know. Back to the plot....

Emma opens the duffle bag to find wads and wads of fifty dollar bills. Almost 100,000 dollars worth!! She suggests splitting the money with Sydney. Emma's mom needs knee surgery that she can't afford, and Emma desperately wants to keep all this cash. Sydney isn't so sure. What if it belongs to someone? Now, I don't know about you, but I've never misplaced 100 grand in a dumpster. Perhaps it belongs to the Mafia, and they thought they could throw someone off by hiding it in a dumpster? Read on. It gets better.

Sydney suggests they hide the money for two weeks and if no one claims it then the money is theirs. She and Emma bury it in Fear Street Woods under a tree they used to gossip around when they were younger. Sydney doesn't want to think about the money, though Emma loves to talk about it nonstop. When Sydney gets home she runs into her boyfriend, Jason. She's a terrible liar and doesn't want to tell him about the money and where she's been, but when he accuses her of being out with another guy, she knows that she'll have to tell him the whole truth.

As in a lot of other Fear Street books, as soon as Sydney tells Jason about the money he jokes about killing Emma so he and Syd can split it. Sydney's pretty loyal though, so she doesn't like all this talk of killing her best friend. However, Jason and Emma have never gotten along. Emma didn't want Sydney to tell anyone about the money. She has a point. It's like telling someone you've found the fountain of youth. Chaos! Anarchy!

The next day Emma falls down the stairs at school. Right as she is falling Sydney sees Jason at the top of the steps, and his mouth is twisted... into a smile? Emma thinks so. When she comes to in the hospital she tells Sydney that Jason pushed her, but of course he denies it when Sydney confronts him. He claims that he fell into the banister by accident. Emma makes Sydney confess that she told Jason about the money. What does this have to do with anything? Clearly, Jason now wants a slice of the 100 grand pie as well. He's more on Emma's level in terms of monetary funds or lack thereof. Emma thinks that Jason wants the money so bad he will stop at nothing to kill her so that he can have half. Sydney tries to convince Emma that she is being ridiculous.

Sydney suggests that Jason try and get along with Emma and make up with her. Turns out that Emma's junk car needs fixing, and Jason offers to help. Sydney is glad they are trying to make amends. Emma invites her over the next day to window shop for everything they want to buy. Sydney doesn't really want to go, but she's glad that Emma is feeling better, so she agrees to come over. They plan to test out Emma's car now that Jason has fixed it.

Just as she's about to leave, Sydney gets a call from Jason. He wants to hang out, but she tells him that she is on her way to Emma's to head to the mall in Emma's car. Jason starts acting weird about this. He doesn't understand why they have to take EMMA'S car when they usually take Sydney's. Syd ignores him and heads over to Emma's anyway. As they head to the mall, everything seems to be running fine. They start up a hill, but as they come down Emma finds herself unable to use the breaks. Oops. They narrowly miss careening into a van.

Breathless and frightened, Emma gets out to see what is wrong with her car. She shows Sydney that the brake lines have been cut. Now there's no denying that Jason might have an agenda. Sydney wants to go the police, but Emma doesn't wish to part with 50 grand. I cannot say I blame her. Emma says the only thing to do is kill Jason. Sydney is sick of all this talk of killing each other, and she comes up with another plan. Instead of killing Jason they are going to give him a piece of the action. They'll split the money three ways and give Jason 33 grand. That math seems a bit off... Oh wait, it's totally not! I just did it on my Dashboard calculator... wow. I really suck at math. I guess I was thinking 100 grand divided by FOUR. Thank god I'm an English major.

Though still shaken about the cut brake lines, they invite Jason over that night to let him know the plan. He pulls an innocent face and swears up and down that the brakes were fine when he tested them earlier. Whatever. They know they have to give him the money or else he'll keep trying to kill them. Jason is so excited about the news that he wants to go to Fear Street Woods and see the money right then, at night! The girls reluctantly agree.

They get to the secret spot and start digging, but Syd is really cold and says she has to go back to the car for a sweater. This begs the question of why she wouldn't be wearing one already, but I was so proud of RL Stine at the end of this book that I can't find too much to snark. As Syd's walking away she hears Emma scream. She turns around to find Emma and Jason locked in a battle over the shovel. They keep fighting until Sydney yells at them to stop. As soon as Jason hears her voice, he turns around. Emma gets ahold of the shovel and POW! She knocks Jason out. Actually, the blow kills him. Sydney runs over and Emma pronounces him dead. Syd is freaking the freak out at this point, but Emma insists that killing Jason was her fault, so she'll be the one to bury him. She decides to sink him in Fear Street lake, because no one will find him for weeks. Yes, and when they DO find him...??

Emma is having trouble getting him to actually sink, however, and, frantic, she runs back to Sydney and asks for her red belt. Seriously? A red belt is going to sink a teenage dude? Okay. Whatever you say, RL Stine. With that out of the way, Emma and Syd head home. Sydney is actually concerned that they are, you know, murderers, but Emma isn't letting herself get too caught up with it. Hmm, Emma. You're starting to smell a little fishy from that lake. Sydney thought she heard two people talking in the woods before Emma came back from sinking Jason, but she's not sure of anything anymore.

Now that she is a murderer (or murderer accomplice, not that the police care about the minor difference), Sydney starts to lose what is left of her mind. She wakes up the morning after to find muddy footprints at the foot of her bed. This after she had a nightmare that Jason was in her room covered in swamp gunk and rotting. (I don't think he'd be rotting this soon, but whatevs). Then she finds his class ring in an envelope in her locker, which she SWORE she saw him wearing the night before... or did she? When she and Emma walk out to the Miata, Sydney gasps as she sees the bloody and muddy shovel used to kill Jason in her car. She moves it to the trunk but still sits down where the shovel was in the driver's seat. Ew. Then Sydney starts getting notes calling her a murderer. She then realizes that she has to get her red belt back before the police find Jason and link the evidence to her rich ass.

Even though it's a stupid idea and creepy as hell, they go back to get Jason's body from the swamp so Syd can get her red belt back. But... Jason's body isn't there. Sydney is continuing to fall apart, while Emma continues to have explanations for everything of Jason's that Sydney has found. Syd goes home to find the RED BELT tied around the leg of her teddy bear attached with a note that says "murderer" in Jason's handwriting. She's now convinced that Jason isn't dead at all, while Emma is STILL trying to convince her that he is. I was very, VERY suspicious of Emma at this point, but the ending was still better than anything I could have imagined.

Emma comes over to see the red belt and the note, but they are nowhere to be found!! Emma points out that Sydney has just destroyed her room in order to find the belt and note and is suffering from a lack of sleep. But as soon as Syd wakes up she finds herself face to face with the rotting corpse of Jason. Sydney has completely lost it, only she's still convinced that she's the one in the right. We shall soon see...

So, would you, dear reader, now like to know the most epic 5 page ending in all of Fear Street history?

We cut to Emma and totally-not-dead Jason hanging out in the hospital where Sydney is now committed for her insanity. They are on their way out and laughing about how easy it was to dupe her. See, Emma and Jason never really hated each other. They just had to pretend to in order to keep Sydney fooled. Jason was really with Emma behind Sydney's back. But Emma never thought Sydney really deserved the money. So she and Jason plotted everything out in order to drive Sydney crazy and keep her that way. So they have now arrived at their happy ending, and they go dig up the money and head out on a shopping spree at the mall. Emma is about to be the owner of a $600 dollar jacket (what about her mom's surgery?) when the salesclerk starts laughing at her. Emma is confused until he shows her the fifty dollar bill. It says "UNTIED STATES OF AMERICA" and has Benjamin Franklin in a backwards baseball cap. All the money that they've just driven Sydney crazy over is fake.

EPICBALLS!!!!!!!

So yeah, how did they not notice the money was fake beforehand? Well, they all wanted it so much and were so crazy over it and always looked at it at night that it seems plausible that they missed the backwards baseball cap thing. I don't care about that plot hole, honestly, because that ending was so epic and banging. I love RL Stine so much. I want to marry him and rob a bank with fake money that we can cover in fake blood. And then we can write "RL STINE WUZ HERE" all over it.

I almost don't ever want to read another Fear Street. I know they're not all this epic. But even when the endings suck, the kills are still very imaginative, so I shall soldier on...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Just A Ginger.
568 reviews27 followers
July 6, 2017
LOL omg, wtf.

Okay so this book... I did not see that ending coming, at all. I didn't see either of the twists at the end coming. The characters in this one, surprisingly, were not annoying.

Okay, so these two best friends work together, one is rich and one is poor. The poor one really needs money to help her mother who needs a surgery. They end up finding a bag full of cash.

Oh man, the things I could do with a bag full of cash.

Well of course someone has a big mouth and tells someone.


And they bury it in a public spot.



Can we get some common sense here?

Of course someone betrays someone else, and actually it's a really effed up situation.

Oh it gets better!



Now that is the only issue I have with this fantastic story, the twists were great, and really messed up, just how I like them. But they really didn't notice that?

SO maybe it is a tad unrealistic, but those twists, the first had me like ...


Ya'll ruthless.

But the second twist had me...


Karma is a bitch LOL
Profile Image for Brandon.
309 reviews12 followers
April 24, 2023
The Rich Girl is a book I've heard great things about going in, so I was excited to start it.The story begins with two characters Emma and Sydney.Emma is poor and needs her roof fixed on her house and her mom needs an operation. I think it's knee replacement surgery?Sydney on the other hand is loaded but she doesn't show it because she has to work for what she has.Her parents are trying to show her responsibility which is already a good character quality and very surprising for a rich girl in a Fear Street book.Anyway they are taking the trash out at their job.It's like a movie theater or something, and Sydney accidentally snags her bracelet on something She wants it back.And after digging for a while she finds that and a greased up bag full of money with fifty dollar bills rapped in rubber bands are attached to it. They claim it's one hundred thousand dollars.After some negotiating they decide to keep it.The rich girl Sydney says not to ,but the poor girl Emma really needs it. They decide to hold on to it until someone comes looking for it. Until then they will burry it in the Fear Street woods. We learn earlier that Emma doesn't care for Sydney's new boyfriend Jason ,a guy that only has one good characteristic and that's being able to fix cars ,which is really a good quality. Sydney ends up promising not to tell anyone about the money but after two sentences of nagging she tells Jason about it.He automatically think she's out cheating on him so she tells him. Emma finds out and is pissed. It was supposed to be a secret. After this different things begin to occur.Emma ends up falling down stairs at school and claims Jason pushed her. Jason claims he didn't and that somebody bumped into him. To make up for it Jason comes over and fixes Emma's beat up car for free. When he's done Emma and Sydney go for a test drive only to find out the brake lines have been cut.emma claims the brakes worked fine until he worked on it. Emma is such a Karen.Things like this keep happening until they decide to split the money with Jason three ways,and this is where the story takes a completely different turn. Something happens in the woods and it's pretty shocking. But that's honestly all I can say.I actually thought this book was pretty predictable, until the very end. They're two twists that are both very surprising.I got half of it right, but only half. And I'll leave you all with this, Rita from Silent Night is not the worst character in this franchise.I give The Rich Girl a solid three out of five stars. It was pretty predictable ,sort of, with some basic stuff .But around the 70 page mark this book switches to something else entirely, almost like a two books in one special. I did enjoy some of the descriptions of gore and some of the mystery aspects, but as I said I swore I knew the direction of this book and I think that was a safer call. But props to Stine for surprising me.
Profile Image for Courtney Gruenholz.
Author 13 books24 followers
August 10, 2023
I read this book when it first came out and couldn't really remember the specifics of the plot until I was watching a made for tv movie.

I was like this seems familiar but of course with a teenage slant. It was called House of Secrets with Melissa Gilbert and it was a "remake" of the French movie Les Diaboliques. A few different elements but yeah this is basically what The Rich Girl is if you have seen either film.

If so, you know but if you haven't read this Fear Street entry or seen any remake of a 1955 French film, you will find it is a pretty good read.

Emma Naylor and Sydney Shue have been best friends since the sixth grade despite having very different backgrounds. Emma is short with straight blonde hair who lives in the Old Village of Shadyside with her divorced mom. Emma works at the movie theater basically five days a week to earn money.

Sydney comes from a rich family who live on five acres in North Hill and they only make her work at the movie theater to keep her from being spoiled rotten. She has to pay for insurance on her care sure but Sydney's parents did just give it to her because she wanted it. Sydney is tall like a model with curly, dark hair and her life is about as perfect as it could get.

Sydney doesn't act better than Emma because she has money and the only thing they can't seem to agree on is Sydney's boyfriend, Jason Phillips. He's tall, blond and handsome not exactly poor but still low on funds that he has to have his girlfriend buy him a pair of sneakers that are $150 dollars.

Sydney's crazy about Jason but Emma thinks he is a greedy jerk.

One day, taking out trash at work, Sydney's silver charm bracelet falls into the dumpster. Emma helps her and they find it stuck to a duffel bag zipper that they have to heft out so Sydney can get it free.

There is money poking out of it and when Emma gets it open, the two girls find stacks of rubber banded fifty dollar bills.

$100,000 in total.

Sydney wants to of course do the right thing and go to the police to see if it has been stolen but Emma is all finders keepers. She told Sydney that her mother needed surgery to help fix an old knee injury that has been giving her problems at her waitress job. The insurance wouldn't cover the medical bills and Emma's mom would lose money to take time off or just be downright fired to ask off.

Can't blame her really once you learn she would also like a new car, be able to fix the old leaky roof of their home and go to college without depending on a scholarship.

Emma is able to convince Sydney to give it at least two weeks to see if the paper reports a bank robbery or someone losing a bunch of cash. No one claims it...they split it evenly.

They drive out to the Fear Street Woods and bury the money under a willow tree from childhood and mark the spot with a rock. Sydney is still uneasy, wondering if they have been followed or not, but Emma is cool as a cucumber.

Sydney gets home and finds Jason waiting for her, late for their date after her job. Sydney tries to convince Jason that she had to work late but Sydney is so bad at being a liar that he doesn't believe it and Jason almost leaves thinking that Sydney was cheating on him.

Sydney spills the beans to Jason and he "jokes" about getting rid of Emma like they do in the movies. Sydney does not find it funny and then the next day, Emma falls down the stairs as Sydney glimpses Jason behind her in the commotion with a grin on his face.

Emma knows right away that Sydney had to have told Jason and then becomes super-paranoid that Jason is going to kill her to get her half of the money. Sydney knows her boyfriend isn't a killer but she can't help but ask Jason if he was serious about killing Emma.

He's shocked and Sydney apologizes but Jason says he'll try and be nicer to Emma after her accident even though she was only bruised up and sore with nothing broken. When another "accident" happens to both Emma and Sydney that could have been fatal, Emma is now convinced Jason is out to kill her.

Sydney is beginning to doubt Jason slightly but Emma is sure that she is right. Emma tells Sydney that they should cut Jason in on the money in a three-way split and see what happens in kind of a test.

The results go about as well as you can expect and to tell anymore would seriously give away the plot for those who have not read this book. There is a very neo-noir tone with some suspenseful almost psychological horror sure to leave you terrified.

As we get closer to the end, there is a reveal and a twist that lead to an ending that is both a lesson learned yet also kind of sad.

It is one of the better Fear Street books toward its inevitable end run and worth checking out.
Profile Image for Vidhya.
Author 1 book58 followers
May 2, 2020
Haha! I may or may not have seen that coming - but I completely enjoyed the book! Definite Halloween material!
So enjoying this fear street binge this year!
1 review2 followers
October 28, 2016
I love this book because there is a twist in the end of the book that made me laugh. Because a girl and her friend found money and swore to never tell anyone else but Sydney told her boyfriend and now he wants all the money to him self even if it means killing anyone who gets in his way. Then in the end of the book there's a huge problem that made me laugh. And I feel bad for Sydneys boyfriend Jason.
Profile Image for Nader Nate.
321 reviews2 followers
April 9, 2024
That ending was nuts!! despite i really predicted it in the middle of the book but still hit me hard
the book is so intriguing and i liked the characters development and the atmosphere too.
the plot is kind predictable a little bit for me Or I really expect things and it turn out to be right
This was a really good book because it keeps me guessing about a lot of things. Also, this book can teach you that you can't always trust people, even if they're your best friends or lover too and for the first time i really blame all the characters in this book (karma).
******************************************************************************
#VERDICT: (7.5/10)

Profile Image for J.D..
593 reviews21 followers
March 23, 2022
When best friends Sydney and Emma find a bag full of money they have completely different reactions. Emma wants to keep it while Sydney wants to turn it into the police. But when Sydney's boyfriend finds out about the money, things become more complicated.

This is one of the really great Fear Street books. The characters were realistic and the plot was a bit different than the usual Fear Street storyline.

While the ending was really good, it was actually a pretty dark one that was scary all on its own when you really think about it.
Profile Image for Thomas.
494 reviews18 followers
June 2, 2021
Well, with that movie trilogy coming next month I think it's time to double down on reading these. I want to hopefully read on each week this month and possibly get some in next month too. Although I don't think I'll do one next week as I'm reviewing one on the blog anyway.

I'm mostly a randomizer wheel for this and it gave me this later entry. I already knew where this one went and oh boy we'll get to that. I'm kind of half and half on reviewing this, it has some talking points but not a ton in parts of it so I may put it more on the back-burner so I'll say what I can now. This has Sydney and her friend Emma finding a bag of money and hiding it and if no one claims it in two weeks, they'll allow themselves to take it. See, Sydney is rich but Emma is not. Her mother needs an operation and she wants the money to pay for it. Ah, nothing like bad healthcare system reminders from even this series.

They aren't supposed to tell anyone but Sydney accidentally ends up telling her boyfriend Jason and suddenly soon Emma starts having bad things happen to her. Is the bastard boyfriend behind it, wanting the money for himself?

So, the class aspect is interesting. Sydney is actually likable (a nice contrast to Reva Dalby) and is aware of her privilege, feeling guilty that she can't know how exactly how Emma feels going through this. It's balanced out okay. Emma's motivation is of course very reasonable, and while she starts going a bit further, wanting needless stuff to, she catches herself.

Unless I'm missing something, this is the shortest one at only 132 pages (usually it's like 145-160), and you can feel that. The good thing is that there's not much filler, but it does rush things. It goes from beat to beat, not quite building a ton of suspense. It picks up once a certain things happens. Sydney starts feeling the pressure from all this and it's well captured. The thing, a good chunk is fairly standard despite the setup. I noticed around this point, Stine was becoming aware of the formula and was trying to change things up, sometimes in small ways.

So here he just makes it quicker, which I suppose is fine but does mean it feels kinda rushed. But much like Killer's Kiss, there's a big twist that changes everything. I thought it worked well, making enough sense for the most part and being unpredictable. I knew it but if I didn't, I wouldn't have guessed it since it was mostly straight forward. It makes the villain especially terrible. And the extra beat was great, and it was even foreshadowed in a way I didn't catch even though I should have. That's actually clever.

As far as other flaws, I do feel like the operation thing makes Emma too reasonable in wanting the money and spoilers, the ending makes this more of a problem. I feel like just one small change with it would have made it work better. Having the rich one as the "POV" character works fine as is, I just want a certain change or just have her care more about buying stuff she doesn't really need, to really drive home that clear "greed is bad" moral.

But yeah, I think it's a good, generally enjoyable, getting intense enough later and having a decent handling of the class thing for the most part, and a likable protagonist, plus a mostly good twist. It could have been better but for a later entry, it's fine.

POP CULTURE WATCH: Some car brands and Coke, that's it. Although Jason mentions some movie where some people ended up killing each other over money they found, is that made up or real? (Sadly this means no reason to check the 2000's reprint that exists)

RED-HEAD WATCH: A clerk at the very end.

CONTINUITY WATCH: None, from what I could tell.
Profile Image for Eleanor.
41 reviews25 followers
August 21, 2012
Good old Fear Street series, how I loved thee! In fact, me and my three besties loved it so much we turned one of the books into a radio show for an English assignment back in high school. I can't remember which one it was now, but it was about a psycho and someone who gets put into the boot of a car and everyone elses' generic description is just "scared follower sheep".* I know that could potentially refer to at least 30% of the Fear Street installments... but it isn't this one.

This one is about two girls who find a bag with heaps of money inside and after that is a mindfuckgame of who gets away alive with the money, with a "supernatural dash" which surprisingly, is rather effective.

Now I'm not giving this four stars because I am a reluctant OMG I DUNS NOES I CAN ACTUALLY READ!!!111!!! type of reader and surprised myself - no, I am a rather accomplished reader (one likes to hope anyway) and I give this 4 stars because although there were some absolute clangers, when the series actually gets it right like on this occasion ie: cleanly written, killer twist at the end, precisely tied up like a surgeon has done it, so many creepy hooks you can go fishing for a dead body and actually catch one - it elevates trashiness into an ART FORM.

* I got to play the psycho who put whoever it was into the boot. You're not really surprised at this fact are you?

Profile Image for Karina.
14 reviews1 follower
Read
July 15, 2009
This book is about two best friends named Sydney and Emma that find a bag full of money abandon in a trash can. They both promised each other that they wouldn't tell anyone that they had found money. But Sydney broke the promise and told her boyfriend Jason. Ever since Sydney told Jason he tried to kill Emma in order for him to get the money.At the end Emma ended up dead and Sydney and Jason decided to get all the money. That same day they went shopping and Sydney got an expensive coat. She went to buy it when she gave the cashier the money she had noticed that she killed her best friend for nothing because the money was fake!
Profile Image for Fachrina.
268 reviews6 followers
August 2, 2012
The twist in the end was unexpected, like all plot twist should be. It is also tragic, that Emma and Jason succeed in making Sydney insane just to discover that the money was fake.

Moral lesson? Don't be greedy. And if you find a bag full of money, make sure you check whether the money is real or not.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Jelena.
418 reviews3 followers
April 18, 2025
I totally understand why 12 year old me devoured Stine's novels. Had a blast, such a quick read with fun twists. Nostalgia was a big factor while rating.
Profile Image for Jessica  Williams .
904 reviews46 followers
October 27, 2023
The nostalgia! It was so sweet to go back to my childhood when I’d spend so much time reading Fear Street books with my friends.

This is a quick read with juvenile twists and even though I predicted the ending (I doubt it’s from memory as it’s been over 30 years 🤣) it was still an entertaining, YA thriller read!
Profile Image for Mister  B. Gone .
54 reviews
April 10, 2024
It was almost a 2 star book, but the twist saved it to be just an average fear street book
Profile Image for Makeila.
101 reviews3 followers
September 19, 2025
I really liked this quick little read. very fast paced, pretty scary for the intended age audience, the ending was funny. 4.5
Profile Image for Cathy.
467 reviews5 followers
October 26, 2020
Classic Fear Street from the 90s! Short, to the point, and not bogged down by awkward, nonsensical dialogue that seems to have become a hallmark of his most recent offerings—this format suits R.L. best. I could determine the outcome a mile away, but I still gasped and chuckled through the chapters. Not his best Fear Street volume, but still a fun, nostalgic read perfect for spooky season.
Profile Image for Liliana.
996 reviews216 followers
June 18, 2021
Reviewed on Lili Lost in a Book

Sydney and her friend Emma find a bag filled to the brim with cash inside a dumpster. Our main character, Sydney, is pretty well off, money-wise. However, her parents don't want her to be a spoiled little brat (looking at you, Reva. Lol), so they had her get a job. And you know what? Sydney doesn't even mind working, which I like. This is how she finds the bag. She was at work taking out the trash when suddenly she saw this bag of money. Being the good person that she is, Sydney wants to turn the money into the police.

Her friend Emma, on the other hand, is quite poor and is in need of money for her mom’s operation. So when Sydney brings up the idea of turning the money in, Emma is like NOPE. I get it, I really do. But nothing good could ever come of this. Especially in a Fear Street novel. Lol.

Anyway, the promise not to breathe a word of this to anyone and decide to hide away the money for a while. If no one claims it, then they keep it. Sydney, however, let it slip to her boyfriend Jason that they found this money. And the reason why she even tells him in the first place is because he was being suspicious and getting all jealous, thinking she was sneaking around behind his back 🙄 She wasn’t, of course. She was just out hiding some money. Lol. but she’s never given him a reason to be suspicious before, and just the way he treated her in this scene... I didn’t like it. I didn’t like him! Especially because I suspected he was only with her because of her money. Ugh.

The money then goes missing from the hiding place and Sydney doesn’t know what to think. The only other two people that know about the money are her best friend and her boyfriend. And then things get crazy.

The only thing I know for sure, she thought, is that everything has gone wrong.
Horribly wrong.




I really liked these twists, but I really wanted more from the ending. Maybe something deadly with a kill or something? This was just insane, but I really enjoyed it!

The Fear Street connection: They hid their money in the Fear Street woods.
Profile Image for Kristine (The Writer's Inkwell).
515 reviews12 followers
December 23, 2015
Posted originally on my blog:
The Writer's Inkwell

The thing I love about the Fear Street novels is the fact you never know which way they are going to turn out. Sometimes there really is a killer lurking around the corner. Sometimes it’s a psychological thriller. Sometimes it’s a plot against one of the characters and sometimes someone is really just freaking crazy. This is great, because as I went into this book, which I’m fairly certain is not one of the ones I’ve read before, I had no clue what the ending was going to be.

Now, that being said, I did figure it out about halfway through and of course, the story began to lose it’s appeal at that point. But I like that I never know what I’m going to get. But also, I enjoy some of the random endings Stine leaves us with. This one in particular left me laughing and it reminded me of an episode of Tales from the Crypt. Where the bad guy goes through all this trouble and then things don’t turn out how they should.

Perhaps I should change my rating of these stories based on how it’s set up and how the ending is executed? If that’s the case, this one is deserving of 3.5 because of the humorous ending. But what I also find ironic is how so many of these Fear Street novels, very rarely have anything mystical or even scary happen in them. Most of them are about a bunch of teens getting into trouble. They could live on Elm street and at least it would be more fearful. Oh well. These books were entertaining for my preadolescent mind and regardless of what I think now as I go through and continue to reread them, I have nothing but respect for that. Without it, I may not be the bookworm I am today.
37 reviews1 follower
June 10, 2012
"The Rich Girl" By R.L Stine is about two best friends, Emma and Sydney. They're very close and they tell all their secrets to each other and promise not to say a word to anyone. Not in till one day when the two girls found a bag full of money. They promised each other they won't tell anyone but Sydney broke the promise. She told her boyfriend, Jason. Ever since she told him, bad stuff started happening to them. At the end of the book, they found out the money was fake and they have been fighting over the money for no reason.

This was a really good book because it keeps me guessing about the whole problem. Also, this book can teach you that you can't always trust people, even if they're your best friends. You shouldn't trust someone that easily just because they said they "promise" or "swear". They could always be lying. Some people can also get very greedy and will be anything to get things for themselves.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Drucilla.
2,669 reviews52 followers
January 10, 2012
There are only two good things about this book. It's a great read from a psychological point of view and I like how it's the main character's boyfriend that's untrustworthy. Usually, it's the 'friend's'. Other than that, this book just made me depressed. First off, the description on the back of the book makes it hard to determine who is the main character in the beginning. Secondly, I wish we learned something about where the duffle bag came from. Most of all, the book's ending is just depressing.
Profile Image for عائشہ.
18 reviews8 followers
Read
February 24, 2023
[ SPOILER ] [1x]

I knew from the very beginning that as a matter of fact, the money was fake.
I couldn‘t have imagined that in any possible way the „murder“ attempt had been plotted by two of the side characters [lmao]

Although it is not one of R.L. Stine‘s best books,
it was still very amusing (!)~
10 reviews
October 14, 2021
I'm not going to spoil anything in my review but oh my God the plot twist by far one of the best RL Stine books I have ever read. His writing is addicting I could not put the book down I recommend this to anybody for a quick read and interesting read and the plot twist will drive you nuts
Profile Image for Deloryn.
12 reviews
February 26, 2009
There's always an unexpected ending in r.l Stine books but all of them would be a surprising ending but when i found out the money that they found was fake it just made me laugh.
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