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Cursed: A New Fear / House of Whispers / Forbidden Secrets
From the beloved and bestselling author of the Goosebumps series comes three haunting and terrifying Fear Street Saga novels—now available in one chilling paperback edition.
Fear Street is cursed.
It’s been that way for hundreds of years. Unspeakable horrors haunt those who’ve walked on its terrifying path. And it all started with one family—the Fears.
Go back to how it all began and discover why the heir to the Fear name attempted to escape the family curse, how a young woman fell victim to the haunted Fear mansion, and why marrying into the Fear family means being trapped in a world of death and horror.
And how Fear Street became the evil place it is today.
Fear Street is cursed.
It’s been that way for hundreds of years. Unspeakable horrors haunt those who’ve walked on its terrifying path. And it all started with one family—the Fears.
Go back to how it all began and discover why the heir to the Fear name attempted to escape the family curse, how a young woman fell victim to the haunted Fear mansion, and why marrying into the Fear family means being trapped in a world of death and horror.
And how Fear Street became the evil place it is today.
490 pages, Paperback
Published December 20, 2016
19 people are currently reading
503 people want to read
About the author
R.L. Stine
1,679 books18.6k 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 38 reviews
May 11, 2020
5 🌟
I thought all the books in this collection were good. My favorite would have to be House of Whispers because Amy managed to escape the Fear madness.
I thought all the books in this collection were good. My favorite would have to be House of Whispers because Amy managed to escape the Fear madness.
March 6, 2019
I bought this book from the Big Bad Wolf Book Fair, and I have no regrets. All 3 of the Fear Street Saga stories in this book were a few of my favorite horror and fantasy themed books of all time. Although it states that this large book is of 490 pages, I was almost unaware of how much I was reading, since these were total page turners. I would totally recommend all fans of R.L. Stine, or fans of horror/fantasy/mystery to get their hands on this book as soon as possible.
January 11, 2019
Let me start off by saying that I've loved R.L. Stine since I was young so I was very excited that I came across this 3in1 book. I loved the character and all the details put into each book.
***PSA*** Some spoilers are in this review.
Book 1: A New Fear
This one doesn't waste any time jumping into the story. From the police interview with Nora Goode, who was secretly married to Daniel Fear, to the asylum and all of the details of all the deaths. It was crazy! I do not remember them being as gory as it was. Then it follows Nora's son, Nicholas, who finds out he's a Fear after Nora spent 18 years of his life hiding his true lineage from him, and then he finds out where he belongs. I'm not going to go into too much more detail but it was a fascinating new read and I loved every minute of it.
Book 2: House of Whispers
This book went a little slower than the first, which was okay. I got to connect with the main character, Amy Peirce, a lot better. Giving her power as well as Angelica Fear, was a touch I wasn't expecting but I liked it. And her relationship with David Hathaway was a bit of a rollercoaster and, again, the details of the deaths in this one was as gory as the previous book.
Book 3: Forbidden Secrets
This one was set in an earlier time than the past two and introduced us to Savannah Gentry and Tyler Fier during the Civil war, well right before it started. They had fallen in love and then war was declared and, with Tyler being from the south and Savannah from the south, their love didn't end well. When the war is over, he declares his love for Savannah once more and whisks her, and her sister, Victoria, away to the north to live with him and take her as his wife. There's voodoo, jealousy, revenge, love, and death in this one. The ending in this one was the most unexpected.
All in all, I absolutely loved reading these, as I don't think I have ever read this particular group of books before. I'm eagerly awaiting the next Fear Street book I pick to read. 5 stars for me!
***PSA*** Some spoilers are in this review.
Book 1: A New Fear
This one doesn't waste any time jumping into the story. From the police interview with Nora Goode, who was secretly married to Daniel Fear, to the asylum and all of the details of all the deaths. It was crazy! I do not remember them being as gory as it was. Then it follows Nora's son, Nicholas, who finds out he's a Fear after Nora spent 18 years of his life hiding his true lineage from him, and then he finds out where he belongs. I'm not going to go into too much more detail but it was a fascinating new read and I loved every minute of it.
Book 2: House of Whispers
This book went a little slower than the first, which was okay. I got to connect with the main character, Amy Peirce, a lot better. Giving her power as well as Angelica Fear, was a touch I wasn't expecting but I liked it. And her relationship with David Hathaway was a bit of a rollercoaster and, again, the details of the deaths in this one was as gory as the previous book.
Book 3: Forbidden Secrets
This one was set in an earlier time than the past two and introduced us to Savannah Gentry and Tyler Fier during the Civil war, well right before it started. They had fallen in love and then war was declared and, with Tyler being from the south and Savannah from the south, their love didn't end well. When the war is over, he declares his love for Savannah once more and whisks her, and her sister, Victoria, away to the north to live with him and take her as his wife. There's voodoo, jealousy, revenge, love, and death in this one. The ending in this one was the most unexpected.
All in all, I absolutely loved reading these, as I don't think I have ever read this particular group of books before. I'm eagerly awaiting the next Fear Street book I pick to read. 5 stars for me!
August 26, 2024
2 stars~
RL STINE, WHAT IS THIS?! you sir, are the one who got me into reading. i know by heart the first book i ever read of yours (trapped in bat wing hall) and YOU are the one that got me to have a grape gum addiction just like one of the characters in your books
AND THEN...
you hit me with this... MONSTROSITY OF A BOOK (yes, we are going full-fledged dramatic for this review)
this book was SO BAD i made a list of NOTES just so i could remember everything wrong with it (this list is longer then i would like to admit)
SO, without further ado, here is everything wrong with "cursed" by RL STINE
book one: i hated it. liked despised it. like if this wasn't a library book it would have been burned in a sacrificial ritual level of hated it.
so, what are the problems you might ask? here i present to you in all its beauty, everything wrong with book one...
- A LICENSED DOCTOR CALLS A PSYCHIATRIC WARD AN "insane asylum" yes, because someone who has a PHD in like science or whatever surely doesn't have the brains to know what the official term for an insane asylum is
- This sentence "the material on the hem of her SHIFT was ripped away" must i even explain? RL STINE YOU DONT NEED A 15 YEAR OLD TO DO YOUR EDITING FOR YOU
- Here was the ending to a chapter (im paraphrasing because this book has been returned to the shelf where it belongs) "nora was cutting her hair desperate to escape when she saw the outline of a man standing outside her door. she screamed as the door opened and the doctor stepped inside." here is the beginning to the next chapter (also paraphrasing) "nora jumped in fright as she saw the doctor standing over her. she had no idea he was there! she looked at the door and noticed it had been opened, but she had no idea when." continuity anyone???
-ok so here's some context: there's this guy nick or wtv and he has this BEAUTIFUL gf named rosalyn and THEN he meets this girl named ruth who he describes OVER AND OVER AGAIN how she looks like a dead fish and then he says and I QUOTE (i do have the quote in my notes) "he couldnt help comparing ruth to rosalyn" LIKE IM SORRY YOUR BEAUTIFUL GF SUDDENLY NOW LOOKS LIKE A DEAD FISH, DO WE HAVE A FISH FETISH OR SMTH?!
-rl stine literally has the reader thinking there's incest in the book for like a solid 5 chapters. so basically there's this guy jason (more on him later) that's in love with this clueless girl besty (more on her later too) and then the ending to a chapter is just like "oh, they're cousins" and its like HUH theyre flirting and theyre cousins and this is just okay??? and then at the very end of the book jason's just like "ew you thought we were flirting i was PrOtEcTiNg her wasnt that obvious" LIKE NO JASON WHEN YOURE LOWKEY FLIRTING THATS NOT OBVIOUS
-and then major spoiler alert, the girl with dark hair (ruth) turns out to be like satan's heir or smth and she forces the nick into marrying her and rosalyn (remember the gorgeous dead fish gf??) just conveniently shows up at the EXACT MOMENT to get her heart broken, LIKE WHAT?! she had like 3 months to show up, but she shows up NOW?! the timing wasnt even funny
okay, so i think that's it for the first book! :D isn't this going just GREAT?!
so thoughts on the second: my list of notes is even longer for this one, but it's a lot more entertaining for some reason?? i liked it the best i think, unfortunately thats the only good thing i have to say
- rl stine really likes his metaphors in this one, let me show you some of my pErSoNaL FaVoRiTeS
metaphor #1-2: "cards red as freshly spilled blood" and "a shade of red the same color as nellie's blood" it's like OKAY WE GET IT, this is a horror book or wtv, there's supposed to be blood, but like let me give you a visual of what i think was going through rl stine's brain when he wrote this "hmm, what's something scary but not too scary and is easy to incorporate into a metaphor repetitively? OOH I KNOW BLOOD!!"
metaphor #3: there's this metaphor like "angela felt as cozy as a glove." like uhhh, my brain defaulted to those blue latex gloves and those are NOT comfy, but then after i realized ohh he's probably talking about mittens or smth, so ig that's kinda my fault for interpreting it weird, but still a metaphor about a glove is kinda out there, could you not come up with anything better???
metaphor #4: "the tree was howling like a rabid wolf." point a: trees dont howl. try again. point b: ive heard SO MANY rabid wolves out there and i know EXACTLY what sound they make because there's SP MANY of them out there and it's SO OBVIOUS because that's just like SUCH a common thing
-spoiler alert: the maid is murdered and falls like 8 stories but then when the mc goes and finds her she's literally torn in half and like you can see the bits of her brain and her lips are torn off (this is important, remember this detail!!) and her skull is hanging through her eyeball, but dont worry she still is well enough to talk! and guess what?! she really needed to say "danger" SO BADLY that her lips magically reappeared onto her mouth!! isn't that SO COOL?!
-there's an illegal age gap in the story. the girl is 16-17 and the guy is 21. like erm, didn't come here to read about pedophilia but otay i guess?
-there's also this one off-hand comment that made me really mad, it went something like this: "nellie was too happy to committ suicide." keep in mind the girl saying this has known nellie for less than 24 hours, and you NEVER know what's going on through someone's head so the character had no right to say that whatsoever (ik this quote had nothing to do with anything in the book, it just made me really mad..)
-the only good thing that i enjoyed in this story was the romance (keep in mind it was between a teenager and a grown man) like even though the guy was totally a brooding edward cullen type the romance TOTALLY CARRIED this story
-i am not a history nerd by any means, i dont enjoy reading history or pay much attention in class, but even i was able to notice historical inaccuracies within this book. it was mentioned that they were a wealthy family living on a cotton-growing estate, but there were no mention of slaves. by no means am i saying slavery is good, or is something that should be supported, but if rl stine has the audacity to write gore for shock factor, surely he can muster up the courage to write something that was a big part of america's history.
-the foreshadowing in this book was SO OBVIOUS and heavy-handed it wasn't even funny. like the villain literally SPELLED. IT. OUT. for you what was going to happen and it took away any suspense that the story could have had.
-also there was this one saying that was really weird "a pool of hair" like ive heard someone's hair pooling around them or a pool of blood (quite frankly im surprised rl stine didnt say this because of his seeming obsession with blood metaphors) but never a pool of hair, the saying just kinda rubbed me the wrong way
-and then relating to the brooding edward cullen ADULT and the young vulnerable GIRL, the guy's always like "you CANNOT by any means TRUST ME" (twilight anyone??) and the girl is just like what?? and then when the girl's life is in the guy's hands he's like "Do you trust me? YOU HAVE TO TRUST ME IF YOU WANT TO SURVIVE" and its like you literally spent the entire story saying why you couldnt be trusted, why is she supposed to believe you now??
unless i forgot to put something in my notes (which i probably did tbh) that's it for book two!
onto book three: it was weird. and not in a good way. i think that's all im going to say before this turns into a rant in itself
-There was so much vivid animal cruelty in this book and usually that is the dealbreaker for me and i dnf a book when that happens, but this book was a special case and i powered through it for the sheer reason of being able to write this review, BUT THEY ALMOST KILLED OFF A CALICO CAT FOR GOODNESS SAKE! WHAT KIND OF MONSTER DOES THAT??? (i was referring to rl stine as the monster in case that wasnt clear)
-there was yet ANOTHER illegal age gap in this book between a young teen girl and a grown man (sounds like pedopheliaaaaaaaaa) like i think rl stine was listening to a little too much r kelly while writing these books iykwim
-the main character is SO STUPID in this book that it's impossible for the reader to root for her. we get this dark backstory about how this teenager sets fire to her parents and kills them and then she tries to do the SAME THING to the main girl (savannah) who wants to guess what savannah's response was?! hint: it was "aww, aren't you so adorable???" LIKE SHE LITERALLY JUST TRIED TO BECOME A SERIAL KILLER, NOPE THAT'S NOT ADORABLE and right after that she's like ugh i HATE making my sister upset, when all she's doing is exactly that! she's dating (and eventually marries) the guy she KNOWS her sister likes, dragged her out of he home to this creepy mansion to live with him, constantly yells at her and belittles her, and (spoiler alert) KILLED HER! yep, it really seems like you HATE making your sister upset, like you TOTALLY dont find ANY pleasure from doing it at all...
-also there's more incest in this book!!! except it's ACTUAL INCEST THIS TIME. so there's like these siblings, and the girl is head over heels in love with the guy and the guy (even though he's already married) starts flirting back after he found out the girl (his SISTER) tried to kill his wife (WHO IS UNDER THE AGE OF 18)! this is so messed up i dont even know where to begin...
-also, this is just me being a cat nerd and totally nitpicky, but the calico cat in this book is male, and it's a genetic mutation for calico cats to be male (only 0.0003% are) so it's not really believable that the cat is male, not a big deal in the long run, it's just something i picked up on
-i caught another spelling error! rl stine spelled prophecy wrong MULTIPLE TIMES and i looked it up the way he spelled it to see if it's just some alternate way to spell it or anything, but ITS NOT. so like that's some serious dedication to spell a word wrong multiple times and get it past the editor lol
-there was also a lot of loose ends in this book, and i was not here for that. like for example: the cat. the last we see of him is him dying from food poisoning but he's lapping up human blood for some reason (??) and then that's it, like does he recover? why was he drinking human blood in the first place? what happened to him?? im so confused...
-AND THEN THIS ONE MAKES ME REALLY MAD: but the whole entire book was about how the savannah was supposed to die in like this huge inferno, but then there's an epilogue and she survived with no explanation, and is like dripping black blood onto the corpse of her husband and sister and it's just like WHAT?? she was supposed to DIE AND SHE DIDN'T its like the exact opposite of the title of that book "you're not supposed to die tonight" like savannah WAS supposed to die that night
and because i cant seem to stop writing, here are some reoccurring themes i noticed that seemed to happen in all three books...
- the childish writing. this book is advertised as young adult and horror so i figured, oh it's aimed for teens my age and i was excited to give this a try since i hadn't read any horror in a while. I DIDNT REALIZE YOUNG ADULT MEANT 8 YEAR OLDS WHO COULD STOMACH GORE, literally i was a more advanced writer at 10 then rl stine is at 50
-the shock factor, i guess the reason not many 6 year old were picking this book up was because it would be like "i went to the beach with my wife. my wife kissed me." (literally the writing style) and then OUT OF NOWHERE it turns into "i pull out the ak-47 in my back pocket and shoot my wife senseless. i dont stop firing until there's nothing left of her except the spongy brain matter clinging to my shirt. her eyes are wide open and her mouth frozen in a soundless scream, half her teeth bashed out and blood leeching from behind her hair." LIKE EXCUSE ME WHAT?! this book could have literally been a continuation of the goosebumps series if there wasn't that over the top gore descriptions
-the scooby-doo plot twists (no offense to scooby-doo) like i know that in the goosebumps series, they have some pretty out-of-pocket plot twists that are like WHOA I NEVER SAW THAT COMING and it's cute and all when youre a kid, but as a teen reading them and (YES I AM THE TARGET AUDIENCE ACCORDING TO GOODREADS) its just like huh, this makes LITERALLY NO SENSE?? like the twists are either so obvious or so out of left field you couldn't make sense of it if you tried...
-there's also the fact that this book had some stereotypes that ARE SO OVERUSED and im just so done
stereotype #1: the dumb blonde. yep, we all know what this is. i dont need to furtherly explain myself.
stereotype #2: the blonde is oh so beautiful and girls with dark hair are evil witches and deserve to burn in hell. i am not joking when i say this is a reoccurring theme in all three books. its really sad.
stereotype #3: this is a less-known one, but still definitely a stereotype. the jason stereotype. in every book i have ever read, the guy named jason is some brooding blond hero with a muscular build and a tragic past and he has blue eyes and is really tall and has an positive adjective for a last name and MUST I GO ON? give the jasons a break and include some diversity!!!
stereotype #4: the romeo and juliet, star crossed lovers story. to quote the best actor of all time (the lovely james edward franco) "it's been done."
since this is my longest review to date, i dedicate this to emma because her reviews inspire me and i hope to have the patience and energy to write reviews as great as hers one day
RL STINE, WHAT IS THIS?! you sir, are the one who got me into reading. i know by heart the first book i ever read of yours (trapped in bat wing hall) and YOU are the one that got me to have a grape gum addiction just like one of the characters in your books
AND THEN...
you hit me with this... MONSTROSITY OF A BOOK (yes, we are going full-fledged dramatic for this review)
this book was SO BAD i made a list of NOTES just so i could remember everything wrong with it (this list is longer then i would like to admit)
SO, without further ado, here is everything wrong with "cursed" by RL STINE
book one: i hated it. liked despised it. like if this wasn't a library book it would have been burned in a sacrificial ritual level of hated it.
so, what are the problems you might ask? here i present to you in all its beauty, everything wrong with book one...
- A LICENSED DOCTOR CALLS A PSYCHIATRIC WARD AN "insane asylum" yes, because someone who has a PHD in like science or whatever surely doesn't have the brains to know what the official term for an insane asylum is
- This sentence "the material on the hem of her SHIFT was ripped away" must i even explain? RL STINE YOU DONT NEED A 15 YEAR OLD TO DO YOUR EDITING FOR YOU
- Here was the ending to a chapter (im paraphrasing because this book has been returned to the shelf where it belongs) "nora was cutting her hair desperate to escape when she saw the outline of a man standing outside her door. she screamed as the door opened and the doctor stepped inside." here is the beginning to the next chapter (also paraphrasing) "nora jumped in fright as she saw the doctor standing over her. she had no idea he was there! she looked at the door and noticed it had been opened, but she had no idea when." continuity anyone???
-ok so here's some context: there's this guy nick or wtv and he has this BEAUTIFUL gf named rosalyn and THEN he meets this girl named ruth who he describes OVER AND OVER AGAIN how she looks like a dead fish and then he says and I QUOTE (i do have the quote in my notes) "he couldnt help comparing ruth to rosalyn" LIKE IM SORRY YOUR BEAUTIFUL GF SUDDENLY NOW LOOKS LIKE A DEAD FISH, DO WE HAVE A FISH FETISH OR SMTH?!
-rl stine literally has the reader thinking there's incest in the book for like a solid 5 chapters. so basically there's this guy jason (more on him later) that's in love with this clueless girl besty (more on her later too) and then the ending to a chapter is just like "oh, they're cousins" and its like HUH theyre flirting and theyre cousins and this is just okay??? and then at the very end of the book jason's just like "ew you thought we were flirting i was PrOtEcTiNg her wasnt that obvious" LIKE NO JASON WHEN YOURE LOWKEY FLIRTING THATS NOT OBVIOUS
-and then major spoiler alert, the girl with dark hair (ruth) turns out to be like satan's heir or smth and she forces the nick into marrying her and rosalyn (remember the gorgeous dead fish gf??) just conveniently shows up at the EXACT MOMENT to get her heart broken, LIKE WHAT?! she had like 3 months to show up, but she shows up NOW?! the timing wasnt even funny
okay, so i think that's it for the first book! :D isn't this going just GREAT?!
so thoughts on the second: my list of notes is even longer for this one, but it's a lot more entertaining for some reason?? i liked it the best i think, unfortunately thats the only good thing i have to say
- rl stine really likes his metaphors in this one, let me show you some of my pErSoNaL FaVoRiTeS
metaphor #1-2: "cards red as freshly spilled blood" and "a shade of red the same color as nellie's blood" it's like OKAY WE GET IT, this is a horror book or wtv, there's supposed to be blood, but like let me give you a visual of what i think was going through rl stine's brain when he wrote this "hmm, what's something scary but not too scary and is easy to incorporate into a metaphor repetitively? OOH I KNOW BLOOD!!"
metaphor #3: there's this metaphor like "angela felt as cozy as a glove." like uhhh, my brain defaulted to those blue latex gloves and those are NOT comfy, but then after i realized ohh he's probably talking about mittens or smth, so ig that's kinda my fault for interpreting it weird, but still a metaphor about a glove is kinda out there, could you not come up with anything better???
metaphor #4: "the tree was howling like a rabid wolf." point a: trees dont howl. try again. point b: ive heard SO MANY rabid wolves out there and i know EXACTLY what sound they make because there's SP MANY of them out there and it's SO OBVIOUS because that's just like SUCH a common thing
-spoiler alert: the maid is murdered and falls like 8 stories but then when the mc goes and finds her she's literally torn in half and like you can see the bits of her brain and her lips are torn off (this is important, remember this detail!!) and her skull is hanging through her eyeball, but dont worry she still is well enough to talk! and guess what?! she really needed to say "danger" SO BADLY that her lips magically reappeared onto her mouth!! isn't that SO COOL?!
-there's an illegal age gap in the story. the girl is 16-17 and the guy is 21. like erm, didn't come here to read about pedophilia but otay i guess?
-there's also this one off-hand comment that made me really mad, it went something like this: "nellie was too happy to committ suicide." keep in mind the girl saying this has known nellie for less than 24 hours, and you NEVER know what's going on through someone's head so the character had no right to say that whatsoever (ik this quote had nothing to do with anything in the book, it just made me really mad..)
-the only good thing that i enjoyed in this story was the romance (keep in mind it was between a teenager and a grown man) like even though the guy was totally a brooding edward cullen type the romance TOTALLY CARRIED this story
-i am not a history nerd by any means, i dont enjoy reading history or pay much attention in class, but even i was able to notice historical inaccuracies within this book. it was mentioned that they were a wealthy family living on a cotton-growing estate, but there were no mention of slaves. by no means am i saying slavery is good, or is something that should be supported, but if rl stine has the audacity to write gore for shock factor, surely he can muster up the courage to write something that was a big part of america's history.
-the foreshadowing in this book was SO OBVIOUS and heavy-handed it wasn't even funny. like the villain literally SPELLED. IT. OUT. for you what was going to happen and it took away any suspense that the story could have had.
-also there was this one saying that was really weird "a pool of hair" like ive heard someone's hair pooling around them or a pool of blood (quite frankly im surprised rl stine didnt say this because of his seeming obsession with blood metaphors) but never a pool of hair, the saying just kinda rubbed me the wrong way
-and then relating to the brooding edward cullen ADULT and the young vulnerable GIRL, the guy's always like "you CANNOT by any means TRUST ME" (twilight anyone??) and the girl is just like what?? and then when the girl's life is in the guy's hands he's like "Do you trust me? YOU HAVE TO TRUST ME IF YOU WANT TO SURVIVE" and its like you literally spent the entire story saying why you couldnt be trusted, why is she supposed to believe you now??
unless i forgot to put something in my notes (which i probably did tbh) that's it for book two!
onto book three: it was weird. and not in a good way. i think that's all im going to say before this turns into a rant in itself
-There was so much vivid animal cruelty in this book and usually that is the dealbreaker for me and i dnf a book when that happens, but this book was a special case and i powered through it for the sheer reason of being able to write this review, BUT THEY ALMOST KILLED OFF A CALICO CAT FOR GOODNESS SAKE! WHAT KIND OF MONSTER DOES THAT??? (i was referring to rl stine as the monster in case that wasnt clear)
-there was yet ANOTHER illegal age gap in this book between a young teen girl and a grown man (sounds like pedopheliaaaaaaaaa) like i think rl stine was listening to a little too much r kelly while writing these books iykwim
-the main character is SO STUPID in this book that it's impossible for the reader to root for her. we get this dark backstory about how this teenager sets fire to her parents and kills them and then she tries to do the SAME THING to the main girl (savannah) who wants to guess what savannah's response was?! hint: it was "aww, aren't you so adorable???" LIKE SHE LITERALLY JUST TRIED TO BECOME A SERIAL KILLER, NOPE THAT'S NOT ADORABLE and right after that she's like ugh i HATE making my sister upset, when all she's doing is exactly that! she's dating (and eventually marries) the guy she KNOWS her sister likes, dragged her out of he home to this creepy mansion to live with him, constantly yells at her and belittles her, and (spoiler alert) KILLED HER! yep, it really seems like you HATE making your sister upset, like you TOTALLY dont find ANY pleasure from doing it at all...
-also there's more incest in this book!!! except it's ACTUAL INCEST THIS TIME. so there's like these siblings, and the girl is head over heels in love with the guy and the guy (even though he's already married) starts flirting back after he found out the girl (his SISTER) tried to kill his wife (WHO IS UNDER THE AGE OF 18)! this is so messed up i dont even know where to begin...
-also, this is just me being a cat nerd and totally nitpicky, but the calico cat in this book is male, and it's a genetic mutation for calico cats to be male (only 0.0003% are) so it's not really believable that the cat is male, not a big deal in the long run, it's just something i picked up on
-i caught another spelling error! rl stine spelled prophecy wrong MULTIPLE TIMES and i looked it up the way he spelled it to see if it's just some alternate way to spell it or anything, but ITS NOT. so like that's some serious dedication to spell a word wrong multiple times and get it past the editor lol
-there was also a lot of loose ends in this book, and i was not here for that. like for example: the cat. the last we see of him is him dying from food poisoning but he's lapping up human blood for some reason (??) and then that's it, like does he recover? why was he drinking human blood in the first place? what happened to him?? im so confused...
-AND THEN THIS ONE MAKES ME REALLY MAD: but the whole entire book was about how the savannah was supposed to die in like this huge inferno, but then there's an epilogue and she survived with no explanation, and is like dripping black blood onto the corpse of her husband and sister and it's just like WHAT?? she was supposed to DIE AND SHE DIDN'T its like the exact opposite of the title of that book "you're not supposed to die tonight" like savannah WAS supposed to die that night
and because i cant seem to stop writing, here are some reoccurring themes i noticed that seemed to happen in all three books...
- the childish writing. this book is advertised as young adult and horror so i figured, oh it's aimed for teens my age and i was excited to give this a try since i hadn't read any horror in a while. I DIDNT REALIZE YOUNG ADULT MEANT 8 YEAR OLDS WHO COULD STOMACH GORE, literally i was a more advanced writer at 10 then rl stine is at 50
-the shock factor, i guess the reason not many 6 year old were picking this book up was because it would be like "i went to the beach with my wife. my wife kissed me." (literally the writing style) and then OUT OF NOWHERE it turns into "i pull out the ak-47 in my back pocket and shoot my wife senseless. i dont stop firing until there's nothing left of her except the spongy brain matter clinging to my shirt. her eyes are wide open and her mouth frozen in a soundless scream, half her teeth bashed out and blood leeching from behind her hair." LIKE EXCUSE ME WHAT?! this book could have literally been a continuation of the goosebumps series if there wasn't that over the top gore descriptions
-the scooby-doo plot twists (no offense to scooby-doo) like i know that in the goosebumps series, they have some pretty out-of-pocket plot twists that are like WHOA I NEVER SAW THAT COMING and it's cute and all when youre a kid, but as a teen reading them and (YES I AM THE TARGET AUDIENCE ACCORDING TO GOODREADS) its just like huh, this makes LITERALLY NO SENSE?? like the twists are either so obvious or so out of left field you couldn't make sense of it if you tried...
-there's also the fact that this book had some stereotypes that ARE SO OVERUSED and im just so done
stereotype #1: the dumb blonde. yep, we all know what this is. i dont need to furtherly explain myself.
stereotype #2: the blonde is oh so beautiful and girls with dark hair are evil witches and deserve to burn in hell. i am not joking when i say this is a reoccurring theme in all three books. its really sad.
stereotype #3: this is a less-known one, but still definitely a stereotype. the jason stereotype. in every book i have ever read, the guy named jason is some brooding blond hero with a muscular build and a tragic past and he has blue eyes and is really tall and has an positive adjective for a last name and MUST I GO ON? give the jasons a break and include some diversity!!!
stereotype #4: the romeo and juliet, star crossed lovers story. to quote the best actor of all time (the lovely james edward franco) "it's been done."
since this is my longest review to date, i dedicate this to emma because her reviews inspire me and i hope to have the patience and energy to write reviews as great as hers one day
May 22, 2022
So much murder I love it
June 1, 2020
Book 1: A New Fear
This one doesn't waste any time jumping into the story. From the police interview with Nora Goode, who was secretly married to Daniel Fear, to the asylum and all of the details of all the deaths. Then it follows Nora's son, Nicholas, who finds out he's a Fear after Nora spent 18 years of his life hiding his true lineage from him, and then he finds out where he belongs. After he returns to Shady side it seems to be one death after another around him. I will say that these books seem very repetitive in that way, it’s like he’ll find out someone’s died and not even two chapters later, boom! Another death. It does get quite boring.
Book 2: House of Whispers
This book went a little slower than the first, which was okay. I got to connect with the main character, Amy Peirce, a lot better. Giving her power as well as Angelica Fear, was a touch I wasn't expecting but I liked it. And her relationship with David Hathaway was a bit of a rollercoaster and, again, the details of the deaths in this one was as gory as the previous book.
Book 3: Forbidden Secrets
This one was set in an earlier time than the past two and introduced us to Savannah Gentry and Tyler Fier during the Civil war, well right before it started. They had fallen in love and then war was declared and, with Tyler being from the south and Savannah from the south, their love didn't end well. When the war is over, he declares his love for Savannah once more and whisks her, and her sister, Victoria, away to the north to live with him and take her as his wife. There's voodoo, jealousy, revenge, love, and death in this one. The ending in this one was the most unexpected.
I’ve read all R.L. Stines books as a child growing up, I loved goosebumps books as a child. And as I got older I started to read Fear street. These books are definitely a step up from those in description and gore. I have to say though, we’re all women so desperate to fall in love back then? It seems like these women were so desperate and horny to have a man that they’d do anything for a husband. Although the books don’t mention sex I suspect it’s a reason. It seems there’s far too many damsels in distress in that era. People married mainly for money and wealth, hardly love. I wasn’t a fan of all the dark magic mentioned in these books, people were definitely unhinged, Sadistic and stupid back then. It’s actually amazing that Angelica wasn’t burned at the stake back then. Especially with all the rumours circulating about her being a dark magic user. It’s taken me quite a while to finish this book, but it’s a surprisingly fast read once you start. I was at page 264 last night and I managed to finish it in less than a day. The only reason I didn’t finish it sooner was because I had bought other books and those had gotten in the way of my truly starting this one. Plus the beginning is pretty slow to get going so that doesn’t help. The only thing I didn’t like was the repetitive deaths so close together, obviously there’s supposed to be death as this is a horror novel, but I feel it could’ve been dragged out a little bit more to build suspense. Some of the chapters are so short in this book, another reason it’s so easy to finish quickly. I can never stop reading and put my bookmark in at the beginning of a chapter. So it wasn’t hard to devour that last 150 pages or so. A good scary read with some equally gory deaths. And definitely some disturbed young women back then. I’m glad I’m finished with this as I have a lot of other books to start and finish. I don’t think this will be a keeper on my shelf though.
This one doesn't waste any time jumping into the story. From the police interview with Nora Goode, who was secretly married to Daniel Fear, to the asylum and all of the details of all the deaths. Then it follows Nora's son, Nicholas, who finds out he's a Fear after Nora spent 18 years of his life hiding his true lineage from him, and then he finds out where he belongs. After he returns to Shady side it seems to be one death after another around him. I will say that these books seem very repetitive in that way, it’s like he’ll find out someone’s died and not even two chapters later, boom! Another death. It does get quite boring.
Book 2: House of Whispers
This book went a little slower than the first, which was okay. I got to connect with the main character, Amy Peirce, a lot better. Giving her power as well as Angelica Fear, was a touch I wasn't expecting but I liked it. And her relationship with David Hathaway was a bit of a rollercoaster and, again, the details of the deaths in this one was as gory as the previous book.
Book 3: Forbidden Secrets
This one was set in an earlier time than the past two and introduced us to Savannah Gentry and Tyler Fier during the Civil war, well right before it started. They had fallen in love and then war was declared and, with Tyler being from the south and Savannah from the south, their love didn't end well. When the war is over, he declares his love for Savannah once more and whisks her, and her sister, Victoria, away to the north to live with him and take her as his wife. There's voodoo, jealousy, revenge, love, and death in this one. The ending in this one was the most unexpected.
I’ve read all R.L. Stines books as a child growing up, I loved goosebumps books as a child. And as I got older I started to read Fear street. These books are definitely a step up from those in description and gore. I have to say though, we’re all women so desperate to fall in love back then? It seems like these women were so desperate and horny to have a man that they’d do anything for a husband. Although the books don’t mention sex I suspect it’s a reason. It seems there’s far too many damsels in distress in that era. People married mainly for money and wealth, hardly love. I wasn’t a fan of all the dark magic mentioned in these books, people were definitely unhinged, Sadistic and stupid back then. It’s actually amazing that Angelica wasn’t burned at the stake back then. Especially with all the rumours circulating about her being a dark magic user. It’s taken me quite a while to finish this book, but it’s a surprisingly fast read once you start. I was at page 264 last night and I managed to finish it in less than a day. The only reason I didn’t finish it sooner was because I had bought other books and those had gotten in the way of my truly starting this one. Plus the beginning is pretty slow to get going so that doesn’t help. The only thing I didn’t like was the repetitive deaths so close together, obviously there’s supposed to be death as this is a horror novel, but I feel it could’ve been dragged out a little bit more to build suspense. Some of the chapters are so short in this book, another reason it’s so easy to finish quickly. I can never stop reading and put my bookmark in at the beginning of a chapter. So it wasn’t hard to devour that last 150 pages or so. A good scary read with some equally gory deaths. And definitely some disturbed young women back then. I’m glad I’m finished with this as I have a lot of other books to start and finish. I don’t think this will be a keeper on my shelf though.
January 16, 2018
One of my students is a huge fan of this R.L. Stine. I told him I would read it over Winter Break if he finished it prior. He did, and so I powered through. I don't think I had read an R.L. Stine since Goosebumps - so I was skeptical. And you know, it is what you expect it to be. It's written in a simplistic manner that is good for average teen readers, and it has a few twists and turns that I didn't quite see coming. There are three main stories that are supposed to give background info on Fear Street - the setting of R.L. Stine's other novels. Is this my jam? No. Would teens like it? Yes.
March 22, 2017
This was amazing. I enjoyed it so much! I've never read goosebumps, I probably won't. But next I'm going to read Betrayed. Can't wait! Hopefully it's as good as this!!!
March 14, 2017
A masterful page turner!!!
July 16, 2024
This is a 3 in 1 collection of Fear Street Sagas ( not to be confused with Fear St Saga). they take place during the same time period as the prequel trilogy saga and cover from Puritan times up to Civil war times.
A New Fear- so right away this jumps into a New FEAR family member as we find out that Nora Goode ( from the Saga 3rd book) , who was secretly married to Daniel Fear, had a Child, Nicholas. This was a great story. Nora has to escape an asylum, get haunted by her dead husband to save her baby and then we follow Nicholas Storm , previously Fear, all grown up as he learns of his past. I enjoyed this very much. Nicholas has to find his way in a new town all alone. Brutal murders start happening around him ( his new boss and co-workers )and ( wouldn't you know it) a Goode accuses him not knowing Nicholas is of Goode blood but just knowing he is a Fear. Anyway, this ending was very twisted. Felt bad for Nicholas but in the end he seems to have moved on lol.
House of Whispers- this book was a little slower but i did enjoy the fact that we see Simon and Angelica fear, with all their children again. This time we meet Amy Pierce who is related to Angelica. Very gory deaths here. I believe this one had a happy ending for Amy and David
Book 3 was titled Forbidden Secrets. This one was set in during the Civil War and we meet two sisters plus Tyler Fier. This was probably the weaker of the 3. One sister marries Tyler and thinks that the other is jealous but we learn that the other sister knows of the Fear curse and blah blah blah , lots of gory deaths, lots of black Magic. I liked how the story was told through the older sister years later from Blackrose Manor, with a very unexpected ending.
A New Fear- so right away this jumps into a New FEAR family member as we find out that Nora Goode ( from the Saga 3rd book) , who was secretly married to Daniel Fear, had a Child, Nicholas. This was a great story. Nora has to escape an asylum, get haunted by her dead husband to save her baby and then we follow Nicholas Storm , previously Fear, all grown up as he learns of his past. I enjoyed this very much. Nicholas has to find his way in a new town all alone. Brutal murders start happening around him ( his new boss and co-workers )and ( wouldn't you know it) a Goode accuses him not knowing Nicholas is of Goode blood but just knowing he is a Fear. Anyway, this ending was very twisted. Felt bad for Nicholas but in the end he seems to have moved on lol.
House of Whispers- this book was a little slower but i did enjoy the fact that we see Simon and Angelica fear, with all their children again. This time we meet Amy Pierce who is related to Angelica. Very gory deaths here. I believe this one had a happy ending for Amy and David
Book 3 was titled Forbidden Secrets. This one was set in during the Civil War and we meet two sisters plus Tyler Fier. This was probably the weaker of the 3. One sister marries Tyler and thinks that the other is jealous but we learn that the other sister knows of the Fear curse and blah blah blah , lots of gory deaths, lots of black Magic. I liked how the story was told through the older sister years later from Blackrose Manor, with a very unexpected ending.
December 6, 2019
Summary:
This 3 in 1 is a teen thriller that tells how the cursed Fear Street came to be the fearful place R. L. Stine made it to be in his beloved Fear Street novels. There is love, marriage, murder and mystery packed into each of the three stories. They are chilling and shocking with scares and twists that make you want to keep reading until the very end.
The plots escalate quickly keeping you fully invested and interested along the way with no 'fluffers' taking up space. The characters are intriguing, mysterious and some are downright creepy. You don't know who to trust and are always left wondering who the bad ones are in each story.
Personal opinion:
The three stories were slightly creepy, each one having its own set of murders and murderers.
R. L. Stine did a great job with not only the characters but also developing the plots and pacing nicely, making you eager to read on.
It also brought me back to when I was younger and absolutely loved his Goosebumps books as a kid and the Fear Street novels as a young teen.
I would definitely recommend this book to any teens who are a fan of horror novels. Also I think that any adults who loved his books growing up would also enjoy Cursed.
A New Fear and Forbidden Secret's competed for my favorite story in the book.
This 3 in 1 is a teen thriller that tells how the cursed Fear Street came to be the fearful place R. L. Stine made it to be in his beloved Fear Street novels. There is love, marriage, murder and mystery packed into each of the three stories. They are chilling and shocking with scares and twists that make you want to keep reading until the very end.
The plots escalate quickly keeping you fully invested and interested along the way with no 'fluffers' taking up space. The characters are intriguing, mysterious and some are downright creepy. You don't know who to trust and are always left wondering who the bad ones are in each story.
Personal opinion:
The three stories were slightly creepy, each one having its own set of murders and murderers.
R. L. Stine did a great job with not only the characters but also developing the plots and pacing nicely, making you eager to read on.
It also brought me back to when I was younger and absolutely loved his Goosebumps books as a kid and the Fear Street novels as a young teen.
I would definitely recommend this book to any teens who are a fan of horror novels. Also I think that any adults who loved his books growing up would also enjoy Cursed.
A New Fear and Forbidden Secret's competed for my favorite story in the book.
October 26, 2025
This was a good read! In a way, I believe this to be a 3 in 1 kind of story.
With that said, overall I give it 3 stars.
This saga set was good. Personally I enjoyed the 2nd story the most out of all of them.
I took a star off because of animal abuse/death. Mind you, I grew up with reading R. L Stine but its been so long and I guess I have grown more sensitive to matter. Maybe its because I have pets now and I never had pets before, I don't know but now I'm not a fan of that being discussed in books.
I took off another star because some of the timeline didn't make sense. The ending for one didn't make much sense to me but 2 of the books' timeline I had falsely assumed would connect and they didn't. I guess it was how it was written but I didn't like the way some of the timeline portions were connected.
I would still recommend as this can be a fun spooky read before Halloween, otherwise you aren't really missing much
With that said, overall I give it 3 stars.
This saga set was good. Personally I enjoyed the 2nd story the most out of all of them.
I took a star off because of animal abuse/death. Mind you, I grew up with reading R. L Stine but its been so long and I guess I have grown more sensitive to matter. Maybe its because I have pets now and I never had pets before, I don't know but now I'm not a fan of that being discussed in books.
I took off another star because some of the timeline didn't make sense. The ending for one didn't make much sense to me but 2 of the books' timeline I had falsely assumed would connect and they didn't. I guess it was how it was written but I didn't like the way some of the timeline portions were connected.
I would still recommend as this can be a fun spooky read before Halloween, otherwise you aren't really missing much
July 31, 2019
(3.5 Stars)
I feel that, at times, the writing in this story was very elementary, almost as if a child were writing it. There were a lot of things that seemed to move quickly.
•
The first story, Nicholas Fear ended up marrying Ruth and they were to build a mansion and have a child, but what happened after that?
•
And what about Amy and David? Did they get married? Have kids?
•
And Savannah and Tyler, was Tyler’s skeleton still alive? Did she marry it? Because at the end, it seemed she had been telling the story (in Third Person, might I add) that to his skeleton in front of Victoria’s grave.
•
So, in reality, the stories were okay, but the endings were either left untied or confusing. I honestly do not think I would read this book again.
•
As well as, when I read ‘Bitten’ I felt the writing was elementary-ish, and now I wonder, are all of his books like this?
I feel that, at times, the writing in this story was very elementary, almost as if a child were writing it. There were a lot of things that seemed to move quickly.
•
The first story, Nicholas Fear ended up marrying Ruth and they were to build a mansion and have a child, but what happened after that?
•
And what about Amy and David? Did they get married? Have kids?
•
And Savannah and Tyler, was Tyler’s skeleton still alive? Did she marry it? Because at the end, it seemed she had been telling the story (in Third Person, might I add) that to his skeleton in front of Victoria’s grave.
•
So, in reality, the stories were okay, but the endings were either left untied or confusing. I honestly do not think I would read this book again.
•
As well as, when I read ‘Bitten’ I felt the writing was elementary-ish, and now I wonder, are all of his books like this?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 17, 2018
In my opinion, the book "Cursed" by R.L Stine is rated three stars. I think that the book should have kept the stories in order like a timeline instead of mixing it up. I kept finding myself looking for What year the story took place while in the middle of reading. It also made me feel upset because I already knew what would happen in the future, however, the descriptive writing was very good. "The blue sil of her dress billowed as she raced towards him. The blue stones of her favorite necklace captured the moonbeams. (67)" I do think that the book had the potential to continue in some stories, but I like that the author decided to stop at some points. Overall, the book was ok, but I think that the author should have included a happy ending in at least one of his stories.
February 12, 2021
This was a nostalgia read for me. I remember loving R.L. Stine so much when I was a kid. Goosebumps actually got me into reading and I just had to go back to the author who made me fall in love with books.
This was three novellas in one, telling about the history of the Fears and I was hooked. I felt like a kid again. I love this author still and I would keep going back if for nothing more than when I’m feeling nostalgic and wanting to go back to my roots.
If you'd to to read the rest of my review, please visit my blog!
This was three novellas in one, telling about the history of the Fears and I was hooked. I felt like a kid again. I love this author still and I would keep going back if for nothing more than when I’m feeling nostalgic and wanting to go back to my roots.
If you'd to to read the rest of my review, please visit my blog!
April 10, 2021
When I started reading this book, it was a real page turner. There was never a dull moment as the story jumped right into death one after another. But as I was halfway through the book it got real boring, real fast. Oh, someone died again. What else is new? The book itself is a collection of 3 stories: A new Fear, House of Whispers, Forbidden Secrets. The first one was my fave. The second one was okay. But the third one was sooo annoying. It took me ages to finish the book because I had lost interest on the third one. How could you side over a guy you just met over your own sister? Savannah's character was so desperate. Going gaga over a complete stranger. I felt sorry for Victoria. The story was okay though. I liked the plot twist at the end. Just hated Savannah so much for being so stupid and so blind. But hey, if you're getting upset over a character then that probably means the author did a pretty good job, right? Love his other books by the way. Total fan of the Goosebumps series.
July 10, 2018
I picked this up because I used to love all the Fear Street books back in high school, but all three stories were really mediocre and not up to par at all. Everything happened too quickly and predictably; the third story was the worst. In one story there were like 3 consecutive deaths. Overall just not impressed.
July 25, 2018
I loved the individual stories about the Fear family, my favourite being the third one, literally had me just devouring pages the whole way!
Overall have always loved R.L Stine's work BUT admittedly the first story was a little lacklustre and the endings were a little bit lacking.
Overall have always loved R.L Stine's work BUT admittedly the first story was a little lacklustre and the endings were a little bit lacking.
October 17, 2018
This instantly brought me back to when I was a pre-teen and read these. I started to remember al the things I’d forgotten. My love for creepy, mysterious reads started from my love for these books. Such good nostalgia!
June 17, 2017
I will say this is a very unique book. I've never read anything like this. The only people who came remotely close to a happy ending was in the 2nd book. Very weird and interesting book.
August 3, 2017
Meh, it was okay.
April 26, 2018
it was thrilling i enjoyed the scares and love
January 30, 2019
Received as a birthday gift from my sister-in-law, it was basically a time machine, set to 20-25 years ago. R.L. Stine is still delightfully terrible and I loved every page.
June 20, 2019
Reread:). Loved it as a teenager. And still do! Love the fears!!
May 24, 2020
Now I remember why I loved reading R.L. Stines Fear Street books when I was younger. I had a few OMG moments in this book as well.
March 29, 2021
I forgot how hard the fear street timeline was to follow. Not my favorites but still as nostalgic and good as I remember
April 12, 2021
Just a fun throwback to the good old Fear Street Days! Great for a quick beach read!
August 11, 2021
This book was a walk down memory lane for me. I loved Stine when I was a kid, amd I still do as an adult!
October 27, 2021
These are pretty typical YA horrors. Still a fun Halloween read.
December 28, 2021
Actual rate 3.5
I am not a fan of horror stories/works but I managed to finish this book. The life of the Fears and the curse that had been passed down from one generation o another - terrifying!
I am not a fan of horror stories/works but I managed to finish this book. The life of the Fears and the curse that had been passed down from one generation o another - terrifying!
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