Circle of Fire

Fear Street Sagas #11

by R.L. Stine

The discovery of an old book of spells leads a group of girls to start using it against their rivals at Miss Pemberthy's School for Young Ladies

Genres: Young Adult, Horror, Paranormal, Witches, Thriller, Childrens, Historical Fiction

180 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1998

About the author

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...

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

It has Fear Street Sagas inspiration, but it's missing something to make it very Fear Street. Not bad, just not the Fear Street book I imagined. It is a pretty good story if you want an ancient magic story and some parts of the book was really interesting, but others made me want to move on to another story. Overall, it's probably not something I would read again, but I would consider suggesting it to people who like magical horror stories from the era this is set in.

[Richard Blanchard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ah the book that began everything for me! The one that the front and back cover have actually fallen off from. That's how many times I've read this book! Had to glue it on.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the Fear Street Sagas a lot, but this one was a little weak.

It did have a great twist ending, though.

[kylajaclyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

So this is the first I’ve read in this ghostwritten series, the only Fear Street novels Stine didn’t write himself. Mia Saxton is new to Miss Pemberthy’s Home for Girls. She takes an instant dislike to the school bully, Alicia, who also takes an intense dislike to her (and everyone else). Mia’s roommate, Clara, is slightly overweight and a constant target for Alicia’s bullying. Mia defends Clara to Alicia and they become fast friends. They have a secret where they sneak the cat Goliath up to their room at night and let him out in the morning.

One night Mia is out and hears sounds coming from a barn. She is strangely drawn to it. She falls into the door and is greeted by the stunned faces of four girls. Mia realizes they are practicing the dark arts, and she swears not to tell. But Joanna, the leader, knows that something changed in the spell’s power as soon as Mia was in the room. They invite her in to complete their group. Soon they realize that five girls are needed to practice spells. So Mia finally has a group of friends and follows them outside every night to practice spells. She asks if Clara can join the group too, but Joanna insists that she can’t.

Their spells grow more and more intense. Finally, after a particularly nasty fight with Alicia, the girls try a spell that sends spiders after Alicia. Only Alicia is deeply afraid of spiders and ends up dead. They crawl from her mouth as the five girls find her dead in the woods.

Mia swears she won’t tell what really happened but refuses to use the power anymore. She doesn’t like what happens when she does. Joanna threatens her that she will be sorry. Shortly after this Mia begins to be the target of life-threatening spells. She gets attacked by the roses at Alicia’s coffin (yes, attacked by roses); she gets trapped in snow that keeps piling up on her; and, finally, she gets attacked by kitchen utensils in a scene cribbed straight from Carrie. At this point, Mia is trying to reason with Joanna’s latest recruit, Emily, but the girls aren’t having it. As the kitchen fight grows more dire, Mia harnesses her own power and traps three of the girls and rolls another one up in a rug. When Miss Pemberthy finds Joanna she has gone hysterical and cannot stop laughing. She and the other four (minus Mia) are sent out of the school. During this showdown Mia burned the book to ashes with the flames on her hands, so she assumes the terror is over. And yet the next night she still hears chanting and follows it up to the attic. There the floorboards come loose and head straight for her face (yep). She cannot fight back and falls downstairs, ready to give up hope. But suddenly Clara appears and lists herself as the true perpetrator of all Mia has recently experienced! Mia can’t believe it, but she soon sees that Clara means business when she sends shadows after her. Once again, Mia summons her last amount of energy to burn away the shadows and turn them on Clara, and they start to suffocate her. Clara disappears after this, and Mia decides to head back home, vowing never to use the power again... “unless I have to.”

[Arnée Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This series is starting to frustrate me.

1. The cover art change. Don’t like it.
2. How can you have a Fear street saga with out any Fiers/Fears
3. What is this series obsession with antebellum south.
4. Page 6 & 180 mention they’re in Broad River, LOUISIANA why the hell is it snowing. Not saying it can’t occur occasionally, but there’s parts talking about heavy snow on the ground.

This series was a complete money grab. So glad I’m doing a read through as an adult because I lusted & romanticized these books for years. I was unable to finish them. Now I know I wasn’t missing out on anything.

[Khurshid Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

We have all heard the stories around the curses put on the fier family. Fear Street sagas each share a story about the family.

At the beginning

Emma Fier Reade had the dark powers and had enclosed then in a journal hiding from the wrong hands

In the present

The journal has been found and is being used by a group of girls.

The chanting they do calls out to the evil where things start to go deadly wrong.

This is my favourite series that I highly recommend

[Chelsea · Rating 1 out of 5]

I mean, this book legitimately has nothing do do with the Fears or the Fiers. Basically a retelling of the craft, some school girls find a book of spells and unleash them on their enemies. But when a classmate dies from one of their spells the girls get a taste of power and dont' want to let it go. It would have been real good if it wasn't under the Fear Street Saga brand.

[Tabitha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mia falls in with a group of girls who have discovered a book of spells, and they start to abuse their powers. This may be the first book of the Sagas where the story doesn't focus on a Fear as it's barely a mention that that is where the spell book originated from. It was an enjoyable read, and it makes me think of The Craft.

[Amber "Epp" · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I liked the Fear Saga more than just plain old fear street the series just had more to it for me .... I really loved all the twisted tales from this series so much fun

I had an absolute blast reading all of these again in 2013 .... :)

[Joshua · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is essentially the plot from “The Craft” but set in the 1700s. Also the first book to feature the new art design that replaced the somewhat romantic/gothic vibe from before. The new art is cool but i prefer the older style better.

[Shanu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool read!!

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

The craft in miniature.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you ever seen The Craft 90’s movie, this book kind of copies that but takes place in 1800’s. Still lot of fun to read and spider scares!

[Christy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book b/c I have always liked RL Stine. Since High School, I have read many of his books. Even now at the age of 34, he keeps me wanting more.

"Circle of Fire" is about a young girl, Mia who attends Miss Pemberthy's School for Young Ladies. Mia is far from home, lonely and feels she has no friends - that is until, she is invited to join a 'secret group' by some girls who perform spells from a strange book. Soon, those spells become dangerous and someone at the school dies. Mia realizes the group is evil and wants to leave... but the other girls insist that there MUST be five members.

I have read far better Stine books, but over all this is a good read for any RL and/or RL Stine Fear Street fan.

[Christie]

I started reading this book in middle school...but it scared the creeps out of me and I returned it to the library. Im going to try reading it again, since I know a little bit more about the arts and magic.

[Brittany · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book while in middle school. I was a HUGE R.L. Stine fan and like most of his other books, especially the Fear Street Sagas, I couldn't put it down.

[Priscilla Sage · Rating 5 out of 5]

I own this but it's missing because of a recent move.