The First Horror

99 Fear Street: The House of Evil #1

by R.L. Stine

The first book in a scary new trilogy contributing to a series with more than 8.5 million copies in print. Here begins the terrifying story of a family who moves into the house that even their neighbors on Fear Street are afraid to enter. Twin sisters must learn the secret of the evil or be the next victims.

Genres: Horror, Young Adult, Fiction, Thriller, Mystery, Childrens, Teen

148 pages, Library Binding

First published August 1, 1994

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

[Latasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

From what I remembered about this one was that it was R.L's take on the Amityville Horror. I was way off! But finally another Fear Street book with the supernatural involved! The kids in this one were annoying AF. But! The sisters didn't hate each other and doesn't try to kill one another so that was a nice change. The parents are present and decent for the most part. Papa makes a bad decision when he purchases 99 Fear Street. We are given a little history about the house but A LOT is left not answered and I was ok with that. The house really wears this family down fast. We don't get to see what the parents and James are experiencing but you know it's there. This one was better and quiet different than I most of the Fear Street books. I'm glad I have the next 2 to continue the trilogy.

[StephieLovesBooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm currently trying to track down these books from my childhood (used to be so obsessed with the R.L. Stine series), always going to the library or bookstore to pick them up and I had about every single one fo them (except for the reloaded version that came out, which I had no idea was around) and then donated them...now I'm having fun scouring used bookstores for the series for nostalgia sake and because I love the original covers. The first one I've found so far was The Stepsister, so the searching continues. On the this story, I don't remember reading the 99 Fear Street series, but the first books isn't that bad, it was pretty good. I rememebr really liking the orignial Fear Street Sagas the best though. Including the Silent Night series and Cheerleaders.

[Tyler Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

That was horrifying! Supernatural and oh so creepy. I loved that the sisters did love each other. They fought like sisters sure but they made up and showed they cared. They are twin sisters with a 9 year old brother and a mom and dad. They also get a puppy. The parents were present and good parents. The 9 year old was believable, they all were. When more and more shit was happening it showed them all going crazy over it and it was so heart-breaking. I actually cried, at a fear street book. I'm not sure if that's happened before.

I didn't see what was coming and my eyes literally went wide with shock. At some point I didn't want to put it down because it was fast paced and I just had to know what was going to happen. I feel so bad for these characters. There are some questions left unanswered, and it actually made sense. I wonder what will happen in books #2 & 3!

[myo ⋆｡˚ ❀ * · Rating 3 out of 5]

this one was ok i’m not really into ghost and shit like that

[(shan) Littlebookcove · Rating 4 out of 5]

I decided i was going back to the 90s with a retro kind of Horror read!

A spine chilling read that I remember well as a kid. Just as good as it was back when i read it as a kid!

The 1st Horror of 88 fear street that sets you up for the saga.

[Liliana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reviewed on Lili Lost in a Book

This is one of the books I read back in the day when I was in middle school. Actually, I think I only read 1st and 3rd book in this series, which after having read the entire series now, it’s totally fine. Lol.

Kody, Cally and her family basically move into a haunted house. The girls are told a really creepy story about the house, about the first family who moved in after the house was built, and let me tell you, it was some pretty crazy stuff! I mean, heads being ripped off and whatnot. Yikes! It was quite graphic and I kinda liked it. Lol. A lot of creepy incidents occured and just... Poor family. They go through so much. It’s so messed up. And I think the dad gets the worst of it. We also get a little bit of Fear family lore... like, a little bit. Like the littlest, tiniest bit ever. I like when we have Fear family lore, but this was practically nothing 🤷‍♀️

Speaking of the family, Kody was so whiny and annoying, I just didn’t like her. Her jealousy over her sister was insane. I couldn't stand her and at some points she did some really crazy things. Cally herself was an okay character. At least she wasn’t annoying. Lol.

Overall, The First Horror was an okay read. It was pretty creepy, but I was not a fan of the characters, really. Especially not Kody. So, we know that R.L. Stine loves his fake outs. I always expect them because otherwise I’d just be disappointed that the cool thing didn’t actually happen. But this time, in this book, I was surprised because some of them actually weren't fake outs, which was awesome!

Also, it was pretty bold of him to kill off a main character. I’ve read a bunch of Fear Street books, but he’s only done it once before... And that book was better, tbh. Lol. I was also a little confused there at the end as to why Cally was suddenly an evil ghost? We don’t get too much info into what’s really going on in the house, so hopefully we will find out.

The Fear Street connection: Cally and her family move into 99 Fear Street. Dun, dun, DUN!

[Ivy · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 🌟

I remember reading this book when I was going to school. Thought it was scary.

After reading it for the second time, it is still scary. Sad that they weren't able to rescue James and Chubby. Also sad that Cally died. What is haunting that house?

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yay. Finally remembering why I loved these so much as a teen. Back to supernatural events and not just nut-job school friend/neighbour/co-worker explanations. I think Stine had been reading The Amityville Horror and watching Poltergeist before penning this one, but he certainly ramped up the action in the last quarter, and didn't worry about tying up the threads or leaving us with a happy ending.
I look forward to getting my hands on #'s 2 and 3.

[Austin Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tend to like supernatural and haunted house type stories, but this one didn't do it for me.
It all felt a bit too quickly paced, too heavy-handed with the hauntings/occurrences, and not enough effort put into the story, characters, and writing in general. In fact, I was almost wondering if this one could have been ghost written. Compared to the other FS trilogies (Cheerleaders, Sagas), it just doesn't feel like Stine's style, or if it is him, he didn't seem to put in as much time or effort into this one.

We also get some typical fakeout/prank stuff in the first half, NotLD 1 style, and too many predictable moments. The climax and ending is a bit bonkers but it all happens so quickly and with little prior establishment that I felt I didn't care that much about the outcome of certain characters.

Overall this one was just okay, I'm thinking a 2.5⭐
I'm curious to see if books 2 and 3 in this trilogy are any better, but so far, this is looking to be my least favorite of the FS trilogies - sadly, as again, I usually dig haunted house stuff.

[Jen (noelle w. ihli's version) · Rating 4 out of 5]

i always have fun reading these VINTAGE (yuck right) books from my childhood lmao but they are what got me into the stuff i'm into today. it's nice to have a lil smooth brain read every once in a while, and how could i say no to a haunted house story?? great page turner, ends on a cliff hanger, now i wanna find the next two books so i can figure out why Cally is such an evil bitch to her family now after she died, when they had nothing to do with it

[Tanya Diehl · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an introduction to the horror genre, The First Horror by R.L. Stine is a good choice. For the younger (10-14 year old) reader, it would have just enough blood and trauma to whet the appetite. The older reader would recognize that it isn't very developed. It tells the story of a family of 5 moves into a 30 year old house that has never been lived in due to a bad reputation amongst the town. Things start to happen and people start getting hurt. The first in a series, it's a set up book. Readers who continue the series will come to recognize the characters and why they act the way they do and say the things they say. It's a good introduction to the horror genre, but one older readers will quickly put down for a more satisfying read.

[Obsidian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. This was a great "Fear Street" entry and the trilogy itself had a lot of good plot points, though book #3 was a letdown and didn't even make any sense. Books #1 and 2 were 5 stars in my opinion.

"The First Horror" follows the family that moves into 99 Fear Street. Cally, Kody, their younger brother, and their parents move into 99 Fear Street. Right away Cally realizes something is off about the house. It's dark there no matter what and they have rats that come out of nowhere and start attacking the family. (Look if rats showed up day 1, I would have bounced). When other mysterious accidents start happening, Cally and her twin Kody start to wonder if the house is haunted. When the past of 99 Fear Street is revealed though, only some people get out alive.

This was dark for a "Fear Street" book I have to say. I also have to say, after watching the newest offering by Netflix, they could have done this trilogy instead of whatever that slasher homage was that they released last week.

Cally is a great character to follow and it's heartbreaking to read about what happens to the family as they start to realize that the house is not what it seems to be.

This book also ties together Simon and Angelica Fear a bit too which long-time readers know about from other books in the series.

[Alex | | findingmontauk1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Slightly blown away by this one and it holds nothing back! Mangled body gore, ghosts, murder/suicide... like... this one is DARK! A lot of Fear Street books are all about misdirection and can sometimes feel like a little more grown up version of an episode of Scooby Doo... but 99 Fear Street: The First Horror is something entirely different! It's like Fear Street does Amityville and does it RIGHT! Really looking forward to the next two in the trilogy even more now...

[Brad Burgin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great start to the series, I really enjoyed this one. Just like almost all his books they are easy, fast and grab your attention from the beginning. I am going to look forward to reading this with my son when he gets a little older. I can't wait to the rest of these books. Truly recommend.

[Truly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sebenarnya layak dapat bintang 4, tapi karena berseri terpaksa kurangi 1 bintang (soalnya belum tahu apakah bisa menemukan kelanjutannya, kalau tidak kisah jadi nanggung).

Dari beberapa cerita sejenis, pesan yang disampaikan sudah sangat jelas, berhati-hati pada rumah yang dibiarkan kosong lama. Apa lagi jika rumah tersebut kemudian dijual murah dan kalian yang akan menempatinya.

[kylajaclyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s always fun to find out what carnage RL Stine will wreak in the next Fear Street book I read. This was essentially his take on The Shining. And, you know what? For a YA spin on it, it was actually pretty great. No fake-outs. He leaned hard into the supernatural aspect. We get green vomit stuff pouring out of the faucet, and blood dripping from the ceiling. The house changes everyone just like it does in The Shining. Cally and Kody are twins, and Cally constantly talks about how Kody is jealous of her in almost every way. This will be important later on. They have a little brother, James, and his dog disappears almost as soon as he gets it. Cally doesn’t believe there is a ghost at first, and Kody plays some pranks to trick her into believing. But it doesn’t take long before she does. Cally meets a cute local guy named Anthony who tells the girls the real story behind 99 Fear Street. Simon Fear buried bodies of those he had killed there, and when a family moved in, the father disrespected and ignored the dead and their bones. So he came out of the attic one day to find his wife and two daughters with their heads all missing. He hung himself a month later.

Cally’s dad sees those heads when he goes in the attic to look for Cubby, James’s dog. He’s not the same afterwards. Cubby is never found, but likely the ghost is just imitating his voice. This happens later when James also goes missing and they all hear his voice in the walls. So they destroy the walls and the ceiling trying to find him, but all that happens is a ghostly hand comes down and blinds Mr. Frasier. Anthony doesn’t want to be in the house, but Cally insists. They think they are in the clear until after dinner when they hear a hideous scream and notice that Anthony’s fingers have all been severed by the garbage disposal.

Needless to say, he never wants to see Cally again. And that’s fine, because the house comes alive with dead spirits and tar and sucks Cally underneath it. Right before this Cally sees the ghost of herself and then reads her diary and sees that she wrote “I DIED TONIGHT.” Mr and Mrs Frasier finally leave the property with Kody and without Cally and James. Cally is clearly sticking around to haunt the next two books. Oh, and I suppose Cally was the one to die because she always accused Kody of being jealous? Cally turns evil once she is dead, and she accuses Kody of “winning” because she’s alive, although I’m alive and I don’t feel like I’ve won the lottery or anything. It’s unclear if James will be haunting as well. It’s weird that Cally would think she’s alone though, since her brother vanished into thin air in the house. Plus, her family is forever traumatized. Her father is blind and Kody lost her twin sister. I mean, really, Cally. You all got the shit end of the stick.

[Elliot · Rating 5 out of 5]

The First Horror holds the distinction of being the scariest Fear Street book. The things that occur in the house were creative and spooky and I remember needing to keep the lights on to fall asleep while I read it back in high school. Great book.

[Stephanie ((Strazzybooks)) · Rating 4 out of 5]

“‘None of us is getting out of here alive…’”

This is definitely one of the better Fear Street books.

The First Horror gives us the origin of 99 Fear Street, as the recently moved-in Frasier family is terrorized. The scares are creepy and classic and have Amityville vibes. The whole family is slowly driven to madness, death, and despair (poor Cubby).

This is a classic and I’m glad I reread it.

[Bree Garcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars for nostalgia! I forgot how twisted this book was and how much I loved reading these books when I was younger!!

[CozyReaderKelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this as a blast from the past because R.L. Stine was one of my favorite authors in middle school. It turns out his writing is pretty bad, but I was entertained throughout the story.

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutly loved this book .Its a classic family move into a haunted house book ,but had plenty of pages where i literally looked up and said "what". The only two things i would've changed was the setting( it was summer). This was a missed opertunity to have it take place on halloween. The only other part was where it was the girls sister knocking on the door trying to scare her sister .That part did disappoint me in the middle of the book but if you keep reading thats not the case at all. Overall a great Creepy read highly recommend

[Sparrow · Rating 2 out of 5]

Let me tell you, don't ever start reading the 99 Fear Street books with the idea that they're like Goosebumps. I did that and made a HUGE mistake. FRIGGING SCARY is all I can say. I had no idea R.L. Stine had such talent! I only rated that I didn't like it because it was so SCARY not because it wasn't well written, because it was! SCARY!

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

You have my attention, Mr. Stine. Legitimately creepy and unsettling. The same issues writing characters that he has in every book, but it annoyed me less here. I fully expect the next two books to be hideous to make up for how much I genuinely liked what he did here - that's the type of relationship I have with these books.

[†Reviews of a FearStreetZombie† · Rating 5 out of 5]

One word. PERFECT

This book was AMAZING!
It kept me on the edge of my seat the WHOLE time.

Now I just need to get my hands on the other books and find out what happens next. Not knowing is killin me. Haha

[Chelle𓆏 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, that was fucked.

[Hew La France · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is seriously Stine at his best. Suspense, gore, shock value, tension, mystery... borderline perfect.

[Courtney Gruenholz · Rating 5 out of 5]

These trilogies are where R.L. Stine gets to shine because he can extend the story and give us time to await the next terrifying chapter.

The 99 Fear Street Trilogy is perfect to read for Halloween with those neon 90s orange books and the haunted house vibe it delivers. Shadyside and Fear Street are already creepy enough but when there is one house that no one on the street will live in...what could be so horrifying?

We get a little prologue of the house at 99 Fear Street being built and get to witness the deaths of two teens working summer jobs on the construction crew added to an already full roster of three other workers...and the dead bodies dug up before the foundation was even poured.

That was 1960 and now it is present day where a family is finally moving into the home. The Fraisers consist of husband, wife, nine year old little brother James and his two older sisters. Cally and Kody are not identical twins but the only thing they share is their blonde hair because they are both complete opposites.

Cally wears her hair longer and has a sense of humor and a personality that wins anyone over while Kody keeps her hair short and is a pessimistic, insecure girl interested in reading about ghosts.

They are getting ready to start Shadyside High as juniors when the summer is over but right now, the sisters plan to look for summer jobs while their parents focus on fixing up the house.

The lawn is shabby, trees grown to bathe the house in darkness from the summer sunshine and heat with rotting shingles on the roof. Bigger than their old apartment but neither Cally or Kody are happy about the house once they see the inside either, only their little brother excited because it means he can eventually have a puppy and a game room in the basement.

The first day has a tree branch fall on the porch and roof instead of crushing Cally carrying in a box of china. An inspection of the basement by the Frasier kids leads to the discovery of an infestation of rats and the only bit of luck is a handyman noticing the moving van and offering his help in getting rid of the rats.

Day two doesn't start out any better when the kitchen window comes closing down on Kody's hands but luckily not getting them broken or torn off...just very sore. Cally ends up having better luck than Kody when she finds herself a job working at a clothing store and then meeting a cute boy named Anthony while waiting for her sister at The Corner restaurant.

Kody doesn't have any luck to get either a job or beating Cally to the punch in flirting with a good-looking guy. James also has a great day because Mr. and Mrs. Frasier let him get a puppy from the local ASPCA: a black lab named Cubby.

Since everyone is back at the house, the good luck doesn't last for very long because at dinner that night, Mr. Frasier gets stabbed with the carving knife for the roast beef. He claims that Cally pushed into his arm while sliding behind him to get the salt and pepper but Cally is sure that she was nowhere near her dad.

Kody noticed that as well but her explanation for her dad receiving twelve stitches is that a ghost must have done it. Cally is less than supportive or thrilled by her twin's theory and they have a little tiff before bed where Cally ends up hearing light taps on her bedroom door in the middle of the night.

With their dad a little incapacitated on doing much fix-it work, Cally helps Kody out with outside work while a housekeeper named Mrs. Nordstrom takes care of the inside since Mrs. Frasier has to help her husband with other things for the house. Cally holds the ladder for Kody so she can inspect the roof but it starts to pull away from the house despite Cally putting all of her weight on it.

Kody ends up falling off the ladder and blames Cally for doing so on purpose despite her protests and it leads into the next morning where everyone in the house is on edge for different reasons.

Cally finds that all of her clothes from her closet are thrown around her room and James can't seem to find Cubby. Cally goes with James around the neighborhood to try and find the puppy and runs into Anthony mowing a lawn on Fear Street. Thinking he lives there, Cally is surprised when Anthony says he would never live on Fear Street.

Remembering that she is new in town, Anthony asks Cally which house she lives in and her response of 99 Fear Street...is not what he expected to hear. He mows lawns on Fear Street and most of the houses look pleasant enough but Anthony tells Cally that her house is the worst one possible.

Cally invites Anthony to lunch at the house and he reluctantly agrees because Cally questioning his manliness of being afraid of a house is the most likely reason. Their parents out shopping and poor James crying in his room leave Cally and Kody having lunch outside with Anthony where he tells most of what we already know to the Frasier sisters.

Simon Fear and his wife Angelica were bad news and did unspeakable things to people and all of the bodies found when they were digging the foundation were in coffins bearing the Fear crest were believed to be the unfortunate victims. The man having the house built was not bothered and the house continued to be built despite many...accidents.

He brought his family of his wife, a son and a daughter to see the house a few weeks before they were to move in. A quick trip upstairs to keep everything a surprise led the man to a grisly discovery when he came back down to find his whole family...decapitated and gutted but no heads in sight.

Things get only that much worse with blood dripping from the ceiling, vomit pouring out of the sink in the bathroom, horrifying discoveries, painfully heart wrenching terror and one of the most traumatizing events to still scar my psyche all these years later...

A mesh of The Amityville Horror and Rose Red that focuses on a family even if Cally is made to be more of the main character is so much different than anything before this in a Fear Street book.

The ending is so out there but it sets up what we will discover in The Second Horror perfectly...

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a bit boring at first. I thought it was weird that these two randoms showed up offering to work at their house and the parents were just like, ‘cool’. I kept waiting for the housekeeper and the handyman to turn out to be crazy, but they were in the background and never amounted to much in the plot. The main character Cally was extremely inconsistent. One minute she didn’t believe in ghosts, the next she did, and then she was back to not believing. I’m sorry, but this girl literally tried throwing her full body weight against a ladder to keep an unseen force from knocking it over and yet she seemed to just brush the whole incident aside. I would’ve known from that very second that there was something wrong with the house.

It was like she had a selective memory or something. I remember one chapter had her writing in her diary how deathly scared her whole family was about the hauntings and how they couldn’t stand to live there any longer. So, Cally then decides to invite Anthony over for dinner and for some odd reason she’s shocked that he doesn’t want to come to her creepy ass house. Like, she had this complete personality switch and was all about how the stories weren’t actually true and nothing would happen. I just didn’t get it at all.

Also, maybe this is just something that bothered me, but the entire dog thing made me so angry at this family. These people had their new puppy disappear and aside from the son, they didn’t seem at all bothered. The dad was basically all, ‘well, that dumb dog must’ve got into the backyard or something, whatever’. It’s a puppy! You don’t lose a puppy and then decide to go have lunch/visit the mall instead of canvasing the neighborhood for the dog. While Cally put some effort in, she was more interested in stopping mid-search to talk to this cute boy she had met.

Most complaints aside, I have to say that once the action kicked off, I was super into this book. It went from zero to a hundred in like three seconds and I loved every moment of it. This would have been four stars if not for that last chapter. The events that happened to Cally in those final pages felt weird and out of place and the execution just seemed pretty half-assed to me.

Also, I wish that there had been some answers for all the crazy things going down. I get that part of it is probably due to there being two more books. That said, I wanted to have at least one or two questions dealt with instead of leaving me with absolute no explanations for anything. I’m hoping I find out what’s up with the missing brother/puppy, the strange noises in the walls, the thing that blinded the dad, etc. in the next one.

[J.D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Frasiers are excited to move into their new house on Fear Street after living in a small apartment. Twin sisters Cally and Kody can finally have their own bedrooms. Plus their little brother, James, can even get a dog.

However, a string of accidents and the house's dark history soon turns their happiness to horror.

What an introduction to 99 Fear Street. This was a haunted house story done right. With grisly accidents, angry rats and ghosts, there really was a little bit of everything.

I don't remember reading this one as a kid, but it definitely would've creeped me out back then. I'm very much looking forward to reading The Second Horror.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

After being able to move on from such a slow start I was finally hooked. The characters weren't really likeable, but to be honest I was only in it for the scares. I did enjoy the fast pace which kept me from dozing off while reading, which is my favorite sport in the world. In general, I would say that for such a short read it was actually quite a good story and I would definitely recommend it if you're looking for a quick and scary read.