Lice

Fear Street #35

by R.L. Stine

Tko zna što se zapravo dogodilo tog zimskog dana i zašto se život svih Marthinih prijatelja promijenio nakon tog stravičnog događaja. Kažu da je Martha najbolje prošla, jer ona se jednostavno ničega ne sjeća. Sve je počelo s bezbrižnim izletom na snijegu, a završilo... Čime? Što je to toliko strašno da blokira njezino pamćenje, zašto svi šute o tome i zašto su svi tako pažljivi prema njoj, pitanja su koja je progone. Ali kada sjećanja počnu navirati potaknuta crtežom lica mladića za kojeg je ona sigurna da ga nikada nije vidjela, ali ga jednostavno ne može prestati crtati, Martha će poželjeti da je zaista sve zaboravila...

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

115 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1996

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

[Tanyx · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first fear street I've read in years, and I got to say, it's pretty sexist.
The plot twist was surprising, but cheap.
It was still a fast and somewhat fun read.

[Drucilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Face is one of the better Fear Street books. Its plot is a departure from other entries in the series (in that someone is not actively trying to kill the heroine) and while the amnesia angle has been done before, lots of elements make this amnesia story different. I won't go into too many details but this is one of the few Fear Street books that I wasn't able to guess the ending.

[Jana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was really interesting. To me, there was more that one mystery. I am also glad it doesn't mess with your head at the end.

[L · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is GOOD. By that, I really meant it well. This is probably my 6th Fear Street book for the month and i must say that I enjoyed it very much. Lots of what(s) and why(s) without actually messing up your head. The ending was unexpected, as R. L. Stine tried to make us think that the murderer was either of characters that spell trouble, focusing our attention onto their problems. Definitely wasn't expecting the murderer to be Adrianna, especially with all her problems surrounding her family situation. But as we're understanding the circumstances from the view of the protagonist, Martha, who has no recollection of a certain part of her memory, it certainly makes sense that we know nothing about her friends, the boyfriend and the other characters any more than what the author had intended to reveal. This makes the book very interesting as we continue reading, hoping to know more of each character while on the journey of recovering a lost memory.

[Chelsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Martha has amnesia, she's the only one of her friends that doesn't remember the incident that happened in the snowy mountains...but she feels compelled to draw the same face over and over again. What is the face trying to tell her?
I really enjoyed the concept of this one...Martha seemed really down to earth and all of her friends were coping differently with the trauma of the incident. However, some of the plot points were just too obvious and it feels like this book didn't go through the proper editing channels. It was choppy and unlike the flow of the other books smooth transitions through the plot. The ending was a bit on the cheesey side and ended a bit too abruptly, but the reveal of what actually happened was worth the wait.

[Ivy · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 🌟

Martha has lost her memory over an event that happened that resulted in one of her friend's death. She keeps on drawing the dead man's face and a line.

[Kristine (The Writer's Inkwell) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Posted originally on my blog:
The Writer's Inkwell

For the first time in a while, I finally got a chance to read one of the Fear Street novels I know I read as a kid. Sometimes it's hard to remember clearly if I read a specific one or just remember seeing the cover. But this particular one, I knew for a fact I had read. Even if I couldn't remember all the specifics on the book, it was nice to relive this particular thriller.

What's funny about this particular book is the fact that everyone but you the reader and the main character, know what's going on or more specifically what happened. Meanwhile, Martha is struggling to recall what happened a few months earlier. I'm not sure I'd be as calm as she is throughout this book. Here it is, everyone knows something you don't and they won't talk to you about any of it. That's beyond frustrating. Even if they don't want to explain about the dead boy, they could have told her some of the basics.

Instead, by leaving her oblivious, they are all setting her up. It's not until she remembers the accident that I realized what the twist (or at least part of it) was. I'll give Stine credit, this is another of those rare occurrences where you never suspect the actual person who is behind everything. In this particular case, even their motive isn't obvious. The only thing I instantly picked up on, that everyone else ignored, is the fact Martha was supposed to go skiing first. This automatically made me assume someone was trying to kill her, not the dead boy.

I'm still slowly making my way through this series, maybe one day I'll make it to the end.

[Julian Carver · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read that took my back to the 1990's when these books were in every bookstore. Interesting story of a girl who struggles to remember her shadowy past.

Made me realize I need to read more Fear Street books.

[Marija · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better than the last one I read. This has a better mystery story. This is the first book I read in 2015.

[Alexa · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5
So good! Such an awesome twist at the end. This book kept me engaged all the way through and it’s also pretty gruesome, which I enjoy. I would definitely recommend it!

[Jamie Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still one of my favorite thrillers as an adult. It was my favorite as a kid. The plot held suspense til the very end.

[Abrie Constein · Rating 5 out of 5]

heheh

[Courtney Gruenholz · Rating 5 out of 5]

"After the accident, I guess I went into shock."

Sometimes I love the first person narration of our main character or hidden antagonist to get more of their inner thoughts and feelings and with Martha having the hindrance of not being able to remember a whole week of her life it gives us more insight into the rest of her. For some reason, Martha is the only one out of her and all her friends who can not remember the accident and her doctor has instructed all of them not to interfere with letting it all come back naturally.

This includes her boyfriend Aaron, her redhead friend Justine who has no control flirting with Aaron around Martha, her exotic friend Adriana Petrakis and her older brother Ivan with his goatee and one pierced ear and Laura Winter, a dark-haired model. To Martha, all of her friends seem so different because of the accident and since they don't talk to her about it, she has her own worries worrying about everybody else!

Adriana and Ivan's parents seem to fight a lot so now straight-A student Adriana is having trouble sleeping and studying while Ivan has become late 1990's emo hanging out with a bad crowd, partying and possibly even stealing. Laura use to go out with Ivan but the winter before, shortly after the accident, she dumped him which is what Adriana thinks is bothering her big brother.
Martha admits to us the readers that she use to have a crush on Ivan when she was younger and that she still may have those some feelings. When Martha fails to get Adriana concerned for her brother the day that Ivan almost gets himself and Martha killed giving her a ride home, possibly because he may have been suicidal, Martha decides to take her mind off this by drawing a self-portrait for her portfolio.

I wish I could be as talented as Martha in real life but perhaps that's a good thing when she starts drawing the face of a boy she doesn't know! Martha says it feels like her hand has a mind of its own...as if being guided by some unknown force against her will! That's actually very eerie.

Soon after she starts drawing the face, Martha starts to get bits and pieces coming back to her of the previous snowy year and of her kissing this mystery boy. Martha ends up showing Aaron the drawings and when she pushes him a little too hard to tell her who this boy is Aaron admits that he's dead and something horrible happened to him.

As the memories keep coming back a little at a time, Martha is going to find out the truth and discover what was an accident...was no accident at all. Her friends won't go against the doctor's order not to push her memory but are they doing it for perhaps another reason besides protecting Martha from the ugly truth?

The Face is a pretty good read.

Some details are easy to figure out but when we find out more of the accident as Martha remembers, you still wonder who is behind this awful tragedy. You may be able to figure it out but there are some nice red herrings until we get to the reveal.

The kill in this book is one I've always remembered so I would put it at the top of the pile if you haven't read it and rate it as maybe one of my Top 10 Favorite Fear Street Books or a Top 10 Fear Street Kill.

[Bronwyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

TL;DR Review: One of the most memorable and horrific deaths in the series that is really the crown for this book. Outside of that, the book often falls into the same tired tropes of the other books, dating it severely and making several characters feel flat. Still a fun, if flawed, read overall.

Content Warnings: Violence, Gore, Death, Murder, Decapitation, Adultery, Memory Loss/Amnesia, PTSD, Panic Attacks, Body Shaming, Slut Shaming, Mental Health.

”I had a dream that I was drawing a silver line.”

Full Review - Contains Spoilers:

This book has stayed in my memory for years, as it has one of the worst (in the best possible way) deaths in the series. It’s absolutely horrific and the build up to the reveal may not be perfect, but it still doesn’t disappoint. Outside of that, it still is very much written like any other Fear Street book. There’s outdated tropes, boring teen drama, unlikable characters, and mental health issues.

It isn’t necessarily as egregious as other examples, but it can make the book a slog to get through at times. Especially because information will seem to be finally presented to Martha, only for the same information to go unanswered yet again for several more chapters. The bait and switch gets frustrating and by the time we finally learn that Adrianna is the one who plotted to kill Martha, only to murder her crush Sean by mistake? It doesn’t matter. It feels like a twist that wasn’t totally worth the payoff, but instead that the whole book was leading up the the intensity of the death itself.

While certainly not the most memorable book overall, it is a fun read and totally worth the horrifying death that’s sure to send chills down your spine. Overall, it’s still probably one of the better books in the series for that reason, but if you’re not looking for that intensity, it might be better if it’s skipped.

[Hyzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was something I picked up because it looked like a quick, fun read and I was feeling "in-between" other books. It fit the bill.

I, like most bookish people my age, I'm sure, was absolutely hooked on R.L. Stine as a kid. I read anything I could get my hands on, and I have a few favorites I read so many times I could recite parts of them.

This is not one of those books.

It was refreshing going into this knowing the kinds of tropes I'm likely to see and yet not knowing anything about the plot. I picked it up on a complete whim from Oyster, and I had fun with it.

I did see the ending coming, but it was extremely close there, which was refreshing. Things were not blatantly telegraphed throughout (or at least I felt that way--your mileage may vary if you are not reading it at two in the morning, admittedly)

Amnesia is kind of a fun plot device, though the length to which it was carried seemed a bit much. Not that our main character, Martha, can't remember, but that apparently everyone has been told not to talk about it and has obeyed that decree to such an extent that so much can be hidden from her. It smacked a bit of author intervention, there, but this was such a quick read I was willing to forgive it. Things were not stretched out too far to be believable, given the length of the book.

If you're feeling nostalgic or just looking for a quick breather between other books, this should fit the bill quite nicely.

[Supertramp · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my second R.L Stine book and also I beat my previous record of reading book in 2 days. For this book I took only one day from morning to evening just took about 4 or 5 hours.

The Face starts with an interesting plot about a young girl 'Martha' who looses her memory of a terrible thing happened in her life. She retrieves her memory with the help of a drawing which she drew without her control. When someone reads this plot obviously they attract to the story like I did but the story somehow dragged to fill some pages. More than half of the story revolves around the remaining characters in the story Adriana,Justine,Laura,Ivan and Aaron. They are her friends and whenever she asks about her memory they always say " That was the terrible thing I can't tell you". It made me to expect so much about her past. Though I didn't get the so much of interest more than 100 pages but at the end of the story it made me to forgot all the pages I have read. But the ending gives with typical R.L Stine twists and turns.

After reading 2 books of R.L Stine I understood that there are two twists in his books the first one is dummy twist and the second one will be the actual one.

[David Popovich · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the better Fear Street books. A good mystery with a hook to keep you reading. What really makes it fun it the reveal of the horrible accident. It's one of the most graphic deaths I've read in the Fear Street series that my jaw hit the floor when I read it. The only main issue is an overstuffed cast that carry their own backstory or subplots that don't really go anywhere. Some are dropped halfway, others are barely explored, and some are just there to look pretty, but it's still one of the better Fear Street books and one I recommend for others to read. More details here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZbma...

[Onix Martinez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good interesting read. interesting twist!

[Pooja Banga · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally a great book in the Fear Street series

This was just awesome ..

Thriller till the end ..Just be cautious ..Don't mess with your head🤓

[ChelseaRenee Lovell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Predictable, but still a fun quick read. I still don’t remember Stine’s deaths being so morbid, but I’m down for it 😂

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my opinion this is one of the Fear Street books better mysteries. Fun read all the way around.

[Liliana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reviewed on Lili Lost in a Book

The Face had a very interesting concept. Basically, Martha went on a trip with her friends where something SO traumatic happened that Martha got amnesia. Now she keeps drawing the same face of a stranger over and over and she believes it has something to do with the trip.

Overall, it was an okay read. It didn’t wow me, but it also wasn’t awful. I enjoyed the setting and the mystery was fun to unravel even though I did end up guessing a lot of the mystery ahead of time. I really enjoyed the little flashbacks we got throughout the book as Martha remembered more of this trip and uncovered what happened. I read this book once before only a couple years ago, but I did not remember one thing about it, so it was nice to go into it pretty much blind. Also, there was this one character who got freaking DECAPITATED and it was intense! There was SO much blood and it was cool and I loved it! Lol.

We also had a couple of mentions in this book: Dalby’s Department store (Reva’s dad, from Silent Night , owns this store), Gary Brandt (from The Overnight ), Bobby Newkirk (the asshole from Double Date ), and Corky Corcoran (who is awesome and is from The Fear Street Cheerleaders series).

The Fear Street connection:

Honestly, I don't think Fear Street was mentioned at all! My guess is one of the kids lives there, but 🤷‍♀️

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting book with some nice ideas in it. Starting off with my positives, I thought the characters were good. Martha was a solid protagonist, and other characters like Ivan and Adrianna I found to be pretty nice additions. The elements of hypnosis and memory loss were unique and added some flair to the story, and it hits home because I experienced a similar incident of memory loss (without the memories coming back, or at least yet) in a wreck last year. I can’t remember any of it, just like how Martha couldn’t remember the incident at the cabins. Speaking of which, the mystery involving that kept the story going and kept me on my heels. The reveal was done nicely and the events that followed wrapped up the story in a good way as well. The pacing was done well, there was some decent horror involving the face and the flashbacks to the event in November, and the added backstory behind a certain character named Sean, and his relationships, added a lot of depth to a character that had simply been a plot element until that point in the story. I’m glad how his character turned out. And that’s where my notable positives in—the story has some boo-boos! There is notable lack of direction at times and there is some characters that serve little to the plot besides making the whodunit thing have more suspects. I felt like the reveals in the final 40 pages were incredibly confusing and hard to follow, and the end of the book is way too abrupt. It needed an extra ten pages to give it a proper wrap-up. A character in the story has unresolved tension with our protagonist by the end, and I feel one more interaction between our hero and them would’ve helped wrap up the story. The book is also kinda basic and by-the-numbers, only letting creativity shine with its visions and hypnotic imagery. Also, the first fifty pages are kinda eh. Overall, 7/10. The issues all build up but aren’t enough to make the biggest of dents to say. I really enjoyed it, but it’s not perfect sadly.

[Daniel Stalter · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Face managed to be one of the more enjoyable Fear Street books in spite of a few frustrating flaws. I was immediately drawn in by the premise, and I don’t think I ever could have guessed that ending. The overall concept and pacing were solid. The structure felt like a fresh break from the tried and true Fear Street formula. Martha repeatedly drawing the same face that she didn’t recognize was nice and unsettling. The book’s biggest weakness was how the entire plot relied on the terrible medical advice from Martha’s doctor. Martha and her friends experienced something traumatic last November. Martha for some reason doesn’t remember any of it. Her shitty doctor’s sage advice is that her friends are not allowed to talk with her about it ever. I’m no expert on memory loss, but this just felt cruel. I fail to see how it served any purpose aside from furthering the plot. Then the whole book culminated in a giant info dump by the one who turned out to be the villain. I could have been a lot more forgiving of the whole bad-doctor-as-plot-device if it weren’t for the villain-tells-all infodump at the end, but that’s not the book that was written. It’s safe to say that R.L. Stine definitely has a thing for bad doctors, convoluted villain logic, and twisted revenge plots. In spite of my issues with all of those things, I still managed to enjoy the book. I think that’s a testament to its strengths in other areas. The Face may have fallen short of the best Fear Street titles, but it did manage to break the mold enough to be interesting.

Score: 3

For my snark-filled, spoiler-laced, deep-dive review; check out my blog:
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[kat · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 rounding down bc it shouldn’t have taken me almost a month to read less than 200 pages.
this is the last book i started on my dcp (only read 7 books total in the time i was there - end of january to mid august, yikes), so i clearly didn’t read that much but the other fear street books went a lot quicker than this
firstly there were too many characters. i already forgot most of their names and their significance to the plot. like that eery comment justine (i think) made to martha (i think) about how her (martha’s) life isn’t as perfect as she thinks it is? like what did she mean by that? i guess since justine was cheating with aaron, martha’s bf? but idk. just a random way to be ominous but it doesn’t add much to the plot if it doesn’t actually mean anything.
the whole hypnosis thing was stupid. how can a high schooler learn to successfully hypnotize someone to a point where they forget entire things? and why did everyone collectively decide to not tell her what had happened? especially since no one had suspected she was responsible (other than adriana since she was guilty)
overall i can’t even call it a quick read because it wasn’t. if i was like 11 i’m sure i would’ve ate this up but i’ve read enough adult thrillers that these are just getting ridiculous to me. sorry r.l.

[Elusive · Rating 2 out of 5]

In 'The Face', Martha suffers from memory loss after a skiing trip with her friends. With everyone tiptoeing around her and refusing to divulge the truth, she has no other avenue to get answers. However, when she inexplicably keeps on drawing an unfamiliar face, she starts to recall bits and pieces of the past.

I was intrigued by the mystery and the secrecy. The pool of suspects appeared promising. Unfortunately, the story was largely uneventful and repetitive: Martha asked questions. Everyone refused to answer. This got old quickly. Then came the magical flooding back of memory, followed by the rushed revelation during which the perpetrator voluntarily confessed.

Overall, 'The Face' was a quick, unsatisfying read. The recycled content was such a waste of space.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

The twist was there and I liked how the emotions were portrayed, but it seemed to be lacking in some parts and unnecessary in others. Probably won't be a reread. It's not the worst main Fear Street book but it's not the best either. Frustrations and confusions from the main character was portrayed well. Who to trust was a huge issue in the story and the ending wasn't predictable from page one or anything like that, but it wasn't as thoroughly enjoyable as others. The terror was there as far as how petrifying it would be repetitively draw the same face over and over... a face that seems be a blank to you. The rating was debated so I voted it for average.

[Matthew MacIntyre · Rating 4 out of 5]

We follow Martha (that is such an old persons name) who can’t remember what happened last November when she and her friends were in the mountains. Something horrible happened but she is the only one who doesn’t know what happened and everyone including her therapist said she will get her memories back and no one can help her. To me the premise is lame. She starts drawing uncontrollably the same face of a boy she doesn’t know ovwr and over. This is another book I enjoyed with a super obvious outcome. Full of red herrings and a last minute reveal. Like low-key the killer could have gotten away with their murder if they weren’t so wanting revenge.

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise of this was interesting enough. I liked the situation surrounding Martha’s amnesia and how as the story went on, you got to watch her slowly piece the memories together. It seemed like the book was really building up to something and unfortunately it fizzled out for me in the end. The reveal just felt pretty anti-climactic. I don’t know. This wasn’t horrible, but I finished the book having absolutely zero feelings about it. Like, if I’d never picked this up, I don’t think I’d be missing out at all.

[Khurshid Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. This book reminds me of the show how to get away with murder.

Imagine losing your memory.

Imagine the shock horror of drawing a face of someone you dont remember.

Slowly

Your memories are returning.
You are received a call saying you are a killer.
You find yourself screaming, but cannot say why.
You are seeing one face everywhere, even on others faces.

Be careful of what you want.
Whose face do you see.
The result will change your life.

After all this is Fear Street. The street that is haunted and scary.