Focusing On Fear Street - The Wrong Number

WELCOME TO FOCUSING ON FEAR STREET WITH THERESTHEGIRL

Book #5 in the Fear Street Series
Published March of 1990
Cover Art by Gabriel ?

So here we are back on Fear Street with the fifth book in the series (at the time I found this I had not seen the three books that followed The New Girl) so chronologically this was the next one I read. This was the original first edition cover and I have to say its very nice. In the background again is the titular Gothic Fear Street and in the foreground our two main heroines of the book, blonde Deena Martinson and auburn Jade Smith. Both girls do indeed look scared and have a phone up to their ears. I don't think this scene is actually in the book because it looks like it's happening during a slumber party. I think the cover is meant to draw in male readers because well Jade is sporting a nice little slip and some major leg. I would have to say it is one of my favorite covers. My second favorite is this very simple yet ominous (and story accurate scene) German cover:

Not a lot of detail but it still gets the point across that the story you are about to read has elements of horror and suspense which is all you really need. I couldn't find a lot of versions of cover art for this book but I do have to admit that my third favorite is this Portuguese cover:

I like it because it is bright and eye-catching and well...they really sexed up Deena to sell this book didn't they compared to the first one we saw? If you are wondering yes there is a man with a chainsaw in this book and the guy on the cover is also in the story...his name is Chuck but more on him in a minute. I have one more cover mention and that goes to the Spanish edition because well it just looks so pretty:

Deena and Jade just look like models don't they?

Taglines: "It began as a prank...and ended in murder" on the front cover. I think it is a good one and they have this printed in all caps so it can grab your attention! On the back is a quote which I can't remember fully if it is indeed from the book because it reminds me more of Princess Leia's famous quote from Star Wars at the end but:

"Please come quickly...you're my only hope!"

As with The New Girl, there is a prologue at the beginning of the book and at first glance, it isn't as much a spoiler to the action that will happen but having read it a couple of times it is a spoiler for me but not for any of you new readers. After the prologue and in to the the story proper we get...

The First Line: "The blob of green gel oozed like something from the bottom of a decaying swamp."

Wait did we switch genres? Are we in some weird sci-fi horror? Nope we are just joining Jade and Deena on a girls' night in doing some hair care with some stuff that is the staple of women being women. This is the Saturday night before school starts back up and both girls are B-O-R-E-D until Jade notices Deena's new hi-tech phone of the early 1990s and decides it would be fun to prank call some boys from Shadyside High and by prank I mean make sexy calls like ones men would dial 1-800 numbers for. Shy Deena isn't up for it until she makes a call to her crush Rob Morrell and soon discovers that not talking face-to-face with a cute guy is so much easier and she embraces her sex goddess side. 

Deena tells Rob she looks like Kim Basinger so here you go...

 After that fun opening chapter, we get to see that Deena and her family are going to pick up her half-brother Chuck (from her father's first marriage) at the airport. Chuck is a city kid expelled from his previous high school and a second-time senior moving to smaller Shadyside for a new start. To Deena, Chuck is good-looking except for the scowl/sneer on his face (which she calls a "snowl") but in the next minute he can have a goofy smile on his face. On the way home, The Martinson clan gets involved in a pile-up and Brother Chuck risks his own life to save a puppy from a burning, about to exploded vehicle for a little boy. Chuck is definitely an enigma going from hot to cold but as a person who lived in a big city and now lives in a small town I can understand that people handle change in different ways so this must be his. Of course, that also involves getting into fights at school with knives...oh Chuck what are we going to do with you?

I hear the name Chuck and this is what I see except now with a dog...

 So when Jade comes over a few nights later and the girls go back to doing their little sexy calls, Chuck stumbles upon them and says he will tell their parents everything unless they let Chuck join in on the fun. Chuck's idea of fun turns out to be making fake bomb threats to the local bowling alley and menacing the guys at school who have picked fights with him as "The Phantom of Fear Street"...really Chuck? So after it becomes clear that Jade and Chuck are getting closer Deena hopes that she will be a good influence on her brother and surely love redeems as the three teens agree to no longer make prank calls until a bat scares the girls so bad that they begin mentioning about how spooky Fear Street is all to Chuck's disbelief. To show Deena and Jade that there is nothing terrifying about an old creepy street he dials the first number in the phone book with a Fear Street address and calls it. I think fate steps in to prove him wrong as the number Chuck dials happens to be answered by a woman screaming for her life that someone is trying to kill her and then a gruff-voiced man tells them they have dialed...the wrong number. 

So of course comes the question...is this a prank? Deena, Jade and Chuck go to the address of the Farbersons and discover that a woman has been stabbed and a masked man is in the house! The three teenagers get away but the next night the cops are at the Martinson house questioning Chuck and Deena about the murder of Mrs. Farberson whom her husband says was attacked by the two of them and another girl(Jade) as they robbed the house. The situation gets even stickier when Chuck's fingerprints turn up on the knife used to murder Mrs. Farberson (he picked it up to use in self-defense ignoring what we all know what NOT to do at a crime scene) so now he is being charged for murder and is thrown in jail. Both Jade and Deena know he is innocent so now the two girls must find a way to clear his name and they know the only thing they can do is to go back to Fear Street and find the real murderer...

Now by telling you the basics it is almost pretty easy to tell how this story is going to play out...and the fact that there was a Wrong Number 2 doesn't help much on the surprise. Besides that, I really enjoyed reading The Wrong Number because it is a good mystery story more than an actual tale of horror.

Jumpsuits - how Jade solves murders. It's her fashion of choice throughout the book...

Body Count: Poor Mrs. Edna Farberson :(

Cameo Time!: Both Lisa Blume and Cory Brooks from The New Girl show up. Cory appears in a newspaper article being one of the happy few ushered out of the bowling alley by Chuck's first prank call, ruining his perfect game as quoted in the book. Lisa shows up to talk to Deena about writing an article for the school newspaper concerning Chuck's arrest wanting the hot scoop.

THE SHADYSIDE TIME CAPSULE

Chuck sports a shirt featuring the band R.E.M. - a turquoise one at that! It seems our tough guy also saves puppies and enjoys some good alternative, college rock.

The night of the prank call that leads to all the big trouble, out three heroes get together for a little barbeque. They have burgers, potato salad and peach ice cream all to the tunes playing on Deena's tape player. The band name dropped by Stine is Dire Straits. So Deena likes Dire Straits? Kinda cool. This would be the album Brothers In Arms released back in 1985, a classic album.

It is clear that Chuck and Jade become very close in this book and I have the perfect song for them as a couple because you see my favorite band released an album around this time and well if you look past the lyrics I think this song released as the first single is a nice choice:

NEXT TIME: Not exactly the right time of year for a Halloween Party but on Fear Street...it's always time for terror!

Focusing On Fear Street - The New Girl

Hello there blog followers! As I said last post, I am moving away from movies for awhile and focusing on books because well as many movies as I have...I have just as many books in my collection. I always enjoyed reading from a young age and now that I am older I mostly fall within the categories of romance, fantasy and horror. When I was in middle school, the love of reading skyrocketed when I discovered a little series called Fear Street written by R.L. Stine which is probably what developed my full love for the horror genre (only having dabbled slightly into that movie genre and way before I discovered Stephen King and Anne Rice).

Whenever I would go out to Walmart or the mall with my mother if a Fear Street book was on the shelf I would get it and since the books were only (at that time) $4 sometimes I would get $20 worth of reading material for my birthday or Christmas. Today, I have almost the entire classic Fear Street series and as the series started to fade away I had trouble finding some books but thanks to eBay and Amazon I hope to add these to my collections.

R.L. Stine has made it known on Twitter that he is bringing back the Fear Street series and the first book Party Games may bring a new generation into liking this amazing book series. Since I have so many Fear Street books I am going to start blogging about them and I guess reviewing them in my own kind of style. I am going in mostly chronological order based on the ones I have read to the newer ones I have just recently required so today we are going to take a look at the first ever Fear Street book: The New Girl.

WELCOME TO FOCUSING ON FEAR STREET WITH THERESTHEGIRL

Book # 1 in The Fear Street book series
Published: June of 1989
Cover art: Enric Torres-Prat

This is the original cover that is on my copy of The New Girl. I wish it was bigger but basically the cover has our titular New Girl dressed in her nice little sweater and skirt looking very Nancy Drew lost in the fog on titular Fear Street with kind of a ghostly aura around her as she looks terrified. It is kind of boring but very nicely drawn and has a lavender/orange scheme going on which will of course draw a girl's eye to it especially in the late 1980s. In 2005, The New Girl along with 11 other Fear Street titles were reprinted with new covers like this one:

The new cover of the book (IMHO) is more boring than the original edition. It is supposed to be more eye catching to the newer generation this was geared towards and even though it is bright: nothing is going on. It looks like a Photoshop picture that used a camera photo with some effects added in and not like the cover art that was clearly drawn with painstaking detail on the first edition. Searching for images to spice up this blog I found a German cover for The New Girl and it is my second favorite because well just look:

For one thing, there is a lot of detail in the curtains in the background and even though you can not see all of her face, the half you can see has a set of devilish eyes. I haven't even gone into the plot elements yet and I can tell you this scene does happen in the book so kudos to the cover artist for getting that right!

Taglines: "He had to learn her secret-or die trying!" and "Dying for a kiss..." : front cover and back cover. As far as they go I think they are pretty good for grabbing your attention and aren't too cheesy for a beginning to a series.


I'm going to try to do the books differently than the movies so there may not be many spoilers but if I think anything is worth not telling just remember: Amazon...eBay...buy the book if you are interested in discovering Fear Street for the first time or wish to relive your own nostalgic memories. So first thing: the book has a prologue but to me it spoils the entire story! If you look at the blurb on the back or even the cover, you can tell there is something otherworldly about the "New Girl"so you automatically think - ghost am I right? If there is something I learned from reading most books have plot twists so if you ever get a chance to read it, skip The New Girl prologue and go right to Chapter 1 on the third page and get greeted by...

The First Line: "When Cory Brooks saw the new girl for the first time, he was standing on his head in the lunchroom."

For intriguing openings, this might not be the best but it gives you development into our main character, Cory Brooks. Ah the high school male how I remember those guys like Cory who would do dumb things if their buddies dared them to ranging from the malicious to the down right stupid - like balancing your lunch tray in one hand as you stand on your head. This brings new meaning to the expression "falling head over heels" which Cory does when he sees the new girl- a pretty little blonde- and lands face first into his spaghetti. You see this is also because Cory is the star of Shadyside High's gymnastics team and when he learns the name of his mystery girl is Anna Corwin he starts blowing his fancy athletic moves and even admits:

"I'm falling for her."

So for most high school boys, Cory is one of the romantic ones who falls hard for a pretty face, can't concentrate on anything else and is still a pretty nice but sometimes clueless boy. So nice, athletic, a romantic and we learn he has black, curly hair and is sixteen so for a first time male character in the Fear Street universe Cory Brooks is at the top of the list. When I mentioned clueless, it is mostly because Cory may notice Anna as a love interest but he fails spectacularly to see that his long-time childhood gal pal Lisa Blume is totally into him. Lisa is the other character of focus in The New Girl and we learn she is editor of the school newspaper, witty and looks like Cher.

This is Cher as close to normally dressed in 1989

So despite being friends with a girl who looks like a pop star Cory seems to focus more on classic girly-girl Anna with her dresses to the point it makes Lisa sick and kind of bitchy. So she does some research about Anna for Cory despite crushing on him majorly and finds that Anna Corwin can't be real because she died with a fuzzy newspaper obituary photo to prove it. That doesn't stop Cory though from going to the creepy Fear Street whenever Anna begs and pleads for him to help her...or from making out with her so much that kissing causes his lips to bleed. Anna even gives this creep little gem of dialogue:

"You're all mine now."

Seems like a perfect catch doesn't she? Even though Cory has enough evidence from Lisa that Anna is in fact a dead girl and even keeps getting menaced by Anna's brother Brad saying his sister is dead, he just keeps going back to her driven by of course teenage boy hormones but possibly maybe even real love. This also doesn't stop Lisa from asking Cory to a turn-around dance (which I think is so cute) and being a nice guy, Cory accepts out of friendship. This may have turned into a love epiphany if Cory didn't blow it by talking about nothing but Anna especially after earlier in the day when the dead, blood-soaked corpse of a cat didn't find it's way into Lisa's locker by a jealous Anna and freaking Lisa the fuck out! Not being able to get into his teenage high-school boy head that Anna may in fact be a crazy, jealous psycho, Lisa runs away from Cory and ends up getting pushed down the stairs!

So is Anna a ghost or a flesh and blood girl with more than a few screws lose? Will Cory finally realize that Lisa is the real girl he should be with? These are the questions I will leave you with but the bigger one is...is this book good enough to have you coming back to Fear Street?

As far as an exciting plot for a series beginner, The New Girl isn't bad but when I read the prologue and then got into the book proper I could already tell what the twist was going to be and maybe you don't even have to read the book to know it either. Character wise Cory is a good male character compared to a few later male characters that pop up in Fear Street and one of the few lead male characters centered in the story. I love Lisa for her sassy attitude and her totally relateable crush on Cory since I myself have had crushes on clueless boys with less than stellar results but none as bad as what Lisa Blume had to endure.

Anna Corwin is a good introduction into how crazy some of the characters get in future Fear Street books but is by far the blandest character in this book except maybe up until the twist...or maybe not depending on your own conclusions. Two other characters that seem to be the comic relief (there are always a few in the books to I guess relieve tension or maybe even cause more) of the story are Arnie Tobin and David Metcalf and even they are more interesting to me than Anna! They of course are the ones who dared Cory to stand on his head in the beginning but as Cory becomes Anna-crazed Dave shows real concern for his friend so it's nice to know he's not a total jerk.

Body Count: Possibly Anna and a dead cat (poor kitty!) As far as horror goes, more traditional suspense than gore...besides the cat :( but it's only the beginning you know...

Another thing I noticed about R.L. Stine and not just in his Fear Street books but in his other young adult horror ventures, he sometimes tries to sprinkle a little bit of pop culture in his books to hook this teenage readers and looking back now it really dates how old these books are and even points out (sometimes hilarious) anachronisms or idiosyncrasy moments. So when I talk about each Fear Street book I will be bringing these to light in something I will call:

THE SHADYSIDE HIGH TIME CAPSULE

At the turnaround dance that Cory and Lisa venture to, there is a passage about "a Phil Collins record with a driving, machine like drumbeat and pulsating bass." This has lead me to believe that the song in question is "In The Air Tonight" which was released in 1981 and gives me the impression that Shadyside dances are no fun with such ominous kind of dancing music that is almost eight years old. Given the plot of The New Girl and the lyrics of the song it actually is a cool concept.

Another passage also references music artist Prince and his new "high voltage" record. Being six when this came out, the only record by Prince that I remember being anything close to this is his song "Batdance" from the soundtrack to Batman. This almost knocks out the theory that the DJ of these dances retreats to his older record collection for ambiance music. If he's not going backward than the person responsible for this weird dance playlist has eclectic music taste.

Earlier in the book, Lisa depressed over Cory not noticing her decides to go to the video store and rent a film. She doesn't have a lot to choose from and ends up getting a Star Trek film which Cory is not a big fan of when he shows up and interrupts her pity fest. The film in question is Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home or the one with the whales. So I'm guessing they weren't going to see the new one that just came out around this time?

Based on evidence, I am guessing that Cory had posters of Cher on his wall and Lisa bought Cher's Heart of Stone album finding all of the songs on it cathartic towards her relationship with him. If they became an official couple, I think I have the perfect song for them out of two choices:

So that's my first book review and just the first in my looking back at the wonder of Fear Street. So what did you all think? I'm trying to make my blog a little more entertaining and I hope I have succeeded.

NEXT TIME: The Wrong Number