Focusing On Fear Street - The Stepsister

WELCOME TO FOCUSING ON FEAR STREET WITH THERESTHEGIRL

Book #9 in the Fear Street Series

Published: November 1990

Cover Art by Bill Schmidt

First of all I apologize for the quality of the cover art that I found being so bright and fuzzy, my copy of the book looks so much better. The girl with the chestnut hair is our main character, Emily Casey, looking in the diary of her titular stepsister, Jessie Wallner. Jessie is the pissed off blonde in the dressing mirror. This scene of Jessie catching Emily in the act of snooping on her does not happen but the cover gives us the feeling of suspense throughout the book. The cover is not one of my favorites but again it is nicely drawn. This was another of those 2005 reprints with updated covers:

It's a very simple cover but I like how you aren't really sure which girl it is on the cover - is it Emily or Jessie? The only problem I have is the girl obviously has a little piercing in her nose to I guess "modernize" her to the new millennium crowd. Trying too hard there, new cover artist? The only other thing I like about this cover is that the orange gives off the impression of fire and well yes a fire does indeed happen in this book so props for getting that right at least. There are not too many versions of The Stepsister cover art that I could find but of course I found the cover in German markets! It was actually reprinted there so there are two German covers but one is very spoiler filled if you have not read the book in English so here is the cover I like the best anyway:

Very dark, foreboding, creepy house, shadowy figure in the window - simple yet effective. This is how you do a good cover right - intrigued to read it but not so busy or too flashy.

Taglines: On the front we have "When she moved into Emily's room, the terror began..." it's okay and to the point but that wouldn't be enough to grab me without nice cover art. On the back "Just how dangerous is Jessie?" combine this with the blurb on the back and I would be intrigued. I like how on the German cover this is the main tagline (yes I can read a little German but I am not fluent in all printed words of the language) and this would be enough to make me want to read The Stepsister.

The First Line: "I hate my hair!"

Well with that I'm not sure whether I should continue because it seems like Emily is going to be one of those whiny girls who is pretty and looks gorgeous but thinks they look fat and ugly. Maybe Emily is just a high strung person in general or maybe she is just nervous to meet her new stepbrother and stepsister. Her older sister Nancy seems to be doing just fine reading a copy of Sassy magazine so I guess Emily is going to probably get on my nerves - a character you should be rooting for but end up hating. So Em and Nance's mom remarried a man named Hugh who has a daughter Emily's age named Jessie and a thirteen-year old son named Rich who loves to read Stephen King and is kind of shy (sounds like a male me) and of course Jessie is blonde and looks like an angel.

Jessie is moving into Emily's room to share it with her new stepsister and things of course start out bad. In private, Jessie shows her true bitchy colors first complaining about the smallness of the room, saying things about Emily's mom, taking Emily's bed, shoving her little terrier Tiger and then accidentally( or is it?) ripping the head off Emily's childhood teddy bear! If you thought you would hate Emily for her whiny personality Jessie has her beat! Maybe it's the stress of moving into a new home with a bunch of new people but that's no excuse for supreme bitch overload.

It doesn't seem to be nerves because Jessie just continues to be nasty wearing Emily's clothes without asking but then things seem to go a little too far almost...malicious. Emily's big school report ends up getting erased, someone puts peroxide in her shampoo, and then her dog is murdered with its corpse stuffed into Emily's book bag for her to find at school! It seems this game of sibling rivalry is turning deadly especially when Emily learns that Jessie may be responsible for the death of a girl at her old school causing her to visit a psychiatrist. Is Jessie crazy and doing all of these horrible things to Emily? Could she really be capable of murder?

I'd have to say that this is the shortest blog post about any of the Fear Street books I've read so far going in chronological order. I will tell you the plot has a good premise and the actual twist of an ending surprised me when I first read it but other than that it is mostly a lot of Emily whining and Jessie whining and even her brother Rich whining at different times. I don't think there is a character in The Stepsister that I actually like except for maybe Emily and Nancy's mom except for her judgement in men as her new husband Hugh is kind of a sexist pig and has a tendency to not think before he speaks. Also another reason this is so short is well because *sighs* there's a Stepsister 2 we'll get to eventually...

Body Count: Poor little Tiger :( I love cats and dogs and if you do to I have to warn you this isn't the last time a cherished pet dies in this universe on Fear Street. To make you feel better just focus on this cute little dog and tell yourself it's just fiction:

Cameo Time!: Emily literally bumps into Ricky Schorr from Halloween Party and Lisa Blume from The New Girl is mentioned to share a math class with Emily's best friend Kathy.

THE SHADYSIDE HIGH TIME CAPSULE

We learn that Emily's new stepbrother Rich loves to read Stephen King! The book he is mentioned to be reading is Pet Sematary, one of King's most terrifying books and a creepy movie too!

I'm guessing being such a fan of Mr. King Rich might be interested in going to see the movie adaptation of Misery which came out around this time:

I don't know about you but after everything that happens in this book I think the Wallner family should maybe go see a more light-hearted film. There's the blockbuster Home Alone or maybe the highly underrated Disney classic The Rescuers Down Under would be better?

NEXT TIME: The Prom Queen ... what more do I need to say?

Focusing On Fear Street - Halloween Party

WELCOME TO FOCUSING ON FEAR STREET WITH THERESTHEGIRL

Book #8 in the Fear Street Series

Published: September of 1990

Cover Art by Bill Schmidt

Well first off let me say that this scene does NOT happen in the book but would be so awesome if it did! Being chased by a pumpkin-skull-ghost light through the Fear Street cemetery is our main heroine Niki in front of the Cameron mansion where the titular party takes place. Another disappointing thing about this otherwise great cover is the fact that in the book Niki's cape of her costume is NOT white...it's black. Another fact about this book before we get started is that I did not read this book until the time it was reprinted in 2005 but it did have this original cover and not this one:

A jack-o-lantern headed scarecrow is just not scary to me and compared to the above one it is so boring. I grew up with the Bill Schmidt cover art on my Fear Street paperbacks but I have to say I also am digging some of the foreign covers a lot looking for pics to spice up my blog. Mostly the German ones speaking of which:

Now that's a jack-o-lantern to be creeped out by...especially with the tipped over wine glass (this is a high school party so underage drinking is kind of forbidden...I like it!) sitting on black material which to me looks like Niki lost her cape...but why? *dun dun dun!* My third favorite cover is this Portuguese cover art because I kinda like the Gothic feel of it:

The three people on the cover I assume are Niki and her boyfriend Terry in the foreground and party hostess Justine Cameron in the back with the blond highlighted dark hair (Justine is blonde in the book). This cover is very mysterious and I like the jack-o-lantern being held by the skeletal hand...the horror-lover in me approves!

Taglines: "There's going to be an uninvited guest at this Halloween party on Fear Street..." on the front cover is a little long winded and not exactly accurate to the story (little spoiler for you so sorry!). The little tagline on the back "Invitation To Terror" is succinct enough.

The First Line: "The tombstone loomed gray in the moonlight, its edges eroded into irregular shapes."

Fairly simple start as our aforementioned heroine Niki  Meyer and her boyfriend Terry Ryan head through the cemetery on Fear Street to reach the mansion where new transfer student Justine Cameron lives. See she's having an intimate Halloween Party that only a small few were invited to and this is where we get a larger cast than my past two Fear Street books. Also invited is friendly yet overweight Trisha McCormick, practical joker dweeb Ricky Schorr, linebacker Murphy Carter, basketball player David Sommers, the loose Angela Martiner, science whiz Les Whittle and Niki's ex-boyfriend and Terry's ex-best bud Alex Beale.

It's a grab bag of Shadyside High's cliques and that's exactly what happens the factions get divided in a prank war between the jocks (Alex, David and Murphy) and the wimps (Ricky, Les and Terry) even before the party happens! I guess Angela is on the jock team and Trisha is definitely on the wimp team but Niki doesn't chose sides because even though Alex is her ex she's above all the high school bullshit and is madly in love with Terry. Terry acknowledges that Niki is special and I hope it's the romantic in him and not the obvious because Niki is hearing-impaired (she is deaf but is an amazing lip reader that she doesn't sign or use a cochlear...pardon I watch a lot of Switched At Birth on ABCFamily...)

Terry calls Niki Funny Face so I assume it's because she looks like Audrey Hepburn after the film she starred in called Funny Face right?

Anyway, the night of the Halloween Party arrives and we have Terry as a 50s greaser, Niki as a medieval carnival reveler, Murphy as a zombie, Trisha as a 50s cheerleader, David as a basketball player who uses a human skull (how original *yawn*), Les as a skeleton, Ricky as a frog (by far the most creative with long-johns and diving flippers) Alex as some Silver Surfer knock-off, Angela as a biker chick and Justine as Elvira but blond. The party goes on with the normal tunes for dancing, a buffet of pizza and worldly cuisine, sodas and of course the prank war continues. Okay so maybe the front tagline wasn't that off because some party crashers (uninvited guests) do show up making a big Animal House kind of entrance on motorcycles.

These two guys are Bobby McCorey and Marty Danforth, the biggest bullies in school getting back at Justine for not inviting them to her Halloween Bash. Clearly drunk, these jerks begin destroying decorations, picking on the guests and even take to harassing Justine's Uncle Philip, the party's chaperone. Terry and David stand up to the bullies and they soon leave with threats to be back and even though they suggest letting the police know, Justine refuses and declares the party is still on! Soon, everyone is divided on a treasure hunt about the mansion and soon the pranks turn real, the house is swallowed in darkness and Les' dead body is found with a knife in his chest! Things get even worse when Philip and Niki end up missing and the guests realize they are trapped with a murderer as the rain pours outside! With a killer about it's safe to say the party is officially over...and the killer's fun has just begun.

As I am talking about all my Fear Street books, I realize that sometimes the endings and twists are pretty easy to discover. Even now you can probably guess who the killer might be but if you don't I definitely won't spoil it for you. Halloween Party to me is one of the better Fear Street books even if it has a kind of predictable plot and one that turns up a lot in later books and maybe even in earlier ones I have yet to read. I really like the characters of Terry and Niki mostly because Terry is a brave guy who stands up to bullies and loves Niki so genuinely.

Niki is one of the better Fear Street heroines because she is very mature for her age, doesn't take sides in fights, has a fun personality and cares about everyone...even her jerk of an ex, Alex. Okay so Alex is not that bad but he just has way too much arrogance that reminds me of all the awful guys I had the pleasure of going to school with but he gets better as the book goes along. My other favorite character is Ricky because he reminds me of the other guys I went to school with that were not jerks but funny and even dorky guys who were nice and the kind of guys I had lunch periods with.

Body Count: Poor Les is the only casualty of our cast :(

Cameo Time!: Jade Smith and Deena Martinson from The Wrong Number get mentioned being buddies of Niki's not invited to Justine's party and Lisa Blume of The New Girl is still trying to get the big scoop mostly on the exclusivity of the guest list for the same reason as the rest of the unlucky ones who didn't receive invitations...more like the lucky ones, eh? Also, Bobby McCorey just so happens to be one of the guys Chuck Martinson got in fights with in The Wrong Number so he's still bad ass as ever for all the wrong reasons.

THE SHADYSIDE HIGH TIME CAPSULE

One song played at the party has the lyrics "Pump up the jam" repeating over and over again and the only song I know like that is "Pump Up The Jam" by the group Technotronic so points for a nice early 90s dance song!

For ambiance, Justine has the film Bride of Frankenstein playing on her big-screen TV during the party and Terry sits down to watch a little bit of it. Good film it is something to be watched around Halloween or anytime for that matter.

So far in reading, Terry and Niki have to be my favorite couple so far. So to celebrate their loving relationship I have the perfect song for them from around this time. Not a popular release but another song from my favorite band of all-time:

NEXT TIME: We get to see what living on Fear Street is like with The Stepsister