Fear Street: Missing - This One Gets Wild!

The fourth book released in the Fear Street series keeps its mystery grounded in reality, but things still go a little crazy!

I remember the Fear Street books being more of a mix of grounded mysteries with supernatural events, but as I'm starting to work my way through the series, I think that the supernatural stuff started to come later when Stine began exploring the history of Fear Street. I know that the Cheerleaders series includes so wacky spirit stuff, but so far the first four books have been very much grounded in the real world.

That's not to say that sometimes things don't go absolutely batshit crazy! Enter Missing. Mark and Cara's parents suddenly go missing and they need to solve the mystery of where they went before it's too late. Their "cousin" Roger lives up in the attack and starts acting very strange, and there is an unmarked van parked outside their house at all hours.

The mystery was actually very fun to watch unfold, as Mark and Cara bumble around trying to find clues - and pretty much misinterpreting every piece of information that they find! I didn't like the way the story was constructed as much as other books in the series so far; all of the chapters are written in first person POV, but it bounces back and forth between Mark and Cara. A few chapters with one, a couple with the other, so you always have to figure out whose perspective you're inhabiting with each new chapter. Stine had included short first-person POV chapters in earlier books (usually from the POV of the killer) but this is the first time the whole book has this style of narration.

So, what's so wild about this book. Well, we get our first mention of a cult that is trying to "stop crime" in America...through human sacrifice?! To this point there have been individual perpetrators, so this is the first conspiracy-type resolution we've had. There are quite a few murders in the book (some rather graphic, including Roger being found shot through the neck with an arrow!) as we try to figure out who to trust, but the craziest moment for me was when Mark was walking through the Fear Street woods to get to his girlfriend's house, is pursued by an attack dog, falls into a pit trap, and has to fucking MURDER the dog with his bare hands by breaking its back! Seriously, that happened. It was trying to eat him, so, like, I get it, but that's a wild scene to include in a book aimed at preteens!

This walk down Memory Lane has been fun so far, but as an adult I can see some of the cracks in the facade. Stine is a master at setting up suspense, building tension, but then he often resolves the conflict in a page or less. The climaxes of his books are over far too quickly. There is also a sort of "happily ever after" feeling in these conclusions that seem to ignore important facts from recent memory, such as MULTIPLE MURDERS in their own home. As an adult, it feels a little unsatisfying, but I can definitely understand why younger me was so transfixed.