Fear Street: The Surprise Party

The second outing in the Fear Street world brings us new mysteries to solve, and some returning characters.

The Fear Street series is just good fun. In this second installment, we are introduced to main character Meg; the main characters of these novels function in a similar way to the final girl in a slasher film, which makes it even more interesting that the very first title in the series featured a male protagonist. Too much to go into here, but definitely keep an eye on my YouTube channel for an exploration of the "final boy" phenomenon in slashers! Meg is headstrong and bright, often lamenting her short stature and childlike appearance next to her more sophisticated friends.

The book opens with a short POV prologue of a killer who is reflecting on having just killed a character named Evan. We don't get very much detail about who this first-person narrator is, but we know that he is obsessed with a girl he thinks he loves, and killing Evan will clear the way for him to get this girl.

For chapter 1, we jump to a year later. Meg and her friends are still haunted by Evan's "accidental" death in the Fear Street woods. Meg is best friend's with Evan's sister, Shannon, and Evan's girlfriend at the time of his death, Ellen. Ellen moved away after the tragedy, but as the school year is coming to an end, Meg finds out that she is coming back for a visit.

You'd never guess from the title of the book, but Meg decides that this is the perfect excuse for a surprise party!

But as soon as Meg begins planning the party, she starts getting threatening messages (left for her at the school office - oh what a world we lived in before cell phones!), her party invitations are cut up in study hall, and she receives threatening phone calls - one annoying trope in both of these books so far is that whenever someone receives a threatening call, they can "never tell if it's a boy or a girl." Convenient for the plot, but a bit overused.

Meg repeatedly refuses to cancel the party, citing her stubbornness, and her gloomy boyfriend, Tony, is absolutely no support. He hasn't really been the same since Evan's death...I wonder if that will come up again later? (cue suspenseful music)

(Alright, for those who need spoiler warnings for 40ish year old teen mystery books, here is your warning to peace out or have the ending spoiled!)

Meg compiles her list of suspects, and everyone seems to have something to hide. What I appreciated about the ending of this book is the way that there were layered reveals: at first, there is a brief POV chapter, similar to the prologue, from Tony's perspective; he claims to have shot Evan and thinks that Meg has found out about this from another character who was there when it happened. He takes Meg up to a local makeup spot, Lover's Leap, and plans to push her off the edge to get rid of her before she can tell anyone. However, he realizes that what she found out was unrelated, and he decides against killing her.

At the party, Evan seems to appear, shocking both Tony and Ellen; they, along with Meg's D&D-obsessed cousin Brian, were all in on the coverup of Evan's death. Ellen and Tony were sneaking around behind Evan's and Meg's backs, and the shooting happened after Ellen confessed to Evan, breaking up with him to be with Tony, but then leaving town to deal with the tragedy.

So how did Evan make it to the party? It turns out that the seemingly resurrected Evan is actually his cousin who just looks a whole lot like him. But...wouldn't all of these people also know the doppelganger cousin?! But it doesn't matter because there is a new twist - Evan didn't die in the altercation with Tony when his rifle went off by mistake. It turns out that another character, the brutish Dwayne, had found Evan in the woods when the others ran to get help, and finished the job. Jesus, RL - that's dark!

The threats about cancelling the party were perpetrated by Tony to cover up what he thought was his crime, but in reality, Evan's death had nothing to do with Ellen. Dwayne was obsessed with Evan's sister Shannon, and he thought with Evan out of the way he would have a clear path. he briefly takes both Meg and Ellen hostage, but the girls outwit him in true final girl fashion and the world is set to right. Except for the whole, Meg's best friend sneaking around with her boyfriend thing...

In addition to the story, which was pretty solid, I like the way that Stine continued the world-building with this book. Lisa and Corey, the main characters from The New Girl, are prominently featured in the Meg's friend group, and we get more side characters who fill out the Shadyside High hallways; one prominent mention is Suki Thomas, a precocious girl with spiky blonde hair and a punky aesthetic, who is immediately branded as the "easy" girl in school. Ahh, the 80s. Could they be complete without a little high school slut shaming?!

Speaking of the 80s, I did smile at some of the references Stine made to anchor the setting in the pop culture of the time. Meg compares someone to teen queen Molly Ringwald, another character is compared to Darryl Hannah (I need to watch Splash! again soon - it's been ages!), and there is even a mention of the hottest school supply of the time: the Trapper Keeper! These little touches hit me right in my nostalgic heart, and I'm really enjoying revisiting this series.

Both of the resolutions so far have been more straightforward mystery; I'm excited for more of the supernatural elements to start sneaking in! Maybe in book number 3, The Overnight!