The Stinal Countdown: The Best Friend 2

It's time for what I think is technically the last Fear Street sequel I have to cover. That's good. And it's a sequel to a book I liked. That's concerning. Oh, and it's a sequel with a fan-submitted ending. Oh fuck no. So, apparently the original The Best Friend book wasn't as well received at its time. Given the way the book ends with all of Becka's friends dead and Honey getting what she wants with zero comeuppance, I could see that ruffling a lot of feathers. But I think horror shouldn't always have a happy ending and that yes, you can have the villain ultimately win in the end. And Fear Street, honestly, plays it very safe with most of its endings where you do get a happy ending for your protagonist. And the ones that usually are bad have to do with the character having poor mental health but I've banged on that drum forever. 

But Stine still got a lot of angry fan mail over it, and thus a contest was held where readers could submit their endings for what should befall Honey in the end. And as we all know, giving power to the fans ALWAYS goes well. Ultimately, the winning choice went to Sara Bikman. Thus giving us an ending that I've heard also wasn't well received so I guess nobody wins. Except for Sara I guess? Let's see just how this all went down as we talk about The Best Friend 2. 

I like this cover. It's very simple, but sets out to do what it's intended to do. Sell us the idea that Becca is very much tired of Honey and, going by the broken glass in the picture, she's ready to finally get rid of her. Still not overly fond of this cover format with the more cartoony houses above, as if to confirm that yes, this is Fear Street alright. You see the houses? Sure looks like a street to me. Downside is of course the big piece of text in the middle mentioning that the ending was chosen via contest, but it's far from the worst placement of these types of text bubbles. 

NNtG: Bone Chillers #22: Killer Clown of Kings County

$467.04

$530.50

$1,038.00

Those numbers above are important to the context of this opening. Those are the prices on eBay (in Canada mind) for this book as of the time of writing this blog. Those are the exorbitant prices this book is asking for online. For you see, some Bone Chillers books can be quite tricky to find. You might luck out on a couple in the wild, but it's one of those series that have editions considered so hard to find that copies can go for a bit of money. Some going for about 40, 50, the occasional 80. But no book in this series has earned the reputation of being the vaunted "super rare holy grail" in the series quite like this one. Unless you were absolutely lucky to find this maybe at a thrift store or a flea market, you would have to pay out the ass for this book if you were collecting the entire series. In other words, this book would have been impossible to cover for the blog because heeeeelllll no I'm not paying that much for any book. So thank goodness the book was uploaded online so I can actually cover this damn thing. So it's a rare book. But does that rarity equate to a good story? Let's clown around without breaking the bank as we cover Killer Clown of Kings County. 

This is as Tim Jacobus a cover as you can get. From the POV, the warping, the garish checkerboard colors, and the creepy open maw of the clown, you could guess super quickly that this was a cover drawn by the Goosebumps guy. Our titular clown is rather creepy looking, and does have an intensity about his face that I would see myself finding scary. I like the touch of the balloons. The bird, the bull, the cat, the one that might be a bear but also looks like a hamster, so I'm calling subtle Monster Blood II reference and a creepy looking skull. So the cover delivers on giving you a clown that certainly fits the bill of killer. 

NNtG: Ghosts of Fear Street #26: Go To Your Tomb—Right Now!

It's time to cover some more Ghosts of Fear Street. Been a while. But given we're so very close to the end of the series (if you're going chronologically maybe not, but blog-wise there's maybe like four more after this for me to talk about) maybe that's part of why I've hesitated so long to finish up these books. That and I didn't have access to certain books, like the one we're covering today. It's honestly the book I'm a bit intrigued by and at the same time sounds the least interesting in terms of a book itself. But usually that's a sign I'll be intrigued by book's end. I already fear the worst. It's time to Go To Your Tomb—Right Now!

Another reason I just keep neglecting this one is honestly the cover's kind of bland. It's definitely a tomb, so the book's not lying to you. I do like the little touch of the welcome mat, the visage of Luana on the door and the ominous red lighting of the tomb itself, inviting the reader in. It's a good art piece, but given we've gotten better horror and even better comedy from other Ghosts covers, it becomes forgettable in the grand scheme.

NNtG: Spinetinglers #04: Where Have All the Parents Gone?

It's time to return to the wonderfully all over the place world of Spinetinglers. And we have aliens in this one. Alien books have skewed mostly positive for the blog, so that at least has me intrigued. And then I hear that this is a book that utterly shits the bed with its ending. And I love me some trainwreck books. Well, the ones that don't utterly piss me off I guess. Let's get spaced out and wonder Where Have All the Parents Gone?

I really like this cover. Granted, not really scary unless you have a fear of the more South Park-looking alien designs, which I really don't. But if you want a cover that mixes the familiar with the freaky, you have a good mix here with the normal looking mother body and the alien head attached. It does a good job in selling the book's overall gimmick of being about aliens taking the place of the parents. So it does do what it needs to to be at the very least intriguing. 

Thoughts on How to Train Your Dummy

So before we get off the bat, sorry for like a month of inactivity. Nothing's wrong, just decided to take a break. We should be back on track very soon. But in the midst of that break, we got the news of a new Goosebumps House of Shivers book. The first of 2027's pair. And to say my expectations were low as soon as I read the book's title, I felt the need to talk about it, like I have the last couple upcoming HOS books. But I felt that it would be better to wait it out until we got the cover art to finally see just what we're dealing with here and hoo boy, I have some thoughts. 

Club-Read: The Baby-Sitters Club #31: Dawn's Wicked Stepsister

In our last book, we got us a massive status quo shift when Mr. Spier and Mrs. Schafer got married. Dawn and Mary Anne experience the highs of finally becoming stepsisters. Who could have guessed there'd also be buyer's remorse in the process? I mean, given the last book also went hard on the "aren't siblings just a pain in the butt" I guess anyone could have guessed that this would be the conflict for the next book. Let's see what goes down now that these two live under the same roof. Let's talk about Dawn's Wicked Stepsister.

Both covers are fine. Both sell the situation quite well. Dawn and Mary Anne at odds with one another as clearly there's unpacking needed to be done. Not just unpacking boxes, but clearly unpacking the issues between the two girls. Biggest difference being the third party on the cover. The reprint gives us Tigger while the original goes with a dumbfounded Jeff. Of the two, I'll go with the original, but both do a fine enough job. Though I guess the contrast of happy Dawn and Mary Anne last cover to both annoyed with each other at least does work in the reprint's favor, but not enough for me I guess.

The Stoney So Far... The Baby-Sitters Club #21-30

We're now thirty books deep into the Baby-Sitters Club. Not only that, but we're also in the midst of specials and spinoffs. We have entered into full franchise mode. We also exit the twenties by also exiting the 1980s. The franchise has made it into its fourth year of life and given it was really intended to be just ten books, it's a bit surprising that this series still has a lot of gas in the tank. But given we haven't even scratched the surface 30 books in, I guess that's a testament to how much you can get with a book series about baby-sitting. And the twenties were perhaps the best example of what I mean as I find these ten book were the ones that went deep into worldbuilding. We still got our share of filler books of varying quality, but if you were invested from day one in Stoneybrook and the girls, then this batch really rewarded that brand loyalty. The twenties gave us a great deal of tonal whiplash. From new family members to dying family members, marriages, divorces, relationship concerns, elections, big mysteries and so much more. Not to mention a trip to camp and a lodge for the winter. Let's look back at what made the twenties so interesting.