Club-Read: The Baby-Sitters Club #32: Kristy and the Secret of Susan

Okay, so from the jump, this was one I was  VERY concerned about when I learned about its existence. We're in very special episode territory once again with the BSC. And we have a story about autism. An autism story from 1990. So I'm very interested to see how Ann M. Martin handles the subject matter. I trust her to at the very least do as good a job as she possibly can, but I still feel concerned. But one can only hope this goes well. We'll find out with Kristy and the Secret of Susan.

Both covers are just okay at best, and I guess sell the concept at the very least. I like the reprint cover a bit more here. While neither cover fully screams "kid with autism" it does feel more prevalent in the original cover with Susan's face having a more blank expression, where the reprint doesn't do that so much. In other words, it doesn't try to "other" Susan as much. More of a testament to how much the world has learned about autistic people in the 35 years from both releases. 

The Stinal Countdown: Fear Street: Cat

We've finally made it to the finish line when it comes to the original Fear Street run. Every mainline and Super Chiller pre-New Fear Street/Seniors. And it's kind of oddly fitting that the final book is the one I've been most intrigued by. Because this one sounds like it's going to be dumb. And it's a book with Stine's most favorite trope of them all with teen horror, and that's killing animals. Especially pets. So many animal corpses in these books you'd swear Stine's deranged. I mean we know he's deranged, but more deranged than anyone would imagine. This also feels very much like a story we've seen him redo for Goosebumps around the same time, so it'll be interesting to see which one does the job better. But let's nip this in the bud and see if this book's the cat's meow. Let's talk about Cat.

And this is why I wanted to talk about this one for so long because the cover is just so wonderfully goofy. Like it's trying to be scary, especially with our main villain cat here, but I don't know. It just falls into that "too cute to be taken as scary" situations. Feeling less like a threatening scene and just some lady wanting to show you one of her lil' fluffy babies. Her cat eyes are neat though that's kind of creepy. Every bit as corny as you'd want from a Fear Street cover. Love it.

The Stinal Countdown: Goosebumps House of Shivers #07: What We Do At Night

It's time for the second of the two Goosebumps House of Shivers books. We had a really strong start this year when One Night at Camp Bigfoot turned out to be pretty good all told. I still maintain that, with a couple exceptions, that House of Shivers has been consistently good. Well not we have kids who are also birds to deal with this time around. Part of me hopes that this is a make-good for the stinker that was Night of the Squawker. But knowing Stine, I'm giving him too much credit again. Only one way to know for sure, let's find out What We Do At Night.

I like this cover. And a lot of that has to do with the colors. The purples, the oranges, yellows, pinks and blues that makes everything really pop. I especially love the sky, It's very pretty. And then we have our nightbirds and I do like their general designs. More crow-like, but they have human arms. I like how gangly and creepy they look on the bird on the mailbox.Then we have the one in the sky who is more human than bird. There's even some classic Jacobus styled warping. It all makes for honestly one of the better covers in House of Shivers. One that Robert Ball illustrated mind you, it's not AI. I still maintain that, despite concerns on how the art can look, I don't believe that there's any evidence of Ball using AI outside of pure speculation and people just generally not liking his work and thus we throw the accusations. But, those issues aside, this is still a top notch cover. Not super scary, but one of the more compelling covers. 

State of the Blog: Six Years Later

We're entering the seventh year of this blog, which shocks the utter hell out of me when I really think about it. A blog made out of boredom to stave off COVID-era depression ultimately became something I've put actual time and effort into. So was that time and effort put into a good year of content? And what does the future hold going into this seventh year? Let's find out as we take a moment to talk about 2025-2026's blog content.

NNtG: Ghosts of Fear Street #32: Caution: Aliens at Work

It's time to check out yet another Ghosts of Fear Street. We're very close to the end of the series at this point. This one, honestly, is one I always forget exists when I look through the list of books. It's that one that makes me go "Oh right, this one". Which on occasion with these book series it can often mean a hidden gem. Or, more often than not, it's just another book in a series with much better books. Which will this book ultimately wind up as? Let's get to work as we talk about Caution: Aliens at Work.

This cover is okay. Not exactly scary by any conceivable metric though, but I do like the designs of the alien tools as they fly out of the toolbox. We get a decent "shocked kid face" from our protagonist who I could see reacting that way to a bunch of flying objects. Like with the other CG covers, this one is endearing, definitely giving off that feel of "aged poorly but still kind of neat" that a lot of old CG images have. Decent stuff.

NNtG: Ghosts of Fear Street #31: Escape of the He-Beast

As we get closer to the end of Ghosts of Fear Street I don't think there's been a book in the series I've been more excited to cover than this one. And yes, it's ENTIRELY the cover as the reason why. Though going by the story itself, we have another comic book-themed adventure on our hands and those have always been a mixed bag. But I'm at least optimistic so I can only hope we're in for a fun one. Will this be a beast of a book, or am I just going to find more interest in the cover? Let's find out with Escape of the He-Beast.

Oh my god I love this cover. It is so perfectly "This is CGI in the 1990s" and I love it so much. Our he-beast, Hecula, is an amazing sight with the blue-gray skin, the sharp fangs and all the spikes around his eyes. The earring's a silly little touch too. It's such a perfect monster design that maybe could have worked with a more hand-drawn piece, but somehow it's a design that only really pops with the CG model. It might easily be my favorite of the Happy Boy Pat covers. Not scary in the slightest, but works in selling the horror comedy aspects of Ghosts of Fear Street quite well. 

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.