You know, it's funny. When you're a kid, Summer is the best two months you can have. Even the hottest days don't bother you that much. When you're older, you realize so quickly that Summer kind of sucks. You notice that heat a lot more. And the sunburns. Oh dear, the sunburns. Which is a perfect segue for our next Fear Street book. Break out the SPF, it's time for Sunburn.
Claudia receives an invitation from her friend Marla to come to Summerhaven to visit her old friends from Camp Full Moon, Marla Drexell, Sophie Moore and Joy Birkin. It had been a while since the girls had met. Well, since the accident. But more importantly for now, Claudia's broken up with Steve and is without a summer job, so if ever there was a time to take a break, I guess it's now, so she hops the first train to Summerhaven. The girls reunite and Marla takes them to her summer house on the point. Most of the rest of the beach is either restricted as a bird sanctuary or for other reasons. But they're staying at Marla's mansion, a large building resembling a stone castle. Snap back to present time as Claudia is wondering where the girls went, why they buried her in the sand, and more concerningly, how the hell she's going to not end up drowning from the tide. Did Stine watch Creepshow while writing this?
Before she's done for, a boy arrives and comes to her rescue. Her face is now bright red from a sunburn, and is shaken, but she'll live for now. The boy introduces himself as Daniel, and takes her back to the mansion. She confronts Marla, Joy and Sophie, who claim innocence. They did bury her, but thought she managed to get out a while ago. She introduces Daniel, but the boy suddenly disappears. So, strange accidents happening and a possible ghost boy as well. Not quite a party Summer yet, but still something.
The girls eat fancy burgers and fries as Marla mentions Alfred, the butler of sorts for Drexells and the only servant on staff. A chubby, nearsighted old man who is so nearsighted that he could cook a real dog and not know it. I wouldn't put that past Stine at this point. Claudia is still freaked out, obviously, about her near death experience. They eat salads, until Joy freaks out, finding a giant worm in hers. Joy has a fear of bugs, linked to the big accident the previous summer. But no time to talk about that right now with 132 pages left. Marla blames Alfred, then asks Claudia about the boy she saw. Claudia tells her about Daniel, about how he knows the codes to the mansion gate, about how he swam at the beach. Marla panics and says that Daniel must have been a hallucination, or worse, the ghost boy.
So, Marla's been seeing a ghost boy for a while since being in the mansion. She claims that Daniel lives in the guest house and seems to come and go super quick, like a ghost. When her family was sold the mansion, there was also a catch, and that being that it's a haunted mansion. One hundred years ago, a boy was murdered in the guest house, and now his spirit roams the mansion and the beach. And I guess Marla's family is so Rich and White, they could easily deal with all of that. And that's because it's all made up. Marla was screwing with them, because we're quickly learning that Marla's a bit unhinged. As Claudia goes to bed however, she once again sees something moving. She thinks it's Daniel, but it's Marla.
Claudia wakes up the next day and thinks about Marla. How lonely she must be given her rich parents are never around. Her father usually being all over the world buying companies and her mother being a socialite. So, it would explain her more twisted sense of humor so far. Maybe not leaving her friend buried in the sand, but it's something. Also, as we learn while Claudia plays Tennis with Marla, that Marla's sister Alison died in the accident last year. Oh Stine, don't tell me that you just spoiled the twist 33 pages into this 146 page book. That would be a record for you. Still, plenty of time to prove me wrong.
The girls head to the beach, but get stuck at the gate. When Sophie touches it however, she gets electrocuted. She's not dead and does recover, but Marla is freaked out as the security system is supposed to be turned off during the day. But they head to the beach regardless, where they run into two more boys, who aren't possibly ethereal. Marla panics, saying the boys need to get off the beach. The boys are a pair of surfers named Carl and Dean who are obnoxious as hell. Well, more so Dean than Carl so far. Marla warns them again to leave, claiming to have an Irish Wolfhound to chase them off, but Dean just smacks her... to get rid of a horsefly. Then the two leave. Claudia is confused about why Marla was in a panic, but Marla said that her parents gave her strict orders that it would just be the four of them and nobody else. So, definitely no Party Summer.
Claudia, Joy and Sophie are all starting to think that Marla is acting weird, or weirder than usual, not to mention how the past couple days have been filled with these strange "accidents". Sophie also tells Claudia that she and Joy planned to come back for her when she was buried in the sand, but Marla wouldn't let them, saying Claudia probably got out on her own. That night, Marla mentions the boardwalk by the beach complete with an amusement park. Joy mentions them being on a Ferris wheel the previous summer and worrying about falling, which is another little hint to whatever the hell happened with Marla's sister. But we still have 92 pages to get there, even if it's getting a bit "get to the point already".
The girls go to the boardwalk and have a good time for the most part, even running into Carl and Dean... and Daniel. Claudia talks to him and he's a bit shocked to be called a ghost boy, but they seem to get along just fine. The two board the Ferris wheel and get stuck at the top. Suddenly, Daniel falls over the side to his death. Only, that didn't actually happen. It's Claudia's memory of what happened to Alison. So, we finally get our answer as to what befell (or literally fell) Alison Drexell? So, cut back to the year prior at Camp Full Moon. Turns out that the girls didn't really like Alison. Though for as much as the book says that she was annoying, it just seemed like the other four just like to pick on her badly. So, really, nobody likable in this memory.
The girls are playing truth or dare and Alison wants in. So Marla dares her to cross Grizzly Gorge, which Alison accepts. Alison makes it half-way across on a log. Marla is nowhere to be seen as she was caught by the counselors. The other girls begin to run for it while Allison begins to return, only she doesn't. She falls off the log into the gorge and to her death. Claudia returns to present time and finishes the ride with Daniel, who didn't actually fall because he's a ghost, remember? They kiss and he disappears again.
That night, Claudia hears a scream coming from Joy's room. Somehow her arms are covered in leeches. Someone must have known about her bug phobia from camp and put them in her bed. And Joy thinks that someone was Marla, continuing the suspicions that Marla may have brought them there to torture them. Or worse in the case of Claudia. Claudia searches for Marla, but sees Daniel appear and disappear. She runs into Alfred, who seems to be hiding something, claiming no other person could have made it inside, especially since Marla changed the codes to the gate. But instead of THAT being a red flag, the girls believe that this "ghost boy" might have been the one responsible for the leeches.
The next day, the girls go waterskiing, with Claudia overprotecting herself from the sun given her face has barely recovered from the whole "burial" incident. Sophie skis first, but suddenly goes over. She begins to get swept in the current, but the boat suddenly won't move. Claudia jumps in to save her, but also gets caught in the riptide. Fortunately, Carl and Dean arrive to save them. Sophie mentions that her tow rope must have torn, but when they get back to the boat, Claudia notices that the rope wasn't torn, it was cut. They suspect Daniel, but Marla thinks maybe it was Carl and Dean. Later, Joy is now convinced that this is all Marla's doing. That she invited them to the mansion to get revenge on them for Alison. For what REALLY happened to Alison.
You see, Allison did fall that night, but her body was never found, believed to have been washed away in the ocean. But what was worse is that Allison asked for their help to get off the log and they chose to run away instead, so her death is pretty much their fault. Not just for the dare itself, but leaving her to die. The three girls never told anyone, not even Marla, about what happened, saying that they never saw what happened. The girls all now realize that Marla isn't going to just let them go, and with them now being trapped inside due to the security system, they have to endure one more day.
The next day, Claudia walks on the beach, eventually ending up by the bird sanctuary. And by an Irish Wolfhound. Claudia ends up bitten and runs off into the water. She swims far enough to stop the dog... only to then see a shark coming her way. In this case, maybe she should have just stayed around with murderous Marla. She tries to avoid it, but in the process, because this is an R.L. Stine book, the dog gets eaten by the shark. Man hasn't met a dog he didn't want to kill apparently. Claudia passes out, but manages to wake up on the beach, saved by Marla. Claudia then has the thought that maybe Marla let the dog out to kill her, furthering those concerns. And wouldn't you know it, a lightning storm is coming. Book must be nearing its conclusion.
Claudia, still wounded, gets Sophie and tells her and Joy to leave before Marla gets to finish the job. Problem is, Joy's in town with Carl, so you know, wonderful planning session these three had. Marla tells the girls to meet her at the gazebo later, which sets of even redder flags. Joy finally shows up and the three begin to leave, thinking they can trick Marla into taking them to town because, good lord these three are dumb. But they see a light at the gazebo. When they arrive, they smell death. And sure enough, they find a dead body. Marla's dead body.
The girls panic and now want to head to town to at least get the cops involved, but when they head to the gate, they see it's turned on again. And only Marla has the codes, so they're now even more screwed. The girls run to the guest room and soon get confronted by a girl in a trench coat holding a gun. It's Marla. So, yeah, the twist I expected in page 33 was exactly what happened. It's The New Girl all over again. The girl they've been with for the past few days wasn't Marla, it was Alison. She survived the fall. A week before this all went down, she found Marla and murdered her, believing that she was part of the foursome that night, though she actually wasn't.
When Alison fell, she eventually washed up on shore and was rescued by a family. She claimed she had amnesia, but remembered everything, and after what happened, definitely didn't want to return to the Drexell family. But the anger over what happened never went away, and over the course of the year she calculated her ultimate revenge on all of them for leaving her to die. I mean, she's kind of right. These three in particular kind of suck. Alison is about to shoot Claudia, when a hooded figure arrives to stop her. She runs off and makes it to the gate, but ends up getting electrocuted and dies. For real this time.
Daniel reveals he's not a ghost, but his name is Daniel Bryan-I mean Daniel Ryan. Sorry, had to get one wrestling reference in. He's Alfred's son. He's been staying at the guest house. Alfred had to keep it a secret because the Drexell family would have likely fired him for it. Claudia proves Daniel's not a ghost and kisses him as they head back to the mansion, leaving Alison's corpse at the gate. She could still be alive, you know. But hey, you left her to die before, why am I not surprised?
You know, the further I get into Fear Street, the more I realize that Stine is not a good mystery writer. He can have a good idea for a story, and Sunburn offers enough great set pieces to craft a good story, but when building who the culprit is, he makes it way too obvious way too soon. I mean, I've been saying that since Say Cheese and Die!, I think it's even more prevalent with Fear Street. The second we learn about Alison, of course she's going to be the one behind everything, and as such, this book just feels like we're just waiting for the obvious, and sure enough, Stine doesn't pivot. Thankfully the book is still solid enough where even when you get to the obvious twist, you aren't too angry about it, so hooray for just making it over the hurdle, I guess?
While Alison is meant to be the villain, I can't say I left the book feeling that way. She's kind of in the right. They were the ones being mean to her. They issued the dare. They could have helped her back but didn't. They left her to fall to her supposed death. Even Claudia's claims that Alison was horrible don't pan out right when you get to that point and you see how rotten the four of them were to her. Honestly, from that perspective, I'd have been fine if Alison had actually succeeded in her revenge. A dark ending, but I think in terms of a revenge story, it would have been satisfying. Knowing Claudia, Joy and Sophie survived, but not Alison, and not Marla who by all means was innocent in all this didn't, kind of makes me wince a bit. But, hey, a Fear Street book with actual death in it and not in the background for once. Progress.
So in the end, Sunburn is... eh. Not a bad book by any means, but feels like it takes pieces from other books to craft a very basic Y/A horror story. Which is a shame given that cover. I can't fault it entirely, and there is plenty of good to outweigh the bad, but this might be my least favorite Fear Street so far. I hope this isn't a sign of burn out. Sunburn gets a C+.
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