Been a hot minute since I've taken a trip to Shadyside, so let's return to the wacky world of Stine Y/A with one that by cover alone I've always been intrigued by. And yes, as has been said before, that almost always spells disaster. Let's open up The Secret Bedroom.
We open the book as protagonist Lea Carson is not doing to well in her first couple weeks at Shadyside High. Case in point as we open with her slipping in the cafeteria and spilling her chili all over a girl who is conveniently wearing a new white sweater that day. But one of the boys at school named Don Carson does help Lea with her chili problem. They hit it off pretty well, though Don is weirded out when he learns that Lea recently moved to Shadyside with her family and they live on, where else, Fear Street. After he leaves, Lea talks with her friend Deena Martinson about Don. Yes, the same Deena Martinson from Wrong Number. He's a popular kid in school, and he does currently have a girlfriend. Marci Hendryx. The girl that Lea just gave a chili bath to. Deena leaves, warning Lea to be careful and to watch out for Marci.
Turns out Lea's home is a real mess, and mostly bought because her parents like to house flip. Rebuild a broken house then likely resell it. We go back to when Mr. and Mrs. Carson were shown the house by the real estate agent Mrs. Thomas, mother of Suki Thomas. Wow, this book sure likes its connections, huh? She leads them into the attic where there's a door to another room inside. But when Lea tries to open it, it doesn't budge. Mrs. Thomas then mentions that there have been stories that there was a murder in the house a hundred years ago. But she claims it's all just stories. The family head downstairs, but Lea hears something coming from the other room. Almost as if it's someone breathing.
Lea talks with Deena for a bit about her upcoming date with Don. Interestingly, Deena cuts the conversation short as Jade Smith is coming and the two are doing each other's hair (and then getting themselves involved in a murder mystery involving those newfangled early 90s phones). Lea waits for Don. And waits. And waits. She calls Don's house to find out he's on a date with Marci. But she can't believe that's actually happening, despite, you know, Don is still dating Marci. She calls Marci and Marci laughs about how gullible she is. How Lea thought that Don would ever be interested in her. Frustrated, she hugs her stuffed tiger Georgie and tries to fall asleep. Only she ends up hearing creaking noises above her. And not the normal old house creaks, but the actual sounds of someone walking in the attic.
Lea arrives in school the next day and already feels embarrassed as most likely the whole school knows that she fell for Marci's prank. She even bumps into Ricky Schorr, who we've also met in another book. My god, Stine went whole hog on the connectivity train in this one, huh? Don apologizes for what happened and Lea accepts it. Marci then apologizes later and invites her to a sorority party on the fourth floor. But even Lea's not dumb enough to fall for that prank as there is no fourth floor. So now Lea's not just angry, she's now got a goal in mind. She's going to find a way to get back at Marci for all of her pranks.
Back at home, Lea watches Ghost on her VCR, because this book is sorely lacking in irony I guess. She heads to bed, and yet again hears the noises upstairs. She heads up and checks the door again, but suddenly blood begins to pour from out of the top of the door. And surprisingly this isn't just a dream sequence. Lea calls for Deena to come over, then calls the cops. But, of course when Lea and Deena get up there, there's no blood on the door. The next day, she tries to tell her parents, but they chalk it up to maybe the house being in shambles, or raccoons.
That night, Lea hears more noises. She dreams about going back up to the attic and to the door. She hears what sounds like a little girl inside. When she touches the knob, it's burning hot. She manages to get inside, and in the room is... Marci Hendryx. So now Lea has no idea what's going on. Is it all in her head? Is her obsession with Marci making her delusional? 60 pages into this 167 page story, so still time to get some answers.
The next week, Lea's more alone than ever. Deena's busy with her new boyfriend Luke Appleman, while she doesn't get much time to spend with Jade because she too is a popular girl. And she still hasn't had a chance to talk to Don after the whole prank. That night, she hears the noises again and heads to the door. She begins to pull off the boards barricading the door when she hears a loud blast and spikes shoot at her. As all that happens, she gets a call from Don who asks to make it up to her for the prank. And Lea, both wanting out of whatever the hell's happening in the house as well as being a gullible moron, accepts his offer. She heads to Pete's Pizza and what a surprise, there's Don with Marci, so she got screwed with again. You know, "fool me once, shame on you"... But Lea notices that while Marci is loving this, Don looks uncomfortable. As if he actually didn't mean for this to happen.
Lea heads home, promising that she won't fall for this again. She hears the noises upstairs again and says that this time she's going up there and get her answers. She heads to the door and again hears the cries of a girl, only this time the girl pleads for Lea to open the door. But Lea thinks that she's going to see some giant monster behind the door instead. But she gets a sledgehammer and breaks down the wooden boards before opening the door with a key. Sure enough, the room is like a tiny Victorian bedroom, and behind it is a young girl about her age. She goes to hug Lea, but Lea backs off, thinking that this girl must be some kind of ghost. So she runs out of the room and shuts the door.
The next day, after a tennis game with Deena that just reiterates Lea's issues with Marci, Lea returns to the bedroom. She learns that the girl in the room is named Catherine. She confirms that she is a ghost, but that this is also her home, which confuses and frustrates Lea because this is her home as well. Like, if Catherine's the ghost of this house, it's her house too, you fool. She was the person murdered in the house that Mrs. Thomas claimed earlier. Murdered because people thought she was evil. How come? Because she was born out of wedlock. So she was locked in the bedroom her entire life by her parents. Their evil secret that they didn't want the world to know about.
Catherine had tried to escape, though she had no idea about what the outside world looked like, so she didn't make it far before her parents found her and murdered her, dumping her body in the bedroom. Lea doesn't believe any of this, despite, you know, everything that's happened so far. Catherine tries to grab Lea again, but that's Lea's cue to exit yet again. But this time, she's unsure if she locked the door behind her. She heads into her bedroom and grabs Georgie, but the stuffed tiger's eyes begin to glow red! And... we just move on from that to the next day at school.
So, nothing's changed much. Marci's still ruining Lea's life. And Lea still wants to find a way to get revenge. But, we have to have Lea go back into the room again, despite her last two times where it ultimately ended with her running off in fear. I hate to say it, but we do feel like we're in padding mode. You see, Lea's no longer afraid of Catherine. Instead, she has a great idea, just the smartest idea ever. Why not let Catherine out of the room? Why not take Catherine to Marci's house? Maybe she can scare Marci into leaving Lea alone? What could possibly go wrong?
Lea lets Catherine out, and then feels like a ton of weight is on her body. Turns out that Catherine is inside her body now. She promises to leave when they get to Marci's, and I mean, who wouldn't trust a ghost? They arrive at Marci's. She tries to get Lea to leave, but when she shuts the door, it's stuck. Then a vase floats in the air. Lea tells Marci that she lives on Fear Street because she has powers. Powers she can use on her if she doesn't stop messing with her. Marci tells her to leave, but after Catherine makes a khaki coat dance around, Marci then starts floating in the air. Marci breaks free and runs upstairs to get her mother, when she suddenly slips on the banister and falls to the floor below with a sickening crack. So, looks like everything could possibly go wrong.
So yeah, Marci's dead. Like, not in a "oh, she's gonna recover next chapter" dead. She fell head first and the death was instantaneous. Lea feels Catherine reenter her body and tries to find out if Catherine pushed Marci, but she doesn't get an answer. They return to the attic and Catherine exits her body, saying that it was an accident. But Lea doesn't believe that since Catherine was invisible and could have easily shoved Marci. Catherine now wants to feel the outside world again and tries to force Lea to let her back in her body. Lea tries to run, but the door is shut behind her. So, Catherine possesses her again. Great revenge plan there, Lea.
Lea manages to escape the room. She tries to tell her parents, but when she gets back to the attic, the door is boarded shut like nothing happened. They take her to a doctor who says that she must have some sort of fever that's making her delusional. Suddenly, Catherine enters Lea's bedroom and says that THIS is Catherine's bedroom. It's been the bedroom the entire time, Lea never entered the attic room. Turns out that Catherine's been messing with Lea's mind this entire time. The upstairs room is evil and it was Catherine who boarded it up before. Whenever Lea tried to open it, she retaliated with the blood and the spikes. Now they're going to share the bedroom, but Catherine is going to own Lea's body.
And so that goes on for a bit, Catherine in full control for long periods of time with Lea having no say in the matter. Then Catherine has an idea. They already finished off Marci, but Don's no saint either. Now it's his turn to die. They arrive at Don's house and Catherine controls Lea to strangle Don. But she sees that she's not alone as Cory Brooks and Gary Brandt are there as well. My god, this book is like the damn Fear Street Reunion Special. So, Catherine's killing plans will have to wait a while.
That night, Lea feels free from Catherine for the time being. She has to find a way to stop Catherine, but since no one believes her, she has to do it herself. Her idea: opening up the locked room. She manages to break open the door just before Catherine can possess her again. Inside she sees the skeletal remains of a couple. Catherine's parents. And, much like the cover, the skeletons begin to move and advance on Lea/Catherine. They grab Lea, but are more focused on taking Catherine because, shocker, it was Catherine who killed her parents, not the other way around. The parents grab Catherine and the three melt into a ghostly-fiery mass on the floor. Then Lea passes out.
Lea wakes up in the hospital. Turns out she's been there for a week. She had such a high fever that she's been having fever dreams for a while. So, Lea thinks this must have all been a dream. That is until she returns to her house and finds a ribbon, just like one that Catherine wore. She realizes that it all did happen, and that Marci was still killed by Catherine. But that's just something she's going to have to live with. She also vows not to open the attic door ever again.
I really liked The Secret Bedroom. It's far from a perfect book, there's definitely a feeling of the book dragging its feet in the middle. But everything works really well to struct a solid supernatural story. Which, if the majority of the books I've covered have proven, doesn't happen as much with Fear Street as you'd imagine. So when we get something that isn't the same old murder mystery with the most obvious culprits ever, I can appreciate it. At least it's not an evil twin story for once. But we do get some decent scary moments, an actual murder that doesn't happen "off-screen", and the supernatural elements work and don't feel out of place. Props to Stine, this one ticked the boxes.
Catherine makes for a solid villain. An evil spirit who is also a master manipulator. Easily duping Lea into doing her bidding. Enjoying the idea of murder and death, and getting some of that with her murder of Marci who, while just a rotten person, didn't deserve to straight up die either. And Don just exists. His character is hard to pin down. Was he sincere about Lea? Was he being used by Marci or was he just as bad as her, enjoying screwing with Lea's head? His involvement in the story is so minor, especially by the end, that it's hard to pin down.
Lea is an okay protagonist, but my god is she gullible. Not just for the two pranks from Marci, but falling for Catherine's claims. Like, I can forgive the latter because she was so focused on revenge she didn't realize that maybe trusting the ghost girl was a bad idea, but it leaves her with blood on her hands. Blood mostly caused by being possessed by Catherine. This concept reminds me specifically of the Cheerleaders books, the third in particular, how the girls in the story are possessed by an evil spirit. This does the same, but it comes in so late in the story that it feels rushed and doesn't get enough time to do much with. If Stine didn't pad things with the constant mind games and Lea going in and out of the bedroom, we could have had more time on that.
What I really liked is the constant callbacks with characters from other books. While my experience with Fear Street is all over the place, we're finally entering a high enough number that I can actually remember names from other books. Suki Thomas, Cory Brooks, Deena Martinson and Jade Smith. Just to name a few. Granted, aside from Deena, they seem mostly mentioned as, I don't know, a way to reward the readers for following the series. Other than that, they feel superfluous.
So, in the end, The Secret Bedroom is one of the better books I've read from Fear Street in a while. Not perfect like I said but still manages to offer a really solid ghost story. Fear Street continues to impress me. It's not always perfect, but when it works, it really works. Fix some pacing issues and maybe make Lea less of a moron and you'd have a perfect book, but what we get still makes for a recommend. The Secret Bedroom gets an A-.
It Was Acceptable in the 90s: Phone cords, VCRs, Ghost, Patrick Swayze references.
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