So I have covered three of the Cheerleaders books so far, and I've enjoyed the saga of Corky Corcoran and the evil spirit that haunts her and her fellow cheerleaders. The Third Evil seemed to mark the end of the saga, but I forgot that this is R.L. Stine and he's never met a franchise he didn't milk to death. So it's time for another Super Chiller book and a return of the evil spirit. Ho-Ho-H-oh no! It's Cheerleaders: The New Evil.
In our first book, Bobbi and Corky Corcoran had recently moved to Shadyside with their parents and younger brother Sean. The family ends up residing on Fear Street. Bobbi and Corky, all-state cheerleading champs, joined the Shadyside Tigers cheerleading squad, much to the chagrin of Kimmy Bass, who holds a grudge against the sisters, especially Bobbi. During a bus trip to the game, the bus accidentally crashes into Fear Street Cemetery, sending cheerleading captain Jennifer Daly crashing into the grave of Sarah Fear, but somehow she doesn't die. Bobbi becomes captain, which angers Kimmy. Strange things seem to happen and Bobbi is unable to save Kimmy from falling during a routine attempt.
Bobbi gets kicked off the team. When she goes to shower, suddenly she's locked inside and the showers spray her with scalding water, killing her. Corky at first suspects Kimmy of foul play, but soon discovers that it was Jennifer, who did die in the accident, but her body was possessed by an evil spirit. After battling with the spirit, Corky manages to defeat it and put an end to the evil for now. But of course, with a lot of Fear Street, nothing ever stays buried.
In book two, Corky still suspects the evil spirit still lingers. She soon meets a strange woman named Sarah Beth Plummer who knows a lot about the history of Sarah Fear, mainly because she is also named Sarah Fear. A descendant of the original. Corky tries to move on from the death of Bobbi, but death still follows her. And the intense brother of Jennifer, Jon Daly, is also following her, believing Corky killed Jennifer. Chip Chasner, former boyfriend of Bobbi and Corky, ends up dead. Jon dies as well. Soon Corky discovers that Kimmy was possessed by the evil spirit ever since that fateful night. She manages to drown out the spirit, flushing it down her bathtub. But she soon learns that you can't drown a spirit, meaning that the evil is still here.
And sure enough, in the third book, we learn that the spirit is indeed still around and this time it's Corky that gets possessed. The spirit intends to get revenge by trying to kill both Debra and Kimmy. But Corky soon sacrifices herself by drowning, which gets rid of the spirit and seemingly defeats it yet again. The remaining cheerleaders now breathe a sigh of relief as they don't have to deal with that again. Except here we are. Round 4 time. And with all that preamble, it's time to begin.
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We open the book as Corky is once again training the cheerleaders at Shadyside, while also throwing snowballs at them, since don't worry, this book does indeed take place at winter. Kimmy gets in her car and offers the girls a drive home. Hannah Miles, who was introduced last book, declines putting on a seatbelt, despite those wonderful commercials with the crash dummies. Oh, and Jennifer Daly's corpse lawn darting through the bus and dying. Hannah's still pretty harsh as well, giving newest cheerleader Naomi Klein guff for losing her contact lens. A bit of new stuff has gone down since, including the loss of Miss Green, the coach. She's not dead, just moved. But they now have Ms. Closter instead.
As for Corky, she's in a relationship with a boy named Alex, who is one of the popular kids in Shadyside High, and seems to have also caught the eye of... wait, Deena Martinson? I just keep running into her, huh? Starting to reach Suki Thomas numbers here. In fact, Alex is a star at everything he does. But as Corky dreams of dreamy Alex, the car almost gets clipped by a skidding van. As they try to control things, the car loses its control and crashes into a tree. And guess who wins the irony award? Why, it's Hannah Miles who ends up launching through the windshield.
Kimmy begins to suspect that maybe it was the evil spirit stalking them once more, but Corky doesn't want to hear it. She'd rather believe that the brakes froze. The girls head to the hospital and wait for news on Hannah. We also get our reminder of the spirit and how Corky definitely killed it this time when it drowned. Although, they flushed the thing once down the tub and that didn't work, so. Hannah isn't dead. Or at least to what we know so far, she's still stable, given, yet again, the spirit's history. But with Hannah injured, they need to hold tryouts for a replacement.
During practice, Corky spots Alex, who seems disinterested in her routine. And somewhat disinterested in driving her to the river. But he does so regardless. He talks about basketball practice where we get a mention of Gary Brandt. They arrive at the lake and Corky checks it out. The reason she's concerned is this was the lake she drowned the evil. But she doesn't feel any presence. That is until she sees a hole in the frozen lake and panics. Alex claims it's just an ice fishing hole, but not many ice holes start steaming up like the water below is at a boil. But Corky knows well enough that this isn't steam.
Corky has a nightmare where she sees the evil spirit enter her room and once again possess her. But she's awakened by her mother saying it was all just a bad dream. After the basketball game involving Shadyside, Alex is frustrated that he cost the team the game by letting the opponent shoot. At Pete's Pizza, Corky and their friend Jay Landers try to cheer up Alex. He is smiling, but at the direction of Deena Martinson and Jade Smith. So, we know where this is going, even Corky. But she's not going to do anything about that yet. Though now she's starting to feel more concerned that something is affecting them and it's not just Alex's boner for Deena.
Corky (or Gorky as the ebook edition calls her on a few occasions), heads to Debra's and notices Kimmy is there as well. She enters the living room, but it's all dark inside. It turns out they're summoning a spirit. Not the evil spirit, but one they think can help defend them from the evil spirit. And it's all thanks to a book that Debra got from a bookstore owner who warns it could be dangerous. They do the ritual and sure enough, things begin to shake and the candles blow out. They did indeed summon a spirit, but that spirit didn't stay around. They tell Debra that maybe it's best to hide that book and not use it anymore. They've already pissed off one spirit, why deal with two?
At the next practice, three girls, Lauren Wilson, Ivy Blake and Rochelle Drexler, are auditioning to take Hannah's spot. As Corky and Kimmy delegate, they warn the girls to stay away from the bleachers due to men working atop it. This is going to be a book of just telegraphing the accidents before they happen, huh? And while Ivy was eavesdropping on Corky and Kimmy's conversation, the damnedest thing happens. One of the workers dropped a screwdriver that fell right into Rochelle's neck. She's not dead, but bleeding badly. As everyone tries to understand what happened, Corky notices Ivy smiling. And despite, you know, near death, Ivy and Lauren are more focused on who's new cheerleader. Ultimately they choose Ivy, but Lauren freaks out and says that Corky knows about her and Alex. So Alex is dipping his pen in a lot of inkwells it appears.
Alex calls Corky later and denies the claims from Lauren. They just did some tutoring that's all. Dude's got the worst poker face, but Corky hasn't given up on him cold turkey yet. Naomi shows up later and tells the two that Lauren got to be an alternate. They mention never having an alternate before despite, you know, Kimmy becoming Bobbi's alternate in the first book. It wouldn't be a Stine sequel if he forgot key elements. At the next practice, Heather's got an injured calf, but powers through it. Three guesses who's getting hurt this chapter? Because Ms. Closter brought confetti cannons for the routine. They do their routine and pull the strings for the cannon backfires and snaps her neck back and she collapses, not moving. But she pulls through. So, far less gruesome a tragedy so far. And, once again, Ivy is smiling.
So now Debra and Kimmy are convinced the evil is back, but Corky still denies that this could possible, let alone Ivy be the one possessed. Mainly because this brings back the memories of Bobbi's death. But Debra mentions to Corky that if they ignore it, more "accidents" are bound to happen. When she gets home, Alex is there. She's still thinking he's cheating on her, but he claims not to be. We also get mention of the pep rally coming up the next day, which is yet another telegraph in a book that's just full of 'em. Alex has still been acting nervous and is about to tell Corky something when Jay shows up again to spoil the moment.
The pep rally is underway and the cheerleading routine features flaming batons, which Naomi suggested. And, as if on cue, Naomi's sleeve catches fire and Naomi gets badly burned. But, again, no death. Kimmy saves her in time. So, Lauren is now on the squad. So now even Corky's convinced the evil must be back and more than likely it's either Ivy or Lauren. The girls walk through the forest when they come across the frozen lake where Lauren and Ivy are conveniently there ice skating by the hole in the ice. And sure enough, they see the essence of the spirit. So, they may have their proof that it must be Ivy. So now they have one task to do: Drown ivy.
Christmas vacation is coming up, so we're finally getting to the events of the cover. The cheerleaders are holding a Christmas party at the river, so Corky invites Alex. He hems and haws, but ultimately accepts. So, this party actually has an ulterior motive. This will also be where the girls plan to drown Ivy. The party arrives and no sign of Alex. And Jay is acting weird as well. If this was a gay swerve, I'd be down, but I'm guessing that's not where we're going yet. Corky skates far from the party, where she sees someone dressed as Santa Claus. A Santa with an evil face and a sharp icicle in his hand. And then we learn that the Santa is actually Alex in disguise and he was clearly just goofing. And that's all we get of Santa from the cover. This is the most blue balls bait and switch of a cover since the cover of Say Cheese and Die!
The girls get their plan in motion. Lure Ivy there. Drown her until the spirit vanishes, then revive her. What could possibly go wrong with this? They begin the chant and sure enough, Ivy shows up. But as they do that, the ice starts to break underneath them like an earthquake hit. An ominous smoke rises and covers the whole area. Well, their plan to get rid of the spirit kind of failed because they just freed it. Meaning the other stuff actually was just a whole mess of coincidences/poor safety measures. And that ends the first half of the book, leading us right into part two.
A bit of time passes, the girls are no longer trying to drown Ivy and it's been pretty much evil-free for a while. The girls are at the New Foster Arena as the basketball team is playing in the tournament. Their routine goes well until we once again get to the cannons. When Corky pulls the string, instead of confetti, a black tar shoots out as the cannons are out of control. While Ms. Closter chalks it up to the opposing Lions players or a fan, the girls know well enough it's the evil spirit.
After having a nightmare about the spirit, Corky is awakened by Alex at her window. They have a night walk in the snow where Alex claims that he has a tutor. That's why he's been so weird and why he's been seemingly avoiding her. Doesn't explain much else though. As they kiss, Corky sees Jay behind them with glowing red eyes, but when she looks back, both Alex and Jay disappear. The next day at the game, Ivy is really jealous of Lena, one of the opposing cheerleaders. Lena does a bunch of backflips during the performance. In fact, she literally can't stop doing them. People try to subdue her, but she can't stop. And once again Corky spots a smile on Ivy's face. Really should have drowned her, huh?
So, while this was happening, Jay was kicked off the game by the coach. So, not long after, the cheerleaders spot the coach of the Tigers on the ground with a giant cooler bottle in his mouth. The water all drained into him. So he's definitely been drowned. Oh, and this time it's not an "oh, don't worry, he survives". Nope, the body's bloated and waterlogged. He is dead. Meaning that from here on in the "accidents" actually are spirit-related. Corky spots Jay with a cold reaction on his face, meaning that they have their new suspect. But, later that night, Corky spots Ivy leaving their room through the window. Corky and Kimmy sneak out and follow her, where they see Ivy, Alex, Gary, Jay, Lauren and Heather acting strangely, then stopping when it appears they were caught.
Debra shows up and the three girls head into the woods to follow the others. They spot the teens moving in slow motion with dead, glassy expressions on their faces. They then do a strange dance. They're either summoning a spirit or having one hell of a weird rave. Corky now realizes what's going on. The evil spirit isn't one of them, it's all of them! When the girls summoned the evil spirit, it possessed the other teens. And then, random as hell even for this book, a dog shows up and growls at the possessed teens, who then grab the dog and throw it super high until it crashes with a thud. Thankfully, it lives, but it wouldn't be a Stine book without some animal abuse.
As we enter part three of the story, the possessed teens then spot the three girls and begin to advance on them. The girls get split up. Corky finds a phone and tries to dial 911 because you know they'll respond to a report of some slam dancing zombies, but the line is dead. Alex then grabs her and tells her that she must come to the nearby lake. Corky manages to escape but soon finds Kimmy's body under the ice. She was drowned. So that's a late game kill off of a key character. Didn't fully expect that. She runs off and tries to hide, managing to avoid the teens for now. She also finds a dead blue jay because I guess an animal definitely needed to die here.
Corky then sneaks aboard the bus where the possessed players and cheerleaders are all aboard and starts to drive it to the frozen lake. Filled with rage over what befell Kimmy and this being really her only chance to drown all of them. She drives the bus off a cliff then jumps out in time. She watches as the bus plummets into the lake below. Sure enough, the water boils and bubbles. Corky thinks maybe the evil is gone, but she may have just murdered her schoolmates.
So, now she realizes that she's in deep shit. Because there's good odds people will know what she did, and, not buying the evil spirit story, think she intentionally murdered six Shadyside students in one fell swoop. But when she goes to Ms. Closter to tell her what happened, the team arrives, covered in water, but very much still moving. They begin to stagger towards her, ready to attack. Oh, and Debra's possessed too. They all begin to attack her as she blacks out.
Corky wakes up in a hospital as a nurse tells her that her parents are on the way. And the other cheerleaders and the boys are there too. Corky panics, believing that they're all here to destroy her. She spots Alex who grabs her, then kisses her. It turns out they actually are all okay. The bus crash happened, but all they remember is being saved by ice fishers. Sure enough, the evil was defeated. Oh, but Kimmy is dead. So, this didn't end with a just a dream ending, though some of the final events were concussion-related. Corky breathes a sigh of relief. The evil is defeated, and on Christmas too. And it will never, ever return to bother us aga-WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN THERE'S A FIFTH ONE!?
Corky is Corky. Nothing new in terms of character build. We see she's moved on from constant grief over Bobbi, though the pain is still there. Alex is also complex, and I still don't think we got a real answer as to what's going on. It could be the tutoring, and the womanizing is a red herring, but we never get an answer as to what Lauren was on about. In fact, that whole subplot just dies after the first part. And then you get the feeling that maybe it's something to do with his friendship with Jay, butt nothing comes out of that either. Just feels like a classic case of Stine just hitting a wall in making this conflict have a strong resolution.
There is some solid horror and the book is surprisingly violent even for Fear Street. We get a girl going through a windshield, a girl get a screwdriver to the throat, a cannon backfire, a girl stuck in a backflipping softlock, that frigging thing with the dog, as well as the big moment of the bus crash. That's usually the case with most Cheerleaders books, but this one felt especially action packed, which earns the books points at least. Pacing is also good, never feeling too much like a slog or spinning its wheels too much.
I do kind of wish Stine didn't kill off Kimmy like he did. It really feels kind of underwhelming that this notable character whose been a key factor of the saga, both as an antagonist and hero, winds up drowned and killed offscreen. It just feels lame. It's also a shame as after Kimmy was redeemed after her awful actions in book one to do that to her feels like shock value that didn't work for me.
In the end, this book is just okay. Delivers in the scares, yet underwhelms in others. A definite case of the Cheerleader saga starting to lose its way. And the more shocking thing is, we're not even done yet. We have one more book in the saga of Corky. Can R.L. Stine stick the landing? Only time will tell. Cheerleaders: The New Evil gets a C+. Would be a B- had you not screwed me on evil Santa there, Stine!
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