Well, we've made it. The final book in the Corky Corcoran Cheerleaders saga. The first three book worked as a clunky, yet solid trilogy. The fourth book was a bit of an unnecessary mess. So going into the fifth book, released four years after the original and being the final Super Chiller kind of makes me worry. Stine's history with sequels is often concerning. Especially sequels to books he released several years prior. But, sometimes he can strike gold. Let's find out for ourselves with Cheerleaders: The Evil Lives!
So this is our first late era Fear Street cover and I will say I'm not super fond of the updated font. Feels really unnecessary. Other than that, the art itself is great as usual. I like the design of our cheerleader on the cover and we get a decent expression of confused fear on her face as she beholds Sarah Fear who is really well designed. At least this one doesn't feel as bait and switch as the cover for New Evil. Not going to get over that one so easy. But this one works fine as a finale cover.
And here we go again! More abridged this time.
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It's been a few years since the events of the previous book. In fact we now have a whole new cast of characters to follow. Amanda Roberts, Janine Klein, Keesha Wilson, Natalie Morris and Victoria Hopewell are our new Shadyside Tigers cheerleading squad. We also have new players on the basketball team. Brandon Farr, Andrew Collins, Dustin Feld, Luke Stone. All the girls on the squad are girlfriends of the basketball team, except for Victoria who is described as big boned and athletic. So, if you needed confirmation that we're in for the "Saved By The Bell: The New Class" of the Cheerleaders books, look no further.
Practice seems to go fine until Luke and Brandon start fighting one another on the court over starting position. This bothers Natalie who is with Luke, particularly finding Brandon to be a creep. The practice ends and everyone seems to have calmed down. Amanda is also hitting it off with another player, Judd Hunter (despite being with Dustin), until hey suddenly hear Janine scream. Someone put a snake in her duffel bag. Brandon cops to it, saying that it's just another of his classic jokes. But instead of, you know, getting rid of it, Brandon and Judd throw the snake around like it's a ball. Because R.L. Stine's never met an animal he didn't abuse.
Amanda's been given a new locker. Locker 113. She opens it and spots a blue duffel bag inside with the name tag of Corky Corcoran. Inside is Corky's old cheerleading uniform as well as a photo of the cheerleading team. But also inside is a box with a label that reads "DO NOT OPEN. EVIL INSIDE." The other girls look at the box and thinks it's some weird joke. They are aware of Corky, she was cheerleader when they were either freshmen or in middle school. Despite, you know, the warning, the girls still open the box. Inside is a letter in which Corky clearly anticipated nobody listening to the warning, so she says that they have to now destroy the box. And we get our recap of the events of the previous four books.
Amanda seems freaked out, but the others think it's just Corky being crazy. Maybe she was just overly superstitious whenever someone died and blamed the evil on it. Before Amanda can continue reading, her boyfriend Dustin shows up and acts pretty possessive of her. He also mentions Luke and Brandon fighting again. This time Brandon busted up Luke's nose bad. Amanda isn't super fond of Dustin and is ready to break up with him, which given how he acts so far seems like it'll go badly. And sure enough, he doesn't take it well. Giving her the silent treatment and acting super cold. That night, she gets a call. The caller claims to be the evil spirit who is coming for her. It's Keesha, of course.
So, despite Corky, you know, writing about getting rid of the spirit, guess what's inside the box? Instructions on summoning the spirit of course. Keesha gets the idea to summon the spirit. Maybe it'll help Shadyside beat Lincoln in the game on Friday. Amanda talks with her older sister Adele about Corky. Adele brings up the death of Bobbi, as well as all of the deaths and accidents. So Amanda's now super concerned about that box. At school the next day, Natalie and Janine are in a fight since Natalie is critical of Brandon, who is Janine's boyfriend. Things calm down and they practice, but Amanda notices Dustin staring at her with a cold, angry expression.
That night, as Amanda's walking to Janine's, Dustin sneaks up on her and tells her that he knows what's going on. That she dumped him for Judd Hunter. She says that it had nothing to do with Judd, this is all because of how possessive Dustin is. She arrives at Janine's and learns that the girls already called up the evil spirit. But that was also just a joke. Turns out that the papers inside were the ones from the occult book Debra had in the last book. Again, why Corky didn't just destroy them herself makes no sense, but I guess we wouldn't have a fifth Cheerleaders book if not. So, against all good logic, the girls still do the summoning. But nothing shows up. Except for Brandon and Judd. Then, suddenly, Judd turns pale and collapses on the floor. He quickly recovers, and blames dehydration, but Amanda thinks that maybe this is a sign that they really did wake up the evil spirit.
We get to the basketball game between Shadyside and Lincoln, and all seems fine. That is until Luke rushes with the ball so fast that he seems to trip and smash his head into the bleachers. As in so hard that the top of his skull gets knocked off. So, Luke is dead. Some time passes after Luke's funeral and things still seem surreal for the cheerleaders who, you know, summoned an evil entity like a bunch of airheaded morons though again, the onus goes to Corky for this blunder.
Janine apologizes for the crap she put on Natalie, since Luke was her boyfriend, but even Natalie sees this as BS given that Luke's death means that Brandon's back on the team. Which, yeah. She storms off, but Amanda notices Janine seems to have sort of a furious face on her. As if she's, I dunno, possessed by an unsavory ethereal being of some variety. Judd shows up and tells Amanda that ever since Luke's death he's been feeling strange. He kisses her, but also seems to be weaker than normal. After he leaves, Amanda is now more certain they just screwed up big time.
We then move to a pep rally at school despite, you know, a lack of any pep given a student frigging ended up scalped in front of them. Natalie and Janine still have issues with one another and Natalie is now so spooked by what happened with Luke that she's going to tell the principal Ms. Oakley about it. Because, I dunno, the principal moonlights as an exorcist? They begin to perform their cheer when suddenly Natalie's arms start bending the wrong way and cracking. Her frigging arms break off, then her face just splits apart as her skull cracks and shatters. Alright, was not expecting that when I started this book. The spirit really isn't screwing around this time. And again, Janine has a calm, cold expression.
Even Amanda suspects Janine now given that the two recent deaths were people who wronged Janine. And we know that the spirit often tries to kill whoever wronged their host in the past. But Janine seems to act as if she's not possessed, but the spirit is definitely around. Amanda figures that they need to go to Sarah Fear's grave. That maybe it could provide some answers. However, when they get to Sarah Fear's grave, the plot is open and her casket is empty. Before the two can leave, they bump into Dustin. He followed them and is still trying to get back with Amanda. He grabs at her but she breaks free, only to fall into the open grave. They help her out, but she seems to feel strange, as if being pulled back into the grave.
Amanda awakens and seems to be someplace else. In front of an old mansion. Inside the nearby carriage are two women, one named Jane Hardy and the other Sarah. Sarah Burns. So, as you can surmise, we've just traveled back in time. Before Sarah is to wed Thomas Fear. An arranged marriage so she doesn't even know who he is. Sarah isn't fond of this so she has the most sitcom idea of them all. They'll switch places. Jane will be Sarah and Sarah will be Jane. Amanda bumps the cart, but it turns out the girls can't actually see her. That she's merely a vision in the past not, you know, physically in the 1800s.
Amanda blacks out again and now finds herself aboard a boat that is in the middle of being rocked hard by the waves. Sarah is aboard the ship, lamenting how she really regrets the whole switcheroo plan. The ship crashes downward and the people aboard fall into the ocean to their deaths. Sarah drowns in the water, lamenting that this should be Jane's fate, not hers. Suddenly, the corpse of Sarah turns hot and the water boils, from the corpse emerges a green form. Yep. Sarah Burns was the evil spirit all along and the Sarah Fear we thought we were following was another girl named Jane instead. Oh Bob. You really should have stopped at book three.
Amanda wakes up back in Sarah Fear's grave. Back to present time. It's not a dream either as she sees she's still drenched in ocean water. She tells Janine and Dustin what she knows. That Jane Hardy was Sarah Fear all along. The same one who wound up in Shadyside. The real Sarah became the evil spirit and was intent on getting revenge on Jane for, honestly, what was her own idea, so the evil spirit's kind of a moron. Amanda heads home and notices what look to be muddy footprints in her house, as if they came from a grave. And they went right up to her bedroom.
And sure enough, a woman is in her house. Well, a woman who is half-skeletal, so not one with a heartbeat. Sure enough, it's the corpse of Jane. The ghoul says that she's going to switch places with Amanda. Suddenly, Amanda wakes up. No sign of the ghoul, but she did leave a note saying that for waking up the spirit, Amanda is next, and her other friends are also due to die. She then sees Judd outside, shoes all muddy as if he walked out of a grave. He offers to drive her to Janine's, and despite her suspicions, she still goes in the car with him, now trapping herself with a possible possessed being.
They see Janine's car driving off and they follow her to Fear Street Cemetery. Janine and Brandon exit the car and head into the cemetery. Needing to know what's going on, Amanda follows them inside with Judd behind her. She runs into Janine and says that the evil spirit is inside Judd. But, surprise, it's not Judd, but Brandon. He grabs Amanda and Janine and tries to throw them into the open grave of "Sarah Fear". Judd saves them in time, but Brandon hoists Judd and slams him into a tree, seemingly killing Judd as well.
Brandon grabs at Amanda, but she uses a branch as a makeshift bat and hits him, but it barely fazes him. She then comes up with an idea. Clearly the spirit can't drown, but maybe if it's knocked into the open grave it'll end up back in time. They manage to knock Brandon into the grave where he doesn't move. Amanda checks on Judd who certainly looks dead, when the ghost of Jane rises once again. As it shambles towards Amanda, Brandon rises from the grave and grabs her. Both the Sarah-possessed Brandon and Jane fight with one another. Brandon gets the upper hand and snaps the neck of Jane. He then grabs Amanda and pulls her into the grave.
Amanda wakes up again. Once again on a boat. Both Jane and Sarah fighting over who should have been the one to die. Just as the boat is sinking too, so they're both going to drown. Brandon wakes up, also stuck in this trip back in time. They watch as both Jane and Sarah fall to the water below and drown. Neither body coming back up. Amanda and Brandon wake up in Fear Street Hospital. Janine is there, having no idea what happened. In this version of the timeline, Brandon and Amanda were found in the cemetery, unconscious and soaking wet. Janine also has no idea what Amanda is talking about when she mentions an evil spirit. Everything seems to finally be done. Even Luke and Natalie appear to still be alive.
Brandon and Amanda definitely remember what happened. But they know that they can't rest peacefully. They have work to do. Because, surprise surprise, you just can't kill these damn evil spirits. But given how late this book came in the original run, we thankfully never have to deal with any of the spirit stuff ever agai-
Okay, it's more based around the backstory than the cheerleaders, but still. The ride never ends.
The new cast of characters are okay, but really lack any traits that feel too different from others. But again, I'll take it over a fifth round with Corky and the spirit. Amanda is an okay protagonist, but feels super bland. Janine works fine for seemingly a red herring early on. And props to Stine for making Brandon the spirit instead. It's also super obvious, but you don't think that initially. Dustin also just exists to be the jealous boyfriend and nothing else. Like he gets no character arc at all, he just really sucks.
And then we get to the big swerve of the whole saga, which when I think about it does at least make some sense, but also feels like a confusing tack-on to the whole story itself. That the evil spirit was the real Sarah all along and "Sarah Fear" was another girl taking Sarah's place. It at least ties together why the two are so connected and why the spirit was targeting our supposed Sarah. I do feel it takes away some of the ambiguousness of the spirit, but given this is the fifth book by now, it definitely felt like time to get this over with and give us something. I just feel like this was never Stine's original idea for the spirit. This feels like a late game concept added to give the finale a big shock moment.
And even with that, I feel like this book is almost as superfluous as New Evil. It really just feels there to boost sales, especially late game in the original Fear Street series. It's essentially Fear Street's Monster Blood IV. Thankfully nowhere as awful as that, but also just feeling like it never needed to exist either. I still feel the trilogy was fine as is. Self contained and didn't need to go further than it did. But, like I said, at least this one felt like it mattered and didn't just feel as hollow as New Evil. So I'm more conflicted than annoyed.
In the end, Cheerleaders: The Evil Lives! feels like an extended ending. At least of the Corky era. The new cast isn't as memorable, but do keep this one going to a dignified enough ending, I guess. The Cheerleaders saga of Fear Street is both one I love and one I hate. Feeling like the potential of Fear Street's supernatural elements in full display, yet also overstaying its welcome and turning into a bit of a mess as they reach the finish line. And yes, we're not done with the Cheerleaders just yet, but for the end of this particular saga, it still counts toward a recommend. Cheerleaders: The Evil Lives! gets a B-.
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