The Stinal Countdown: Fear Street: The Rich Girl

Time for another Fear Street book. And it's one I've always at least been curious about. So that likely means this one's going to suck too, isn't it?  Though more often than not, that can lead to a winner. Hopefully this book will put its money where its mouth is. It's time to talk about The Rich Girl.

This cover's fine, but far from evoking any scared thoughts. It really looks like anything but a horror book cover. Our protagonist holding the money bag with a concerned look on her face still gives us enough of what we need to know. This girl found a bunch of money and is now paranoid about the consequences. Aside from that, not much else to talk about. I guess the trees look nice?

Sydney Shue and Emma Naylor are working at the movie theater. The two are best friends, though Emma isn't fond of Sydney's boyfriend, Jason Phillips. But that's besides the point as Emma has other issues. Her mother's knee is acting up and she needs surgery, but money's tight. So Emma's hoping to get an extra shift to help pay for the operation. Especially since the diner her mother works for isn't going to pay her extra and are threatening to fire her if she doesn't get the surgery she can't pay for. Yep, this feels real enough already. We also learn that Sydney and Emma are far different. Emma's family isn't financially secure while Sydney is rich and white. Though she isn't spoiled either. Her parents making her get a job to ensure that doesn't happen. So thankfully not another Reva Dalby.

The rest of the day sucks as a kid trips and spills his popcorn everywhere, making a mess for Sydney and Emma to clean up. Later, as they take the garbage out to the alley, Emma ends up losing her bracelet in the process. It's the one her grandmother gave to her, meaning that the girls have to dumpster dive to find it. After a rat scare, the girls find the bracelet and something else. Thankfully not a ventriloquist dummy, but a tan duffel bag. After seeing a fifty sticking out of the bag, the girls look inside and find not just a fifty, but a hundred thousand dollars. 

Sydney suggests taking the bag to the police given it could easily be from a robbery, but Emma thinks that's a stupid idea. Emma, believing in the time honored tradition of "finders keepers" thinks they should split the money half-way. It's not entirely greed-based in Emma's defense. She wants to use the money to pay for her mother's surgery and thinks that it won't hurt to just tell her mother how she found it. So, you know, Robin Hood shit. Sydney tells Emma that spending the money now would be dangerous if the cops are looking for it, or the person who stashed it in the trash, so Emma suggests they go to Fear Street Woods and bury the money for the time being. If no news emerges within two weeks, they'll take the money then.

As they leave, we get our second rodent scare of the book when a Racoon jumps in their way. Sydney returns home as Jason is there looking over her dad's BMW. He's none too happy about her being late, and in a rare example of not stacking lies, Sydney tells him about the money bag. Jason is pumped, but not happy about learning that Emma gets half, to which he makes a snide joke about having to murder Emma to get everything. Man a lot of boyfriends in Fear Street kind of suck. But he attributes it to a movie he saw and was joking. Definitely joking. 

The next day at school, Emma tells Sydney that so far there's been no news about the money. Then suddenly some kids head up the school stairs, knocking Emma over the railing and falling hard to the floor below. Sydney heads down to check on her and oh no! Emma's dead. She was then taken to a hospital where doctors upgraded her condition to "alive". Oh there are some stinky chapter cliffhangers in this one. Is it wrong that's making me like this one? Yeah, despite taking a fall on her head, Emma didn't take any serious damage other than some bumps and bruises. Okay then. Emma tells Sydney that she knows who pushed her down. It was Jason. 

Of course, despite, you know, the comments he made and how sketchy he can be, Sydney isn't willing to believe that Jason would do something like actually try and kill Emma. Besides, Jason's family is well off so he wouldn't need it. Again, despite it coming off like he actually does need that money. As she continues to deny it, Sydney then looks outside to see Jason smiling. Sadly, he isn't flying a kite and saying "Hello, mother dear." So, even if she's defending him, Sydney isn't 100% sure herself. She talks to Jason the next day who claims his innocence, then promises to make it up to her by fixing Emma's car later. So, safe bets as to what's coming up.

Later, Emma calls Sydney, saying that Jason came and set things straight before fixing her car. Sydney calls Jason to tell him the news and that he's going to the mall in Emma's car. Jason panics and tries to get her to drive with him. But she goes in Emma's car and the two drive up a hill. As the car goes down to the four-way stop, Emma hits the brakes, but shocker! The brakes aren't working. As if they've been cut. They manage to use the emergency brake before crashing into a minivan so they end up not dying. I mean, if they did, this would be a really quick book. Emma immediately blames Jason, but Sydney isn't willing to believe it. Even when Emma shows her the cut brake line. Sydney then remembers the call earlier and is now realizing that Jason is definitely trying to kill Emma and might try to kill her next. So Emma suggests that maybe they should kill him first. Again, just a joke is all. A big old joke.

Emma then suggests that maybe there's a way to solve this. Let Jason in on the cut of the money. Even though, you know, it seems as if his motivation is for all the money, but they haven't clued in on that yet. They talk to Jason who again claims innocence and again Sydney falls for it. They offer him in on the deal. They then decide to make an even stupider idea and show Jason where the money is buried because they have to stack on the really dumb ideas. It's like Idea Jenga. Keep stacking the blocks of stupidity until it topples over. 

So the trio head to the site of the buried money, shovel in tow. As Sydney conveniently left her sweater in the car, she leaves Jason along with Emma. Sydney then hears a shrill scream. Yep, the thing we knew was going to happen ended up happening as Jason and Emma are grabbing at the shovel and arguing with each other. Emma gets control and takes the shovel and smashes it over Jason's head. Jason is dead. And no upgrading to alive this time, he's done.

Emma says that Jason turned down the offer for the money and was trying to steal it for himself. And when things got difficult she had no other recourse but to take him out. Sydney wants to call the cops, but Emma knows that this will only look bad for her. So she suggests throwing Jason's corpse in the lake. They try that, but the body won't sink. So Emma ties a rock to the body and the two leave. Sydney later has a nightmare about Jason's corpse being in her bedroom, covered in algae and muck. But when she wakes up later that night, she finds a pair of muddy footprints in her room. 

Emma tells Sydney that it was probably her muddy clothes that made the footprints, but Sydney's still a paranoid wreck. Made no better when people ask her where Jason is. She makes it through the day only to find an envelope inside her locker. Inside is Jason's class ring. It was on his hand the night of his death, so is he really still out there? Emma again claims that maybe she was seeing things and acting way more gaslighting than usual. Sydney offers to drive her to work, but Emma opts out of it claiming a headache. It's then that Sydney notices the bloody shovel is in her car and neither girl remembers putting it in there. 

Emma is now freaked out and thinks someone must know what's happening. As they drive, they see a blue car following them. They eventually lose the car and head to Sydney's house. It's there she finds a letter saying that they know the two girls are murderers. Now they worry about someone telling on them. Then Sydney realizes that Emma used Sydney's belt to tie a rock on Jason. So for hiding a body they did a real bad job with it. So it's back to the lake to find Jason's body. Only it's not in the lake anymore. Jason is gone. Sydney gets home and finds the belt and another note calling her a murderer. Only this time she recognizes the handwriting.

 It's definitely Jason. Sydney calls Emma and brings her to see the evidence, but it's gone. In fact there's no signs that anyone covered in mud could have entered her room to leave anything. They head downstairs and Jason is at the front door. He's green and decomposing, meaning he's definitely a zombie. Emma screams then passes out. 

We then cut to Emma and Jason at what appears to be a mental hospital as they get the news that Sydney is still freaking out and acting as if Jason was dead. So yeah, Jason and Emma were behind everything. They were the ones gaslighting Sydney from the start, with Jason pretending to be dead in order to mess with her further. Mainly because Emma knew that sooner or later Sydney would confess about the stolen money, screwing Emma over. And now it's likely that Sydney will be looked at as a lunatic for the rest of her life.

Emma and Jason take the money and buy a six hundred dollar leather jacket. They take the money to the clerk, only to be informed that the money isn't real. Benjamin Franklin's wearing a ball cap and the print says UNTIED STATES OF AMERICA. So, Emma and Jason destroyed Sydney's life for the equivalent of Monopoly Money. Nobody wins! And Emma's mom didn't get that surgery either I take it, so she'll lose her job. 

Just this once, Rose. Everybody loses!

I give Stine a lot of guff on his mysteries. How he makes things too obvious too soon. But I will admit, he did catch me off guard. Though, granted, the fault's more on me once I realized that everything that happened to Jason mostly happened off-screen. That came to me with the reveal so no opportunity for me to rub that in Bob's face for once. But, props to Stine on not just a strong twist but a strong pair of twists. The villains don't get to ride off into the sunset either, which I feel is a more satisfying way than just ending with two teenagers gaslighting and destroying a girl's life for profit. And, with that alone, I think this might be one of my favorite Fear Street books so far. Or at least the one I think I'll come back to when I look at positive examples of how the books can be done right.

What works in The Rich Girl's favor is how the story is built up. I thought going in that it would be more about these two girls splurging the money and then having to deal with whoever really owned the money wanting to get it back from them. Or that it would involve Sydney and Emma fighting one another for the money. A more formulaic take on this kind of story. Instead we get a story about how greed can corrupt a person. And how someone can be manipulated and have their own lives destroyed on account of someone else's greed. For Sydney, that's what happens. Both Jason and Emma use her and manipulate her as they try to get her away from the money. And they construct a rather clever string of events to really break her. And a lot of the book focuses on how Sydney's mental state falls further and further apart into an ending that is absolutely cruel. 

Sydney didn't deserve what she got. She was a rich kid, sure. But the book sets up that she wasn't this spoiled brat who treated others unfairly. A stark contrast from the likes of a Reva Dalby as I mentioned earlier. She was manipulated by two people she trusted and cared about. It's really never brought up as to why Jason needed the money since he too was rich, but the obvious answer is if he's rich, he'd just want to be richer. The opposite mentality of Sydney. And we get Emma's reasoning with her mother, but even that at this point I'm sure wasn't real either. Given how much she manipulated Sydney, I'd buy that she used that to mess with Sydney into giving her money. If that were the case it would make sense then that Emma would reach the point of sending Sydney into a mental hospital for the rest of her life. Or at least until her parents get her out of there, but she'll never be the same. A victim of trauma and emotional blackmail. That's some dark stuff there, Stine. And to top it off with the villains still losing is a great bow to the story.

In the end, this is a great Fear Street book. The plot flows well, the motivations all make sense, the mystery is well built and not super obvious and we get two really good twists. It is a quicker book and it does rush things, but I'm willing to forgive if I do like what we got. And I liked what we got. It's almost like after all my complaints about Stine's mysteries, I finally find one that I really think works. And again with a cover that I thought was bland. At this point that might be the tell for if I'll actually like the book then. Easy recommend, no doubt. After nearly 30 of them, I've finally found a strong Fear Street book that I love. Now that's just rich. The Rich Girl gets an A+.