I think at this point when Fear Street is mentioned, the word double could be triggering to me. Because I worry that this more than likely means that we're once again dealing with evil twins. Thankfully though, the book tells us this upfront this time, so at least it won't feel forced into the twist. Can my hatred of twin magic be fixed? Let's find out with Double Date.
So, first paragraph into this story, our protagonist, Bobby Newkirk (who we've bounced around in other books but never focused on until now) is shoving his girlfriend Ronnie Mitchell into her locker forcefully, then lets her out and kisses her. She gets mad and he says that she loves it. One page into this 151 page book and I already regret this decision. You see, Bobby's been around. As in with all of the cheerleaders, and most of the girls at school. He's not super into Ronnie, but he considers her kind of fun. I get it. I get it. Teenage boy. Popular teenage boy. But unless there's a significant change, I think I found our male Reva. Well, he's already got the "rich and white" part down.
He talks with his friends Jerry Marvin and Markie Drew about dumping Cari Taylor (from Wooo! Party Summer!), when he gets interrupted by an irate and still alive at this point Kimmy Bass about him standing her up. Also Bobby's got his own band because of course he does. He performs alongside his two other friends, Arnie and Paul. Haven't pinned down a name though. They were The Cool Guys and now they're Bad to the Bone. I dunno, I think 2RUFF4U isn't going to sweat any time soon. As they perform in the music room, two girls enter the room. Bree and Samantha Wade, who just recently moved to Shadyside and live on, where else, Fear Street. Samantha is more outgoing while Bree is more shy. They ask where Mr. Cotton is, but Bobby's the one who'd rather swab both of them. In fact, that's what he plans to do. Date both of the Wade twins at once. I mean, given what a lothario he is, this should be simple... right?
So yeah, we get the general gist of Bobby pretty quick. He treats girls like playthings and dumps them when he gets bored. He even says that he plans to do the same when he's bored with the Wade twins. As Paul leaves, Bobby notices Arnie's girlfriend Melanie, who Bobby of course was with before, but she caught on to him cheating behind her back, so that ended that. Melanie then tells Bobby to stay away from Bree and Samantha. They're not what he thinks. But we're fifteen pages deep, of course Bobby's not going to listen to her.
Bobby runs into Bree and learns that she really is shy. He invites her out to The Mill to watch his band perform that night. Bree agrees to it and Bobby is thrilled. One twin down. One to go. Bobby's also super excited and calling himself the man. Handsomest guy in school or not, this kid's a freaking doofus. He decides that since he has Bree for Friday, he can call out Samantha for Saturday. I think I can tell where this story is going already, but hey, whatever happens to Bobby at this point, he more than deserves. Samantha's on to it early on, how Bobby wants to go out with both of them, but she tells him that she loves conceited guys, so she's cool with it. So, everything's set and ready to go. Bobby also wonders what Melanie was talking about.
The concert night comes and Bobby practices performing "That'll be the Day". Because teenagers in 1994 really love that Buddy Holly. It all goes well and Bobby drives home with Bree, who is still very quiet and shy. She does mention that Bobby has a science project involving two monkeys named Wayne and Garth. I have a feeling I know where this is going. Turns out Bobby's uncle can just supply him monkeys. Despite that setup, the date goes well. The next night is Samantha, who is definitely more outgoing than Bree. She drags him into the Gold Barn, a jewelry shop and tries on earrings. She then takes a pair and runs out of the shop, with Bobby following confused as to why the sudden case of kleptomania. They eventually duck into, where else, Pete's Pizza when a security guard catches them... to warn them not to run in the mall. Mitch, you're doing a bang-up job.
Bobby and Samantha celebrate their successful theft and head out of the mall, with Samantha driving them to River Ridge. She mentions that there is a way to tell herself and Bree apart, but that'll have to wait until they're more intimate. Bobby's more excited that he did it. He had the "full Wade weekend" with both of the twins, and how he'll be the talk of the school. But in the midst of his hubris, Samantha interrupts by telling him not to hurt Bree, she can be strange when she's hurt.
Bobby gloats at school about his success, not before tugging Kimmy's hair and saying she loves it. What is he, five? He brags about it more during his band's practice, though Paul seems ready to check out given, well, the fact that Bobby really sucks. That night at home, Bobby gets a phone call. You know, I never realized how many of these Fear Street books use the "whispery threats on the phone" trope because here we are again. The voice on the other end of the line tells Bobby that two's company, three's a crowd and that he'll pay double. But it's just Arnie on the other end of the line for a goof. Bobby brags about eventually breaking up with both twins, but even Arnie's realizing that this guy's a bitch.
Suddenly, Bree shows up at Bobby's front door. She knows Samantha's dating someone, but won't tell her who it is. So that makes Bobby relieved since he can still spin that web of lies and lead Bree along before he lowers the boom. He doesn't break up with her yet because this guy sucks. Samantha then calls after she leaves saying that Bobby has to break up with Bree before she snaps and that Bree is capable of doing anything. But we go to their next date as Samantha drives erratically to the worry of Bobby. We also learn she has no license, which that too seems like a trope of Stine's. God, I have read too many of these, haven't I?
They head to Pete's Pizza and we learn that Bobby took Bree to Suki Thomas' house. Speaking of people Bobby reminds me of. We learn that the whole monkey thing is still happening and that Bobby plans on getting rid of Paul and Arnie. I'd like this book a bit more if it was called "How I Broke Up With Arnie". But yeah, Bobby wanting to cut ties with his friends like this should come as no shock. They end up back at the jewelry store, which seems dumb to keep trying to rip off the same place, but I'm assuming that's the point. Samantha tells Bobby to steal a charm bracelet, which he does... only for the alarm to go off. But they run off again. We've definitely reached the redundancy portion of the Stine book.
Bobby spots Bree in the mall and notices Samantha looking fearful and concerned. Bobby goes over to talk with Bree. They manage to BS her into not thinking this was a date and the twins make their leave. When Bobby ends up in the parking lot however, he sees his tires were slashed. And for the sake of plot convenience, Melanie shows up, so Bobby assumes it was her. The next day, Samantha shows off the way to tell them apart. A butterfly tattoo by her shoulder. Further confirmation as to why this book gave away free tattoos. He shows her Wayne and Garth and Samantha shows him her project. A bunch of red ants eating a dead mouse alive. Well at least this one was dead before we started the book. She also pressures Bobby into dumping Bree.
At the auditorium, Bobby, Paul and Arnie are ready to perform. But when he strums his guitar, he gets electrocuted and passes out. He awakens to find out that the amp cord was cut, so someone was trying to sabotage the performance, and perhaps try to get Bobby killed. That night, he talks to Samantha over the phone. She says it could have been Bree who cut the cord. That she might be that desperate. And sure enough, Bree shows up just as he finishes the call. The next day, Bobby's still trying to piece together who has it out for him. Melanie mentions that she knew the Wade twins since elementary school since their parents are old college friends. So now this makes Bobby think that maybe it was Melanie doing all this, to get back with him because my god, this dude's ego really needs a kick to the dick.
He picks up Samantha and they drive off for a bit. It's there that Bobby notices something. There's no tattoo on Samantha's shoulder. He just picked up Bree. But she denies it, saying she's Samantha and maybe he dreamt up that tattoo after the electrocution. The next day, he notices something in his locker. A note that says "THIS IS YOU INSIDE" along with a monkey's head. Oh, but wait, it's just a plastic monkey head, so what the hell, Stine showed restraint? If it has rhinestones though I'd be more worried. Samantha takes Bobby into the forest and mentions that given he's starting to be unable to tell them apart, they're going to just have to kill Bree. He then sees the tattoo on Samantha's shoulder and again Bobby's all confused. But he seems down with killing Bree. Even when Samantha shows him an old shack they can leave the body in.
So, Bobby invites Bree out one more time and they head out. It's here where Bree reveals that she and Samantha aren't really twins. They're triplets. You see, they have another sister named Jennilynn, who must be the one who's been screwing with his head. Of course he's more stoked to have gone out with triplets, because even as this book begins its wind-down, this guy still sucks. That is until Bree mentions that Jennilynn is dangerous and super jealous. If things don't go her way, she can do things like start fires or hurt people. Knowing how crazy she was, she was sent out west, but somehow she's in Shadyside. And the tell is simple. Jennilynn is the one with the tattoo.
And despite being told by Bree not to tell anyone about Jennilynn, Bobby, being the trashcan he is, tells Arnie about it. He's so happy to have gone out with triplets that he doesn't seem to care about his own life being in danger anymore as he even rubs it in Melanie's face. He then thinks, that, somehow ignoring Bree talking about a killer triplet, that dumping them will be a piece of cake. Dude really is the male Reva Dalby. However, when he tells Samantha that he knows about Jennilynn, she's confused. They don't have a triplet. You see, Jennilynn is Bree's imaginary triplet. Her imaginary evil triplet sister.
Bobby then asks to see Samantha's shoulder. About the butterfly tattoo. Samantha's confused as she doesn't have a butterfly tattoo. He gets a call later from someone calling themselves Jennilynn saying that they still have to kill Bree. So we end up back in the woods and back in the cabin with who Bobby thinks is Jennifer. Only she has the tattoo. As they leave Bobby's car, Samantha smashes him over the head with a bottle, knocking him out. He wakes up tied to a chair with this pants and shoes taken from him. Jennilynn reveals that she was real this whole time. And now she's going to finish him off. How? By pouring honey on him and dumping red ants on him before leaving. Hey, she may be evil, but she knows how to come up with some clever kills. As he fights off the ants, he manages to escape.
Melanie picks Bobby up and they head to the Wade residence. He tries to tell everyone about Jennilynn and the ants and the cabin, but they're all confused. There's no third sister, or a cabin in the woods, and none of them had any ants. It was all in Bobby's head. He asks to see their tattoos, but they have none. Then all of the other girls that Bobby's dumped show up and say that this is what he gets for dating both Wade twins and acting like such a scumbag. Everyone gets a good laugh at Bobby's expense.
A couple days pass and Bobby's ego is still fractured. He doesn't have a band anymore and he's a bit of a laughing stock. Bree shows up and hands him an envelope. Inside is a note that says that twins know everything. And also inside is a rub-on butterfly tattoo.
Double Date is fine, but formulaic as all hell. It's safe to tell from the start that all of this stuff was a plan to screw with Bobby's head from the twins. So stuff like the third twin doesn't really hit as this big shocker and more of just being pretty obvious to the point you're just waiting for the boom to drop already. In that way, it feels a lot like the standalone Stine book The Boyfriend. How we have a character who thinks they can toy with relationships and hurt people only to get their comeuppance in the end. Whether this changes Bobby remains to be seen, especially since he's still a playboy in other books. So the comparison to Silent Night and Reva Dalby works too as it's clear that Bobby won't learn that much either and still go about ruining lives. His ego was bruised but his hubris is still thriving.
So, Bobby Newkirk. This guy stinks. Granted, that's the point, but it does make going through this book with him a drag. He's a rotten rich pretty boy who feels that he deserves any woman he pleases and can just screw with them all. So seeing him be messed with does feel cathartic. The twins make for interesting enough villains. My best guess is that Melanie warned them about Bobby from the jump and they devised the plan to completely mess with his head in every way possible. And it does feel good to see this lunkhead get messed with. Not enough to make this 150+ page book easy to sit through without it spinning its wheels midway, but still works fine enough. Scares are minimal. Most of the same things we get in other books. Though I am surprised Stine showed restraint with the monkeys.
In the end, this book doesn't annoy me on the level of the Silent Night sequels, but it's still not a fun one for me. When I have to focus on a guy who, let's be honest, would rightfully be Me Too-ed in modern times, I'm not going to have the same energy as I usually do for these. Let's be honest, if this didn't happen to Bobby, lord knows his trajectory was going to be a rapist who could get away with it because, again, Rich and White. But when it's a book where a a-hole gets gaslighted long enough until he finally fully embarrasses himself, I can at least leave the book not as angry as I would if this were just everyone else suffering and Bobby gets to leave and hurt other people like Reva would. My god those Silent Night books really scarred me, didn't they? Double Date gets a C+.
It Was Acceptable in the 90s: CDs, "You the man", Wayne's World references, CD Players, CD Stores, Waldenbooks, Chevy Geo, Chuck Berry aspirations?
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