The Stinal Countdown: The Fear Street Saga #03: The Burning

It's time to finally wrap up the Fear Street Saga. It's been an interesting ride so far as we learn about the history of the Fear family. In the previous book, we didn't learn too much other than both the Goodes and the Fiers are still wrapped up in that centuries old feud and both sides are still wickedly cursed. But we've at least reached to the age of Simon Fier, who changed the family name to "Fear" in hopes that it would maybe trick the curse? Also because Fier Street doesn't exactly sound as thrilling. So how do we reach our fiery finale? Find out with The Burning.

This cover might be my least favorite of the three to be honest. I like the design of the dagger as well as the image of the Fear mansion going up in flames. But I think it's just the really derpy, sort of staring into space expression on the girl's face here that just doesn't make this one feel as strong as the past two. Not going to assume a rush job, but wouldn't put it past it either. Overall, a just okay cover at the least.

After Nora Goode writes up the exposition of the previous book, we go to 1845 New Orleans and a 21 year old Simon Fear. He is at the mansion of Henry Pierce who is throwing a party for his daughter Angelica. Which coincidentally is happening on Mardi Gras, because why else would we be in New Orleans, home of pirates, drunks and whores? New Orleans, tacky overpriced souvenir stores. If you want to go to hell you can take- wait. Simon doesn't have an invite, but manages to sneak into the mansion. He doesn't get many people to talk to him, but he's determined to find some success. He then spots Angelica Pierce and falls instantly in love. Unfortunately his timing is terrible as the servants learn that he's no guest.

Meanwhile, Angelica is talking with her cousin Liza Dupree, having tricked her cousin into believing that President Polk was at the party. Since I guess Liza is an easy mark, plus it's the 1800s and you gotta troll however you can I guess. Angelica notices Simon staring at her before he's dragged out by the servants. She's smitten, but Liza reminds her that she already has two suitors in James Daumier and Hamilton Scott. James shows up and the two dance that brand new dance, "the waltz". Hamilton shows up to take the dance from her. We learn that James likes to talk about fashion and horses, while Hamilton really, really loves to talk about how much he loves slavery. And no, I don't mean the evil dummy variety. So yeah, fuck Hamilton.

Angelica leaves to the garden and thinks about who she'd rather be with. Fashion horse guy, or slavery fan before she's grabbed from behind by Simon. Because this is the 1800s and consent is just laughable. But even more laughable to Angelica is that Simon proposes to her on the spot, saying that from the moment he saw her he knew she would be his wife. Simon leaves after she threatens to get him thrown out again and is on cloud nine. Though he knows those two suitors are going to be a problem. Then all of a sudden he gets attacked by a mugger in the street who puts a knife to his throat. He offers to give the man money, but the mugger wants the pendant. In self defense, Simon shoves it into the mugger's face and soon enough the man begins to freak out as if he's on fire. And then, as if this is Welcome to Dead House, the man's flesh melts off and he turns into a pile of bones. 

Since getting the pendant from Elizabeth, Simon learned its powers. And the latin words on the front "Dominatio per malum" or "Power through evil". He resisted the pendant's powers for a long time, since it's obvious there are no more Goodes around to continue the vendetta. But he also thinks this may come in handy when dealing with Angelica's suitors. Later during a night at the opera with James and Liza, Angelica runs into Simon Fear again. She still finds him odd and forceful, but given this is still a Y/A book, of course she's starting to feel something for him. Suddenly, James stands above the balcony they're sitting at and leaps off. And given it's a 60 foot drop, that means one suitor down, literally.

The funeral for James passes and Angelica's started to become weak and weary from grief. But everyone is pretty much more focused on the fact that Hamilton will be her husband now. A month passes as everyone is ready for the wedding between Angelica and Hamilton. The two head to the pier, but despite a sign saying it's broken, the two head there anyway. The two watch the paddleboats for a bit before Hamilton suddenly falls into the water and ends up crushed in the boat wheels. Oh no, not the guy who loved slavery, how awful. So yeah, when Simon shows up again, she does agree to marry him. Though his guilt causes him to admit he was the one who killed James and Hamilton, only for Angelica to drop the bombshell. He didn't kill them, she did.

Yeah, all this time Angelica's been a master of the dark arts. And it was her who led her two would-be suitors to their deaths after she finally chose to be with Simon. She says that the two of them can join forces and be all powerful, though father won't be too thrilled. Simon tells her that doesn't matter as they find that Mr. Pierce is already dead. Killed by Simon. Angelica is thrilled over this and the two celebrate because the murders that slay together stay together. And then they drink blood out of wine flutes because I guess we haven't made it clear that these two are evil. 

We jump ahead to 1865. Simon and Angelica have been married for about 20 years now and have two daughters in Julia and Hannah as well as three sons, Brandon, Joseph and Robert. So we're reaching the events mentioned in (Wooo!) Party Summer. Turns out that Simon uses Hannah to charm the elite of Shadyside Village. Although he thinks Julia ended up a disappointment because she's not as much of a charmer. In fact, he straight up ignores her when the maid, Mrs. MacKenzie, shows up with a young maid of eighteen named Lucy. While the boys go out riding, Simon finds Angelica on the ground. She's not dead, but feels that the spirits have been calling to her.

While Angelica's powers have served them well, it seems the spirits have become more vengeful. So she has to attend to them and can't attend Simon's big function that night. He then hears a crash as Lucy broke one of Julia's bowls. But of course Simon could not give a damn about that, and is more focused on Hannah being hostess with Angelica being ill. Both of the sisters are getting fed up with their father and the treatment of Julia. Oh, and we learn that Lucy is Lucy Goode, so yeah. Simon didn't do a good enough job rubbing the family out.

At the dinner, things go fine until Lucy again causes problems for Julia. This time spilling hot soup on her. After dinner, Julia is convinced that Lucy has it out for her since this is two incidents already. That night, as the girls try to sleep, a snake crawls onto Hannah's bed. She chalks it up to the brothers playing a prank. The next day, Hannah sees her... Oh, god dammit Bob... white terrier dog Fluff  playing around. As she puts her shoes on, she suddenly feels a sharp pain. That would be a large piece of glass in her shoe. Okay, if it was the boys, they go hard. But now Hannah's also convinced that Julia is up to something. 

Suddenly, Lucy enters the room and leaps at Hannah... to check on the wound, of course. Nothing concerning at all, certainly. After that incident, the siblings have a picnic in the woods. Included are some meat pies. And, here it is. The reason the dog was introduced. Fluff leaps at Hannah's pie and eats it, then starts to convulse and die. At this rate I'm certain R.L. Stine went to see the movie "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" and left very disappointed. Hannah confronts Lucy and accuses her of poisoning the pie, when Mrs. MacKenzie sticks up for Lucy, saying that she saw Julia making the pies, not Lucy. So now Hannah realizes "oh crap, my sister's trying to kill me". 

 And sure enough, it was Julia all along. Her reason is because she hates how Hannah is the one her father cares about and how neglected she's been this whole time, which, no lies detected so far. Even if it isn't really Hannah's fault, more that Simon really sucks as a dad. Julia then straight up strangles Hannah until Hannah recovers and smashes Julia over the head with a nearby shovel, killing her instantly. Panicked, Hannah then shoves Julia's corpse into the coffin that the recently deceased gardener was in, just as the funeral for the man is almost underway. 

Simon soon finds Julia's body in the coffin. Hannah keeps mum to what happened, but soon Simon learns that he's been harboring a Goode this whole time. Filled with a blind rage and thinking Lucy did it, he grabs a sword and stabs the maid in the chest. Only when his vision comes to, he learns he stabbed Hannah instead. Lucy Goode made her leave earlier in the day. But clearly the curse decided to stick around a few more hours. So, we have the explanation now of just what happened to Hannah and Julia. They weren't lost in the woods and missing. And their deaths and the curse is what turned the Fear's lives upside down. Turns out that the name change didn't do squat.

We then take us to 1900 once more as Daniel Fear has arrived in Shadyside to visit his grandparents Simon and Angelica. He was invited to visit them. When he arrives at the mansion however, he sees that Mrs. MacKenzie is still there and gone completely mad, while Angelica has become cold and distant. Literally cold too as she keeps asking for more wood in the fireplace. Simon tells his grandson that he felt that Daniel's father Joseph abandoned them. That the Fears should stick together. But it's just them now. He gives Daniel the pendant and when the boy wears it, he sees everything on fire. 

Daniel heads to town and visits the shops. Sadly there is no restaurant run by a man named Peter who creates the most delectable Italian dish. He runs into a girl and falls immediately in love with her. This is Nora Goode, who tells him that Shadyside is mostly boring, but the Fear mansion is the most notable place given its history of evil events taking place there. Later, Nora speaks to her father about Daniel, but he's well aware that Daniel is a Fear and the curse on both families. So he forbids her from being with him. 

Later that night, Daniel finds a hidden room. Mrs. MacKenzie mentions that it belonged to Hannah and Julia. She brings up the history of the curse, as well as mentioning his uncle Robert Fear, who died at the hands of his daughter-in-law Sarah Fear. Hey, Cheerleaders continuity as we near the wrap-up. How about that? Meanwhile Brandon and his son Ben just up and vanished. Mrs. MacKenzie says that there is a chance to kill the curse if the Goodes and Fears marry. Daniel wastes no time trying to find Nora, only to see her father left her locked in her room. He frees her and the two plan to marry immediately. Hey look, we can finally end this cur... which Daniel plans to announce at Simon's 75th birthday party because like hell this was going to go smoothly.

The two arrive at the Fear mansion for the party, but nobody came since the Fears are just recluses at this point. Daniel announces to Simon that he married Nora, to which the old man screams in agony before the mansion goes up in flames. So we're back to where we started from book one. Nora trying to run into the flames, only to see horrific visions. Matthew and Constance Fier's skeletons, Rebecca's neck-broken corpse, the ghost of Abigail, Jane's bloated and drowned body, Kate with needle through the heart and Hannah with the sword in her chest. Julia clawing at the air since she was indeed buried alive. All of the victims of the curse writhing in hellish agony as the flames engulf the Fear mansion.

Nora finishes up her recounting of the events of the Fears and Goodes as we learn she's been a mental asylum this whole time. Ever since the night of the fire. A nurse arrives and finds her writing to be absurd before telling her the good news. The Fear mansion is gone and the town of Shadyside is building a street where the mansion stood. A street called, what else, Sesame-err, I mean FEAR STREET!

The Burning is a strong enough finale for this saga. Mainly as it feels the most on point throughout the story as it follows the Simon timeline from start to finish. From his meeting with Angelica to the fiery death that would seemingly end the mainline of the Fear family tree. At least in terms of living beings. It also kind of explains a lot of the evil in Shadyside residing from Fear Street. How it's clear the curse never really went away and those who dwell on the street sooner or later have to deal with the evil in their lives. I will say the execution of the announcement of Fear Street's birth was handled better than Simon thinking a name change would kill a curse. 

Again, the Fears, for all of their hatred of the Goodes, seem to end up letting them into their homes way too easily for a family that's dealt with this curse for over 200 years at the point of the book. Like, if there was suddenly a new maid and you didn't know her last name, you'd probably want to check that out before you just let your sworn enemy into your home to kickstart the curse. And, when you think about it, especially in this book, all of the Fear family tragedies were their own fault and not because of the Goodes. Julia's actions led to Fluff's death, Hannah thinks she killed Julia and left her to be buried alive because it's the 1800s and nobody knows what a pulse is. And Simon led to Hannah's death by being a blind old man. Maybe it's the right level of penance for the Fear family starting all of this by causing Susannah and Martha to be burned alive. 

I also like how we end this story. From about the second book we're led to believe that if the Goodes and the Fears were to become one through a marriage it would end the curse. And sure enough, that's not what happens at all. If anything, it seemed to lead to the Fears finally succumbing to death. And the end twist that Nora wrote all of this from an asylum is a decent touch and fits with it being in 1900 and yeah, I could see that happening. That being in a far less superstitious time, they would look at the stuff like the curse as mere nonsense.

For the last act, The Burning works really well and feels like a stronger book than part one and two for me. Everything felt more concise and to the point, and we get some incredibly gory and dark imagery for Fear Street, which even to this point did most of the deaths "off-screen". And the pace, despite being over 170 pages, still feels quick and lacking in a lot of drag. So hey, Stine stuck the landing! He didn't fumble at the end of a saga. He can actually succeed at that and not drop the ball. Now that's worth writing about. The Burning gets an A. 

Props to R.L. Stine for actually putting together a strong origin story for Fear Street. One that was built up over several years with some minor mentions overtime, but rarely the main focus of the series. To finally get so much of the story really builds to the idea of Shadyside and the Fears. That the events we get, mostly from Fear Street itself, are the cause of a centuries old curse that built itself from the horrific actions of Benjamin and Matthew Fier. Actions that would haunt the family forever in one way or another. No matter where the family would go. No matter the generation. Death would always follow them and the sins of the past would always get its payback.

I will say, a lot of stuff does feel like it could have been cut, like much of the Ezra era stuff for example. But I will say that I'm still glad it's here and that we get those brutal examples of how the family feud continued on regardless of the attempts to keep it from coming back. Be it trying to no longer use the pendant or changing the name of the family in hopes that maybe that would be a quick fix. A sign that sometimes you just can't keep a good curse down. 

But I do feel the story has flaws. Stuff like the pendant, for example. It just feels like a MacGuffin for the most part and lacks much elaboration on its own history. Thankfully it does get brought up in the Fear Street Sagas. Yes, I'm aware of them but we're going to take a bit before we get into those. But here it feels like something Stine was high on, but barely knew what to do with to progress the plot. I will also say a lot of the dialogue was pretty bland. It's old timey, so of course it wouldn't be as fun as most Fear Street dialogue, but it still felt mostly lacking. 

Other than those, the books still deliver on the horror. We get a bunch of gruesome deaths throughout the three books. Many being Fear members, some Goodes, and others innocent bystanders like Delilah in part two who died because her father really had no endgame to his big "marry into the Fiers and get rich" plan. From grisly corpses to people being stabbed, hung, drowned, shot, buried alive or, in the case of a dog because it's Stine, poisoned. Like I previously said, these books went far more hardcore than most of Fear Street does. If Stine was going to tell this saga, he definitely made sure to ramp up the violence. 

In the end, I definitely recommend these books and I feel holding back on them for a while before covering them was the right way to go. I think being ingrained in much of the history of 90s era Shadyside and what little sprinkles of info we get from what befell the Fears helped immensely in making me appreciate these. If not, I'd probably be going into this being more bored and less energized. So, now we know what happened to set the world in motion and it's all pretty good. But I'm more than ready to return to 90s Shadyside and deal with all of that decade's wild and weird stuff.