Been a hot minute since we traveled to kid-friendly Shadyside. You know, covering these books is a lot like a game of cards. It's really all about the luck of the draw. Maybe you'll win big. But more than likely you'll end up losing big time. And sometimes you get the joker. Look, all my intros don't have to be these pithy takes. But let's see what's truly in the cards for us with Spell of the Screaming Jokers.
COVER STORY
STORY
Brittany Carson is having a bad time. Though in fairness to her, it's more a case of being a victim of circumstance. You see, Frankie Todaro brought his pet rat Spike to school, and tried to use it to scare Mr. Bladvig, the music teacher. Unfortunately for Brittany, her friend Louisa Wong, and another kid named Jeff de Winter, they were all spotted with the rat, so they all ended up in the principal's office. Because of this, Brittany was asked by the mother of a new kid in school named Max Davidson to visit him while he's sick. A way to help him make friends before he fully integrates to Shadyside. So you're probably already wondering "how do cards fit into all this"? Okay, you probably weren't wondering that, but in the slight probability you were, Brittany's eight year old brother Jimmy has recently learned a bunch of card tricks. After doing one with Louisa, he asks Brittany to try, but she decides to head off instead to visit Max.
So Brittany, Louisa, Frankie and Jeff all head to Max's house which on where else, Fear Street. They begin to walk to Max's before noticing they'll have to cut through Mrs. Marder's yard. Mrs. Marder, or Mrs. Murder as she's also called, is a creepy old woman with a bunch of cats. Everyone thinks she's a witch with the power to make kids disappear if they trespass. Unfortunately for the foursome, they have to choose between double detention or pissing off a witch. Unfortunately, the kids get caught by Mrs. Marder as they rush through her yard, with Brittany knocking over flower pots and tripping over cats. As they escape, they see Mrs. Marder waving a broom in the air and saying that they'll all pay. And I don't think she means in a monetary sense either.
They make it to the Davidson residence and meet Max. Turns out he's been sick for a while with pneumonia and is expected to still be sick for a couple more weeks. They introduce themselves to Max and ask if there's anything he'd want to play, but Max is pretty much interested in playing cards. As they begin to play Hearts, Frankie suddenly screams in panic. Or at least everyone thinks he screamed. It has to do with pulling the Joker card. And the reason for the panic was in how freaky the joker is. Huge bulging eyes, red lips, and carrying a stick with a skull on top. Brittany panics too when she thinks she can see the joker moving its head. But Mrs. Davidson promises to get rid of any joker cards to avoid this becoming a game of 52 pickup.
The foursome make their leave later, this time not trespassing in a witch's yard. Frankie suddenly gets tripped by another boy wearing a green hat and carrying a stick. Brittany can't get his face however, but Frankie mentions the boy saying something like "We shake the skull with eyes that gleam." As they recover from that incident, Brittany notices the bruise on Frankie's arm. It's shaped like a club. As in a club suit for cards. So now you at least get why there's four protagonists, huh? The following Monday, Brittany heads to school as she's to put up a poster with Frankie, who I guess she also kind of likes. She notices that the club bruise has gotten more pronounced. Though Frankie says that he doesn't even feel any pain from it. Brittany then hears a strange rattling noise and goes to check, but then finds Frankie unconscious under a tipped ladder.
No, this wasn't Frankie trying to learn how to fall off a 20 foot ladder (there's our wrestling reference, gang), he says that he too heard the rattling noise, then two kids showed up and shoved the ladder over on him, before saying "We make our marks, we laugh and scream". So Brittany thinks these are connected. And she suspects Mrs. Marder given she did say they'd pay. But her gaze is now on a new mark on Frankie's arm. A red diamond. The foursome head back to Max's, with Brittany hoping no more card games. When they show Louisa and Jeff the marks, they don't see them. So at this point it seems exclusive to Brittany and Frankie.
As they head there, Frankie spots birds in the birdbath of Mrs. Marder's house, about to be eaten by her cats. So, despite pissing off a potential witch once, he leads them into the yard and smash another flower pot, scaring the cats off. After being chased off by Mrs. Marder again, they head to Max's house and tell his mother that Mrs. Marder may or may not be a witch, we haven't fully confirmed that yet. While she doesn't think she's a witch, she has been around long enough to remember a story about some kids who entered Mrs. Marder's garden, she got angry and supposedly cast a spell on the kids, and everywhere the kids went, strange creatures followed and caused chaos. But she does at least call Mrs. Marder to calm the situation down. So hey, a parent who doesn't completely shut down concerns of kid characters. That's always a breath of fresh air.
They play cards again with Max and this time Louisa gets the Joker. It's different from the last one, with bloodshot eyes and a frown on its face. Same skull stick and joker garb as the last one though. This time, the card starts screaming in front of the kids. Everyone is freaked out except Frankie and Max. Of course, Brittany suspects that it's the work of Mrs. Marder despite, you know, this incident happening twice when they've played cards with Max, but we're not there yet for that reveal. Mrs. Davidson gets rid of the next joker card at least, though she doesn't believe them about screaming cards because... well, not so much a Goosebumps parents deal here. More a "clearly knows more than we think" deal. But again, got a bit to go until then.
Brittany heads to Louisa's house after the latest visit, but when they head upstairs, the hissing noise starts and suddenly Louisa takes a tumble down the stairs, injuring her ankle. Oh, and the club mark is now on her arm as well. We get our next part of the rhyme as well "Her army strengthens by the day." Which of course has Brittany now fully convinced it's Mrs. Marder. But given that when Brittany leaves she spots Mrs. Marder in the woods, maybe her concerns are at least a little warranted. Later, as Brittany tries to come up with a way to expose Mrs. Marder as our witch, the kids notice four strange kids with green hats. Brittany realizes what they actually are. They're four jokers. Frankie ends up almost being hit by a truck, and now gets his third mark, a spade. Next rhyme part "You play her game! She'll make you pay."
Jeff comes to Mrs. Marder's defense, saying that he delivers groceries for her and she's never been cruel or witch-crafty on him, so maybe she's innocent. Brittany still thinks that this is all bunk, so let's make the woman who could be the one cursing them even angrier with Brittany's suggestion to spy on her. They sneak into her house the next Monday when she's not at home. Along with her many, many cats (which is both a dream and must smell god awful), there's a telescope in her room that's locked in on Max's house. So now Brittany is convinced that it must be Mrs. Marder who is casting the spell. Mrs. Marder shows up, and after a scare with the locked door, the kids manage to escape in time.
Again they tell Mrs. Davidson about everything, but she doesn't buy that her neighbor is doing some spying/hexing double duty. They try to play with Max in the living room instead of his room since there's no Rear Window action there. Knowing Max only wants to play hearts, Brittany brought her own deck of cards. No possible way these ones will be cursed, right? It doesn't take long for Brittany to get the joker this time. Yellow eyes and screaming. She heads home and is soon surrounded by five of the jokers, saying the next rhyme piece "All red and black must bow to green..."After she escapes them, she sees that now she has a club on her arm. So she's cursed. Louisa's cursed. Frankie's so cursed that he's starting to act more manic. Jeff's still unaffected though. They head to Max's again, but now there's six jokers who say the rhyme now in full:
The kids run away from the jokers, but they soon see that they only want Frankie. Louisa gets her diamond in the process, but more concerning is Frankie who fell in a hole and isn't moving very much. He's not dead, because of course he's not going to actually die, but now he has the heart mark. All four marks are on Frankie's arm. Then suddenly, Frankie starts to morph into one of the jokers. Frankie ends up running into Fear Street with the kids trying to follow him. They head to Max's to call the cops because I guess the cops in Shadyside are known for dealing with magic harlequins?
But Max starts to panic saying "she's done it!". Mrs. Davidson shows up and Brittany relays what happened. She's relieved, until Max starts panicking some more, saying she's crazy. Brittany goes to see Mrs. Davidson calling the cops, only Mrs. Davidson seems to be talking to nobody. She didn't even pick up the phone. But more damning is Mrs. Davidson's clothing. Her pants and shoes are green. To which Brittany finally realizes what we all kind of figured, "oh crap, it's not Mrs. Marder whose the queen, it's Mrs. Davidson!"
Max finally lets them know what's going on. He's not her son. They aren't even related. He doesn't even have pneumonia. He's been her prisoner for a while now. She tricks kids into playing her card game. And with every joker they pull, the stronger her powers become, until she eventually captures the kids to make them her new joker slaves, which is what's befalling Frankie. So, why is Max not a joker? Well, he has three of the four marks. She's been keeping him prisoner to lure other kids into the trap lest he become a joker himself.
They try to escape, only to get caught by Mrs. Davidson, who forces the kids to play hearts. She added ten jokers to the deck, since the four of them need ten to be transformed, including Max. Brittany, in a panic, cuts the cards, but causes them to fall on the floor. After threatening to club her with a skull scepter, Mrs. Davidson makes them continue to draw their cards. But with each draw, they don't get any jokers. But Mrs. Davidson ends up getting all ten jokers in her hand. She screams at the jokers arrive and drag her away. Brittany then mentions what she did. The card dropping was intentional as it gave her a chance to stack the deck on Mrs. Davidson, ensuring that she would be the only one getting joker cards.
But before they can celebrate, the jokers return and chase the kids to Max's room. Max then grabs each joker card and tears it in half, with each joker turning back into a normal human kid, including Frankie. Also, Max's parents finally are back, so it's a mega happy ending. Oh wait, there's still the...
TWIST ENDING
Some time passes. Brittany makes amends with Mrs. Marder, who isn't as bad as she thought. Turns out the telescope was because she's an astronomer. Brittany's brother Jimmy has a card trick for her. She pulls a card from the deck, and it's a joker of Mrs. Davidson, who starts to scream, just as Brittany screams as well.
CONCLUSION
Spell of the Screaming Jokers is a solid book, and it comes from the author of How to be a Vampire, Katy Hall. And two for two on books I really enjoyed from her. I think what makes this book work is that it really doesn't deviate too far from the plot. It never drags too much and there isn't too much filler either. The horror also works with the idea of these creepy joker monsters that curse whoever draws their card. And everything from the descriptions of the jokers to the general creepy vibe really keeps this book from going too far into a slog. Brittany's an alright protagonist, nothing too special. The other kids seem to just exist, especially Frankie, though given he's more our full victim, that at least makes sense.
If there's really one problem that befalls this book, is that it's a case of the climax twist being way too obvious. Of course it's not Mrs. Marder. Everything from Mrs. Davidson luring the kids to play with Max to her creepy demeanor in places to the game in general all made more sense for it to be her as the villain and not Mrs. Marder. Of course Mrs. Marder wants them to pay. As in pay for the flower pots they broke, duh. So that ultimately kneecaps the book slightly. You pretty much just have to wait around until we get the reveal we all saw coming a mile away. But, when the horror works just well enough and it's at least an interesting premise, you can't be all that mad. A ride can be predictable, but as long as it's at least interesting, the journey is at least worth it.
So, another win for Ghosts of Fear Street. Aside from one bad book for me so far, I've continued to be impressed by this series. I guess when it comes to the luck of the draw, I keep getting a winning hand. Or maybe this series has a far better poker face than I expected. Look, it's card puns to end this or a "chortle at my boner" joke given we're talking about jokers here. I'm not THAT lowbrow... mostly. Spell of the Screaming Jokers gets an A-.
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