NNtG: Ghosts of Fear Street #23: Why I'm Not Afraid of Ghosts

Time for another freaky trip to kid friendly Shadyside. We got ghosts on the table this time. That's usually a net positive for the blog most of the time. Not always, there have been some haunted duds, but we've mostly seen some of the best work when it involves the ethereal. Will this be another win, or does it even stand a ghost of a chance? Let's find out with Why I'm Not Afraid of Ghosts. 

COVER STORY

Oh is this cover a laugh and a half. Like, a great cover is one that can illicit both creepiness and a bit of silliness, but LOOK AT THIS COVER! Look at that ghost. It is the most comically pathetic looking ghost I've ever seen. It's like if Charlie Brown didn't screw up his ghost costume. Maybe he would have gotten more than a rock. Add in the amazing face from the kid, looking more annoyed than afraid. But then again, the title of the book and all. Although, I'd be bothered too if I was about to get a case of bad touch from a Ghost. I respect the work of Broeck Steadman, but this one's just too silly even for me. So, I guess that means I also like it? 

STORY

Oliver Bowens recently moved to, where else, Fear Street, and is super excited about making the attic of his new house his room. His friend, Shawn Wood, thinks it's a bit creepy, but that's why Oliver really loves it. They seem to be new friends as well as Oliver notes that he's never seen Shawn at Shadyside Middle School, but Shawn says he's at a private school. So, we can guess the obvious twist already. Turns out Oliver's moved a lot as he dad works for the government as a consultant. He also has a seven year old sister named Nell who is a pain. Shawn mentions that he thinks it's creepy. Everything's creepy. Actively moving to Fear Street is creepy because there's stories of ghosts everywhere. I mean, it's mostly murderers and jilted lovers, but you ain't getting either of those in these books. But Oliver isn't fazed as he doesn't believe in ghosts.

As they talk, they see what looks to be a sheet rising on its own, but Oliver doesn't think much of it as the kids leave the attic. Soon, two actual ghost kids show up. Robbie and his sister Dora. They chastise each other over the failed sheet tactic before their flesh then melts off their faces, revealing skeletal faces. How was THAT not the cover? Turns out they're not happy at the idea of "lifers" like Oliver and his family moving into their house, so they want to get rid of them ASAP. The two ghosts make a bet against one another to see which one of them can succeed in scaring Oliver bad enough to make him believe in ghosts. The ghosts then notice Nell upstairs and worry if she has "the sight", but she just calls for their cat, Thunder, so they worry a bit less. But she does take a magnifying glass which bothers them.

Robbie's turn is next to scare Oliver. He enters Oliver's room and is kind of wowed by all the stuff in there. Turns out he's more the Casper of the siblings while Dora is more focused on getting rid of the lifers. Robbie finds Oliver's pet tarantula and plans his scare. Meanwhile, Oliver shows Shawn his guitar and asks if Shawn plays any instruments. Shawn's mother tried to get him piano lessons a few years prior, but turns out they can be murder. While Robbie and Dora argue, Oliver's Doberman, the amazingly named "Spooky", starts barking, which you'd think is like Goosebumps with dogs detecting the dead, but instead the dog was after Thunder the cat. But it also kills any spider plans for now. 

Instead, Robbie is going to try and scare Oliver with a ghostly wail, which even Dora finds to be pathetic. After observing Shawn and Oliver watching scary movies (which Shawn thinks it's odd that Oliver enjoys scary movies for not being scared of ghosts, which even for Shawn's observations that one is pretty lame), eventually Oliver goes to bed. Robbie tries his wail, and it seems to work with Oliver getting up, but he just thinks it must have been Nell having nightmares. So, Robbie failed on that one, and Dora mocks him some more for it. It's her turn next.

The next day, Oliver heads home while talking to another of his friends, Mike Conway, who confirms what Shawn said. There are definitely ghosts. One could say they're R.L. Stine's ghosts of Fear Street, but that would be too presumptuous. He meets up with Shawn later who mentions seeing someone in the attic window. He's also about to reveal something when Nell shows up. But if Nell's there, who could possibly be in the attic? I mean, it could be Mr. Bowens, or Ted Danson, but it could be a ghost! I mean, it actually was a ghost, Dora to be precise, who only Shawn saw because... I mean it's going to be the twist, but we're not there yet. Robbie digs into Dora then says that her scare better be good.

So, what's Dora's plan? To be the equivalent of a screamer jump scare, of course. The next day, Oliver is playing an off road racing game on his computer when Dora's face pops up, melting away her flesh to reveal her skull. Oliver runs off to get his dad, making Dora think she won, but it turns out that he brought his dad to the room to bring up how his new game sucks and is glitched. So nope, no luck for Dora here either. However, Shawn and Spooky sure seemed to get a fright from it with Shawn straight up vanishing. It's Robbie's turn next, and he knows that he has to pull something strong enough to really make Dora mad. 

So, what is that big plan? More sound effects while Oliver's asleep. Rattling chains, owl hoots, the sound of giant, vicious monsters screaming in agony. Robbie thinks it works too well as he sees Oliver not even moving, but it turns out that Oliver's a heavy sleeper. He then tries to tangle Oliver up and drop him on the floor, but it turns out that ghosts only have so much energy a day, and he wasted it on the weirdest white noise ever. The next plan sees the two ghosts follow Oliver to school, to which Dora takes Oliver's pencils and throws them into the ceiling while then shaking the chair to try and scare him. And even that doesn't work. Oliver gets in trouble for it, but also doesn't really react to how his pencils turned into ceiling darts. Of course, this just pisses Dora off more because this should have been the sure thing and it still flopped. Robbie tries his scare at school as well, jumping into Oliver's burning Bunsen burner, but even that doesn't illicit a reaction. 

Oliver heads home, but gets scared by the icy hands of Shawn who again tries to tell him about ghosts, when Nell drags Oliver away, ending that conversation for now. When the two get back to Oliver's, he asks Shawn to help him move some stuff, but Shawn can't because he's low on energy. Suddenly, a coffee table starts moving on its own. Oliver tries to stop it, but the table ends up smashing him in the head. Turns out this was Dora's latest scare, and now they're both in a panic, believing they just killed him, which wasn't part of the plan clearly. Oliver isn't dead, but as he recovers, he soon sees that Shawn certainly is. Yep, as we all figured out, Shawn was a ghost this entire time.

See, Shawn died a couple years ago. How, we don't know, but he says it was grisly. He also tells Oliver that he's seen the other two ghosts who were trying to haunt him all this time. But Oliver's confused as due to the table bump, he doesn't remember anything from the last few minutes other than Shawn's reveal. And even that he chalks up to a possible concussion. Robbie and Dora are now super frustrated and despite what happened a few minutes ago, they're now in agreement. They're going to scare Oliver literally to death. They see Shawn and Oliver head to the attic and do everything possible, including causing the dog and cat to float to scare Oliver. Except it doesn't. And then Robbie notices something else. Oliver has no reflection. Turns out he's a vampire who feeds on ghosts. That's all that Robbie and Dora need to hear and they leave in a hurry.

TWIST ENDING

As Shawn worries about his fate, Oliver's dad shows up and is glad to see the job is done. Turns out that Mr. Bowens is part of a "Federal Anti-Spirit Task Force", which is probably the most legal way to not just say Ghost Buster. The family move from area to area to de-haunt houses. Oliver decides not to turn Shawn in, both because they're friends, and he could be a good enough source to narc on other ghosts. He then removes his fangs because he's not a vampire either, just a normal kid. I mean, there's no such thing as vampires.

CONCLUSION

This is another Nina Kiriki Hoffman book and she is two for two for really good Ghosts of Fear Street books. Her last book was Body Switchers From Outer Space and that one was also a solid book, despite a bit of a messy end. This one is my favorite one of hers so far as I feel it worked so much better. Making the focus not really on our supposed protagonist but the antagonists is such a fresh touch. You rarely get that in these types of books and it helped to make this one a fun read. Reminds me a bit of Slappy's Nightmare in how that book made Slappy the focus and made his trials and tribulations worth getting invested in.

Robbie and Dora are interesting villains. While we don't know why these two kids are dead or why they're haunting the house, they still come off as just dimensional enough that you can enjoy their banter as well as enjoy watching their plans fail. Robbie is more likable than Dora, which also adds some points in at least giving us a sympathetic enough villain given how Dora is usually the one to really chide him for failing his scares. So we get two characters who have a fun dynamic and you want to see how they continue to fail. In Goosebumps that's a rarity. Oliver is also a great foil. You can kind of guess this has to do with his father's job as whenever something like a character moving all the time and being in government shows up, you know that it's pivotal to the big reveal. And the reveal that Oliver's dad is essentially a Ghost Buster works. And while the book gets a bit all over the place with Oliver's big vampire thing, it still works.

The only problem I have with the book is Shawn. Or to be more precise how obvious it is that Shawn was a ghost the whole time. I was hoping maybe there would be a swerve but alas. So you have to wait the whole book to get to the reveal you all saw coming. So like Fear Street proper, actual mystery writing still feels very faulty even in Ghosts of Fear Street. But I can't say that it hurt the book either. So yeah, this one is a win for me. It goes for a Beetlejuice-like story with some fun moments, decent villains, and a twist that is a bit rushed but still works with the book. Maybe the cover being so goofy was an omen of this book being more comedy than horror and that makes this one more of a recommend. There's an audiobook version as well and I'm at least a bit interested in that as well. Why I'm Not Afraid of Ghosts gets an A.