The Stinal Countdown: Fear Street: One Evil Summer

It's July. It's hot and humid. The world continues to suck. So why not unwind with some cheesy 90s books? Welcome to "Woo! Party Summer" month, dedicated to books set in the summertime. And why not start with a book with Summer in the title? And another trip to Fear Street at that. Could be a recipe for disaster (they almost always are), or maybe we'll have a fun time. Let's see when we experience One Evil Summer.

Look at this cover. Just look at this incredibly cheesy cover. God I love 90s books. It tells you absolutely nothing about the book. We have a girl who I guess is perfectly evil and a cat. Not exactly anything that makes you think horror, but so goofy that it also says enough about what it is. Definitely makes me intrigued. And yes, I know all too well that is the kiss of death. Ah, cest la vie. 

We open the story with Amanda Conklin waking up... in a mental ward of a prison. So, at least we don't throw that out of nowhere this time. The Maplewood Juvenile Detention Center to be precise. Surrounded with other patients in soft green slippers because anything even a percentage sharper could be used as a weapon. I dunno, you could still try to stuff a slipper down someone's throat. Seems that Amanda is in trouble for murder and will likely be incarcerated for the rest of her life. Why did she commit a murder? Only she seems to really know, but it has to do with someone named Chrissy. 

Cut back to before Amanda was locked up as her family are on the way to Seahaven. They lived on, where else, Fear Street, but this is going to be one of those books where Fear Street doesn't matter a damn. Amanda's going with her parents and siblings, eight year old Kyle and three year old Merry. Oh, and their cat Mr. Jinx, which is at least a decent name for once. Her parents are well off, I.E. rich and white, with Mr. Conklin a lawyer and Mrs. Conklin a journalist. Mrs. Conklin at the moment is writing up on how young people get stressed. For Amanda it's her annoying siblings and algebra, which she's failing. Thankfully no R slur for how badly. 

They arrive at their summer house, which is atop a small hill close to the ocean, and there's even a skiff to use should they need it, AKA should Stine need it for the plot. As they arrive, a girl by the name of Chrissy Minor shows up, saying she's here for a Mother's Helper job. Oh good. I need more Stine books about babysitters. What could possibly go wrong? Amanda directs Chrissy to where her parents went off to when suddenly Mr. Jinx starts hissing at Chrissy in a way that should probably be warning signs, but we're super early. As is Chrissy hissing at the cat to scare it off. 

Chrissy talks with the Conklins and all seems fine. She's seventeen, has done the job for two years prior and seems to get along with everyone. She also lives with her aunt and cousin Eloise, who should be going back to college soon. Her parents had died a while back in a car accident. But everyone besides Amanda seems to fall in love with Chrissy. Even Kyle calls her a babe which, okay Stine calm the hell down. Amanda says the logical thing that maybe they should check Chrissy's references first, but notices a lack of references, which Amanda ends up unable to contact. Chrissy gets the job. As she leaves, she observes the birdcage containing the pet birds of the Conklins, Salt and Pepper. They seem to stop singing when Chrissy comes by them. 

Chrissy unpacks and Amanda soon finds newspaper clippings mentioning a Lilith Minor, who went into a coma two years ago after being poisoned by carbon monoxide. Oh god. Chrissy says that Lilith is her twin sister. Oh God Stine. Also she says that Lilith is evil. Oh God Dammit Stine. A few days pass and Chrissy gets along well with everyone with no need to assume the worst yet. Amanda, however, still has to take a summer school on algebra, so not entirely a Woo! Party Summer situation. The teacher, Ms. Taylor, is nice and Amanda hits it off with a boy named Dave Malone. She returns home and sees Chrissy in the water by herself. Panicked, Amanda leaps into the water to save her, only to see that Chrissy was underneath her, teaching Merry how to float. So now Amanda's starting to think something is really off about Chrissy, even though in this case it was more her who thought the worse, again more than granted.

Later, while Chrissy, Kyle and Merry are playing, a silver car just suddenly picks up speed and careens towards them, but the three manage to escape in time. The man inside apologizes, saying that he has no idea why his car suddenly went out of control. Everyone is saf-OH OF COURSE NOT EVERYONE IS SAFE BECAUSE MR. JINX GOT RAN OVER AND KILLED! And Amanda seems to see Chrissy smiling when she sees the cat corpse. At this rate I'm fixing to call Chrissy a Stine self-insert. Mr. Jinx gets a burial and everyone else just plays charades, with Chrissy being The Cat in the Hat because I guess only Amanda gave a shit about the cat. I am already prepped for the birds, I can tell you that much. Fool me once, Bob.

After Amanda gets a weird nightmare about an octopus, she wakes up to see Chrissy staring at her with an evil grin. But more concerning is that Chrissy grew a foot taller. Even more concerning than the extra foot is her seemingly floating in the air. She passes out and is awakened shortly after. But now she's even more convinced that Chrissy must be evil. And this summer is definitely her one evil. She tells her parents about the floating, but they don't believe her because... again, nothing they've seen involving Chrissy has led them to at all suspect her of foul play plus they straight up ignored checking the references on Chrissy's resume because they were that wowed by her. Oh, and Fear Street Parents.

When Amanda sees Chrissy back on solid ground, she snaps and attacks Chrissy, calling her a liar. They chalk all of this up to Mr. Jinx's death messing with her head. But Amanda knows she's not crazy and later that night searches the newspaper clippings for any more answers as to what happened to Lilith. She ends up being caught by Chrissy since this plan, to be honest, wasn't thought out at all. She manages to get one clipping that mentions that Chrissy's parents were found dead in their houses the day of the poisoning while Lilith was found barely alive. Though more suspicious, no mention of Chrissy. This actually contradicts Chrissy mentioning her parents were dead in a car accident nor any mention of an aunt. Just as she has her evidence, the paper suddenly catches fire and burns to ash, all while Amanda swears she can see Chrissy floating and laughing.

But Amanda has another plan. She calls her friend Suzi Banton, who lives on, where else, we already did this bit. Since she can't get any answers now and the library has no clippings of the Lilith situation, she asks Suzi to check the Shadyside library to find any information about the incident. Then suddenly, Amanda pulls the receiver from her ear as she starts bleeding. No wait, the phone is melting because... HUH? So either she's tripping from the possible gas already in the house or Chrissy has superpowers, a toss up at the moment. But suddenly the voice changes from Suzi to Chrissy. So if she didn't know before, she sure does now. She goes to show her parents, but the phone is back to normal. So yeah. This is going swimmingly. 

After algebra, Chrissy drives with Dave. The two pass by an abandoned house that's been boarded up for years. He takes her up to Channings Bluff to show her the whole area, including a spot with rocks painted on them. Done by Dave's brothers who made really messed up pictures of their dean and principals years ago like a twisted Mount Rushmore. Had to do something before YouTube. They head to the seaside inn and rent a wave runner. They spot an old shed which Dave's brother Mike (not the rock painter, but runs the rentals for the boats) says used to belong to hunters, but when that was outlawed, it became sort of a hidden relic. A hidden relic dubbed the "blood shed", since it contained dead animals and such. But to R.L. Stine, he'd call it "home". And then things escalate as Dave gives Amanda a knife to use and scare Chrissy, or he'll do it. Either way, this plan already sounds bad. 

So the plan is to just hide the knife in one of Chrissy's drawers and direct Mr. and Mrs. Conklin to the knife to bust her. That's somehow dumber than just killing her. They arrive at the house and Dave distracts Chrissy (who we also learns does not live in Seahaven) as Amanda plants the knife. Only the knife then suddenly starts spraying blood all over her. Oh and the birds are dead. *cough*. But of course with Amanda covered in blood in front of two bird corpses, and Chrissy showing up to mention her clothes are ruined, this really was dumber than just straight up killing her. 

So now things are looking U-G-L-Y and Amanda literally ain't got no alibi, so her parents suggest taking her to a doctor. They take her to a Dr. Elmont who also thinks it's all stress related and that Amanda should just relax for a while. Mrs. Conklin thinks to let Chrissy go as a way to, you know, alleviate the triggering issues, but Mr. Conklin says that really wouldn't be fair to Chrissy since, as far as they know, and they intentionally know very little, Chrissy hasn't done anything wrong. She apologizes to Chrissy before finding another Kitten (The point was made, Bob), which also hisses at Chrissy. Amanda thinks to just hide the cat in her room for safe keeping.

But before we get to that, Amanda gets a call from her friend Carter saying that Suzi is now in the hospital after heading to the library, so add that to the stress. After Chrissy leaves, Amanda checks out the references and manages to get a call to a Mrs. Harriman. The girl on the other line says she's just a neighbor and the Harrimans disappeared after some sort of trial. Suddenly, another woman tells the girl to get off the line and screams that if Chrissy is there, then she needs to leave now. Which, conveniently leads to Chrissy showing back up. She says that it's a real shame what happened to Suzi. A real, real shame. Later, Amanda once again checks for any signs of the newspaper clippings, only to end up finding a picture of Mr. Conklin. Ohhhh I think I see where this is going. 

So, Mr. Conklin defended a homeless man named Arthur Lawrence who was rummaging around that night when the incident occurred at an office building. The building was on fire. However, the cops soon found the empty gas can in the man's campsite and was arrested for it. However, Mr. Lawrence was acquitted and a man named Anton Minor was charged with the crimes instead. She talks with Dave over it and believes that perhaps Anton was Chrissy and Lilith's father and that perhaps Chrissy is doing all this to get revenge on Mr. Conklin for sending her dad up the river. She then notices that the clipping mentions not Lilith, but Chrissy. Amanda then thinks that this means that Chrissy was Lilith the whole time.

The two drive to Channings Bluff to call the cops, but suddenly Dave starts driving erratically and smashes his head hard. Amanda tries to escape the car, but it seems stuck. Just as she breaks the window with a screwdriver, she sees Chrissy outside who uses her powers to drag Amanda out of the car. So, how does she have telekinesis? Well, she says that she uses all of her brain, not just the regular allotted percentage which has been debunked since, but 1994 book. Chrissy says that Amanda was right. That this was all a plan to kill the Conklin family. After her father was arrested, he took not just his own life, but also his wife and almost took Lilith's, meaning the carbon monoxide was a murder-suicide attempt. Since then she's been getting revenge on the people responsible. The references were the judge and the D.A, which she already finished off. Now it's his turn. 

Chrissy then shoves Amanda back into the car and makes it fall over the bluffs. Somehow Amanda survives the fall as it didn't crash into the ocean just yet. But Dave's dead though. Suddenly the car and Dave fall into the ocean as Amanda escapes in time. As Amanda tries to climb the rocks, she suddenly sees a giant eyeball, which is connected to the giant head of Chrissy. In fact, Chrissy is now a giant! No, wait. It's just one of the rocks Dave's brother painted. Look, given everything so far, Chrissy becoming the fifty foot woman isn't out of this book's wheelhouse. She manages to escape and then returns home, now just in her underwear because like she isn't vulnerable enough I guess.

As she gets home, she sees Chrissy on the phone with Mr. and Mrs. Conklin who are back in Shadyside, leaving Kyle and Merry alone with her. Not to mention a cop arrives around the same time. Chrissy manages to sneak into the house, has a meal, ensures that yes, the kitten is still alive, and showers. But she was stupid enough to leave the cereal box open, so now Chrissy begins to torment her with skull-rattling taunts about how Kyle and Merry are hers now. After she runs off to the small island where the shed is, Amanda grabs a knife then spots Chrissy on a skiff with Kyle and Merry. She manages to leap aboard and start fighting with Chrissy just as a wave knocks the boat around.

As Amanda tries to fight back, Chrissy grabs the knife and tries to kill her, only for Amanda to fight it off. Chrissy counters that by making Amanda float in the air like some kind of kite before sending her crashing down. Amanda grabs Chrissy's ankle as she's about to be sent back up, but the boat hits a rock and Chrissy goes flying out. It knocks Chrissy out, giving Amanda enough time to tie her up and save Kyle and Merry. They make it back home after the boat nearly sinks, but Chrissy soon wakes up and is now fully charged again because seriously, what did you expect was going to happen by not killing the psychic maniac? She starts to use her powers to set the house on fire and charges at Amanda, only for the kitten from earlier to dart at her, causing Chrissy to trip into the flames, killing her. Amanda and her siblings watch as the house goes down in flames. Hey look, the kitten lived! Now that's a twist.

As Amanda relays this story to the juvenile center doctor, Dr. Miller, Amanda gets some good news. Not only has Kyle corroborated the events, so did the families of the people Chrissy had killed. Also, and you all knew this one was coming no doubt, Chrissy was Lilith the whole time. There never was a twin sister named Chrissy. Lilith was in the coma, but when she recovered, she had gained her mental powers and escaped the hospital. She took the name of Chrissy, which was the name of the Minor family cat. But it's all good and a mega happy ending for Amanda and her kitten. But as the family head home, Amanda thinks she sees a girl that looks a lot like Chrissy waving to them in the driveway before disappearing.

I definitely liked this one, but I wouldn't say I loved it either. But I will give credit for at least trying a few new fresh things for once. We actually have a villain with supernatural powers, in this case full psychic abilities, which does feel more rare than usual. It's a bit confusing as to how "Chrissy" really could have had those powers from her coma, aside from being a unique trait for a Fear Street villain to have. Regardless, she actually does feel like a threatening villain for once. And you could argue the motivations were just. Though we never really get a concrete answer if Mr. Minor caused the fire or if it was Mr. Lawrence. Regardless, it at least makes sense that the focus is on revenge on the family of the man who drove her father to such an action. A welcome change from "Mentally snapped because of a boy" that Stine is known for.

Amanda is a decent protagonist and you actually do feel for her, especially as things escalate and as it almost seems like she's going insane. Though honestly, if the twist was it was all a gas leak, I'd buy that too. But she does care about her siblings and family and knows that she's not imagining the actions of Chrissy. So you actually root for her to win in the end. And fair dos to Stine with the swerve of starting her in the juvenile center to kind of make us think this was always going to be some swerve where it was her bad mental health. Granted it became a bit too much of a mega happy ending, but I can't really gripe when I'm still satisfied. 

So what we have is a book with some decent action, some solid suspense, a strong villain and a likable protagonist. Feels a rarity in Fear Street, but when it happens it's more than welcomed. Shame we have to have another book with animal murder, but at least the kitten gets to survive at the end. I can just imagine that Stine was thinking to find a way to make that cat dead meat but ultimately couldn't reach anything substantial. So his evil ways are defeated for once. Overall, I'd say One Evil Summer does just enough unique to stand out from the more dime a dozen Fear Street books, but still just misses the final oomph to make it a favorite of mine. Still a recommend. One Evil Summer gets an A-,