The Stinal Countdown: Fear Street: The Best Friend

It's been long overdue for a trip to Shadyside. And hey, a book that centers around Christmastime. How timely. And it's one not starring Reva Dalby so maybe I won't want to die after reading it. One can only hope. They say that friendship is magic but when it comes to Fear Street, it can always wind up tragic. And this is a book with a sequel way later on so let's see how it gets off the ground, or if it has a failure to launch. It's The Best Friend.

This cover is good. I love the juxtaposition of the Christmas tree and the presents in the background to give us a festive flair while also giving us a solid shocked facial reaction. Guessing a butcher knife was not on her Christmas list this year. It's that right kind of holiday horror that works so well. It also isn't like, say, and I swear I'm not always trying to bring it up, but the Silent Night covers which give us cool creepy holiday visuals and never do anything with them. It's just mellow enough to not set your expectations too high and still an effective horror cover. Good stuff.

We open the book with Becka Norwood breaking up with her immature boyfriend Eric Fraser. He takes it well. And by well I mean becoming sort of blank and indifferent over it to the point that I think Becka was hoping for a more bombastic reaction towards it. Either way, she got it over with and now she can go back to her previous boyfriend Bill Planter. After being dropped off, she takes the car from her garage and drives to Bill. And in the midst of her anger over Eric's dry reaction, she doesn't pay attention as a car careens into hers. But don't worry, neither car got that damaged, but I'm sure this will TOTALLY not play into the later events of this book. 

We cut to after the events as Becka is knitting a sweater for her cousin Rachel, which the pair do every Christmas, which is nice, even though Becka's are admittedly shit. She talks with her friends Lilah Brewer and Trish Walters over everything that's gone down recently, including her short haircut which she thinks makes her look like a boy. Lilah notes that she wishes she looked like Becka because she looks like a bowling ball with legs. Speaking of bowling balls, STAYINYOURFUCKINGLANE STINE. After still being upset that she didn't get some insane reaction from Eric over the breakup, we get some info on Bill. He's a bad boy who always got in trouble with his friends Mickey Wakely and... Clay Parker... Hey I said no reminders of Silent Night, dammit! The three got in trouble for spray painting the school, which caused Becka's parents to forbid her from dating him. But it's been a year so surely Bill's going to be trouble-free, right?

But their conversation is interrupted when a strange red-haired girl about their age burst in, excited to see Becka, claiming to know her. Becka's confused, but also notices the girl has really big hands, which, okay. The girl introduces herself as Honey Perkins and says that she moved in next door and remembers the three of them, but damned if the girls know her at all. But they try the world's flimsiest poker faces as to not let down Honey. She says that she was Becka's best friend in fourth grade, but Becka remembers that being Deena Martinson. Seriously, does she have the most references in these books? She also claims that she's been living with her dad and her mom died, but we don't need to know WHERE she ended up, only that she's back now and that's all that matters. She then notices a parrot pin and mentions that Becka once saved an injured bird, which Becka doesn't remember but says she does because, let's face it, random girl runs into her room claiming to be her friend and all. Good odds she'd murder Becka on the spot if she said she didn't.

Honey makes her leave after managing to get Becka to give Honey her posters later. The girls are confused as they have no recollection of any Honey Perkins, but then check some photos from the fourth grade and sure enough there's a strange redheaded girl in the class, to which they do sort of recall her being kind of silent and weird. She's often sputter when speaking and have strange panic attacks at random. In fact, Honey didn't have friends at all, so if Becka WAS Honey's friend, maybe she did it randomly out of pity? I mean far be it for her to think it would cause any domino effect. But as soon as Becka started sitting near Honey, Honey soon left the school. But never mind all this backstory, Honey stole Becka's parrot pin. 

However, Becka's plan to take back her parrot pin is distracted when Bill calls and tells her to sneak out to meet him at the mall. So, yeah, he's totally changed. But she abstains against it since she'd get in trouble for it given her helicopter parents. Becka then goes next door to confront Honey, but the house is empty. There looks to be boxes inside, but nobody's home. I'm sure there's a logical explanation to this but we're way too early in the book to get one. The next day the girls head home from school. We see Ricky Schorr and get mentions of other characters since we're definitely deep into making Shadyside feel dimensional. We also learn that Trish is hosting a Christmas party, which will come into play later. But as Becka returns home, she spots someone in her room. It's Honey, and she's wearing Becky's clothes. And she seems to be talking to someone. Becka bursts in and sees her clothes strewn about and Honey saying she's not talking to anyone. Oh and Mrs. Norwood TOTALLY let her in, but Mrs. Norwood left for a while. Leaving a mostly total stranger in her house, which should be warning signs that she's full of shit, but Becka's just still super confused.

Honey is all excited that they fit in the same clothes and look alike and are totally best friends again. Becka brings up the empty house, but Honey says oh they're moved in NOW so it's okay. Then when she mentions the parrot pin, Honey starts to strangle Becka, then says it's just a joke. RESTRAINING ORDER NOW! I mean, she'll just avoid it and still try to kill you but RESTRAINING ORDER NOW! But it's cool, that was their "Gotcha" game as kids. Did... did R.L. Stine just invent the Choking Game? Also Honey says Becka gave the pin to Honey so it's all cool. Man, you could go blind with all the gaslighting going on. They start to put the clothes away before Honey departs with one of Becka's stained tops. Before doing so Honey asks to spend time with Becka, but Becka's going to hang out with Lilah. Which is probably not the thing to say to someone who just fucking tried to strangle you and tell you that you used to love it. After Honey leaves, Becka talks with Bill before Mrs. Norwood shows up and, shocker, she never invited Honey over. 

Becka and Lilah go biking the next day. They get stopped by Honey, but since she doesn't have a bike, she can't bike with them, and since Becka is with someone else, well that's just not going to fly. And given they're biking, you can figure out what's about to happen as the two go downhill when a truck crosses their path. Becka brakes, but Lilah does not and crashes into the truck. She survives but is in bad shape. Becka then notices Lilah's bike and notices that the brake cable is missing. Yeah maybe you don't tell the maniac your daily plans at this point. But we still have a bit of book left, so that's just a pipe dream. 

Becka talks with Bill some more before again seeing Honey in her room. She says that Becka must feel really bad about Lilah and how she just rammed into that truck and all in a gleeful "you're a maniac but you have a bad poker face but thank god your victims are morons" sort of way. Trish shows up, in case you forgot she existed to be victim number two. Trish and Honey leave as Becka finally lets it all out over one of her friends almost dying. But she finally has that date with Bill. Becka finally unleashes all her frustrations over Honey constantly hounding her, stealing her stuff, and never giving her a moment's peace, to which Bill gives the worst possible suggestion to Becka that maybe she needs to stand up for herself and get Honey to leave her alone. Which is also not a good thing to say when they see that Honey is nearby watching them.

Not long after this, Becka is sick with the flu, or "some virus that's always hanging around". Oh of all the things to not age well so far, that's the one. After having a nightmare of being chased by something, she gets a call from Trish who tells Becka that Honey said that Becka was in the hospital after having a mental breakdown over Lilah. Anyway, Honey then shows up, her hair now the same as Becka's because you know, if you didn't think this wasn't just a take on Single White Female at this point, here you go. Honey leaves, then calls a couple hours later to tell Becka that Trish lied about the claims about her being in the hospital, and at this point all Becka can really do is just agree with her even though at this point, she's had about enough. 

Becka returns to school and talks with Cari Taylor from (WOOO!) Party Summer over other things, including... HER. And by her I mean Reva Dalby who is skiing with her family for the holidays. Why she couldn't do that and not give us the Silent Night books I'll never understand but whatever. Either way, I guess she was due a reference, huh? Either way, Becka's finally at her limit with Honey, to which Trish jokingly suggests murdering her. Oh and Honey is with Eric Fraser now, so I guess that's a problem too, even though Becka broke up with Eric and I guess really wanted him to feel like shit about it. Okay, this one's at least Becka's fault, so you can't blame Honey on this one. You can blame Honey for looking exactly like Becka, but otherwise...

At this point, even Trish suggests that Becka stand up for herself and finally cut it off with Honey. Because, you know, everything suggests that will go over super well. And when Honey shows up, Becka straight up calls Trish her best friend. So yeah. Trish is going to get super fucked up super soon. But at least Becka warns Trish to be careful, so even she knows shit's about to go down. Becka then sees her locker completely destroyed. She heads to the girl's room and finds Honey, to which she immediately blames for it. Honey thinks that Becka must be picking on her over Eric, but Becka says that she's finally sick of her and tells her to stay away from her. And then Honey pulls out a gun and shoots her. Oh, but it's just a squirt gun. Look, just beat the shit out of her already. She'll probably still kill you, but at least it would be some catharsis.  

Later, Becka heads over to Bill's. He mentions that the locker thing was caused by some punk kids who didn't just mess with Becka's locker, but another Fear Street name, Gary Brandt. This MIGHT be the record for most past character references. Just missing like Suki Thomas and Bobby Newkirk. So now Becka realizes she may have just blamed Honey for something she didn't even do. Becka begins to feel bad for what happened and also begins to suspect that all of the interactions with Honey, it's usually Becka who overreacted. I mean... she did try to strangle you and claimed it was in fun. Let's not totally absolve her. Oh and Honey did try to make out with Bill so, again... When she heads home, her mom is pissed about her sneaking out to see Bill, which means she learned about it from Honey. Again, maybe snapping at her was warranted. 

So now Becka's grounded and pretty pissed at not just Honey, but everyone at this point. As she goes in her room to rage over it, she realizes someone is in there with her. Honey is in there and she admits to having told Mrs. Norwood about Bill. She tries to apologize but Becka tells her to piss off and that she's not her best friend. So now she just made Honey madder. Despite the grounding, Becka does manage to go to Trish's party. We get more references to David Metcalf and Lisa Blume, oh and Jade Smith. Bill shows up as well. Oh and Honey's there in the exact same outfit as Becka. Becka snaps at Honey, telling her to go away, which causes Honey to cry and run away. Up the stairs where she sends Trish falling down the stairs and knocking her out. As everyone helps Trish, Honey tries to comfort Becka again, saying that she still has her one and only friend. She runs away from Honey and into the arms of some officers before passing out.

Becka wakes up in her house. She had passed out during the party and is now just waking up. Trish is alive, but broke her neck. Honey calls, which causes Becka to panic, but everyone just thinks she's just reacting from the shock of what happened at the party. Everyone leaves and eventually Honey calls again. She tells Becka to come over to her place, but Becka is drugged the hell out. But when she hears Bill's voice, she has no choice but to head over. 

Becka enters Honey's kitchen to see her with Bill. In a rage she grabs a knife and lunges at Honey, but is too weak and passes out. Bill and Honey argue over helping her, but Honey grabs the knife and stabs Bill in the chest, killing him. She puts the knife in Becka's hands and says that Becka was the one who killed Bill, but don't worry, they'll make up a great excuse to keep her from going to jail. But now they'll be friends forever. And Becka, so drugged she believes it, thanks Honey for being a good friend. 

You know, for all the murders, all the insanity, all of the things we've gotten in Fear Street, this might be our most depressing ending ever. Oh and definitely dark. The villain wins in this one. She gets everything she wanted. Becka's friends are out of the way, her boyfriend's dead, and now Honey managed to gaslight her just enough to finally break her. And yes, there is definitely a very, VERY lesbian-coded nature to Honey entirely. But this is a 90s book and so she's more presented as Becka's best friend instead of someone who is trying to become Becka's girlfriend. At least not yet. It reminds me a bit of another book I covered, Amnesia, with that being an old friend trying to convince an amnesiac that she's her sister. Granted, I'm kind of glad we couldn't make this a lesbian story, especially in the 90s, because while it makes for one of the most unique antagonists in Fear Street, it also perpetuates horrible stereotypes about LGBTQ people as obsessive maniacs willing to literally break someone's mind to get their way. So while it's cool to have a character who with enough tweaking is pretty much just a lesbian yandere, I'm glad Stine pivoted. 

And it makes for what might be one of Stine's better mysteries because for once he doesn't seem to hit a wall with the story. I feared that it was going to all be in Becka's head after the car accident, or that maybe Honey was an imaginary friend and everything was all trauma coming back again from the car accident. Boy the car accident really didn't matter a god damn, did it? But no, Honey is presented as a threat from the beginning and never stops feeling like one from the beginning to the end. It even opens up the possibility that some of what happened was Becka's doing. Notably Lilah's brakes. So we get a mystery where we can't even be wholly sure if our main character isn't inherently evil herself. Stine... tried with this book? It's a Christmas miracle. 

Becka is an interesting protagonist. One of the most interesting when you consider how to interpret some of the situation. You can understand her plight with Honey and even with her parents over Bill, while still always seeing her having somewhat of an evil side to her. One more latent than, say, Brenda Morgan from the Halloween Night books. And hell, maybe she was Honey's friend back in the day but given how fractured she is mentally, she could have blocked it out. Honey is a unique villain. Psychotic, but also devoted to Becka in a way that kind of makes it hard to fully gauge her. Again, that clear lesbian coding that resonates with how she ignores anyone else around her, wants all her things, will even hook up with her former lovers JUST to make her jealous. It also comes off as her loving Becka so much that she wants to dress like her, live like her, do everything like her. 

And, if I have to demerit the book on anything, it's that I really wish we got an answer as to what Honey's deal was. Aside from the obsession we get nothing about what's happening here. Why did Honey show up now? Where is her family? What was the triggering event that forced Honey into this wild obsession with Becka? I said Stine handled the mystery well, but I didn't say he didn't forget to really build on an answer as to what's going on. I get that we don't need a deep dive into every villain's actions to understand what makes them a great villain, and that it would all be chicken feed when the important twist was her managing to win in the end, but some answers would be great. 

So, ultimately I liked this one. I think it worked well as a Single White Female story, but still feels like it lacks one or two elements from making it a top favorite of mine. Still a super strong recommend. There is a sequel released way later, which I've heard isn't as good. Which given it's both a Stine sequel and a sequel released years later, I can see why I'd need to be worried. But regardless, this is still a better Christmas Fear Street story than any of the Silent Night books, so it wins no matter what. The Best Friend gets an A-.