The Stinal Countdown: 99 Fear Street: The First Horror

It's time to travel once more into another Fear Street trilogy. Two years ago we delved into the history of the Fear Family and the birth of Fear Street itself. Now it's time for a trilogy that's based around one evil location that resides on fear street, 99 Fear Street, otherwise known as the house of evil. I don't know if Stine meant for this to happen, but of course the first thought in my mind is Welcome to Dead House. Can Stine shake away those notions, or should I knock on another door? Let's see how things unfold with 99 Fear Street: The First Horror.

This cover is kind of rough if I'm being honest. Not sure why exactly. It sells enough of the plot. We get the house, our protagonists, and a knife dripping blood. So there's enough to tell us what we're getting into. But, I don't know. There's a really rushed feeling to this. Not to mention the faces look weirdly off. The covers to follow are better, but this first one just doesn't make me as energized to get into this book than most Fear Streets. Though that often means I'll like the book, so we'll see.

We open the story with a prologue set in 1960. Two renovators, Jimmy Lunt and Andy Skowski, are working on fixing up 99 Fear Street. However, it seems that since the job was taken, everything's went to hell, including several workers ending up injured on the job. Be it one guy who was electrocuted until he turned blue, or another guy who was blown off the roof with ease. Andy mentions that it may be the house itself as the story goes that when construction began, there were bodies buried in the basement in unmarked graves. Jimmy's not too fond of hearing about such squeamish things and would rather focus on the Beach Boys concert coming up. 

As the two begin work on the foundation, Jimmy tries to pry the cracks with his screwdriver, only for it to suddenly slip out of his hands and badly slice his hand open. I'd ask why they're working without safety gloves, but this is the sixties after all. They probably want to rush this job so they can take a Winston break like Barney Rubble would later suggest. Suddenly the cracks widen and a rat exits. As they attack the rat, a large shadow swirls over the two teens, killing them instantly as rats surround their corpses. I guess they won't be picking up good vibrations any time soon.

Cut to the present time, or in our case, the mid 90s. Cally Frasier and her twin sister (oh god, more twins) Kody, along with nine year old brother James and their parents, are moving to Shadyside and living on, where else... I mean, you know where they're living, it's the title of the book. James is also really wanting a dog since the parents promised to get him one, and oh god I already dread where that's going. They arrive at 99 Fear Street and while it still looks worn down, the house is large and spacious. Bigger than their old apartment. 

But Kody thinks something's off about the house. How it always looks obscured from the light. That it might be a haunted house. Turns out she thinks everything is haunted given the books she reads and her general paranoia. Cally mocks her for it, and Kody gets a bit jealous, given that it's Cally with all the friends and such. As the family start putting boxes into the house, a large tree branch suddenly breaks off one of the trees and almost falls on Cally, only for the roof to break its fall. So now with a giant hole in the roof, those haunting suspicions may have some weight to it. In the commotion, they run into the real estate agent Mr. Lurie. You know, this is all feeling VERY Dead House right now. 

Mr. Lurie is a strange short man who seems mostly transfixed on Cally as he apologizes for the whole branch incident. He also mentions that nobody has ever lived in the house as it's usually unlucky. Saying so in an extremely nondescript manner. Unlucky as in just nobody was interested, or unlucky as in cursed? They enter the house and it also looks in disrepair. They check out the bedrooms. Cally gets the biggest one which makes Kody even more jealous. James really wants a game room, for pinball and Super Nintendo. My god I love 90s books. So they check the basement, only to see that it's full of rats. The rats start attacking the kids before the three manage to get out in time. So add that to the list of problems so far.

As they discuss all of this, a young man arrives at the front door. This is Glen Hankers. He says that he's a repairman, an exterminator, pretty much any handy work they need he can provide it. Cally writes in her diary that night about how things haven't been too good so far and that she misses her boyfriend Rick, who we learn was Kody's boyfriend first, adding to the many reasons Kody is jealous of her. The next day, at breakfast, Kody leans by an open window in the kitchen when it suddenly falls right on her hands. They aren't broken, but props to Stine. Just reading that made my hands hurt. 

Cally heads out to the nearby restaurant. No, sadly not Pete's Pizza, another place called The Corner, which might be alright, but it's not Pete's Pizza. But she does meet the young waiter named Anthony and hits it off. Cally also easily got a job at a boutique for couples called Two Cute, which gotta admit, pretty solid 90s store name. When the siblings return home, Cally is attacked by a creature. No, not a rat, but a puppy named Cubby. Oh fuck, you're gonna kill a puppy, aren't you Bob? I mean, he's written a kitten getting its neck snapped so I'm just preparing for the inevitable. They have dinner to which we learn a Mrs. Nordstrom showed up out of the blue like Mr. Hankers did to be their new housekeeper. Of course they aren't having any red flags about that yet, but it's still early in the book. 

As Cally gets up to get the pepper shakers, she suddenly sees her father jerk forward and stab his side with a knife, to which he instantly blames Cally for shoving him, which is moot given, you know, big fucking knife wound! But Kody is convinced that it must have been a ghost. Of course, Cally is confused as to why Kody would suggest it was a ghost doing the stabbing, but Kody thinks she felt a presence in the dining room. Probably the same one that tried to smash her hands. But neither Cally or their parents believe her because, I mean their dad was immediately blaming Cally for it, his judgment is already shite. That night, Cally hears soft pounding and scraping sounds at her door, but when she opens, there's nobody there. The next morning, Cally helps Kody with the tree branch on the roof, but despite Cally's best efforts, the ladder continues to move on its own, which eventually sends Kody crashing to the ground in a heap. She's not dead, but I guess the ghost has moved on from wanting to just break her wrists. 

Everyone is now more irritable, Kody blames Cally for the ladder despite, you know, KODY being the one who was believing in ghosts earlier. And Cubby the puppy has disappeared. When Cally checks out front, she sees 99 smeared on the front door, seemingly in blood. Kody immediately thinks it means the house is haunted. Oh, when it's anything else, the house is haunted, but the ladder was totally Cally's fault, I see. But they chalk it up as paint for now. The more important matter is finding Cubby. As Cally and James go to search, they run into Anthony, who is here for an exposition dump. Mainly in the fact that Fear Street has a history of horrific things and that living in 99 Fear Street in particular is bad news. Why? Well the answer is... going to be told to us later because James forces Cally to leave so they can continue their search for the dog.

Cally does invite Anthony over, but he doesn't want to go into the house itself, so he stays outside to tell them the story of 99 Fear Street. And it all ties back to the Fear Family, specifically Simon Fear. See, Simon and his wife Angelica were known for killing many people. But after all that killing, where do you stash the corpses? Well, back in the 1960s, while 99 Fear Street was being repaired, there was a discovery. Coffins buried under the building, each with the Fear insignia. Hey, they were murderers, but they sure loved their calling cards I guess. The family who were moving into the house however, didn't seem to have an issue with, you know, their house being built over a burial ground for murder victims. The man of the house brought his family in and went to check upstairs for a moment. But when he came back downstairs, he found his family dead, all decapitated. As if the heads were ripped right off. Nobody knows what happened to the man, but nobody moved into the house until the Frasier family. 

Of course, Cally doesn't fully believe this because we're still early into this story and despite, you know, plenty of reasons to believe something's up, she's skeptical. But their conversation is cut short when they hear James screaming in a panic, believing he heard Cubby. The kids can all hear Cubby, but can't find the dog anywhere. James leaves while Kody and Cally decide not to tell their parents since we already got our Because Fear Street Parents stuff earlier. That night, Cally hears the knocking at her door again, but this time finds the culprit, Kody. Yes, Kody did the knocking, and she was the one who painted on the door. Kody knew that Cally didn't believe her, so she tried haunting her to make her believe which, is a really stupid plan. So, you want to get her to believe you by deceiving her. We've had dumb teens in Fear Street before but wow. And yet she still blamed Cally for the ladder. Nope, not letting that one go either. So now Cally doesn't believe her and tries to tell her not to bring up any more ghosts for like a week.

Unable to sleep, Cally goes to the bathroom and turns on the faucet, only to get a sour smelling vomit-like liquid pouring out. It sprays all over Cally as Kody, their dad and James show up. They can still hear Cubby. But the slime sink and the dog barks might be fuckin' moot because Mrs. Frasier shows up covered in blood that was dripping from their bedroom ceiling. Mr. Frasier heads up to the attic, but things get awfully silent shortly after. He soon comes downstairs in a fright. There are three severed heads in their attic. A woman and two children. So, yeah. Maybe it's time to start fuckin' believing in ghosts Cally. However, when the cops show up, there's no heads in the attic. 

The next day, now aware of the story about the house, Mr. Frasier and Cally go to find Mr. Lurie to find out if he knew about any of this before, you know, selling them a murder house. However, there's no number on the business card, and the address is a vacant lot. They head to the library to find any info on a Jason Lurie, only for the librarian to find a listing for one particular Jason Lurie. He was a real estate agent. He was also the man whose family was decapitated in 99 Fear Street. He later hanged himself inside the house. So yeah, maybe the Frasier family should have checked things out before, you know, buying a haunted house from a ghost. Like even in 1994 there had to be some safety measures.

So everyone's a mess, especially Mr. Frasier who Cally mentions in her diary is becoming more erratic. The next day Cally invites Anthony over for dinner despite, you know, his crippling fear of the murder house. It's just them and Cally and things go well. That is until Anthony gets his fucking fingers cut off in the garbage disposal. Yeah, GREAT IDEA TO HAVE HIM IN THE HOUSE HE'S SCARED OF, CALLY! WAY TO GO! This book so far has great horror but some of the dumbest mental gymnastics I've witnessed in a while. Gonna be an interesting conclusion. So Anthony's fingers had to be surgically repaired, but otherwise his hand is messed. Mr. Frasier also tells the family that he went to his cousin's, hoping for money to help them move, but his cousin was broke due to taxes. So they're trapped here. James is also still in a panic, though also mentally broken over still not being able to find Cubby.

That night, Cally is awakened to the sound of James screaming. He's not in his room, but inside the walls. Mr. Frasier smashes the upstairs wall with a sledgehammer but finds nothing behind it. They then head downstairs, only for Mrs. Frasier to fall and land in a sickening heap. Her right arm so broken that the bone is sticking out. They hear James' voice, he found Cubby in whatever shadow realm he wound up in. Mr. Frasier smashes the ceiling with a hammer and checks while Cally can see some sort of shadowy hand in the ceiling. However, still no sign of James. They head to the hospital to fix up Mrs. Frasier's arm, but everyone is obviously in an awful state given James' disappearance and everything.

That night, Cally hears the knock again at her door. She thinks it's Kody, but when she catches her, it's Cally. I guess Cally's own ghost. She tells living Cally to check her diary which reads "I DIED TONIGHT". Dude, SPOILERS!! But sure enough, the floor turns into burning tar and pulls her down. Kody tries to save her, but it's too late. Cally sinks into the house itself as the bodies of the victims of the past pull her down. She then emerges, now just a ghost. She watches on as her family has her funeral, all while being angry that she died and not them. She also believes that Kody didn't save her and is pissed at her too. The Frasiers leave 99 Fear Street, but Kody sees the ghost of Cally before they leave. She promises to come back for Cally, but Cally says that if she does, she'll be very sorry. Another family moves in with a teen boy named Brandt and Cally already has plans. But that will be for the next book. Also I guess Cally's just evil now. Okay then. 

Well, the book delivers on this being the house of evil, that's for damn sure. And for the first part of a three-part story, it does a strong job at being an intense first act. Probably one of the darker and honestly sadder Fear Street books at that. No real goofy ghost antics here, these ghosts are out for blood. Either by injuring the Frasiers, sending them into a shadow realm or in the case of Cally, dragging her into the afterlife. Although it is kind of fucked up they just kill Cally, and presumably James and Cubby while leaving the rest of the family to leave. If I were Cally's ghost I'd be pissed off too. Pissed enough to become a killer ghost? I guess we'll find out in the next part. 

I will say there's a lot of idiot ball in this book. Enough idiot ball that it does demerit this book a bit. Before James vanishes and even up until after Anthony's accident, why would the Frasier family stay in the house? They all know the house is haunted. They know things are going to get worse. Yet they stay in the house. I know they don't have the money to move, but at least hop in the car and spring for a motel. Granted, lord knows how insane the motels in Shadyside are, but it's something. And there's the ultimate idiot ball moment of Cally inviting Anthony into 99 Fear Street despite knowing full well he's scared of the house and knowing by now that the place is fucked up. Why? Why would she suddenly think the house is going to behave itself and nothing can go wrong? I get part of it is her attraction to Anthony, but good lord. Though Anthony did accept the invite, so his fate is just as much his fault. 

Cally is an okay protagonist, albeit way too naive and skeptical, especially after it becomes apparent things aren't right with the house. Like, what logical explanation can she give for the ladder situation? She makes terrible decisions, but never to the point you want to see her die. Kody is frustrating. Again, she's so convinced about the ghosts yet she blames Cally for the ladder. Then makes things worse with the fake hauntings. It makes her a very tricky character to really get behind. Not out and out evil, but much like Cally, very misguided. James exists, but isn't really Superfluous Clay either, since his search for Cubby and the dog's haunted wails matter to the mystery. Anthony is here for the fingerless love interest. But I particularly like that the parents are involved in the horror. No constant disbelief, when they start to see the hauntings, they too try to do something about it as the mystery unfolds. Granted, again, go to a frigging motel, but otherwise. 

I have said before that I never read Goosebumps as a kid. As such my imagination often would spur what I thought the books were about. And my vision of Dead House kind of lined up with what this book offered. A haunted house where evil things continue to escalate. I do like what Dead House ended up actually being with zombie vampire things, but this book playing more heavily into my imagination kind of earns this book more points overall. I'll also admit I took a while on getting to this one. I really feel that cover didn't do the book justice. So in many ways it's to Fear Street what Piano Lessons Can Be Murder is to Goosebumps. But I'm definitely glad to have covered the book and can't wait to see how it continues. Hopefully I won't take forever to get to it. I'll have a deeper conclusion after finishing the trilogy, but for now The First Horror gets an A-.