NNtG: Ghosts of Fear Street #33: Attack of the Vampire Worms

We're rapidly approaching the end of Ghosts of Fear Street. Like five at least. And as we approach the end, we're entering some of the books that have interested me the most. Case in point this book which is about vampire worms. We don't get enough vampire action in a lot of stuff (Goosebumps in particular) but kid-friendly Shadyside has at least delivered on the idea. Does this book suck, or is it worth biting down on? Let's find out with Attack of the Vampire Worms.

You know, I could make an easy joke about white worm-like creatures, but I'll take the high road. This is another Happy Boy Pat cover and I really like it. Probably one of the better CG covers from this era. And I think it's down to the vampire worms themselves. How they look like monster eels with their white and green fangs. They do feel like actual threats. I also get Monster Blood IV vibes, which normally isn't a good thing, but I've always maintained the cover was the best part of that book, so consider that a complement. Solid effort.

Jane O'Neill starts the story at home plate, constantly whiffing pitches from the pitcher, Vinny. She doesn't seem to know what's giving her this sudden case of the yips, but she notices an old lady staring at her quite intently with cold looking eyes. Reader beware, you're in for creepy old people. After the woman disappears, Jane ends up struck out. She notes how weird that is to her best friend Lewis Unger, who is her opposite, being a bookworm and not a baller. As she mentions the strange old lady, two kids, Sharon "not related to Fred" Fuchs and Ben Weingarten, mock her for failing on account of geriatrics. But one boy, Tyler Briggs, seems far more focused, telling Jane to stay away from that old lady because she's a witch named Miss Woodley who lives on, where else, Fear Street, and is connected to, who else, the Fear family. When she was young, she was due to be married, but the groom disappeared on the wedding day. She also seems to go near the old mill in the woods, and yells at anyone who follows her. Which, I mean, you technically are stalking her. She's within her rights. 

Jane and the other kids scoff at the idea that this old witchy woman is of any real threat to them, to which Tyler calls their bluff, saying that Jane should follow her the next day and see for herself. Lewis adds a bit more context that Miss Woodley's mother was a Fear, and was on the more affluent side of the family. Jane mentions stuff like witch's brooms and black cats, which makes Lewis' dog Bubba start barking because he loves to play with cats. In the other Fear Street I'd pretty much be expecting Bubba to not make it to the end of this book. But, for now, Jane asks Lewis to meet her the next day and they'll do their stalking. The next day, they watch as Miss Woodley grabs a shovel and heads deep into the woods. She's digging for something, but the kids have no idea what. Suddenly, Lewis sneezes, because the book sets it up that this kid is very clumsy, so ultimately a bad partner to have when spying on a presumed witch.

Miss Woodley spots Jane and Lewis and runs after them, saying that they're in danger. The kids get away, but the clumsiness of Lewis rears its head again and he trips over a tree root and into a clearing next to the Fear Street river. As Jane helps him recover, they spot an old cave. Lewis, who is more engaging despite his klutz behavior, suggests they search the cave since when will they get this chance again? Much to Jane's chagrin, they go explore. As they move a log blocking the entrance, a white bat suddenly crashes to the ground nearby and then explodes into flames. An animal death in a Fear Street book. Stine would be proud. Suddenly Lewis isn't so fond of cave exploring, especially given, you know, exploding bats and all, but they did just move the log so Jane thinks that they may as well go in and that maybe the bat spontaneously combusted from natural causes.

As they search the dark cave, they see the stream inside is glowing, and the creatures, like fish, are ghostly white with eyes that protrude. Lewis, being an established klutz, trips and falls face first into the stream. When he gets back up, Jane notices that his face is covered with strange white worms who are eating at his face. That would be cause for panic, but oddly Lewis doesn't notice a thing, and seems to be more out of it than usual. Which, in fairness, his face was just leech meal and all. As they head out of the cave, they run into a cat. All white, even its eyes. So, the real evil of this book is albinos? But that's enough weirdness for Jane for now as she and Lewis rush out of the cave. The next day, when Jane visits Lewis, he seems more lethargic, more into caves, and less interested in being in the sun. But Jane manages to get him to the nearby oak tree which is shady enough for this kid from Shadyside.

But their respite is broken quickly as Miss Woodley arrives, saying that she knows the kids saw her. She then points at Lewis, saying that bad things happen in Fear Street Woods. People have even been killed! I mean, one man had his body eaten bugs with his skeleton remaining, so anything these kids are going through might not be on a level as fucked up as that. Jane and Lewis make a run for it, thinking that Miss Woodley is trying to get them off her trail not for something supernatural and foreboding, but maybe a treasure buried in the woods, which would explain the shovel. But to get answers, it's back to Fear Street Woods. Jane has Lewis keep watch while she digs. But they don't find anything. But that's moot because Lewis goes missing. Jane and Bubba search for him, eventually stopping at the cave, which seems to be calling to her to come to the cave. But as Jane tries to process that, Lewis exits the cave, having no clue what Jane's talking about when it comes to weird cave-related noisery. 

The next day, Jane tells the other kids about Miss Woodley. Tyler thinks this must mean that Woodley is a witch, but it's still like barely halfway through the book, so Jane doesn't buy her being a witch. Just a strange old lady who definitely doesn't have anything witchlike or evil about her. The kids are playing softball again and Lewis has to play as well. This is when Jane finally sees that Lewis' body is covered in red splotches. He chalks it up to sunburn, but Jane finally starts to suspect that maybe something strange is happening to Lewis. Something possibly curse-related. She takes Lewis home. Later, she finds out that Lewis left home with really no answer to his parents. This is most notably very un-goody-two-shoes of him. So Jane gets Bubba and heads to the cave. However, Bubba panics, attacks Jane and then runs as far away from the cave as possible. I mean given the weird cat and exploding bats, I can't blame the dog for turning tail.

Jane searches through the cave and runs into the white cat again. She follows it for a bit before the cat attacks her, sending her falling into a hole and into the nearby lake. She soon finds Lewis who calls her back to land. She's covered in the worms, but gets them off easily. It's there where she sees that it's not just Lewis with her, but a bunch of other people. White people. I mean it's a 90s horror book so that just sounds like a normal statement. I mean they're all white. Pale white skin, white hair, white, ghostly eyes that are bugging out similar to the fish in the stream. And going by their attire, they've been down there a long time. They introduce themselves as Bobby, William and Bessie. They have been living in the cave for years because of their deformity. They can't be in sunlight. And going by the black scar on Bobby's hand, yeah they'd go up in flames by the dimmest of light it seems. Jane tells them that she and Lewis have to go, but the people say they can't. Oh, this isn't a kidnapping thing, perish the thought. They just can't because it's too bright and need I remind you of the "up in flames" thing?

The three cave people take Jane into their shanty town of sorts. Jane sees the cat again, who then disappears and then Bobby shows up shortly after. Bobby asks of what life is like in the outside world, to which Jane tries to tell him of all the great 1997 technology and societal norms, which Bobby has no clue about. He asks about Fear Street, then warns Jane that William and Bessie aren't to be trusted. They'll never let Jane and Lewis leave. Okay, so it IS a kidnapping thing. My mistake. He tells her not to eat anything the cave people give her. When she sees Lewis about to do just that, she grabs him and heads back to the water. They try to swim away, but get caught by the cat for a second before the barks of Bubba in the distance scares it off. She sees more worms on Lewis, but more concerningly, the cave people surround her. 

William reveals that Lewis has already been turned into one of them. That the worms will eat away the blood of their victims and then, when a worm is ingested, finish the job to turn them into one of the cave people. They grab Jane and prepare to feed Lewis one of the worms, which would mean that yes, this book would have more worm eating than Go Eat Worms! Jane manages to get them to mash up the worm for Lewis, which gives her a chance to learn their backstory. William and Bessie had been recently married when they discovered the cave. They fell into the lake and were covered with worms, and Bessie ended up eating one, which sealed the deal. They tried to escape, but Bessie's newfound condition left her unable to leave because the sunlight and the moonlight, would burn her alive. So William ate one of the worms. The other people would eventually find the cave themselves, but many, like Bobby, never ate the worms. He also notes that he left behind a fiancee, so, again, obvious twist is obvious.

William reveals that the others could have returned to the surface at any time, but William and Bessie can't allow that because they might be discovered, experimented on, or, you know, fried to a crisp by an errant sunbeam. Also, they need more people because they don't have any new books to read. Jane uses this as a distraction as she shows them Lewis' book bag which she hurls into the lake. Jane and Lewis make a run for it with Lewis escaping the cave. Jane gets caught by William who forces Bobby to feed her the worms then they'll throw her out to burn. However, Bobby throws the worms at their faces and helps Jane escape. Jane and Lewis then see William start to push Bobby into the sunlight, but before they can do so, the other cave people grab William and Bessie, telling them that they'll no longer lure anyone else into the cave. Jane then sees that William's skin is burning red, but Bobby says that this will pass because Lewis didn't eat the worm. Well that's kind of anticlimactic.

A little bit of time passes. The cave now has a boulder blocking the light. Jane and Lewis have also given the cave people anything they need to live better down in their shanty town. They talk with Bobby and give him some books to read when another cave woman comes over to comfort her. This being Miss Woodley, who is now transformed into a cave person. I guess technically this one was willingly so we can't blame it on William and Bessie so, happy ending?

Catherine Hapka is the ghostwriter for this one. She has a history with kids books, writing a lot of books based around horses like the Pony Scouts and Free Reign series, along with books for properties like Sofia the First and Winnie the Pooh. She even still makes books to this day for more newer properties like the Carmen Sandiego series and Alice's Wonderland Bakery. And, like I said, a bunch of horse stories. This is her only Ghosts of Fear Street book and I honestly think it's a book that feels like it has a great idea, but I feel like there's something missing. I think it comes down to the worms themselves. A cool idea on paper, these worms that can turn you into an albino cave creature who burns in the light. But there's something just very anticlimactic to how the book sets things up. And I think it's the extra beat of having to eat the worms. Why is there need for a two-step program here? Why not just have the worms sucking the blood be the culprit? I guess the only real reason is plot convenience. To give us a way to at least give Lewis the ability to be healed in the end. The worm eating feels like a wall hit the book tries its best to recover from. There's also the cat which mattered a lot in the early portion of the book and matters very little by the end. Not enough to call it a Superfluous Clay, but more something that was here for a purpose, which is for Jane to call "Cat" and get Bubba to bark.

Jane is an okay protagonist. Not much real depth to her, but as an avatar to follow the events of the story through, she does just fine. Lewis is an okay best friend character, and his more bookworm-like traits do come in handy early in the story. I like the concept of the cave people. They have this nightmarish design of all white with bug eyes, and they do feel like threats to Jane and Lewis. William and Bessie get enough time to set them up as the villains of the story, who really lose any shades of gray when you get that they lured more people here for company and because they don't have reading material. Bobby being the one who tries to save the day while being tied to the history of Miss Woodley is a solid way to wrap up her story. But I again have to wonder why she was digging in the woods? Was she aware of Bobby being in the cave and was trying to dig her way down? Was she actually digging for treasure? It again speaks to what I mean by how something feels missing to all this. Like important threads that remained loose. 

But in the end, I liked this one enough. Still a very breezy read that does have a good creepy atmosphere and a lot of action and horror. I just really wish the book cleaned up the problems it has, which are numerous. If they fixed certain aspects, made the vampirism make sense, made the cat matter more, and not wave away Lewis' affliction by the end that he'd just be fine, then I think we'd probably have one of the better Ghosts books. But when you still have a decent enough horror story to get you through, you really can't complain that much. I mean, I could, but I'm not going to. Attack of the Vampire Worms gets a B-.