Previously, we covered The Stepsister, a 1990 book in the Fear Street series which featured a girl having to deal with incidents that may involve her new Stepsister, only to find out it was her actual sister. So Stine, never the one to not milk something for all its worth, would bring about a sequel in 1995. Which has me worried because, especially in Fear Street, Stine's sequels are usually pretty bad. Could this one buck that trend? Stranger things have happened. Let's find out with The Stepsister 2.
I like this cover a bit better than the first one. I think what makes it work better is that it feels more unassuming. Emily brushing her hair, not really paying attention to Nancy staring at her with an intent to kill. Having it be more sinister and dark compared to the weird glow of Jessie in the last book makes for a better piece of art overall. More memorable at least, as of the two Stepsister covers, this is the one I remember more often. Good stuff.
A year has passed. Emily and Jessie are closer together while Rich is more sullen and, well, I don't think Stine knew of the term Emo yet, so I guess sullen is the best word for it. Nancy is returning home from the hospital, which bothers Emily given, you know, she tried to kill her, but she also wants to try to reconcile with her sister. It means that Jessie and Emily are rooming together so we open in a similar way to last book with Emily stressing about her clothes and her weight, which hey Stine, that lane of yours is still over there. Both are also still having nightmares, Jessie about Jolie and Emily about Nancy. We also learn that Jessie has a crystal swan called Grace, which I guess she always had since her parents divorced. You'd think "well damn, Stine must be setting this up for later" but nope, it drops on the floor before the end of chapter one. Rich storms into the room, angry at Emily for possibly NARCing on him for sneaking out to a party, so he's grounded for six weeks and can't finish his horror film "Night of the Living Eyeballs". I'm surprised that wasn't a Goosebumps book idea TBH. Despite Emily's claims of innocence, Rich promises that he'll pay her back for this.
As Rich leaves, they both note that he's been acting strange, even for a fourteen year-old. They note he's into cyberpunk and rents Clive Barker movies. Okay Bob, we moving on from Stephen King? We taking swings at Clive now? I'm on to you. Jessie vacuums the glass when we see Butch, their new Dachshund. OH FOR FUUUUUUUUUUUCK'S SAKE, STINE! This is already feeling copypasta and we're not even two chapters deep. He wouldn't kill two beloved pet dogs of Emily in two different books would he? Well when it happens I'll pretend to be surprised. They hear the door and think it must be Nancy, but instead it's Jessie's friend Cora Ann Haver. We learn they've been friends for a bit and that Cora Ann is going through a bit of a nasty situation as her parents are always fighting. She's always coming over, always seeming like she prefers living with the Casey/Wallner family more. As she talks about the love lives of other Fear Street characters, Nancy is finally home, and she's brandishing a knife... that was in the garden, left by Rich for his film. Oh right, this is a 1995 Stine book too, we're gonna be chock full of stinger chapters.
Nancy seems to be fine, though a bit cold around Emily and Jessie. Mr. Wallner calls Rich down, who is still barely speaking to anyone, but Cora Ann breaks the ice by talking about horror movies and The Shining. So no, Stine's still referencing King. Nancy heads upstairs, as does Jessie and Cora Ann. Emily talks with her mom about trying to make things work with Nancy. This is immediately broken a minute later when she finds her bottle of perfume that Josh got her from his trip to Paris, spilled all over her carpet, and she immediately blames Nancy. Though Jessie and Cora Ann try to say that maybe the wind from the open window blew it on the floor. That and, you know, literally not even five minutes and she's ready to send Nancy back to the hospital. Rich then shows up and says that maybe he did it. The next day Mr. Wallner wakes everyone up for breakfast at a restaurant (save for Rich who we've established ain't into this family stuff) and makes a joke about rotten eggs making an awful waffle. Which is one of Stine's better dad jokes. Nancy touches Emily's hand which causes her to jump. When they get home and Emily gets to her room, Nancy grabs her by the throat... to prove a point that she's NOT going to try to kill her again. Well, I mean there are easier ways to not do that but sure.
Emily and Nancy talk for a bit. We see she's painting a mural she plans to reveal later. She tells Emily that she really has gotten better and she doesn't have any hatred towards her for the death of their father. So it, at least for now, feels like everything's going fine. But that would be a short book were that the case. Nancy plays with Butch as Emily leaves to go skating with Josh. After skating at the lake, the two start walking through the woods, only to almost be clipped by Rich and his friends on their bikes. He's still grounded, but warns Emily that if she tells, well, I think snitches really will get stitches in this situation. They return home and see Cora Ann at their den door, totally not concerning at all, but we're not even halfway through. Emily returns to her room to see Jessie playing Tetris on their computer. Oh my god, Stine knows of a game that isn't Battle Chess! She then goes downstairs to get something to eat and sees Nancy. When they head back upstairs, Nancy's foot seems to shoot underneath Emily, causing Emily to fall down the stairs and get banged up. Of course, she immediately thinks this was intentional but Nancy says it was a complete accident on account of the pills she has to take. The side effects are muscle spasms and, well, what a time to have one, huh?
At lunch the next day, Emily talks with Cora Ann who says that her father left home and doesn't seem to be coming back. When Jessie asks Emily about what she was talking to Cora Ann about and learns of this, she's upset that she wasn't the one to know about that, being her best friend and all. So yeah, Jessie is starting to act jealous around Emily as well. Because I guess if the book was entirely blaming Nancy it would get redundant. Redundancy? In a Stine book? Later, the girls play Scrabble, that is except for Emily who has a date. She goes up to get her dress, but sees that it's been cut down the middle. She again blames Nancy who freaks out when blamed. Then when she tries to apologize, she sees Rich cutting up construction paper with a pair of scissors. He holds up the scissors and does a snip snip motion. Shit, maybe snitches really are going to get stitches. But now Emily starts to believe that clearly some of these things haven't been Nancy, it must be Rich. So she'll at least try to give Nancy the benefit of the doubt for the fifth time. Later on, she sees Nancy with a toolbox, saying she's going to fix the old Treehouse. Later, when she drives off to a date with Josh, she soon discovers that her brakes aren't working. She dodges a truck, but ends up careening into a tree and blacking out.
Emily wakes up in a hospital bed. And, as if on cue, she immediately suspects that Nancy must have messed with her brakes given the toolbox and all. She tells her dad that she suspects Nancy, but he says that it's his fault. He knew the brakes were loose but kept putting it off, and now it nearly killed his stepdaughter. Despite that, she still thinks it's Nancy. They return home and again Rich acts like a creep around her. So this is gonna be the majority of this book, huh? Bad thing happens to Emily, she blames Nancy, Rich acts creepy, but she still blames Nancy? Okay then. Later that night, Emily is awakened to the sound of Jessie screaming, still having nightmares over Jolie. She then takes out a photo of Jolie since I guess in the year since they've lived together and the sharing of information on Jolie, Jessie just up and never thought to show Emily a picture of her. Emily looks shocked as Jolie looks almost the spitting image of Cora Ann. Some time later, Emily picks up the phone to call Josh but overhears Rich talking with his friends about sneaking out to drink beer at his friend's. Rich catches her overhearing and is again making threats about getting rid of her.
Emily and Jessie watch Sleepless in Seattle, although Stine never mentions it by name, just that it's Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan and the Empire State Building is in it, so yeah. Cora Ann shows up and says that her dad is back and her family is fighting so she asks to sleep over, which she is invited to do so.The next morning, Emily brushes her teeth when suddenly her mouth won't move. She then notices an open tube of super glue. Which, oh damn that's the freakiest thing this book's actually done and it's had a car crash. She panics, but thankfully the glue comes off in water. So now the entire family knows that this wasn't an accident. Someone is out to get Emily. After going to the hospital, Emily goes to school the next day and talks with Cora Ann, who mentions she used to live in Parkerstown. But Jolie was from Parkerstown. Aaaaaand this feels like it's going to go exactly as I think. 50 odd pages left. You can still swerve me Bob. Oh, and Emily sees Nancy and Rich talking later which is weird. She then goes into the living room and OF FUCKING COURSE THE DOG IS DEAD!
Well Butch wasn't stabbed this time, but the dog is stone cold dead. Jessie suspects a heart attack, but Emily suspects Nancy which, I mean, she did stab the last dog. She lunges at Nancy while Jessie tries to hold her back, all while Rich again acts creepy. You know Bob, I was joking about the redundancy thing but okay then. Jessie and Emily drive in Jessie's car to go visit Cora Ann's for the night, since Emily still thinks it was Nancy who did it. They stop at Cora Ann's, only to see Jolie's parents there. They've moved to Shadyside a while ago. And Jolie's cousin Cora Ann's been living with them. Jessie drags Emily back to her car and clicks on what's going on. Cora Ann is here for revenge for what happened to Jolie. Everything that happened to Emily was supposed to happen to Jessie. Emily doesn't fully buy it, like why kill Emily's dog? Jessie suspects that Cora Ann only saw Butch jump around Jessie and assumed.
The two return home and Emily apologizes to Nancy for suspecting her or any wrongdoing. They try to call the cops, just as a convenient storm causes the phones to go dead. As Jessie and Emily panic, Cora Ann shows up, brandishing the knife from earlier. Nancy shows up and smacks Cora Ann witha frying pan. She then says that Cora Ann doesn't have Rich's knife, that was her knife. She then starts to stab at Emily. Yeah, she hasn't actually changed. She still wants to kill Emily. Well fuck, he did swerve me. Emily sees the "mural" and it's just the word "Hate" painted all over the wall. Emily then does the only thing she can do and that's tackle hug Nancy, saying she forgives her. Some time passes. Cora Ann's family are getting back together, she never held any actual grudge against Jessie. Nancy is back in the hospital, but Emily visits her every week, making good on her promise to forgive her. Also we end the book with Rich not leaving his room, to which Emily notes that he must be watching Family Feud.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAA two dogs are fucking dead.
I don't know if I'm an easier mark than I expected or not, but I'll give Stine credit. I actually did not expect Nancy to wind up being the villain again. Of course Cora Ann is a red herring. Especially once Stine adds the extra wrinkle of her being Jolie's cousin. Of course the whole thing with Nancy tripping Emily would be intentional. So, props to Stine for finally getting me good on one of these books. Still isn't enough to call him a good mystery writer as in the end, this is still predictable if you take certain things into consideration, but yeah. Broken watch right twice a day. That being said, there are things that just feel like they fall into the ether. The worst being the stuff with Rich. We just never resolve that. At all. He keeps making threats to Emily and... nothing. We end on a joke with him watching TV. Maybe him not getting in trouble for sneaking out fixed him? And, no, thankfully The Stepbrother is not a direct sequel to this so that's a relief. Though knowing Stine he probably did want to do a third book with Rich as more of the villain and would, I don't know, have the villain be Nancy for a third time. And somehow find a way to kill a third dog.
This book is frustrating. There are some good moments of horror, especially the super glue scene and the car crash. Though both rush through the plot so quick and Emily is fine after both that they just feel like horror scenes to add horror scenes. But we still get a book that feels very similar to the last book. Constant threat befalls Emily after constant threat. Right down to somewhat similar situations like a bathroom product being tainted and her dog being killed. Nah, I'm still pissed at the dog death because that feels more like a crutch here than it ever has. I said it last book, if he can't murder a teen, he'll at least kill an animal. Maybe I'm just tired of seeing an animal introduced in this book and immediately going "Oh fuck it's dead meat, huh?" and nine times out of ten being right. But, I get it. Works for horror and it is legitimately upsetting, so I see why it's a crutch of his.
But I will say I like the added character stuff we do get. And the book does leave you with enough of a question. Was Nancy wanting to kill Emily from the start or was Emily's constant blaming of her what set her off? You could easily assume either as we have Nancy grabbing Emily's shoulders and the scene of her being tripped, but the stuff with the mural comes after Emily, almost from jump street, begins to blame Nancy for everything. Which, I mean, Nancy did try to kill her, so you can understand that Emily, for as hard as she's willing to try, will always have that severed trust with her sister, which can be easily understood. Stine has never really been good with characters, especially ones with deep issues like Nancy has, so seeing him put in an effort to at least humanize her before he just up and goes "Nah on second thought she's still crazy" feels like an attempt. Ultimately boiled down to another villain with bad mental health, but at least this wasn't a complete bed shitting like Babysitter III. I also like Emily and Jessie's relationship. Save for the weird jealously stuff that Stine also drops out of nowhere, having them feel like sisters who trust one another is nice character evolution. In any other book (COUGHHALLOWEENNIGHT2COUGH) we'd have Emily reset and just blame Jessie for everything again. It's weird, it's like Stine both tried and didn't try. Man's a paradox.
So, ultimately this was a decent sequel. Not perfect, it falls into the same traps as many a Stine sequel does, and it feels part and parcel to so many others, but there are things I feel do work in its favor and it at least feels like Stine came into this one with an idea. This feels like a book Stine wanted to do and not just a book that he did because the first sold well, so slap an outline around it and pump it out like the others. But it still suffers from still feeling like it did have some outline stink around it. Mainly because so much seems to just get lost in the shuffle while he just redoes some old bits from the last book. Add in it's only like 142 pages it definitely feels like some stuff was cut out. I just don't get building up the Rich stuff to not have any plan for it whatsoever, just veiled threats of a creepy kid. But I'll give this one a recommend. It's one of Stine's better attempts at a sequel, but still suffers like much of his sequels still do. Could be worse. Could be the Silent Night sequels. The Stepsister 2 gets a B-.
IT WAS ACCEPTABLE IN THE 90S: Clive Barker, VHS Tapes, The Shining, Tetris, Scrabble, Renting movies, Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield, Phones Without Caller ID, Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Sleepless in Seattle, VCRs, "The new Jim Carrey movie", Family Feud
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