The Stinal Countdown: Fear Street: Haunted

Time for another trip to Shadyside. An earlier book in the series, actually. Back when Stine had a glimmer in his eye and, I dunno, TRIED most of the time? And we have ghosts this time around. Or what appears to be a ghost. This IS Fear Street after all and I have a feeling we're seeing our old pal hypnosis again. Could I be wrong? Does this book stand a ghost of a chance? Let's get Haunted to find out.

This is a solid cover. Or maybe the better word is transparent? I like the ghostly effects of our ghostly character here. Although, it does come off more as someone just lowering his opacity the further down you get. Honestly does a better job in selling invisibility than Let's Get Invisible! did. So in terms of being a ghost, it works great. Decent shocked reaction from our female protagonist and just enough of a cover to not so much be scary, but intriguing at the very least. Very safe Fear Street cover that works, as they often do. Though, if I like the cover, oh no...

Melissa Dryden, or Lissa as she's sometimes called, or "skinnybone" by her father because making light of her being so skinny is just so hilarious, wakes up in the middle of the night to the sound of something at her window. However, her father Wes Dryden notes it's just a branch scratching her window. But Melissa does have a reason to be scared. There's been reports of a prowler on Fear Street and for the last five years Melissa and her family have been living on, where else, Fear Street. Melissa's dad says there's nothing to worry about since they own a gun. I mean what, could a prowler own a gun? I don't think so! But Melissa's not super comfortable about a murder weapon in her house in a nearby drawer, but chalks it up to another part of an otherwise awful night. She was reunited with her boyfriend Buddy who was gone for the summer. Despite her wanting to talk, he would rather make out, which greatly angered Lissa. So bad news keeps compounding.

The next day, Mr. Dryden comes home early to give Melissa a Pontiac Firebird for her birthday. Which yes, any time he starts to talk about cars I think this is just Stine projecting what he really wants. Either a Firebird or a Taurus or a Saab. Melissa heads out to her friend Della O'Connor's, but suddenly he hears her voice being whispered and it feels like someone is pulling at the wheel, trying to send her crashing into an oil truck. Well this either means she's haunted or an obsessed schoolmate is coming to destroy her life. Still a toss-up. Her birthday comes up and with the car now in the shop and no idea what happened with the steering, it's a crappy birthday for Melissa. She holds a party which most of her friends come to, but no sign of Buddy just yet. But Melissa's friend Pete Goodwin got her a Weird Al CD. Okay, now this book's speaking my language. Buddy arrives and the party continues with the teens all having fun, though David Metcalfe is more concerned over the low output of chips at the party. The time comes for Melissa to open her presents, but the group soon see that they've all been opened already.

After the party ends, the Dryden parents return home. Buddy makes a bunch of goofy sarcastic quips and leaves. Mrs. Dryden notes that Melissa is wearing a silver pendant that Buddy gave to her for her birthday. That night, as Melissa tries to sleep she suddenly feels cold. That's when she sees the form of a young man start to approach her. He tries to grab at her, when suddenly he disappears after she screams. Her parents show up, but don't see anyone in the room. But Melissa believes that it must be the prowler on the loose and he must have escaped the first chance he got. Just dove out the second story window and landed on his feet like a cat, I guess. After things cool off, Melissa looks out the window, only to be suddenly grabbed again, trying to throw her out the window. But after Melissa recovers, there's no one in sight. She talks with Buddy the next day, but he dismisses it as anything important. Especially not a prowler who, unless said prowler really likes opening presents, doesn't seem to have any reason to rob them.

Melissa goes to the mall with Della and their friend Krissie Munroe, when both notice a girl in cheap looking clothing named Marylou, who Melissa went to day camp with. She also notes that she's poor, because don't forget most rich people in Shadyside tend to suck copious amounts of ass. Although even Melissa doesn't want to be a shitty snob. As Melissa drives home, she hears a voice whispering to her. She then suddenly sees a young man dressed in all denim in the passenger's seat which causes her to crash her car for a second time. This time into a middle aged man's car. But everyone's fine, save for his car, Melissa's makes it out okay. But with this incident and the night before, her parents start to believe that Melissa might not be well. They think they should take her with them to the lawyer's convention in Las Vegas, but even Melissa realizes that going on a three day weekend with a bunch of lawyers sounds worse than death, or death by whatever is after her I guess.

After showering, Melissa puts on the pendant and enters her room, only to find the young man there again. He tells her that she should know who he is, as she was the one who killed him. Of course, Melissa has no idea what he's talking about. And the ghost doesn't seem to know how, but he was definitely killed by her. The ghost says his name is Paul, but because he's been sort of floating in and out of reality, he can't remember much else besides his first name, him being killed, and the need for revenge. Oh and that it was definitely a rich person who killed her, like Melissa. He grabs her by the throat and starts to strangle her when Melissa offers to help him find the real killer, and solve how he died in the first place. Paul let's go and decides to kill her later. Knowing her parents already think she's crazy, Melissa opts out of telling them about the ghost, so she does something just as stupid, tell Buddy about the ghost. They find the Dryden's housekeeper Marta.

Buddy and Melissa go to Melissa's room where she calls for Paul, but he doesn't show up. Buddy, the worst icebreaker in the world, tries to make out with Melissa, but when she looks at him, she sees Paul instead and freaks out. And it turns out that only Melissa can see Paul as Buddy just thinks she's acting crazier than she already has been this evening. After Buddy leaves, Paul returns and continues to mock Melissa for being rich and not giving a boy like him the time of day. But he also thinks that she's lying about wanting to help him find the real killer and will definitely kill her later. But it's only like 75 pages into this book, we gotta pad the book-I mean, Paul wants to have some fun first. Melissa heads to the library to find any newspaper articles about Paul's death, but comes up with nothing. She meets with Della and the two head to Old Village to meet with a girl named Tracy who does mention that a boy had died at South just before school let out. However, when she gets the yearbook, she notes it was a different boy named Vince Alexander. So this was a dead end over a dead person. 

Melissa goes with Buddy to Red Heat. Not the Schwarzenegger movie, but a dance club in Shadyside. It goes well, until Buddy again says that she's acting weird about ghosts, which makes her leave in a huff. She runs into a group of drunken teens at a car, which includes Paul. However, he feels real, not see-through. He grabs her and is pretty much ready to do whatever he wants to her, but the other boys stop him, allowing Melissa a chance to flee. But after a while she notices they aren't chasing her, and that the other boys might be ghosts too. The next day, Melissa realizes she recognized one of the boys as Frankie, who works at the Stop n Shop. She talks with him, and he says that he's friends with Paul and that he's a bad dude. But when Melissa asks about when Paul died, he's confused, as the Paul he knows is alive and definitely not ethereal. When she leaves, the real Paul attacks her again. She tries to tell him that she was trying to help him like she promised, but he's confused. He grabs her bag and steals her keys, but before things can get even more concerning than they already are, a cop shows up to tell Melissa she parked in a no-parking zone. But it's enough time for Melissa to make her escape. 

However, when Melissa makes it home, she sees ghost Paul on her bed, who is confused when she mentions the previous events. That's when Melissa starts to realize what's happening. Paul isn't dead, at least not yet, and this ghost version must be from the future, from an event that's about to happen, which I'll admit is a more unique way of doing this. Ghost Paul ultimately realizes she may have a point. She takes him to Paul's house where the ghost Paul sees for himself that he is very much still alive, but dressed the same way as he is, so the death might be happening soon. Living Paul heads to the liquor store and meets with his friends. They plan to head out, but they have no money, but that's easy for Paul as he tends to rob the rich places a lot. To which ghost Paul realizes that he's been the Fear Street Prowler this entire time. The ghost Paul talks with Melissa and apologizes for how he acted. When he saw her friends mocking the poor girl and she wouldn't, he at least knew she was a good person. Melissa says she doesn't want to kill him tonight, but the ghost Paul believes that it's inevitable. She heads to living Paul and tries to tell him not to come to Fear Street, but of course can't mention the whole time traveling ghost stuff, so of course living Paul's mind hasn't changed.

Melissa's parents leave for the lawyer convention, leaving her home alone. She's paranoid for obvious reasons, but watches The Color of Money, only without Stine out and out calling it that, but does take this time to rant about how there are too many commercials during movie broadcasts on TV. And this was like the early 90s when that wasn't half as bad as now. Later that night, Paul breaks into her house, so Melissa goes for the literal Chekhov's Gun mentioned earlier. She points at at him, but can't shoot since technically that would have killer him, fulfilling the prophecy. She drops the gun, which allows Paul time to go after it. As they fight for it, Ghost Paul sees what's going on manages to knock the gun away from living Paul and tells her to shoot. That it can't be undone. So Melissa manages to get the gun and shoots Paul, killing him. Ghost Paul tells her that he can finally rest and thanks her for freeing his spirit before he finally disappears. Buddy shows up and sees Paul's corpse on the floor as the two call the police.

This one was pretty good. And, devil's due, one of Stine's better mysteries, even if it does feel like something was changed midway. I initially thought that the plot would circle around the pendant Buddy gave her. That Paul was haunting the wrong girl who killed him, that it was whoever owned the pendant. So no, I was not expecting time travel ghost. Which does feel like a unique concept, even for Stine. It's also some actual supernatural stuff in Fear Street, which is always appreciated. What I think Stine went for is the idea of a ghost finding a way to find redemption before entering the afterlife. And that Paul's ghost needed to more or less atone for his actions before leaving. The realization of what his actions have caused. And it's an interesting arc for the character. One who is as cruel and evil as his living form but sees what he's become for himself and does better himself by the end of the story. Character development, in an R.L. Stine book? There's also an not so subtle class issue here. How Paul perceives the rich as arrogant with how they treat poor people. And tries to at least make a point that it's not all rich people. See, you can make a book about a rich person who isn't shitty. Giving us three Reva Dalby books becomes less of an excuse.

Melissa is a solid protagonist. You understand her plight, her fears, her issues with everything going on from being haunted by Paul's ghost, to actual Paul being a horrible person. The book also does a good job in setting up that she isn't as bad as her friends are when it comes to being rich and treating other people horribly. And that her killing of Paul was ultimately in self defense. Paul is actually intriguing. His living self was a horrible human being. Not just in how he handled Melissa, but in his actions in life. Especially given he was the Fear Street Prowler the entire time. So by all means, he's a character that Stine isn't trying to redeem, at least not in his living form. His ghost version is one that has to go through the arc of realizing who he was and what he was going to do to Melissa. One who has to realize that his death wasn't meant to be prevented. And that his spirit was brought back to see why his death had to happen before he could enter the afterlife. Atoning and being forgiven for his acts. 

Although the big question that has to be asked is does Paul deserve to be forgiven for his actions while he was alive? While yeah, he didn't commit genocide like other ghosts, there's still that underlying sense of an abuser being forgiven, which will not sit well with some, but I will say Stine at least does a better job in trying to make a case for Paul to be given redemption. To reflect on his actions and his death being necessary. It's heavy stuff for a Stine book. Buddy fits fine for the boyfriend role. Kind of shitty himself, but not as bad as Paul. Della is mostly absent from the story, but is not really Superfluous Clay as how she and Krissie mock a poor girl is important to the message of the book.

The pacing of the book is also pretty solid. A bit slow early on, which admittedly is a reason why this one kind of entered the "to do" pile for a while. But once we get to ghost Paul it always moves at a good pace. Not much for supernatural or quick horror. We get a few scenes of ghost Paul attacking Melissa, but that's it. In terms of more real horror this book is full of that. Two car accidents for one, which does feel redundant, but this is Stine we're talking about. But everything involving living Paul is genuinely hard to read for me as it pretty much borders on assault. Not sexual assault, this isn't a Christopher Pike book, but still a sense that if Paul was able to, he would have. And I'd likely guess probably already did with some other girl, which yeah, Paul's spirit may be at peace, but he's still going to hell. So if you're looking for a book more about ghostly antics, you get that, and if you want a book about actual, concerning situations, you get that too. The perfect blend of just skeezy enough that you can read it without really questioning what the hell is wrong with R.L. Stine. But there's plenty of books where he's done worse shit.

So overall we have a good Fear Street book with a decent mystery, some actual concerning horror, a solid main character, a villain with a redemption arc, two car accidents and it always moves at a brisk pace. It's also early Fear Street so chapters are longer and there's like zero actual gotcha stingers in this which oh my god after reading so many later era Stine books lately is a blessing. When Stine found his worst tropes, it led to worse books. So going back and getting an example of how he can actually put in a solid effort when he tries is always interesting to see. Again, your mileage on if Paul deserves atonement will vary, but that aside, I do think this book is an easy recommend. Haunted gets an A-. 

IT WAS ACCEPTABLE IN THE 90S: Malls, Walkmans, CDs, Pontiac Firebrid, Weird Al CDs, Hard Rock Cafe, Levi's 501 Jeans, Volvo, The Wall Street Journal, VCRs, Disney Tapes, Alvin, Coca-Cola, Camaro, Oldsmobile, Tom Cruise, Paul Newman