A Blast from the Past: Fear Street RETURNS!

So, I haven't done one of these things for a while, but why not.

I was feeling a little nostalgic these last few days so I picked up the newest addition to the world of Fear Street... Party Games.

The plot goes as follows: Rachel (I think that's her name...) is invited to a birthday party on Fear Island. Of course she's going to go.  The hottest boy in school is the birthday boy.  She can't resist his skinny jeans and gamer cred, so off she and a group of other Shadyside High students go to the Fear Mansion on Fear Island, where they will all be exposed to a boat load of... FEAR!

Well, for better or worse, this was total old school Fear Street. ( I say better!)

First off, the twisting, turning plots with more holes then swiss cheese are back.  This is a good thing.  This book is a quick blast of cheesy, fast moving fun.  Sure, the plot twists are predictable, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable.  Or silly.  Oh lordy is this book silly.  It starts out with a typical slasher movie plot, then turns a 180 in the middle, and switches to a run and hide thriller.  Only in Fear Street could this happen.

This book is shockingly innocent compared to the YA books of this day and age.  No cursing, no sex and the violence is kept to a bare minimum.  The worst thing any of the kids do is drink a beer.  Yep, beer. Now, this will make me sound old, but it felt nice to pick up a book and get a total escape from real life problems. While there is a time for serious stories that deal with issues like sex, drug abuse, abortion and suicide, there is still plenty of room for a story where a bunch of oh so perfect, unrealistic teens get terrorized by madmen on a desolate island. This feels like the true return of escapist, short YA lit.

When I say this is old school Fear Street, I mean old school, before ghostwriters took over the series and started loading it up with blood and gore (I'm look at you Fear Street Sagas: Door of Death, with your limb ripping, heart eating fun. Thanks for that one Eric Weiner.). While no one is confusing spilled ketchup with blood, there are still a lot of misleading and misinterpreted cliffhangers. (Stine is responsible for one of the most vicious deaths I've ever read, though. Bobbie's death in Cheerleaders: The First Evil.  Boiled alive.  Just wow.)

The book is pure 90's cheese.  Reading Party Games felt like the series had never ended.  It fit so perfectly into the world of Fear Street.

Am I saying this book is good? Oh, far from it.  The book is bad. Very bad. But good bad, in the sense that it is so bad, that it suddenly becomes enjoyable. Plus, it never stops moving. It just hits the ground running.

Plus, the dialogue in the book can be a real howl.  None of the characters speak like real teens.  Another part of the book that never left the 90's was the dialogue.  It is atrocious.  Nothing sounds natural.  The characters, as is the case with all Fear Street books, are mostly cardboard cut outs who dress really weird.

While I can't see young readers flocking to this book, I can see old school fans like myself eating this book up.  Seriously, if you were a fan of Fear Street growing up, give Party Games a chance.  It is truly a welcomed blast from the past.