Readalong, book 2
Oct. 21st, 2021 10:00 amSecond book in the read-along with ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
luxken27 is R.L. Stine's The Secret Bedroom, which happens to be book 13 in the Fear Street series. It was chosen because it's one of the books her awesome-sauce library could get that I already owned and it sounded interesting.
Annnnnnnd of course I have a story about this one. :P My copy is from the 6th grade book fair. Behold, the little paid for stamp:
I remember that this was one of those books that set off an absolute CRAZE in my grade, and possibly the rest of the school. I don't know if it was the cover, or if it's the fact that Fear Street was still kinda new, or hell, maybe by then every kid in 6th grade knew on some level that middle school was going to be a sucking hell pit for most of us. I'm guessing other Stine/Pike books must've been circulating before then as this would've been the spring book fair and I distinctly remember getting one of the first few FS book from the library, loaning it to a girl in my class, and not getting it back until the last couple of days of school, and ONLY because I had to beg her to find it because they were holding me hostage if I didn't return the book.
But I digress. This book, for whatever reason, could temporarily buy you popularity. Was it the cover? I dunno, but it's pretty awesome. The haunted/evil green, the skeletal hand, the high-waist jeans... the wallpaper that has stuck with me for decades now. I don't know. I truly could not tell you what it was about this one that set us all off, but it did. I vividly remember staring at the cover, entranced by it. I also remember that loaning this one out was pretty safe, but maybe because I'd learned my lesson as my name is ALL OVER this bad boy. This is the Fear Street version of Little Miss Stoneybrook...and Dawn. The book that got me into the series, although I cannot swear with any certainty that this was my first FS book.
Actually, I take some of that back. This and The Prom Queen kicked off the craze. The Knife, the book in between, apparently did nothing for us. Because duh, of course the spooky wallpaper duo is gonna win.
The re-read.
Mmmmm... okay. I'm gonna be honest. I gave up Stine books for a reason. His Goosebumps series was released when I was too old and it was way too formulaic. His adult stuff was gross-out to the point that I felt genuinely sick after reading part of Superstitious, I think (I gave it to Cass with a warning that has, all the years, kept her from reading it. Oops.) and while it is entirely possible his other adult stuff is fine, based on the animal torture in that one and how his FS books went... eh. Like Pike was willing to have a body count, but you tended to care about at least one of the characters so it mattered, and his kills tended to be far more elaborate. Stine always leaned more towards gore.
Which is something younger!me could handle better than older me, sadly. That's not really a problem here, but the likeability factor is. Lea, our star, is new at Shadyside High and manages to make an enemy out of mean girl Marci by spilling chili all over Marci's white cashmere sweater. For reasons that are NEVER explained, Marci's boyfriend, Don, makes a pass at Lea while leaving out the fact that he's Marci's boyfriend. Lea's flattered because he's cute and he's nice, and clearly charming enough to survive high school. Her friend, Deena, lets her know that Don's taken, by Marci, and tries to warn Lea that Marci isn't to be trifled with. Naturally Lea doesn't listen and somehow winds up agreeing to a date with Don.
Don never shows, Lea realizes he's set her up and Marci laughs hysterically. But why? When did they have time to plan this? Did my pages stick together (again) and I missed it, or is this simply one of those cruel jokes that's never explained? Because either way, Don's an asshole, but the question is whether he's simply super whipped by Marci (like she found out he asked Lea out and she twisted things), or he's a raging douchebag who intentionally set Lea up, wanting Marci to take her down. But we're never really given that impression. I'm not sure if it's because Lea doesn't want to think of him that way, though she does consider it, or if it's because he might actually be trying to get out from under Marci's thumb but never manages it. It drove me nuts on so many levels. The fact that Lea KEPT FALLING FOR IT was maddening. Once, I get. Twice, especially when you KNOW the first one was at least turned into a setup? Yeah, no. Even if he'd meant to actually take you out and dump Marci, he didn't ultimately follow through with that so fuck him.
Because this is a Fear Street book, and Lea's new, we learn that her house has a secret boarded up room. Oooh, ahhh. Lea obsesses about it to the point that she hears footsteps coming from the attic (and I swear to god, it's more than halfway through the book before she realizes her room is under the secret room. Girl, you've spent how many nights hearing footsteps right above your head and you're only NOW putting things together?) and in true FS fashion, there's a waterfall of blood, spikes coming out from the door, and other spooky happenings... before Lea continues to break into the room and find...
a ghost. She finds Catherine, a girl who was imprisoned there a hundred years ago because her parents had her out of wedlock, allegedly. Oops. Catherine swears they killed her when she tried to escape and she fixates on Lea's short, curly hair. It's... odd. Despite Catherine giving off all the warning signs, Lea decides to trust her definitely murderous ghost and hatches a plan to get back at Marci.
Marci's the worst and honestly, anyone at Shadyside High who intentionally provokes someone who lives on Fear Street has something terrible coming to them. Still, some might argue that being terrorized by a ghost and the girl who is definitely up for stealing your boyfriend is maybe a bit much. Those people should not be reading Fear Street. Marci runs up the stairs (always running up the stairs when you should be running out the front door), calling for her mother to help her, when she trips and crashes through the guard rail and lands with a crunch on the floor below. Super dead. Lea is traumatized by the ordeal, especially when she realizes that uh, Catherine probably did that, and even if she didn't actually push Marci, their terror-act scared Marci to the point that she panicked and died anyway so it's her fault.
This is one of the few times I actually really like Lea, btw. There's no trying to fully weasel her way out of this. She realizes she's gone too far, that even if Catherine did the pushing, she set it up, and she's going to have to find a way to live with this horrible thing, and it's eating her up. Prior to this, she's made a slew of terrible decisions, and has been an absolute shrew to her parents (I get it, teenagers are the worst but dude, every thought doesn't need to be snarky to get that point across) annnnnnnd is kind of unlikable. Which is weird since the clumsy chili thing was pretty relatable and should've set her up as a more sympathetic character.
Anyway, Catherine denies the murder but it doesn't matter since she's now going to possess Lea and actually does. There's a bit in there about Lea getting really sick and this is what allows Catherine to fully take over. Lea takes entirely too long to realize that Catherine is planning to murder Don the absolute second they set out for a walk (what did you think the twine was for, Lea?) but those plans are thwarted.
We find out the truth about Catherine and the secret bedroom annnnnnnnd Lea emerges victorious in the end, but just barely. There needed to be a twist at the end but I think I keep getting sidetracked by Lea having a fever of 106 for days, so I gloss over the whole "Catherine was haunting her the whole time" thing.
I didn't like this one as much re-reading it, but it's one that feels like it would've worked really well as an episode of a FS TV show. Like the idea is solid enough, but having to spend too much time in Lea's head did me in. I do still dig that cover though, and oh, the nostalgia trip was great.
I know a lot of things that set themselves in the 90's use the "now let's go to Blockbuster for our movie night!" bit but it definitely feels different when it's actually from that era. Possibly also the fact that they didn't name-check Blockbuster specifically helped. And Patrick Swayze swooning. Man, I remember when Ari had a thing for him. Seriously, memories.
Alas, this thing doesn't hold up under any scrutiny whatsoever and while I should probably care more about the plotholes in the ghost murder story, I'm still hung up on WTF was going on with Don. No, seriously, wtf.
luxken27 is R.L. Stine's The Secret Bedroom, which happens to be book 13 in the Fear Street series. It was chosen because it's one of the books her awesome-sauce library could get that I already owned and it sounded interesting.Annnnnnnd of course I have a story about this one. :P My copy is from the 6th grade book fair. Behold, the little paid for stamp:
I remember that this was one of those books that set off an absolute CRAZE in my grade, and possibly the rest of the school. I don't know if it was the cover, or if it's the fact that Fear Street was still kinda new, or hell, maybe by then every kid in 6th grade knew on some level that middle school was going to be a sucking hell pit for most of us. I'm guessing other Stine/Pike books must've been circulating before then as this would've been the spring book fair and I distinctly remember getting one of the first few FS book from the library, loaning it to a girl in my class, and not getting it back until the last couple of days of school, and ONLY because I had to beg her to find it because they were holding me hostage if I didn't return the book.
But I digress. This book, for whatever reason, could temporarily buy you popularity. Was it the cover? I dunno, but it's pretty awesome. The haunted/evil green, the skeletal hand, the high-waist jeans... the wallpaper that has stuck with me for decades now. I don't know. I truly could not tell you what it was about this one that set us all off, but it did. I vividly remember staring at the cover, entranced by it. I also remember that loaning this one out was pretty safe, but maybe because I'd learned my lesson as my name is ALL OVER this bad boy. This is the Fear Street version of Little Miss Stoneybrook...and Dawn. The book that got me into the series, although I cannot swear with any certainty that this was my first FS book.
Actually, I take some of that back. This and The Prom Queen kicked off the craze. The Knife, the book in between, apparently did nothing for us. Because duh, of course the spooky wallpaper duo is gonna win.
The re-read.
Mmmmm... okay. I'm gonna be honest. I gave up Stine books for a reason. His Goosebumps series was released when I was too old and it was way too formulaic. His adult stuff was gross-out to the point that I felt genuinely sick after reading part of Superstitious, I think (I gave it to Cass with a warning that has, all the years, kept her from reading it. Oops.) and while it is entirely possible his other adult stuff is fine, based on the animal torture in that one and how his FS books went... eh. Like Pike was willing to have a body count, but you tended to care about at least one of the characters so it mattered, and his kills tended to be far more elaborate. Stine always leaned more towards gore.
Which is something younger!me could handle better than older me, sadly. That's not really a problem here, but the likeability factor is. Lea, our star, is new at Shadyside High and manages to make an enemy out of mean girl Marci by spilling chili all over Marci's white cashmere sweater. For reasons that are NEVER explained, Marci's boyfriend, Don, makes a pass at Lea while leaving out the fact that he's Marci's boyfriend. Lea's flattered because he's cute and he's nice, and clearly charming enough to survive high school. Her friend, Deena, lets her know that Don's taken, by Marci, and tries to warn Lea that Marci isn't to be trifled with. Naturally Lea doesn't listen and somehow winds up agreeing to a date with Don.
Don never shows, Lea realizes he's set her up and Marci laughs hysterically. But why? When did they have time to plan this? Did my pages stick together (again) and I missed it, or is this simply one of those cruel jokes that's never explained? Because either way, Don's an asshole, but the question is whether he's simply super whipped by Marci (like she found out he asked Lea out and she twisted things), or he's a raging douchebag who intentionally set Lea up, wanting Marci to take her down. But we're never really given that impression. I'm not sure if it's because Lea doesn't want to think of him that way, though she does consider it, or if it's because he might actually be trying to get out from under Marci's thumb but never manages it. It drove me nuts on so many levels. The fact that Lea KEPT FALLING FOR IT was maddening. Once, I get. Twice, especially when you KNOW the first one was at least turned into a setup? Yeah, no. Even if he'd meant to actually take you out and dump Marci, he didn't ultimately follow through with that so fuck him.
Because this is a Fear Street book, and Lea's new, we learn that her house has a secret boarded up room. Oooh, ahhh. Lea obsesses about it to the point that she hears footsteps coming from the attic (and I swear to god, it's more than halfway through the book before she realizes her room is under the secret room. Girl, you've spent how many nights hearing footsteps right above your head and you're only NOW putting things together?) and in true FS fashion, there's a waterfall of blood, spikes coming out from the door, and other spooky happenings... before Lea continues to break into the room and find...
a ghost. She finds Catherine, a girl who was imprisoned there a hundred years ago because her parents had her out of wedlock, allegedly. Oops. Catherine swears they killed her when she tried to escape and she fixates on Lea's short, curly hair. It's... odd. Despite Catherine giving off all the warning signs, Lea decides to trust her definitely murderous ghost and hatches a plan to get back at Marci.
Marci's the worst and honestly, anyone at Shadyside High who intentionally provokes someone who lives on Fear Street has something terrible coming to them. Still, some might argue that being terrorized by a ghost and the girl who is definitely up for stealing your boyfriend is maybe a bit much. Those people should not be reading Fear Street. Marci runs up the stairs (always running up the stairs when you should be running out the front door), calling for her mother to help her, when she trips and crashes through the guard rail and lands with a crunch on the floor below. Super dead. Lea is traumatized by the ordeal, especially when she realizes that uh, Catherine probably did that, and even if she didn't actually push Marci, their terror-act scared Marci to the point that she panicked and died anyway so it's her fault.
This is one of the few times I actually really like Lea, btw. There's no trying to fully weasel her way out of this. She realizes she's gone too far, that even if Catherine did the pushing, she set it up, and she's going to have to find a way to live with this horrible thing, and it's eating her up. Prior to this, she's made a slew of terrible decisions, and has been an absolute shrew to her parents (I get it, teenagers are the worst but dude, every thought doesn't need to be snarky to get that point across) annnnnnnd is kind of unlikable. Which is weird since the clumsy chili thing was pretty relatable and should've set her up as a more sympathetic character.
Anyway, Catherine denies the murder but it doesn't matter since she's now going to possess Lea and actually does. There's a bit in there about Lea getting really sick and this is what allows Catherine to fully take over. Lea takes entirely too long to realize that Catherine is planning to murder Don the absolute second they set out for a walk (what did you think the twine was for, Lea?) but those plans are thwarted.
We find out the truth about Catherine and the secret bedroom annnnnnnnd Lea emerges victorious in the end, but just barely. There needed to be a twist at the end but I think I keep getting sidetracked by Lea having a fever of 106 for days, so I gloss over the whole "Catherine was haunting her the whole time" thing.
I didn't like this one as much re-reading it, but it's one that feels like it would've worked really well as an episode of a FS TV show. Like the idea is solid enough, but having to spend too much time in Lea's head did me in. I do still dig that cover though, and oh, the nostalgia trip was great.
I know a lot of things that set themselves in the 90's use the "now let's go to Blockbuster for our movie night!" bit but it definitely feels different when it's actually from that era. Possibly also the fact that they didn't name-check Blockbuster specifically helped. And Patrick Swayze swooning. Man, I remember when Ari had a thing for him. Seriously, memories.
Alas, this thing doesn't hold up under any scrutiny whatsoever and while I should probably care more about the plotholes in the ghost murder story, I'm still hung up on WTF was going on with Don. No, seriously, wtf.