****************TRIGGER WARNING****************
Just a heads up that suicide is mentioned a lot in the latter half of this book and it’s very relevant to the story. With that out of the way, please enjoy!
Tagline: Fight, fight, fight or die, die, die!
Back tagline: IT’S BACK!
Summary: Did the evil spirit really leave Kimmy’s body? The cheerleaders of Shadyside High can still feel its dark presence, and Corky knows that it is out there, somewhere close. And getting closer.
Corky is tormented night after night by dreams of her dead sister, Bobbi. What terrifying message is Bobbi trying to tell her? When evil begins again—more horrible, more gruesome than ever—Corky knows it is up to her to learn the century-old secrets and destroy the evil spirit’s power for good. But so many have died already—will Corky be next?
First impressions: The first two sounded more intense, hectic and slashery than they actually were, so I’m expecting this one to be the same. It’s a slight disappointment but I’m heavily invested in Corky’s story, so I’m still excited to read this. Will the evil really be more gruesome, though?
Onto the cover – I think we can assume this is definitely Corky, but she has a completely different face to all of the girls on the first two covers. I guess the headband and pulled back fringe matches the second cover‘s blonde girl, but why wouldn’t the main character be front and centre? Oh well.
I like this cover a lot. Not sure why Sarah Fear’s grave lacks any inscription besides a last name or why it seems to be all by itself when we know that’s not the case, but the girl definitely looks ooky spooky and evil here. This image would definitely be hilarious without any context. Side note, my copy of this is in incredible condition. Like, never-been-read condition. Amazing. I almost don’t want to read it.
Anyway, ill the plaguing mystery of Corky’s real name finally be resolved in this conclusion to the Cheerleaders trilogy? Let’s find out!
Recap
Let’s reacquaint ourselves for a third time:
Corky – Our heroine who’s destined to battle the evil once again.
Kimmy – The evil’s most recent host who wonders if it could still be inside her.
Hannah – The somewhat obnoxious new cheerleader on the block.
Debra – The co-captain of the squad who is the friendliest with Hannah.
Ronnie – Has even less of a role that she did in the second book! #JusticeforRonnie
Heather – Who? Literally, who?
Part One: Team Spirit
We open in April, which Google tells me is near the end of the US school year, during cheerleader practice where advisor Miss. Green isn’t impressed with how the girls are doing. Except for Hannah Miles, that is, who she calls forward to demonstrate the accurate way to do a round-off back tuck. Who the hell is Hannah, you ask? Well, she’s the pretty, slender freshman that replaced Megan, who’s due to graduate in June [OK, so I guess Megan will forever stay a nothing character. Heather’s still got a slight chance, but I think she’ll meet the same fate. Very interesting that we’re adding new cheerleaders instead of utilising the ones we’ve already got lol].
Kimmy and Debra are co-captains of the squad now [Why are there co-captains all of a sudden?], something Corky is slightly bitter about because she’s much better than Debra, but apparently Miss. Green didn’t want to put more pressure on Corky after everything she’s been through [Fair, but still, poor Corky]. Corky and the other girls are also jealous of and annoyed with Hannah, an attention whore that fishes for compliments and sucks up to Miss. Green and the captains [Ugh, hate her already]. The gals continue practicing the very simple cheer they’re apparently struggling with, and Hannah improvises at the end with a tuck jump. Instead of scolding her, as Corky anticipates, Miss. Green commends Hannah and suggests they all finish with a tuck jump, and of course Hannah’s is the highest and most graceful.
Corky, Kimmy, Ronnie and Debra head to The Corner after practice, a new coffee shop not far from school [First mentioned on the blog in Broken Hearts, but this might be its first mention in the Fear Street continuity?], and the girls couldn’t be more disgusted when Corky orders a bowl of split pea soup. Equally disgusting to Ronnie is all the guys hanging around Hannah’s locker after school every day – ‘”They practically drool on her!”‘ [Ronnie seems the most jealous/bitter towards Hannah] The bitching continues, but Debra stands up for their newest teammate since it’s not like she’s mean or anything, just incredibly enthusiastic.
Kimmy thinks Hannah might be dating Shadyside bike Gary Brandt [Last mentioned on the blog getting a sex education lesson from his female counterpart, Suki Thomas, in the school library], after seeing them at the mall together on Saturday, and more hilarious Hannah bashing ensues:
“Hey, can you picture Hannah making out with Gary?” Ronnie asked, grinning. She performed a cheer: “Go, Gary, go! Go, Gary, go! Yaaaay!”
Everyone laughed.
“Know what?” Kimmy added. “Every time he kisses her, she probably does a tuck jump!”
Corky changes the subject to spring break next week, where they’ll all be going to cheerleader camp at Madison College. Ronnie’s horny for the college guys, but according to Debra there’s no time to meet cute boys because they’ll be too busy working their butts off. when Ronnie and Debra go to the bathroom, Kimmy takes the opportunity to ask how Corky’s really doing. Corky’s going alright because she forces herself not to think about everything that’s happened, but poor Kimmy can’t relate, worried that the evil spirit is still lurking inside her.
Corky reassures her that the spirit was flushed down the drain in the last book, but Kimmy’s not so sure that it’s gone for good. Corky received a note saying it can’t be drowned, after all, and Kimmy sometimes just doesn’t feel right [Our new red herring!]. Corky insists they just have to believe [Yeah, that’ll work…], and the conversation ends with Ronnie and Debra return. The girls’ food arrives, but there’s something wrong with Corky’s split pea soup – it’s tossing and turning inside the bowl, bubbling up higher and higher:
Like a green volcano, the soup rose up and spurted high in a thick, bubbling wave. Hot and steamy, more and more of it made a green tidal wave that began to ooze over the table.
“Hey—!”
“Help!”
“Get up, Kimmy! Let’s go!”
The four girls scrambled from the booth as the steaming green liquid rose like a fountain, to plop onto the table and then ooze quickly onto the floor.
The girls flee outside to the sidewalk, all four of them realising the evil is back and had been right there at the table. Corky looks at her friends, considering that one of them is possessed – ‘Which one? she wondered. Which one?’ [Yeah, which one this time?!]
Kimmy takes Corky home, but neither wants to be alone so they go for a walk, only getting as far as the the Fear Street Cemetery before Kimmy breaks down about the possibility being inside her without her even knowing. Corky assures her they’ll find the evil and stop it for good, but wonders if Kimmy would even tell her if she did know [Considering how she’s banging on about it, I’d say yes…unless that’s just to throw Corky off!]. As Corky stares at her friend, Kimmy’s blue eyes light up and her face glows, ‘as if from some inner light,’ but after shutting her eyes and opening them again, Kimmy’s face is normal again.
That night, Corky dreams of Bobbi floating through her window, silently pulling off the top of her own head by her hair and showing Corky the contents of her skull – ‘Thousands of squirming, crawling cockroaches. Packed into Bobbi’s head like coffee in a can.’ [Grossssssss] Corky wakes up choking in disgust, concerned about the nightmare because she hasn’t dreamt of Bobbi in weeks, and decides to get a refreshing glass of water, lowering her feet to the ground:
And stepped on something warm. Something crackly. Something moving.
“Oh!”
Corky jumped.
Something crunched under her foot.
Something crawled over her toes.
She stared down.
“No! oh, no!”
Cockroaches.
Thousands of silent cockroaches, scuttling over the floor, over one another. Climbing over her feet. Starting up her legs.
Their bodies glistened dark blue in the moonlight as they swam silently over the floor. An undulating, bobbing throbbing carpet of cockroaches.
She stomps over the cockroaches and escapes to the hallway, screaming for her parents, but would you believe it? When she goes to show them her new cockroach carpet, there’s not a single trace of the creepy crawlies…
It’s day one of cheerleader camp now and the girls have just arrived at Madison College, which is mostly empty due to spring break, a big disappointment to Ronnie who’s horny for college boys [Despite being like, 13-14…]. During the hour-long bus ride, Corky confides her nightmare to Debra, who’s now added dreams to the list of things she’s an expert in. She explains that Bobbi must have been trying to tell Corky something [Anyone could have told you that, Corky], but neither girl understands what.
Anyway, Corky, Kimmy and Debra are roomies on campus, sharing a lime green-walled, yellow-ceilinged room that sounds hideously headache-inducing, but Hannah soon knocks on the door, wanting to room with them. Apparently Ronnie and Heather filled up the dressers with their stuff, which is super selfish because there’s three dressers in each room [I would just empty their clothes out of one of them, tbh], before Hannah could start unpacking. And that’s not all those bitches did – ‘”Ronnie took the top bunk even though I told her I can’t sleep on the bottom,”‘ because it creeps Hannah out to have someone sleep above her, and Heather refused to give up the other bed because she can’t breathe unless she’s near a window [It’s too late to have some kind of personality now, Heather!].
The girls remind Hannah there’s only enough room and furniture for three people per room, but after a bit of begging from Hannah, Debra reluctantly agrees to trade rooms with her. Debra heads off to her new room while Hannah starts unpacking the two huge suitcases she brought [Evidently, she needs two months of close for a one-week trip]. Kimmy realises it’s almost 2pm, which is when they’re supposed to be in the gym, and they’ll get points taken off them if they’re late. Despite this, Hannah asks Corky to run her a hot bath [Could the evil be inside Hannah? We know the spirit loves hot water, and this could also be a not-so-subtle reference to Corky’s last battle with it?], because she needs to finish unpacking and she doesn’t want to be late [So don’t have a fucking bath? Have a quick rinse in the shower?? We don’t get the exact time which is annoying, because I’d love to know how quickly Hannah thinks she can unpack, have a bath, dry herself, get changed, then walk the block to the gym without being late].
Personally, I would have said something like “Bitch, you don’t have time for a bath or to unpack right now, get your ass to the gym” but Corky’s nothing like me and actually runs Hannah a bath lol. She’s not happy about it, though [Then why do it, ya nong?] – Hannah’s got some nerve though, complaining about the other room and now ordering Corky about. Who does she think she is? Kimmy hurries into the bathroom when Corky returns, shutting the door behind her. I’m sure she just wants to shit in piece, but if the evil is still inside her, she could be screwing with Hannah’s bath water! She tells Hannah not to take too long when she returns, [There’s no way Hannah’s getting to the gym by 2:00 lol. Why are they letting her have a fkn bath hahahaha] and then heads to the gym with Corky.
They don’t get very far before Kimmy realises she forgot the pompoms, so they head back to the room just in time to find Hannah screaming and dripping wet in just a towel, her legs a scarlet red up to the knees. She accuses Corky of trying to scald her [Not even gonna consider Kimmy, Hannah?], because Hannah’s an idiot and stepped right into the tub without checking how hot the water was first [Yeah, that’s your own fault, Hannah. You did ask for a hot bath anyway, what’s the issue!]. Corky’s apologetic and truthfully insists she checked the the water, and Hannah also apologises for possibly overreacting, admitting she was just in shock. Remembering Kimmy’s bathroom visit, Corky can’t help but wonder, ‘Did Kimmy try to scald Hannah?’
Later as the girls are practicing in the gym, which is filled with 14 other squads doing their own cheers, Ronnie keeps messing up their back handspring finishers. Nearby, the cheerleaders of the Redwood Bulldogs are wearing their blue and gold uniforms, despite not being a practice requirement, and their beautiful red-headed captain, Blair O’Connell, is laughing gleefully at the Tigers’ issues. Corky admires Blair’s talent and looks, but Kimmy went to Sunday school with her years ago and finds her ‘”so stuck up, she’s disgusting.”‘
Hannah’s so annoyingly overenthusiastic during practice that you’d think she’s captain of the squad, and she even has the audacity to give Corky advice about her spread-eagle jump – ‘Was Hannah, a freshman, really giving her advice in front of the entire squad?’ Corky could take it from one of the other girls, but not this newbie who thinks she’s queen of the world! Corky was an all-state champ in Missouri, for god’s sake!
Shortly after, Kimmy bitterly tells Corky that someone has to take Hannah down a peg or two [Or seven], and bitterly admits ‘”Sometimes I could just murder her—couldn’t you?”‘ Her words are chilling but Corky shrugs it off, because Hannah is just being herself and it is what it is.
Arriving back at the dorm by herself after practice [Why alone? Where are the others lol], Corky walking down the hall towards the room, only for her shoes to get stuck to the carpet. To her surprise, the carpet seems to be moving, ‘undulating like waves.’ [Stine must have learnt that word right before writing this book because he’s used it a noticeable amount of times] She tries to keep walking but the carpet has become a dark, thick sea, with black waves rolling over Corky’s shoes:
Like bubbling tar, the thick liquid rose up and over her sneakers, over her ankles.
It’s pulling me down, Corky realized.
I can’t move.
It’s so sticky.
It’s pulling me down.
“Help!”
Debra suddenly appears, wondering wtf is going on, and Corky realises the carpet isn’t moving and she’s on her knees [Lay off the acid, Corks]. They realise the evil has followed them, but who has it taken over this time?!
There’s a minor competition each evening of camp and the Shadyside gals are really off their game tonight, so it’s no surprise when Blair’s Bulldog’s take first place. A red ribbon is also awarded to the most spirited cheerleader on each squad, and you’d be absolutely correct if you assumed Hannah’s that bitch, and the show-off even does a cartwheel on her way to collect her prize.
While Corky and Kimmy roll their eyes, Debra’s got a big smile and is clapping for Hannah [How dare she, right ladies?]. When Hanna returns triumphantly, Debra rushes forward and wraps her in a hug before they head for the exit together as the night wraps up. Corky’s rather jealous because Debra’s her friend, and since when was she so close to Hannah anyway [Maybe Debra just doesn’t know there’s a limit on how many friends she can have, Corky! You better go tell her.]?
Kimmy Corky split up for some reason and as Corky exits the building, she overhears Blair nominating herself to be the evil’s next victim by arrogantly telling her teammate the other squads are shit [Assuming something bad will happen to Blair, Corky’s the only Tiger around to hear it… but I feel like we’d already know if she was possessed?]
That night in bed, Corky has the same nightmare about Bobbi but this time instead of cockroaches inside her skull, there’s hissing brown snakes. She snaps awake to morning light and hideous screams, which she quickly realises aren’t her own, but Hannah’s, who’s sitting upright in bed, her head bent forward. Corky and Kimmy hurry over to her where they discover the cause of her anguish – her braid has been cut off while she slept and now rests in her lap!
Corky or Kimmy has to be responsible since no-one else has access to the room, but both Corky and Kimmy deny it. Hannah thinks they’re jealous of her talent and are trying to get her to quit the squad, but Hannah’s going to to stay even if she has to cheer bald [I like your determination, Hannah!]. Hannah gets dressed and heads down to breakfast with her detached braid, planning on showing Miss. Green what her roommates did to her afterwards, and Corky realises that Kimmy must be responsible, which means she’d also turned up the hot water for Hannah’s bath. She had admitted she’d like to murder Hannah, after all, and now here she is, torturing her:
The evil is here, Corky thought miserably. The evil is in this room. Still inside Kimmy. Poor Kimmy—she doesn’t know.
It was all too horrifying, too horrifying to put into words. But words popped into Corky’s mind:
Kimmy is not in control of her body. The ancient, evil force controls her now.
Kimmy forlornly asks Corky ‘”I’d remember if I cut off Hannah’s braid, wouldn’t I?”‘ so she’s clearly thinking the same thing. Corky starts getting ready for breakfast after Kimmy leaves, and is shocked to find a pair of scissors in her dressers, sitting on top of her clothes… scissors with a few strands of ‘Hannah’s straight black hair’ caught in the blades… Is Kimmy trying to frame her [Or is Corky the one who’s possessed and just doesn’t know it?].
At breakfast, Kimmy just stares off into space while Corky’s too glum to eat. Her stomach fills with dread when she notices a flustered Hannah chatting with Miss. Green, braid in hand before joining the squad at the table. Hannah and Debra starts chatting quietly, and Corky realises that Debra is the only person she can talk to about this, the only person who’ll understand [What about Ronnie? She was there when you first defeated the evil? Although to be fair, Ronnie was basically non-existent in the second book, so I guess she’s not as clued in as Debra. But Ronnie witnessed the pea soup volcano, so surely she has an inkling that the evil is back?].
Corky asks to talk with Debra for a moment, but Debra’s like ‘”Can it wait? I’m talking to Hannah right now.”‘ [Hahahaha oop] Corky is fkn pissed – what kind of a friend is Debra? Surely she can tell Corky is upset about something, and ‘since when is Hannah so important to Debra that Debra can’t interrupt her conversation to talk to me when I really need her?’ [Since you’re not entitled to anyone’s time, Corky! You don’t just go up to someone mid-conversation and expect them to drop everything for you lol]
Corky heads for the door, but a flabbergasted Miss. Green beckons her and Kimmy over and confronts them about the vicious attack on Hannah’s hair. She demands to know who’s responsible and Kimmy admits fault, but meaningful glance towards Corky explains that Kimmy is trying to protect her friend. But then Corky pipes up to accept the blame herself, since it was really the evil’s fault, not Kimmy’s. Miss. Green promises they’ll be disciplined accordingly when they return to Shadyside, but for now she just wants everyone to get through the week with no more incidents.
After breakfast, everyone heads to the gym for the morning workout, and Corky and Kimmy walk past Blair O’Connell, doing a set of perfect cartwheels on the grass just for the sake of it. Kimmy is absolutely disgusted because Blair really makes her sick, and ‘”Someone should do something about her.”‘ [Can someone hurry up then, because the thrills and chills of a hot bath and a haircut aren’t doing it for me]
Kimmy doesn’t see the point of working on routines and going ahead with the camp when they’re just going to be thrown off the squad when they get back to school, but Corky doesn’t want to let the other girls down. They practice a new routine in the afternoon, although with less RAZZMATAZZ than they usually both give, and at 7:30pm, everyone’s in the gym for the nightly competition. The Bulldogs are up first, and Corky can’t help but feel jealous of her competitor:
Blair was happy… she was having a great time… she was really into the competition. Blair was at her best—and she knew it.
That’s the way I used to feel, Corky thought. That’s the way Bobbi and I always felt when we were cheering. We always felt so confident, so terrific, so on top of everything whenever we put on our uniforms.
But now…
Now she could only watch Blair and the other happy, enthusiastic cheerleaders, and envy them.
[That’s some good character development, Stine!] Out on the floor, Blair leads the team with an effortless handspring, but as she moves into a second one, she appears to trip over something and lands right on her face with one of Stine’s trademark sickening crack.
She’s not dead, but there’s a massive cut in her lip and her two front teeth are broken [Oof, that made me cringe. That would hurt so bad]. Blair’s escorted to the medical office down the hall, insisting that somebody tripped her [That pesky evil spirit!] while ‘leaving a smeared trail of blood on the floor.’ Corky glances at Kimmy, who’s staring back at her with a strange look on her face.
At the next day’s afternoon practice, Corky’s understandably concerned when Kimmy suggests they do the diamond-head pyramid – after all, evil-possessed Kimmy let Corky fall in the hopes she’d die last time they attempted it. Why was she suggesting it now? Hannah begs to be on top, and despite Corky’s best efforts prevent her from being injured, Kimmy and Debra insist Hannah be given a chance [Surely Kimmy wouldn’t drop someone twice; that would be way too suss! Come to think of it, did everyone just believe that Kimmy physically could not move last time? Surely there would have been some kind of punishment or something]:
Corky backed off as Hannah flashed her a triumphant smile.
The smile cut Corky like a knife. It said: I’m the star now… I’m the favorite now—and you’re nothing. No one wants to hear your opinion.
[Drop her, Kimmy! 😡] The pyramid goes smoothly, making Corky wonder if Kimmy’s planning to drop Hannah during the competition tonight instead, and afterwards, Kimmy cryptically tells her that some people are probably in for a surprise tonight…
Later, Kimmy heads to dinner alone because the others aren’t ready yet, and as Hannah chirps away happily about how they’re going to win tonight with Blair out of the picture [Poor girl needed 10 stitches in her lip and dental surgery], Corky moves to the dresser and fumbles through the top drawer for the scissors [Omg whaaaaat?!]. Hannah’s got her back to Corky as she babbles on and on, so she’s completely oblivious to Corky coming up behind her:
No more teasing, Corky thought. No more fooling around. This is it.
Goodbye, Hannah.
I can’t say it’s been a pleasure knowing you.
As Hannah leaned forward on the edge of the bed to pick up her other sock from the floor, Corky brought the scissor blade down quickly, aiming for the tender spot between Hannah’s shoulder blades.
[OK, so I guess Corky’s possessed! It seems the rules have changed though – instead of the evil being in full control 24/7, it only takes over at certain times. How dastardly! I was kind of expecting it because that would be the most unpredictable thing at this point, but I’m not mad about it because I don’t think I would have suspected this if I hadn’t spent the last few years reading and recapping these books lol]
Luckily for Hannah, Kimmy forgot her pompoms again and bursts into the room just in to prevent an attack [Do you really need them during dinner, Kimmy?] Corky’s able to inconspicuously drop the scissors and kick them under the bed, then starts feeling nauseous, her head spinning as the room seems to flash red and black. She tells the girls she’s not feeling well and will come to dinner when she feels better, then rushes to the bathroom as the girls leave.
Corky thinks she hears evil laughter somewhere far away and is shocked when the cool porcelain of the sink becomes scalding hot beneath her hands. A putrid, thick steam that smells like mould and decay rises from the empty sink as a gurgling sound escapes from the drain. Terrified, Corky escapes from the bathroom and realises with horror that she’s the evil one now.
Part Two: Cold Fear
We jump forward to Saturday now, and Corky can barely remember the last few days of camp as she lays on her bed back home, trying to rest [I wonder if we’ll be seeing more of Sarah Beth Plummer now that we’re back in Shadyside]. She’d faked illness and stayed in her dorm room since finding out the truth, talking to her roommates as little as possible, the only way to ensure she couldn’t hurt anyone [You could have hurt Hannah and Kimmy while they were sleeping, though, so that’s not a solid plan lol]. Sometimes the evil force would fade a little, giving Corky just enough time to think clearly and become terrified, but then an endless roar would return and her memories would go, ‘and she would move in a world of deep red and darker black,’ remembering nothing but fear.
She does have memories of some past instances though; like making the pea soup spurt up because the others had been teasing her; reaching out across the gym to trip Blair O’Connell; and cutting off Hannah’s braid in the middle of the night [OK, so the evil was inside Corky during these times and doing its own thing while Corky was fully conscious and had no idea, which means they were both acting independently of each other… It’s weird that Corky has two memories of the same situations when Kimmy remembered absolutely nothing of her time with the evil].
Kimmy bursting in just before Hannah could be murdered had made Corky so angry that the endless roar completely engulfed her and Corky had disappeared inside herself, ‘somewhere far away,’ which just makes the whole situation even more confusing to me because like, how were we getting evil Corky’s perspective then but not during any of the other occurrences, despite being us being with Corky the whole time? She can’t have disappeared inside herself every time, because we would have gotten that information. Where’s the consistency, Stine?!?
Corky suddenly realises the meaning of her Bobbi nightmares – Bobbi was telling her to look inside herself for the evil [USe your words, then, Bobbi!]! With that epiphany, the bed starts violently shaking until Corky’s thrown to the floor as the carpet starts undulating [Stine is absolutely frothing this word. Almost as much as ‘prosperous!’]. The windows rapidly open and shut and her mirror melts to the floor, and then there’s a puddle of blood in front of her that grows and grows until she’s practically drowning in it.
Sean barges in to be annoying, inadvertently saving Corky from yet another hallucination – she’s not drowning in bloody but is simply on all fours, gripping the carpet. Her vision flashes red and black again as the roar grows louder and louder [How come we never heard about this roar until Corky was about to kill Hannah, anyway? Seems like a persistent thing now lol], and Corky wraps Sean in a hug, needing something real to hold onto. This turns into a play-wrestling match [OK…] and, encouraged by the roar, Corky abruptly realises how easy it would be to break both of Sean’s arms right now. She starts bending one back, ignoring his protests as he struggles to free himself. Corky suddenly lets go and screams at Sean to get out, who’s confused by what the heck just happened and calls her a jerk. Corky wonders why the evil backed off at the last second, and then a cruel, taunting laughter fills her head.
Corky somehow falls asleep and dreams about being Sarah Fear on that fatal boat trip. The boat quickly starts spinning as if in a whirlpool, the previously calm water now swirling and frothing against it. Sarah grabs onto the railing to steady herself, but it transforms into a thick white snake and hisses at her. Corky wakes up in the evening and wonders why the dream felt so real – it seemed so familiar, ‘almost as if she had lived it before.’ [Is Corky a reincarnation of Sarah Fear, or did the evil’s memory of Sarah’s death make into her dream somehow?]
Yawning, a hissing sound escapes Corky’s mouth from deep within her before a noxious green gas pours out. She falls back against the bed, dizzy, but in a voice ‘that cracked like wind through dry leaves,’ the vile green gas that’s filled her room tells her they’ve got work to do – ‘”We have to kill the others, the ones that betrayed you,”‘ and Debra’s first up on the list! [Why did the evil leave her body to tell her this?] Corky refuses to let that happen, which is hilarious to the evil, and it floats up to the ceiling to rain down over Corky:
She felt so sleepy. So far away. The room seemed to fade into the distance. She seemed to fade with it.
As the sickening green liquid fell on her, Corky was floating away from herself.
Floating, floating into grayness.
Floating far away as the green gas filled her up, filled her mind, took over her body.
In a short while Corky was gone.
The evil force was completely in control.
[This is a great scene and would be amazing to see in a movie or TV version, but it’s also kind of pointless??? Like, why leave Corky’s body just to go back in? Maybe just to toy with her I guess, but it could have done that from within? Also, I’ll keep referring to her as Corky for now, because that’s what the book does] Corky calls Debra and asks to meet, explaining she’s got something important to tell her, and soon Corky’s off on her merry way to kill Debra.
They’d agreed to meet in a usually empty parking lot behind Dalby’s department store because Debra was heading there to get a few things, and after spotting Debra standing at the back of the lot, Corky guns the car towards her [!!!]. Debra’s able to jump out of the way at the last second and Corky crashes into a concrete divider. She’s fine, though, and explains to her friend that the accelerator stuck [Lol, good save].
Debra’s none the wiser and after Corky insists on driving, they take the damaged car to the old mill, where Corky alleges that Kimmy is still possessed by the evil. Corky climbs up the wheel of the old mill, which had been locked in place by the owners and doesn’t move anymore – apparently this is a popular Shadyside hangout, although it’s deserted tonight, and teens are always climbing it [Is this really a thing? I don’t remember it ever coming up before lol]. Debra’s confused as to why they just can’t talk on the ground, but follows her up anyway.
Corky grabs Debra by the shoulders and prepares to push her off the wheel, but poor clueless Debra thinks she’s just trying to comfort her [Hahahaha oh, Debra]. Luckily for her, Corky’s plan is thwarted by a man who suddenly appears on the ground, demanding they get down because they’re trespassing. The girls oblige, although Corky’s fuming and considers ripping his head off and pulling ‘the brains out through the neck,’ [Brutal] but decides not to waste her time on him – Debra’s the real target! I guess she’s gonna wait for another day, though, since she drops Debra back at her car now:
“We didn’t really get to talk,” Debra said quietly, pushing open the car door.
“I’ll kill you tomorrow,” Corky told her.
Debra’s eyes opened wide. “Huh? What did you say?”
“I said I’ll call you tomorrow,” Corky replied, realizing her slip.
“Oh.” Debra’s eyes narrowed again. She giggled nervously. “I guess I didn’t hear you right.” She gave Corky a wave and slammed the door behind her.
You heard right. I’ll kill you tomorrow, Corky thought. Something to look forward to.
[Is anyone going to die in this book?] As she heads home, Corky decides Kimmy’s next up after Debra because Kimmy knows too much and knowledge is dangerous – ‘I’m afraid from now on, I’ll be the only one with something to cheer about.’ [Get it? Because they’re cheerleaders! Good one, Corky…] Presumably later that night, Corky wakes up and realises she’s back in control [Woo!], and although she can still feel the evil inside her [Boo!], she suspects that it’s sleeping [So evil spirits need sleep? Interesting]. As Corky tries to think of a way to save herself and her friends, she suddenly remembers the dream she had where she was Sarah Fear and realises it was actually a memory – ‘the evil must have all the memories of all the people it inhabited over the years.’
Since Sarah Fear was able to defeat the evil, Corky needs to access the rest of Sarah’s memories, which must be deep down inside Corky within the evil spirit. Settling back down into bed, Corky puts all her concentration into going deep into the recesses of her mind, sinking into the evil spirit’s memory. Deeper and deeper she goes [She’s acquired this talent quickly!], hearing anguished cries of despair within the immense darkness, until she’s completely overwhelmed by fear:
As if all the fear from all the people inhabited by the evil spirit had poured into her.
Endless fear. Endless pain. All inside her own mind.
Crying out to her. Reaching for her. Trying to grab her and pull her down into until horrors from centuries past.
No, I want to get out, Corky thought, struggling against the darkness, against the agony inside her. I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to hear this, to see this.
But she had no choice now. Now it was too late.
She was slipping back in time, deep into the memory of the foul thing inside her….
[I wish Stine’s writing was consistently great like this instead of consistently all over the place. Gotta love him though xox] We’re with Sarah Fear now who, unbeknownst to her, is enjoying her final voyage with her niece, Margaret, and nephew, Michael, her personal servant, Jason Hardy, and her unnamed brother who’s resting below deck with a headache. Jason’s steering the boat and calls Michael over to give it a try, but Sarah stops Margaret from doing the same because ‘”Piloting a sailboat is a man’s job. That wouldn’t be ladylike, would it?”‘
A beautiful monarch butterfly floats by, so Sarah reaches out and crushes it in her hand as a familiar voice in her head laughs cruelly [So Sarah’s consciousness has control, but does involuntary things, unlike Kimmy and and for the most part, Corky, who had no control when the evil does its thing. Again, where’s the consistency, Stine?]. Margaret calls her out for killing the butterfly, but Sarah denies even seeing one, the cheeky little gaslighter. She then internally argues with the evil about wanting it gone, and when Margaret senses something’s wrong, Sarah permits her to have a turn at the wheel so she can continue the struggle in peace [That’s not very ladylike, Sarah].
Sarah reveals to the evil that she plans on drowning herself to destroy it, but the evil rebuffs that it’ll just move to one of the children so it can live on. As Sarah stares down into the water, visions of the murders she’s been forced to commit float up to the surface. For the man responsible for her husband’s accident, Sarah pushed his head under the wheel of the mill until ‘his head was ground up as fine as the corn.’ [Love that]. Next, she strangled a woman who dared insult the Fear family with a clothesline, so tight that the rope ‘actually disappeared under the woman’s skin.’ Then when a young constable came to visit with way too many questions, Sarah conveniently had a pot of potatoes boiling on the stove, so all she had to do was hold his head under until the thrashing stopped [Seriously, what is with the evil’s love for boiling water. Also, surely Sarah’s hand was scalded too?] – ‘All of his hair had floated off, floated to the top of the pot. And when she finally pulled him up, his head was as white as a boiled potato and nearly as soft.’ [Hahahahahahaha poor guy. I hope these murders are more detailed in the Sagas book about Sarah]
The visions make Sarah more determined to kill the evil and she realises that if she drowns first, the evil won’t be able to escape. Ending her life is a frightening prospect, but it’s a better option than the pure, innocent children being corrupted by the evil. Just as she’s about to tumble overboard, however, the boat rears up and tosses her back. The boat begins to spin around as the evil tries to prevent Sarah from jumping overboard, but Sarah’s able to dive into the water anyway, purposely inhaling water as she sinks.
The evil thrashes inside her, struggling to free itself, and a green gas erupts from Sarah’s mouth so forcefully that it propels her to the surface, where she sees that the sailboat has overturned. Then she’s under the surface again as the water becomes boiling hot, green gas continuing to pour out of her. Still, Sarah forces her way down further until she can feel the evil weakening as they both succumb to death…
Back to Corky now, who sinks even deeper into her mind until she’s no longer in Sarah Fear’s memory, but the memory of the evil itself, trapped inside the coffin with Sarah’s rotting corpse – defeated by Sarah’s courageous sacrifice, it eagerly waits ‘for a live body to come along and free it’ [Even though Jennifer was already dead when she landed on Sarah’s grave… Come on, Stine. God, did you just give up by the time of writing this one?] Corky wakes up in bed now and tearfully realises what she must do – ‘To kill the evil, I have to… kill myself.’
Part Three: Hot Water
Corky wakes at noon the next day and mourns everything she’ll miss out on if she kills herself – no more family, no more Sean, she’ll never find the love of her life or be married, etc – but then decides against suicide because she owes it to Bobbi to live a full, happy life. The evil starts to wake within her and Corky can feel herself drifting away again, but his time she’s determined to just ignore it until it goes away [You’ll need a much better plan than that, girl]. She’s somehow able to keep control, but the evil makes her hallucinate the flowers from the wallpaper raining down on her [Which is kind of dumb and not scary at all compared to its other hallucinations]. Corky escapes to the hall and slides down the bannister, avoiding the rows of razor blades that pop up on each stair.
Mum walks past and is all “Wtf?” which stops the hallucinations, then leads Corky to the kitchen to make her some eggs. Mum senses something wrong but thinks Corky’s being a cheeky little prankster when she confesses to being inhabited by an evil spirit. Mum dumps the fried eggs on Corky’s plate and returns to her laundry, but before Corky can eat, the eggs turn into decaying eyeballs. Corky flees back to her room and is phoned by Kimmy, who’s worried about her, and a growing hatred for Kimmy shows us that the evil has taken over once again. This doesn’t really make sense because the logic for the hatred is that ‘Kimmy tried to kill me. Tried to drown me,’ even though it was the evil inside Kimmy trying to drown Corky [I guess anyone that’s wronged the host in the past becomes the evil’s enemy, even if the evil itself was responsible for the wrongdoing? Or just yet another fuck up in this book by Stine?].
Corky asks to meet at River Ridge [First seen on the blog briefly in Silent Night 2], a high cliff overlooking the Conononka River, in half an hour, and despite being surprised by the location, Kimmy agrees [Surely Kimmy’s caught on and isn’t this stupid…]. For some unexplained reason, Evil Corky has decided Kimmy must die in water, just like Sarah Fear and Bobbi did [Oooh, wouldn’t it be cool if Sarah Fear has somehow possessed Kimmy or something and they’re gonna battle it out?!].
Corky arrives at the ridge, which is apparently a place she’s always enjoyed visiting even though this is the first we’ve heard of it in three books, and impatiently waits for her victim to show up. It starts raining as Kimmy arrives and they begin discussing what happened at camp. Corky can barely keep a straight face as she tells Kimmy that Hannah’s probably possessed and did those things to herself to get them into trouble. This apparently never occurred to Kimmy [Seriously, Kimmy? It never crossed your mind that the new girl no-one had even heard of until this book might be hosting the evil? Really?], although she assures Corky that she never suspected her, either [That one is definitely a lie]. Kimmy wants to get out of the rain and to back to Corky’s car to continue the conversation, but Corky has other plans:
“Okay,” Corky replied. “But first look down there. She pointed straight down over the cliff’s edge. “I’ve been trying to figure out what that is, but I can’t.”
“What?” Kimmy leaned over and peered down at the rushing river.
Corky reached out and shoved Kimmy. Hard.
Kimmy uttered a loud shriek as she went over the side. Her arms thrashed wildly as she dropped headfirst.
A grin spread over Corky’s face as she stood, hands on hips, and watched Kimmy plunge to her death.
The horror of what’s just happened gives the real Corky enough strength to regain some control of her body. She’s once again set on killing herself to stop any more horror, which the evil is obviously against, but Corky ends up winning the internal battle and plunges over the cliff and into the murky brown river below. Corky inhales the muddy water as she sinks to the bottom, and the evil starts pouring out of her mouth in protest, boiling and churning the water, but Corky won’t let that stop her:
And then Corky drowned. She felt a if she were shrinking.
Shrinking until she was nothing but a tiny acorn floating in the water. Then a dot. A lifeless dot. She knew the evil spirit had shrunk too.
And knowing this, she died.
[Not my Corky!! ☹] The water begins to cool and calm as the weakened evil watches from the depths as Corky’s body rises to the top. With one last-ditch effort it forces Corky into the air, but the body just hovers there ‘like a sagging helium balloon.’ [Hahahaha] With a wail of defeat the spirit lets Corky’s body fall back to the water. A crash of thunder and waves throws the weakened spirit from Corky’s body [It was already outside Corky’s body though?? It can’t have been inside Corky’s body while simultaneously watching her float to the top from the depths lol] and it fades away, apparently disappearing ‘forever in the rain-stirred brown river current.’ [Until the next book, at least]
We cut to Kimmy, who survived her fall [Seriously, why the hell did the evil just assume Kimmy would die here lol? Did it just assume she’d can’t swim or something?] and confusedly fought against the frothing water before seeing Corky’s body rise into the air. When the water calmed, Kimmy swam for Corky and dragged her to shore, where she now successfully resuscitates her by whacking her on the back til water spurts out her mouth [What, no mouth to mouth?].
Relieved that the other one is alive and the evil is gone [Wait, haven’t we already established the evil can’t be drowned? Like, it didn’t drown with Sarah Fear, it didn’t drown when it was sucked down the bath drain, and it even left Corky a note declaring it can’t be drowned??? Which reminds me, did Evil Corky write out that note and send it to herself for normal Corky to find? Lol], the girls are about to head back up the trail to the cliff when Corky spots a circle of light in the water and goes in for a closer look. It seems to be a reflection of a face, but not just any face – it’s Bobbi, smiling at her! Corky smiles back until the reflection breaks up and the light disperses. Feeling peaceful, Corky and Kimmy make the ascent back up the cliff.
Time for a brief epilogue during cheerleader practice now, and the girls finally manage to pull off the diamond-head pyramid, with Corky successfully landing in Kimmy’s awaiting arms. Then Corky, Kimmy, Debra and Ronnie head to the Corner for a bite to eat, and the book ends with some classic banter:
“Know what I have a craving for?” Corky asked Kimmy, peering at her over the top of the menu.
Kimmy shrugged. “No. What?”
“Pea soup,” Corky said softly.
“No way!” her three companions shouted in unison.
“I’ll have a burger and fries,” Corky told the waitress.
All four girls collapsed in riotous laughter.
The waitress headed back to the kitchen, shaking her head, wondering what on earth could be funny about pea soup….
Final thoughts
This one was kind of a letdown compared to the first two. I mean, where were the deaths??! Why not use Heather and Ronnie as cannon fodder? God knows they’ve served no other purpose in the trilogy. I think Heather’s only had one line in the whole trilogy!!! Sarah Beth Plummer had no relevance after the second book, so even she could have been axed!
It was still an enjoyable read, mostly because I love Corky, but it just doesn’t stack up compared to the others. It did feel like two different books – more could have and should have been done with the cheerleader camp, but instead it was just a very lengthy setup to the big reveal of Corky being possessed. Of course, as is standard with Stine, we’re left with more questions than answers. Why was Kimmy’s face glowing near the start of the book? Is the green gas the evil’s physical form or not? If so, how was it able to leave Sarah and Corky’s bodies, but still be inside them as well?
Why are the rules, for lack of a better word, surrounding possessions, so inconsistent? Like, Kimmy’s consciousness was completely gone while the evil was in her body and she has no recollection of that few months. Corky was in control and had no idea the evil was simultaneously doing evil things from within her until she almost attacked Hannah, and then she started remembering things that had happened earlier from the evil’s perspective. Similarly, Sarah Fear seemed mostly in control, but had some involuntary actions thanks to the evil.
Also, how did the evil survive drowning with Sarah Fear but was stuck in her coffin with her corpse, but somehow isn’t still attached to Corky despite her drowning and being resuscitated. Why are Corky and Kimmy so sure it’s finally gone when it’s survived an attempted drowning at least twice already, and flat out told Corky through a note that it can’t be drowned?!
My last batch of questions are to do with Jennifer. How was it possible for her to even be possessed in the first place? The evil confirmed in this one that it needed a live host to be freed from Sarah Fear’s coffin, but in the first book it revealed Jennifer was already dead when she landed on the grave. If all it took was a live host, why didn’t it latch onto whoever fished Sarah’s corpse from Fear Lake? And speaking of Jennifer, I still don’t know why she was pretending to have no control of her legs? If it was to seem innocent, it didn’t help because she was still a suspect anyway. I also don’t know why she was dancing on Sarah Fear’s grave, but I’m going to assume the evil was celebrating its return and it was just gloating, which is fun.
Despite all these questions, it’s overall an enjoyable trilogy and it’s 100% worth reading at least once. I’ll be honest, I was expecting more death and carnage for the cheerleaders, especially in the conclusion, but oh well. There were a lot of cool scenes throughout and the Corcorans were great characters, but I wish Bobbi was utilised more in the sequels, but at least she had some cameos! I’m looking forward to the fourth instalment, which happens to be a Super Chiller, but that hardly means anything except more pages to read lol.
Anyway, 43 underutilised characters out of 71!
