Tagline: Before the Cheerleaders, the Evil lived…in Sarah Fear.
Back tagline: Now the terror begins….
Summary: Everyone knows the story of the Evil. The Evil that terrorized Corky Corcoran and the cheerleaders of Shadyside High. The Evil that destroyed Sarah Fear one hundred years ago.
Everyone thinks they know the story.
But the true story has remained hidden. Only Sarah Fear Knows where the Evil began. What it wants. And why it kills.
Read Sarah’s story…and discover the truth at last.
First impressions: Very keen for this one! We touched on Sarah Fear’s history in The Second and Third Evil, so I’m excited to explore her story more in depth. According to this reddit post, this one was ghostwritten by Eric Weiner. Looks like most of the Sagas were ghostwritten, which is interesting! It appears that for the first time in five books, we’re capitalising the Evil, so I wonder if there’ll be even more inconsistencies with what we know from the previous books. Let’s find out!
Recap
Meet the crew:
Sarah Burns/Fear – Our newly married heroine who’s feeling a little lonely.
Thomas Fear – Sarah’s brand new husband who may or may not be a little suss.
Jane Hardy – Sarah’s best friend from her old life.
Jason Hardy – Jane’s stepbrother who comes to visit Sarah in Shadyside.
Prologue – Shadyside, 1898
The book begins with 21-year-old, flame-haired Sarah Burns [Surely that last name is a reference to the original spelling of the Fear family name, Fier, which is an anagram of fire. Clever, Weiner!] heading to the Shadyside church via horse-drawn carriage. She’s set to be married to Thomas Fear today, a man she’s never met because this is an arranged marriage [Gross, I could never]! She’s slightly concerned because although it was a beautiful day when she left her hometown, the skies had darkened as soon as she’d arrived in Shadyside – is this a sign of what lays ahead?
Further down the road, a tall young man in a top hat and dark cloak approaches the carriage, and it’s clear that the horses are unnerved by him. The driver stops and asks for directions to the Shadyside church. The handsome stranger offers to accompany them back since they’ve overshot their destination by a few miles, and Sarah’s finding it quite hard to look away from him, ‘almost as if he were hypnotizing her with his stare.’ The man introduces himself as Hamilton Davies as he climbs aboard, and there’s a lot of sexual tension between these two! He’s super complimentary, and soon they’re talking about Sarah’s wedding. The driver seems nervous when he hears the name of Sarah’s husband-to-be, and explains the Fears allegedly practice dark magic. Sarah doesn’t believe in that nonsense, but it definitely doesn’t help her anxiety.
Arriving at the church, Sarah thanks Hamilton and insists he take the carriage on to his own destination, but it turns out he’s already here! Yes, Hamilton Davies is really Thomas Fear, who’d gone for a walk to calm his nerves, but was afraid to introduce himself earlier in case she didn’t like him [So you’d rather her first impression be that you’re a liar? Interesting choice]. Sarah wants to marry him ‘”with all my heart,”‘ [Really? All of your heart? You just met!] and they race into the church. As the service begins, Sarah realises there’s something not quite right about the guests – everyone is dressed in black and grey, and none of them are smiling, as if they’re attending a funeral rather than a wedding [They’re probably mourning the loss of a beautiful young woman to the Fear family].
Six Months Later
Poor Sarah is struggling with loneliness in the big, castle-like mansion, since Thomas is out of the house a lot for work. In fact, she sometimes feels like she doesn’t know him any better than when they first met [That ain’t a good marriage]! She’s yet to make any friends [But it kind of seems like she doesn’t leave the house, so that could be why] and is desperate for company, but I guess the help ain’t good enough because she doesn’t try to befriend the mansion’s staff. She starts writing a letter to an unnamed old friend who’s doing some travelling from her hometown and mentions having tea with a horrible gossip, Liza Teasedale, who spent the whole time telling Sarah the awful stories about the Fear family [Oooh, this woman was mentioned in The Third Evil!].
Then Thomas bursts in with his niece and nephew, Margaret and Michael [According to The Second Evil, they’re the children of one of Sarah’s brothers, which would make them her niece and nephew, not Thomas’s], which is strange for two reasons; one, Thomas had warned he’d be home late tonight due to business at the bank; and two, Thomas seems super eager for an outing with the kids despite never having shown an interest in them before. Still, Sarah is pleasantly surprised to see him and super excited to go to the roller-skating rink with them [Interestingly, roller-skates were invented long before this book takes place! Who’d have known?].
At the rink, Thomas surprises her again when he suggests they start a family of their own soon – Sarah can’t wait to have kids, but Thomas has never been keen on the idea and would change the subject every time she’d bring it up [Yeah, why the sudden change, Thomas? Are you possessed?! 👀]. She’s too ecstatic to question it, though, because she’s never felt closer to her husband. Soon, Thomas grabs Michael’s hands and starts spinning him around in a circle, which is fun for the boy until they continue to pick up speed. Michael’s clearly getting queasy but Thomas keeps going, ignoring Sarah’s calls for him to stop. Thomas’s eyes glitter and he’s grinning crazily as he continues to spin so hard and fast that Michael’s skates are lifted from the floor of the rink:
She heard gasps from the people surrounding her. Then she heard another sound. A horrible sound. The sound of Thomas laughing.
Thomas let go of Michael’s hands.
“Nooo!” Sarah screamed.
Michael flew into the air. His head hit the wooden railing with a terrible crack!
Sarah’s all like “WTF Thomas?!?” and shakes him by the shoulders, but her husband just stares at her like she’s a complete stranger. Then he seems to snap out of whatever daze [Or evil trance?!] he’s in and rushes to Michael’s aid, who thankfully is still alive [For now]. Thomas tells her later that he’d felt paralysed while swinging Michael and had no control of his body, but Sarah doesn’t see how that could be possible [So the evil is 100% already here. But where did it come from?!].
Sarah’s never bought into all comments and rumours she’s heard about the Fears, and had changed the subject every time Mrs. Teasedale tried to tell her a story during their last visit. But after what happened at the rink she’s no longer sure, so a few days later she visits the old gossip. Mrs. Teasedale is more than happy to indulge her and explains why young, rich, and handsome Thomas had to arrange a marriage with a woman from another town he’d never met, something Sarah has asked herself many times – no-one around these parts would have him because the Fear family is cursed! Rumour has it that back in the day, a Fear was responsible for an innocent girl being burned at the stake, so her family put a powerful curse on the Fears in retaliation. The Fears are also said to have used dark magic to bring suffering and death to the lives of many people, and while Mrs. Teasedale doesn’t know if any of these tales are true, she strongly believes that the Fears are cursed and followed by evil, and warns that if Sarah doesn’t leave the mansion, ‘”you will die there before much time has passed.”‘ [How ominous]
Despite wanting to know everything Mrs. Teasedale knows, Sarah now thinks it’s cruel that she’d tell a new bride these things about her new family and determines that she’s a vicious old gossip [Sarah, please]. Who does she think she is? Of course Sarah won’t die! But Thomas did almost kill Michael, so could Mrs. Teasedale be right? Sarah heads home, unsuccessfully trying to convince herself that everyone is simply jealous of the wealth and power the Fears have. Although Thomas has been nothing but good to her and ‘what happened to Michael could have been an accident,’ [Is this bitch for real? He was literally smiling about it. Do you really think it was an accident? I mean, he was definitely inhabited by the evil at the time, but she doesn’t know that] she decides to just be careful and keep her eyes peeled for anything suss.
At home, Thomas introduces Sarah to his old school chum, big-eared, horse-faced Aaron West, who had previously told Thomas he’d med Sarah Burns at a party in New York. Sarah and Aaron don’t recognise each other though, and Aaron states that he had a different person in mind. Sarah is relieved, because it would be a disaster if someone from her past turned up in Shadyside [Ooooooh, why?!?! 👀]. Thomas has a wedding gift for Sarah too, because even though it’s been over six months, it feels like only a day to him [Cute lol]. It’s a family heirloom, but Sarah doesn’t feel like opening it just yet and has a sudden impulse to throw it away.
Thomas has to duck out to the bank for a little while, leaving Sarah to entertain his guest. Aaron brings up the New York party again, explaining that the Sarah Burns he’d met there looks nothing like our Sarah. New York Sarah was a green-eyed blonde and completely ignored Aaron after being offended by something he’d said. Sarah doesn’t want to talk about New York, or anything from her past [But whyyyyyyyyyy?!? I hate not knowing things], and decides to open the gift Thomas left for her so they can talk about something else. Inside are 10 of the most beautiful, gleaming knives Sarah’s ever seen [I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who would describe cutlery as beautiful lol. Is this a sexist hint that Sarah should spend more time in the kitchen?!], held in place by a purple velvet sash.
Sarah sets the box back down and almost immediately hears a whooshing sound behind her, but nothing seems out of the ordinary when she glances around. Sarah is happy to learn that Aaron isn’t from Shadyside and explains how everyone in town seems to be against Thomas’s family. This is a surprise to Aaron, who thought Thomas would be incredibly popular wherever he went. Sarah hears the whooshing two more times and glances over at the box, only to find that only seven knives are there. There’s no sign of the other three knives nearby, so she assumes she was mistaken about the original amount [So you’re just going to ignore the three extra slots?].
The whooshing sound continues as Aaron and Sarah talk and when she glances at the box again, seven knives are missing. Sarah quickly realises what the sound is –metal sliding against velvet, as if someone is taking out the knives! Aaron notices that she keeps looking at the knives so she tries to keep her attention on him, but after three more whooshes she can’t help herself and glances down… and now there’s no knives in the box [!!!!!!]. She asks Aaron to take a look, just in case her mind is playing tricks on her, but the lack of knives is confirmed.
Then something flies past Sarah’s head, and she turns around to come face to face with one of the knives, floating in mid-air before it darts forward, aimed straight for her left eye [!!!!!!]. Sarah dives out of the way just in time, but soon more knives are flying towards her. She manages to avoid them and escapes from the room with Aaron, but they don’t bother to close the door behind them, and Sarah glances back to see the knives huddling together as a pack. To her surprise, they then fly straight past her and chase Aaron up the stairs.
Sarah rushes up to help him and finds poor Aaron writhing in agony in the hallway as he tries to escape the knives clustered around his left leg, ‘slashing into his thigh again and again.’ Dark blood puddles around him as his screams of pain battle the sound of metal scraping against bone [Oof, poor Aaron. What did he do to deserve this?!], until finally the thighbone breaks and the knives clatter to the floor all at once, now motionless. Aaron rolls over and Sarah finally sees the damage – Aaron’s leg is severed from his body [Why couldn’t she see that before he turned over? Also, we heard about this death in The Second Evil, but the diary Sarah Beth Plummer read said Aaron was found in the stable. Speaking of that diary, will we meet Ben Fear in this book?].
A few days later, Sarah writes another letter addressed to ‘My dearest friend,’ and signed ‘Your dearest friend,’ and there’s definitely something suss going on because why no names?. In this letter, Sarah urges her dearest friend to write back ASAP before detailing what happened to poor Aaron:
Aaron West, an old school chum of Thomas’s, suffered a bizarre accident. Did you ever hear of him? He’s from New York too.
Aaron was carrying some knives, and he fell. Somehow the knives cut off his leg, and he bled to death. And I saw it happen. It was hideous, so hideous I can hardly bear to write about it.
I couldn’t stop screaming. Thomas called the doctor for me. He gave me something to make me sleep, and I had the most horrible nightmare. In my dream the knives were alive. They flew through the air and attacked Aaron.
The dream was so real. When I woke up I felt convinced that it had actually happened.
[She’s either flat out lying right now (in which case why is she even writing a letter?), or she’s been drugged up and gaslit into thinking what she saw wasn’t real] Sarah believes the vivid dream was inspired by the stories she’d heard from Mrs. Teasedale and the horror of witnessing Aaron’s accident, and I can’t believe somebody’s convinced her that some dropped knives were able to cut through the bone with no issues. In fact, I can’t believe anyone would believe that story. What the hell?
Anyway, Sarah’s taken into town to drop off the letter by her carriage driver, Phillip, but she doesn’t want her outing to end, so she sends Phillip home and takes a leisurely stroll to the mill to surprise Thomas at work.
Sarah’s not sure how Thomas will react to her visit since he’s so private about much of his life, but she hopes the gesture will help their marriage because she wants to feel close to him again. Convincing herself that she saw flying knives proves to her that she’s been letting her imagination get carried away, and it had taken Thomas hours to convince her it was just a nightmare [Was the evil gaslighting her, or did Thomas genuinely think it was a dream, despite the overwhelming evidence that Aaron was murdered?]. He’d been so worried about her, and Sarah sees that as proof that he loves her and wouldn’t do anything to hurt her.
Anyway, the mill is is right up against the waterfall on the outskirts of town, which powers the huge waterwheel [I’d assume it’s the old mill where Corky tried to murder Debra, but I have never ever heard of a waterfall being on the outskirts of Shadyside???] and as Sarah enters, she spots Thomas over by the cistern, arguing with the foreman. They both look super mad and as the foreman gestures angrily, his hand catches Thomas across the chest, sending him backward into the cistern of water. There’s a loud hissing sound before a cloud of steam rises up from the well, which gobsmacks Sarah because how can cold water give off steam?!?
The hot steam fills the room, burning Sarah’s hands and face, and then the pool of water begins churning and bubbling, ‘like a pot of hot water that has been on the stove for hours!’ [OK so I’m guessing Thomas has either been possessed from the start or somehow became possessed by the evil at some point after their wedding, but now because the evil hates water, it’s fleeing his body and going into Sarah’s?] Thomas screams in agony as the water burns and blisters his skin, but Sarah finds herself paralysed to the spot, unable to rush over and help him. Thomas goes under several times before the foreman is able to throw a rope to him and pull him out.
Later that evening, Sarah is at Thomas’s bedside feeling terrible about not being able to help him from the water. Thomas assures her she was simply paralysed with fear, but Sarah believes it’s more than that. Dr. Pierce, who’d bandaged Thomas up, is confident that the horrible blisters will heal up nicely with plenty of rest, and offers a logical explanation for Thomas’s injuries – the well is driven by volcanic pressure, so every once in a while, steaming hot water comes up. Sarah’s embarrassed for thinking that something evil is afoot, but she’s still not sure fear is to blame for brief paralysis.
Thomas coughs all through the night and when Dr. Pierce arrives early the next morning he confirms Sarah’s worst fears – poor Thomas has pneumonia. He’s a strong, healthy young man, though, so Dr. Pierce isn’t worried, but Sarah suspects he may be lying.
To warm Thomas up, Sarah fetches an old robe he hasn’t worn for months, and a letter falls out that’s addressed to her. Thomas apologises for forgetting to give it to her, but Sarah’s unbothered by the simple mistake [Was it an innocent mistake, though?!]. Opening the envelope, Sarah’s horrified to learn that it’s bad news about her best friend, Jane Hardy, who Sarah has been writing all these letters to. The letter is from Jane’s stepbrother [We don’t learn his name, though] and reveals that Jane, who’d set off for Europe around the same time Sarah came to Shadyside, never made it to London because the ship sunk and everyone onboard drowned [Oof].
Sarah is wracked with guilt that she’d been honeymooning happily at Niagara Falls while Jane was dying, but she can’t mourn too much yet because there’s a knock at the door! A tall man with a black moustache that sticks out stiffly on either side of his face lets himself in, and Sarah recognises him instantly. It’s Jason Hardy [Oooh, Jane’s stepbrother I assume? What’s he doing here? Big mistake, because we know he drowns with Sarah], and Sarah quickly lies that he’s just a new driver she’s hired.
Overcome with emotion, Sarah excuses herself and flees from the house and into the woods, where she eventually comes to a stop to rest at the family cemetery. Jason appears and calls her Jane [Ooooh, Sarah and Jane swapped places?!? Juicy!], unable to believe he’s actually alive. The stepsiblings embrace and although Jason’s arrival will only cause problems for her, Jane’s too happy to see him to care right now [The book refers to her as Jane from now on, so I will too. It might get confusing because everyone will still call her Sarah, so just remember that only Jason knows she’s the real Jane! Also, I’m sensing a lot of sexual tension].
Jason demands an explanation, and we learn that Sarah Burns was a free spirit who hated being told what to do, so she was absolutely livid when her grandmother arranged for her to marry a complete stranger. Jane, on the other hand, was envious – she was about to head over to London in search of a husband [Why not find one in America?] while Sarah had one lined up that she didn’t even want! So Jane proposed an idea that would solve both their problems:
“Sarah and I, we switched places. We switched lives. Names. Identities. Everything. It is almost as if we switched souls. She became Jane. And I became Sarah.”
Sarah’s grandmother was too old and frail to make the trip to Shadyside for the wedding, so they were able to pull off the switch with no issues [So none of Sarah’s family went to her wedding? Weird]. Jane now blames herself for Sarah’s death because it should have been Jane who have died on that ship [OK so I think it’s safe to assume that the real Sarah’s spirit is back with a vengeance over her wrongful death. Drowning on a ship certainly explains the MO of water-related murders, but I’m not sure why the water is always boiling], but Jason assures her that no-one is at fault for the ship capsizing; it was just a freak accident brought on by a horrible storm.
Jason then reveals that he came to Shadyside to confront Sarah about not writing after learning of Jane’s death, and now demands to know why Jane didn’t contact him – ‘”Didn’t you realize how I would feel if I thought you were dead?”‘ Jane explains she only found his letter right before he appeared, and then she remembers Thomas [I wonder if Thomas really did forget to give her the letter, or if the evil kept it from her on purpose?]. She suddenly has a feeling that his condition has worsened and hurries back to the house, where she finds her husband dying in bed. His lips form a single word, which Jane thinks is ‘danger,’ before he starts violently coughing and convulsing and blood gushes from his mouth. Jane’s sure she feels his soul leave his body, and then he lays lifelessly in her arms.
After Thomas’s funeral sometime later, Jane is bedridden with a mysterious, feverish illness and all the days blur into one. She knows her husband is dead but can’t bring herself to fully believe it, and constantly calls out for him. Finally one night, the door bursts open and Thomas, wearing the outfit he wore when they first met, waltzes in. He looks frail and sickly as he approaches her, then suddenly his eyes widen in terror as his head is twisted sideways with a snap. Jane leaps out of bed and cradles him in her arms, and with his dying words he warns her that she’s in terrible danger [!!!!].
He then fades away and Sarah’s screams bring two nurses rushing in, and they quickly get her back into bed where she succumbs to sleep [It was just a pesky dream!]. Several more days pass as Sarah drifts in and out of sleep until one night she decides she has to get out of bed. Over on the chair where Jason often sits, Jane finds a newspaper with today’s date – March 13, exactly one month since Thomas’s death.
Wanting to pay her respects, Jane puts on some warm clothes and ventures out into the rain, through the woods and into the cemetery where she stops at Thomas’s shiny new gravestone. She’s overcome with emotion and finally begins to accept that he really is dead, and the other night had only been a dream.
As she says her goodbyes and prepares to leave, Jane notices a large hole to her left, ready for a coffin. Another member of the Fear family had died, but who? There’s a new headstone in the ground there too, and Jane’s heart stops when she sees the name written on it – ‘SARAH FEAR.’ She can’t believe everyone was so sure she was going to die from her illness [Well, you were pretty sick] and vows to prove them wrong.
Jane hurries back to the house and is confronted by Jason, who’s furious that she left the house in this weather when she’s so unwell. She’s taken straight back to bed and wakes up the next day feeling completely fine! No fever, no aches or pains and her strength has returned – it’s a miracle! Two nurses enter, surprised to find Jane dancing happily around the room, and Jane informs them in a harsh and husky voice that she’s letting them go [Uh oh, we know that voice!].
Jane realises how unpleasant she’s just been to them but puts it down to excitement over be better, and then hurries downstairs to tell Jason the good news. She bumps into a servant, Clara [Who’s been mentioned a lot but hasn’t done anything noteworthy. She’s a nice gal though, so I’m worried she’s going to die 😢], who immediately starts crying happy tears because she was so sure they’d be burying Sarah soon. Jane remembers seeing her gravestone last night and makes a bitter jab about everyone expecting her to die. Her voice is deep and hoarse again which is unusual, but she decides it’s because she’s barely used it over the past month.
Jason suddenly appears from the servants’ quarters, having been masquerading as one of them this entire time, and Jane rushes up to kiss him on the cheek [I have to keep reminding myself that these two are stepsiblings because seriously, there’s so. much. sexual. tension]. She drags Jason outside to frolic in the sunshine, and Jane actually cackles, which is an awful, embarrassing sound that she’s never made before. Jason is thrilled that Jane is fine now and wants to celebrate her recovery by going to a play tonight:
Jane knew she must refuse. She didn’t want to hurt Jason’s feelings. But she was still in mourning for Thomas. It wouldn’t be right.
But when she opened her lips to refuse, the words “I would love to go!” popped out.
She gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. Why did she say that?
[See??? Like, the book is written as if their love interests?? Also, assuming the evil has been around since Sarah died, why has it only possessed her now?] Luckily, Jason realises people will talk if they see Jane-as-Sarah out on the town with her manservant, so the date is off. Jane tells him she doesn’t feel like herself right now and excuses herself, heading back up to her room. She decides that her impulsiveness today must be caused by her sudden recovery and locks her bedroom door, hoping she’ll be alone if she loses control again. And then she hears a woman’s laughter [!!!!].
Jane searches the room as the cackling continues to grow louder and louder, but finds no-one and eventually realises the laughter is ‘coming from inside her own head!’ She finds a mirror and gazes at her reflection, but she looks normal…except for the green specks in her brown eyes. Green specks that multiply and grow until Jane’s eyes have changed colour completely, and then they seem to grow brighter ‘as if lit by a ghastly fire.’
Jane could not look away. Could not lower the mirror from her face.
As she watched, her lips spread into a smile.
What is happening to me?
“Looking for someone?” her reflection asked.
Jane drops the mirror and staggers over to the bed, thinking she’s completely lost her mind, but a voice inside her head assures her she’s completely sane. The evil then shows off its power, making the vines on Jane’s coverlet come to life. The vines wrap around Jane and throw her face-first into the wall [Hahahaha poor jane]. Then the walls melt into a brown puddle on the floor that rises up like a wave and washes over Jane, scalding her skin – ‘Jane could smell her own flesh burning. Her skin peeled away from the bone in long strips.’
Jane’s begging for it all to be over by the time the pain suddenly stops, and she opens her eyes to find herself completely unharmed and the room back to normal. The evil declares that she won’t be dying until it’s done with her, revealing ‘You were more than half dead last night before I revived you, Jane,’ [Oooh, it knows her name! Sarah Burns is definitely the evil] and Jane realises she recognises the voice – it’s Sarah Burns!
Yes, it soon becomes clear that Jane’s dearest friend is extremely bitter about her untimely death because it was supposed to be Jane on that ship [She didn’t force you to trade places, Sarah. Take some accountability]. Sarah laments that the life Jane is living is really hers, and she’s immensely jealous and hates her now. Jane apologises profusely and would take it all back if she could, but assures Sarah’s spirit there’s nothing to be jealous of – Thomas is dead, after all, and ever since Jane arrived in Shadyside it’s been accident after accident [I’m not sure of the accuracy here, because we skipped forward six months and I’m sure we would have been informed if anything weird happened before that, right?].
Sarah announces that she may not have the life she was meant to live [That she also never wanted], ‘but I can still destroy it’ and reveals with delight that she’s been hanging around since Thomas and Jane returned from their honeymoon [So why did she wait six months to do anything bad?]. Then Sarah proves it by briefly paralysing Jane’s body once more before admitting she was the one who threw Michael into the wall and prevented Jane from helping Thomas out of the water. Then when it became clear Thomas would survive his injuries, Sarah poisoned him with arsenic:
Sarah had killed Thomas. In cold blood.
I couldn’t have murdered your husband without using your body, Jane. It was your hands that fed him the poison.
[You know, some guys just can’t hold their arsenic…] Jane is horrified and has no strength left after all these revelations, but soon Sarah’s controlling her body, crossing to the wardrobe and changing her clothes. There’s so much work to do, after all – ‘You know Thomas was just the first to die, don’t you, Jane?’ [Well get to it, Sarah! We already know from the previous books who dies, of course, but I want proper death scenes!].
Soon, Jane arrives at Mrs. Teasedale’s place, wondering what exactly Sarah has planned. Mrs. Teasedale is relaxing in the backyard and apologises for telling Jane all the stories about the Fear family, and that’s when Jane starts to feel Sarah stir inside her, fitting her shape into Jane’s body ‘as if Sarah were wearing her.’
Sarah orders Jane to kill Mrs. Teasedale, insisting Jane wants her to suffer and Sarah is only doing her bidding. Sarah argues that Jane also hated Thomas and wanted him dead so she could use his wealth for herself. Of course, Jane denies all this and makes up an excuse to leave, but soon there’s a roaring in her head as Sarah fully takes over.
Under Sarah’s control, Jane bids farewell to Mrs. Teasedale and sneaks into the house, grabbing a knife and hurrying back out to the yard. She quickly cuts off two feet of rope from the clothesline and approaches Mrs. Teasedale, then wraps it around her neck, pulling it as tight as she can:
The rope disappeared underneath Mrs. Teasedale’s skin.
Jane watched as the blood flowed out in a perfect ring.
Snap!
Mrs. Teasedale’s neck broke.
Plop!
Mrs. Teasedale’s head landed on the back lawn.
[Could someone really be decapitated that way?] Jane is devastated at what her hands have just done, but Sarah quickly puts her body to work, dragging Mrs. Teasedale’s corpse behind a hedge. Then Jane heads back to the carriage, where Sarah instructs Phillip to take her to the mill.
Arriving at their destination, Sarah gloats about Thomas’s dip in the water, and Jane tells her old friend that she hates her. Sarah doesn’t like that and teaches Jane a lesson by using her power to wiggle a tooth back and forth until it finally pops free [Oof, that would hurt]. Inside, the mill is seemingly deserted, but the foreman soon appears and apologises profusely for Thomas’s accident, even offering to resign if that’s what Jane wants.
Despite Jane’s efforts to keep control, Sarah takes over and blames the foreman for Thomas’s death. She grabs his shirt and shoves him back with all her might, toward the huge mill wheel, where she forces his head down into its path. Despite the foreman’s efforts, Sarah’s too strong for him and soon warm blood is splattering across her dress. Then Jane has control again and vomits at the grisly act while Sarah just laughs inside her head.
The next morning, Jane gets up nice and early before dawn and hurries downstairs. There’s a large pot of potatoes on the stove, ready to boil [We know what that’s gonna lead to!], but there’s no sign of Clara, who’s usually up early [She’s probably dead somewhere :(]. Jane blacks out several times as she exits the house, first finding herself in the toolshed and grabbing a shovel before she ends up in the garden.
Sarah then forces Jane’s body to dig, chopping a worm in half as she does so because she’s a bitch, all the while Jane’s begging Sarah to leave her alone. Sarah gleefully reminds her that there was a third murder yesterday, prompting Jane’s memory of Clara walking in as she was stuffing her bloodied clothing in the back of her closet. Then she stabbed Clara with the knife she’d taken from Mrs. Teasedale’s house [But according to The Second Evil, the maid was found in the garden with hedge shearers through her heart! Why don’t we get that scene?], and Jane now realises she’s digging a grave for Clara.
Jane fetches Clara’s body from behind a hedge and stuffs her into the hole, and is almost done filling the grave when a policeman arrives. He introduces himself as Constable Childs and tells Jane of two murders that occurred yesterday. Sarah has full control and gives an Oscar-worthy performance pretending she has no idea what he’s talking about, and leads him inside so they can discuss it over some tea.
In the kitchen, Jane ignites the stove under the pot of potatoes as she makes the tea, then sits down with the constable. He reveals the victims’ names, and thanks to her driver, the constable knows Jane had visited both crime scenes. Jane says it’s an awful coincidence, but Constable Childs doesn’t seem convinced and starts asking questions about the Fears, including Thomas’s grandparents, Simon and Angelica [Oh yeah! Thomas is Robert’s son, and according to The Burning, Sarah had something to do with Robert’s death, although I doubt we’re gonna see that]. Jane can feel Sarah growing angrier inside her, and then the next thing she knows, Jane’s in her own bed [Lame, I wanted to see the potato scene death scene :(].
Realising she blacked out again, Jane hurries back to the kitchen, where the room is filled with the aroma of cooked meat [Is that the constable?]. She sits down with the servants, who are having breakfast, and tries to remember what happened. She spots the large pot of potatoes still boiling on the stove and her memory comes flooding back painfully as she realises the constable is in the pot – ‘I carved him up…like a turkey.’ [After she drowned him in the boiling water, I assume. Also, why hasn’t anyone looked in this pot yet?] Jane dashes up to her room and locks the door behind her, but Sarah insists there’s one more murder to do – Jason!
Jane refuses, of course, and uses all her strength to get away from the door, but eventually a green gas pours out of her mouth and fills the room. The cloud forms the face of Sarah Burns, and Jane pleads with her to stop the madness by letting them both die. She refuses to let Sarah hurt anyone else, but she really doesn’t get a say in the matter because the green gas quickly forces its way down Jane’s throat again.
With Sarah in control, Jane sets out to find the box of knives Thomas had given her. Sarah loved using them to murder Aaron West; after all, ‘he deserved it after all those horrible things he said about me.’ [He just said you were rude to him, and that doesn’t seem like a far cry from your current behaviour…] Jane selects the longest knife, and under Sarah’s influence she reasons that she’d wanted Jason dead all along because he was such a snitch when they were younger [That’s just the evil talking, Jane! Don’t do it!].
Jane summons Jason from the servants’ quarters and quickly shoves him against the wall, the knife at his throat. He looks more surprised than scared, and still doesn’t beg for his life after Jane nicks his neck with the blade. He immediately realises this isn’t Jane and calls out his stepsister’s name, and for a moment she feels strong again and is able to wrench the knife away from Jason’s neck.
She urges him to say her name over and over, and gains more and more strength each time Jason says it. She can feel Sarah’s spirit fighting for control, but Jane’s able to toss the knife to the floor, and soon she can’t feel or hear Sarah anymore.
She quickly explain everything to Jason, and even though it’s hard to believe that she’s possessed by Sarah’s vengeful spirit, ‘”it is even harder to believe that you would ever try to hurt me.”‘ [Just fuck already, omg. It completely makes sense why everyone in town thinks Sarah’s having an affair with her manservant!] Jason is sure they’ve defeated the evil, but Jane is concerned Sarah will kill him as soon as she gets the chance. And then dickhead Jason fetches the knife, wraps Jane’s fingers around the handle and raises it to his throat because if Sarah is still around, she wouldn’t be able to resist killing him right now [You’re just so irresistible are you, Jason?]. Nothing happens, and Jane is relieved that the nightmare is over at last [But there’s still a constable in the pot on the stove? And surely all these murders will still be investigated?].
The next morning, Jason brings Margaret and Michael around because they’re all going to go sailing! Jane is filled with guilt after everything Sarah made her do, but Jason insists she needs to get on with her life now and not let Sarah ruin it any further. He’s right, so they all pile into the carriage and head off for Fear Lake:
Jane took Margaret and Michael by the hand. “We’re going to have so much fun today!” she exclaimed.
Yes, the evil spirit answered. We’re going to have so much fun.
[Oop] Now we get a very similar scene to the one Corky experienced within the evil’s memories, but it seems to retcon a few things. For example, there’s no mention of the fifth passenger, the children’s father, on the boat, and this time Jane admits to killing the butterfly when Margaret calls her out. But it’s much the same besides that, although there’s no mention of the green gas escaping Jane’s body as they drown [It is soooooooo annoying when there’s these sort of inconsistencies].
Time for an epilogue now, and we’re at Jane’s funeral. Sarah can’t do anything but watch through Jane’s lifeless eyes as a crying Jason appears and kisses her on the cheek [Uhhhh, no, Jason died on the boat according to every other cheerleader book!]. Then he lowers the lid and the service begins. Sarah’s unable to free herself from Jane’s corpse, and the book ends as clumps of dirt are thrown onto the coffin:
Soon she would be covered in a mound of earth. Trapped here forever.
No! She wasn’t going to let Jane win.
Sarah refused to allow this to happen to her. No matter what it took, she would find a way out. Yes, even if it took her a hundred years. She would find a way….
Final thoughts
It was great to finally learn the origins of Sarah Fear and the evil spirit. The Jane/Sarah switcheroo was a nice twist, but I think we all could have guessed that Sarah was the evil spirit as soon as we learned she’d died. I’d still like to know more about the evil, though. Is it earthbound because of Sarah’s undying hatred for Jane? Is the evil immortal?
This book also presented us with a lot of inconsistencies when compared to the first four books. Thomas was said to die two years into the marriage, but the book seems to follow a much shorter timeline of less than a year. Then some of Sarah’s family supposedly moved in, but that never happened. We know Clara was found in the yard, murdered with hedge shearers, but she was killed differently and her corpse buried in this book. Sarah also had something to do with Thomas’s father’s death, but that was never mentioned here. And then that whole sailboat scene at the end doesn’t match up with the memory Corky saw back in The Third Evil.
Speaking of the sailboat, Jason died along with the other passengers, so how was he alive at the end here? Also, there was no mention of the fifth passenger, Margaret’s and Michael’s father, who was Sarah’s brother. I guess some facts had to be retconned in order for the switch twist to work, because Sarah’s brother and his kids would definitely be aware that Jane isn’t Sarah.
Normally I would give the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe the stories got twisted and embellished over time, but Sarah Beth Plummer had been going off Ben Fear’s diary when she told Corky about Sarah Fear’s history, so I feel like it should match up.
Surprisingly, Thomas wasn’t the least bit evil except when Sarah had possessed him, but I’m still baffled how on earth he really thought Aaron’s death was just a simple freak accident? It’s seriously crazy.
Anyway, 28 retcons out of 37!
