Tagline: There’s no vacation from the terrors of Fear Street!
Back tagline: Time to party.
Summary: Cari Taylor and her three friends look forward to a “party summer,” working at the Howling Wolf Inn, an old hotel on a tiny island off Cape Cod. But to their dismay, the hotel is completely deserted, and someone wants them to leave immediately.
The mysterious owner, Simon Fear III, allows Cari and her friends to stay, giving them the run of the hotel. The four teenagers are thrilled…until they realize they have been put up in the “haunted wing”…until Simon is weird and frightening brother appears…until they hear a woman screaming, “No party—please, no party!”…until the walls and faucets begin to drip blood!
When Simon Fear is murdered, Cari and her horrified friends want out. But they can’t escape! They’re trapped on the island. And that’s when the “party” begins….
First impressions: I’m looking forward to this one! I don’t think I’ve recapped anything involving the infamous Fear family yet, so maybe we’ll get some backstory. It sounds like a fun book, and the cover definitely grabs my attention, both for the drama and the weird artistic flaws. That dark-haired girl’s whole booty region seems a bit…off? Like, it looks like she’s got a super long butt and a major wedgie, poor thing. The blonde girl’s eyelashes are incredibly sparse yet super long, which is an interesting look. And that shadow-man’s left arm is atrocious, it looks like a chicken foot hahahaha. Why are there only three fingers and why are they pointy? Maybe we’ll find out in the book! Let’s read.
Recap
Roll call:
Cari – Our heroine who’s super excited for a party summer!
Jan – Cari’s best friend who’s a strong believer in the supernatural.
Eric – Cari’s friend and love interest.
Craig – The fourth friend who really has no relevance to the plot.
Simon – A member of the Fear family who runs the hotel.
Edward – Simon’s mysterious brother.
Martin – Simon’s faithful servant.
Aunt Rose – Jan’s aunt who’s accompanying the teens.
The book, told in third-person, begins with Jan [Who’s not our heroine] alone in the attic on a rainy evening. She’s a bit of a witchy poo and is trying to summon a ghost through a pentacle she’s drawn on the wooden floor. She begins to feel a ghostly presence, but her little seance is interrupted by her three friends; protagonist Cari Taylor, Eric and Craig.
They’re surprised by what’s going on and Jan’s not impressed by the interruption. She admits what she was doing, which prompts some laughter from the boys, and the subject is quickly changed to why they’re there in the first place – they’re all allowed to go to Piney Island with Jan [Party summer, woooooo!]. Jan’s super duper excited, but warns the boys that ghosts in old inns have violent, bloody stories to tell and ‘”don’t like to be laughed at”‘:
“If you laugh at them the way you laughed at me, you could get hurt.”
[Is Jan our red herring?]. Four weeks later, it’s time to go to Piney Island! As Cari gets ready, we get a lengthy description about how good looking she is to the point where people often make a fuss about it [Especially her dad which is weird], but Cari doesn’t understand the hype [Ugh she’s one of those people]. Bold, outgoing Jan is super hot too, and Cari feels like a stick standing next to her womanly figure.
A bit of backstory tells us Cari’s parents weren’t keen on her spending the whole summer on a tiny island they’ve never heard of, but they quickly give in because it’s what Cari really wants. The teens will be accompanied by Jan’s Aunt Rose, a writer, who was heading to the Howling Wolf Inn to finish her book and had suggested Jan gather some friends to spend the summer working and enjoying the facilities. It sounds like a good deal and the perfect location for some murder:
“There’s nothing on the island but the hotel. And the only way to reach it is by boat from Provincetown once a day. Jan says her aunt showed her pictures of it, and it’s beautiful. Pine trees grow almost all the way down to the beach.”
[I wanna go to the Howling Wolf Inn!]. Jan and Aunt rose arrive on Fear street to pick up Cari before they head to Eric’s house, where both boys are waiting for them. Jan’s wearing an ivory skull pendant around her neck which she believes will ward off evil, expecting to find ghosts at the hotel, which Eric declares is super weird. As Eric does some last-minute packing, Cari notes how different her male friends are from each other:
The two boys are as different from each other as Jan and I are, Cari thought, watching them load their stuff into Rose’s station wagon. They even looked different.
[Why would they not look different, Cari? They’re friends, not relatives? Is it so completely shocking that two friends don’t look like each other?]. Eric’s short and slim with a ponytail and glasses, and Cari’s always been attracted to him, although ‘he works so hard at being cool’ [Sounds like a loser]. Craig is a more of preppy kind of guy, and Cari envies how easygoing and casual he is [I wonder what that’s like].
Anyway, the gang sets off on their ‘”Party summer”‘ [They chant the words every fkn chance they get, it’s super lame lol], and Eric’s looking forward to all the ‘”really fabulous babes”‘ he’ll meet on the island [So fab!]. Car’s also never been this excited before – two whole months away from her family, alone with her friends at a gorgeous island resort, what’s not to love?
Unfortunately as they near Provincetown, where they’ll catch the boat to Piney Island, Aunt Rose develops a sharp pain in her stomach and left side. She doesn’t believe in hospitals [lol what??] and refuses to see a doctor, so with Jan behind the wheel, they head to the home of Rose’s sister, Aileen, who’s a nurse.
At Eileen’s, Aunt Rose eventually encourages the kids to board the boat without her because Simon, the owner of the hotel, needs them to start work and she doesn’t want to let him down. She’ll call ahead and explain what’s happened, and she’ll be on tomorrow’s boat when she’s better [Reading so many of these books has me thinking Aunt Rose is in on whatever dastardly plot will befall our heroes on Piney Island… but she seems so nice so I’m to sure what to think].
Arriving at the island after a boat ride through some aggressive waves, the teens are surprised that no-one’s waiting to take them to the hotel, like Aunt Rose said. They also find it weird that they were the only people on the boat, which prompts Jan to proclaim there’s some bad juju going on:
“Well, first Aunt Rose gets sick. Then the ocean gets rough and pushes against us. These are bad omens,” Jan insisted, nervously fingering the skull pendant around her neck.
[‘Fingering’ will never not sound dirty to me hahaha]. The boys are over her witchy poo attitude already [It’s her hobby, leave her alone!] and Cari changes the subject, suggesting they just walk to the hotel since it’s getting dark. So off they go up the single road, where they’re briefly stalled by a locked gate. There’s a phone in the nearby gatehouse, but when they try to call the inn, there’s no dial tone! Luckily, Craig notices the latch at the bottom of the gate [If the resort is the only thing on the island, why does it need a fence in the first place?] and they continue on the path. Arriving at the inn, Cari quickly notices it’s completely devoid of people – there’s no lights on in any of the rooms, no-one by the pool, no-one on the beach.
This gives Cari the heebie jeebies, but they continue to the resort’s main doors, which are locked. Cari rings the doorbell, and soon after the door pushes open a few inches, revealing a ‘very pale, middle-aged man with unruly tufts of black hair’ who orders them to go away because the hotel is closed before pulling the door shut [Wow, rude].
The door opens again, this time by the hands of a ‘tall, distinguished-looking man with wavy white hair and a full white moustache’ who welcomes them. He apologises for his servant, Martin, who was caught off guard by their arrival, much like he is himself, who wasn’t expecting them either. Realising Aunt Rose mustn’t have called, Jan explains her aunt got sick and will arrive on the next boat before the man introduces himself as Simon Fear.
Cari recognises the name and mentions the burned down Fear Mansion back in Shadyside, and Simon explains it belonged to his mysterious great-uncle. He hasn’t been to Shadyside in years, and wonders if everyone in the Fear Street cemetery is still dead [And I oop–]. Anyway, Simon explains that the resort is closed for renovations. Apparently the workers doing the refurbishing just left in the middle of it for another better paying job [Wouldn’t they have a contract?] and the phones were out all last week [I guess they’re still out, which would explain no dial tone in the gatehouse and Aunt Rose not calling ahead], so he’d sent Rose a letter requesting they come a few weeks later instead, but obviously it didn’t come in time.
He’s more than happy for them to stay until the boat comes back tomorrow and leads them to the dining room for some dinner, with the gang feeling disappointed about the delay to their party summer [PARTY SUMMERRRRRR!]. Jan wants to call Aunt Rose, but Simon explains that while the lines are fixed, the hotel’s switchboard is down, but someone’s supposed to arrive tomorrow to fix it.
Simon mentions that he agreed to the renovations to help cheer up his depressed brother, Edward, who ‘”won’t come downstairs now when anyone’s here”‘, and likes these sorts of projects. This gives Eric an idea – the four of them can stay and help out with the renovations [Hahahaha what?]. Cari and the others chime in that it’s a great idea, and because it’s a Fear Street book, Simon agrees that four unqualified teenagers might even do a better job than the workers, since it’s simple carpentry and wallpaper stripping [No, you’re all dumb].
Martin insists the work should be done by professionals [Rightly so] and that ‘”It isn’t safe”‘, which Cari thinks sounds more like a threat than a concern for their safety. A tense standoff ensues between Martin and Simon, but Simon’s made up his mind – the kids will stay and do the renovations [This is so stupid hahahaha]. The gang celebrates that party summer is back on [Woo, yeah, party summer! Woooo!].
After dinner, Martin leads them to their rooms in the old wing, which takes ages because the resort is bigger than it looks. He warns them again that the construction work is dangerous and more work than Simon realises, insisting they should just leave tomorrow, but the gang argue that they’re hard workers and will be just fine. Martin persists, telling them there’s things going on they’re better off not knowing [I feel like he’s genuinely looking out for them so I’ll be surprised if he turns out to be a bad guy], which Jan perceives to mean the hotel is haunted. She practically has an orgasm as she begs him to tell them what he’s seen, but Martin just warns them one last time to leave before walking off.
The next day, Cari and the boys are enjoying the beach, glad that Simon’s given them the day off. While Craig frolics in the waves, Cari and Eric discuss where Jan might be, as they haven’t seen her yet today. Eric suggests she’s ghost hunting in the hotel and Cari admits her best friend ‘”really is weird”‘ [No, you guys are weird for making it a big deal all the time!]. Unfortunately, Jan’s approaching from behind at that moment and hears the whole thing, and she’s not impressed. They apologise to Jan and she joins them on the sand, and Cari can’t help but notice how cute Eric and his ponytail look ‘in those mirror sunglasses and jean cutoffs’ [98% of men with long hair don’t suit it so this is how i picture Eric:
I’m sure Eric’s cute, but I’m just not a fan of long hair hahaha].
Anyway, Jan explains she overslept and then went exploring before trying to call Aunt Rose, but got no answer, so hopefully she arrives on the boat today. Discussion soon turns to how weird Martin was last night, which gets Jan all horny about ghosts again. Eric makes fun on her and either doesn’t realise or chooses to ignore how upset she is about all the teasing until she storms back to the hotel [Eric’s a loser].
That night after Eric’s apologised to Jan, the four friends have a picnic dinner on the beach and admire the beauty of the island. Eventually, Simon joins them and reveals Aunt Rose never showed up. He suggests to a worried Jan that she just wanted to spend more time with her sister, and they’ll call her first thing in the morning [I wonder if she did show up and someone killed her or something?!].
The conversation soon turns to the Fear family, and Jan begs Simon to tell them about his great-uncle, the original Simon Fear. Current Simon doesn’t know too much about his great-uncle, including what he looks like, since he’s the only family member there’s no photos of from back then, so all he knows are the stories passed down to him through the family.
Apparently Great-Uncle Simon was one of the first settlers of Shadyside, but no-one understood why he built his mansion so far from town, in an area now known as Fear Street. He was super rich and was very popular around town, along with his wife Angelica, and Simon paid for the Shadyside library and also helped fund the hospital [It’s always nice when rich people are kind]. They would throw lavish parties in the huge mansion, and had two daughters they absolutely adored:
One day Simon’s two little girls went out to play in the woods. They didn’t return. That night and into the next morning, a frantic search ensued. The story goes that their bodies were found in the woods more than a week later. Their bodies—but not their bones. Their skeletons had been completely removed.”
[I think this story has changed through the years as it’s been passed down, because this isn’t how the girls died according to the Fear Street Saga. The Saga came out after this one, though, so it could also be a retcon. Or Stine simply not keeping up with his own creations, which is understandable considering the rate he was churning out books]. No-one was ever convicted and soon, Angelica and Simon stopped appearing in town, and eventually the mansion mysteriously burned down. Angelica perished with it and is now buried in an unmarked grave in the Fear Street cemetery [Why unmarked???], but Simon was never seen or heard from again. Some rumours suggested Angelica was responsible, gone crazy after her daughters’ deaths, while others say Simon was the culprit, but no-one really knows the truth [Ooky spooky!].
With the wind picking up, Jan heads inside to fetch a sweater, and pretty soon the rest of them hear her screaming from the hotel. They hurry over and find an excited Jan, shortly followed by Martin, and Jan reveals she saw a g-g-g-g-ghost! It was an old-fashioned young woman, very pale and dressed in white, with black eyes like lumps of coal, ‘”Like snowman eyes”‘ [It actually sounds terrifying]. The ghost seemed to come through the wall in a corridor and stared at Jan, who claims the whole room went ice-cold under her gaze. Eventually Jan screamed and the ghost disappeared through the wall again. No-one really knows what to think, but Jan’s sure the ghost will be back at some point.
In bed that night, Cari struggles to fall asleep, trying to keep Jan’s ghost from her mind, and finds herself thinking about how cute Eric is once again [Just kiss him already!]. She eventually decides to head to the kitchen for a drink, but as she strolls down the endless corridor outside her room, she hears creaking behind her, followed by a rattling sound and a human-sounding groan. Then someone [Or something] whisper her name [Fuck that!].
She bolts down the hall and around a few corners as an invisible girl’s voice continues to whisper her name right behind her. Cari eventually stops when she hears human voices coming from one of the rooms in front of her. With the mystery whisperer now apparently gone, Cari calms down and eavesdrops at the door [Bruh, I would have burst in there if something was chasing me!], hearing Simon arguing with a woman who’s begging ‘”Please—no party! No party! Please!”‘ [But doesn’t this mysterious woman know it’s PARTY SUMMER?!?].
The voices fade away and Cari decides she needs to tell someone about her ghostly encounter, so she scurries to Jan’s room to tell her al about it. Cari thinks they should go home ASAP, but ghost-horny Jan reckons it’s all way too exciting to leave and drags Cari out in the hall to hunt for traces of the ghost. Cari’s tired and suggests they go to bed instead, grabbing her door handle as they pass her bedroom, which is covered in something sticky! Luckily for Cari, her best friend is on the case:
“It’s sticky, all right. Some sort of protoplasmic substance. Ghosts have been known to leave this stuff behind after materialising.”
“You mean like in Ghostbusters?” Cari asked.
“Yes,” Jan replied, bringing her shadowy face closer to Cari’s. “But this ain’t no movie.”
[No, but it is a book!]. The next morning, Cari and Jan explain last night’s encounter to the boys, who seem disappointed that Cari’s been sucked in to Jan’s ghost nonsense. Unable to think of a logical explanation for the woman Cari heard in Simon’s room, Jan decides it must have been a ghost, and ‘“Maybe she and Simon are lovers. Maybe they’ve been loves for a hundred years. Maybe Simon is really a vampire”‘.
Their discussion is interrupted by Martin, who’s ready to put them to work for the day, and Jan quickly asks him about the woman. Martin explains there’s been no women in Simon’s room since his wife, Greta, died, and the subject is dropped as he takes them to the wall they’ll be stripping today.
A few hours later it’s break time, and Jan’s keen to try call her aunt again, since her parents haven’t heard from Aunt Rose either [What’s happened to Aunt Rose?!?]. As the others head into the kitchen, Cari stays behind to finish the spot she’s been working on and a little while later, Edward Fear strolls in. He looks very similar to Simon, but more rugged and gruff, and he’s wearing an eye patch and using a hunting rifle as a cane [OK…]. Cari tries to make small talk, but Edward’s not interested and the whole thing is super uncomfortable. Eventually, he tells her to do a good job and insists the gang stay at the hotel for the party.
Later that night, Cari joins hunky Eric on a romantic stroll along the beach where they share a steamy kiss. At one point, Cari hears something by the nearby rocks, but Eric assures her it was probably just the water hitting them. Cari’s unnerved though, and unable to shake the feeling they’re being watched, they head back inside.
The next morning, Cari, Eric and Craig return to the dining room to continue the renovations on the back wall, where there’s some wobbly scaffolding set up so they can reach the ceiling. Jan appears, still unable to reach her aunt and also unable to find Simon, who she hopes can head to Provincetown to see what’s going on [I hope she’s OK!].
Suddenly, the scaffolding collapses and both boys fall to the ground, with Craig tearing a strip of wallpaper down with him. Surprisingly, it reveals a door with no handle [Is it a secret bedroom?!]. Jan is adamant that it was covered for a reason and feels that it’s evil, warning everyone to stay away, but annoying Eric ignores her and pulls the door open anyway…and something leaps out at him [!!!!!!].
It’s just a silly old bat though, which quickly flies out the window. Jan insists they close the door and forget about it, but the others can’t believe she of all people doesn’t want to explore this secret passageway. She’s just got a bad feeling about it, ‘”A premonition”‘, but quickly gives in, and armed with flashlights, the foursome step into the dark corridor. They turn right at a fork in the road as Jan explains the tunnels were most likely used by smugglers to sneak cargo into the hotel from the beach without being seen, designed with ‘”lots of twist and turns in case they were followed”‘. They take another right and soon notice the thick ceiling of cobwebs above their heads, with ‘enormous, pale spiders, the size of grapes’ [So they’re both enormous and the size of grapes?? OK…] dangling from them.
Continuing on, they eventually come to a small room, bare except for a wooden table with a human skull resting on it. Picking it up, Jan finds it covered in the same protoplasm as Cari’s door the other night and explains a ghost has materialised in here recently [Ooky spooky!]. They quickly leave, scurrying back down the way they came until they reach the door leading to the dining room. But now it won’t open because someone’s blocked it from the other side [My money’s on Martin, probably to scare them].
They pound on the door and scream for help, but no-one comes to their rescue so they venture back down the tunnel, hoping it’ll eventually lead to a way out. They go left at the first fork and after a few more twists and turns, they realise they’ve been walking in circles [Silly gooses!]. They push on anyway, eventually coming to a small hatch door that opens out to the beach [Freedom!]. Laughing and joking in relief, the foursome heads back to the hotel where they see what was blocking the door – someone had pushed the scaffolding in front of it!
At dinner that night, Cari and co. are eager to talk to Simon about what happened but are surprised when Edward joins them instead. Cari introduces him to the others, but he pretty much tells them Simon went to Provincetown to find out about Aunt Rose [I’m kinda suss] and then ignores everyone while he eats his dinner. The room brightens again once he leaves, but soon Martin appears and urges them to get out. Edward returns before he can say more and Cari finds it strange how Martin cowers in his presence when he’s just as cold and hard as Edward [Could we be dealing with a split personality here? Are Simon and Edward the same person? This book is so long it’s gonna be ages before we find out, ugh]. Martin scampers back to the kitchen while a satisfied Edward strolls back out of the dining room, still using the hunting rifle as a cane [I wonder if it’s loaded].
Sometime later [Presumably the same night] as the teens play scrabble, Simon appears, back from Provincetown [Wait, so did he leave yesterday and return tonight? Wouldn’t they have realised he was missing sooner than they did? Why wouldn’t he have told them he was leaving in the first place, anyway?] with news about Aunt Rose:
“She’s fine,” Simon said, smiling reassuringly. “I’m terribly sorry. It seems she did call. She spoke to Edward. When he told her what our situation was, Aileen convinced her to go to some kind of spa for a couple of days. I apologize for Edward. My poor brother forgets things these days.”
Simon explains that Aunt Rose will arrive on Thursday [I have no idea what day of the week it is right now so not sure how far away her arrival is] and then leaves before Cari gets a chance to bring up the secret passageway.
Even later that night, Jan draws a pentacle on the floor of her room and attempts to summon a ghost once again. Eventually she feels a presence, and after demanding the spirit reveal itself, she’s startled by a knock at the door. Anticipating it to be the g-g-g-g-g-g-ghost, she opens the door and the chapter ends with her cry of ‘”Oh!”‘ [I bet it’s that pesky Edward!].
The next morning, there’s no sign of Jan. It’s not unusual for her to skip breakfast and sleep in, but by the lunchtime, she still hasn’t appeared. Eric suggests Simon took her to Provincetown in the island’s dinghy [Ohhhh, so that’s how Simon apparently left and came back yesterday], but Cari’s positive Jan wouldn’t leave without telling them. By the time Cari, Craig and Eric have finished work for the day, they still haven’t seen Jan, or Simon or Edward for that matter, and even Martin hasn’t been seen since breakfast. Cari’s worried and visits Jan’s room but finds nothing out of the ordinary [Did she not see the pentacle???].
Simon’s returned by dinnertime but doesn’t stop to chat, and Martin also reappears, asking where Jan is. He hasn’t seen her and explains that Simon went to find out when the original workers would be returning, so Jan can’t have been with him. Cari’s really worried by this point, and the gang decide to search for their missing friend, starting in her room. Cari’s the first to notice the pentacle on the floor [Oh, so now you see it?] and suggests she summoned a ghost that took her somewhere, but the boys still aren’t interested in supernatural explanations [But the supernatural is so fun!].
They continue their search through every room in the old wing and even venture outside with no success [No idea why they don’t check the newer wing, but OK]. They decide it’s time to alert Simon and call the police on the nearby Willow Island, but as they approach Simon’s room, they hear him arguing with Edward and the mysterious woman. The woman declares she won’t be staying for the party and Simon encourages her to do what Edward says because he won’t listen to reason. Cari’s even more terrified and wants to go back to her room, but the boys want to stay and keep listening [I’m with the boys there, Cari!].
Eventually, the fight escalates:
“Edward—stop!” The woman screamed.
“No! I beg of you!” Simon cried, clearly frightened. “I beg of you! As a brother, I beg of you! Please—Edward—don’t!”
“Guys—come on!” Cari pleaded.
She heard Simon scream.
Then, a second later, she heard a gunshot, deafening even through the heavy wooden door.
Then silence.
Stunned, the trio stands at the door until Edward bursts out, his hunting rifle smoking, claiming Simon’s had ‘”A terrible accident!”‘. Martin arrives and Cari explains that Edward shot Simon and starts to open the door, but Martin screams at her to get away from [OK, but why?]. Edward snarls that Simon’s already dead and Martin demands he admit it wasn’t an accident, that he murdered him. Edward doesn’t like this, and points the hunting rifle straight at the Martin.
Martin’s weirdly confident that Edward won’t shoot him [He apparently just shot his brother, what would stop him from shooting Martin too?] and sure enough, Edward lowers the weapon. Martin takes Edward downstairs to discuss what happened while the teens sneak into explore the bedroom. Inside there’s no sign of the woman, Simon’s corpse, or even any blood, although Cari notes it does smell like death [My favourite cologne!].
The room is a suite, with two doors leading to other rooms on the back wall. The one on the left is small, cluttered and super messy, presumably Edward’s, while the one on right is large, neat and pristine, most likely Simon’s, but there’s still no sign of anyone in either of them [At this point, the best explanation I have is that Edward/Simon/the woman are different personalities inside the one body. They’ve all been heard together, but neither men have been seen at the same time, although they look very similar, and the woman hasn’t been seen at all, so it’s the only thing that makes sense right now. Unless there’s some secret passage in the bedroom too?].
After splitting up to search the three rooms properly, Eric finds an old photo album in the messy room, and inside is an old photo of Simon standing with Rose in front of the hotel, with the caption labelling them distant cousins [Oooh, so Jan’s a Fear!]. The trio wonders if Rose was working with Edward to lure them to the hotel for some unknown reason, and maybe Jan is in on it too [Not my Jan!].
Eric begins poking and prodding at the walls and furniture in search of a trapdoor and eventually flicks a switch on the wall that causes the bookshelves against a wall to revolve, revealing a desk on the other side. Eric hits the switch again and steps through to the secret room, returning with a piece of paper from the desk, and all three are horrified as Cari reads the letter, signed by Edward Fear, out loud:
“‘Dear Rose,'” the letter began. “I am so sorry to tell you that I fear a terrible tragedy has occurred. Your niece Jan and her three friends have disappeared without a trace, without an explanation.
“‘I have been frantic, wracked with sadness, with fear, with remorse. The police from Willow Island have combed every inch of the island, without success. Without a single clue.
“‘I’ve been trying to call you night and day. You didn’t answer your phone. So I am sending this letter special delivery.
“‘So sorry to send such tragic news by mail. I am saddened and mystified. I pray that the four young people will turn up unharmed. But the police offer little hope. I know that their parents will grieve, as I do. Rest assured that I am doing everything in my power to discover what has happened to them. I will not stop until the mystery of their disappearance is solved. I pray that they are alive, although all indications are that they tragically are not. I know that you will pray with me.'”
[Woooow, Edward]. Fearing for their lives, the trio decide they’ll take Simon’s dinghy to the mainland. Cari doesn’t want to leave without Jan, but since they don’t know where she is [I hope she’s not dead], Eric convinces her the best thing to do is to get help, so they rush to their rooms to pack their things. They decide it’s not worth the risk going past Simon/Edward’s room to the main stairway, so head in the other direction they haven’t explored yet [They really did the bare minimum in their search for Jan, huh? Also, how fkn big is this place?!], hoping to find a back stairway.
Craig wants to call the police before they go just in case Edward or Martin, who they suspect are working together, catch them, and hope that a back stairway will lead them to the phone near the kitchen [Lots of wishful thinking here]. They set off down the corridor towards the back of the hotel and at one point, Cari senses someone following them. She sees no-one when she turns back though, so doesn’t alert the boys, and they eventually come to an open door at then end of a corridor.
Hoping there’s a phone inside [It just occurred to me don’t hotels usually have phones in every guest room?], they enter, revealing a trophy room filled with loads of trophies. There’s no phone so Craig’s eager to leave, and that’s when Cari notices something strange:
She was staring past the glass display cases to the far wall. Mounted high on the wall, much like deer or moose heads, were four heads.
Four human heads.
They escape the trophy room, manage to find some stairs to the ground floor and flee the hotel, heading towards the dock. When reach the gate, they find it padlocked shut. It’s too tall to climb, but Cari comes up with another idea – the dock at the hotel’s beach has canoes that they can use to paddle to Willow Island and alert the police there. They head back up the path, staying close to the trees this time, and sneak around the hotel to the back where the beach is. Unfortunately when they reach the dock, they find that the canoes are missing [Is anyone surprised?].
A rainstorm starts, and with it too far and too dangerous to walk around the island to the main dock, the trio heads to the pool house for shelter. Unfortunately there’s no phone to use in there and pretty soon, Edward shows up with his hunting rifle. They tell him they want to leave, but of course he won’t let them, because the party’s about to start [PARTY SUMMER!]:
“Guess what kind of party it is,” Edward repeated, ignoring Cari’s plea. He didn’t wait for any guesses. “Give up? It’s a hunting party!” He laughed, a loud cackle. “And guess who Martin and I are going to be hunting this season!” He laughed again.
Cari and her friend are smarter than they look and realise straight away that they’ll be the prey in this hunt [Humans hunting humans is always an interesting plot, but Stine’s left it a bit late]. Edward rases the gun a them and without thinking, Cari lunges forward and bats it away. It goes off and the explosion sends Edward toppling backwards, his head hitting the corner of a table as the trio yeets out of there without a second thought.
Eric leads the way through the rain and down a path through the woods until it becomes blocked by brambles. Catching their breath, they decide their best option now is to double back to the hotel, call the police and hide out until help arrives [This whole book is just page-filler, I swear to god]. They decide to stay off the path on the way back, but soon they hear a gunshot and spot Edward up ahead, his rifle pointed at them.
They scramble through the woods, away from Edward, and eventually make it back to the hotel. All the lights are off [They’re probably walking straight into a trap], but they manage to get to the phone in the lobby and call the Willow Island police, who will be there in about 20 minutes. Nek minnut, the lights come on and Simon Fear himself struts in from the office, much to the trio’s surprise.
They’re super relieved to see him and explain what’s going on, but Simon just grins evilly at them, ruffles his hair and begins to strip from his white suit [Sxc!], revealing more rugged clothes beneath. His posture changes and he pulls out an eye patch, declaring there’s no way he can stop the hunting party, and all three teens realise ‘Simon and Edward Fear were the same person!’ [Knew it! And surely he’s the woman they heard in his bedroom as well, which I’m assuming is supposed to be Greta, Simon’s dead wife]. Edward fetches his gun, which had been leaning against a chair in the lobby [How did the teens not see it?], and aims it at them:
“Don’t worry,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m not going to shoot you now. Right here in the lobby. That wouldn’t be sporting —would it?”
“Oh, thank God!” Cari cried.
Eric and Craig both whooped and laughed nervously.
[Why the fuck are these idiots celebrating, he’s obviously still going to kill them later?]. Eric stupidly asks if he’s letting them go, but Edward ignores his question and looks around the lobby, suddenly wondering where Simon is. They get him talking and Edward reveals Simon doesn’t like the hunting parties, which is why Edward’s always trying to get rid of him, but ‘”he keeps turning up—like a bad penny.”‘ [I have never heard that phrase before and I don’t think I understand it. Wouldn’t money turning up be a good thing?].
Eric asks again if he’s letting them go, and to their delight, he actually says yes! But their happiness quickly turns to horror when he adds that he’s giving them ‘”an hour’s head start”‘ before he and Martin begin hunting them. With that, he fires two shots into the wall and declares ‘”The hunt is on!”‘ The trio bolts to the dining room where they decide the secret passageway is their best place to hide [And most obvious]. The scaffolding is still in front of the door, but somehow they get the door open and slip inside [Without shifting the scaffolding? How can they open the door now but they couldn’t from the other side?].
Eventually they find a door in the tunnels and find themselves in a bedroom. And there’s a telephone [!!!]. Realising the police should be here by now, they try to call again, but the phone is completely dead. That’s when they realise all calls from the hotel go through the switchboard in the office… the office where Simon came out of [How did they not realise this already?]. Cari realises she was speaking to Simon on the phone earlier, not the Willow Island police, and that no help is coming for them.
Cari also realises Simon/Edward mustn’t have let any of Jan’s calls get through to Aunt Rose, which explains why they haven’t heard from her – the Fears didn’t want her interfering with the hunt [But if Aunt Rose also couldn’t get through, wouldn’t she be super worried and come to the island straight away? Maybe she did come to the island and something happened to her!].
The gang continues through the tunnels [OK, but what was the purpose of that room? Like, why would there be a random bedroom in an old, boarded up passageway?], hoping to reach the beach at some point, but soon they come to another door, and this one has light coming through a crack at the bottom. They hear footsteps coming from inside, followed by a cough, and Cari immediately insists it’s the ghost [Calm down, Cari, it’s probably Jan]. Craig thinks it sounded like a woman’s cough [Oooh, Aunt Rose maybe?] and hearing their voices, a woman calls out for help.
The boys bust the door down with their combined weight and inside the room is Jan and… Aunt Rose! We learn that she came to the island the day after the teens and was met by Edward, who she thought was Simon, at the dock. He drove her to the hotel, forced her into the tunnels and locked her in the room.
Jan then explains how she got there – Edward caught her in the tunnels and then snatched her from her room late that night and locked her in as well. But why was she in the tunnel alone in the first place? Well, turns out she’d discovered another entrance to it before they all discovered the door in the dining room. She wanted to set something up to get back at them for always laughing about her belief in the supernatural:
“I found the skull in the tunnel and I thought I’d just play a joke. But then I got into it. I did all the ghost stuff here in the hotel. None of it was real. I made it all up. I put the skull in the little room. And that night we had a picnic dinner on the beach and I screamed and said I’d seen a ghost, I was making that all up. And I’m the one who followed you down the hall that night, Cari, whispering your name. And I put the sticky stuff on your door knob.”
Jan apologises to everyone and all is forgiven, but as they go to leave, Aunt Rose almost faints! Jan explains she’s weak from hunger, since Edward only feeds them once a day, and they realise she’s too weak to walk through the tunnels to the beach. So instead they head back the way they’d come to the dining room [Oh, Aunt Rose is strong enough for that?], where they move into the kitchen, turn the light on [Fucking idiots] and find Aunt Rose some food. She scoffs it down and is ready to get going again, but Martin strolls into the kitchen [!!!!!].
Martin’s surprised to see Aunt Rose there and although suspicious of him, Cari relaxes when she notices he’s not carrying a weapon. Aunt Rose asks what the hell is going on and he explains that Simon’s out of control. Martin had no idea Aunt Rose was here, locked away in the tunnels, and provides an explanation for Simon’s behaviour.
Ever since Greta’s death in a hunting accident, Simon’s been having serious problems. He’d been seeing a psychiatrist on the mainland, and Martin had thought he was making progress, but clearly not – Martin didn’t even know he’d invited Aunt Rose and the teens to stay! He admits to trapping the four teens in the tunnel that one time, trying to scare them into leaving for their own safety [Bruhhhhhh, why wouldn’t you just be honest and explain Simon’s not in the right frame of mind for visitors? I guess because then we wouldn’t have a story! Considering how boring this book is though, that wouldn’t be a bad thing]. Anyway, Simon had developed an obsession with hunting people and Martin, idiot that he is, played along with it, ‘”Even when he bought the wax heads to hang in the trophy room.”‘ [So this is all your fault for enabling him, Martin! Also, how realistic could these damn wax heads be that the gang thought they were real?! Idiots].
Martin continues that to deal with the great loss of his wife, Simon developed multiple personalities to cope [So the woman is just a split personality? Also, was Edward ever real? Why hasn’t Rose been more confused when everyone’s talking about him?]. And now, Simon’s pulled all the telephone wires so they can’t call anyone, and it turns out Martin’s been AWOL for the last few hours because he was searching for the dinghy so he could get help, but Simon had hidden that too. And then Simon, still as Edward, walks in the room [!!!!].
He bolts the kitchen doors closed as Aunt Rose demands he gets Simon so they can talk. This doesn’t work, so Martin approaches Edward, hoping to calm him down, but he’s met with a belt to the head from the rifle [Hahahahaha]. He turns his attention to the teenagers, getting the rifle ready to shoot them, and Cari can’t stop thinking about the gun. Then, surprisingly, she steps forward, offering herself as his first victim [Aaaaah, I see what she’s doing! Clever girl]. She slowly approaches until he eventually fires two shots at her chest…
Cari asks for the gun, but Edward fires another shot at her. Confused, he accuses her of being a ghost and raises the gun at the others, but then a woman’s voice pipes up, demanding he end the hunting party [It barely fkn started! No-one’s even died :(], and it takes way too long for Cari to realise Greta’s voice is coming from Simon/Edward [Come on, Cari]. The gang watches as the three distinct personalities begin to argue with one another and Cari uses the distraction to snatch the rifle away.
Simon starts to chase her but trips over Martin, who’s just starting to regain consciousness. Eric and Craig quickly grab Simon’s arms, keeping him still, and the Edward personality quickly disappears, leaving a confused Simon in its place.
We then cut to the dinghy where the whole squad is travelling to the mainland, Simon safely tied up with them, and Eric asks how Cari pulled off that whole rifle thing. She explains that it randomly occurred to her that despite how close Simon/Edward was to them in the woods, his shots never hit them:
“Then I remembered about the hotel lobby. He fired the rifle twice in the lobby, remember? But there was no damage. Nothing crashed to the floor. No bullet holes in the walls. There weren’t any ricochets. Nothing. That’s when I realized that Simon’s rifle was loaded with blanks.”
[I mean, I think I would have realised a lot damn sooner if I was in that situation, but at least she got there]. She explains she just took a risk, hoping that Martin was cautious enough to only supply blanks for the gun, and then Craig yells out ‘”Party summer!”‘ two last times [Shut the fuck up, Craig] before the book ends with a kiss between Cari and Eric.
Final thoughts
I was definitely expecting more from this one – some actual deaths, a better plot, the walls and faucets dripping blood like the blurb says etc, but it fell pretty flat for me. Nothing exciting really happened until the hunting party started, and by that point the book was almost over.
It 100% did not need to be over 200 pages long, and although I have no issues with Craig, he was a useless character that added nothing. The whole thing supernatural element with Jan and her ghost pranks was definitely just page filler [And a huge waste of my time] too, much like most of the book. The scene on the cover ever happened either, which is lame!
It would have been fine if the group was getting picked off one by one, which is what I was expecting, but literally no-one died and it was all just very underwhelming, especially with the ending revealing they were never really in any danger the whole time! It’s entirely possible for a Fear Street to be enjoyable without any deaths, but unfortunately this wasn’t one of them, so it was a waste of a good setting.
In its defence, it was the very first Super Chiller and was released pretty early in the series’ run – maybe Stine wasn’t fully comfortable murdering teens in the main story yet? But even so, I’d expect a lot more from a Super Chiller than what this gave me. If the second Super Chiller, Silent Night is anything to go by, they get better as they go on, but only time will tell which one was the fluke.
55 unqualified teenagers renovating a hotel out of 130.
