Welcome back to Forever Fear Street, a revisit to the most wicked neighborhood in young-adult literature. This installment looks at the third and fourth books in the classic Fear Street series: The Overnight and Missing.

In The Overnight, a camping trip on Fear Island results in death, and in Missing, siblings search for answers after their parents vanish without a trace.

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Fear Street #3, 1989

Cover Artwork: ENRIC

Suddenly all of her friends are involved, prisoners in a conspiracy of silence, trying to conceal the terrible truth.

Fear Street fans know these earlier entries are nowhere as out-there as later ones. No, in fact, they lack the sense of uncanny now attributed to the whole franchise. Typically, the supernatural is just brewing in the background, but in those rare instances where it is allowed to come out at full blast, readers should be thankful that author R. L. Stine often favored reality. This way they didn’t become desensitized to those stranger moments.

That being said, if you didn’t like The New Girl or The Surprise Party, on account of their non-supernatural stories, then you’ll probably be disappointed by The Overnight. It’s yet another case of Shadyside’s youth wandering into the darker parts of the town’s most infamous area and getting mixed up in a bad — but grounded — element. It’s exactly what I would expect from a YA thriller published in 1989.

Now, the world-building continues as we journey to Fear Island, a location Stine would later revisit in All-Night Party from classic Fear Street, and then again in Party Games from the relaunch series. You might roll your eyes at this new and sudden locale, which didn’t seem to exist until it was convenient, but this isn’t quite a UC Sunnydale situation. And it certainly won’t be the last time Fear Street expanded its namesake for the sake of storytelling.

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THE STORY

When the members of Shadyside High’s Outdoors Club learn a scheduled campout is cancelled, due to club advisor Mr. Abner being unable to chaperone, they go by themselves. And after lying to their parents, Della O’Connor, Maia Franklin, Suki Thomas, Gary, Pete Goodwin, and Ricky Schorr all sneak off to Fear Island.

The trip is uneventful until Della wanders off, during a paintball game, and is attacked by a stranger in the woods. Her male assailant then falls into a ravine and dies from his injury. Afraid of what would happen if the adults found out about everything, Della and her friends take a vow of secrecy, leave the body in the ravine, and go back to the mainland.

Upon coming home, Della receives a note — it reads “I SAW WHAT YOU DID” — and a skull  ornament from her attacker’s necklace. Della and the others presume the culprit can only be the victim’s partner; through a newspaper story, they learned the stranger on Fear Island was part of a two-man home invasion and murder. And with one of the robbers being unaccounted for, the Outdoors Club remains in danger.

Following Della and Pete’s near-death run-in with a mysterious driver, they and the others return to Fear Island. This is after the group realizes Della left behind evidence at the scene of the crime; one of Ricky’s paintball guns is still in the ravine, along with the body. Luckily for them, Mr. Abner was able to reschedule the campout, and the club members go with him in hopes of retrieving the gun.

Once on Fear Island, Della separates from the group to go find the gun. This is when her intimidator reveals himself; the man she thought was dead in the ravine was actually still alive, and both he and his partner were now on the island. Finally, the clueless Mr. Abner is injured before the authorities show up and apprehend the criminals. There is also a reward for their capture, much to the Outdoors Club’s delight.

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Like The Surprise Party, The Overnight has its characters getting mixed up in an accidental death, then burdening themselves with a grave secret. This story, on the other hand, better channels the YA classic I Know What You Did Last Summer. Mind you, the perpetrator here is easier to figure out, even after Stine delivered the half-false trail with the surviving partner. Less unexpected is Della’s attacker having a pulse so naturally faint that it could fool doctors. So had anyone bothered to check his breathing, the Outdoors Club could have avoided this mess.

Stine is still attempting some form of loose continuity as Suki Thomas, who was first mentioned in The Surprise Party, graduates to main character in this book. And Gary, Della’s ex-boyfriend, could be the Gary Brandt brought up in Missing. He doesn’t seem to have a last name in The Overnight, so I can’t be for sure. The group’s cut-up Ricky Schorr, who was funnier when he wasn’t trying to hard, would later reappear in Halloween Party.

Again, if you’re prone to disliking the Fear Street stories dealing mainly in human conflict, you may not click with this entry. The mystery itself is not all that unpredictable, either. There was a chance to stay on the dark path, coming off of the more winding The Surprise Party, however, Stine gave the characters a “get out of jail” pass before the heaviness of their problem could start to weigh on them. The only one to exhibit the psychological effects of their actions was the already infantilized Maia, whereas Della, who came close to being raped, seems to be in a long state of shock.

Lastly, Fear Island, much like the rest of Fear Street proper and its surroundings, gives everyone the creeps and is prone to lore. Della herself thinks the stories are just campers’ way of discouraging crowds, though.

Fear Island was a small, uninhabited island, covered with pine trees, in the
center of the lake behind the Fear Street woods. Even though it was a perfect
spot for picnics and camping, and only a few minutes’ boat ride across the lake,
few people ventured there because of the dreadful stories about it.

Some said that strange animal mutations, hideous, dangerous creatures that
didn’t exist anywhere else, roamed the woods. Others said the island was
infected with poisonous snakes. And there were stories that the island had been
used long ago as an Native American burial ground, and that ghosts walked the
woods at night, seeking revenge for their fate.

All this talk about the bizarre-behaving animals endemic to these woods, and still not a single one has shown up in any significant way? Well, this changes in the next book, albeit not in the way I would have liked after all the buildup. Even still, it’s nice to see Stine growing and maintaining the Fear Street mythology with every new book. Your patience, after a piecemeal approach, will slowly but surely be rewarded. ■

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BODY COUNT

1. Gardener
A gardener, who was rumored to be an eccentric millionaire with hidden fortune inside his cottage, was previously killed by the two criminals.

2. Mr. Abner (maybe)
It’s never confirmed or not if the Outdoors Club’s advisor survived his head injury.

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QUOTAGE

Fear tastes bitter, she realized.
– Della

“So sue me. When I did it, I didn’t know Della was going to kill a guy!”
– Ricky to the Outdoors Club

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Fear Street #4, 1990

Cover Artwork: Gabriel Picart

What would you do if your parents didn’t come home, didn’t call, left no note?

After three books, Stine starts to change things up on the writing front. The New Girl, The Surprise Party and The Overnight were all told from an objective point of view, however, Missing switches to the first-person perspective. This welcome switch-up elevates an already intriguing premise that, for the first time, is something more unfathomable than teen murder.

In addition to its enticing and less conventional story — where have Mark and Cara’s parents disappeared to? — Missing gets a smidge closer to the sort of weirdness that Stine has been teasing since the beginning of this series. By no means is this a full leap into the unknown, but there is an attempt at making Fear Street a genuine hub of unnatural activity. Here you can detect Stine still trying to figure out the direction, all while getting absorbed in a proper mystery.

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THE STORY

New Fear Street residents Cara and Mark Burroughs are used to their parents working late on occasion, but this time they don’t phone. Of course, it would help if their telephone had been working that night. Yet by the next morning, it’s clear that neither Lucy nor Greg Burroughs have been home since then. Even Lucy’s distant cousin Roger, a college student who lives in the attic, is concerned.

After visiting their parents’ employer, Cranford Industries, the siblings are informed by the CEO, Mr. Marcus, that their parents have never worked there. Cara and Mark don’t believe him, especially after family acquaintance and fellow Cranford employee Wally contradicts Mr. Marcus. Cara eventually files a missing persons report with Captain Farraday, the cop who previously visited them on an unrelated matter.

Roger becomes a subject of interest once Cara and Mark learn he’s been in contact with Murdoch, the driver of the fishy van always parked out on their street. Roger denies the accusation, but Cara trails him to his meeting with Murdoch at a coffee shop. Meanwhile, Mark’s girlfriend Gena Rawlings breaks up with him out of the blue before going to stay with her cousin upstate. Mark only learns about Gena’s departure after breaking into her house and nearly getting shot by her father, Dr. Rawlings.

During his brief time in Gena’s house, Mark found another of those white monkey heads — this rhinestone-eyed and carved figure was first seen in his and Cara’s parents’ bedroom, then on the collar of the dog that attacked Mark in the Fear Street woods.

Cara and Mark come home to find Roger dead — killed by an arrow from Mark’s archery set — and the accusing Farraday in their house. Right as Cara and Mark figure out Farraday isn’t who he says he is, and after he killed the intruding Murdoch, Gena busts in with a hunting rifle. Farraday is detained in the garage while Gena finally takes Cara and Mark to see their parents.

Back in the Fear Street woods, the three teens disguise themselves with robes so they can infiltrate a meeting of The Brotherhood of the White Monkey. Led by Mr. Marcus, this secret cult plans on executing Mr. and Mrs. Burroughs until Cara and Mark provide the necessary distraction that allows their parents to free themselves. At last, the truth is revealed; undercover FBI agents Lucy and Greg Burroughs were found out by Mr. Marcus, “cousin” Roger was also an agent, and Murdoch was a field director. The White Monkey was looking to “take back” the America that they believed was theirs, and Cranford Industries would have provided them the weapons to do so. As for Farraday, he was merely a crooked ex-cop with a vendetta against Lucy and Greg, not a part of the cult.

In the end, the Burroughs move away from Shadyside, and Gena goes to stay with her mother after her father, a White Monkey member, was arrested along with the rest of the cult.

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While Missing turned out to be another non-supernatural story, at least it isn’t mundane. No, here Stine delivered an engrossing mystery that confirms some unusual stuff is going down in Fear Street, practically out in the open. And this book’s time period makes the conclusion all the more appropriate; lest we remember, cults were common to hear about throughout the ’80s and early ’90s, although usually they were more of the satanic variety. The White Monkey really being an extremist morality cult is both topical and timeless, sad to say.

Where Missing suffers is Stine’s use of first-person. Switching from Mark to Cara was as confusing as it was unnecessary, and both teens were written to sound more like the juvenile characters of a Goosebumps novel. There was little distinction made between the siblings, as they each had rather similar mannerisms.

On top of Gary Brandt from The Overnight, Cory Brooks, Lisa Blume, Arnie Tobin and David Metcalf — they all debuted in The New Girl — are here in person or just mentioned by name. Shannon Harper from The Surprise Party is also one of Cara’s friends. Does the connective tissue make a big difference in these books? No, not really, but once Stine abandons the aspect of shared characters entirely, you do lose some grip on the overall timeframe and sense of community.

It should be said that Gena Rawlings is this book’s MVP. Not only did she save Cara, Mark and their parents, she went against her own father — who, admittedly, was less evil than his ilk, seeing as he requested the Burroughs kids be spared — and exposed the cult. An impressive turn for someone who began as a tertiary character.

Apropos of my earlier creature talk, this book features a series first: An animal from the Fear Street woods attacks someone. Dogs normally aren’t thought of as forest fauna, but Mark believed this one was right where it belonged.

This dog couldn’t go home. This dog was home. The Fear Street woods were his home. And he
was about to show me how good he was at protecting his home.

To both mine and Mark’s shock, the dog was killed. You can tell Mark is remorseful before he notices the white monkey carving hanging on the dog’s collar. If you’re like me, you assumed there was a mystical element to the monkey’s use in this sequence. Mark, however, deflates that theory; he guesses this was an attack dog left to guard The White Monkey’s domain.

For the time being, Missing is my favorite of the original four Fear Streets. There are no ghosts or slashers yet, but it does stray in both content and style. ■

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BODY COUNT

1. Roger
An FBI agent posing as Mark and Cara’s family member, killed with an arrow by Captain Farraday.

2. Murdoch
An FBI field director shot by Captain Farraday.

3. Dog
Mark snapped its neck, out in the Fear Street woods.

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QUOTAGE

“We of the White Monkey are ready to take back the America that is ours!
For too long we have stood by while others determined our nation’s fate. No
longer! No longer! Soon we shall rise up… and take back by force what is ours!”
– Mr. Marcus to his constituents

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See you next time on Fear Street — it’s where your worst nightmares live.