Glad that was over. *Sigh*Oh hey, here I am again, writing a review. Last time I wrote one it was an utter eulogy with me on my knees doing the religious worship like an idiot. Well, none of that will befall at the moment. Thanks to R.L. Stine's The Wrong Number I will have to bitch about a terrible novel in NEW YEAR'S EVE. As much as I don't want to do this, given that I truly adore Fear Street series, I have no choice but to be fair and square. This is a product, and now that I have looked through it, I would have to say my concerns as a consumer. To lighten up, let's first go through the thing--THE ONLY THING--I loved about this novel. And that is, the concept.What can I say? Brilliant? Fascinating? Intriguing? Nah. The concept is so good none of that words would do any justice if I use it. Forming horror through prank calls is absolutely a thumbs-up to me. And now for the things-- that's capital T-H-I-N-G-S --I detest about this novel. Brace yourselves, bitches. This is going to be rough. First off, the characters.Man, the characters! What are they, really? Well, nothing but dickheaded teenagers who don't know when to bring the party into a halt. I don't have anything against making fun, but I surely know when to stop. And these kids don't. Chuck is so into being the dauntless knight of the night who would do everything to save anyone from danger. And the other two main characters, Deena and Jade, are fucking annoying that I want to see them biting each others' heads off. Literally. And Detective Frazier is the most abominable character in the story! "It doesn't make any sense," added Frazier. "Why would he let you see him? Why wouldn't he hide somewhere till you left? Or try to escape without being seen?"Well, well, Detective. Why wouldn't you figure those out since you're the detective here, eh? Stop asking those poor idiotic girls with those questions you weren't supposed to ask. That's so unprofessional, you know. Second, the plot.30 or so pages I was still enjoying the scene. A little headbang there and here. Oh, yeah. This is good. And then I got to 40 or so pages and everything was falling down. I remained mentally silent because I was being considerate. I was thinking, hey, give the book a chance to expound why it is heading off to the Road of Idiocy. It did, however, not. And I fought the urge to throw the book against the wall in front of me. Third, the suspense.We all expected it, did we not? The husband was the murderer. Oh my God he was the murderer! I can't believe it! I just can't! *Sigh* I wish I was like that. Sadly, I wasn't. Everything was so predictable that I thought I was the one who wrote this story. And the last is the ending. It's too neat and good to seem real. I fucking loathe happy endings in thrillers! This isn't bedtime fairytale stories. It's enough that the mystery is solved, but a happy ending? Just...ugh. I hadn't expected it to turn out this way. But...well, it just did. It turned out to be a blood-boiling, eye-rolling, facepalming son of a bitch. Bye, now. It's New Year's Eve, and I want to have fun. Let's drink to this another year!
Another Fear Street great. Three teens take prank calling to the next level and end up at a crime scene at a creepy house on Fear Street. Very eerie!It's so scary how in books like these, the adults never believe the children and they are left to somehow prove what really happened. It happens with parents and also with public authority figures like the police officers in this book. It's almost like R.L. Stine wants to scare the wits out of kids and make them never want to get into an ounce of trouble. These days if a child tells a parent something happened, the parent goes ape shit and wants to get to the bottom of things and play the blame game with every person who dared cross their beloved child's path. But in these books? Parents are clueless and in the dark about almost everything, they are always working or at parties with their friends or colleagues on weekends and the young teens are just left to their own devices in huge creepy houses with anything at their disposal: the telephone (this is the early 90's people so yes, they are the ones with curly cords but they are still phones nonetheless), their parents car, etc etc. I have to say, the absent parent in a contemporary YA is unrealistic and kind of annoying but the absent parent in a horror novel is really pretty scary. Which is why I LOVE books like this because it just makes the whole situation even more terrifying when all the people who are your elders and supposed to look out for you, are disbelieving and two dimensional. Ahh, R.L. Stine. I really wish these books were more popular with contemporary middle grade and young high school kids as they were back in the day. These are classics that should be around awhile, if only they got more spotlight. I'd hate for them to fade into the background and be another "Omg remember those really scary series books from the early 90's?! They were great.."I mean, these books scared the shit out of me when I was younger, and reading them now, it's like a trip to my childhood. RGERHRTHFGJFTNow if only Nickelodeon would bring back all the shows from the early 90's and just have an all 90's all the time channel, commercials and all, my life would be complete ;)
What do You think about The Wrong Number (1990)?
I remember the Fear Street books used to be my favorite in middle school and the beginning of high school. After reading this, it's easy to tell that that's the age group this was written for. I didn't really mind though as it was a quick read. Deena and Jade kind of irked me a little bit. I understand that the police didn't beleive the story they were telling, but I think they did too much sneaking around without fully thinking of what the consequences might be. Other than that, this was a nice little story.
—Katrina Gudgeon
The Fear Street books were a great young adult triller series for me. I actually read more of those books from Stine than the Goosebumps series. I think The Wrong Number was my first Fear Street book. Jade and Deena are the two main characters. They get their immature teenage kicks by making crank phone calls. That is until one call where they end up overhearing a murder being committed and decide to investigate, putting themselves is grave danger. For the young adult genre, this is a really engaging horror/thriller/murder mystery. It's got the whodunit elements that keep you guessing. You definitely have the feel that these characters aren't immune to being killed, so you're tempted to read the book in one sitting. I wouldn't be surprised if the Scream movies (another horror thriller revolving around phone calls and masked antagonists) took an idea of two from this book. I recommend this series. If you don't like it, at least it's a short read.
—VampireNovelFan
This is a better entry into the Fear Street series than most of the other ones. I didn't feel as though I was drowning in a sea of stupid, annoying characters and plot points. It's your classic "the police don't believe us story" but I found it entertaining to read. There were a few "why did the characters do this" moments, but not enough to make the book torture. (view spoiler)[It's a little frustrating because this book makes you think the police force are a bunch of lazy jerks, but it actually makes sense at the end. Too bad the police force couldn't be this good in the other books. I have to admit if I were Chuck, I'd be pissed that my dad was the reason I was kept in jail for so long. (hide spoiler)]
—Drucilla
