The Fear Street Sagas miniseries follows the lives of various members of the doomed Fear family. I love when R.L. Stine takes a step back in time and I love origin stories and this series is the perfect combination of both. Each book is its own standalone chapter and takes you back to the lives touched by the evil of the Fear family, long before Fear Street even broke ground.
Every book in this series is a new experience, because I haven’t read any of them before, and let’s just say so far I’m a BIG fan! 🙂
Every book begins with this on the back cover… 😉
The dark power of the Fear family consumes all those connected with it. The Fears. Those they love – and hate. The entire town of Shadyside. All are tainted forever by the evil of the family’s curse. No one can escape…
“Fear Street Sagas #2 – House Of Whispers”
Fear Street Scale: 4.5 out of 5 Fears
Pick Of The Bunch Rating: First Place
Amy Pierce has heard the rumors surrounding her cousin, Angelica Fear. People believe that Angelica practices the dark arts, but Amy thinks that they are just jealous of her cousin’s wealth and beauty. Amy knows nothing of the terrifying Fear family history until she goes to stay with Angelica while her mother goes to her father who was wounded in the Civil War. The Fears’ New Orleans mansion is beautiful, but from the moment Amy arrives she senses that something is wrong. She senses something evil there… Something that watches her and waits for her… Then death after death occurs. Is her cousin responsible? Will Amy be strong enough to escape the powers controlled by the Fear family?
I know this may come as a surprise… but I loved this book! I mean I debated about giving it a perfect 5 out of 5 fears, but my rule is if I have to ask myself that, I better not. This book was much better than the first book in this miniseries, not because of the story (they were both great stories/plots) but because it was more believable. In the first book I mentioned how characters seemed to turn on a dime and also seemed like shadows of a character rather than an actual character. That wasn’t the case in this book.
For anyone who has read the original Fear Street Saga trilogy, it’s a real treat to see a younger and active Angelica Fear instead of having her husband, the dreaded Simon Fear overshadow her. Angelica Pierce was a serious piece of work before she married Simon Fear. In fact, her inhumanity when it came to getting what she wanted and her actual power rivaled Simon’s in the beginning. This book takes place eighteen years after Simon first courted Angelica and two years before the Fear family curse followed them to Shadyside and effectively destroyed their lives.
Amy Pierce is a really likeable narrator and she is on the brink of something, for better or worse, but you’ll have to read the book to find out exactly what. 😉 But I love it when girls have power, and I love the stories where a girl discovers her own power, and well… I don’t want to say too much, but it’s just one more reason I loved this book. This book is a showdown, white magic versus black magic, and the power to make a choice between the two and what to make of all that gray matter in the middle. A great deal of death occurs in this book and the how and who adds to the tension because there are obvious suspects and less obvious suspects and if you’re a Fear Street fan, your mind will really work all of the angles.
Another bonus for me (and any other fan who has read the original trilogy) was to see the Fear children in happier and more “innocent” times. But the real story revolves around Amy, and what is going on in that house. I love the final showdown of this book. It is quite possibly the best Fear Street showdown to date! Not to be missed! 😉
“Fear Street Sagas #3 – Forbidden Secrets”
Fear Street Scale: 4 out of 5 Fears
Pick Of The Bunch Rating: Second Place
Savannah Gentry is in love with Tyler Fier and is thrilled when he asks her to marry him. But Savannah’s sister, Victoria, warns her not to go through with the wedding. Victoria tells Savannah that that Tyler and his entire family are cursed. But Savannah doesn’t believe that; she is sure that Tyler will make her happy. She insists that Victoria accompany her to Tyler’s mansion, but Victoria is certain that if they go live with Tyler one of them will wind up dead before the year is over. When they arrive at Blackrose Manor, Savannah doesn’t know what to think. Everything in their new home is strange. The garden is full of black roses, and the house is eerily cold and dark. And that’s when the deaths begin. That’s when the horror surrounds her. That’s when she learns Tyler’s terrible secret…
I admit it was difficult to come up with the right rating for this book. On one hand I definitely felt it was the weak link (so far) in the Fear Street Sagas miniseries, but it wasn’t incredibly terrible (I kept going between 3.5 or a 4). This was an incredibly fast read, more so than other books in the series.
There are many things to love about this book. First, it begins in the book’s present day, which my guess would be the late 1800s or early 1900s. An old woman is reflecting on her own tragic story, a story of two sisters, one of them long dead. What was great is that it did not reveal which sister had died, so while we go back to 1861-1865 we’re not sure who survived the story: Savannah or her sister Victoria. Savannah was Tyler Fier’s love, and the woman who should have lived, but she was naïve and much too trusting. Victoria knew Tyler Fier for what he was and had access to actual power, but she was also in his way and it is never wise to cross a Fier… This set-up really worked and was one of the big reasons why I rated the book what I did.
As far as the story I felt a lot of it was predictable. I figured out a lot of things, both major and in the background, before they were revealed in the end. I did not like how blind Savannah was throughout this book. Yes, she is in love and she has lost nearly her entire family, so she is also vulnerable, but girl get it together! There were many times when I wanted to shake her. Finally, I was not a fan of the fact that I did not know who Tyler was in reference to the rest of the Fear family. R.L. Stine seriously needs to give us an extended family tree that includes the people in this miniseries. And with a 100-Year break in the curse and different branches of Fiers and Fears (depending on if it was before or after the name change) can mean all kinds of possibilities. But I know the original Saga trilogy inside and out, and I want to know who Tyler is a descendant of, and who his parents were, etc. I think this would be important to any fan of the series.
Even with all the things I didn’t like, I still liked this book though. The end, and Tyler’s actual secret, I didn’t see coming. And I do love to be surprised! 🙂
Both of these books were fast and easy reads. I’m really excited for the next one in the series that deals with the creation of the Fear family amulet and how Matthew Fier (the man who is responsible for getting his family cursed in the first place) got his hands on it. I can’t wait!
-DMW
