Fear Street is one of my greatest guilty reading pleasures. I mean, hello, I have only wrote 15 posts devoted to the series, and so far I have only covered the first 55 books of the series (there are 114 books in all if I include Stine’s 2005 comeback Fear Street trilogy and the “Seniors” and “Sagas”). So, I decided to do something different in this post, and have some fun with the books I have posted about so far. Remember high school superlatives… well I have a few shout-outs, awards and lists for the best and the worst of Fear Street so far ;), as well as some surprising statistics, thoughts and comparisons of this bestselling YA series full of nineties nostalgia. Let’s get started!
Fear Street might sound strange for a title of a series, and by strange I mean hokey. In fact, when I was a kid the name of the series caused me to avoid it at first; certain it was a joke (of a series, not the name itself). But now that I have read it, it really isn’t that hokey. The stories all take place in Shadyside or feature characters from Shadyside when it comes to books with alternate locations. When the town was first founded, a family with the last name “Fear” was pretty much in charge behind the scenes. They were wealthy, scary and ruthless, much like the people who control current politicians are. Their money was the source of their power, and every time they got their way, little else occurred besides influence and in some cases intimidation. But the Fears were secretly (or not-so-secretly) evil. Their wealth was acquired from murder and dark magic, and their real power, though not exercised at the drop of the hat, came from magic, a curse and ancient feuding. The Fears met their end in a terrible fire. No one dare level their burned out mansion, BUT the rest of their land was seized and became parts of Shadyside, all bearing the family’s name: Fear Street, the Fear Street Woods, Fear Lake and Fear Island. But it seems while the Fears are long gone, the curse of their name remained and every story involves someone who lives on Fear Street… whether they will be a victim of its evil, or a part of that evil themselves!
Map of Shadyside
Make sense? All right. Not so hokey. But, you would think that this premise means that these books are big on the supernatural. I mean, when I first read the original trilogy “Fear Street Saga” I figured dark power, ancient evil, family curse – yep, this series will be big on the supernatural angle. But not so much. There are more real-life killers than any kind of plot with even a hint of a supernatural element. In fact, I am a numbers person, so here are the actual numbers.
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