Fear Street, True Evil is cutting-edge horror for ages 14 and up

Let your freak flag fly, that’s what I say. I said something like that to a student today, except it was the more school-appropriate version of “you do you, don’t worry about others.” We read our first R.L. Stine book last year and were exceedingly surprised by Stinetinglers. It’s obvious from that book that Stine has a knack, a hook at digging into the mglit psyche and dredging their fears and unsaid scares. Fear Street takes his angle, ups the demographic, increases the horror, and proves that he knows his role-and its capable of expanding. Specifically, True Evil: The First Evil, The Second Evil, The Third Evil is a book that’s in the Fear Street series of books that Stine creates.

Just because a book is from R.L. Stine, don’t presume that it’s content to be living in the mglit world. That is the entire premise behind Fear Street. Early into reading True Evil, it’s obvious that the book is more evil than the previous Stine book I had read. It’s more graphic, has more tension, features more death, has an evil presence that’s palpable and operates a teenage level. As I read the inside back cover of True Evil I saw that Stine’s Fear Street series is the bestselling teen horror book series of all time. It’s a party that’s been happening for a while and I’m just discovering the joyous horror and teen party vibes therein, but that’s OK.

From the cover, True Evil, semi-presents itself as something that has three short stories. However, that is not the case, and like the aforementioned teen party vibes, that is OK. Instead, The First Evil, The Second Evil and The Third Evil are all parts of a bigger story that add up to more than the sum of its parts, plus cheerleaders, ancient curses, fallen friends, teen drama, and things that go bump in the night. The natural flow of the book sucks you in as effortlessly as riding a bike down a big hill. The surprising thing about this hill is that it rolls, never goes uphill too much, and eventually leads to a big climax.

The charm of True Evil is how it’s written. The text is perfectly presented for upper-middle school and high school audiences who are hard-pressed to put down their cell phones. It’s not baby text. It’s also not written at a level that will challenge those 15-year-old erstwhile readers. This is fun, comfort reading, with a side order of teen-drama, gore, scares and an ongoing monster that rears its head just enough to make readers never lose interest.

That goes back to the fact that the book is not actually three different short stories. When I was approaching the end of The First Evil I became acutely aware of the fact that the story thread wasn’t about to resolve itself. While I had other books that needed to be read, I was OK with the fact that I was only 1/3 of the way finished with True Evil because I was having fun. I was having fun reading a book. This concept might seem alien to some middle or high school audiences, but reading should be fun. Reading can be fun, and if it isn’t entertaining then the book that you’re engaged in is not your jam. Find your jam.

For any action or horror reader aged 14 and up, True Evil will be your jam. It’s just graphic enough to hold your interest. It’s not too graphic to raise the ire of your parents or overzealous school librarians. This is the scary stuff that will interest those ages who think that they don’t want to read because it’s lame. True Evil is not lame. It’s a great afterthought to those who saw the Disney + Goosebumps show and said it’s a good start, but I want something a bit edgier. This has the edge that will keep cutting with upper mglit audiences and those who enjoy plausible teen friendships, with a nice side serving of monsters, blood and bodies.

True Evil: The First Evil, The Second Evil, The Third Evil is a Fear Street book by R.L. Stine and is available on Simon Pulse, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

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