FEAR STREET PART 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO
date a boy who will cheat on you, date a boy that's a ghost, date a bad boy with lighter fluid in his pocket
we’re BACK. I rewatched the film trilogy it’s still great and I love the little hints they sprinkle everywhere but that’s not why we’re here. We are here for the literature.
I feel like this was one of the last Fear Street books I read as a teen. Something about it stuck with me. This is the ULTIMATE novel about Gaslighting. As an only child I actually find this very scary. Having to live with another person that I did not choose and share my stuff? No fucking way! The twist is Emily, our protagonist, is being gaslit by her biological sister Nancy, that their new stepsister Jessie is trying to ruin her life. Why? Because she survived her dad in a boating accident and started dating her ex boyfriend even though she was going to apparently break up with him anyways. Get it together Nancy! There is a THE STEPSISTER 2 but I’ll have to hunt for it. If you want to feel gaslit just like Emily this is the book for you!
The title of this books asks a question, and then fails to answer it, or answers it in a very boring way. Look, if you want the homecoming queen to die she doesn’t. This is the same problem with The Prom Queen in which, there was no prom queen. Fear Street said no queens for anyone! Keith who sounds like a goth heartthrob is making a film to get into film school and Who Killed The Homecoming Queen? is the title of it. The problem, or I guess, what this does is chapters blend together what is happening and what is being filmed because basically all the actors are playing themselves. This has faking your disappearance (also happened in The Prom Queen), jealousy, and boyslut problems.
So once again we have a dead girl in the fear street woods and a boy with the name Gabriel in it somewhere. I’m keeping count baby! This was bor-ing. Janie our protagonist spends the book screaming, running, doubting herself, and thinking with her p*ssy instead of her brain. “I can’t believe I kissed a murderer!” Janie, I can’t believe you did a lot of things. Also thinking with your p*ssy instead of your brain is not something i’m against! Anyways don’t steal, don’t lie and maybe you won’t get murdered. Also don’t force your child to work two jobs to pay for college to build character when you can afford it! This book implies that 1400k is enough to pay college tuition LMAO ok where?
This book is a MESS of non-consensual nonsense. The protagonist sucks because she’s a whiny rich girl. The antagonist sucks because he’s a ghost of a boy who is the FEAR STREET PROWLER. We have a reverse ghost because he isn’t even dead yet, he’s there as a warning that Melissa will kill him, which we don’t learn until later. Paul is the ghost but currently alive and he has a violent alcohol problem and thinks Melissa is leading him on because she’s rich and he’s poor. He loves to break into houses on fear street. He breaks into her house, she shoots him with the help of his OWN ghost who decides he has always loved her. ( the ghost, not paul) and then fades away. Melissa then kisses her boyfriend Buddy who did not at all believe she was being haunted by a ghost, who I guess she also loves. She also kissed the ghost and told him she loved him.
This has one of the ugliest covers, and lacks the hot pulp action I desire. But it’s my favourite fear street book. You have the breakfast club, saturday detention, secret tunnels, cask of amontilado shennanigans, a red mist that smells like rot and if it get’s you it will literally break all of your bones. It was SCARY! I read this as a kid and was like horrified about what was happening. There is a part where it says someone’s leg is broken by folding into their back. It was still fun to read. There are rats, a secret tunnel with let’s party graffiti everywhere. Bo, our hot detention bad boy that normie Elaine would never be caught dead with (hah!) is the leader of a pack of misfits that all get broken in half by an angry red mist. The mist that escapes when he breaks open a red brick wall. Who put the wall there? It was the principal, Mr.Savage, who accidentally killed six of his friends when they partied years ago and the tunnel caved in. The horror ends when the red mist of murder captures Mr.Savage and get’s the revenge it desired because it’s really his six friends! Bo watched his whole friend group die but he’s too cool so he will probably be in a relationship with Elaine now who spends the whole time complaining about her sprained ankle and the rats.
Up next: We revisit vampirism in Goodnight Kiss 2 and celebrate the new year with The New Year Party