Book Review : Fear Street - Runaway : pretending to be envious is one way to make yourself look innocent

My mistake is not reading the synopsis first, I just thought this is someone from Shadyside who is trying to get out of that town, but no, it's someone getting in, bad luck I say.

Title : Fear street : Runaway
Writer : R.L Stine
Year : 1997
Collation : 146 pages

Felicia, the main character is having a bad life, having to runaway from home during her teen life is such a horrible experience whereas she could enjoy dating boys her age (I can say this because she's straight in the book), learning or camping, spending the nights in her girlfriends' house and rent some films, she gets to enjoy that of course, for a brief time. this book started with few flashbacks from some chapters, and is similar to stranger things vibe, of course this is way before the stranger things started but yes a power, a lab experiment however this one is consensual which is rather odd and uncommon for me to read, and some teenage love triangle which is a good spice to add some drama. R.L Stine wrote this well and as usual taking a first point of view from a young teen girl who is facing such a hard time during her youth, sometimes I wonder how in a world R.L Stine knows about being a teen girl like? he absorbs the role well for almost all the book, not in a bad way, but in a creative way I say. This book is a bit different but not too different from the other books from Stine, what's different is that this one has superpower, meaning it is extending the supernatural creature world of R.L Stine's works, I remember in Goosebumps there are werewolf, parasitic masks, angry gnomes, powerful ventriloquist doll, even a blob, and now a telepatic mutant, yes I just spoiled it a little bit. now what makes it almost the same as other books in Fear Street series is, no ghost or supernatural history of Shadyside involved, only several mentions of fear street and how people are fearful of it, and that's all, but I guess I wanted to believe that Shadyside somehow has an impact towards some of its crazy townies, I'll explain it later, for now the synosis first:

Hoping to escape her dark past, Felicia moves to Shadyside. All seems well there...until someone discovers her secret.

okay.. it looks rather like a short normal synopsis, I'm  glad I didn't read the synosis, sorry it's just not that interesting, I mean escaping to a new town and start over again is too common for me to read however it might be interesting if we wanted to see what makes her runaway, and who would notice about her past, and how it turns out in the end. now there are lots of things don't make sense later in the book when she settles in the town, I see that R.L Stine would like to simplify things to get it just continue to the next line, I'm currently working on my thesis about the information literacy of fictional writers whether they had done some research regarding any samples that exist in real life from their fiction works so it would be more realistic to read or to relate with the readers, but I see that R.L Stine might not paid an attention to this, well this doesn't matter I guess, people would say "that's why it's called a fiction" but I don't think that's how it work, if you want it to be fully fiction, then make up something totally new or like the other version of it, like an imaginary world or new school system something like that, but I guess he's not wrong, besides, Shadyside is a fictional town so it could had a whole different school system anyway.

Well let's just get started to the detailed summary here, it started with a conversation in Felicia's head as she walks toward the sign welcoming to Shadyside, she also tells a lot about her past in the college experiment, she has telepathy power just like her deceased dad whom she misses the most and she hates the doctor who tried to push her limit in the lab experiment so she could control her own power, it's not much a success and she hates having that, she also tells about her aunt and how she loves her aunt but they always fight a lot, also she has this best friend named Debbie who is always being jealous about her power "wish I could have your power" kinda stuff until one day at the beach, Debbie taunted her to use her power to destroy an unused beach house, until they notice that there are two people in it, probably just teenagers doing their "business", they're Kristin and Andy, a couple from their school, now in this part it is explained about the graphic description of their bodies, well part of it, Felicia felt so guilty and traumatized, she is convinced that she killed them even though it was an accident, anyway Debbie told her to runaway and take her car since she said the police has been questioning her about it and the doctor from the college lab has told the police everything, now this terrifies Felicia so much. 

And that's pretty much the important part of her flashbacks, the other is to continue her journey to her new life in Shadyside, first it didn't go well, she hitchhiked into a  psychopath's car named Homicide, he threatened her with a knife and she used her untamed power to steer the wheel, later she gets to be rescued by a boy her age named Nick, she gave him a kiss as a gratitude after the ride and try to find a job by being a "miss know it all" with her persuasive talent to convince people she knows A B C so she can handle some job, well she did get it, she become a cat-sitter in an old house resided at Fear Street. Then somehow she gets to be a student in the local high school by only convincing the teacher that her document and grades from previous school is on their way there? R.L Stine may have to pay an attention to this because I'm sure even at that time to get into a school wouldn't be as easy as Felicia convincing someone to take over their job as a cat-sitter. but anyway I didn't wanna take this as a big deal though still unbelievable, anyway she met Nick again and she gets another job to be a cook at a hamburger restaurant along with Nick, Barry and Zan, apparently Zan is Nick's girlfriend, o Nick you are a joke. well okay teenagers suck at their love life sometimes especially when you need drama you need bad things going on alright, but the point is Zan is a sociopath, though I don't like to diagnoze a person like that but her behavior prove it well, she killed her ex boyfriend, and she tried to kill Felicia because of another jealousy, Nick, again is an asshole. There comes the twist in the ending, Debbie comes to visit Felicia and attacked her, confessing that she has that telepathic power much stronger than Felicia all this time, even it was Debbie who killed Kristin and Andy because she loves Andy and he prefers somebody else, what a cliche but still nice to add on. Anyway Debbie got lost in the fight and became crazy because Felicia's power has been growing that it could smash somebody's mind. It's a good ending, a relieving one and she comes back to her town, not Shadyside, with Nick unfortunately started having a relationship with Felicia for real this time and left the crazed Zan. 

For the whole reading session, I was satisfied with how well it turns out for Felicia but was also upset that there comes a douchebag acting like a hero in her life which is Nick, but I'm sure in the future she'll get better options, however considering the fact that she gets to get through stuff so easily like getting a job, a place to live, and some friends, waayy too easy I'm convinced she may have another power that she didn't realize, super persuasive it is. but as far as I know there's no other sequels regarding this book, so let's just quit it for another fan theory. Besides the characters are being two-faced and Felicia as the victim-fought-back one, some things are predicted well, even by Felicia herself, she assumed that Zan purposely killed her ex and is the one who terrorize Felicia, and it's true, R.L Stine doesn't even try to hide that, he just straight up tells the whole secret through his character, he wants to make the readers know it all first before getting to climax. The climax itself is Debbie, a two-faced bestie and this one I did not expect much, I mean it's not that predictable which is good, backstabbing friend is one thing common for sure but reading from how sweet Debbie was through the flashbacks, I never thought she was the villain all this time, yeah I had a bit of suspicion especially when Felicia was using Debbie's car to runaway and the car was about to explode, but I didn't think of it that far.

 

The teenage cliche drama, a sociopath girlfriend, a weak boyfriend who is afraid of losing her despite having cheated on her, and getting stuff so easy including getting into a school, a job, a place to live are all relative when it comes to judgement, you could say those stuff are so typical you kinda get sick of it but we should realize that this is Fear Street series, so yeah I think those stuff are a good combination for entertainment, they make the story better than us just reading about Felicia's worries about her dark past over and over again, instead to me, her dark past is interesting but boring at the same time, I hate everytime she brought up her worries repeatedly, then another flashback, maybe this is a good way from R.L Stine to shows how much those stuff have traumatized her. Also the way she tells it are pretty understandable, we could deep dive into her character well, about her relatable fear, she's not some superhero and always be brave all the time, she gets scared despite having a telepathy power, she complains about it merely because she couldn't control it. also the climax is great, I did not expect Debbie being all that villainous stuff, though I had figured out the ending of course the good character wins. 

The weakness is how inconsiderate the writer was when it comes to the main character's luck, she had it too easy it becomes hardly relatable in real life, but I guess that's just how entertainment works, they just gotta find a way, any way to make the main character moved on and continue to get to the climax well. the other weakness is the one that I've mentioned already, about Felicia or main character's constant fear being described repeatedly in her head that I had to skip few part of it. 

However, it is easy to understand the storytell, the printing still looks so good possibly because it has been digitized, I don't mind the yellow paper, instead it's my favorite thing about old book, also the cover looks great, it describes the character well even though a bit too old to look like a teenager, doesn't matter much I guess, also the language! yes it's good and simple, I'm not an expertise in english language but I can understand it well and fast enough, but not too friendly for children, there are few descriptions about ruined body parts and this was repeatedly described as I told you about how Felicia was traumatized that it shows up in her head again and again, but any kids can enjoy this, it's still appropriate and won't be causing much graphic imagination in your head I hope. Good Day!