The Bookworm: Halloween Party

Halloween Party by R.L. Stine. 147 pages. Pocket Books. September 1990.

“Hey—we made it all night! It’s morning!” Ricky cried. “It isn’t Halloween anymore!”

“I don’t know about that,” said Niki, holding on to Terry’s arm as they began to walk away. “It’s always Halloween on Fear Street.” [Page 147.]

Those were the last two graphs in Halloween Party, and I suppose it is fitting I finished the book today, the day after Halloween. But more than anything I think they encapsulate the book’s outrageous corniness and the way Stein uses hallmarks of Halloween horror to almost nauseating effect.

Halloween Party revolves around a — you guessed it — Halloween party. Terry, Niki, and a handful of others at Shadyside High are invited to attend an all-night Halloween costume party at the home of Justine Cameron, a striking but mysterious transfer student who nobody knows very well. (How many times can I use “Halloween”? Way too many for such a small space.) Also mysterious is the guest list: many of those invited are not good friends, and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to why they were chosen. “I just invited some people I want to get to know better,” Justine tells those feeling left out. No one who did not receive an invitation is welcome, including a couple jocks who feel very slighted and threaten to crash the party. The back cover does a good job of vaguely summarizing the rest:

For Terry and Niki the trick-or-treating has turned to terror. To their horror, they realize that someone at the costume party is dressed to kill!

Unfortunately, there were no flying jack-o-lanterns.

Last night, in the spirit of Halloween, I watched the oft-interrupted AMC version of the original Halloween with Jamie Lee Curtis. Admittedly, I had never seen it before, and still have not seen the whole thing all the way through; I caught a big chunk in the middle, stopped watching to eat, and then saw the last 10 minutes or so. There is a lot of suspense, and the cinematography is pretty good, but I could not help thinking, “What’s the big deal with this movie? It sucks.” I hate to admit it since it is so iconic, but it sucks in that cliché horror movie way, probably because it is the foundation for horror’s modern era. As I was watching it, I realized there were many parallels with Halloween Party.

There are tons of nonsensical, but convenient, decisions by the main characters, who all seem totally naïve and clueless. As suspicious incidents pile up, and a couple characters start snooping around for the truth, no one even suspects their lives are in danger. They ignore blatant evidence, or the characters who finally get a clue begin questioning themselves. “Maybe I was hallucinating instead of seeing that dead body,” they think. What?! Ugh! Needless to say, it was exasperating. Seriously: second-guessing played a major role in the plot. Honestly, though, should I have expected anything else?

Though I am enjoying these rereads, part of me is very disappointed. Since I have that personal affinity with the Fear Street series, and have always held the books in high esteem since they were a major part of my formative years, I unreasonably expect something more, something better. So when I read something as formulaic and corny as Halloween Party, I feel let down. But I should not. After all, this is young adult fiction.

When I began my Fear Street rereads, I assumed the number of those murdered in my collection would equate to an entire high school class. I was thinking 150-200, which is probably the average range for a 3A football school in Iowa. Having reread six books, I realized my assumption was totally wrong; the total body count will probably be comparable to the average class in high school playing A or 1A football. So far, only six characters have died. The body count breaks down like this:

The New Boy: 2
The Dare: 0
The Knife: 2
The Overnight: 0
Lights Out: 1
Halloween Party: 1

It does not matter, and I am not one of those sadistic freaks who like it when characters get slashed up (except for Debra in Lights Out), but it is yet another feature incompatible with the memories I had of the series.

I wrote in my last Bookworm post how Suki Thomas from The Overnight was probably one of the only recurring characters in the series. Much to my surprise, another character from The Overnight plays a big role in Halloween Party: Ricky Schorr. Ricky is a practical joker who is his own biggest fan; nobody else thinks he is funny. The best part about his presence in Halloween Party is he references The Overnight. At the party, everyone plays a game called Truth: each guest needs to tell the group the worst thing they have ever done, and everyone votes whether or not they were telling the truth. Apprehensive, Ricky goes first:

“Something really bad happened once,” Ricky said, muttering to the floor. “On Fear Island. During an overnight with some kids. We thought someone was dead and—” He stopped. “I really can’t talk about it.”

I thought it was amusing, and was amazed another Fear Street book was referenced — or, technically, alluded to.

Halloween Party also marks the first Fear Street reread with a male protagonist. Though there are short instances when Stein follows Niki or another character, Terry is the main character. I was getting very curious why Stein constantly wrote from the perspective of a female protagonist. It seems odd for a man. I am one of those writers who adamantly believes men cannot write convincing women and women cannot write convincing men. However, this is young adult horror, where believability need not apply.

New word I learned: There was one word I did not know in Halloween Party; the definition is courtesy of my MacBook dictionary. Acrid: “having an irritatingly strong and unpleasant taste or smell.”