The Bookworm: The New Girl

The New Girl, by R.L. Stine. 168 pages. Pocket Books. June 1989.

Go ahead. Take a walk down Fear Street. Those stories couldn’t be true. No way. There couldn’t be that much terror awaiting you on one narrow, old street — could there?

Welcome to Shadyside. There is a high school, a mall, a rich neighborhood on a hill, and a poor section — somewhere; no one goes there except the poor people. And there’s Fear Street. Weird things happen there and you will somehow be enmeshed by its mysteries. It’ll happen. Trust me.

Basically, that is the message of The New Girl, the inaugural book in the Fear Street series.

I am tired and really do not want to write right now. However, I want to move on to the next book in my Stine queue because I want to read them all by Halloween. (Or at least try. I doubt it will happen.) I never start my next book until I blog about the one I just finished. Oh, how I torture myself.

So: The New Girl. It was nothing like The New Boy and nothing how I vaguely remembered it. As I have said, though the details faded from memory a long time ago, I do retain a general, emotional sense of a few of my Fear Street books. The New Girl was among them and the lasting impression was that I liked it. That was it. Though I could not remember why, I recall it being one of my favorites. However, having just read it for the first time since I was eleven or twelve, I cannot even imagine what impressed me about The New Girl.

Cory Brooks, a star gymnast at good ol’ Shadyside High, falls head over heels for the new girl, Anna Corwin. As described by the back cover, Anna is “pale as a ghost, blonde, and eerily beautiful.” She is also very enigmatic. No one knows her, she is not in school every day, and Brooks learns, by snooping around the main office, that Anna does not have a permanent record on file. (She has a locker, though. Go figure.) He cannot stop thinking about her so he tracks down the number to her house (on Fear Street, of course) and calls. A man answers and tells Brooks that Anna is dead.

Brooks thinks it is some kind of sick joke so he goes to her house. A man answers the door and tells Brooks the same thing: Anna is dead. Well, Brooks knows she can’t be dead since he sees her in school (every now and then). Is he going crazy? Is he seeing ghosts? (An insanely large portion of this book is dedicated to Brooks questioning himself.) Brooks’ best friend and neighbor, Lisa Blume, even discovers Anna’s obituary published that spring. However, Anna seems to be very alive. She even calls Brooks and meets him on Fear Street one night. They make out. Anna is apparently in danger and needs Brooks’ help. The man who said she is dead is her brother and he is very dangerous. He is following her. However, she does not give any more details than that but Brooks wants to know what is going on, wants to know the truth.

Sometimes these Fear Street books are more annoying than anything. I am way too impatient with the characters and story. There is a ton of build-up and hype for a conclusion that seems way too convenient or unrealistic. And such was the case with The New Girl. The truth about Anna is not revealed until one of the very final pages; all the pieces fall into place and, yes, it is relatively convenient. A simple conversation would have prevented a lot of anguish and confusion for everyone. However, that is not what these books are about. Perhaps, though, the overarching purpose of Fear Street books like this is to highlight our inability to be honest and effectively communicate with each other. They are like miniature versions of The Breakfast Club, but without marijuana.

The New Girl is the second Fear Street book I have reread with a male protagonist. The book begins with a very short prologue written from the perspective of an unknown character — which the book eventually leads us to believe is a female — but Brooks (why do I keep using his last name?) is the main character. Though his characterization was pretty basic, I could relate to him much more than I could the female protagonists from other Fear Street books. Especially in regards to his preoccupation with Anna. (I will say this, though: I am far from a gymnast, but Brooks’ knowledge of and insights into the sport seemed grounded and believable. Perhaps Stine was a gymnast himself at one point. I think I will believe that just for fun.) Brooks, though, was quite clueless regarding another girl: Lisa. He considers her a friend and nothing more, but it is painfully evident to the reader that Lisa has developed quite a crush on Brooks. She makes advances and is annoyed when he confides his obsession with Anna. Of course, I am willing to bet you can figure out what happens in the end with them.

Here is something I have been wanting to mention for a while: these books always make me think of the Lifestories: Families in Crisis episode where Calista Flockhart plays the role of a bulimic teenager. I think the connection has more to do with the era than anything else: both are from the late-eighties and early-nineties. I think that was when my understanding of high school and being a teenager was developed, so both the books and TV show fit into that perception — at least circa 1992.