The Bookworm: 'The Sleepwalker'

The Sleepwalker, by R.L. Stine. 164 pages. Pocket Books. May 1990.

I can’t stay up, she thought, and started to drop again, her eyes opened wide, her heart pounding, the only sound except for the quiet, deadly swirling of the waters as they encircled her once again. (p. 110)

It had been a while since I read a Fear Street book, so I busted out The Sleepwalker, the last book in my 2016 used-copy haul.

The Sleepwalker tells the story of Mayra, who takes a summer job caring for Mrs. Cottler, an elderly woman who lives on Fear Street. Soon after the job starts, Mayra begins sleepwalking. She is drawn to water while asleep, and nearly drowns in the lake in the Fear Street woods (which I think is called Fear Lake). Scared and unsure what has caused her sleepwalking, Mayra becomes convinced that Mrs. Cottler is a witch who has cast a spell on her. Can Mayra break the spell before it kills her?

The Sleepwalker is an enjoyable mystery full of misdirection. It has a lot of moving parts that, as always, don’t seem related until the puzzle is completed at the end. There are still a few missing pieces, and convenience still plays a big part (there is “one mystery that just won’t be cleared up” [p. 164] at the end), but it’s a satisfying and amusing read.

It is hard not to savor the disparate storylines and the confusion/hilarity they cause. One storyline involves Mayra being chased by a Brian Bosworth lookalike. Also, Mayra is dating Walker, a magician who has “the biggest hands” (p. 31), is not into “heavy-metal groups and partying” (p. 136) like every other teen in Shadyside, and is seen sneaking around with Shadyside High super-slut Suki Thomas. (Suki is referred to as “just about the trashiest girl in school” [p. 49], which made me chuckle.)

On that note, The Sleepwalker features a surprising number of references to sex, which is uncharacteristic for the early books. A character named Stephanie is said to have been “really into” the occult and magic “before she discovered sex!” (p. 25). Recalling a previous date with Walker, Mayra “wished that he hadn’t been so shy, that he had wanted to go further than just kisses” (p. 34). When being comforted by Walker before work one morning, Mayra “had the feeling that if he put his arms around her now, or kissed her, she’d never get to Mrs. Cottler’s” (p. 64). Très risqué!

A lot goes unexplained, of course. Along with the “one mystery that just won’t be cleared up” (which is pretty glaring, though I love how a character acknowledges how crazy it is), a number of loose ends remain at the conclusion. It’s expected but still annoys me. Why did this happen? Why did so-and-so do this? What’s with the dresser full of black candles? So many unanswered questions. True to its mysterious nature, Fear Street is not a place to find answers.

On to the itemized notes!

• Tree toads are mentioned twice, chirping in the trees when Mayra wakes up during her sleepwalks. I doubt tree toads have ever been mentioned in any other Fear Street book I’ve read.

• Speaking of animals in Shadyside, birds are described as being on Fear Lake on p. 142. I thought birds avoided the Fear Street woods?

• Mayra’s mother, Mrs. Barnes, is just two years older than I am.

• Mrs. Barnes brings up a recurring feature in the series, one I may have mentioned before: hard-working single parents and teens who work to contribute to their family’s finances. There are a lot of single parents in the Fear Street series, and I am sure this is on purpose to mirror reality. I don’t have the statistics to confirm this, but I assume more teens were living in single-parent households in the eighties and nineties than before, so it is a realistic and sad touch to these books.

• Mayra has copper-colored hair. Stine loves his red heads, apparently.

• I think Mayra is an odd but imaginative name. Fear Street characters often have interesting names—perhaps another reflection of the era and the children who were born in the early and mid-seventies.

• At one point, Mayra is listening to Q-100, a local radio station “that played the best music” (p. 15), with her Walkman. Oh, the days when people listened to the radio...

• The Sleepwalker was released in May but takes place at the beginning of summer break.