The Bookworm: 'The Wrong Girl'

 

The Wrong Girl, by R.L. Stine. 328 pages. Harper Teen. 2018.

I tilted back my head. I wanted to roar like a lion, like a beast in a horror movie. I wanted to roar and tear and scratch and attack, attack them all for what they’d done to me. (p. 212)

Autumn is Fear Street–reading season for me, but I have not had much time to read ... until Sunday, when I polished off the final third of The Wrong Girl while lounging in the backyard hammock, enjoying the Indian summer.

The second title in HarperTeen’s Return to Fear Street series, The Wrong Girl tells the story of Poppy Miller and her friends’ quest to become famous via viral videos. It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt. It’s especially not fun when someone else gets hurt, and then someone else dies.

The Wrong Girl continues the Fear Street tradition of “girl” and “boy” titles. The New Boy, The New Girl, The Rich Girl (which I think is in my reading queue), The Bad Girl, The Lost Girl, The Boy Next Door. This one piqued my interest because I kept wondering which girl the title refers to and what is so wrong about her. I was not expecting the answers, which was a very nice surprise. It shows Stine still has a knack for being crafty and clever, though not that I ever doubted him.

Speaking of Stine having a craft: Conventions and conveniences of the genre aside, it amazes me he is able to write engaging and, I assume, relevant stories about teenagers. Despite being 77 years old, he seems pretty in touch with contemporary teen culture, or at least has people who provide support. I like to think his son helped in the nineties, so I’m unsure how he is able to stay connected these days. Perhaps it’s not hard with social media; all he needs are a phone and the right apps. Or maybe he’s not connected and it’s all in my head. Maybe teen culture never changes. Perhaps all that changes are the fashion cycle and the slang. Can that be true? Can the Fear Street series double as a criticism or study of the consistency and persistency of teen culture in America, or American culture in general? Maybe. Am I putting way too much thought into young adult fiction for my own good? Probably.

Anyway, much like its predecessor in the series, You May Now Kill the Bride, The Wrong Girl features stronger writing, more realistic characters, and a better, more engaging story than older Fear Street books. These books, and I assume the genre as well, have grown up. But the more things change, the more they stay the same. There is still convenience and an air of simplicity, and things sometimes get forgotten. The books are not that realistic or watertight, but they are trending that way.

The Wrong Girl is another classic whodunnit, one that kept me keeping track of suspects and clues until the final few pages. The story is slow for a long time, but it becomes gripping and suspenseful when it finally gains momentum. Stine does a very good job of conveying the characters’ emotions and reactions.

The Wrong Girl is also another book that, in the last few pages, had me wondering how the story could be wrapped up so quickly. The ending is on the anticlimactic side, which is a disappointment because so much time and care is taken to create misdirection.

This book is very unique in one respect: it features many different narrators. Poppy tells most of the story, but her friends and sister narrate a chapter here and there. There does not appear to be a rhyme or reason why, which makes it a mystery to me. Why did Stine decide to introduce different narrators? Why did he choose them when he did? At certain times, I’m sure he did it to highlight an event that Poppy did not witness, which is a shortcoming of having a single character as narrator. It works, but it just makes me curious.

It is also unique because none of the characters are likeable, at least to me. One can empathize with them, but none of the characters engender any kind of affinity. Perhaps that is another way the series/genre has matured: flawed and unlikeable protagonists.

On to the miscellany!

• One character self-mutilates—something that would have never been included in a Fear Street book 20 or (especially) 30 years ago. It’s an acknowledgment and portrayal of the mental health issues teens experience, something which is sorely lacking in the older books.

• There is more underage drinking in The Wrong Girl. One character drinks Jamaican rum and then “Bud.” Poppy mentions drinking wine, and some of the friends share a beer before planned shenanigans.

• Mustache is used on one page, while moustache is used on the next. Another moustache pops up later in the book, too. It’s a consistency issue I probably take too much pride in noticing. I thought moustache is British-English, but apparently not. It’s just a less-common version of mustache.

• The book is set in April, yet Manny is getting back into shape for wrestling. Maybe other states do it differently, but high school wrestling season takes place during the winter in Iowa. It’s something I thought was interesting. I mean, perhaps Manny let himself go for a few months and then decided to put his cauliflower ears to the grindstone again.

• There is no connection to Fear Street until very late in the book, almost as if it was added as an afterthought.