A return

 I was kind of shocked to find out R. L. Stine returned to one of my favorite haunts a few years back, writing a few new Fear Street Superchillers. (For those not of a certain age, Fear Street was a Young Adult horror series set in and around Shadyside, where the Fear family have a long and shady history, a street named after them, as well as other landmarks bearing the surname. Mr. Stein was quite prolific with them prior to starting series aimed younger.)(I'll also note Mr. Stine was born in Columbus, and half the town names in this twofer are around the Cleveland area.)

The Twofer is two books in one! 

We start with Party Games, concerning poor Rachel, who works at Lefty's diner to makes extra money. Brandon Fear, of the Fear family, invites her out to his 18th Birthday party at the family summer house on Fear Island. To get us in the mood, we hear about the family history at the house, what with the Fears hunting down the servants, and an Aunt taxidermying herself to death. 

Anyway, Many of the girls going to the party find a dead animal in their beds a few days before the party. Rachel thinks its her boyfriend Mac, who is mildly abusive who did it. As the party gets going with a Scavenger Hunt, dead bodies start popping up. Then two or three twists happen, along with one maybe supernatural twist added in for fun. While one of the twists I saw coming as soon as the ball got rolling, another was a surprise. However, as we're in YA Horror, we have to follow the rules of no dead teenagers. 

The other story, Don't Stay Up Late, reexplores a familiar YA trope, as our heroine Lisa ends up babysitting on Fear Street. Problem being, Lisa's father just died in a horrific car accident, and Lisa's concussion is causing her to hallucinate. Or is it?

While it is nice to see the series enter a more modern age (the protagonists have iPhones, although Fear Island has no signal), I found myself amused that in Shadyside, the legal age to drink is 18. 

Fear Street was never deathless prose, but it was a fun way to spend hours as a teenager. As it turns out, it's still a fun way to spend hours as an adult.