Scan barcode
manwithanagenda's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Fear Street # 96
'Cat' is one of the harder-to-find of the original 'Fear Street' books. I have to say though, that if you can find it at a decent price it is worth the read. It has all of the hallmark cheese of the series plus an excess of cats.
Marty Harper and his two friends Dwayne Clark and Barry Allen are the "Three Musketeers" of the Shadyside Tigers basketball team. They score all the points and are just all-around excellent. Dwayne wears colorful Hawaiian shirts and Barry is...Barry. The point is that they are very good at baskethoops.
Sidebar: Why is basketball the big sport at Shadyside? With the exception of the first book of the series that glorified the men's gymnastic team, basketball is the main focus of the jock characters from Alex Beale in 'Halloween Party', across all of the Cheerleaders books, 'What Holly Heard', and on and on. Why no love for other sports ball? I have no stake in the game, and it's a nice break from football, but it's a little strange.
'Cat' is not just about basketball, however. It turns out that there has been a stray cat living in the gymnasium under the bleachers for some time. The basketball players like to chase it around while Coach Griffin fondly looks on. One day, Marty takes a hard fall and decides to blame it on the cat. He and his buddies chase it up to the top of the bleachers and the cat is thrown from the top of the bleachers to it's death. This is an accident, but Marty is rightly castigated for it. A club opposed to cruelty to animals is organized by Marty's former friend Gayle Edgerton who appears to have taken over Lisa Blume's spot as student reporter extraordinaire.
There are many other characters introduced here. A flood of them. Including the bitter ex-love of Marty's Riki Crawford and new hot girl Kit Morrissey. There's also members of Student Court, other basketball players, and faculty. Maybe they'll come back for future books? We'll see.
The focus of the book is the aftermath of the death of the stray cat. Marty is all torn up that people think he's mean to animals because he was mean to an animal. How can he be mean to animals, he keeps saying, I own a dog! His friends get off lightly even though one of them was swinging the dead cat around by the tail. Soon, however, Marty and his friends feel stalked by something. Marty keeps seeing the cat, keeps hearing it, and something is coming at him for revenge. This was all kinds of fun. My real issue with it was the, again, insistence that Marty had to keep cycling through girls like Kleenex. In addition to Riki and Kit there's Lisa Greene and Jessica Wells. I know, because hormones, but it's ridiculous. Still, we all love a good supernatural Fear Street.
Fear Street in Publication Order
Next #97: 'Spell of the Screaming Jokers', Ghosts of Fear Street #20
Previous #95: 'Daughters of Silence', Fear Street Sagas #6
'Cat' is one of the harder-to-find of the original 'Fear Street' books. I have to say though, that if you can find it at a decent price it is worth the read. It has all of the hallmark cheese of the series plus an excess of cats.
Marty Harper and his two friends Dwayne Clark and Barry Allen are the "Three Musketeers" of the Shadyside Tigers basketball team. They score all the points and are just all-around excellent. Dwayne wears colorful Hawaiian shirts and Barry is...Barry. The point is that they are very good at baskethoops.
Sidebar: Why is basketball the big sport at Shadyside? With the exception of the first book of the series that glorified the men's gymnastic team, basketball is the main focus of the jock characters from Alex Beale in 'Halloween Party', across all of the Cheerleaders books, 'What Holly Heard', and on and on. Why no love for other sports ball? I have no stake in the game, and it's a nice break from football, but it's a little strange.
'Cat' is not just about basketball, however. It turns out that there has been a stray cat living in the gymnasium under the bleachers for some time. The basketball players like to chase it around while Coach Griffin fondly looks on. One day, Marty takes a hard fall and decides to blame it on the cat. He and his buddies chase it up to the top of the bleachers and the cat is thrown from the top of the bleachers to it's death. This is an accident, but Marty is rightly castigated for it. A club opposed to cruelty to animals is organized by Marty's former friend Gayle Edgerton who appears to have taken over Lisa Blume's spot as student reporter extraordinaire.
There are many other characters introduced here. A flood of them. Including the bitter ex-love of Marty's Riki Crawford and new hot girl Kit Morrissey. There's also members of Student Court, other basketball players, and faculty. Maybe they'll come back for future books? We'll see.
The focus of the book is the aftermath of the death of the stray cat. Marty is all torn up that people think he's mean to animals because he was mean to an animal. How can he be mean to animals, he keeps saying, I own a dog! His friends get off lightly even though one of them was swinging the dead cat around by the tail. Soon, however, Marty and his friends feel stalked by something. Marty keeps seeing the cat, keeps hearing it, and something is coming at him for revenge. This was all kinds of fun. My real issue with it was the, again, insistence that Marty had to keep cycling through girls like Kleenex. In addition to Riki and Kit there's Lisa Greene and Jessica Wells. I know, because hormones, but it's ridiculous. Still, we all love a good supernatural Fear Street.
Fear Street in Publication Order
Next #97: 'Spell of the Screaming Jokers', Ghosts of Fear Street #20
Previous #95: 'Daughters of Silence', Fear Street Sagas #6
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death
More...