Reviews

The Wrong Number by R.L. Stine

bas1007's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

modernzorker's review against another edition

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3.0

Ah, Fear Street. Pure, unadulterated junk food for the adolescent mind and I ate it up like Pac-Man. These books are firmly entrenched in their time period, and most of them rely either on crazy coincidences or teens doing dumb things to move the story forward, but I'm not going to pretend the charm is lost on me, because it's not. Using the tools of literary criticism it's easy to prove Stine's "Fear Street" series of YA mystery/horror aren't great literature, but that's like having Gordon Ramsay over to prove your frozen dinner isn't haute cuisine. The people consuming either one simply don't care. So while 3 stars is my 'serious adult' rating for "The Wrong Number", my inner tween is totally rating it a 5.

One of the things I love about Stine is his ability to take ordinary things from the time period where he's writing and give them a vaguely sinister twist. "The Wrong Number" is dated by today's standards, but it came at a time when installing more than one phone line in a house started becoming more common in places outside big cities. In a time before pre-programmed numbers and direct dialing, it wasn't uncommon to make a mistake when placing a call. But sometimes you might get a devious streak and either deliberately make a mistake, or purposely call someone you didn't like to cause some mischief. This was, after all, the basic conceit of "Scream", and any number of urban legends about babysitters receiving phone calls urging them to check on the children.

Stine quickly introduces us to our small cast of stock characters for a story like this. There's Deena, the mousy, shy main girl whose father works for the local phone company and installs the new line and telephone in her room to get the whole thing started. There's Jade, her outgoing, beautiful best friend who's trying to get Deena to come out of her shell. And then there's Chuck.

Chuck's Deena's half-brother, the product of her dad's first marriage, who behaves just confusingly enough that nobody can figure him out. He's hot enough that Jade's drooling the minute she lays eyes on him, but he's that stereotypical 90's bad boy: attitude to match his muscles, and a temper guaranteeing he'll show it off to anyone who doesn't respect him. His last high school expelled him for reasons we never learn, but we also find out he's carrying a criminal record for joyriding in a stolen car. Despite this, one of the first things we see Chuck do is risk his life to rescue a dog from a burning car. The next thing, of course, is him being a prick to Deena, then later getting into a fight with the biggest jerk in the school and pulling a knife on the dude. So is he secretly a nice guy underneath all that rebellious armor, or is he a first-class ass trying to pass himself off as an OK guy who wants to be left alone?

Time for the fun to begin: when her own date bails on her, Jade delivers herself to Deena and Chuck's house where they have plans to eat pizza and watch movies until Deena mistakenly introduces Jade to the new phone daddy put in her room. Jade's mesmerized and wants to use it to have a little fun, so she gets out the phone book and starts prank calling kids from school. She goads Deena into making a call of her own, but the game's over when Chuck bursts in, tells them he knows what they're up to, and that he'll tell Deena's parents if they don't let him have some fun too. Stuck between a rock and a nut case, the girls hand over the phone, and Chuck first makes a threatening phone call to the guy he fought with in school earlier, then phones up the local bowling alley to make a bomb threat. Hey, it's raining and the idea of a bunch of soaking wet saps stuck outside in their bowling shoes is hilarious to him. He ends each call declaring himself "The Phantom of Fear Street", and because Caller ID has yet to propagate to this part of the country, nobody has any clue where the calls are coming from.

Had he left it at that, everything would have been fine, but no, Chuck has to prove to his sister and her best friend what a badass he is. He's going to take on Fear Street itself to show Deena and Jade there's nothing to be afraid of, and that, dear readers, is something one should never do. Chuck's final call is to a random number on Fear Street, only instead of getting a clueless high school student or hapless shoe rental jockey, he hears a woman screaming for help, the sounds of a scuffle, and then a sinister voice telling him he's dialed the wrong number. Well, shoot...now we're in a dilemma: if they call the police, the cops will want to know why they were ringing up people at random, and possibly connect them to the phony bomb threat at the bowling alley from earlier. On the other hand, if they don't do something, they'll have to live with themselves for the rest of their lives knowing they did nothing to help a woman in trouble. The only thing to do, Chuck decides, is visit the address he called and make sure everything is OK. It's not long before they're way in over their heads, and Chuck's looking at serious prison time, leaving Jade and Deena on the hook to convince the police they've caught the wrong guy despite all the evidence pointing to the contrary.

It's all a lot of (mostly) good, clean fun although the antagonist is rather obvious despite Stine's efforts to throw in a few red herrings. Again, that's a feature, not a bug: the story's about how the girls will exonerate Chuck, not really a question of who did it, since we know Chuck's the innocent man in all this. It wraps up quickly because Stine's got a page limit to preserve, but we're also talking about something meant for teens to pick up and finish in a few days, so dragging things out just for the sake of padding the word count isn't in Stine's best interest.

I was in 7th grade when I read "The Wrong Number" originally. Twenty-seven years later, it's enjoyable in a nostalgic sense because I was a tween/teen when Stine was writing books meant for that age range, but my assumption is most teens today would be put off by how rooted the story is in the technology of the late 80's. Nevertheless, I'm in a "read a bunch of stuff I read when younger" phase, and this probably won't be the last Fear Street book I finish (or review, for that matter).

mehsi's review against another edition

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3.0

Well this was just boring for a big part. I think the book would have been better if it had been a novella. Maybe 100 pages. Now it just dragged on and on and instead of me becoming more interested in the characters and the story, I just got bored and I felt it was just all too silly.

The police was just hilariously silly and bad. Oh, let's just not believe those silly girls at all, and let's just arrest that boy. After all he isn't quite the model citizen, so he must be the murderer! *rolls eyes* Oh hey, these girls just keep coming, let's dismiss them and tell them they are being silly and they are telling tall tales and lies. Seriously? This is how you treat people? Sjeesh, I am amazed that they even (really) solve stuff with that kind of attitude. And with that ending, I will stand by my statement. Dear Lord, the police are idiots. Could anyone have told Chuck about the plan? The whole idea? The poor guy will probably never forget something like this.

And sure, Chuck sucked, but no one deserves being thrown in jail like that. Especially with the ending of this book considered.
I didn't like Chuck that much. He seemed to have a kind side, but it was mostly his dangerous side that popped up. He was quite mean to a lot of people, thinking prank calls are all fun and play.

Deena was an interesting character, but I wish she would have thought before she did things. A lot of these events could have been prevented had she just said no in the beginning.
I also didn't like how she thought about her friend at times.
Still I could see they were good friends and they really matched together. I like how regardless of what happened they stayed together. I know many stories were friends break up thanks to stuff like this.

The story was silly and a bit too far-fetched. It was at times creepy, but I had hoped for a bit more supernatural. Especially since this took place on Fear Street for quite a bit. Oh well, guess that not everything on Fear Street is supernatural.

The ending was good, and I am happy to see it got this ending. Unlike some of the goosebumps or other books I read by R.L. Stine where he throws in some random new twist.

Would I recommend this book? I am not sure. If you don't mind that the story is at times boring and the characters are a bit weird, then I guess you could try this one out.

Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/

duderun's review against another edition

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1.5

Overall, it was quick, easy read. The punctuation in this book is over the top. I have never seen so many explanation points in my life. Also, so much “___ said” or “said ___.” Use other language when describing dialogue, I beg of you R.L. Stine. I came back to add that while I am not a huge fan of cops so my opinion my be a little biased but this book had so many lines and themes that the police will really figure everything out and that they would help the characters. I felt it was a very overdone theme, regardless of the fact that it was published in 1990, I believe. 

the_epi_reader's review against another edition

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3.0

With nothing to do on a Saturday night, Deena and her friend Jade decide to make some harmless prank phone calls to a few boys in their school. On the following Saturday, Deena’s step-brother, Chuck, who has a history with the police, decides to join in but his phone calls aren’t too harmless. When Chuck decides to pick a house at random on Fear Street to prank call, he overhears something he wasn’t supposed to. Why call the cops, when the three of them could go to this address to investigate instead?

I grew up reading the Goosebumps series and absolutely loved them. I hadn’t dipped too much into the Fear Street series but I remember picking up The Wrong Number 2 when I was 10, thinking it was super scary. Now reading the first book as an adult, it’s nostalgic but man did it not age well, and has a lot of cliches. At times I found the book to be highly predictable with the three main characters actions to be frustrating and just not believable, but I have to remember 1) they’re teens and 2) this book is meant for teens. The Wrong Number is a great simple read to kick off the new school year season, leading into September and October… but I definitely need to read something more substantial after finishing this. Will I read the rest of the Fear Street series over time? Yes. Will I still have the same frustrated thoughts? Probably, but R.L. Stine will always have a place in my bookworm heart.

jrodkenny's review against another edition

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lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

tablife's review against another edition

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"It began as a prank...and ended in murder!" - the opening line of the first Fear Street movie features this book. It also mentions Simon Fear, so it's interesting to finally see some tie-in to the movie trilogy.

A prank call attempt inadvertently connects three teenagers to a murder in progress, and suddenly they find themselves as suspects.

vicreads2022's review against another edition

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4.0

This book had me hooked!
I couldn’t stop reading it. I absolutely loved the writing and the characters. It is a very short book so the story went quick at some points but I loved it nonetheless. I will definitely at some point be picking up the rest of the books in the Fear Street saga. I highly recommend!

ppark77's review against another edition

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mysterious tense

4.0

nadiahzkr's review against another edition

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3.0

very fast paced and straightforward. it lacks the depth to the character developments though, which left me questioning things, especially with chuck. it’s also not as gory or spooky as i thought it would be.

but it’s a really fun read, which made me devour it in one sitting.