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owlsreads's review against another edition
3.0
The Surprise Party was an okay read, but I really disliked Meg and was not a fan of the judgement regarding DnD and people who play it.
mfounta9's review against another edition
3.0
Fun nostalgic read, i love the teen drama mixed in with a murder.
getoutpeasants's review against another edition
3.0
I read this book in one day and really liked it. I gave it a neutral review, it wasn’t the best book I’ve ever read but it definitely wasn’t bad by any means. A very quick read, good for getting a bit of horror in on a rainy afternoon. I actually was surprised by the many twists and turns at the end. Overall, I recommend it!
omgbeansgoreadabook's review against another edition
3.0
Plot: Evan died a year ago within the horrible Fear Street woods. After Evan died, Ellen moved away leaving the rest of the friends to go their own ways.
Meg finds out Ellen is coming back for a visit and decides she wants to throw a surprise party for her.
When someone who didn't want that plan to take place catches wind of the party, Meg begins to receive threatening phone calls and has multiple brushes with death until the crazy conclusion to the story.
Writing Style: R.L. Stine is known for being an amazing author. He's a staple in everyone's personal collection so I think his writing speaks for itself.
There are a few passages that display the way the murderer is feeling as well as their racing thoughts that give you a sense of how they're feeling on the inside about the murder and the choices they're still making in the aftermath of it.
Characters: The main character is Meg who I think is a little air-headed if I do say so myself, but you can't expect much out of 80s teens. ;) Everything was so much simpler and no one felt unsafe like we do in today's society.
There are times when you see the murderer's point of view which I really enjoyed, it was super creepy to me to hear the racing thoughts and them trying to talk themselves down.
All of the secondary characters had their own well-developed personalities and everyone seemed a little suspicious one way or another so I had no idea who the murderer really was until the ending!
Meg finds out Ellen is coming back for a visit and decides she wants to throw a surprise party for her.
When someone who didn't want that plan to take place catches wind of the party, Meg begins to receive threatening phone calls and has multiple brushes with death until the crazy conclusion to the story.
Writing Style: R.L. Stine is known for being an amazing author. He's a staple in everyone's personal collection so I think his writing speaks for itself.
There are a few passages that display the way the murderer is feeling as well as their racing thoughts that give you a sense of how they're feeling on the inside about the murder and the choices they're still making in the aftermath of it.
Characters: The main character is Meg who I think is a little air-headed if I do say so myself, but you can't expect much out of 80s teens. ;) Everything was so much simpler and no one felt unsafe like we do in today's society.
There are times when you see the murderer's point of view which I really enjoyed, it was super creepy to me to hear the racing thoughts and them trying to talk themselves down.
All of the secondary characters had their own well-developed personalities and everyone seemed a little suspicious one way or another so I had no idea who the murderer really was until the ending!
jeanettelenore's review against another edition
funny
mysterious
fast-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
3.0
dtaylorbooks's review against another edition
4.0
I’ve found with the older Fear Street books versus the newer titles (this is #2 against, let’s say #25 and on just for a number) that the characters aren’t so obnoxious, they aren’t caricatures of people, they aren’t all that awful to each other. I don’t know why that shift happened but I find myself liking these older titles better than their newer successors just because the characters seem more real.
Here Ellen, the girlfriend of a boy killed the year before, is coming back into town and her old best friend, Meg, wants to throw her a surprise party. Once she sets that in stone scary things start to happen and she starts to get threatened. Someone’s trying to force her to call off the party but she’s stubborn and won’t do it. She refused to be cowed. I liked that about her.
The warnings escalate and Tony, Meg’s boyfriend, starts to get weirder and weirder and we’re led to believe that Tony was the one who actually killed Evan. The red herring does a good job until the twist comes into play and that’s where we see a little bit of the crappy characters that are far more prevalent in the later books. At least it wasn’t pervasive and it was only for a moment. Doesn’t make the character any less crappy but it’s not shoved in my face either.
The real murderer is at least present in the story and more than just a background character, which I liked. In later books twists where the real antagonist is someone you had no clue even existed in the story become the norm. At least here it’s not such a mind-boggling revelation and with hindsight you can actually connect some dots (at least I think you should be able to do that, being completely blindsided by the real antagonist because they weren’t actually in the story at all isn’t a twist, it’s just crappy writing). Not too many but enough to go ‘I had a feeling . . .’
I felt the characters reacted in more natural ways to situations, they felt more real as I read about them, and it all grounded the story pretty well in that, at times, it actually felt creepy instead of a parody of a horror story like the later Fear Street books are. I think these original Fear Street books are the real meat of Stine’s writing, when greater care was given to the story and the characters and in making the reader feel scared. Books like THE SURPRISE PARTY are why I like old school YA horror. A bit cheesy, not fully as developed as YA horror now but fun and freaky and a good time to read. More realistic, despite everything.
This one was definitely one of the better Fear Street books.
4
Here Ellen, the girlfriend of a boy killed the year before, is coming back into town and her old best friend, Meg, wants to throw her a surprise party. Once she sets that in stone scary things start to happen and she starts to get threatened. Someone’s trying to force her to call off the party but she’s stubborn and won’t do it. She refused to be cowed. I liked that about her.
The warnings escalate and Tony, Meg’s boyfriend, starts to get weirder and weirder and we’re led to believe that Tony was the one who actually killed Evan. The red herring does a good job until the twist comes into play and that’s where we see a little bit of the crappy characters that are far more prevalent in the later books. At least it wasn’t pervasive and it was only for a moment. Doesn’t make the character any less crappy but it’s not shoved in my face either.
The real murderer is at least present in the story and more than just a background character, which I liked. In later books twists where the real antagonist is someone you had no clue even existed in the story become the norm. At least here it’s not such a mind-boggling revelation and with hindsight you can actually connect some dots (at least I think you should be able to do that, being completely blindsided by the real antagonist because they weren’t actually in the story at all isn’t a twist, it’s just crappy writing). Not too many but enough to go ‘I had a feeling . . .’
I felt the characters reacted in more natural ways to situations, they felt more real as I read about them, and it all grounded the story pretty well in that, at times, it actually felt creepy instead of a parody of a horror story like the later Fear Street books are. I think these original Fear Street books are the real meat of Stine’s writing, when greater care was given to the story and the characters and in making the reader feel scared. Books like THE SURPRISE PARTY are why I like old school YA horror. A bit cheesy, not fully as developed as YA horror now but fun and freaky and a good time to read. More realistic, despite everything.
This one was definitely one of the better Fear Street books.
4
izzy6's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
narmowen's review against another edition
3.0
This Fear Street book has the same issue as all the rest: the twist is revealed in the last five (or less) pages, and it's quickly wrapped up with a bow.