Scan barcode
A review by dtaylorbooks
Bad Dreams by R.L. Stine
4.0
How did we end up here?
More cheese pulled from my pile.
Okay, book. You've got 50 pages. Go!
Let me tell you, if this book were any longer I probably would have lit it on fire. Andrea, Maggie’s little sister by a year, was the most insufferable Fear Street character yet. I wouldn’t have been able to tolerate her for more than 150 pages. It’s surprising I got through 50. But it’s Fear Street so I carried on because I knew I would love it regardless.
What worked . . .
Maggie’s insanity. The more the dreams progressed and the more they bled into her waking life the crazier she became and when bad things started happening she guilted herself immediately despite the impossibility of her having done anything wrong. Stine did a good job of making her go bat shitty while balancing the dreams and the reality bleed. Was it real? Or not? Was Andrea possessed or just a little bitch? You’ll have to read it to find out.
What didn't work . . .
Andrea. Holy shitballs, was she just fodder for tire smudge. She was the over the top bratty little sister (although age-wise she was only a year younger than Maggie, you just couldn’t tell based on her attitude) that threw shit fits about everything that didn’t go her way until they eventually did. Of course she would throw it back in Maggie’s face because Maggie always got everything and Andrea got nothing despite everything she ever got but, you know, we had to have that antagonist in there somewhere.
And talk about having some of the most awful friends ever. Maggie was now dating Paul, whom her best friend dated the year before. What? Talk about violating a friend code of ethics. But it appeared that Maggie’s friend didn’t harbor any ill will towards her about it except they were on the swim team together and her friend constantly rooted for Maggie to lose. It was just . . . oh my god, get new friends. I don’t know if Stine thought this was a normal girlfriend dynamic or what but it was kind of painful to watch.
And in the end . . .
More epic cheese to feed my need for read. Despite the bads to this book it just ended up being a whole lot of good because it’s Fear Street. How could it not be? If you know what to expect when you go in you won’t be disappointed. It’s really very simple.
More cheese pulled from my pile.
Okay, book. You've got 50 pages. Go!
Let me tell you, if this book were any longer I probably would have lit it on fire. Andrea, Maggie’s little sister by a year, was the most insufferable Fear Street character yet. I wouldn’t have been able to tolerate her for more than 150 pages. It’s surprising I got through 50. But it’s Fear Street so I carried on because I knew I would love it regardless.
What worked . . .
Maggie’s insanity. The more the dreams progressed and the more they bled into her waking life the crazier she became and when bad things started happening she guilted herself immediately despite the impossibility of her having done anything wrong. Stine did a good job of making her go bat shitty while balancing the dreams and the reality bleed. Was it real? Or not? Was Andrea possessed or just a little bitch? You’ll have to read it to find out.
What didn't work . . .
Andrea. Holy shitballs, was she just fodder for tire smudge. She was the over the top bratty little sister (although age-wise she was only a year younger than Maggie, you just couldn’t tell based on her attitude) that threw shit fits about everything that didn’t go her way until they eventually did. Of course she would throw it back in Maggie’s face because Maggie always got everything and Andrea got nothing despite everything she ever got but, you know, we had to have that antagonist in there somewhere.
And talk about having some of the most awful friends ever. Maggie was now dating Paul, whom her best friend dated the year before. What? Talk about violating a friend code of ethics. But it appeared that Maggie’s friend didn’t harbor any ill will towards her about it except they were on the swim team together and her friend constantly rooted for Maggie to lose. It was just . . . oh my god, get new friends. I don’t know if Stine thought this was a normal girlfriend dynamic or what but it was kind of painful to watch.
And in the end . . .
More epic cheese to feed my need for read. Despite the bads to this book it just ended up being a whole lot of good because it’s Fear Street. How could it not be? If you know what to expect when you go in you won’t be disappointed. It’s really very simple.