Tagline: N/A
Back tagline: The scariest address of all
Summary: Twin sisters Cally and Kody Frasier aren’t thrilled that their family has moved to Fear Street. They’ve heard the strange stories. They know about the centuries of nightmarish terror. But what they don’t know is that they’ve moved into the one house that even their neighbors on Fear Street are afraid to enter. The house that has stood mysteriously empty for the past 30 years. They moved to 99 Fear Street.
Now they must learn the secret of 99 Fear Street or they will become the next victims of the house of evil.
First impressions: I’ve had this trilogy for years so it’s about time time I get around to reading it! I’ve heard both good and bad things, so I’m not sure what to expect. This one sounds interesting enough, but it doesn’t really give us much information to go off. The cover is pretty boring. Maybe it’s the angle of the short-haired girl’s face, but they don’t really look like twins. Maybe they’re fraternal! That stabbed book also seems to be floating in air??? There’s not much to go off, so let’s jump right into it!
Recap
Roll call:
Cally — Our main character who has life a bit easier compared to her twin.
Kody — Cally’s twin who believes in the supernatural.
Anthony — A new friend for the twins.
The book begins with a prologue set in 1960, as Jimmy Lunt and Andy Skowski head into the basement of 99 Fear Street to caulk some cracks in the foundation, which was only poured two months ago. They’re looking forward to school starting next week so they can ditch this summer job because building this house has been a nightmare. They’ve lost three men on the job so far — Morrison, who was electrocuted, but is expected to leave hospital today; Jones, who Andy witnessed fall headfirst off the roof; and the last one whose name and fate aren’t revealed, though he and Jones are presumably dead. The boys agree the house is bad luck, and Andy mentions that a bunch of unmarked graves were dug up when they were digging the foundation.
Jimmy’s unnerved and suggests they stop talking about the horrors of the building, and soon gets to work prying open the can of caulking with a screwdriver. Unfortunately the screwdriver slips, and he ends up stabbing himself in the hand. He angrily kicks the can into the wall, and both boys cry out in surprise as a new crack appears. The new crack grows wider and wider, and soon they can hear scuttling sounds. A rat pokes its head out of the crack and scurries into the basement, followed by several more. Next, a black shadow begins wriggling out of the crack. They think it’s a snake at first, but the shadow grows and changes shape as it floats out of the crack, darkening and sweeping around them. It swirls faster and faster as it lowers around the boys, covering them like a blanket:
They didn’t even have time to struggle or cry out.
When the billowing shadow lifted a few seconds later, they were dead. Both of them. Sprawled open-mouthed and wide-eyed on the concrete floor.
Surrounded by screeching rats.
[We’re off to a good start!] Our main story begin with the Frasier family driving through Shadyside on their way to their new home, 99 Fear Street. Teenager Cally asks how old the place is, and Dad informs them it’s pretty old, built in the 60s. [So 30-40ish years old? That’s not that old] Mum says it needs work, since it’s hasn’t been lived in for years, but Dad’s pretty sure it’s never been lived in at all. Cally’s fraternal twin, Kody, [Well, that explains why they look different on the cover. Which one is which?] questions why no-one’s lived there in 30 years, but the conversation is interrupted by nine-year-old James, who’s sitting between the twins and complaining that they’re touching him. He’s been complaining the whole car ride apparently, and he’s already getting on my nerves.
They drive past Shadyside High, which is more old-fashioned looking than the twins had pictured. They’re always thinking the same thing at the same time, and often finish each other’s sentences. [Praying that this book won’t be like The Game, which also featured twins being terrorised in their home] Cally’s nervous about starting in the 11th grade at a new school, but she has all summer to worry about that! James starts banging on about getting a dog, which Mum and Dad had promised him once they’d moved, but everyone ignores him. [I would too, he’s annoying af] Mum realises they’re going the opposite way to Fear Street, and as Dad turns the car around, Kody comments on the weird name. Mum thinks it was named after one of the early settlers of the town, and Cally seizes the opportunity to show off her humour:
“It was named after Mister Street?” Cally joked. She took pride in her sense of humor. She was always cracking jokes and making puns. It was one of the ways she differed from her twin. Kody was smart and quick. But she didn’t have much of a sense of humor.
[You don’t have much of one either by the sound of it, Cally!] 10 minutes later, the family arrives at their destination, and Mum and Dad can see the twins’ disappointment. Cally thinks the house is dark and depressing, with no sunlight coming through the gnarled old trees. The lawn is wild with weeds, and the grey shingles on the 2.5-storey house are weather beaten and stained with brown streaks. The pillar supporting the porch’s roof is also tilted at an angle and looks ready to topple. On the plus side, the girls will have their own rooms and the place is much bigger than their previous cramped apartment! The place needs work, which is why they got such a great deal on it.
Kody, who’s into ghosts, suddenly insists the house is haunted, and Cally laughs, remembering that Kody also thought the apartment was haunted, but that turned out to be a squirrel trapped in a wall. Kody just knows this place is haunted because it’s old and creepy, and lots of old houses are haunted by people who used to live there. Cally reminds her that no-one’s lived here before, so Kody will be the first one to haunt it. [Oooh, foreshadowing?] She does an impression of a ghost, which upsets Kody, who’s sick of Cally making fun of her all the time. Cally never wants to hurt her feelings so immediately apologises. Apparently Kody’s jealous of Cally’s looks, humour and popularity, but Cally always tries to lift her spirits, encouraging her and reminding Kody of her own great qualities.
Dad cuts the ghost talk short so they can start unpacking, and Cally heads for the house first, carrying a box filled with the family’s good china. As she nears the front door, there’s a loud crack above her head, and she looks up in time to see a heavy branch break off the tree. She drops to her knees and covers her head with her hands as the branch plummets towards her, landing with a crash.
Luckily for Cally, one end of the branch has caught on the porch roof, preventing it from landing on her, and the crash was the box of china she’d dropped. The porch roof now has a hole in it, so there’s even more to do to fix the house. Mr Lurie, the real estate agent, arrives with a big smile, his eyes locked on Cally. He says he’d just pulled up when the branch fell, and is glad everyone’s OK. James demands to know why the house has never been lived in, and Mr. Lurie’s smile fades as he mutters, ‘”Just unlucky”‘. Before Cally, who wonders if he means the house, the owners or the real estate are unlucky, can ask him to clarify, Mr. Lurie hands an extra set of keys over to Dad and heads off, welcoming them to Shadyside and wishing them the best of luck. [So he definitely knows the house has a history of death. Is he putting profit over safety? Wooooow] Cally watches until he disappears into the shadows of the trees that line the street. [So he didn’t drive? That seems weird, especially since he said he just pulled up, which usually means via car, right?]
The family heads inside and find it even less inviting than the outside. Cally can’t help but notice every stain on the plaster, the cracks in the walls, and the damp darkness. The family heads to Cally’s room to check it out, and Cally agrees that it’s big. But the walls are dark and peeling, the closet door is warped and stuck open, and the brown carpet has a big black stain in the middle of the room. Kody complains that it’s a lot bigger than her room, but rejects Cally’s offer to trade — she just doesn’t see why Cally should automatically get the biggest room. [Stop complaining, Kody] James wants a games room, and suggests using the basement. Dad isn’t sure, knowing the basement isn’t finished and would take a lot of work, but James runs off to check it out anyway. Mum and Dad tell the girls to go with him, and soon the kids are making their way down the basement stairs.
The trio huddle under the bare lightbulb, staring at the grey basement around them. There’s cobwebs hanging from the metal beams that dot the room as well as a huge, dusty furnace against the far wall. They hear a scratching sound before three rats scurry into view. The rats charge at the kids, hissing as they run, and the trio successfully make it up the stairs, slamming the basement door behind them. They tell their parents but are soon interrupted by a knock at the door. A young, long-haired man with a moustache introduces himself as Glen Hankers, explaining he’s a handyman and has noticed they’ve just moved in. His prices are reasonable and he can provide references, having worked on many houses on Fear Street. James asks if he can kill the rats in the basement, and Mr. Hankers confirms he’s equipped for that too, and is happy to start right away. Dad agrees to hire him, warning there’s a lot of work to do at 99 Fear Street. [It seems kind of suss that he’s shown up so quickly. Is he just very proactive, or could he be a ghost or something?]
Later that night, Cally’s writing in her diary before bed. She’s unhappy about the new house, and everyone’s stressed from unpacking all evening. She also can’t stop thinking about a guy named Rick, and wonders if he’s thinking of her. She’d almost mentioned her longing to Kody, but caught herself in time. Kody went on one date with Rick before he’d started seeing Cally, and Kody accused her of stealing him. But Cally didn’t force Rick to see her instead, it was totally his choice! Cally can’t help that! [So Cally’s a sloppy seconds kind of gal! I’m team Kody on this one, Cally should know better than to date someone her sister was interested in first] Cally hates that Kody’s so jealous of her and hopes Kody will have a better time in Shadyside. Tomorrow they’re going into town to look for summer jobs, and Cally hopes they’ll both find something great!
As she settles down in bed afterwards, Cally hears the creaks of the house, as well as scratching sounds above her head and wonders if the house is crawling with rats. Then she drifts off to sleep, ignoring the sounds and thinking about Rick.
The next morning at breakfast, Kody, who we learn has short hair so must be the 1971 Charlie Bucket lookalike on the cover, complains that she wasn’t able to sleep due to the scary sounds, and continues to insist the house is haunted. The family ignore her until Mum asks Kody to open a window to let some fresh air into the kitchen, which is damp and cold. Kody does so and leans on the windowsill as she gazes out into the backyard. Cally returns to her cereal, which the family is eating on plates since they haven’t found the box with bowls in it yet, [There’s no mention of milk so I think they’re just eating dry corn flakes?] but soon hears a loud slam before Kody starts screaming in agony about her hands. Mum and Dad rush to the window and slide it up, freeing Kody’s hands. She explains the window suddenly came down with great force, as if someone was pushing it! Luckily there’s no broken bones and she can move her wrists and hands as normal, and she’s looking on the bright side — ‘”The rest of the day has got to be better!”‘
At 5pm, Cally arrives at The Corner, a coffee shop a few blocks away from Shadyside High, where she’d agreed to meet Kody after their job searches. Kody’s not here yet, so Cally waits for her in a booth. A cute waiter comes by to take her order, and they introduce themselves amid some flirty banter before Anthony is called away to deliver orders to other tables. Kody arrives and asks how Cally’s job hunt went, and Cally reveals she got a job at a boutique called Two Cute. Kody had no luck, but Cally is sure she’ll find a job tomorrow. Kody rudely asks if she ever gets tired of trying to cheer her up, [Do you ever get tired of being so mopey?] but Anthony returns with Cally’s Coke before she can reply. He says hi to Kody and takes her order, and when he leaves again Kody asks how he already knows Cally’s name and that Kody’s her sister. Cally explains they were just talking for a minute before Kody arrived, and comments on his cuteness. Kody grumbles about not getting there first, and is sure Anthony will ask Cally out. [And she’ll probably say yes, despite having a boyfriend already!]
When the girls get home later, they meet Cubby, James’s new Labrador retriever puppy, before the family settle down for dinner. Mum tells the girls she hired a housekeeper who’d rocked up on the doorstep, just like Mr. Hankers. [Yeah, surely she and Hankers are ghosts] Mrs. Nordstrom will be starting tomorrow and while she’s stern and sour-faced, Mum has a feeling she’ll be a great housekeeper. After discovering Kody’s job hunt was unsuccessful, Dad suggests she work on the house over the summer; there’s way too much work for him and Mr. Hankers to do on their own, and she likes painting and woodworking and the like. He’ll pay her by the hour, with a lunch break and everything! Kody doesn’t like the idea of staying home working on the house all summer while Cally gets to go to town every day and meet people, but eventually accepts the offer, deciding it may be too hard to find a job this late in the summer — ‘”I mean, everyone isn’t as lucky as Cally.”‘ [Maybe you could find a job if you spend more than a day looking, Kody]
As Dad starts carving up the roast beef, Cally’s asked to get the salt and pepper from the kitchen. As she squeezes past Dad’s chair, he jerks forward, as if being shoved, and the knife plunges into his side. A bright circle of blood starts forming on his shirt as he accuses Cally of shoving his arm. Cally denies it, and Mum takes Dad upstairs to inspect the wound. Once they’re gone, Kody insists to Cally that a ghost pushed Dad’s arm.
Later that night, Kody wanders into Cally’s room to chat before bed, and Cally asks why she said a ghost pushed Dad, who ended up getting 12 stitches for the stab wound. [Why didn’t you ask her when she said it?] Kody had been watching so knew Cally didn’t shove him, and she felt a cold presence in the room. It was mist-like, and she felt it float over the table a second before Dad was stabbed. Cally warns her to stop it with the ghost talk so she doesn’t upset everyone, and Kody gets mad that Cally thinks she knows everything. Mum and Dad didn’t believe her either, and Cally can’t believe that she actually went to them with the ghost story. Cally insists ghosts aren’t real, but Kody’s read books by real scientists that say there are. So it must be true! Cally laughs in her face, and Kody ends up storming out.
Cally heads to bed now, thinking about her new job. Then her thoughts turn to Anthony, the cute waiter. Maybe she’ll stop by The Corner after work and remind him that she’s new in town, and he can show her around. [What about Rick?] She soon drifts off to sleep with these pleasant thoughts, but wakes up a few hours later to a soft knocking sound on her bedroom door. Three faint knocks, then a pause, then three more knocks. She calls out to whoever it is, but there’s no answer. The knocks just continue, three at a time before a pause. Cally climbs out of bed and opens the door, but there’s no-one on the other side. [Must be a g-g-g-g-g-ghost!] Cally returns to bed, but the knocking starts up again, so she pulls the bedsheet up over her head and presses her ear into the pillow, hoping to drown it out.
The next morning, Kody complains about not being able to sleep because of strange sounds, but Cally denies hearing anything, not wanting to entertain any ghost talk. Mrs. Nordstrom arrives and starts gathering cleaning supplies, followed shortly after by Mr. Hankers, who heads straight to the basement. Cally gets a call from Sally, one of the owners of Two Cute, who advises they’re doing inventory today so won’t need Cally to start until Monday. This is great news for Dad, who’s too injured to be of much use fixing up the house today, because now Cally can assist Kody instead!
After breakfast, the girls head out to the porch, where Cally apologises for being nasty last night. She suggests they head into town later to do some shopping, and maybe stop for a bite to eat at The Corner. Kody laughs, knowing Cally just wants to see Anthony again, which she doesn’t deny. They soon get to work, with Cally holding the ladder steady while Kody inspects the porch roof; the shingles have all rotted, so they’ll all need replacing. Suddenly, the ladder starts trembling, gentle at first but growing harder until the aluminium is humming and vibrating. Kody tells Cally to stop it, but Cally’s not doing it! Cally tries to steady the ladder with all her weight, but she’s not strong enough, and the ladder stands straight up before toppling backwards. Kody lands on her back, while the ladder luckily clangs beside her instead of on top of her.
Later that night, Cally’s writing in her diary about the incident. Kody was winded and has a sore back and neck, but is otherwise fine. Kody blamed Cally, who tried to explain it wasn’t her fault. It was as if a force much stronger than Cally was pushing the ladder backwards. [It’s not clear if that’s how she explained it to Kody. If she did, wouldn’t Kody be likely to believe her, since she’s banging on about ghosts all the time?] This was the third frightening accident since they moved in, and Cally doesn’t know what she’ll do if something else happens. She’s so scared! Hopefully tomorrow will be better. Kody leaves and as Cally settles into bed, she hears the knocks on her door, but just like last time, there’s no-one there when she opens it…
Cally wakes up the next morning, Saturday, to find her closet wide open and empty, with all her clothes tossed around the room. She quickly hurries downstairs and is met by more chaos as Mr. Hankers passes her on his way to the basement: Kody and mum are snarling at each other about eggs because Kody asked for scrambled eggs but she doesn’t like them as runny as mum’s made them, while James is loudly searching for Cubby. Mr. Nordstrom, carrying a stack of towels, tells James she saw Cubby in the backyard a few minutes ago, so he heads outside to find him. Dad asks Mrs. Nordstrom, where she’s off to, and she explains she’s heading to the basement to wash the towels. Dad’s confused, because Mr. Hankers had said the basement is still filled with rats, but Mrs. Nordstrom isn’t scared — ‘”Rats are afraid of me,”‘. Dad then asks Cally to go out the front to check for Cubby, so she heads out to the porch and screams when she discovers it splattered in blood, with a blood-scrawled number on the house wall — 99.
Upon closer inspection, it’s just red paint, [It always is! I don’t know why Shadysiders always jump to blood] and the family wonders if it’s some kind of awful prank. Except for Kody, who thinks the ghost is trying to communicate. [Kody, please] Kody and Dad get to work removing the red paint, while Cally and James head down Fear Street to search for Cubby. They come across Anthony mowing the lawn of a house, and he still looks cute covered in sweat and grass! Cally asks if he lives at the house, and he tells her he mows lawns on Saturdays for extra money. His family is way too superstitious to live on Fear Street! Cally asks what he means, and he realises she hasn’t heard about the horrors of Fear Street yet, so simply tells her there’s a lot of weird stories. Cally isn’t buying it, and James is trying to drag her away to continue the Cubby search when Anthony asks if she lives on Fear Street. She tells him her address, and he can’t believe no-one’s told her about 99 Fear Street yet! James won’t shut up, so Cally asks Anthony to come over for lunch when he finishes the lawn, and he can tell her the story about her house. He’s reluctantly agrees, warning she won’t like what she hears.
Later, Cally and James return home, having had no luck finding Cubby. She promises they’ll search again after lunch and he heads to his room, upset, while Cally tells Kody they’ll have a visitor for lunch. Kody isn’t impressed since she’s covered in paint, and quickly heads upstairs to change as Anthony arrives. He seems uncomfortable in the house and suggests they eat outside, and soon he, Cally and Kody are munching on egg salad sandwiches and potato chips in the backyard.
Anthony briefly fills the girls in on the rumours around Simon and Angelica Fear, who lived in the burnt out Fear mansion, before explaining that the town’s historian, who works at the library and visited his class at some point, told them about 99 Fear Street. About 30 years ago when the ground here was being dug up for the house’s foundation, a bunch of old coffins were found, each one with the Fear family crest on the lid. Inside each one was a skeleton, and the police determined that the area was used as a burial ground for victims of the Fears. The man who had the house built wasn’t bothered and told the workers to continue their work, and as the house neared completion, he brought his wife, son and daughter over to check it out. There were workers still finishing a room upstairs, and the owner didn’t want his family to see up there until it was all complete, [Why bring them, then?] so he made them stay downstairs. He was only gone a few minutes, but when he returned, he found his family still sitting in the living room, now headless:
“All their guts were pouring out,” Anthony continued, his face half hidden in the deep shade of the old tree. “It looked like their heads had been torn off their necks.”
“Where were their heads?” Cally demanded in a hushed whisper.
Anthony shrugged. “The town historian said the heads were gone. They weren’t in the house. They were never found.”
[How were their guts pouring out if they were decapitated?] Anthony isn’t sure what happened to the owner, but the house has sat here ever since. Everyone in town knew about the family, so no-one ever moved in… until now! Cally’s expecting Anthony to smile or something, to tell them he’s yanking their chains, but he insists it’s all true. His story validates Kody’s belief that there’s something evil about the house, and Cally asserts that she doesn’t believe in hosts and evil spirits. Before anyone can reply, they hear James screaming in the house. They go running towards it as James bursts out the back door, demanding to know where Cubby is; he could hear Cubby barking out here while he was just in the kitchen. Cally, Kody and Anthony confirm they didn’t hear any barking, and suggest the barking was coming from inside. They head back to the kitchen, where Mrs. Nordstrom is leaning over the sink, the garbage disposal roaring. When she turns it off, everyone hears Cubby’s high-pitched yips, and Mrs. Nordstrom tells them to bring the dog inside before waddling out of the room.
Everyone agrees it sounds like the barking is coming from outside, but when they go out there they can’t hear anything at all. While James continues searching the backyard, Cally go inside back inside where she can hear once again hear Cubby’s yips mixed with sad howls. Anthony realises he’s late for his next lawn and as Cally walks him out, he asks if she’d like to see a movie or something on Saturday, which she accepts. [What about Rick, who you missed so much a few days ago?] Cally returns to the kitchen, where Kody reports the barking has stopped; the only sound now is James crying outside. Mum and Dad return from the mall and while Kody’s eager to tell them about Anthony’s story, Cally convinces her not to just yet, not wanting to trouble Dad further.
That night in bed, Cally can’t stop thinking about James’s puppy and Anthony’s story. She’s sure the knocking on her door will occur again tonight, and since she can’t sleep, she decides to wait at the door so she can open it and discover the culprit! She doesn’t have to wait long, but for whatever reason waits for the second round of knocks before opening the door, catching none other than Kody trying to scurry away. She pulls Kody into her room and demands to know what’s going on. Kody admits she’s been knocking every night so Cally would believe there’s a ghost instead of making fun of Kody. It turns out Kody was also responsible for pulling Cally’s clothes out of the closet, and the paint all over the porch too! Cally can’t believe what she’s hearing, but Kody insists she was desperate for Cally to believe that there’s something wrong with the house. Cally reminds her how stressed Dad’s been about everything and continues to dismiss Kody’s belief the house is being haunted. Kody reluctantly agrees to drop the ghost talk for a week to prevent Cally snitching about her shenanigans.
Half an hour later, Cally still can’t sleep. She’s feeling hot, so she makes her way to the bathroom and turns the tap on. With her eyes closed, she splashes cold water on her face, registering a foul smell a few seconds later. She quickly opens her eyes and discovers chunky green liquid pouring out of the faucet and dripping down her face. [Gross] The smell of the green goo is so bad that she vomits, and the commotion bring Kody bursting in. The girls are unable to turn the tap off, and soon the sink is overflowing with the green goo. Dad arrives and also struggles to turn the tap off, and James enters the bathroom too, apparently woken up by Cubby’s barks. The others realise they can hear Cubby now too, but note he sounds far away. James thinks he’s downstairs follows the noise, calling the dog’s name. Cally, covered in the gross green stuff, starts heading to her room to get changed [You don’t want to shower and get the goo off your body first?] but runs into Mum in the hall, who’s staggering towards her covered in blood!
She’s totally fine, though, and explains the blood was dripping down on her from the roof while she was sleeping. Everyone runs to Mum and Dad’s bedroom where they discover a dark puddle on the ceiling, dripping onto the bed. [What about the tap? Is that still running?] Dad realises there must be something in the attic and rushes up there as James returns, crying because he still hasn’t found Cubby. The group hear Dad’s footsteps above their head before they suddenly stop, alarming everyone. Kody and Cally rush to the attic stairs and call out to their father, who doesn;t answer but eventually appears at the top of the stairs, visibly in shock about something. As he descends, the girls ask what was up there, and he tells them he saw ‘”Three human heads. A woman—two children.”‘
The police are called, but the heads have disappeared, and they can’t explain the bloodstain on the ceiling. Later on, Kody wonders if Cally will believe her about the house now, and Cally solemnly nods, unsure what they can do about it…
By breakfast time, Kody’s told her parents Anthony’s story about the house and Dad, still traumatised by what he saw in the attic, decides to confront Mr. Lurie, sure he had to have known about the house’s troubles. He pulls out Mr. Lurie’s business card, but surprisingly there’s no phone number, just an address. He calls the operator to connect him through to the real estate agency, but apparently there’s no number listed. [Is Mr. Lurie a ghost too? Also, how did Dad set up buying the house if it wasn’t over the phone? Surely he wasn’t driving back and forth to Shadyside and wherever their old town was?] Dad decides to head over to the agency, and Cally goes with him for moral support; she was supposed to start work today, but the boutique hadn’t finished their inventory so didn’t need her.
Dad and Cally drive down to 424 Fear Street, the address on Mr. Lurie’s card, but find that nothing but an empty lot. Cally suggests the historian Anthony had mentioned may know where they can find Mr. Lurie, so they head to the library. On the drive, Cally can’t help but notice how Dad’s visit to the attic seemed to change him; his eyes are wild and he seems super nervous. At the library, they meet Mr. Stuyvesant, a large, balding man who takes pride in his knowledge of Shadyside — ‘”People say I mind everyone’s business but my own!”‘ [Same] He can’t recall a Jason Lurie off the top of his head, but the name does sound familiar. He looks up the name in the current business directory, but comes up short, so he tries another book, which is his own personal historical record of Shadyside that he’s kept since the early 1950s. He eventually locates the name, but it’s not the news they’re hoping for:
“Jason Lurie, real estate agent. In July of 1960, found his family murdered in a new house he had built for them. Hanged himself one month later in the same house. House located at 99 Fear Street.”
[Oop, plot twist! Mrs. Nordstrom and Glen Hankers are also definitely dead too then, maybe other victims of the house?] We jump forward to Friday night now as Cally’s writing in her diary. She expresses her worry for her father, who’s got a distant look in his eyes, lost in his own disturbed thoughts. She’s even caught him muttering to himself about Simon Fear, dead bodies, and Mr. Lurie. They all want to leave but they don’t have the money to go; Dad gave it all to Mr. Lurie for the house, and he’s sure Mr. Lurie tricked them and has run off with the money. James goes to day camp now to get him out of the house, and each night they hear Cubby’s mournful howls, but still can’t find the poor puppy. Kody and Cally have been getting along pretty well, although Cally still hasn’t forgiven her for pretending to be a ghost. She feels bad for Kody, too, since she’s stuck working around the house. Mr. Hankers still arrives every morning and disappears into the basement, presumably still dealing with rats, but no other work has been done. Meanwhile, Cally’s enjoying her job at the boutique, and has even popped into The Corner a few times to see Anthony. Anthony’s so great, she hasn’t even thought about Rick in ages! [Isn’t her your actual boyfriend, though? Are you not keeping in touch?] Speaking of Anthony, they’re going on their first date tomorrow night. It’ll be a movie date, but Cally suddenly has an idea, and wraps up her diary entry.
She phones Anthony and invites him over for dinner tomorrow before the movie, and he’s clearly reluctant to accept the invitation. She asks if he’s really that scared of the house, [Cally, you don’t even want to be in the house, why would he?] but he insists he’s not and agrees to come. Cally promises nothing bad will happen, but silently wonders if it’s a promise she can keep. [What’s her idea though, and why does she need Anthony for it? Or was it literally just inviting him over for dinner?]
The next night, Anthony arrives shortly after 6pm, and Cally invites him in, announcing they’ll have spaghetti for dinner and brownies for dessert. She also impulsively kisses him, needing to be kissed, to be held, needing ‘someone to help lift the gloom of this horrible house.’ He kisses her back, and it lasts a long time until she finally pulls away. Holding his hand, she leads him to the dining room where the table is set for three, since Mum, Dad and James went to visit relatives, so it’ll just be the happy couple and third wheel Kody. Kody appears from the kitchen with a wooden spoon and tells Anthony Cally told her he was scared of the house. [And? You literally ALL are?] Cally only wants to talk about fun things tonight, and orders Kody not to mention dead bodies or g-g-g-g-g-ghosts.
Dinner turns out to be the best time Cally’s had in the house, as Anthony shares stories about Shadyside High and the people that go there. The spaghetti and brownies are a hit, and Kody offers to take care of the dishes so the others aren’t late to the movie. Anthony insists the clean-up will be quicker with the three of them, [What a sweetheart!] and takes a stack of dishes into the kitchen as Kody tells Cally how great he is. If only she’d got to the restaurant before Cally, it could be her going to the movies! Cally’s sure she’ll meet some guys when school starts, raising her voice over the garbage disposal. As she gathers up the cutlery, there’s a hideous scream from the kitchen, rising up over the garbage disposal. She dashes in there and spots Anthony tugging and pulling with all his might, trying to free his hand from the roaring sink drain:
Finally the hand came free.
His eyes bulging with horror, Anthony raised his arm in front of him.
“My hand!”
The hand was a mangled pulp, a pink and red mass of skin, blood, and bone.
“My fingers!” he shrieked, his shrill voice rising over the grinding roar. “Where are my fingers?”
[How the hell did he get his hand stuck in there and why hasn’t he turned the disposal off?] Cally quickly turns of the garbage disposal and reaches into the drain, ignoring Anthony’s pulpy hand and agonised cries. She pulls out the two severed fingers and orders Kody to get the car so they can rush Anthony to the hospital.
Cally visits a groggy Anthony in the hospital the next afternoon, noticing his hand is covered in a white cast that goes to his elbow. His parents inform her the fingers have been sewn back on, but the doctors don’t think Anthony will be able to move them again. Anthony just stares at Cally, his eyes dilated, and his father explains he’s still in shock and very dazed. He also reveals that Anthony had said he’d felt like some kind of force had grabbed his hand and forced it into the garbage disposal, and Cally admits she wasn’t in the kitchen at the time so isn’t sure what happened.
Later that night, Kody asks Dad what happened with the cousin they went to visit. Dad explains that his cousin is struggling financially, so can’t lend them any money so they can abandon the house. Dad still seems a bit out of it and tells everyone to go to bed, insisting everyone’s just tired, and they’d all be OK if they didn’t stay up so late. [Poor man is losing his mind]
After brushing her teeth, Cally stops by James’s room, who asks her to read him a picture book. He’s about 5 years too old for the particular book, and Cally realises he’s so frightened that he’s trying to be younger again, back when things were happy. She tries to open a window because the room is so stuffy, but James insists she keep it shut. She reads him the story and heads off to bed, saddened by how pitiful and fearful James is — ‘She had no way of knowing that she would never see her brother again.’ [Oop, does he go missing? Or die?]
A short time later, Cally’s writing in her diary about how the house seems to be changing them all — James is afraid of everything, Mum’s withdrawn and barely says a word, and Dad paces around muttering to himself about how he’s gonna find Mr. Lurie, before switching up and banging on about fixing the house. Cally’s sure Kody was right, and there’s real evil here. The stories Anthony mentioned must be true! Speaking of Anthony, Cally isn’t sure if she’ll ever see him again; she called the hospital earlier and his mother coldly told her Anthony doesn’t want to see or talk to her.
Her writing is interrupted by James’s cries for help, and the whole family rushes to his bedroom. It’s empty, but they can all hear James’s voice in the room, begging them to come get him — ‘”It’s too dark here. It’s too dark, Mommy!”‘ The family searches the room but James is nowhere to be found, so they beg him to tell them where he is. He just keeps saying that it’s dark, and eventually Mum starts pointing, screaming that James is in the wall. Dad starts raking at the wallpaper with his hands, and Cally dashes to the basement to get tools to break through the wall. She’s confronted by at least a dozen rats in the basement, who rear up and stare at her with their red eyes. She briefly wonders why there’s still so many and what Mr. Hankers has been doing down here if he wasn’t killing them, before quickly grabs a sledgehammer and turns to face the rats. To her surprise, they’re not attacking, so she scoops up an iron pick as well and flees back to James’s bedroom. Dad breaks through the wall, but there’s no-one in there. James begs for help again, and this time it sounds like his voice is coming from the living room. Mum and Dad head downstairs with the tools, while Kody warns Cally that no-one is getting out of here alive. As they hurry into the hall after their parents, the girls hear their mother’s scream, followed by the heavy thump of a body falling down the stairs. [This ooky spooky house is reminding me a little bit of Rose Red, a TV miniseries from Stephen King. It’s long but worth watching!]
The girls rush to the top of the stairs and discover Dad bent over Mum at the bottom, who’s got a jagged bone sticking out of her arm. James is still begging for help, and Mum and Dad are focussed on finding him rather than Mum’s injury. James has apparently found Cubby, and the family can hear Cubby’s barks alongside James’s cries. It sounds like they’re in the ceiling now, so Dad fetches the ladder from the porch and quickly starts hitting the roof with the sledgehammer. Cally attempts to call an ambulance for her mother, but the line is dead. Soon, there’s a hole in the ceiling, but no James or Cubby, who have also fallen silent. As Cally watches in horror, a transparent, shadowy hand reaches down from the hole, fingers wiggling like snakes. The hand swirls around Dad’s face, covering him in darkness until it appears he no longer has a head. Then the shadowy hand recedes back into the hole, and Dad asks for help descending the ladder because he’s suddenly gone blind! [This poor family]
The following evening, Cally and Kody are helping Mum into bed after returning from the hospital where they’ve been all day. We learn the police came last night and searched for James, but he and Cubby remain missing. Cally had also called their cousins and begged to move in with them, and the cousins had graciously agreed. As soon as Dad’s out of the hospital, which will hopefully be tomorrow, they can pack their bags and skedaddle. Except Cally hasn’t told her parents about calling the cousins yet, and she’s unsure they’ll agree to leave without James. [You shouldn’t want to leave without him either, that’s your brother!]
Later in bed, Cally hears three knocks at the door and wonders why Kody would pull this crap again after everything that’s happened. She storms over to the door and throws it open just in time to see Kody, dressed in the same white nightgown she wore last time she pretended to be a ghost, fleeing down the hall. Cally hurries after her, calling out to Kody, who finally stops and turns around, smiling at Cally. Cally approaches, asking why she’s grinning, but Kody doesn’t respond. As Cally draws closer, she realises it’s not Kody’s face grinning back at her, but her own!!!! [Spooky!] The other Cally tells her to return to her room and read her diary. Cally does as she’s told and is horrified to discover a new entry in her handwriting in then diary — ‘I DIED TONIGHT.’
Cally screams and slams the diary shut as the ghost laughs behind her, floating into the room — ‘”I am your ghost, Cally,” the girl whispered. “Your diary wouldn’t lie.”‘ Cally’s feet suddenly start burning and she looks down to discover the floor bubbling up over them, hot and sticky. The steaming black tar begins to rise, moving up her legs as she screams for help. As she reaches down to try pull a leg free, tar-covered hands poke up through the scalding substance. They grab at her, trying to pull her down, and that’s when Cally notices Kody in the doorway. She begs Kody for help, but she just stands there like a stunned mullet. She finally comes to her senses and reaches into the room for Cally, but they can’t get a good grip on each other, and Kody disappears as Cally hears the scornful laughter of her own ghost. [So I’m guessing it was the ghost again, not Kody? It’s not very clear] Dead, decaying faces emerge from the tar now, grinning sculls and faces with empty eye sockets. Cally’s final word is her sister’s name before the tar covers her completely, and she gives in to the evil of the house:
And when she emerged from the tar a few moments later, she was different in every way.
The evil—the overpowering evil of the house—had consumed her.
Cally rose up from the seething tar. And as she rose she realized she had become the ghost, the ghost of herself she had met in the dark hallway.
And as she floated up, she felt the century-old rage, felt all the anger, all the fury, all the smoldering evil. So much evil that the walls rang out with her scornful laughter, the laughter of a hundred tortured soles now triumphant inside her.
Cally floated through the house, floated through the new world of swirling dark shadows, a ghost, an evil ghost in a house of evil, unaware of anything but her own hatred and anger.
[This was a super cool scene but it feels like it came out of nowhere? Like, there was no build-up to Cally’s death, she just randomly saw her own ghost and then died?] We jump forward two days as the Frasiers return from Cally’s funeral. Cally stares at them angrily as Mum and Kody lead the still-blind Dad into the house, wondering why they’re alive and she’s not. Later, as Kody collapses onto her bed, sobbing, Cally only feels hatred and desire for revenge. [Why are you angry at your family and not the house?]
The next day, Cally watches the family pack up the car, with Mum and Dad finally having accepted they’ll never see James again. [You probably won’t, but it hasn’t even been a week! Give him time to come back!] As they turn to look at the house one last time, Kody starts screaming that she can see Cally in the window, but Mum sternly tells her to get in the car. Kody moves closer to the window and promises she’ll come back for Cally some day, which makes Cally laugh. Cally makes a vow of her own, promising that Kody will be very sorry if she ever comes back. As Mum backs out of the driveway, ‘Cally let out a long, furious wail that shook the walls and rattled the windows. It was a wail of fury, of hatred, of evil—that she hoped would follow her family wherever they went.’
It’s time for an epilogue now, with Cally floating through the house in a kind of half sleep. She doesn’t awaken until a family of three is welcomed to the house by Mr. Lurie’s ghastly smile, and the book ends as the parents open the front door, followed by their teenage son:
Good-looking guy, Cally thought, floating close. Wavy black hair. Flashing brown eyes.
“The front porch will have to be painted first,” she heard the woman say to Mr. Lurie.
“Look around, Brandt,” the father told the boy. “This is our new start, a wonderful new beginning.”
Don’t be so sure about that, Cally thought cruelly. Don’t be so sure.
Watching Brandt, Cally was already making plans.TO BE CONTINUED…
[Yeah, these last few chapters definitely felt rushed and seem a bit disjointed from the rest of the book. It’s like Stine knew he wanted to kill Cally off but couldn’t think of a way to get there, and then his page quota was filling so he quickly wrote the ghost and black tar in. This definitely should have been a Super Chiller so Stine could fit more in!]
Final thoughts
Despite the rushed ending, this was a promising start to the trilogy! I enjoyed most of the characters and I really felt bad for them as they were being psychologically tortured by the house’s evil. We never knew what the house would throw at the Frasiers next, with each member of the family having been targeted in some way before the story concludes. I also appreciated the sombre, despondent kind of atmosphere throughout the whole book which we don’t see often in Fear Street/Point Horror.
Of course, I do have some questions, as usual. Firstly, what exactly are the house’s abilities? Like, how did it make green goo come out the tap, and the blood drip from the ceiling? And where exactly did James and Cubby disappear to? Were they dead, and it was their spirits communicating with the family, or were they alive and just trapped somewhere, and now they’ve been abandoned entirely by the family? Also, I get that Cally’s been consumed by the house’s hatred and evil, but it feels very misplaced. why would she be angry at her family and not the house? Can Cally leave the house like Lurie, Nordstrom and Hankers, who are surely all ghosts too, can? Speaking of those three, Lurie must lure families to the house to be consumed, [Hence the name, maybe?!] but what’s the point of Hankers and Nordstrom, exactly? Why do only some spirits remain at the house? I’d like to hope everything will be answered by the end of the trilogy, but I have my doubts based on Stine’s track record.
The ending was the biggest let-down, with Cally’s death coming out of nowhere all of a sudden. There was no build-up to it, and last few chapters feel a little from the rest of the book. I think it would have made more sense for Kody to be killed and turn into an evil ghost, since she already had some negative feelings the house could have exploited. I wonder if Kody actually makes a return at some point!
All up, though, it was a strong beginning, so 176 families torn apart by the house of evil out of 215!
