The First Evil

This is where it all begins—cheerleaders, evil spirits, and a curse that won’t die. The First Evil is a fan favorite in my classroom because it blends school drama with supernatural scares in a way students can’t get enough of. The pacing is quick, the chapters are short, and the story hooks readers right away. It’s perfect for students who want a spooky series with lots of suspense, creepy twists, and high school chaos. Once they finish this one, they always beg for Book 2!

Oh Fear Street, how I have missed you. I think next year for Halloween bingo I may just read nothing but Fear Street books for squares. This is the first book in Stine's Fear Street Cheerleaders series. There are five books. As a teen I loved this whole series and couldn't wait for all of the installments. Fear Street and Shadyside High sounded like such dark and scary places and I always cracked up when something would happen and the police would just be all, well "Fear Street." This book definitely has a lot of girl get some sense moments, and there is actually not one, but two deaths. Stine never does shy away from killing off characters in a gruesome way. What was surprising is how we follow one main character and then it switches show more to another who will remain the lead for the rest of the series.

"First Evil" follows sisters Bobbi and Corky Corcoran. Both girls were very good cheerleaders back in their hometown and even were part of a team that went to state and appeared on ESPN. Seriously this gets mentioned a lot and I loved it. However, not everyone wants Bobbi and Corky to join the Shadyside cheerleading squad. When an accident leaves the former head cheerleader unable to walk again, Bobbi is named the new head cheerleader which causes a lot of resentment towards her. And then accidents start happening and Bobbi wonders if someone or something is stalking her.

So I loved Bobbi. She really wants to just be a cheerleader and make friends. She does make some dumb mistakes though. And at one point when she seems to throw herself into "dating" one of the local football players who has ties to another cheerleader I just shook my head. Bobbi and Corki though don't share a lot of scenes together though after a certain point which I thought was a mistake. Bobbi does try to go to Corki to talk to her about what she has seen and what she thinks is happening to her, but her sister doesn't believe her.

Corki is treated as a secondary character through the majority of the sister, until she is not and then we get to see more of her personality. We also follow former head cheerleader Jennifer and current cheerleader and queen of resentment Kimmy. Stine perfectly captures teen girls and how quickly they can turn on one another.

The writing is good, short and to the point at times. Stine definitely makes you scared about what is going on with Bobbi and also Fear Street in general. Also how does anyone live on Fear Street at this point? It's like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and everyone realized how weird their town was and never brought it up really.

The ending was really good and I just maybe laughed at someone just going Fear Street and people stopped investigating what really happened. This is the first in a five book series, so think that Stine did a great job of making you care about the characters you read about and what happens next. show less

Oh Fear Street, how I have missed you. I think next year for Halloween bingo I may just read nothing but Fear Street books for squares. This is the first book in Stine's Fear Street Cheerleaders series. There are five books. As a teen I loved this whole series and couldn't wait for all of the installments. Fear Street and Shadyside High sounded like such dark and scary places and I always cracked up when something would happen and the police would just be all, well "Fear Street." This book definitely has a lot of girl get some sense moments, and there is actually not one, but two deaths. Stine never does shy away from killing off characters in a gruesome way. What was surprising is how we follow one main character and then it switches show more to another who will remain the lead for the rest of the series.

"First Evil" follows sisters Bobbi and Corky Corcoran. Both girls were very good cheerleaders back in their hometown and even were part of a team that went to state and appeared on ESPN. Seriously this gets mentioned a lot and I loved it. However, not everyone wants Bobbi and Corky to join the Shadyside cheerleading squad. When an accident leaves the former head cheerleader unable to walk again, Bobbi is named the new head cheerleader which causes a lot of resentment towards her. And then accidents start happening and Bobbi wonders if someone or something is stalking her.

So I loved Bobbi. She really wants to just be a cheerleader and make friends. She does make some dumb mistakes though. And at one point when she seems to throw herself into "dating" one of the local football players who has ties to another cheerleader I just shook my head. Bobbi and Corki though don't share a lot of scenes together though after a certain point which I thought was a mistake. Bobbi does try to go to Corki to talk to her about what she has seen and what she thinks is happening to her, but her sister doesn't believe her.

Corki is treated as a secondary character through the majority of the sister, until she is not and then we get to see more of her personality. We also follow former head cheerleader Jennifer and current cheerleader and queen of resentment Kimmy. Stine perfectly captures teen girls and how quickly they can turn on one another.

The writing is good, short and to the point at times. Stine definitely makes you scared about what is going on with Bobbi and also Fear Street in general. Also how does anyone live on Fear Street at this point? It's like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and everyone realized how weird their town was and never brought it up really.

The ending was really good and I just maybe laughed at someone just going Fear Street and people stopped investigating what really happened. This is the first in a five book series, so think that Stine did a great job of making you care about the characters you read about and what happens next. show less

A book where EVERY chapter ends with a jump scare or a cliffhanger. And here I thought lazy, petty jump scares where only found in horror flicks.

I thought reading this would be a breeze but I was so uninterested it turned out to be a bit of a chore. A chore I gladly did only because I read it as part of a book club so I knew I wasn't alone in my suffering. My main problem was that it was badly written. It jumped from one scene to another, without notice, pause, or any explanation making it feel like the first draft of a TV script.

The characters where paper thin archetypes and clichés and everything about the plot was completely expected. The bad writing and the try-hard jump scares/cliffhangers made the experience lack any enjoyment. show more The non-ending ending sealed the deal and made this tiny book a one star experience. We deserve better teen horror books than this.

On the plus side, and trust me it's only a plus because I've been reading a lot of Stephen King lately, it doesn't sexualise teenage girls and no mention or descriptions of underage nipples are present. I feel I've reached a new low in my literary journeys for this to even be a sentence my brain can form, let alone an actual positive fact about a book but there it is. Thank you for nothing Stephen King. show less

These are solid 3.5s for me - I enjoy them a lot and they exhibit some of Stine's best writing moments (in terms of characterization, dialogue and overall feel of the mysteries), but still induce a sort of "why are you all this dumb?"

In our first outing (which you can follow my live read tweet thread here: https://twitter.com/PRationality/status/1248441702421053441 as my book slowly crumbled in my hands) the Fear Street Stine Starter Pack is in full force:

- new student (two! sisters!)
- warned about Fear Street
- new student gets attention from popular kid
- student population instantly hates or love new student
- Fear Family Shenanigans are the genesis of this horror
- realistic Red Herrings are thrown out to the reader like party favors

And show more I call foul on naming a kid "Corky Corcoran". That's begging for issues.

As the new kids, the Corcoran sisters have little idea about the Fear Family or why being so blase about living near the burned out Fear mansion, Fear Lake and Fear Street cemetery is something to not be casual about. And for whatever reason none of our named characters with lines think to mention these things (one character did, before the book began, who we never see again).

I'm still of the mind that the "Evil" spoken of doesn't just possess a person, but can psychically effect others through their malevolence. Though its also possible that 18 years out of HS means I don't remember exactly how awful teen girls can be/think.

Well worth reading if you dig Teen pulp horror books, want to read Fear Street (this is practically obligatory) or like cheerleaders? I'm not as sure of that last one since I have no real idea if this is a good portrayal of that culture or not. show less

Another vintage I needed to clear off my shelves. The story isn't bad for the age and it's not as predictable as a lot of his other works, but the exclamation points and false chapter cliffhangers get old. I mainly liked the characters, as simple as they seemed (which is usual), and probably should have seen the ending coming. I did know it was something to do with one girl (was right on that), but was completely wrong on how it had to do with her. Overall the story was decent but the dialogue painful.

Bobbi and Corky join the Shadyside cheerleading team, much to the chagrin of all the other team members, and accidentally unleash an ancient evil. It's Fear Street, for crying out loud. What else could happen?

The first time I read this series, I was eleven and whoa, did I love it. Fifteen years later, it's showing its age. I didn't expect I would be wowed again, fifteen years later, but I didn't expect I would cringe with regret, either.

Don't take that the wrong way. The book isn't bad. But with the quality of work available to young adults and tweens nowadays, it simply can't stand as high as it used to. The characters are flat, the plot is benign, and the style was apathetic and cold this time around.

Bottom Line: It's not good. It's show more not bad. It's average, but in a 1992 sort of way. show less