The Runaway

So this was probably one of the worst Fear Street books I have ever read. Re-released this past year, I grabbed this for Halloween Book Bingo 2021. I am glad I never got around to reading it until now, because if I had read it during the bingo I would have been so annoyed. This book is a bad rip-off of Carrie. And I think the bigger problem is that Stine does not do supernatural/science fiction that well. I think Fear Street works better when you have real humans doing terrible things to each other. Maybe a ghost pops up here and there. But the whole story-line around telekinesis and the ending had me going okay. The main character of Felicia was really terrible and I had to sigh about the low key cheating story-line (it did not have me show more like anyone).

"Runaway" starts with Felicia in a facility somewhere being tested. Then we fast forward to her running and almost getting hit by a car as she walks in the rain (as one does) to a town called Shadyside. Felicia who has no sense (more on that later) gets into a car with a guy who tells her, his name is Homicide (yeah I don't know). When Felicia causes the car to crash, she runs off into the night and stops another car and gets into it (yes...I don't know) and somehow the car ride ends with her kissing a random stranger ( :-| ). And from there Felicia finds herself in Shadyside and as one does as a runaway, falsely registers to go to school and lo and behold comes across the guy she got a ride with (the second one). I should have put the book down at this point, but reader, I persevered.

The book is just a mess. Felicia and Nick (the second guy) are attracted to each other for reasons. Problem is Nick has a girlfriend named Zane and there is BS tension between that and Felicia saying but Zane is my friend. Girl...no. Anyway the book just meanders along.

I didn't like Felicia. And I lost several brain cells about her trying to hide, but yet registered to go to school, and somehow got a job working (did we not need to give up our social security number in the 90s when this book was written???) well we get several flashbacks to what Felicia was running from.

The flow was awful. I have enjoyed previous Fear Street books, but I think Stine should have picked a plot and stuck with it. We had two separate things going on and then we have the science fiction aspect that did not work. And the whole time I read this I kept thinking about Carrie.

The ending was a big old mess. show less

Was having a fun romp down memory lane with these, until this one. One of the worst I've read of Fear Street. More toward end of the series, so maybe that's why the quality dropped in so many ways. There were insane people all over the place killing at will it seemed and too many shock effects. A shame as the base story held potential be interesting and unique.

Shadyside is pretty wild. Sometimes there are normal robberies and murders. Sometimes... there's telekinesis.

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