After reading a ton of Goosebumps books over again in the recent years, I felt compelled to dive into a bit of the older stuff from R.L. Stine. With the calendar turning over to December it felt fitting to break open Fear Street Superchillers: Silent Night and get in the festive horror mood with one of the most prolific horror writers of my time. While I enjoyed being in the Christmas season with Stine, Silent Night wasn’t exactly living up the bar I set for Stine and his ability to craft a great horror tale.
Don’t open that present! If only Reva Dalby had listened to that warning. But beautiful, cold Reva won’t listen to anyone. She thinks she can have whatever—and whomever—she wants. After all, her daddy owns Dalby Department Stores. Now, someone has some surprises in store for her. Robbery? Terror? Even murder? Someone wants to treat Reva to a holiday she’ll never forget. Holiday cheer quickly turns to holiday chills for Reva. Someone is stalking her, and for the first time, her money can’t help her. Who can you turn to when murder comes gift-wrapped?
So yes, Silent Night takes place during the holiday season in a large department store and features a mall type Santa. So we are in the correct time of year. However, any other large connection to call this a full-on Christmas story are slim to none. While that doesn’t fully take away from the story, which has its own issues, it did disappoint me and my expectations for a story with a holiday themed title and description.
The first half of the story fit into the Christmas theme and was well-written, having me gripped to what would happen next. However, it’s the second half of the story that fell apart for me, as well as the competing storylines between Reva and Pam.
Once again Stine writes characters we either hate straight away or gradually start to hate as the story moves along. Reva is just horrible. I wanted to feel badly for her at the beginning, but as the story moved along I was hoping she was the next to go. This seems to be a trend with Stine, in having the characters we love to hate be front and center in his stories.
Silent Night by R.L. Stine teases the Christmas season, but falls short of delivering a truly spectacular holiday story. With confusing competing storylines, unlikable characters, and uneven storytelling, this horror doesn’t deliver on my expectations.
Fear Street Superchillers: Silent Night is available at bookstores everywhere from Simon Pulse.
