Fear Street #3:
The Overnight
© 1989 by Parachute Press. Cover Art by ENRIC.
Spoiler-Free Review
The Overnight did a really good job of building tension throughout most of the book. It was unfortunate that the climax and conclusion ended up lacking the same punch. I thought the overall premise was solid, and the plot felt like it was driven by the actions of the characters. It really felt like Stine puzzled out what a group of teenagers would actually do in this situation, and used that fear and tension to great effect.I think the book also deserves some admirable comparisons to I Know What You Did Last Summer. Both books shared a similar premise, but the executions were quite different. Overall, I liked this book a lot more than I didn’t. It also made me glad that I chose to read the Fear Street books out of order. The Overnight was one of the first three books written back in 1989, before there was a following and mass production of these titles. It was refreshing to read a book that was untouched by all of that. I’m noticing that the character building in these early books was much stronger in general, especially regards to the supporting characters. Thankfully, I have a few more Fear Street titles from this early era to look forward to.
Score: 3.5
If you enjoy my blog, please consider liking my reviews on GoodReads.
It might not seem like much, but it has a big impact!
Observations & Spoilers
The Overnight begins with a plethora of teen drama. Della recently broke up with Greg. She can’t even remember what it was about. But then he never came back to her and she thinks she made a big mistake. They are both a part of the Outdoors Club, which is about to have it’s big annual overnight camping trip on Fear Island. But then their club adviser Mr. Abner has a family emergency and they need to reschedule. The kids decide they should go without him and not tell their parents. Everyone is on board except for Maia, who is a very anxious child with overly strict parents. We all know the type. Some of us were the type.
The camping trip starts out great. Della is jealous of all the time that Gary and Suki are spending together, but she starts getting a little bit closer to Pete. Maia is just nervous about getting caught. Ricky brings his paintball ZAP guns (is that a brand? I don’t care). So the kids break into teams and play. Della finds herself alone when she is accosted by a strange young man. At first she thinks he’s kinda cute, but that quickly changes when he starts talking crazy. She tries to run but he tackles her. He’s about to push her down a ravine when she surprises him and shoves him down instead. The fall kills him. Pete and Maia happen upon her right after.
The Outdoors Club convenes. They decide to cover up the body and keep this all a secret. Because if they reported it, their parents would all find out that they went on their camping trip without Mr. Abner. That night, Della hears noise in the night and finds their bags thrown astray. Still dismisses it as a raccoon. They pack up and leave early the next morning, Della sleeps the whole next day. That is when she notices her wallet is missing. Then she has to go and comfort Maia who is having a melt down. Della rightfully resents this predicament, considering she is the one who was almost assaulted and inadvertently killed someone. Maia is more afraid of her parents than she is of would-be rapists and cops.
When Della gets home she finds a note on her door that warns”someone knows.” The kids do some research and find out there was a robbery and a killing nearby and the two suspects were at large. They think that Della may have killed one of them. They talk about going to the police, but Maia is still adamantly opposed because she is more terrified of her parents than any other potential consequence. Maia was frustrating in a very specific and believable way, one that shows the failures of overly strict parenting. If they had just gone to the police at this point, the book would have ended there. Stine did an excellent job of using this tension here to further the plot.
Della and Pete go on a date that Friday, and almost get run off the road. Pete does a crazy donut maneuver that causes the other driver to run off the road. When they investigate the crashed car, they find it empty. So it’s quite reasonable that when Mr Abner returns from his family emergency and announces their rescheduled overnight, none of the kids are that excited about it. But they go along with it because they have to keep their secret.
The second overnight starts our normal enough if you discount the impending dread everyone except Mr. Abner is feeling. Then shit goes off the rails when he gets whacked on the head while collecting firewood. Maia is the one who finds him. He’s hurt badly and needs medical attention. Here the kids make the brilliant decision to have three of them leave the island to go get help. This leaves Pete, Maia, and Della alone on the island with no weapon. They remember Ricky’s ZAP gun was left by the original ravine that Della pushed the man down. Maia refuses to be left alone, so therefore Della has to go off alone to retrieve it. All of this could have been logically avoided by having only two of the kids go back for help. This was where the book fell apart for me.
It should come as a huge surprise that Della is alone in the woods looking for this paintball gun when she gets attacked. She hits the man on the head with her flashlight and runs, but then she is caught by a different man. It’s the one she thought she killed. It turns out he didn’t die after all, and plans to make a bunch of money extorting some rich suburban kids. Della eventually struggles free. There’s a chase scene, but it ends with Della rolling up to the campsite where the police are waiting. The man she thought she killed is arrested, and the kids come clean about everything that had happened. Everything ends well for everyone except Maia, who I presume remains grounded to this day. The End.
I still have a few of the earlier books left to read, namely Missing and The Knife. I just might space them out just to make sure I keep this level of comparison. I’ll be slowing down in my frequency of Fear Street reviews so I can work on other things, but I’ll still keep picking away at them until I am done.
Score Card
For the scoring of each book, I decided to rate them based on five criteria worth 2 points each.
I then split that in two to give it a rating out of 5 stars. Those criteria are:
Concept: is the overall idea good? does it make sense within the story?
Execution: do the plot and mechanics of storytelling work? is it well-paced?
Character: do the characters feel real? do their choices make sense?
Intent: does it succeed in being the kind of book it wants to be?
Originality: does it feel original? does it subvert or rely on tropes?
Concept: 2/2
This was a fun concept, and a break from the usual Fear Street format (before there was an established format). I kept waiting for the big bad to be one of the Overnight Club on some twisted revenge plot, so it was relieving to not have that happen.
Execution: 1/2
The book did a really good job of building tension throughout, up until the final act. It all fell apart for me with the chase scene through the woods. I felt like the build-up deserved more.
Character: 1/2
I thought all 6 of the characters were solidly built. Della was a good, pragmatic, relatable lead. Maia was frustrating in a way that kids of overly-strict parents will be. The villains could have stood to be more fleshed out, though. That was the biggest weakness here.
Intent: 2/2
Even though Della did nothing wrong, her response to all of it is understandable. She literally fought off and killed a potential rapist then felt bad about it. As frustrating as that was, the twisted way in which authority stirs fear in all of us made this a relatable and scary experience.
Originality: 1/2
It felt original for Fear Street, even if I don’t think the story itself fit that bill. I really felt that Stine placed himself in the mindset of “how would a group of teenagers react to this situation?
Based on GoodReads aggregate ratings, The Overnight is:
Ranked 74th of 79 in the overall Fear Street series,
& 44th of 49 the main Fear Street series.
Don’t miss the next post in the Fear Street blog series:
Fear Super Chiller #10: Goodnight Kiss 2
Also, be sure to check out the latest from my Pulp Horror blog series:
Christopher Pike’s The Wicked Heart
0 Comments