Review: The Burning (The Fear Street Saga Trilogy #3) by R.L. Stine

Title: The Burning

Series: The Fear Street Saga Trilogy #3

Previous books in this series: The Betrayal (#1) | The Secret (#2)

Author: R.L. Stine

Genre: YA, horror, mystery thriller, historical

Publication date: October 1993

Published by: Archway Paperback

Source: Own paperback

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Synopsis:

The end... and the beginning

Simon Fear thought changing his name would stop the evil. He was wrong—dead wrong.

After generations of unspeakable horror, it is up to Daniel and Nora, brought together by their fateful love, to unite the feuding families. But is their forbidden love strong enough to withstand such awesome evil?

Poor Nora—desperate to tell the truth and bury the family curse... before it buries her.

My rating: ★★★★★
Nora is still persistent in writing the story of the Fears. And in this book we finally get to her story.

In the first story of this book we get more love at first sight shit when Simon Fear first sees Angelica. Ugh. This is the story of Simon Fear and how he met the love of his life. Angelica is actually already being courted by two guys, but Simon will do whatever it takes to win her over. Even kill.

He actually uses his magic to kill Angelica’s two suitors... or so he thinks! It turns out that it wasn’t Simon, but Angelica who used her dark magic to kill her suitors so she could be with Simon!! Holy shit! This plot twist blew my mind! I was not expecting that! She is absolutely insane! She was even glad when Simon killed her dad so they could be together... and then they celebrated by toasting with blood. Wtf! And here I thought he was going to coerce her into an abusive relationship. But no. I guess they were meant for one another after all. Lol.

I hated Simon. At one point he tells Angelica that she will be his wife, and I’m like, “Fuck off! You don’t tell her what to do.” He’s also a creeper, pretty much stalking her, spying on her, and all that gross stuff. But Angelica doesn’t hate it? Wtf. Seriously. She said she did feel afraid, but also excited? Ugh. Literally perfect for one another. I actually remember Simon and Angelica from reading this series back in the day... or so I thought. I did not remember them being so insane! Lol. (Note: I say the word 'insane' 5... 6 times in this review. This whole series is just...)

The second story continues to follow Simon and Angelica Fear as they settle in Shadyside (finally) and have their children. And can I just say, this family is just super messed up! They have two daughters and Simon so obviously prefers one of his daughters over the other. It’s awful! He prefers the younger daughter, Hannah, because she is so beautiful and charming. And Julia, the other daughter, is too shy and could be prettier. Seriously, wtf! The girls obviously notice this and Hannah actually goes out of her way to defend her sister and get her involved in these dinner parties and tries to make her father see that Julia is a great girl too. I liked Hannah. But Julia also notices how differently she is treated and so she resents her sister. It’s so awful!

Julia becomes tired of the favoritism on her fathers part so she plots to kill her own sister! The Fears, I tell you. At first she tries to poison her but when that doesn’t work, in a fit of rage, she attacks Hannah. But Hannah defends herself and inadvertently kills Julia. Hannah manages to shove a knocked out Julia inside an already-occupied coffin, not realizing that she is not dead. The poor girl ends up being buried alive! Hannah of course feels awful, but her sister had gone insane! That scene of that coffin being put in the ground was just... ugh! So insane! And then Simon finds out the girl is dead. She may not have been his favorite, but she was still his daughter and, in his own twisted way, he loved Julia. He also finds out that a Goode had been working in his house and he just goes into this sort of blind rage looking to kill the Goode because he thinks the Goode servant killed his daughter. What he doesn’t know is that the Goode girl only worked there briefly. So, Simon goes after the Goode and kills her. Or so he thinks. He actually ends up killing Hannah in his blind rage. Yeah. this is all fucking insane.

And the final story is about Simon Fear’s grandson, Daniel, falling in love with a Goode, Nora. Yep, the one we’ve been seeing writing this story. We’ve finally gotten to her. Unfortunately, there’s more instalove.

Anyway, Daniel comes to town to meet his grandparents for his grandfather’s birthday. He meets Nora, falls in love, and then wants to marry her to break the Fear family curse. However, the birthday party goes real bad, a fire starts that burns down the whole place, and it seems like Nora was the only one who made it out alive. The ending made me so sad. There was just so much awfulness happening to the family over and over. And I didn’t expect anything less. Lol.

After reading this, I really wish there was a Goode side to this. Yeah the street may be called Fear Street, but the Goodes also have to do with said curse. I really wish they were more prominent in the Fear Street series.

This book mentioned Sarah Fear, as in the one that is talked about in the Fear Street Cheerleaders! I have not read her story yet, though I’m sure it’s out there somewhere in the Fear Street Sagas series. It’s very interesting with the Ancient Evil and whatnot and I really want to read it!

I really loved this! I loved all stories and we finally got to see Nora’s story, the one we were teased with since book one. The deaths in this were really... yikes! But they were also kinda cool. Lol. R.L. Stine just writes really awesome descriptions. Like, seriously gory. Lol. So much tragedy and death... I loved this trilogy! It probably has some of the best Fear Street books ever!

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! :)