Review: The Fire Game (Fear Street #11) by R.L. Stine

Title: The Fire Game

Series: Fear Street #11

Author: R.L. Stine

Genre: YA, horror, mystery thriller

Publication date: September 1996

Published by: Archway Paperback

Source: Purchased paperback

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Synopsis:

It was just a game...

The first fire started almost by accident. A wastebasket fire in the school library. Jill Franks and her friends found it exciting. And it got them out of school for a few hours.

Who could have guessed that the fire game would quickly spread? That one fire would lead to another? What Jill, and Andrea, and Diane, and the three boys they hung around with would find themselves caught up in the most dangerous—and deadly—game of all?

When one of their fires ends in murder, the game ends—and the real terror begins. All of them realize that someone is playing the game for keeps. Now Jill has no choice. She knows she must find the murderer—before her life goes up in flames!

My rating: ★★★☆☆

When you’re playing with fire, someone is bound to get burned...

This book starts off quite stupidly, actually. A group of friends are hanging out in the library when two of the boys start horsing around with some lighters. Diane starts “freaking out” and telling them to knock it off, but the others brush her off, thinking she’s just overreacting. Guys, NO! Diane may have a thing about fire, but the girl is right, you absolute morons! You guys are in a library, for crying out loud! And you’re playing with fire? Ugh! So you can imagine how this ends. One of the boys sets a folder on fire and Andrea quickly throws it in the trash, probably thinking it’ll go out. It doesn’t. The fire alarm goes off, they are pulled out of class, and the firemen come. And that is how the fire game starts. It’s so dumb, honestly.

And actually, this book was full of dumb teenagers doing dumb things. I honestly don’t know why they thought setting fires all over town was such a good idea, because soon things start to get out of control and the kids find themselves in some real danger.

This book was okay and had okay characters. I could not get behind the whole fire game thing, but I think that’s just because I’m a rational adult. Lol. The mystery behind who was behind a fire that killed someone was interesting enough, and I had my suspicions about everyone! But I ended up guessing correctly who the culprit was before the climax even started... it was very obvious to me. The reason why they did what they did was also dumb.

It was Diane and she had placed the blame on the other kids, hurt Andrea, and invited Jill out to the cabin to isolate her (and kill her, presumably) because of Gabe. You see, Diane and Gabe have been friends since childhood and she loves him, but she can’t have him. So if she can’t have him nobody can (Jill and Andrea were super into him)... yeah, that cliche excuse. I hated that! It’s so dumb!

Overall, I enjoyed this book well enough. The characters were dumb but I liked unraveling the mystery of the killer and their past. There were also some pretty funny parts in the book, so that’s a plus.

As for Easter Eggs, a lot of times the Easter Eggs we get in these books are mentions of characters from other books. Like Terry Ryan from Halloween Party was mentioned in this one! But he was pretty much the only character who was mentioned. This time, in this book, we get mentions of events that have happened in the past! I don’t think this happens very often in Fear Street books! This is the kids while exploring on Fear Street:

“Past the cemetary and through the woods back there,” said Diane. “See how dark it is? A house burned down during a Halloween party last year and nearly killed everyone in it.”

This is from Halloween Party!

“And some friends of mine were nearly murdered by a nut with a chain saw at that house on the corner,” said Jill, getting into the spirit of things.

This is from The Wrong Number!

“I know a girl whose parents disappeared from here,” added Nick.

And this I’m pretty sure is referring to Missing! I liked this part! It was SO cool!

The Fear Street connection: Gabe is new in town and they try to impress him by telling them about Fear Street.

Gabe: “Can you name one thing that Shadyside has that Central City doesn't?”
“We have a haunted street,” said Max.
“You have a what?”
“Fear Street,” said Jill with a little shiver.

They then proceed to go there and set a fire because it’s fun or something. (It’s really not.)

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! :)