Review: The New Evil (Fear Street Cheerleaders #4) by R.L. Stine

Title: The New Evil

Series: Fear Street Cheerleaders #4 | Fear Street Super Chiller #7

Previous books in this series: The First Evil (#1) | The Second Evil (#2) | The Third Evil (#3)

Author: R.L. Stine

Genre: YA, horror, mystery thriller

Publication date: December 1994

Published by: Archway Paperback

Source: Purchased paperback

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Synopsis:

Gone forever...

Corky and the Shadyside cheerleaders are sure that the evil spirit is destroyed. The terror is over.

Then Hannah is mysteriously thrown through the car window. And Naomi is nearly burned to death. One horrifying accident after another. And now Corky can no longer keep her greatest fear to herself—the evil is back!

But where is it?

Corky, Kimmy, and Debra aren’t waiting to find out. They have a plan to draw the evil out. Draw it out and destroy it for good. Unless, of course, the evil destroys them first...

My rating: ★★★★★

Season’s greetings... the evil is back!

Yay! We’re back with the Shadyside Cheerleaders! I love the Cheerleaders trilogy, so I was very much looking forward to reading this, and it was great! I love that it even has little recap of what previously happened to the girls because guess what, the evil is back!

Corky: “The worst has already happened. Nothing else is going to happen to us. Right?”
“Right,” Debra and Naomi replied in unison.

That’s a good one, you guys... It’s like you forgot you’re in a Fear Street novel. Lol.

I really liked this book and the return of the Evil.

The girls had a very dumb moment though. At the beginning they were super paranoid thinking the evil was back, which is understandable, but they did a spell to bring the evil forward cause they wanted to find out who it was inhabiting. But here’s the thing, the Evil wasn’t back at this point, and the spell itself brought back the Evil! Also, they did the spell on the river where Corky had last defeated it! Seriously, girls? But also, I find it hard to believe all those awful things that happened in the beginning didn’t happen because of the Evil. Well, actually, they do live in Shadyside with a haunted street, so it’s entirely possible. Lol.

I also like that the climax took place out of town. I actually enjoy these little outings outside Fear Street and even Shadyside. Don’t get me wrong, I love the creepiness of Fear Street! But a little change of scenery every once in a while is nice, too.

And we get another main character death in this one which hasn’t happened wince Bobby in The First Evil! I was so surprised! The death was just awful! R.L. Stine is very good at describing deaths and sprawling bodies. However, it’s a shame that the death happened off screen.

I have to say, Corky is probably one of my top favorite protagonists in any of the Fear Street books— I love her! She takes initiative and gets things done!

And this time she gets things done by DRIVING A BUS FULL OF KIDS OFF A FREAKING CLIFF! Holy crap, girl! Granted, those kids were possessed by the evil, but still, it was insane! Oh, also, this time the Evil possesses multiple people, which was very interesting.

I also love that she isn’t petty and appreciates when another girl is good at cheerleading... unlike some of her teammates. And I also really liked Alex and Corky together—they were very cute!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book! Here I thought we were done with the Ancient Evil, but nope! And there’s a sequel to this book, so I’m interested to see what that one will bring. Anyway, I highly recommend the Fear Street Cheerleaders series!

Time for some Easter Eggs! Janie from The New Boy and Gary Brandt from The Overnight were mentioned!

The Fear Street connection: Corky still lives on Fear Street, even after everything that’s happened. Lol.

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! :)