Review: The Confession (Fear Street #38) by R.L. Stine

Title: The Confession

Series: Fear Street #38

Author: R.L. Stine

Genre: YA, horror, mystery thriller

Publication date: May 1996

Published by: Archway Paperback

Source: Purchased paperback

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Synopsis:

Five close friends... one murderer.

All Julie’s friends hated Al. They all wished Al were dead. But that doesn’t mean one of them killed him. Julie knows her friends. She knows they are innocent...

Until one of them confesses.

Julie and her friends promise to keep the killer’s secret. After all, they know he would never kill again.

Or would he?

My rating: ★★★☆☆

Sometimes the truth can kill you.

I loved the beginning of this book:

What would you do if one of your best friends took you aside and said he had a confession to make?
What if your friend confessed to you that he killed someone? And he begged you not to tell anyone. He begged you to keep his horrible secret.
What would you do?

I mean, yikes! Is that not intriguing, or what? But man, was this guy who made the confession an idiot...

“You don’t kill someone just because he’s annoying you,” Hillary said, speaking slowly, saying each word clearly and distinctly. “And then you don’t confess. You don’t tell what you did to a roomful of people.”

It’s true! Why would they do this? Especially because this person may kill again to keep things quiet 😬 Ooof. But here’s the thing, there were a lot of fake outs, and it was annoying. Usually I can gauge them pretty well and anticipate which ones will be fake just so I don’t get my hopes up, but these for some reason just got me. And it was not cool! I don’t know why it bugged me so much in this one! BUT there was one scene that wasn’t a fake out and there was lots of spurting blood and it was super gross and I super liked it 😏😉

Some mentions in this book: there was a party at Reva Dalby’s house (from Silent Night)! Bobby Newkirk (the asshole from Double Date) was mentioned, as was Corky Corcoran (Fear Street Cheerleaders), Deena Martinson (The Wrong Number), and we also see Ricky Shore being Ricky Shore (The Overnight and Halloween Party).

Overall, I thought this was an okay book. I liked the premise and the mystery was intriguing. But I had things figured out pretty early on and the fake outs were annoying! Anyway, it was fine 🤷‍♀️

The Fear Street connection: Julie lives on Fear Street.

My friends all teased me about it. Everyone tells horrifying stories about Fear Street and the frightening things that supposedly happened there.
I don’t think it’s scary. It’s just darker than everywhere else because of all the old trees.

Yeahhh... you keep telling yourself that 😂

Updated cover:

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! 😊