Review: The Cheater (Fear Street #18) by R.L. Stine

Title: The Cheater

Series: Fear Street #18

Author: R.L. Stine

Genre: YA, horror, mystery thriller

Publication date: April 1993

Published by: Archway Paperback

Source: Purchased paperback

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Synopsis: Carter Phillips is under a lot of pressure to ace her math achievement exam - so much pressure that she gets Adam Messner to take the test for her... in exchange for one date. But Adam wants more than a date - much more. Carter has no choice. She has to do whatever he asks. If not, he'll tell hers secret and ruin life.

Adam's control over her gets more and more unbearable. Carter is desperate to get rid of him - but how? Is murder the only way?

My rating: ★★☆☆☆

So our main character, Carter, took a placement test, got a good test results back, but not good enough for her dad, apparently 🙄 So now she’s gonna take it again to get a better grade... Except she’s not. A guy from school takes the test for her because IDs apparently aren’t a thing at this test taking site??? WTF. Anyway, all she has to do is go on one date with him... and then another... and then he wants more. Honestly, I don't know how she didn’t see this coming. She’s an idiot. She also has a boyfriend, so she’s a cheater in two different senses of the word. Lol.

And Carter herself just wasn’t great, and not just for the cheating stuff. At one point, she drags her friend Jill into her damn mess and they get in some serious danger at a sleazy, bar-type place. Poor Jill is terrified out of her goddamn mind, but she still manages to forgive Carter for some reason 🙄

And this Adam guy was a bigger creep than I thought he would be. I mean, blackmail, extortion, and even sexual assault?? JFC. Not cool, dude.

At the end of the book, Carter is attacked in her home thinking it was Adam or one of his pals. Well, it wasn’t. It was some rando that was related to one of his dad’s cases (he’s a judge) and had nothing to do with her! So that was lame.

Also, when Carter’s boyfriend finds out what's been happening with her, he goes to talk with Adam, who pulls out a gun and the boyfriend ends up killing Adam. He tells Carter what happened and then she tricks him into confessing to her dad what he did. But because her daddy is a judge and he’s a rich kid, he gets off pretty unscathed 🙄 How very anticlimactic.

Sooo... dumb characters, dumb situations, no real threats except Carter’s dad finding out she’s a cheater, an anticlimactic ending... this book was just no good. Everything that happened to Carter... I couldn’t care less. She made a bad decision, so my sympathy for her was very low 🤷‍♀️

A fun mention: Gary Brandt from The Overnight goes on a date with Jill!

The Fear Street connection: Adam, the guy who takes the test for Carter, lives on Fear Street.

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! 😊