A Man With An Agenda

This is about the only kind of book I can take right now. The nutshell is that somehow, while I've been getting older, so have my parents and father-in-law. There's a lot to be done and about all I can take is something wholesome like this about a group of kids camping.

The Outdoors Club of Shadyside High is disappointed when their faculty advisor has to postpone the long-anticipated overnight camping trip on Fear Island. Even worse the overnight camping trip was going to be Della O'Connor's big chance for getting her boyfriend Gary back from that punk tramp Suki Thomas - if you're new to the series, you should know that Fear Street is all about slut-shaming. There's a joke here about Shadyside and shade, but....eh.

The rest of the club is the shy Maia who lives in terror of her parents' disapproval, fat prankster Ricky, and Pete "The Prep" Goodwin who's totally into Della, but may be too vanilla for her taste.

A plan is hatched to have the overnight anyway - parents have given permission and the teacher left so suddenly there was no chance they were notified. On the island things seem to be going great, a lively game of paintball goes wrong, however, when Della is accosted by a handsome stranger in a leather jacket who flirts/threatens her enough to make her try to run. A struggle ensues and the man ends up in a ravine. The teens swear to keep the accidental murder a secret - they'd be totally grounded - but it seems as if someone saw what they did.

This is a straight-forward thriller. Della is a bit vain, but she stands up a little better than some other Fear Street female leads I could name. I'd forgotten how few of these books had any supernatural elements to them. 'The Overnight''s length doesn't allow for much characterization aside from the phenomenal outfits the characters wear and basic high school clique tropes, but it gets the job done.

Fear Street:

Next: 'Missing'

Previous: 'The Surprise Party'