Wow. Another great story from Fear Street. I’m so glad I decided to revisit this series and it brings back nostalgia and reminds me why I fell in love with reading as R. L. Stine was one of the first authors I fell in love with.

This story had so many twists and turns and surprises. But I would expect nothing less from a Fear Street book. Amazing series. ( )

This book had a little bit of everything. Revenge, mystery, murder, people not being who they say they are, but it seemed all over the place because of that and also the majority of it takes place on Halloween night in one house so all the figuring out the mystery is hampered by the characters not being able to leave this place. One of the things I love about these old books is the going to the library to research the hidden history of the town/house/creepy person and this obviously didn’t have that. Also, there were hints that it was maybe going in a supernatural direction and then it ended up being mundane. ( )

This book had a little bit of everything. Revenge, mystery, murder, people not being who they say they are, but it seemed all over the place because of that and also the majority of it takes place on Halloween night in one house so all the figuring out the mystery is hampered by the characters not being able to leave this place. One of the things I love about these old books is the going to the library to research the hidden history of the town/house/creepy person and this obviously didn’t have that. Also, there were hints that it was maybe going in a supernatural direction and then it ended up being mundane. ( )

So I don't even know what to say. What a crazy ride this book was. Also it takes place in 1984 and I maybe laughed at how some of the characters were talking. But the main plot and reveal of what the villain was up to made me go what in the world. And then I started to wrack my brain and wonder if I had seen a tv movie based on this book or what since it sounded familiar to me. I never read this the first time this was published back in 1990 so this was a new read for me.

"Halloween Party" takes place in the town of Shadyside (everyone needs to move okay?!) with a group of teens being invited by the new girl who has recently transferred to an exclusive party at a house purported to be haunted on Fear Street. Yeah, I got nothing, I would have hard passed, stayed home and ate some candy.

I liked that Stine started off the book with Terry and his girlfriend Niki walking through a graveyard on the way to this party and then the book jumps a couple of weeks back to when some of the students (9) get invited by the new girl, Justine, to a Halloween Party in an old mansion that her uncle is fixing up.

There is some tension in the book prior to the party with the group of 9 kids turning on each other and splitting off into a jocks and wimps team. Since Terry is now dating his ex best friend's ex-girlfriend (you follow that?) he has even more tension built up about this party.

I liked Terry a lot and Stine switches between Terry, Nikki, and another character as well (no spoilers). The fight between groups sounds like something stupid I would have done in high school so well done Stine. And I honestly didn't get what was going on with the party until the reveal so well done again.

The flow worked and I thought this was a nice book to get you in the Halloween mood.

The town of Shadyside has to have been built on a Hell Mouth though or something. I just laugh at people always going, yeah Fear Street and moving along. ( )

I read Halloween Party back in '90 when it first came out, but when I joined GR and started rating everything I could remember reading throughout my life, I couldn't remember its exact details. So I decided to dig it out of storage and re-read it. Fast forward 8 years and I finally re-read it. Thus, I'm rating it how I would've rated it as a 12-year-old (die-hard) fan of the Fear Street series.

One detail I didn't remember from my first reading almost 30 years ago: Niki Meyer is deaf. And she's the hero--saving everyone from burning to death. She's also average, yet her boyfriend adores her and there's even a bit of a love triangle. Niki is the most relatable, likable person in the entire story. And I love that she refuses to let the men in her life act as if she's property to be owned. Where many YA romances make a man's jealousy attractive, Niki's not having it. For a book that's outdated in many ways, this non-ableism was a welcome variance to some of the 80s and 90s paperbacks I've read in the last couple years. ( )