The Lost Girl: A Fear Street Novel by R.L. Stine
My Rating:
I received a free copy of The Lost Girl: A Fear Street Novel from the publisher in return for an honest review.
My daughter used to love R L Stine books when she was younger so I figured I would give this new one a try. I'm not sure what I was expecting to be honest, it was OK but I can't say that I truly enjoyed it.
I liked the mixing of the two different timelines and I much preferred the older timeline over the present day. The older timeline although it was better, still had some unbelievability around it, especially the reactions after Lizzy disappeared.
The present day timeline really didn't work for me, the characters didn't stand out as individuals, the choices they made were totally unbelievable and the plot felt superficial. I had a hard time believing that a group of kids in this situation would react the way they did. The ending felt rushed and the whole time thing just felt thrown in with no explanation behind it.
One thing that didn't sit well with me at all was the storyline between Lizzy and Aaron. Near the beginning of the book there was an attempted rape scene between them, the word rape was never used but that's exactly what takes place. Without giving spoilers, later in the book Lizzy and Aaron are best buddies and he's madly in love with her. Really? This guy tries to rape Lizzy but it's OK because he loves her and all is forgiven? What kind of message is that? It's certainly not the kind of message I'd want to be passed on to my child when reading.
Like I said before, my daughter loved Stine's books when younger and couldn't get enough of them, but there is a lot more out there now for children to read. The book industry has improved a great deal since Stine's original books, both in quality and quantity, and I feel after having read The Lost Girl that the content and writing style has not progressed enough to compete with today's market. Had I still been choosing books for my daughter today I wouldn't have passed this one on to her to read.
The Lost Girl had potential but it's lacking the depth, believability and real characters that are in most teen books out there today. It feels dumbed down and out of touch with today's generation.
Reviews also posted to my blog: Scarlet's Web
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I've never read RL Stine myself, but the name Always reminds me of my teenage neighbour 15 years back. She was hooked to his stories, and would have nightmares, yet could not let go of them !!! Her mom was at her wits end .
ReplyDeleteWonder why youth has a fascination for horror and such. I know we siblings had quite a time with this genre at that age.- the fear, the unexpected, the climax, .... ?!
Reading thru a few reviews ... well written and presented :-)