Don't Stay Up Late by R. L. Stine Pages: 304
Published by Macmillan, St. Martin's Griffin on April 7, 2015
Genres: Horror & Ghost Stories, Young Adult
Source: Finished Copy from Publisher
R.L. Stine's hugely successful young adult horror series Fear Street is back after almost 2 decades. Fear Street is a worldwide phenomenon and helped to kick off the young adult craze which is still going strong today. In the second new book in this series, Don't Stay Up Late, Stine explores the unbridled terror of a damaged young lady sent on a doomed babysitting job.
Ever since a car accident killed her father and put Lisa and her mother into the hospital, Lisa can't think straight. She's plagued by nightmares and hallucinations that force her to relive the accident over and over again in vivid detail. When Lisa finds out that a neighbor is looking for a babysitter for her young son, she takes the job immediately, eager to keep busy and shake these disturbing images from her head.
But what promised to be an easy gig turns terrifying when Lisa begins to question exactly who — or what — she is babysitting.R.L. Stine makes his triumphant return to Shadyside in the new Fear Street book Don't Stay Up Late.
I used to love R.L. Stine so much as a kid. I read the books, I watched the shows. I just loved it. So when I found out that his Fear Street series was being re-launched I was super excited. What actually started my love of R.L. Stine was the tv show, “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” with the midnight society. I loved that show so much that I started looking for things like it, and I discovered the creepy magic that was R.L. Stine. Don’t Stay Up Late is actually the second book in the Fear Street series, but I never read the first book and I was fine. They are each a different scary story. I liked Don’t Stay Up Late. It transported me back to my childhood. It was a bit on the younger side for YA, so I think MG readers will enjoy it as well. It will be a great scary book for younger readers, and for YA readers looking for some new R.L. Stine to enjoy.
It was certainly not the scariest young adult book that I have read, but it did feel like his other books, which is honestly what I was looking for. I was looking for that Classic 90s fear street/midnight society sitting around the campfire and telling scary stories feeling. Don’t stay up Late is the story of Lisa and a babysitting gig gone terribly wrong. I liked the babysitting aspect because again it added to the throwback feel of the stories. The writing is different than I am used to. It feels slightly more disjointed, but most of that I attributed to the main character Lisa and everything she was going through. She was jumping back and forth between personal tragedies, and therapists and then everything that was going on with Harry and in his house.
My hope is with this book that younger kids will get introduced to his work and go back to some of the original goosebump and fear street novels and read them. I think they will still have appeal today with the younger crowd. So while this book did scary me too much, I can see it being a fun and spooky hit read for some MG readers. I liked it for it’s throwback feeling, and it really made me want to watch some Are You Afraid of the Dark?
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I struggled so much with this one. It was my first Stine book and I don’t know, I just thought it would be better and not so young feeling. I can totally see preteens loving this though.
Not my type of book but I know that my stepdaughter would love this. Nice review!
R.L Stine was my favorite author when I was a youngin! I loved getting scared, even though I would have to sleep with the light on for a week straight. Heck I am still like that! I was exited when I heard about him going YA, but I heard some really negative things about it. I am glad to have a read a positive review. Maybe I will revisit my old favorite author one day!
YEAA… Fear Street is being re-launched. This series is my favorite when I was younger haha…
I never read RL Stine books when I was a kid, but I’m glad they’re relaunching them. I used to be terrified of them–the only one I read was The Boyfriend?–but now I just think they’re funny.
Great review!
I can’t wait to read this! I loved his books when I was little and I still do like a little scare!
I’m constantly trying to re-introduce Fear Street books to my kids, although I didn’t read them a lot at that age, I still think my students would enjoy them.
~ Krys