R.L. STINE BOOK OF THE WEEK: Ski Weekend

It was a perfect setting - for murder!

From the back cover:

WELCOME TO FEAR STREET

Don't listen to the stories they tell you about Fear Street. Wouldn't you rather explore it yourself...and see if its dark terrors and unexplained mysteries are true? You're not afraid, are you?

Snowbound!

"Red" Porter was a stranger they'd met on their ski weekend. But Ariel Munroe, Doug Mahr and his girlfriend Shannon Harper were grateful he was there when they set out for home on the icy roads. Thank heaven for Red! He spotted the hilltop lodge when they were stranded by the blizzard. He took charge when they stumbled into strange surroundings, scared, tired and looking for refuge. But can he save them when their refuge becomes a trap? Suddenly their hosts are acting very sinisterly. Doug's car is gone. The phones are dead. And the house is full of guns. If they steal one, maybe they can escape! Until a shot is fired and the real terror begins...

My thoughts:

I never read this book during my Fear Street kick because I grew out of them before I got to it. When I read " 'Red' Porter was a stranger" on the back cover I should've said "Done!" and put the book down without opening it because I knew who the villain was from the get-go. But I thought that a book titled "Ski Weekend" would be an appropriate read since we finally have snow on the ground and it's freezing here. And there were lots of lovely descriptions of snow, for example: "It was snowing so hard the air was white!"

Nothing exciting - or even slightly interesting - happens. Lou (the man who lives in the house where they take shelter) drinks a lot, owns tons of guns, hits on Shannon, thinks death is funny and allegedly hits his wife. I know people who are like that so I didn't really find him creepy like I was supposed to.... And Lou acting "weird" is pretty much all that happens.

The characters are the standard cardboard ones I remember from R.L. Stine books: Doug was the "macho" jock, Shannon was...his girlfriend (that is all she is described as), Ariel was the whiny main character and Red was the cute stranger. But there's a couple who live down the hall from me with the names Doug and Shannon, which I thought was funny.

Ski Weekend was too predictable and nothing really happened. My R.L. Stine Book of the Week feature is off to a lousy start. Hopefully next week's book will be better.

Rating: 1/5

PG-13 Gore: "A tiny brown mouse was struggling in the trap - the metal bar clamped over its neck. Its little black eyes bulged wide, and its tiny legs thrashed violently, scratching against the flat, wooden part of the trap. And then all at once they stopped."

Body Count: 2

Published in: 1993, also the year that...

• The Giver by Lois Lowry was published
• Mighty Morphin Power Rangers premiered
• Jurassic Park and Mrs. Doubtfire topped the box office
• Super Mario Bros. was the first video game film ever released
  

Next week: Goosebumps: The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena