Book Review of #13 Faces of Terror by R.L Stine
Author Name: R.L Stine
ISBN: 0-307-24802-x
Publisher: Parachute Press
Part of a Series: Fear Street Sagas: One Last kiss, Door of Death, Hand of Power afterwards. Before: Chamber of Fear, Circle of Fire, etc, all the way to A New Fear
Type of book: Young adult, 1867, horror, Fier Saga
Year it was published: July 1998
Summary:
A nightmare convinces Elizabeth Nelson that something terrible has happened to her brother Thomas. So she travels to Cliff House, the home of Thomas's mysterious employer, Peter Gustavson. But there's something strange about Gustavson. He spends his days creating grotesque wax figures, their faces frozen in terror. Now Elizabeth wonders, is Gustavson evil? Evil enough to lie to her? Evil enough to murder her brother?
Characters:
The characters are a bit interesting but to me they aren't very memorable unfortunately. They are one dimensional and simplistic, not complex personalities. One can read it for the gore aspect, but that's it.
Theme:
As mentioned previously, this book is pure entertainment. I think the hidden message or messages is that people will judge you by the looks, and one cannot destroy all the secrets.
Plot:
This was in third person from Elizabeth's point of view. This was slightly different than R.L Stine's previous Fear Street Sagas, because it seemed to focus on powers rather than R.L Stine mentioning of powers that the family possessed. Still, instead of using gore and whatnot, I wished to have given more indepth analysis of why a character snapped. Some questions do not go answered unfortunately.
Author Information:
R.L Stine was born on October 8th 1943 and is most famous for other Fear Street series along with Goosebumps series and Nightmare Room. Goosebumps and Nightmare Room were made into TV series ages ago.
Opinion:
Previously I would read this book and I wouldn't like it. I'm not sure why. I think some inconsistencies would drive me nuts was the main reason. (For example, does Peter Gustavson have brown eyes or blue eyes?) Overall it was an interesting read, saturated with gore and whatnot, not the emotion. The events moved a little too quickly for me in all honesty. (Although the ending is a bit creepy...) I also think that the author hadn't done a lot of research for the book. In particular, if Elizabeth's friend is from the South, and Elizabeth is from the North, wouldn't they hate one another because of the war? And Gustavson? That's not an American name. I don't think Germans or Slavic nations started coming over to America until 1890s if I'm not mistaken. And if they started to come earlier, none of them would be that wealthy...
3 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)
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