While other small towns might have a creepy house or two, Shadyside has an entire neighborhood full of them. Fear Street looks harmless enough — the most glaring exception being the burned-down mansion that serves as a reminder of the Fears’ misfortune — but the ghost stories say otherwise. The townspeople have good reason to steer clear of the area.

With renewed interest in R.L Stine’s series of young-adult horror books, both seasoned and new fans of Fear Street might want a rundown of books to read as they explore the darker end of Shadyside. The spin-offs like Cheerleaders, Sagas, and 99 Fear Street, as well as anything detailing the Fear Family’s curse, are all recommended. These other standalone books help demonstrate why Fear Street is still revered after so many years.

The Surprise Party (Fear Street #2)

New readers can ease themselves in with something straightforward and grounded like The Surprise Party. Other books frequently have the characters evading an at-large assailant or unearthly threat, but here, the story’s lone death occurs in the past. Stine observes close-knit friends as they deal with the one-year anniversary of someone’s passing; Evan shot himself by accident. When the protagonist, Meg, learns Evan’s ex-girlfriend Ellen is visiting Shadyside after moving away, she plans a surprise party at a restored manor in the Fear Street woods. Someone among Meg’s clique doesn’t like the idea, though, and intimidates her with phone calls before escalating to greater scare tactics.

The author audaciously reveals the supposed villain’s identity shortly before the final act. With Fear Street, nothing is ever what it seems. Grief, loss, and trauma are all studied with extra attention. On top of that, Surprise Party has minor exposition about Shadyside, including why the Fear Street woods are so daunting and strange; the birds’ refusal to enter the forest defies science, people apparently go missing there all the time, and “fearful animals [attack] with bizarre ferocity.”

Haunted (Fear Street #7)

Although it might seem like the high death rate would keep Fear Street unpopulated and cheap, the neighborhood is more diverse than expected. Bad Dreams shows a widow and her daughters moving there because they can no longer afford their home in the wealthier North Hills section, but as seen in Haunted, Fear Street hosts a variety of incomes. Rich girl Melissa is anxious for school to start, but around her seventeenth birthday one summer, she is stalked by a menacing ghost named Paul in her bedroom. The spirit claims Melissa killed him even though she has no memory of doing such a thing, and he has no idea how she even did it. Nevertheless, she promises to help Paul solve the mystery. 

Notably, Haunted addresses the economic divide in Shadyside — for instance, Old Village is considered the poor part of town — and inserts real-world dangers, as evident when Melissa is repeatedly harassed by a group of drunken, young men. What seems like a simple ghost story ends up being a stark encounter between social classes, and it also proves how redemption can never come too late. Moreover, Paul is abnormally nuanced; Stine tends to streamline his characters so as to help readers identify with them more easily. Yet in this book, he goes deeper when carving out his very troubled antagonist.

Lights Out (Fear Street #12)

Lights Out and the movie Fear Street: Part Two – 1978 are both set at Camp Nightwing. In the book, Holly leaves Fear Street to help out at her Uncle Bill’s summer camp, even though she has no experience and an aversion to snakes. Her friend Thea is there, but the other counselors make their disdain for Holly obvious. In addition to the personal conflicts, Holly suspects someone is out to sabotage her uncle’s camp; a signature red feather is left behind as bunk beds collapse, canoes are damaged, and another counselor is murdered.

Bill Schmidt handled many of the original Fear Street books’ cover art, and his anxious, lifelike illustration for Lights Out is among the best. He previews what’s to come for Holly as she hopes to survive Camp Nightwing. While only one character, besides the killer, is murdered in the story, their death — their entire face is obliterated by a pottery wheel — is one of the most gruesome in the entire series. Stine pays tribute to Friday the 13th in more ways than one with this entry.

The Prom Queen (Fear Street #15)

Stine can be accused of writing dull or cursory characters, but Lizzy and her friends in The Prom Queen don’t have that problem. The author gives the protagonists each a distinct, if not unpleasant, personality. Fans of Sorority Row’s caustic wit may enjoy the nastiness of this particular coterie. As the authorities deal with a potential serial killer roaming free in Shadyside, Lizzy and her closest pals — Rachel, Dawn, Simone, and Elana — are all nominated for prom queen. The competition then becomes cutthroat when the candidates start to die, one by one.

Stine’s often overlooked and morbid sense of humor helps punctuate The Prom Queen. Lizzy’s companions, while certainly mean, entitled, and self-absorbed, induce a few chuckles with their harsh one-liners and backstabbing behaviors. The story itself feels the most like a contemporary teen slasher. And before Stine eventually abandoned the practice, he had characters appear in multiple books; for instance, Lisa Blume from The New Girl and The Surprise Party is mentioned here.

Sunburn (Fear Street #19)

Claudia, Sophie, and Joy are invited to stay at Marla’s family’s beachside house for the weekend. The four teenagers first met at summer camp and have struggled to stay in contact ever since something terrible happened there. That dreadful incident may also be connected to this weekend’s strange events; the three guests suspect Marla is actually punishing them for their involvement.

A number of Fear Street stories employ a basic whodunit format. Admittedly, not every one of them is as effective as Sunburn. Moving the story to the beach and away from the series’ eponymous neighborhood or Shadyside High School is a good move; it just goes to show how the residents of Fear Street are doomed no matter where they go. Stine drops a few viable red herrings and even sets up a revenge motive à la Prom Night, but ultimately, the book takes a different direction. 

One Evil Summer (Fear Street #25)

Once again, Fear Street is in the rearview mirror for one young resident — at least for the summer. Amanda Conklin and her family travel from Shadyside to Seahaven; the mother wants to finish writing a magazine article for work, and the daughter is retaking Algebra. While at their summer house, the Conklins hire a live-in nanny named Chrissy for the kids. Amanda has a sinking feeling Chrissy is not who she claims to be, though, and researches her past in a bid to save her family’s future.

One Evil Summer and Lois Duncan’s Summer of Fear share similarities; both books’ teenagers battle young usurpers who may or may not possess supernatural powers. A series of bizarre incidents fuel Amanda’s paranoid accusations and alienates her from her parents. It is clear who the perpetrator is, and the explanation behind their abilities is glossed over. Yet unlike other Fear Street entries where the villain’s identity is revealed late into the story along with the last leg of their masterplan, the book deals its cards early to ensure a sustained and frightening cat-and-mouse sequence up until the end.

Switched (Fear Street #31)

Stine has stated Switched is one of his two favorite Fear Street books, with the other being Silent Night. After reading this fast-paced and twisty story, it’s understandable why the author singles it out. Nicole is having a hard time lately, so when her best friend Lucy convinces her to switch bodies, she takes her up on the offer. After they go deep into the Fear Street woods, hold hands, and jump over a magical wall, the two teenagers’ minds are swapped. However, Nicole soon learns why Lucy wanted to switch in the first place — she’s committed a heinous crime and wants Nicole to take the fall for it.

By using a first-person perspective, Stine directly taps into Nicole’s pathos and innermost thoughts when she’s suddenly trapped inside Lucy’s body. The book isn’t like other body-swapping narratives since there is a considerable twist to Nicole’s ordeal. Switched is a brisk, heady, and surprisingly dejected read.

Bad Moonlight (Fear Street Super Chiller #8)

Three years have passed since Danielle’s parents died in an accident, and she and her brother now live with their aunt. Danielle defers college so she can sing for a touring indie band. In the meantime, her fantasies are becoming too realistic; Danielle dreams she is an insatiable animal who may or may not be responsible for her bandmates’ deaths. Hypnosis therapy doesn’t seem to be helping her problem, and Danielle’s bloodlust is spiraling out of control.

The thirteen books in the original Super Chiller collection are slightly longer than the standard Fear Street ones, and they were often set around specific holidays — Christmas, New Year’s, Valentine’s Day — or during the summer. Bad Moonlight is unique because it introduces werewolves to the franchise. Fans of the Howling series may find pleasure in this beastly mystery.

Trapped (Fear Street #51)

A bright student named Elaine is sentenced to Saturday detention, along with four other troublemaking students, by the new principal, Mr. Savage. Once there, she follows the others into what turns out to be a labyrinthine tunnel underneath the school. Their innocent case of truancy quickly becomes a day of terror when they accidentally unleash something concealed in the walls — something incorporeal and ferocious. Soon, the teenagers are stalked by the unrelenting red mist that can crumple someone’s body within seconds. Making it out alive seems hopeless, though, because the way they came in is no longer accessible.

While the original run of Fear Street unfortunately came to an end in 1997, it didn’t go out with a whimper — the last entry is a total scream. The series had no qualms with mixing things up by offering both tangible and supernatural threats; harmful humans roamed Shadyside as much as paranormal forces did. Trapped falls squarely in the latter category. This well-paced book features a common setup — students stuck in detention have to work together to overcome a problem — and adds a horror twist to it. Also, the story’s monster fits in with amorphous creatures like that of The Blob.

The Stepbrother (New Fear Street #1)

Yet another teenager is subjected to foreboding premonitions of her death in The Stepbrother; Sondra is convinced she is experiencing memories of a tragic past life after a friend hypnotizes her as a joke. Just as Sondra’s stepfather and stepbrother Eric move into her house, she is overcome by these visceral yet vague flashbacks to the former life. She seeks the help of a professional hypnotist, but this only aggravates the recollection and causes her to suspect Eric is involved. Are their souls entangled, not to mention ill-fated? Sondra’s paranoia grows until destiny finally takes over.

The series returned as New Fear Street in 1999, with an unpublished holdover from the original series, The Stepbrother, kicking things off. The comeback was short-lived, however, seeing as there were only four books. Even so, Stine doesn’t miss a beat in the first of them. He maintains his proclivity for unexpected and outrageous twists — and the one here is a doozy.