Fear Street Super Chiller: Silent Night 3 (R.L. Stine)

Reva Dalby is back yet again and I can’t believe that Stine wasted three books on such an unlikable character. In this one, Reva is back from her first semester of college and bringing along her roommate Grace. It’s hard to believe that Reva actually lived with someone and didn’t demand a single. She thinks that Grace will be fun and when she isn’t, Reva starts looking for excuses to get rid of her.

Pam can’t afford college so she’s working in Shadyside with her friend Willow. The two girls took some crafting classes and dreamed up business making hand painted scarves. She calls Reva and asks for her to take a look at them and see if she can’t get them in the stores. Reva agrees, but then skips out when they’re on their way to the house.

A guy shows up at the house that night and it turns out that it’s Daniel, a guy she dated a few times at school. He’s in town staying with a friend and is going to work at the store. She pretends that she doesn’t know him and laughs as the security guard drags him off and calls the cops. Even Grace finds it a little hard to believe she could do something like that, which makes me wonder if Grace has ever spent 5 minutes with her roomie.

Reva finally agrees to show her dad Pam and Willow’s scarves, but passes them off as her own design. He agrees to buy the scarves for the stores and let her host a fashion show. Pam is a little pissed off, especially when she learns that they have to make all the scarves and only get a percentage of the profits, but it’s worth it for the money.

Reva sets about planning the fashion show and pitches a fit when she learns she has to hire this girl Traci. Traci hates her for stealing her boyfriend, but is under contract with the store. She also hires a brunette named Liza and a redhead who looks exactly like her named Ellie. Liza and Traci hate each other because they keep going out for the same jobs and Liza’s boyfriend Grant used to date Traci.

You just know that Reva is going to steal Grant away, but then they also discover Traci’s body at the store, strangled with a scarf. Reva gets all wrapped up in hiring a new model and fooling around with Grant. Pam and Willow want a contract for their work and when she won’t help, they go behind her back to her dad. He creates a contract and tells Reva that he isn’t happy with the way she acted.

Most of the book centers on Grace, worried about her ex-boyfriend Rory. He keeps calling and leaving threatening messages and then she spots him in town. She tells Reva about how he followed her to college and keeps threatening her every time she looks at or talks to another guy. Grace wants Reva to offer her some help and you know, be a friend, but Reva could care less.

Finally she decides to call Grace’s mom and learns that there is no Rory. Rory was her high school boyfriend who died in an accident and Grace is having (another) psychotic break. Of course they only learn this after Liza dies and Grant walks away from Reva because he feels so guilty about cheating on his girlfriend before she died. They discover that Grace killed the girls because, as she explains to Reva, she didn’t want her to be happy. The fashion show was the only thing Reva ever cared about so she set out to make sure it never happened.

Pam then goes back to the store to get her things and finds a man standing over Reva’s body and crying. He jumps when he hears her and when she gets a closer look, she realizes that it’s Ellie and not Reva, damn. Reva then shows up and discovers that it’s Grant. He was so upset over cheating on Liza that he started blaming Reva for her death because if she hadn’t swept him away, he would have been with Liza.

Everyone starts fighting and Reva manages to knock him out. She and Pam tie his hands and feet up with scarves and wait for the cops. At the end, everyone bonds on Christmas Eve and Pam gets excited because Reva’s dad agreed to stock a lot of their other clothes in the store and under a new label, the Pam-Willow line (lame ass name for a clothing line). At the very end, Pam smiles and gives Reva her gift: a brand new scarf.

What the fuck is wrong with Reva’s dad? Does he not realize that his daughter is a complete and total sociopath? Seriously, what will it take for him to wise up? She’s now been kidnapped and almost murdered by like five different people and now her own roommate hates her enough to try and kill her, not to mention her boyfriend. I wish Stine had killed Reva off at the end of the first book and let Pam have the rest.