Fear Street Sagas #6: Daughters of Silence (R.L. Stine)

Hallie and Jenna were besties until Hallie and her parents moved away to Shadyside. Since it's summer and she has nothing to do, Jenna hops on the train to visit her. Hallie's parents welcome her with open arms and make her a peach pie, which is her favorite. After dinner, Hallie tells her all about the Fears and some of the rumors about them floating around town. She also insinuates that she hasn't really made any friends yet.

Jenna reminds Hallie of when they used to tell each other ghost stories, which leads to Hallie suggesting that they go somewhere special. It turns out to be the cemetery on Fear Street. She also tells Jenna about how the Fears had two daughters who died and how everyone thinks they're crazy. They wind up finding the girls' headstones and scare each other because they think the girls aren't dead when they hear something. That something is actually Angelica Fear who invites them to stick around and listen to her talk about her girls before inviting them to stop by Fear Mansion.

Since Jenna is smart, she does not want to do that, ever, but Hallie convinces her that the Fears are probably just lonely. They go to the Fear Mansion, and Simon freaks out until Angelica smooths things over by pointing out that the two girls are just like sisters. Yup, not creepy at all. After dinner, they show the two their daughters' rooms and then give them gifts. Hallie gets a gold heart necklace that belonged to Hannah, and Jenna gets a gem bracelet that belonged to Julia. Jenna almost instantly rips it off because it makes her feel like she's on fire, but they convince her to put it back on. She also notices some creepy dolls in Hannah's former room that have silver pins sticking through them.

While walking home, Hallie brags about how all the girls in town will think she's super cool now because she went inside the Fear Mansion and how they should go back as soon as possible. Jenna takes the bracelet off again because it freaks her out and starts talking about how she never wants to go back. The two have a major fight that ends with Hallie storming off. Jenna just kind of shrugs because this is apparently something her friend does a lot.

Though she takes her time heading back, she sees something in the woods that looks like a flying shadow, which causes her to run like a sane person. She then stumbles and falls down, and when she gets up, she discovers her dress drenched in blood. The blood completely covers a tree, and when she looks closer, she sees a silver pin stuck in the center, just like the one in Hannah's room.

There's another noise in the woods, but this time, it's a handsome guy. He introduces himself as Rob Smith and explains that he works for the Fears. Rob helps her find her way home and gets to meet Hallie. Once he leaves, Hallie just wants to talk about Rob being so handsome. Jenna gets more freaked out that night after seeing the same shadow flying outside their room.

Hallie's parents wake them the next day because it's time for a barn raising, yippee. She drops Jenna like a hot potato after seeing some popular girls in town and rushes over to tell them all about seeing the Fears. One girl makes an excuse that she needs to talk to this guy Fred and runs off, which makes all the other girls follow. Hallie then screams at Jenna about how she ruins everything. In her eyes, she was thisclose to becoming besties with those girls before they saw Jenna and ran away.

After running into Rob, Hallie interrupts their conversation to flirt with him and make him super duper uncomfortable to the point where he leaves. Later, Jenna sees him working on the barn just as it collapses. She helps some of the men folk tear up the old barn and dig through the debris for survivors and is the one who finds Fred at the bottom with a piece of wood through his chest. They manage to find Rob and save him, but Hallie then goes crazy and starts laughing about how she wanted it to happen and made it happen.

Hallie's parents and Jenna manage to get her home and into bed. Jenna looks closer and notices that she never took the gold necklace off. Convinced the Fears are responsible for things, Jenna heads over to their house. Angelica invites her in, and both she and Simon make a big deal out of her not wearing the bracelet. Jenna makes an excuse to leave and accidentally stumbles on a weird cabin in the woods while trying to find Rob. The cabin has bones everywhere and a skull on the wall. She eventually does find Rob who convinces her that there was no cabin. He asks her to go home and stay there.

Though she agrees, this only lasts until she gets back and sees Hallie walking off by herself. Jenna follows her and sees her enter the Fear Mansion. When she goes to save her best friend, she learns that the Fears chose them as the new host bodies for their daughters' spirits and that the jewelry they wore gave them control over them. They make Hallie put the bracelet back on Jenna who then has a hard time doing what she wants.

Rob rushes in to save her, but we quickly learn that Rob is actually dead. The Fears reincarnated him first just to make sure things worked. They then make him die again, right in front of Jenna. The Fears do a huge ritual to bring the spirits of their daughters into the room and to let them take control over the girls. Julia is about to take over Jenna when she realizes the girl is wearing her favorite bracelet, which causes her to flip off and yank it off her. This puts Jenna back in control of her own body.

She runs to save her friend and discovers that Hallie still cannot do anything on her own because of the necklace. That necklace has now embedded itself in her throat though, below the skin. Jenna uses her fingernails to rip open her friend's chest and pull out the necklace. They then run home, though the dark flying spirit chases them briefly. Though Hallie's parents do not believe their story, they change their mind after seeing a black heart scar on Hallie's chest.

Jenna explains that Hallie's parents moved that same day. They packed their bags and took off without telling anyone why. She feels sorry for whoever the Fears pick next...

*I actually liked this one the best out of all the Fear Street Sagas books I read recently! It was pretty easy to get through with Animal Airport playing in the background.

*I was all set to go off on a tangent about the whole barn raising thing and how it was so lame before realizing that the book was set in the 1860s when that was actually something that happened regularly...

*Stine toned down the disgusting parts in this book. The only really gross thing was when they “killed” Rob for the second time. His skin literally started peeling back/retracting from his body as he shriveled up and decomposed.