The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! 😌
A review by dtaylorbooks
What Holly Heard by R.L. Stine
3.0
I’m a bit blasé when it comes to WHAT HOLLY HEARD. I didn’t really care about it one way or another. There was next to no scary going on, the plot wasn’t interesting, I wasn’t all that interested in any of the characters. It was just blah.
Holly is a gossip that ends up getting killed because she has a big mouth. Presumably. She really wasn’t developed much beyond being a gossip and having a boyfriend but salivating over someone else’s boyfriend while shamelessly trying to get said boyfriend. So once she died it was kind of like eh. Not much of a character there to miss, really.
Miriam was kind of like a bowl of plain oatmeal. She doesn’t make any waves and she’s just there really to push us through the story. (I realize this sounds nothing like plain oatmeal but the comparison is in the blandness of it all.) She fights with her own boyfriend a lot and when he starts getting physically violent with her she has moments of strength before dissolving into forgiveness and taking him back. That got old after a while, especially as it kept happening.
Ruth was kind of just there in the background, reading books and playing with her hamsters while the story went on around her. She and Holly butt heads a lot and she was really vocal about Holly digging into other people’s lives and stringing her boyfriend along while she chased this other guy who wasn’t single. But that was the extent of Ruth’s character.
The story is set up so you believe that this couple are the perpetrators and instigating all these threats and making these kills. Of course, in proper Fear Street fashion, that’s not the case. Another good ending where you’re not blindsided by the killer. The clues are there. You just have to follow them. WHAT HOLLY HEARD didn’t have much of a twist either. I guess some might call it that but not me. It was just revealing the killer and that’s about it.
Not Stine’s worst Fear Street showing but certainly not his best. This falls somewhere in the middle where it’s not bad but I wouldn’t call it good either.
2.5
Holly is a gossip that ends up getting killed because she has a big mouth. Presumably. She really wasn’t developed much beyond being a gossip and having a boyfriend but salivating over someone else’s boyfriend while shamelessly trying to get said boyfriend. So once she died it was kind of like eh. Not much of a character there to miss, really.
Miriam was kind of like a bowl of plain oatmeal. She doesn’t make any waves and she’s just there really to push us through the story. (I realize this sounds nothing like plain oatmeal but the comparison is in the blandness of it all.) She fights with her own boyfriend a lot and when he starts getting physically violent with her she has moments of strength before dissolving into forgiveness and taking him back. That got old after a while, especially as it kept happening.
Ruth was kind of just there in the background, reading books and playing with her hamsters while the story went on around her. She and Holly butt heads a lot and she was really vocal about Holly digging into other people’s lives and stringing her boyfriend along while she chased this other guy who wasn’t single. But that was the extent of Ruth’s character.
The story is set up so you believe that this couple are the perpetrators and instigating all these threats and making these kills. Of course, in proper Fear Street fashion, that’s not the case. Another good ending where you’re not blindsided by the killer. The clues are there. You just have to follow them. WHAT HOLLY HEARD didn’t have much of a twist either. I guess some might call it that but not me. It was just revealing the killer and that’s about it.
Not Stine’s worst Fear Street showing but certainly not his best. This falls somewhere in the middle where it’s not bad but I wouldn’t call it good either.
2.5