The New Girl is a classic, short horror story written in 1989 by R.L. Stine, acclaimed author of the Goosebumps series. My experience with this book… wasn’t great. Starting from the very beginning, the main character, a high school male gymnast named Cory, comes off as a very desperate creep, making him highly unlikable. He spots an attractive girl in his school by the name of Anna and immediately begins to stalk and find out everything he can about her. This is revealed in how he asks for Anna’s address, calls her house numerous times, and physically goes to the house just to communicate with her —all in the mere opening parts of the book. This attitude of Cory’s, an utter infatuation with Anna, frankly came off as a bit off-putting.
Furthermore, the story, especially in its opening, felt kind of rushed for some reason. The very first couple of pages were very promising plot-wise, but after it described Cory seeing Anna in his high school for the first time, it described him immediately beginning to fall head over heels and obsessively trying to find out everything he could about her. I understand the concept of love by first sight, but that doesn’t mean that you immediately try to stalk your crush to the point of going to where they live and ringing them up multiple times. Lisa, a best friend of Cory’s, is also unlikable, as she constantly tries to get Cory to return her feelings for him throughout the book, although this somewhat (I’m sorry to say it but) annoying aspect of her is balanced out by pity that I think a lot of readers would feel for someone who is in her situation.
Granted, this first book of the Fear Street series was written in 1989, so maybe some of my judgments of Cory can be dismissed when looking at him through a late-20th-century lens. I also feel like I am in some ways judging this book too harshly since that would be the equivalent of harshly critiquing a Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, or Magic Tree House book when they’re mostly plot-centered. This work is also a relatively short story, and it, for the most part, gets better as you get deeper into it. If you want a quick, passable level of horror, this may be a good book for you. I in fact recommend that you read it in the dark if you want to feel slight tingles of fear.
Overall, if I were to classify the type of horror that this book encompasses, I’d label it as a psychological one very similar to the horror found in the movie The Sixth Sense. Readers are constantly led to question whether Anna is a real person or if she’s a ghost and/or some type of spirit, as well as if the real antagonist is Anna or her brother Brad.
In conclusion, if you desire a quick taste of horror literature, The New Girl is perfect for you. Furthermore, there are numerous sequels, in addition to the Goosebumps series, that are waiting for you if you end up enjoying this one!
Review by ~ Andrew
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