Review: The Dead Boyfriend by R.L. Stine

The Dead Boyfriend by R.L. Stine

Fear Street Relaunch #5

Publisher: A Thomas Dunne Book For St. Martin's Griffin

Publication Date: September 27th, 2016

Rating: 2 Stars

Source: Publisher

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 288

Add it on Goodreads!

Summary (from Goodreads):

R.L. Stine's Fear Street series is back, and in The Dead Boyfriend, he tells the frightening tale of teenage love - and how it can go terribly, murderously wrong. 

Caitlin has never had a real boyfriend before. When she starts seeing Colin, she throws herself into the relationship with fervor. She ignores her friends who warn her that Colin may be a phony and that she is taking the whole thing too seriously. Caitlin is smitten. She doesn't care if she loses her friends. All she wants is Colin. When Caitlin approaches Colin with another girl, she completely loses it. She snaps. Everything goes red. When she comes back to her senses, she realizes that Colin is dead - and she has killed him. 

But if Colin is dead, how is he staring at her across a crowded party? 

Terrifying from the first page to the last, The Dead Boyfriend is a heart-racing young adult novel from the master of teen screams himself.

***I received a copy of this book for review from the publisher.***

If you read the synopsis I provided, the boy's name is Colin in it, but in the book his name is actually Blade. So you're not confused like I was right away.

It has been a really long time since I read an R.L. Stine book. I was never really into them all that much, but my sister was. I read a few of them and remember them as being fun so I thought requesting this one would be fun too.

However, I think that I must have REALLY grown up since I read my past Stine books. Because I didn't enjoy this book.

I'm not even really sure what to say. Caitlyn meets Blade at the mall where she notices him staring at her from across the room. She goes up to him to demand an explanation as to why he is staring at her and they end up leaving together and falling madly into insta-love. Her friends apparently think that things are going too fast, but she doesn't listen until Blade blows her off and she accidentally stumbles across him at a club, on a date with another girl. She promptly freaks out.

Long story short, Blade ends up dead and then comes back to life.

Really, I don't know what to say about the characters because you don't really get to know them at all. Caitlyn, who is the main character, is so over the top dramatic about everything. She acts kind of insane all the time. She's kinda really dumb.

Blade, the love interest, is just that. All I really know about him is that he wears a red sweater and meets an untimely end.

Caitlyn's two friends, Miranda and Julie, don't really get too much thought either. They seem to be caring friends. They're worried about Caitlyn as she spirals into insanity and try to do little things to cheer her up.

Deena Fear is probably the character that gets the most description in this book. Every single time she shows up we get an in depth description of her goth-y black and purple outfits down to the color lipstick she's wearing and another mention of how her eyes look owlish behind her glasses.

It's constantly described how she's so crazy and everyone knows to stay away from the Fear family. They do dark magic and blah blah blah. I mostly thought Deena was annoying. She just shows up out of nowhere and starts telling Caitlyn that she needs to do this and that and doesn't give any sort of explanation EVER about why or what they're doing?! Why would anyone just follow blindly along with a crazy person who is trying to get your help to perform dark magic on a dead person?

I am pretty sure I hated the plot twist at the end. I just don't think I followed it all that well because I really didn't care.

I really didn't like the writing. It was just... way too juvenile. Everything was kind of just ridiculous all together I felt. It wasn't scary at all. The only time I felt my pulse flutter at all was when Caitlyn's driving was being talked about because she sounds like a HORRIFIC driver. Seriously, how did she not die in this book?

Overall, I was not a fan of this book. I remember Stine's books as being a lot more fun, but I was also a lot younger. That being said, I think that the younger crowd would probably find this book thrilling. I think I'm just too old to enjoy his writing anymore. I think the only people I would recommend this book to would have to be way younger than me. I personally don't think that I will be reading another Stine book. I gave this two stars because there were at least a few parts of this book that made me actually want to keep reading.

Are you a fan of R.L. Stine? Have you read this book? What did you think?