Customer Reviews

The Deadly Fire (Fear Street: Cataluna Chronicles, No. 3)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the third and final chronical of the Cataluna series. William Parker is still hunting after Bad Moon Catherine. His chase takes place in Shadyside inside of a girl's body. This girl happens to be Marisol, the curious neighbor of Buddy, who can't wait to take a ride in the Doom Car. Buddy's brother Stan died in this car and Buddy is dying to drive the car and race Will, the new stranger who's winning over Sara, his girlgriend. Will Buddy make it out alive, or will he die in the Doom Car just like his brother? Will Willam Parker finally defeat Catherine? Or will she beat him?

Synopsis: Buddy McCloy's brother Stan is a racecar driver, and the latest victim to the evil Cataluna. Buddy feels terrible and gets upsets when he sees his girlfriend Sarah Franklin flirting with another guy named Will. Buddy gets consumed with rage when he sees Sara hanging out with Will more often, even though he likes his new neighbor Marisol. Will challenges Buddy to race him in the Cataluna. Even though Buddy fears the car, he has no choice but to drive the Cataluna, in order to get his girlfriend back.

Meanwhile, the evil spirit of Catherine is trapped within the car, and feels that Will is actually William Parker, and makes her own plans to destroy him. Is William Parker's spirit still alive, and if so, can he destroy Catherine in time?

Review: I had mixed feelings about this book, because I liked the story, despite hating the protagonist Buddy. Even though there is a reason provided as to why Buddy and Sara acted the way they did, I still didn't like Buddy's character in this book. On one hand, Buddy feels terrible about what happened to Stan, but at the same time, he seems really immature in hating Sean, who is just looking out for him. It is clear that Sara doesn't want Buddy, yet he does everything to make her his girlfriend again, while ignoring Marisol. True, the evil did make him behave that way, but nevertheless, it didn't make me feel sorry for the character. At times I wished the Cataluna ended Buddy's character.

On the other hand, the climax of the book where William fights Catherine was written really well, and I thought it was an excellent ending to the series. This is probably the main reason why I also think this book is weak compared to the previous two in the series, because while the previous two books had two parallel storylines of two different timelines, where one took place in 1995 Shadyside, and the other took place in the late 1600s, (and I was really intrigued with the 1600-1700 storylines between William and Catherine), this book only focused on one timeline, and mainly with only one character - Buddy. This is why I feel this book could have been so much better if Stine could have focused more on the rivalry between William and Catherine rather than Buddy and Sara.

Overall, I thought this book was weak compared to the first two books in "The Cataluna Chronicles", but if you liked the first two books, you would definitely want to read this to see how the series ends.

I love how R.L Stine set place the book from colony period to present,and the end is really twisty.

My niece (11) loves horror and goosebumps through the ages. So, I got her the 3 books in the Cataluna Chronicles. Her review: 2 thumbs up!

A very good book - a possesed car

This book was the best of the three! part 1 and 2 were good but part 3 was the best of the lot because it got straight to the point instead of keeping you in suspense all the time having to wait for the next part to come out.I liked it how Catherine and william had a face to face fight leaving one person standing.

I hated this book so much that I couldn't even finish it. I got tired of reading about the main male character and how he thought he was all bad just because he had a cool car. What a loser. It got even worse with the continuation of the tale of Bad Luck Catherine. I think R.L. Stine's mixing of the two time periods like that just killed the whole thing.