😍REVIEW: "The Dead Boyfriend" by R.L. Stine (YA Horror)

The Dead Boyfriend by R.L. Stine
	Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin Genre: Young Adult, Horror Publication Date: September 27th 2016 Series: Fear Street Relaunch, #5 Standalone: Yes Other Books In Series: #1 Party Games #2 Don't Stay Up Late #3 The Lost Girl #4 Can You Keep a Secret? #6 Give Me a K-I-L-L (Affiliate links)
Description from Publisher:
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.
My Rating:
My Musings:
A glance at several reviews on Goodreads shows me that I am far from alone at being very excited at seeing this book up on Netgalley and then getting approved for it. I had quite the collection of Fear Street novels as a teenager and still remember many of the ridiculous yet awesome stories (Cheerleaders, 99 Fear Street, the Fear Street Saga, the Cataluna Chronicles... Makes me nostalgic just to think of them!). As I read this new book, I started to wonder if I was just too old for R.L. Stine. I didn't like any of the characters and I pretty much hated the ridiculous drama that came out of practically nowhere. One of the first notes I made was a part where Caitlyn says something like "Blade, let's do something OUTRAGEOUS" while crashing a college party and her suggestion is to makeout in the middle of the room. Which, naturally, gets everyone's attention and the host kicks them out. Caitlin and Blade think that they are just AWESOME for this. Erm, what? I didn't care for the fact that Deena Fear was uber-goth and so very obvious either. From what I remember of the series, the evil was more subtle, in such a way that it was questioned whether the crazy things that happened had happened at all. This was a quick read, but just didn't wow me. The twists were obvious well ahead of time, the characters unlikable, and the writing bogged down by too many useless details.
My Source: I received a digital ARC from the publisher to voluntarily review. This in no way influenced my review. My opinion is unbiased and my 100% own.

About the Author: R.L. Stine
Robert Lawrence Stine known as R. L. Stine and Jovial Bob Stine, is an American novelist and writer, well known for targeting younger audiences. Stine, who is often called the Stephen King of children's literature, is the author of dozens of popular horror fiction novellas, including the books in the Goosebumps, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, The Nightmare Room and Fear Street series. R. L. Stine began his writing career when he was nine years old, and today he has achieved the position of the bestselling children's author in history. In the early 1990s, Stine was catapulted to fame when he wrote the unprecedented, bestselling Goosebumps® series, which sold more than 250 million copies and became a worldwide multimedia phenomenon. His other major series, Fear Street, has over 80 million copies sold. Stine has received numerous awards of recognition, including several Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards and Disney Adventures Kids' Choice Awards, and he has been selected by kids as one of their favorite authors in the NEA's Read Across America program. He lives in New York, NY.