Review: The Dead Boyfriend by R.L. Stine

I want to be fair in rating this book. R.L. Stine was the go-to author of my childhood. I think the moment I was introduced to Fear Street and the Goosebumps series, I was hooked. As a preteen, these novels were intense. They invoked a fear like none of other for me. Stine's The Dead Boyfriend could possibly have done the same for me during those days. But, now that my reading has matured, I can't quite seem to recapture that feeling.





Caitlin finds the boy of her dreams up until he becomes the boy of her nightmares. She and Blade have a whirlwind romance that starts heavy and ends like most Fear Streetnovels. Tragically and supernaturally. That's where I'll end that. The novel is too short not to give away much of the plot or ruin the intense nature of some scenes I'm sure just might scare the socks off of the younger me. 

Oh how the younger me would have maybe loved this novel. I probably would have been able to ignore that a middle-aged man couldn't possibly know the voice of a teenage girl. Let alone make her seem believable. I mean, how annoying was Caitlin. She has got to be one of the top brattiest characters I've read EVER.

I wish I could say there was so much to love about The Dead Boyfriend. I really do. I built my world at some point in time making sure I had every last copy of every Stine book ever written. And I really couldn't ignore the absence of parents... why was there no supervision? WTF. Does no one raise their children anymore and allow their 17 year old children free reign? I don't know. I don't know anything anymore. 

I thought I'd found my all in R.L. Stine. 

How could it be possible we aren't meant to be?



I feel as if my review isn't fair. I know the young me would have loved this novel. What's better than a love gone wrong mixed in with some supernatural un-explainable shit?NOTHING! Nothing except age. Age has drawn a line in the sand for me and has rendered me nostalgic for the days I can read an R.L. Stine novel and be entranced... 

Yet old enough to know that the love has died... similarly to this "Dead" boyfriend...

Young Me: 4 star rating
Kinda Old me:1-2 at best

Let's split the difference and give this novel a 3 star rating.

Copy provided by St. Martin's Press via Netgalley