I'm Amy A. Cowan, and this is
Rereading My Childhood - Fear Street Sagas #4: The Sign of Fear by R. L. Stine
In which I accidentally skipped over this one before the format change, we travel back in time, and falling in love means being drawn to the orb beneath a lady’s bodice.
Despite Fear Street’s abject level of violence, they were all pretty sexless. Characters went out on dates and did some light making-out, but nothing too risqué or even over-the-clothes touching. As long as all they did in the car in the middle of the forest was touch hands and get their heads chopped off, everything was copasetic. They also didn’t curse. Not a single “fuck” could be uttered, even if they were engulfed in flames. “Oh, shoot! Darn! This hurts a lot!” Violence was totally okay as long as there were no naughty words or actions. This is the plot of South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut.
After many reviews, we finally get characters who do more than yearn. So keep this dirty book out of the youngin’s hands! Warnings for nebulously aged characters having implied intercourse. Still no cursing, though.
Fear Street Sagas #4: The Sign of Fear is a duel-POV entry into the historical series, and, boy, are we getting some history. Our 1679 POV centers around Christina, a woman whose father has just passed away and now she must live with her Aunt Jane, who hates her, and the woman is very obvious about it. As Christina attempts to navigate her new living situation as an indentured servant, we switch points-of-view to a young Celtic warrior, Fieran, in 50 C.E. who enjoys talking to skulls and creating evil McGuffins for old-timey residents of Shadyside to fight over. That’s right—we get the origin of the Fier Family Pendant. The one that screams “I’m evil” in Latin on the back.
Both Christina and Fieran are consumed with revenge after their perceived rightful positions are usurped either by an antiquated system or a traitorous childhood rival. They both have clear motivations that force them to confront the unjust world they were born into. That’s an interesting enough premise, and the characters themselves are willing to kick and claw their way through life. Both characters inflict gruesome fates on those who have wronged them, ending in delightfully gory horror scenes. In the end, the decisions our main characters make bring them to their doom or their salvation, depending on which character we’re referring to, but it’s a fun ride to get there. The third act twists were a bit contrived, but these types of twists are endemic to the Fear Street series.
Fear Street Sagas #4: The Sign of Fear is a fun entry into the series that suffers from some of the usual problems with Fear Street. If we could have just another hundred pages to flesh out some characters and set up the twists, they could have been more impactful. Even though I enjoyed the dichotomy between Christina and Fieran’s stories, I’d suggest separating them into separate books. The only problem is that Fieran’s story is too old for the Sagas series. There’s a big difference between antebellum New England and Beowulf times.
Should you read R. L. Stine’s Fear Street Sagas #4: The Sign of Fear?
★★★/5 - The book has some gory scenes, a few interesting characters, and it won’t take long to finish.
Despite my review, the book actually starts with a prologue set in 1710 and a man named Matthew is The Cask of Amontillado-ing himself into a wall with an amulet. He rants and raves as he clutches the Fier Family Magical McGuffin, and he dies behind a wall. He thinks about the woman he took the amulet from, Christina Davis, and the Celtic spell-caster named Fieran. Then he’s kaput, and we’re finally in the the numbered chapters.
It’s 1679 and Christina Davis is burying her father. Now she has to live alone with her wicked Aunt Jane. She throws rocks at some attacking crows and falls into her father’s grave. When she wakes up, she overhears her Aunt planning something nefarious with an unknown woman. She dresses, finds the amulet, hurls a chair through the window, and jumps out. Just before she makes it out, Aunt Jane grabs her ankle. She kicks the old lady and escapes into the forest, where she finds a barn and screaming.
Suddenly, we’re in Britain 50 C.E., and two Celtic soldiers named Fieran and Conn bicker over a lady named Brianna. Fieran declines to kill Conn himself so they can do some Braveheart shit against the Romans. Fieran kills the Roman leader and gets himself a gross head, but he’s really excited about it.
“His head is where he makes his dreams of conquest. His head is where he makes his battle plans. Take a man’s head, and you take the best part of him. But beware the bargain you must make, Fieran.”
I wouldn’t be excited about smelly old head, no matter how many battle plans it had, but to each his own. I’m sure a Library Sale wouldn’t excite Fieran the same way it does for me.
Anyway, Fieran is a spell-caster, and he gets visions of spooky chapter-ending cliffhangers. After one of these, Brianna and Conn show up, and Conn yells that Fieran will never be chief at the succession ceremony that is to be held that night. Life is moving very fast. Battle one day. Wicker Man the next.
It is Wicker Man with less bees and more willingly walking into the fire. The chief goes into the straw man, it’s lit, and Fieran has a vision that he is the next chief. Conn claims he is the chief, snatches Brianna, and walks into the fire—only to reappear unscathed. He is made the next chief. Fieran protests and ends up banished. Fieran suspects that Brianna used her fire powers to help Conn, as she is also a spell-caster. Fieran goes ham on his gross Roman head, attempting to “release the power” trapped in its skull. Gunk pours out of the head, Fieran passes out, and we’re back to 1679 and Christina.
Our heroine meets a boy on a horse, who takes her the mysterious Petersen barn, where it is said that girls disappear. His name is Matthew, and Mistress Petersen helped him out. You see, he and his brother are looking for a powerful family heirloom. I wonder if this heirloom has anything to do with Christina (/sarcasm). It turns out that Mistress Petersen was the woman Aunt Jane was speaking with. Aunt Jane was selling Christina to Mistress Petersen as an indentured servant. Matthew has saved Mistress Petersen the trouble of fetching Christina herself. But it’s all okay because she helped Matthew when he was at his lowest, and he’s sure that Mistress Petersen will be kind to Christina because he has already fallen in love with her. But he’s gotta go now because he needs to find his heirloom that is definitely not on Christina’s person.
A young lady emerges from her room—Emily Petersen, who is awfully chummy with Matthew. Christina cuts herself on a pitcher, and Emily is like, “Hell yeah, fresh blood!” And she soaks it into a rag and runs off. Matthew and Mistress Petersen just shrug and say, “That’s our wacky Emily!” After Matthew leaves, the first thing Mistress Petersen does is throw Christina into the cellar for breaking the pitcher.
Christina’s life revolves around work after that, and Mistress Petersen and Emily do not make it easy for her.
Christina’s days slipped into a dismal pattern. She arose at first light. She worked all day. She fell into her bed exhausted every night. After what felt like moments, Mistress Petersen shook her awake. Forcing her to begin another day.
Eventually, Mistress Petersen and Emily go into town, leaving Christina alone. She enters Emily’s room and finds it covered in mirrors, disembodied hands, and jars of blood. Christina throws the blood on the ground and tries to get out, but the door locks and the pendant with the words “Dominatio per malum” glows and Christina blacks out.
When last we saw Fierian, he was choking on head gunk, and we find him waking up and talking to the skull. He asks for revenge, and the skull gives him jewelry.
Fieran’s hand trembled as he studied the silver disc. The front had a silver bird’s claw clutching glittering stones. Blue stones. / And Latin words were carved on the back. Dominatio per malum. / Power through evil. The deep voice of the Roman head boomed. / As long as your family lasts, so will this amulet. So will the power of your revenge.
Then it asks for blood. Fieran trails Conn, intending to feed him or whatever to the talking skull. Instead, he finds Conn and Brianna meeting in the forest. It turns out she used her fire powers, just as Fieran conjectured, to help Conn. And then Fieran watches them make out in the woods.
A week later, Fieran starts his “plan.” I use that word loosely. Basically, he sends a message to Conn saying he’s sorry, he wants to return, and the standing stones are a great place for Fieran to apologize. Conn shows up because he’s dumb. Stine doesn’t say that, but I say that. A big rock falls on Conn. Fieran attributes it to the standing stones, but Brianna appears and says she pushed the rock. She claims that she was forced to help Conn, and that she still really loves Fieran. He doesn’t believe her, but he wants even more revenge, so he plays along.
Back to Christina. She is also determined to get revenge, so she trashes Emily’s room, runs out into the forest, and returns to Aunt Jane’s house. With the power of the amulet, Christina makes Aunt Jane’s pie explode, which is so hot that it melts Aunt Jane, leaving her a smoking pile of bones. It is gruesome to read, but it was a result of an exploding pie, so it’s funny in a Sam Raimi kind of way.
Christina is horrified at the amulet’s power, so she goes running into the woods again. And, once again, she bumps into Matthew, who could feel the amulet. He has not connected the sudden appearance of Christina with the sudden burst of energy from the amulet. Like Conn, he is dumb. He takes Christina back to the Petersens’, where Emily confronts Christina. Matthew’s horse is spooked and it runs off with Matthew on it. See, it’s not just humans who run into the forest while panicking.
During a scuffle, Emily starts to literally deteriorate in front of Christina’s eyes while screaming about needing Christina’s blood for her beauty. We get a third act twist.
Mistress Petersen dashed into the sitting room. She set a lighted candle down on the table. Then she took Emily into her arms. / “Now, mother,” she crooned, glancing at Christina. “Don’t worry. We’ll get your beauty back. But first, you’ve got to calm down.” / “Mother?” Christina gasped. “Emily is your mother?” / “Yes!” Mistress Petersen cried. “She is my mother. I would do anything for her. For years, we’ve been happy. People may have suspected us of practicing the dark arts. But they could never prove anything.”
I understand the whole Bathory thing, but it’s pretty cold-hearted of Emily to keep all the blood for herself and not give some to her daughter. Mistress Petersen is an old woman, which means that she is not partaking in the blood.
While the ladies are screaming at each other, Matthew returns and refuses to be outdone. He finally sees the amulet in Christina’s possession and screams that it’s the family heirloom that he’s been searching for, ending the chapter and sending us back in time. It’s treated like a bigger reveal than the old/young lady dousing herself in blood. I think the biggest twist is that blood bathing works. Call Olay, I have an idea to fix their moisturizer/sunscreen that kept burning my eyes.
Back in Celtic times, Fieran convinces Brianna that he has another ritual to complete his power transition, but we all know he’s really planning to kill her and give her up to the skull. He tries to stab her, but she stops him because she’s stronger than him. She stabs him instead and douses the amulet in his blood, stealing the power for herself. He informs her that once he dies, the amulet will cease to provide power, as it only grants power as long as his family lives. Brianna informs him that she is pregnant.
“The child will be a boy, Fieran, “Brianna went on. “He will never know you. But I will make sure you are not forgotten. I will name him after you. His name and his power will live for all time.” / “I will call our boy Fier, Fieran. He will be the first in a line that will continue hundreds and hundreds of years.”
Fieran dies cursing what he made, what he called “the sign of fear.” Hey, that’s the name of the movie! Er, book!
For the final time, we’re back in 1679. Emily and Mistress Petersen knock over a candle and are engulfed in flames, along with their estate. Christina is trapped under a support beam. She calls for Matthew, but he takes the amulet and runs off, leaving Christina by herself. She saves herself, curses Matthew for leaving her, and says that he “chose the sign of fear.”
Hey, that’s the name of the book, again!
See, we finally get some sexy times in a Fear Street book! Sure, it’s only implied and I didn’t get it until I read that she’s pregnant. And sure, it’s within the confines of ancient marriage, but it’s still something to break up the violence and gore. Look, this is the most we’re going to get out of a Fear Street book. The ‘90s are remembered as pretty progressive, but I was there. It was not. I remember when Buffy lost her virginity to her boyfriend and a parents group freaked out. Jokes on them. That parent group used to put out their “Worst Shows of the Week” list and I would make sure to watch every one of the those shows. Maybe they were a secret marketing firm for television. All that list did was make me want to watch more TV.
But I digress. This was a pretty okay, standard Fear Street Sagas. It’s aggressively fine.
So until next time, I'm Amy A. Cowan and this has been Rereading My Childhood - Fear Street Sagas #4: The Sign of Fear. You can find me as Amy A. Cowan on TikTok, on BlueSky, on YouTube. Yeah, I think those are the ones. Also, please subscribe to the Substack. It can all be found at amyacowan.com. Keep reading and later days!
