The Stepsister 2 or "Angry Art Class!"

Alright, here is the continuation of The Stepsister, inventively called The Stepsister 2. However, we know from reading the last book that the dog-killer is actually Emily’s REAL sister. INTENSE! Anyways, the back of the book tells us that Emily wants to “forgive and forget” the fact that Nancy, her sister, attempted to kill her, but she’s having trouble with all the awful accidents that are happening around her! I wonder who could be causing them…

The cover: Pretty good. Emily looks pretty here but completely different from the first book. It’s kinda an improvement though, so I won’t complain. Nancy on the other hand… has glowing red eyes. Ummm. That’s unusual… especially since this isn’t a “super special” where magic happens. She also has terrible hair AND is wearing a horizontal striped turtleneck! Blech! No wonder Nancy hates Emily. She’s obviously envious of Emily’s long hair and normally pigmented eyes!

So in this book, Emily and her stepsister (of the non-evil variety) Jessie are super close since Nancy tried to kill Emily and put the blame on Jessie. Nancy has been in an institute for a year, but the book opens on her homecoming day. Emily is understandably nervous. The whole book tries to pin the accidents on Emily’s stepbrother Rich, since Emily got him into trouble (he was drinking beer at 14!) and he acts like a major creep the whole time. Or I could say he acts like a 14 year old boy. Although with more vows of revenge than usual.

So Emily and Jessie are waiting for their parents to come home with Nancy when they hear the doorbell ring. It MUST be her! Because who doesn’t arrive at their home and ring the doorbell. O wait, NO ONE does that! Especially since Nancy is with her parents who would obviously have keys to their own GD house. Ugh, whatever advances the plot I guess? It’s (obviously) not Nancy, but their friend Cora-Ann (crappy name).

So let’s get down to the scary, gory, crazy stuff that Fear Street books are full of. Except this one? Has nothing like that. The first “incident” is Emily’s expensive perfume is knocked over. OOOO. Also, we don’t get any more questions answered from the last book. As I’m sure you all remember, Nancy tried to get Emily’s boyfriend by making out with him in front of her. But they never explained if Josh was into it or pushed her away, or just accepted it… Anyhoo, Emily is still with sister-lover Josh. Why? We have no clue.

Other “scary” incidents: Emily trips on the stairs (happened last book), and her favorite dress is cut up. Also Nancy attempts to strangle her, but only in an effort to show Emily how scared she still is of Nancy. Which… okay yeah, I guess it worked. But it’s probably not gonna make her trust you anymore if you keep pretending to strangle her, Nancy!

But the best, BEST accident is when Emily gets her teeth SUPERGLUED together! WHAT?! In other books, people get their arms torn off. But the best the Stepsister gets is some teeth glued together?! Poor form R.L.!

After all these “crazy” accidents happen, their parents decided to leave the three teenaged girls alone in the house for a weekend. Because it’s always a perfect time to go on vacation when one of your daughters is accusing the other one of attempted murder. Emily and Jessie suddenly think the ‘criminal mastermind’ is Cora-Ann because Jessie accidentally killed her cousin a few years ago (don’t ask, it’s not worth explaining). In a surprise that shocks NO ONE, it’s not. It’s criminally insane Nancy! CRAZY!!

Emily runs around the house, trying not to get murdered by Nancy, and accidentally reveals a mural that Nancy painted that says “HATE HATE HATE” over and over again. I guess the lesson that needs to be learned is always check what your mentally unstable sister is doing during art class. I just thought I’d note that Emily avoids being stabbed by Nancy due solely to the fact that her sweatshirt is so oversized, the kitchen knife gets lost in it! Awesome! I knew my giant wolf sweatshirt had a purpose! Emily also stops Nancy from killing her by wrapping her in a bear hug and repeatedly saying “I forgive you!” Not to dump all over that nice sentiment, but she probably didn’t kill you because she didn’t have the use of her arms… just saying…

The book ends with Emily and Jessie discussing the divorce of Cora-Ann’s parents. Apparently they went to one session and the counselor told them to get a divorce. Really? Does that happen? That seems kinda … counter productive to just give up. Shadyside now has useless police officers, doctors AND marriage counselors. Just hope you don’t have any problems when you go to visit! Again the last page of the book is devoted to a horrible joke that makes light of the family’s situation of one of the daughters being totally nuts! They watch Family Feud and giggle. How appropriate!

This recap was super short because this book was totally boring. Sorry! But believe me… you didn’t miss anything. Zero crazed sisters out of ten!

A.M. Stine