Before R.L. Stine gave us Goosebumps, he frightened us with his horror book series Fear Street, which launched in 1989, three years prior to his better known Goosebumps books.  Unlike those books, however, Fear Street was catered towards teenagers rather than children, often featuring more blood and gore.

The Fear Street series takes place in the fictional city of ShadySide, Ohio, where teenagers were pitted against adversaries both human and paranormal with a total of 52 books that comprised the original line.  The books read more like horror movies than episodes of a children’s television show, where it wasn’t uncommon for characters to be killed off in gruesome fashion.

The series gave birth to spinoffs, including New Fear Street and Ghosts of Fear Street, with the books officially coming to an end in 1999. Though a brief revival series hit book shelves in 2005, which included only three books, Fear Street hasn’t been heard from since.  Starting off 2014 comes the news that the series is set to relaunch later this year, and it is all thanks to Twitter and the fans requests.  Three brand new hardcover Fear Street books will hit shelves this coming October, one of which will be titled Party Games.

This is what R.L. Stine had to say about Fear Street‘s revival;  “It’s really pretty amazing how the whole thing happened, (Twitter’s) a really gratifying way to keep in touch with my fan base. It feeds my ego.” he says. “Basic fears don’t change.  There are still the same monsters under the bed. People are still afraid of the dark. Readers have evolved and technology has changed, but the basics are still there. I just need to add a bit of intensity.”

R.L. Stine is an important part of my childhood and my love for everything horror, along with the legendary Stephen King books of old, so I welcome his return to the long dormant Fear Street.

Courtesy of The Big Thrill