In Too Deep

Fear Street Seniors #2

by R.L. Stine

Kenny Klein is captivated by a mysterious counselor at Camp Shadyside...but is she trying to kill him?

Genres: Horror, Young Adult, Teen, Horror Thriller, Childrens, Thriller, Paranormal

156 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1998

About the author

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.

http://us.macmillan.com/itsthefirstda...

Reviews

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Allright it's time for episode two of the Fear Street Seinors book,titled In Too Deep.The story starts off with our protagonist Kenny .He's cuddled up with his girlfriend Jade. Jade is leaving for California to take some SAT test or something and Kenny starts his new job as a camp counselor the next day. Jade warns Kenny not to cheat on her while she's away.We get to camp and Kenny meets this kid named Ty ,who he accidentally hits in the nose with competitive game of teather ball.Ty immediately doesn't like Kenny.Kenny ends up walking around exploring when he sees a really beautiful girlm He introduces himself and here he meets Melly. Melly is really pretty and Kenny is head over heels for her already even though Kenny has a girlfriend. she hits on him pretty fast.And she warns Kenny that Ty is dangerous but when Kenny points out Ty Melly informs him that that isn't Ty. Later we are introduced to the the campers that Kenny will be taking care of.There's around 7 or so kids I think with Kenny .Grayden Simon Charlie and a few others .Kenny counts the kids and notices one is missing. He informs Craig our head counselor and we learn that Kenny should've studied his group alot more because there is one kid in the group who is quite "disturbed" .This is where we meet Vincent,easily the most fascinating character in this book .Vincent wears a mask and is very shy .We learn Vincent was in some kind of accident that left his face scarred and all of the kids give him a hard time pretty fast.And all Vincent does is stare at Kenny and stays close with him at all times .But when the boys begin to fight and Kenny Dosnt take Vincents side Vincent warns him of trouble .Kenny takes a break from camp for a bit ,when he meets a group of friends and they decide to go swimming in Fear Lake.While out playing in the water he sees Melly and they run off into the woods together and she dares him to jump off this really high rock. He does and regretfully so hitting rocks and things along the way. He gets out the water and is freaked because Melly was suppose to jump with him, but his friends say they didn't see her. Kenny and his group end up going hiking and Vincent ends up running inside only to start screaming about bats. later Melly and Kenny ends up going to the same cave when Melly runs away and Kenny tries to find her ,only for her not to answer and him falling down getting angry. Things like this seem to happen. Melly seems to be pretty bent on hurting Kenny. We end up at a scene I could not wait for and that's a camp fire scene telling ghost stories. They tell a few until Kenny noticed a poisonous snake around the fire. He takes him back to a cage and comes back to volunteer something else to do .Vincent speaks up and says they should play cards and Vincent didn't wanna play Go fFsh or Uno.No he wants to play with doom cards .The cards are suppose to tell the future he talks Kenny into pulling out three cards and they all have black skulls on them.Vincent tells Kenny that means immediate death. After this, the already fun book gets better. Kenny runs into a snake agian and it turns out to be the exact same one he checks the cage and all.He gets threats written on his jeep in white paint.And he knows ty is painting cabins white. Is it ty ? Ty seems to not like Kenny at all. is it Melly? She almost leads him to certain death every time they hang around. Or is it Vincent? This was a really fun book it reminded me a lot of The Curse Of Camp Cold Lake from the original Goosebumps series, especially towards the end .Speaking of the end their was multiple twists throughout the book and one I legit said "what?" I actually thought I had a little part of this book figured out .But I was wrong. Stine even played this one right because everything that happened did have an explanation. even if it was a little far fetched. I give In To Deep a perfect five out of five stars.I also think Stine was throwing out Easter eggs a little bit here,because the word Lights Out and The Overnight are used a few times.

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tries for a Camp Crystal Lake vibe and ends up completely bonkers, but in a good way. These books are like the best worst horror movies.


——
Reread 2024 with Sally and Matthew!

[Stay Fetters · Rating 4 out of 5]

"She’s evil. I’m not kidding. She’s evil."

It’s time to head to Shadyside Day Camp where the sun shines bright, the marshmallows are toasty, and the water is deadly.

Stine really knows how to put the fear in everyday things. This is why I’ve never gone to camp. Fear Street books are always a lot of terrifying fun!

[Cassie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fear Street Seniors: In Too Deep (Book 2)
by R. L. Stine

Another of the senior books bites the dust. In this book we see the cliche of a summer camp introduced. A senior is working at it. The first two books are basically the summer before senior year, which makes sense because you technically become a senior at that time. It appears though that the real story doesn't start until the next book called "The Thirst" when the seniors it appears actually start to die and the mystery of who is doing it gets introduced (I read the blurb for the next book that was in this one, so shoot me).

This book is very predictable with the horror aspect of it. You won't be left going "Oh I didn't see that coming." At least not if you are familiar with any other horror story in existence. There will be a part of you that yawns through this particular book in the series as it feels like mainly filler because they wanted it to be a year long series. The only nice thing is for most of the book you are laughing at the main character because you know that the troubled kid in the book is not the kid he thinks it is. It became apparent while reading this book that I have developed as a reader and understand good writing, which this is not. To fit into stereotypes of your genre isn't a pretty thing, which makes this a less joyful read than the first book in the series that actually spent time to introduce us to all the characters in a reasonable fashion (a simple party without focusing on them). This book had little redeeming qualities about it though.

This book would have received 1 star if it hadn't been for the nostalgia of reading a Stine book. As previously stated I devoured these books as a child, but I recognize now that sometimes our taste matures. I have definitely found stronger and a lot better fiction than this. I am going to read the rest of the series because it has been on my bucket list for far too long and it is time to knock it off, but I hope that they are not all as painful as this particular book or I may have to kill someone myself.

[Courtney Gruenholz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Episode Two...I like how you have the books called episodes, Stine.

So the first book was our little setup of what is to come in later books and this second one is a little bit more a typical Fear Street with a small focus instead of a huge cast of characters.

This one focuses on Kenny Klein. Girlfriend Jade Feldman is going away for SAT Prep in California so Kenny is stuck in Shadyside as a day camp counselor keeping an eye on nine year old boys. His boss Craig tells him he has one kid who is...disturbed.

You're sending a disturbed child to a camp around other kids? Shadyside parenting is still top notch I see...

Besides the kids, Kenny will be seeing a lot of Debra Lake and Dana Palmer, fellow counselors.

Another counselor is Ty Sullivan. He will be transferring senior year to Shadyside High after going to an all male private school. Tough guy with a pierced eyebrow, he and Kenny do not get off to a good start.

One of Kenny's kids, Vincent, arrives wearing a red and white ski mask. He was in a horrible accident and never takes it off so he and the other boys are ripe with teasing one another and being well...nine year old boys.

One thing that makes the job worthwhile for Kenny...is the counselor in charge of arts and crafts, Melly. She's blonde and beautiful so of course, Jade being miles away is perfect...for now.

Soon, things start happening to Kenny...terrible things. Ty has it out for him, Vincent is creepy and clingy and soon it's clear that Melly is hiding something from Kenny. All of this craziness, the job might just kill Kenny if someone doesn't do it first...

Summer camp is always great for horror and being a fan of Friday The 13th and The Burning, I was enjoying this book a lot. The smaller cast and a focused plot is easy to be entertained especially when we get to the twists and the reveals.

One was kind of obvious but the other one came out of nowhere and I was impressed. Since this is a big arc of a series, the ending was okay but will really fit in as each set of characters have yet to meet their certain doom...DOOM!

Sorry couldn't resist...

This second book is so far my favorite and I guess we'll have to wait to see what is in store for Shadyside High Class of 1999...

[Matthew MacIntyre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty fun book. Super fast read. Although I figured most of the twists pretty early i throughly enjoyed it. I can’t wait for the actual plot of the seniors series to start though. And I want actual important characters to die. That’s my biggest frustration!

[C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The plot: Kenny Klein has a job as a counselor at the ominously-named Shadyside Day Camp. It's a day camp that holds sleepovers once a week, so the kids still get assigned to cabins and have bunks. Awesome. I already know at least one person who appears to be a living camper or counselor will turn out to be a corpse from a previous summer, because I've read a lot of these and a lot of Goosebumps and I have a creeping sense of inevitability.

Kenny is told he has a disturbed kid among his nine-year-old boys, but he's lost the notes that were sent to him on each camper so he doesn't know who. Ahaha, brilliant. Instead of asking for another print out he just spends the whole book assuming it's Vincent. It's not an unreasonable assumption: aside from being named Vincent, the kid wears a mask to cover up scarring from some kind of accident, and stares at Kenny constantly.

The other plot: Although Kenny has a girlfriend, she's away doing a summer SAT-prep course in California, so that leaves him free to flirt with the gorgeous blonde counselor he first meets walking along the shore of Fear Lake. Oh God, Kenny, you moron: clearly she's a dead person. But no, he believes she's a girl from Waynesbridge. He believes this LONG PAST the point when he should panic, which is when not only does she become creepily possessive but a woman at her listed address TELLS HIM her daughter Melly died when she was eight. COME ON, KENNY. You are dating a corpse.

[Chelsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another bummer! I remember really liking this series but so far the first two books have been disappointing rereads. This book focuses on Shadyside High Senior Kenny; sad his girlfriend Jade is off to Cali for the summer, he takes a job at a summer camp. He meets Ty Sullivan, who's transferring to Shadyside for his senior year, and he seems a little unstable, always angry and blaming stupid accidents on Kenny. Then there's the other counsellor Melly, she's cute and comes on to Kenny early on. Kenny didn't read the profiles on the campers he's in charge of but knows one of them is "disturbed" probably the kid in the mask that keeps staring at him. The twists were predictable, ones RL has used in past books and just as cheesy. Waiting for this series to pick up...

[Aurora Dimitre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Guys, I just - I can't deal with this series. Like, I just- it's so beautiful, the gore and the Goosebumps-esque twists, but just sort of turned up to eleven because this is for kids a little older. It does the thing where you don't know what's going on but also where when it happens, by god does it happen , and I just. I can't rate this masterpiece any less than five stars. What can I say, bad, cheesy teen horror from the 1990s is my weakness.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always loved the Fear Street Seniors series, but the books are almost impossible to find now. Luckily I snagged a few of them through Interlibrary Loan before everything shut down, so I can at least read those.

I thought I remembered how this one ended, but I must have it mixed up with another Fear Street book because I wasn’t even close.

[Jonathan Askenazi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Its like reading friday the 13th!

[Mo Milliken · Rating 2 out of 5]

hooo boy, here we go

first impression: i did assume that it was going to be more of a traditional camp slasher/friday the 13th kind of vibe, but at this point, after that first book, i should know better than to assume r.l. won’t go off the rails. although here i don’t think it was in a good way.

pros: the whole summer camp horror subgenre is played out, but is really nostalgic for me so i don’t mind it, and throw in the shadyside cursed aspect of it, i was kinda living; i was loving kenny unintentionally continuing to injure ty, it did make me giggle a couple of times because this kid can’t catch a break; i enjoyed the melly plot to an extent before i got tired of it, same with vincent

cons: ty sullivan is a piece of work, and judging by the fact that he’s in the yearbook at the beginning of the novel, i’m gonna be dealing with him for a while. and that’s unfortunate, because i don’t like him; kenny was a really difficult protagonist to try to deal with for as long as i had to. he was always making shitty choices, and the cheating made my eyes roll back in my head. just because jade isn’t there doesn’t mean she ceases to exist, kenny; i saw the surprise and the twist coming from a hundred miles away, unfortunately. and because of that, i couldn’t really enjoy when it when we got to the ending and it all became clear

overall, it’s fun if you just look at it as another fun fear street set in a camp and weird creepy shit happens. if you look at it as more than that, there’s far too much that makes absolutely no sense. but fun! 2.5/5 stars from me!

fear street seniors 2/12 done!

[Mileena · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Too Deep
4/5 stars

I fucking LOVE horror set in summer camps. This is not a book where you're going to get super invested in the characters, in fact the main guy is actually a can of shit and most of this revolves around him cheating on his girlfriend. Which I have come to realize is a common thread in RL Stines books, dude has a girlfriend, said girlfriend goes put of town, he cheats on her, terrible horrors follow him as a result. Like, you good my dude? Who hurt you?

I loved the twists and turns, the setting was jump off the page atmospheric, and I think this would make a super fun Netflkx type horror.

Overall, RL Stine rarely disappoints. I even though I had lost this book recently and was devastated so tells you how much I enjoyed it. Unfortunately it's super hard to obtain a copy or yourself nowadays, but if you can, I'd definitely recommend.

[Jack Reacts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full review at: https://www.jackreacts.com.au/fear-st...

Snippet: This was a good read, but there’s a lot that doesn’t make sense if you think about it. If Melly’s been waiting for him all these years, why didn’t she just possess a body and interact with him sooner? We know she wasn’t stuck where she’d died because she’d gotten these bodies from the cemetery. And then how did she even dig them up if she’s just a ghost? Also, the whole book is pretty fucked up considering the fact that Melly is eight years old, regardless of the teenage body she was in...

Check out my full review linked up top for an in-depth recap :)

[Rock · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of psycho in town, we got a psycho boy who could ride a speedboat to kill teenagers. Then a psycho clingy ghost that waited to kill her lover. I would be mad being poor Kenny.

Then there is strange theory around the weird plot. How did a ghost get to possess two dead bodies at the same time? How did Vincent (the ghost body) convince the school that he was a boy on a trip with schoolmates. Logically there should be parents who signed up a consent for this trip. Like how was it done?

The story conveniently tell a story but in a way where I find it hard to feel it anyway logical. For that, unfortunately I gave it a 2 star.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

With In Too Deep, R.L. Stine mixes the camp-slasher subgenre with the psycho-nymphomaniac subgenre with the killer-kid subgenre with the ghost story and I enjoyed every page of it. In terms of plotting this is probably one of the more elegant Fear Street entries, with all the red herrings actually making sense in retrospect and the various plotlines dovetailing at the end. The first 100 pages are paced a bit slowly, but the last 50 pages are just people trying to kill the main character, and it becomes kind of funny after a while.

[Sreypich Van · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've always loved stories about summer camp but this book doesn't really give off that vibe. We spent the entire book accusing children of playing mean tricks and the main character, Kenny (unintentionally?)cheating on his girlfriend on a girl he just met which turned out to be something much worse. The ending fell flat for me but I've gotta admit, that final scene was brutal.

[Hope Vollm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love a summer camp story so much.

[Jerrod · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s hard to review a YA horror novel accurately as a grown adult, but the last chapter of this book honestly had me wide-eyed with a terror-stricken look on my face.

What a fun little thriller! 🙀

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the lesser books in this series. Kenny, you're just a *** cheater and you don't deserve any of my sympathy.

On to part 3!

—————————————-
Een van de mindere boeken van deze serie. Kenny, je bent gewoon een smerige vreemdganger en mijn sympathie verdien je niet.

Op naar deel 3!

[Jojo Holm · Rating 5 out of 5]

In too deep is a book that is dumb it truly is but if you can over look that then it is a lot of fun. That’s pretty much all I have to say that this book is just cheesy good fun and nothing else it is so much better than the first seniors book. 5 stars

[Joe Russo · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm not gonna lie - the Fear Street books are some of my favorite books in the world. I grew up with them and when I found them again I had to get my hands on every one. Rereading them is like going down memory lane.

But where does it end? The same cliches are found is just about every R.L Stine book and In Too Deep is full of every cliche imaginable.

Though a fast read I had to find myself rushing past parts just to finish.

I'll still read, of course, the others.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a huge series while growing up- Everyone read R.L. Stine!... I read almost all of them, got bored before I managed to finish it though... I think I have 2 left...

[Alejandro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man kenny likes Melly but he has a girl

[Jaime · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a huge R.L. Stine fan in my early teens! I loved all the fear street books! They are what got me into reading again! :)

[*_Kathleen_* · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great second book! I love creepy things about camping!!

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this more than the first. A ghost/zombie in love with a summer camp counselor. I can’t say I feel bad for Kenny though. After all, he did cheat on his girlfriend.