Of all the many Fear Street stories he’s written, author R. L. Stine managed to narrow his personal favorites down to eight books. And if someone wasn’t familiar with Stine’s fondness for humor, they might be surprised to see Silent Night as one of his top picks. The second volume in the spinoff series Fear Street: Super Chiller was the first in the overall franchise to explicitly take place around Christmas. And without question the protagonist goes down as one of Stine’s most memorable characters to date — the reasons why, however, aren’t exactly flattering.
The first book in the Silent Night trilogy introduces the notorious Reva Dalby, one of the snottiest teenagers to ever come out of Shadyside. This spoiled brat is spending her winter break working at her father’s department store, Dalby’s, and making the lives of those around her a living hell. Reva has never met a mean thought she didn’t like. However, being so unkind finally leads to consequences when Reva finds a needle in her lipstick. Now, for the average person, it might be easy to pin down a viable suspect; most folks don’t go around making enemies. Reva, on the other hand, has practically made it her job to be disliked. So the perpetrator behind the lipstick stunt and other sick jokes to come — more like warnings — could be anyone.
Silent Night is split into two parallel plots. The main one of course shadows Reva as her bad behavior catches up to her. She seduces a classmate’s boyfriend, Mitch, after hiring the both of them for seasonal work at Dalby’s. And when the girlfriend catches them in the act, Reva suddenly loses interest in the whole affair. She destroyed their relationship just because she could. Then, Reva only hires her classmate Robb because “he’s a real chub” who “doesn’t need a pillow” to play the store Santa. There’s also Reva’s recent ex, Hank, who she coldly dumped, although in her defense, he’s a total hothead. Nevertheless, Hank, as well as Reva’s other victims, have good reason to scare her. Maybe even worse.
The other story in the first book is about Reva’s less fortunate cousin, Pam Dalby, who lives in poverty on Fear Street. She’s convinced by her friends Mickey and Clay to rob Dalby’s after Mickey’s father, Mr. Wakely, was fired from his store security position right before Christmas. Reva’s father canned him for drinking on the job. With the help of Mr. Wakely’s friend and the remaining night security guard, Mr. Haywood, Pam and her friends can walk into Dalby’s after hours and steal whatever they want. The plan doesn’t go accordingly, though, once the teens are spotted by another security guard during the break-in. He ends up being shot to death by an unknown third party, who may or may not be the one currently blackmailing Pam and her pals. And where was Mr. Haywood, after he had promised to help Mickey and the others with their robbery?
Silent Night is ultimately more of a crime thriller than a horror tale. Reva’s own growing terror is eclipsed by Pam’s shoplifting story, though both plots eventually converge when someone dies at Dalby’s, apart from the random guard who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Mitch, Reva’s rebound, winds up dead; his body is accidentally delivered to Reva in a gift-wrapped box. At first Robb, the store Santa and also Pam’s boyfriend — Pam only referred to Robb by his nickname of “Foxy” so readers wouldn’t know Foxy and Robb are in fact the same person — is taken in for questioning after he and Mitch had an altercation at work. It turns out that Mitch witnessed Pam and her friends’ break-in, and he was blackmailing them for $10,000.
This book is a lot more convoluted than it needs to be; on top of all the trademark Stine jump-scares and fake-outs are what feels like too many red herrings. Robb indeed threatened Mitch after learning he was blackmailing Pam, and he terrorized Reva after seeing how she treated her cousin and his girlfriend. But Robb didn’t kill Mitch, and Mitch didn’t shoot that security guard. The true culprit is only revealed when Reva’s unfathomable fear of being in Dalby’s after closing comes to fruition. Alone in the department store, Reva is confronted by Mr. Wakely, who’s both soused and armed. He slurs his confession; he and Haywood robbed Dalby’s secret safe while using three random teens as a distraction. Their plan went askew as soon as Mr. Wakely realized one of the teens was his own son, and seeing the guard aim a gun at Mickey caused the father to commit murder. As for Mitch, he was collateral damage once Mr. Wakely learned the young stock clerk witnessed the robbery. Mr. Wakely planned to kill Reva as well until he electrocuted himself on a Christmas tree.
It seemed like Reva had a change of heart when Hank told her she didn’t have a friend in the world, and there was a long list of people who’d want to hurt her. It was a sobering thought that reminded Reva why she was so nasty to begin with; her mother’s death made her mean. That epiphany, unfortunately, was all for naught because Reva is back to her old ways in Silent Night 2. Reva is once again working at Dalby’s during her school’s winter vacation — Stine doesn’t specify if she’s still in high school or back from college — and much like before, she’s caught up in someone else’s crime.
Pam, who received a legal slap on the wrist after her attempted robbery charge was reduced to trespassing, somehow now works at Dalby’s. And whatever sisterly relationship she and Reva had developed after the events of the first book is gone. Reva sets her sights on Pam’s new boyfriend Victor, and the two sneak behind the cousin’s back. Meanwhile, two would-be felons conspire to abduct Reva. Pres and Diane bungle up the first few attempts before enlisting the aid of Pres’ chaotic brother Danny. They manage to finally nab the heiress, but ransoming her isn’t going to be easy because Danny grabbed the wrong Dalby girl!
Pam is freed once her captors realize their mistake, though that’s not the end of the ordeal. Danny and his accomplices successfully snatch Reva later, along with Pam, and they hide out at Dalby’s (of all places) as they await the ransom payment from Reva’s father. Surprisingly, Pam was in on the second capture; she was first let go so long as she helped lure Reva out. But now she’s as good as dead because Danny and his partners aren’t about to release either girl until they get paid. Silent Night 2, despite being another crime thriller dressed up as horror, finishes on a strong note. The conclusion sees Reva and Pam narrowly escaping their abductors, one of whom plunges to their death inside an elevator shaft.
Reva is a lot more understanding about her cousin’s duplicity than expected; she not only forgives Pam, she sees things from her point of view. After all, Uncle Dalby refused to pay a ransom for his niece, thus forcing Pam to save herself by whatever means possible. The boyfriend-stealing also undoubtedly influenced Pam’s decision. When it appears like maybe Reva has at last changed for the better, she’s back to being a ginger grinch. In Silent Night 3, Reva returns home from her first semester at college, and with her is her dorm mate Grace. This Christmas, Reva is smart enough to skip working at Dalby’s, but trouble still finds her. Reva appropriates Pam and her friend Willow’s business idea of homemade scarves, and she uses the accessories as the centerpiece in a fashion show at the store. Said trouble soon comes into the picture as Reva’s models are murdered one by one.
Of the three books, Silent Night 3 feels the most like a horror story. On top of an underplot about Grace’s ex-boyfriend-turned-stalker Rory is a whodunit mystery. But there are no coincidences in Fear Street, so it’s no shocker when Grace’s past ties into the present. What strikes like a thunderbolt, however, is when Reva learns from Grace’s mother that Rory has been dead for two years; he died in a car accident that Grace feels responsible for. All the threatening calls Grace received while at Reva’s house were all in her head, and she sabotaged the fashion show because she wanted to take something important away from Reva. The fun doesn’t stop there, though — the boyfriend of one of the dead models tries to kill Reva after blaming her for his girlfriend’s death. True to her nature, Reva poached another girl’s boyfriend, and she almost paid dearly for doing so.
Fear Street has never glossed over the class differences in Shadyside; wealth inequality comes up fairly often in the series. And the Silent Night trilogy is an example of how people near or at the bottom of the socioeconomic spectrum struggle to get by while those like Reva Dalby never have to worry about their next meal or paycheck. The timeless “eat the rich” theme isn’t as pronounced here as it is in other narratives of the lower class stealing from or enacting revenge against the wealthy. More misfortune actually befalls the deprived characters. Reva surely receives her fair share of scrapes and bruises, but those setbacks are fleeting and small. It’s not too satisfying knowing Reva’s privilege, prosperity and power all remain intact, and worst of all, she’s still as loathsome as ever.
It’s not hard to understand why R. L. Stine loves Silent Night. The author clearly had a lot of fun writing the despicable Reva. So much so that Stine continued to undo all of her emotional gain in both sequels, only to then repeat Reva’s same tired act of realization and self-discovery in the end. Readers guffaw at Reva and Stine’s refusal to outgrow old habits. As for the stories themselves, they’re an uneven yet entertaining collection of Christmas suspense elevated by the dishonorable central character. These iconic Fear Street books wouldn’t be the same without Reva.
There was a time when the young-adult section of bookstores was overflowing with horror and suspense. These books were easily identified by their flashy fonts and garish cover art. This notable subgenre of YA fiction thrived in the ’80s, peaked in the ’90s, and then finally came to an end in the early ’00s. YA horror of this kind is indeed a thing of the past, but the stories live on at Buried in a Book. This recurring column reflects on the nostalgic novels still haunting readers decades later.
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