Monday, September 25, 2017

#35 - Stacey and the Mystery of Stoneybrook

Timeline: 
Well the last book was summer time, but they are already back in school. There was no talk about the first day of school, so I guess they are just back in 8th grade again. That was a fast summer.



Plot:
There is an old house in Stoneybrook that is being torn down. Everyone thinks it's the biggest deal in the entire world, except Stacey who thinks everyone is lame for caring so much.

The club gets a call from the Johansen's, and they need someone to take Charlotte for an entire week when they go to help Charlotte's grandpa recover after surgery. Stacey takes the job (it was only offered to Stacey or Jessi, and Jessi is mysteriously gone for this entire book).

So Charlotte gets to Stacey and she's a giant baby about her parents leaving her (I mean, she's only 8, so I guess that's about right. She seems much older than 8, though. All the kids in these books seem much older than they really are. I mean, Gabbi Perkins is only 2.5 but she can memorize songs from musicals? Okay.) To distract her, Stacey takes her to the old house so they can look around it. They both get the creeps and see a bunch of weird shit - fire, faces, a swarm of flies. They both have nightmares that night. They become obsessed with the house, and get the rest of the club obsessed too. Kristy and Claudia do some research and discover the house (and most of that neighborhood) was built on a cemetery. Then they find the previous owner, who is now in the nursing home, and they go talk to him. He tells them all kinds of stories about how haunted the house is.

The day the house is officially being torn down finally arrives, and everyone from Stoneybrook goes to watch. While Stacey is standing there, she sees fire. For some reason, she just has to go back to the nursing home to talk to the guy. She literally just dumps Charlotte off with Claudia and sprints to the nursing home, only to find the guy has died. He left her a letter, though, telling her everything he said was bullshit and the house isn't haunted at all.

Charlotte goes back home, and they never speak of the house again. The end.

Takeaways:
This book was SO WEIRD. At the end, all of the weird things were explained - the "fire" they saw was a guy using a blow torch, the faces were said guy, the "flies" were actually bees.

Kristy, Charlotte, Claudia and Stacey all go to the nursing home to talk to the guy. But when Stacey goes back, the letter is only addressed to her. Why did she get the letter?

Charlotte stays with Stacey for a week, and she gets sick. Stacey plays a ton of games with her, including teaching her how to play War (worst card game ever, there were so many other games she should have taught her) and the board game Clue. Two people playing Clue? That would suck. I don't even know if it's possible?

Claudia goes to the library and gets the name of the guy who used to live in the house. She then asks her mom "how can i find out if someone who used to live in Stoneybrook still does live here?" and her mom was like um the phone book? Duh, Claudia.

The girls call an EMERGENCY meeting to discuss the house. WTF. A weird haunted house that none of them can do anything about is important enough to cause for an EMERGENCY meeting to be called?

Best character: 
I honestly don't know. This book is weird. None of the other babysitters are really in it except Kristy and Claudia. Like MaryAnne is pretty non-existent, I guess because she is scared of everything anyway. And Jessi is literally out of town for the whole book.

So I guess best character would be....the old guy who used to live in the house. He completely lies to the girls, then dies, but leaves a note saying JK. That's hilarious.

Worst character:
Again, I don't really know. I guess Stacey was kind of a snot about the house, and then she was the one who got the most obsessed with it.  I guess Jessi is the worst because she's not even around for anything?

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