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Man, this one was just... very boring. Stine can definitely do better. Also, this one should have been called The Knife, except there is a later Fear Street book with that title. Lots of knives in this one.

The plot is simple (and, as I said, very boring). Maggie, the main character, and her younger sister, Andrea, are forced to move to Fear Street after the death of their father. Their mom, now being a single mom, can no longer afford to live in their old house. They get saddled with 23 Fear Street (which I quite like, since my birthday is July 23rd).

As is the typical Stine way, the sisters hate each other. Or, rather, Maggie thinks Andrea hates her. Because Maggie is the one with the boyfriend, the prettier features, the better swim record. So, like every other sister in the FS books, she assumes that Andrea is super jealous of her.

The girls both hate the new house, as you do when you live on Fear Street, but Maggie is cheered a bit when she sees a pink canopy bed in her room. The girls chose their rooms before the other family moved out, so they didn't know the bed would be left behind. Andrea rants and raves about Maggie getting the canopy bed. But soon Maggie will want to gladly give it away.

She has to practice for her upcoming swim meet, but she finds that every night she sleeps in the beautiful bed that she has nightmares she can't shake in the morning. It's not long before everyone thinks Maggie is cracking up.

The dream starts as just a feeling of persistent terror, but Maggie soon sees a face and finds she is going to be stabbed in her dream. Then accidents start happening in real life. Maggie's swim team mate, Dawn, is pushed down the stairs, and she initially accuses Maggie of pushing her. Then Maggie finds Tiffany, another swim team mate, face down in her own blood by the pool. She was stabbed in the side but thankfully lives.

Maggie begins to see the ghost of a girl named Miranda everywhere. She's the girl from her dream. She tries to show her mom and her boyfriend, Justin, but they begin to suspect she's lost her grip on reality. Nobody believes her. Finally, Maggie's mom removes the canopy bed from Maggie's room. Maggie thought her mom gave it to Andrea, but she quickly learns they moved it to the attic. Maggie knows she has to finally complete the dream in order to learn the truth and get it to stop. So once everyone is asleep she tiptoes up to the attic to finally rid herself of her nightmares.

But when Maggie goes to lay down in the bed she sees the ghost of Miranda already in the bed. Only... it's not Miranda. Because when Maggie touches the "ghost" her hand finds solid flesh. And the girl has a knife. Again and again. Turns out it's someone named Gena. Gena claims she will kill Maggie for being a "bad" sister. The same way she killed Miranda. She knows it's what Andrea wants. But when Andrea comes into the attic to help Maggie, Maggie screams at her that she can't believe she's in leagues with Gena. Andrea has no idea what she's talking about. She helps her to get the knife away from Gena and motions for Maggie to make a run for it down the stairs.

It turns out Gena has been living in their attic the whole time. She stabbed Maggie's pillow with a knife that then disappeared when she tried to show her mom. She also pushed Dawn down the stairs and stabbed Tiffany in the side. Maggie jokes with their dog, Gus, about not sensing at all someone else living in the house with them.

After being up all night wrestling with Gena (Maggie and Andrea eventually get her wrapped up in the canopy and call the police) Maggie then realizes they have a swim meet that day that she and her sister are participating in. But even though it's morning and I'm guessing the swim meet wouldn't be at night, Maggie still tells everyone good night, because I guess she's going to sleep a bit before the meet? And that's how the book ends.

It was snoozeville. No one dies. This is not the level of quality I expect from you, Stine.

Also, Deena and Jade from The Wrong Number make an appearance in this book! I do like that he peppers characters from all the different FS books throughout each one.