R.L. Stine's omnibus collection, Silent Night, contains all three of his Silent Night stories about Reva Dalby. The trilogy is part of his successful teen series, Fear Street, though the majority of the books take place in surrounding areas of Fear Street.
Silent Night, the first story of the trilogy, starts the omnibus off and introduces us to several of the main characters, including Reva Dalby and her daddy, who happens to own Dalby Department Stores. It's Christmas season and he is needing extra help in the store so he has asked Reva to recruit some of her friends to help out in the store. She, being a bit self-centered, decides that this is the perfect opportunity to gain the attention of one of the guys at school she has a crush on and also to play pranks on a few other people that she doesn't like. Once everyone is hired in, however, the pranks seem to start on Reva! It seems like someone is stalking her and it might be a bit more harmful than the pranks she had planned for her daddy's new employees. Whoever is stalking her seems to be out for... blood!
Silent Night 2 takes place the winter after the first Silent Night and, obviously, Reva has survived the adventures of the first book. She's even promised to be a nicer person due to everything that happened to her, but everyone knows that it's hard for a person to change themselves that drastically, right? In this second installment of the Silent Night series, Stine has set-up a new challenge for Reva to face, kidnappers! Why you ask would anyone want to kidnap a bratty teenager like Reva? Don't forget... she is the rich daughter of the owner of the Dalby Department Store!
In the final installment of the Silent Night trilogy, Reva is home from college and has brought her roommate to stay with her for the holidays. Her daddy has asked her to work the store again for the season, but after the last two miserable Christmases she's hesitant yet gives in. Reva's cousin, Pam, has a special request for Reva as well now that she's home. She and her friend have been making special scarves and would like to sell them at the department store and figure if Reva likes them, then she can convince her daddy to do it. Reva not only LOVES the scarves, she convinces her daddy to sell them at the store by telling them that she was the one that designed them! This infuriates Pam, but she doesn't speak up as she figures it's the only way she will get to sell them at the store. Reva is excited because she also has conviced her daddy to let her have a fashion show at the store and whatever she wants, she gets. Only, at Dalby's Department Store... she tends to get a little more than she bargains for every time and this time it seems to be murder after murder, but who is doing it and why?
As a teenager I read the Fear Street series consistently. It was how I got my start reading horror. I love Stine's writing style and find his books suspenseful. Even reading the Silent Night series today, I still feel that his writing style is superior to many of the teen horror authors out there. I had guesses throughout the books as to what was going to happen at the end, but I was never quite sure. These books, along with the rest of the Fear Street books are great books for all pre-teen and younger teenagers to read if they are wanting to start into the horror genre. They have just enough "scare factor" in them that the kids will enjoy, without all the gore and adult themes that parents would not want them reading yet. (Of course, us "young at heart" also enjoy these quite a lot still as well) This trilogy in particular is a great one to read around the holidays since it's based around Christmastime and also has a lot of Christmas elements going on within the story. Highly Recommended.
Note: I reviewed this as a combined collection, but the books are also available as individual books titled Silent Night, Silent Night 2, and Silent Night 3
Contains: Some Death Scenes, Some Alcohol Use
Review also posted at MonsterLibrarian.com
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