Fear Street - The Surprise Party

The Surprise Party is a Fear Street novel by the American writer R. L. Stine, published in 1989. The series takes place in a town where one particular stretch of woodland has a long and unpleasant history.

A year before the book begins, Evan died in those woods. Ellen moved away afterwards, and the group of friends who had grown up together broke up. Meg Dalton misses them, so she decides to get everyone back together with a surprise party for Ellen. They all agree to come, including her boyfriend Tony, who has been moody and strange for months.

Then the threats start. There are telephone calls in a whisper telling her to cancel the party, and acts of vandalism and violence follow, and whoever is behind them is prepared to do more than frighten her. Meg has to work out who wants the party stopped and why, and the answer lies in the same woods where Evan died. The threats come from people she has known all her life, which is what makes them difficult to report.