The 1997 novel, The Rich Girl, tells the story of two teenage friends.

Emma is poor and worried about how her family is going to be able pay for her mother’s medical needs.  Sydney is rich and worried that Emma is going to stop being her friend just because she doesn’t like Sydney’s boyfriend, Jason.  As you can probably guess, one of these friends has much larger and far more serious concerns than the other but this book is called The Rich Girl and therefore, Sydney is our main character.  Sorry, Emma.  Only rich people get to star in Fear Street books.

Anyway, Sydney and Emma work at the local movie theater.  One night, they come across a duffel bag that someone has been left behind.  It’s full of money!  In fact, there’s more than enough money to help out Emma’s mother.  Sydney wants to turn the money in but Emma points out that her family needs the money and, even more importantly, Emma needs the money.  Emma wants to go to college and she wants to finally buy some pretty clothes and she wants her mother to be alive to see her do both.  Sydney and Emma decide not to turn in the money but to instead bury it out in Fear Woods.  They’ll leave it out there for two weeks and then, it’ll all belong to them!  Yay!

Sydney and Emma promise each other that they won’t tell anyone about the money but then Sydney tells Jason.  Jason demands a some of the money for himself, though if he could just shut up and be patient, Sydney would eventually have half of the money and everything about their toxic relationship suggests that she would give him however much he wanted.  Anyway, all of this all leads to violence and Jason’s apparent death.  Sydney and Emma hide Jason’s body but Emma can’t shake the feeling that someone is watching and following her.  Could Jason be back from the dead!?  Does Zombie Jason want revenge!?  Or could it be something else?

This book had a big twist at the end but it was pretty familiar twist and I saw it coming from miles away.  I appreciated the kind of dark ending but neither Sydney nor Emma were particularly compelling characters.  This one kind of felt like Stine an autopilot.