When we were little, we assumed that R.L. Stein worked in some literary sweatshop to come up with all those scary, scary books. Turns out, he had ghost writers, one of which was Tom Perrotta, the author of Election and Little Children. Which ones?

"Not Goosebumps, but Fear Street, which was the bigger one," [Perotta said.] The particular tome to which Perrotta lent his verbal gifts was The Thrill Club, and though he describes it as "the stupidest book," he actually looks back on writing it with fondness. "It's good to take the romance out of writing," he said, laughing heartily. "That certainly did it for me!"

Even though he admits it’s a stupid book, any defense of Fear Street from him sounds like Hilary Swank claiming that The Next Karate Kid was much more artful than The Karate Kid, Part III.

[EW Popwatch]