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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
I never read these as a kid, though everyone assumed I did because I was such a big fan of mysteries. I'm not going to knock these too much since 1) they're written for kids and 2) they're from the 1930s. But I was definitely underwhelmed with this first book. It's a little bit generous to call it a mystery, since Nancy Drew doesn't really solve anything. Instead, she does the legwork of going to talk to people and then following up on the conveniently specific things they tell her, until she has everything she needs for the big reveal. This in itself doesn't make it a bad book, just not what I was expecting.
The characters are pretty one-dimensional and stereotypical — we have the poor but kind friends and relatives of the deceased who want to use their intended inheritance for noble things, like education, health care, and world travel. Then we have the "villains," the family of unattractive rich people who are rude to everyone. (Why the deceased ever made a will leaving everything to them, even if it was an older one, is never really explained.) And then we have our heroine, Nancy Drew, who is beautiful, nicely dressed, and handy with a wrench.
It's not bad as a simplistic adventure story, but without the nostalgia I can't say I loved it.
The characters are pretty one-dimensional and stereotypical — we have the poor but kind friends and relatives of the deceased who want to use their intended inheritance for noble things, like education, health care, and world travel. Then we have the "villains," the family of unattractive rich people who are rude to everyone. (Why the deceased ever made a will leaving everything to them, even if it was an older one, is never really explained.) And then we have our heroine, Nancy Drew, who is beautiful, nicely dressed, and handy with a wrench.
It's not bad as a simplistic adventure story, but without the nostalgia I can't say I loved it.
This series was a large part of my childhood. Nancy is fabulous. There's really nothing else I can say. I suppose this is more of a review for all of the Nancy Drew books and not The Secret of the Old Clock. Sorry about that. This book is fabulous just as the rest are.
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
i actually love nancy drew, i know she’s a bit of a mary sue but i dont care.. i mean, she can do it all!
makes me want to go play the games asap
makes me want to go play the games asap
hmm. probably more of a 2, bc it doesn't really hold up, but I'm 30 years too old, (And 60 years too late) for this book.
I’m just too old to appreciate this for what it is - nothing against the book
(2.5 stars) Somehow I’ve never read a Nancy Drew book before this?
I think I expected something closer to Agatha Christie. The mystery, if you can call it that, moved extremely slowly without many twists and turns. There were a lot of convenient coincidences, and whenever I thought there would be a complication it was easily resolved. Nancy is basically perfect in ever way, which is occasionally pretty great for a 1930 heroine (she fixes her own car! She uses physics to escape sticky situations!) but also gets old fast. There were so many things I thought were setting up sinister plots (flat tires! Dead chickens!) that ended up just being…events. Oh, and for a couple chapters it gets REAL RACIST to the point that it was borderline unreadable.
I’m going to give the next one a try, but I suspect these 1930s ones might only be fun if you grew up on them.
I think I expected something closer to Agatha Christie. The mystery, if you can call it that, moved extremely slowly without many twists and turns. There were a lot of convenient coincidences, and whenever I thought there would be a complication it was easily resolved. Nancy is basically perfect in ever way, which is occasionally pretty great for a 1930 heroine (she fixes her own car! She uses physics to escape sticky situations!) but also gets old fast. There were so many things I thought were setting up sinister plots (flat tires! Dead chickens!) that ended up just being…events. Oh, and for a couple chapters it gets REAL RACIST to the point that it was borderline unreadable.
I’m going to give the next one a try, but I suspect these 1930s ones might only be fun if you grew up on them.
I guess it's pretty...cliched of me to say that the only reason I read the first few books of the Nancy Drew series was because I wanted to know how Nancy met and officially got together with Ned. Yeah, there's probably a bunch of feminist criticism that could be lobbed my way because of that reason, but at least I'm honest.
My first Nancy Drew novel was actually number forty-something (maybe). For the life of me, I cannot remember which one, but I remember vividly this one scene where she's in a dark cave/bridge alone. With a flashlight. Then, Ned arrives. I also think this forty-something book might have been one in which the Hardy Boys show up at some point. Did that ever happen? Does anybody know what I'm talking about? Anyways, that's why I got interested in this first book. I don't remember much about it actually, but I think I enjoyed it enough to read the next two books.
My first Nancy Drew novel was actually number forty-something (maybe). For the life of me, I cannot remember which one, but I remember vividly this one scene where she's in a dark cave/bridge alone. With a flashlight. Then, Ned arrives. I also think this forty-something book might have been one in which the Hardy Boys show up at some point. Did that ever happen? Does anybody know what I'm talking about? Anyways, that's why I got interested in this first book. I don't remember much about it actually, but I think I enjoyed it enough to read the next two books.