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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
Two friends investigate a possible murder or two in their English boarding school in 1934. Touches a tiny, small bit Hazel Wong's experience as a girl of Chinese descent, raised in Hong Kong now living in England because of her father's obsession with the English, although I question whether there would have been more racism in her experience as the only Asian girl and possibly the only person of color in her school in a time shortly before the breakout of WWII.
Light mystery for fans of the genre who don't want a lot of blood, gore, or violence. Might also appeal to readers who liked the dorm aspects of Harry Potter but would like something magic-less.
grades 4-6
Light mystery for fans of the genre who don't want a lot of blood, gore, or violence. Might also appeal to readers who liked the dorm aspects of Harry Potter but would like something magic-less.
grades 4-6
daisy es mala persona y punto. trata muy mal a hazel sin razón aparente, solo es por ser bully? que razón le dio hazel para recibir ese trato?
también hay comentarios racistas que no tienen repercusión.
hazel habla mejor de las rubias de ojos claros y flacas, para ser un libro para un público joven, no me parece un buen ejemplo
también hay comentarios racistas que no tienen repercusión.
hazel habla mejor de las rubias de ojos claros y flacas, para ser un libro para un público joven, no me parece un buen ejemplo
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A well written mystery for children that is entertaining and keeps you guessing until the end.
3.5
I love a good girl's school story as much as the next British lesbian so this was a real blast to read, but it took some time to get going which knocks the rating down a bit. Also the reveal of the evidence at the end felt slightly contrived, although the parlour room scene was of course excellent.
I love a good girl's school story as much as the next British lesbian so this was a real blast to read, but it took some time to get going which knocks the rating down a bit. Also the reveal of the evidence at the end felt slightly contrived, although the parlour room scene was of course excellent.
I started snickering reading the dedication, and enjoyed the book from that moment on. If I continued this review, I'd just be quoting paragraphs from the book that made me chuckle. But you can just go read it yourself!
Oh, alright, here's the first paragraph of the book:
Oh, alright, here's the first paragraph of the book:
This is the first murder that the Wells & Wong Detective Society has ever investigated, so it is a good thing Daisy bought me a new casebook. The last one was finished after we solved The Case of Lavinia’s Missing Tie. The solution to that, of course, was that Clementine stole it in revenge for Lavinia punching her in the stomach during lacrosse, which was Lavinia’s revenge for Clementine telling everyone Lavinia came from a broken home. I suspect the solution to this new case may be more complex.
I picked this up looking for a 'cozy mystery-style' story for middle grade readers. If I consider it strictly in that sense Murder is Bad Manners has a lot of those types of elements and does a good job structurally guiding a younger middle-grade reader through the process of finding clues and using deductive reasoning to organize them into a hypothesis.
The setting is a girls' boarding school in 1930's England. Our main characters are Daisy Wells (blond-haired, blue-eyed English aristocrat) and Hazel Wong (daughter of a Hong Kong banker, Chinese, slightly heavier than average). Together the girls form their own Detective Agency with Daisy as president and Hazel as secretary--mirroring the Sherlock Holmes/Dr. Watson dynamic. When Hazel accidentally discovers the dead body of one of their teachers, the girls have their first case. They collect clues, follow leads and ultimately uncover the culprit.
The pacing is even and both Daisy and Hazel are multi-layered characters that hold the potential for growth and insight. The setting is very well established--and from that setting arises my difficulty with the book. The author has chosen to have the environment of the English boarding school (populated by daughters of reasonably to exorbitantly wealthy parents) remain closer to the norm of the time, which is to say--not particularly tolerant or insightful regarding multiculturalism. This is a problem when one of the main characters--the narrator of the story--is Asian. Other students and teachers make ignorant and insulting comments to Hazel about her heritage and her body size that are not directly related to the central mystery of the story, but would not be surprising to hear at that time and place. Daisy's character is thoroughly manipulative and unlikable--again, not necessarily a deal-breaker for me--while Hazel's character is meek and submissive.
All the choices the author makes about character, setting and action are undeniably valid artistic and structural choices for the story. SO...if this kind of ignorance is accurately represented as 'normal' in the 1930's--and we KNOW it's ignorant and inappropriate NOW (or specifically in 2015 when this was written)--my personal feeling is that the author has a fiduciary responsibility to young readers to address it in some way. This could be as simple as having at least one character who is nontraditional in her beliefs and behavior (and we know they existed) and can represent a more inclusive view of individuals. Even a foreword by the author addressing the fact that she will use attitudes and behaviors that were overlooked at the time despite being grossly inappropriate. The author makes the choice not to do any of these things.
Another problem is that Hazel is not mistreated only because of her Asian heritage; the author has also made her slightly heavier than the other girls which brings with it a lot of body-shaming from other students and teachers. Daisy's treatment of Hazel is dismissive and sometimes outright cruel. The decision to heap ALL of these complications on Hazel's character alone is perplexing to me in the context of the story. I think there is a deeper layer to Hazel that she begins to discover in this book...and maybe she addresses others' attitudes toward her later in the series. Her character absolutely has the ability to do so. I don't know, as I have not read the other books in this series. I remind myself, however, that I am a white woman reading this and if it made me uncomfortable, then how is a young Asian girl, looking to find characters with whom to identify, reading this story going to feel about the way is Hazel is portrayed and treated?
In the end, although Murder is Bad Manners is structurally sound, I cannot in good conscience recommend it to young readers because of the way Hazel's character is designed and treated in the book. My search for good middle-grade mystery series with girls as the lead characters continues! If you are looking for a Sherlock Holmes-type of mystery with a strong young female protagonist I highly recommend the Enola Holmes series by Nancy Springer! The younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes, Enola has a mind of her own and defiantly bucks the traditional female role in 19th century English society. The first book is The Case of the Missing Marquess.
The setting is a girls' boarding school in 1930's England. Our main characters are Daisy Wells (blond-haired, blue-eyed English aristocrat) and Hazel Wong (daughter of a Hong Kong banker, Chinese, slightly heavier than average). Together the girls form their own Detective Agency with Daisy as president and Hazel as secretary--mirroring the Sherlock Holmes/Dr. Watson dynamic. When Hazel accidentally discovers the dead body of one of their teachers, the girls have their first case. They collect clues, follow leads and ultimately uncover the culprit.
The pacing is even and both Daisy and Hazel are multi-layered characters that hold the potential for growth and insight. The setting is very well established--and from that setting arises my difficulty with the book. The author has chosen to have the environment of the English boarding school (populated by daughters of reasonably to exorbitantly wealthy parents) remain closer to the norm of the time, which is to say--not particularly tolerant or insightful regarding multiculturalism. This is a problem when one of the main characters--the narrator of the story--is Asian. Other students and teachers make ignorant and insulting comments to Hazel about her heritage and her body size that are not directly related to the central mystery of the story, but would not be surprising to hear at that time and place. Daisy's character is thoroughly manipulative and unlikable--again, not necessarily a deal-breaker for me--while Hazel's character is meek and submissive.
All the choices the author makes about character, setting and action are undeniably valid artistic and structural choices for the story. SO...if this kind of ignorance is accurately represented as 'normal' in the 1930's--and we KNOW it's ignorant and inappropriate NOW (or specifically in 2015 when this was written)--my personal feeling is that the author has a fiduciary responsibility to young readers to address it in some way. This could be as simple as having at least one character who is nontraditional in her beliefs and behavior (and we know they existed) and can represent a more inclusive view of individuals. Even a foreword by the author addressing the fact that she will use attitudes and behaviors that were overlooked at the time despite being grossly inappropriate. The author makes the choice not to do any of these things.
Another problem is that Hazel is not mistreated only because of her Asian heritage; the author has also made her slightly heavier than the other girls which brings with it a lot of body-shaming from other students and teachers. Daisy's treatment of Hazel is dismissive and sometimes outright cruel. The decision to heap ALL of these complications on Hazel's character alone is perplexing to me in the context of the story. I think there is a deeper layer to Hazel that she begins to discover in this book...and maybe she addresses others' attitudes toward her later in the series. Her character absolutely has the ability to do so. I don't know, as I have not read the other books in this series. I remind myself, however, that I am a white woman reading this and if it made me uncomfortable, then how is a young Asian girl, looking to find characters with whom to identify, reading this story going to feel about the way is Hazel is portrayed and treated?
In the end, although Murder is Bad Manners is structurally sound, I cannot in good conscience recommend it to young readers because of the way Hazel's character is designed and treated in the book. My search for good middle-grade mystery series with girls as the lead characters continues! If you are looking for a Sherlock Holmes-type of mystery with a strong young female protagonist I highly recommend the Enola Holmes series by Nancy Springer! The younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes, Enola has a mind of her own and defiantly bucks the traditional female role in 19th century English society. The first book is The Case of the Missing Marquess.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Nice middle grade detective story. Satisfies teenagers' lust for murder and a teacher's interest in another time period by setting the story at a 1930s girls' boarding school.
The teenage characters are fairly realistic, i.e., they can be selfish and cruel. That is particularly visible in their treatment of Hazel, who, coming from Hong Kong, is often singled out. I'm not sure about her portrayal, it plays into a fair few unfortunate stereotypes, but nothing really harmful as far as a I can see - except maybe a somewhat odd inclusion of her father having concubines. Hazel and Daisy do travel to Hong Kong in a later installement in the series, maybe it will become relevant then.
The teenage characters are fairly realistic, i.e., they can be selfish and cruel. That is particularly visible in their treatment of Hazel, who, coming from Hong Kong, is often singled out. I'm not sure about her portrayal, it plays into a fair few unfortunate stereotypes, but nothing really harmful as far as a I can see - except maybe a somewhat odd inclusion of her father having concubines. Hazel and Daisy do travel to Hong Kong in a later installement in the series, maybe it will become relevant then.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Although this book is officially a ‘children’s’ book, I do believe that any age can read it – I enjoy it as much now as I did five years ago, when I first read the series. In some ways, I feel like I understood and enjoyed the book more now that I am older than Daisy and Hazel in the series. When I first read the book, I was younger than Daisy and Hazel, but now that I am older than them, I can understand the story from both the ‘shrimps’ and the ‘big girls” perspectives.
Firstly, I love how this book is packed with suspense all the way through, from when Hazel first discovers the body to the scene in the cloakroom and the confrontation at the end of the book. Despite me knowing how the book will end, and the full solution to the murder of Miss Bell, I was still gripped all the way through, and I still suspected each suspect throughout. As I have read this book more than once, I could draw new connections throughout the book, which I haven’t been able to before. Although this is a very complex mystery, I still managed to guess the murderer very early on into the book the first time I read it (not that I expected it to become true – it was a wild guess, and to be honest, I was very shocked when the girls found it to be true!). Now, by re-reading the book, I do question how Daisy and Hazel didn’t add up the clues around the murderer quicker, as they did behave what I believe to be suspiciously after Miss Bell’s murder.
I know that this isn’t part of the plot, but I do think that the cover deserves a lot of attention. I love how it is so simple, yet so effective – the title with sillouhettes of important parts of the book. I do love it how any book in this series is always easy to spot in a bookstore! It was always so much fun walking into a bookstore, knowing that the next Murder Most Unladylike novel was out, and trying to spot the bright cover.
I do also love how we as readers are introduced to Deepdean in a way that makes us feel like we have always been a part of the school – not long after starting the book, I felt like I was familiar with all the girls, ‘shrimps’ and ‘big girls’ mentioned, which is really nice, especially progressing through the series when characters are relevant in more than one of the books. The map of Deepdean at the front of the book also helps me to visualise the route Daisy and Hazel take when they sneak around the school to detect.
Now that I have read most of the books in this series, I can see how Robin Stevens has dropped clues to what will happen in future books. For example, Hazel’s family dynamics are mentioned (which is very important in A Spoonful of Murder) and the Cheng family, who are very significant in Mistletoe and Murder (review coming at Christmas).
Overall, I really enjoyed this book – I loved how it was packed with suspense all the way through, even when Daisy and Hazel are writing down the first suspect list and grabbing motives out of thin air.
I would recommend this book to any mystery fans of any age – although murder is a big theme of this book, the actual murder itself is not described graphically, the girls make sense of it in their heads, as opposed to the murderer describing the murder.
Although this book is officially a ‘children’s’ book, I do believe that any age can read it – I enjoy it as much now as I did five years ago, when I first read the series. In some ways, I feel like I understood and enjoyed the book more now that I am older than Daisy and Hazel in the series. When I first read the book, I was younger than Daisy and Hazel, but now that I am older than them, I can understand the story from both the ‘shrimps’ and the ‘big girls” perspectives.
Firstly, I love how this book is packed with suspense all the way through, from when Hazel first discovers the body to the scene in the cloakroom and the confrontation at the end of the book. Despite me knowing how the book will end, and the full solution to the murder of Miss Bell, I was still gripped all the way through, and I still suspected each suspect throughout. As I have read this book more than once, I could draw new connections throughout the book, which I haven’t been able to before. Although this is a very complex mystery, I still managed to guess the murderer very early on into the book the first time I read it (not that I expected it to become true – it was a wild guess, and to be honest, I was very shocked when the girls found it to be true!). Now, by re-reading the book, I do question how Daisy and Hazel didn’t add up the clues around the murderer quicker, as they did behave what I believe to be suspiciously after Miss Bell’s murder.
I know that this isn’t part of the plot, but I do think that the cover deserves a lot of attention. I love how it is so simple, yet so effective – the title with sillouhettes of important parts of the book. I do love it how any book in this series is always easy to spot in a bookstore! It was always so much fun walking into a bookstore, knowing that the next Murder Most Unladylike novel was out, and trying to spot the bright cover.
I do also love how we as readers are introduced to Deepdean in a way that makes us feel like we have always been a part of the school – not long after starting the book, I felt like I was familiar with all the girls, ‘shrimps’ and ‘big girls’ mentioned, which is really nice, especially progressing through the series when characters are relevant in more than one of the books. The map of Deepdean at the front of the book also helps me to visualise the route Daisy and Hazel take when they sneak around the school to detect.
Now that I have read most of the books in this series, I can see how Robin Stevens has dropped clues to what will happen in future books. For example, Hazel’s family dynamics are mentioned (which is very important in A Spoonful of Murder) and the Cheng family, who are very significant in Mistletoe and Murder (review coming at Christmas).
Overall, I really enjoyed this book – I loved how it was packed with suspense all the way through, even when Daisy and Hazel are writing down the first suspect list and grabbing motives out of thin air.
I would recommend this book to any mystery fans of any age – although murder is a big theme of this book, the actual murder itself is not described graphically, the girls make sense of it in their heads, as opposed to the murderer describing the murder.
This was really fun. Nothing like a good middle grade novel to relax, especially a middle grade mystery. It's been too long since I've read one that I liked, and this was so nice! I'm excited to delve into the next ones in the series. I think the audiobook of the fourth book is narrated by the actress of Cho Chang which I'm quite excited for. I like that they have Scottish/British-Chinese actresses in the audiobooks for Hazel's narration, and Gemma Chan was sooo soothing to listen to.