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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero is a horror set in the 90's that is a take on Scooby Doo and his gang grown up and dealing with real monsters and not some man in the mask. I is a little similar to the new DC run Scooby Apocalypse, where the gang is a little more grown up and deal with real monsters. Meddling Kids is a combination of Lovecraftian creatures meet the Goonies being portrayed by the Scooby Gang. The twist and turns mainly come at the end a few are a stretch but some I really enjoyed. It has LGTBQ representation in the lead character of Andy. The book is a slow build up to an exciting finish but it will test the readers patience by having slow pacing. A. Z. Kimrean the lead of This Body's Not Big Enough for the Both of Us Cantero's follow up book makes an oh so brief cameo in a mental ward.
The Plot: In 1977 a group of kids started the the Blyton Summer Detective Club where four kids and a dog solved local crimes. The last case when they caught an old man in a creature mask, and admitted to the crimes calling them ,meddling kids. But 13 years later the group is still haunted by what they saw, on member Peter has recently committed suicide. The criminal has been released and when confronted he admitted it didn't commit the crimes, but lied so he would be protected in jail. The Blyton Summer Detective Club decides to get back together and solve the crime they missed.
What I Liked: there's a lot of clever pop culture references. Nate seeing a ghost of Peter device is used really well, and adds to the mystery. I like what they did with the dog to make it "Scooby-like" at the very end. I liked what they did with the town bully, Joey. The climax was really exciting with a couple twist and turns. There was a lot a well placed Scooby references.
What I Disliked: The pacing is super slow at the beginning, it takes the gang way to long just to get to the town on their road trip. The monster's could have been described with more detail, it was hard picturing. Never have a I read a story that needed a flashback scene so bad, I think a flashback scene would have solved most of my problems with it.
Recommendations: I think Edgar Cantero is a really clever writer, but this one didn't live up to my expectations after liking This Body's Not Big Enough for the Both of Us so much, so therefore I can not recommend this one. In This Body's Not Big Enough for the Both of Us the plot is very focused, where Meddling Kids the plot keeps going off in tangents. I rate Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero 3 out of 5 stars.
The Plot: In 1977 a group of kids started the the Blyton Summer Detective Club where four kids and a dog solved local crimes. The last case when they caught an old man in a creature mask, and admitted to the crimes calling them ,meddling kids. But 13 years later the group is still haunted by what they saw, on member Peter has recently committed suicide. The criminal has been released and when confronted he admitted it didn't commit the crimes, but lied so he would be protected in jail. The Blyton Summer Detective Club decides to get back together and solve the crime they missed.
What I Liked: there's a lot of clever pop culture references. Nate seeing a ghost of Peter device is used really well, and adds to the mystery. I like what they did with the dog to make it "Scooby-like" at the very end. I liked what they did with the town bully, Joey. The climax was really exciting with a couple twist and turns. There was a lot a well placed Scooby references.
What I Disliked: The pacing is super slow at the beginning, it takes the gang way to long just to get to the town on their road trip. The monster's could have been described with more detail, it was hard picturing. Never have a I read a story that needed a flashback scene so bad, I think a flashback scene would have solved most of my problems with it.
Recommendations: I think Edgar Cantero is a really clever writer, but this one didn't live up to my expectations after liking This Body's Not Big Enough for the Both of Us so much, so therefore I can not recommend this one. In This Body's Not Big Enough for the Both of Us the plot is very focused, where Meddling Kids the plot keeps going off in tangents. I rate Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero 3 out of 5 stars.
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
I liked the concept of the book more so than the actual execution. This book was by no means a bad book, it was just personally not for me. The first two acts felt very long to me. The third act is extremely fast paced, which definitely helped in the end.
It's hard for me to review this objectively, as it seems like it was written specifically for me. While I can appreciate that some readers didn't care for the non-uniform use of dialogue styles (alternating between traditional and screen play styles), and for the author's penchant for making up words (like using triviaed as a verb), these minor quibbles didn't detract from my absolute love of what the author did here -- an earnest, straightforward story that is a simultaneous deconstruction, pastiche, and love story to Scooby Doo, The Hardy Boys, and the Enid Blyton's The Famous Five, who I admittedly was not familiar with before reading this novel. Also, yay for this novel teaching me that Scooby Doo was not the originator of the 'four kids and a dog solving mysteries' trope.
I once saw an off-Broadway play called [b:Dog Sees God|366464|Dog Sees God|Bert V. Royal|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388277289s/366464.jpg|356486], which showed the cast of Peanuts as dysfunctional high school students. It was brilliant, and I loved it. This novel took that idea one giant step further with a different cast of familiar characters, showing them moving past the easy and carefree summers of high school and into their late twenties, scraping and clawing and struggling to adjust to adulthood after what they had seen their last summer as a detective club, and their decision to return to that town as a form of catharsis. I won't go into more into plot details, but I will say the story is very tight, brilliantly crafted, and with very few wasted words. Of course, this comes from someone who grew up watching Mystery Inc. daily, and has read all of the Hardy Boys books, so take my opinion with a grain of salt -- unless you, like me, love this same brand of nostalgia, in which case, I recommend it wholeheartedly.
I once saw an off-Broadway play called [b:Dog Sees God|366464|Dog Sees God|Bert V. Royal|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388277289s/366464.jpg|356486], which showed the cast of Peanuts as dysfunctional high school students. It was brilliant, and I loved it. This novel took that idea one giant step further with a different cast of familiar characters, showing them moving past the easy and carefree summers of high school and into their late twenties, scraping and clawing and struggling to adjust to adulthood after what they had seen their last summer as a detective club, and their decision to return to that town as a form of catharsis. I won't go into more into plot details, but I will say the story is very tight, brilliantly crafted, and with very few wasted words. Of course, this comes from someone who grew up watching Mystery Inc. daily, and has read all of the Hardy Boys books, so take my opinion with a grain of salt -- unless you, like me, love this same brand of nostalgia, in which case, I recommend it wholeheartedly.
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
This book is fun! It does a lot of fun, campy things. It will make its own words. It will reference itself. It has these scenes that are written like screenplays complete with stage directions and character lines to read. And above all else, this book is fun.