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bargainsleuth's review
3.0
Once again in an Original Text Nancy Drew mystery, our favorite sleuth meets someone in serious financial trouble. Somehow Nancy and her friends never seem troubled by the Great Depression, and have lots of money from their parents to fritter away. This time Nancy, George and Bess decide to board at Red Gate Farm, which is a considerable distance from River Heights. Nancy and crew stumble onto a mystery involving a "Nature Cult", and don't do much investigating, and at the end, they are caught by the bad guys, only to be rescued by the feds at the most convenient time. Not my favorite of the OT Nancy's, I wonder if I'll prefer the Revised Text. We shall see.
bargainsleuth's review against another edition
4.0
I liked the Revised Text of this book rather than the Original Text. It's the same story, but the rewrite is better. The random happenings in the OT aren't nearly so random in the RT, and there is more back story and Nancy finding clues instead of just stumbling upon them. Also, as with most of the RT's, Chief McGinnis takes her seriously (unlike the unhelpful cops in all of the OTs), although I wonder how big his jurisdiction is since the girls rode almost 6 hours to get to Red Gate Farm. The updated texts always got rid of racial stereotypes and guns of any kind, but the RT still has fat-shaming of Bess and in this book, the bad guys' sexism is on full display.
rballenger's review against another edition
3.0
Type of read: Weekend/Lunch time read.
What made me pick it up: Here's the deal, sometimes you just need an easy read for lunchtime or appointment waiting or those little moments where you can sneak in a few pages, Nancy Drew is just that. As a child of the 90s, I grew up on Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys. These were the books that taught me how to read and adventure through pages. It's been fun revising the Nancy Drew series.
Overall rating: As I reread through the Nancy Drew series, I'm not going to rate them significantly or provide a detailed review. I'm simply reading these because it makes me happy and makes me think of simpler times. I will always recommend books like Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Box Car Children, Babysitters Club, Goosebumps, Animorphs, and so on as those are the books that drew me into reading and kept me excited to continue turning pages.
Reader's Note: It took me an extended period of time to read 'The Secret of Red Gate Farm' because I let my library loan lapse.
What made me pick it up: Here's the deal, sometimes you just need an easy read for lunchtime or appointment waiting or those little moments where you can sneak in a few pages, Nancy Drew is just that. As a child of the 90s, I grew up on Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys. These were the books that taught me how to read and adventure through pages. It's been fun revising the Nancy Drew series.
Overall rating: As I reread through the Nancy Drew series, I'm not going to rate them significantly or provide a detailed review. I'm simply reading these because it makes me happy and makes me think of simpler times. I will always recommend books like Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Box Car Children, Babysitters Club, Goosebumps, Animorphs, and so on as those are the books that drew me into reading and kept me excited to continue turning pages.
Reader's Note: It took me an extended period of time to read 'The Secret of Red Gate Farm' because I let my library loan lapse.
blondierocket's review
3.0
The sixth book in the Nancy Drew series, takes Nancy on a shopping trip with a friend where they find a bottle of perfume that the sales woman refuses to sell them. It’s not the only strange occurrence involving the perfume – as on the train they encounter a strange man who believes they are involved in something they are not.
Nancy accompanies her friend to a job interview only to find out there is something strange going on with the job and soon finds a mysterious code that leads them on the trail to a cult holding meetings at a nearby far.
This was an interesting story, I very much enjoyed it and almost didn’t want it to end.
Nancy accompanies her friend to a job interview only to find out there is something strange going on with the job and soon finds a mysterious code that leads them on the trail to a cult holding meetings at a nearby far.
This was an interesting story, I very much enjoyed it and almost didn’t want it to end.
cogsofencouragement's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
dgrachel's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
I liked this better than the last one, which isn’t saying much. On the plus side, there were fewer exclamation points (or I’ve just become blind to them). On the downside, there were so many adverbs. So. Many. As for the plot, it’s the standard ND mystery - suspicious looking characters, odd encounters that intrigue Nancy, physical danger as a consequence of her snooping, and the successful resolution where Nancy gets heaps of praise from an impressed law enforcement organization. We get Feds in this one!
laura_cs's review against another edition
4.0
Kind of a weird one. But once you get a cult involved, it's bound to be strange.
typewriterjess's review against another edition
2.0
In my Nancy Drew experience, I've found that the books, being written by all sorts of different authors, fall into two categories:
1) Nancy goes somewhere, takes on a difficult mystery, almost dies like eight times, finds secret passages, and beats the villain with her smarts! (See: Lilac Inn)
2) Nancy goes somewhere, has lunch, has lunch again, has lunch one more time, and the answer to the entire mystery just appears, as if by magic! (See: Mirror Bay. As a side note, what WAS with the obsession with eating in these books...?)
Unfortunately, Red Gate falls more into the latter category.
In between episodes of eating a LOT of sundaes, this mystery seemed waaaay too easily solved. The classic dress-up-like-the-bad-guys scheme took our friends sooooo long to figure out, it was a little aggravating. But if it hadn't taken them so long, the book might've been like 20 pages, so...
I'm also not really sure why exactly one would give a cult (with a name like Black Snake) (huh) (they sound SO friendly!) a place on their farm to do Most Suspect Activities in the first place. That doesn't seem like a very good idea, just sayin'. And it wasn't really much of a secret, to be honest...Misleading title is misleading.
It also had a really lame ending. The villains had potential, but they were just a group of classic Mua-ha-ha villains with no real apparent motive other than BECAUSE WE CAN!! ...Quite disappointing. Or maybe I'm just getting too old to read these, I'm not really sure. XD
1) Nancy goes somewhere, takes on a difficult mystery, almost dies like eight times, finds secret passages, and beats the villain with her smarts! (See: Lilac Inn)
2) Nancy goes somewhere, has lunch, has lunch again, has lunch one more time, and the answer to the entire mystery just appears, as if by magic! (See: Mirror Bay. As a side note, what WAS with the obsession with eating in these books...?)
Unfortunately, Red Gate falls more into the latter category.
In between episodes of eating a LOT of sundaes, this mystery seemed waaaay too easily solved. The classic dress-up-like-the-bad-guys scheme took our friends sooooo long to figure out, it was a little aggravating. But if it hadn't taken them so long, the book might've been like 20 pages, so...
I'm also not really sure why exactly one would give a cult (with a name like Black Snake) (huh) (they sound SO friendly!) a place on their farm to do Most Suspect Activities in the first place. That doesn't seem like a very good idea, just sayin'. And it wasn't really much of a secret, to be honest...Misleading title is misleading.
It also had a really lame ending. The villains had potential, but they were just a group of classic Mua-ha-ha villains with no real apparent motive other than BECAUSE WE CAN!! ...Quite disappointing. Or maybe I'm just getting too old to read these, I'm not really sure. XD
dinnureads's review against another edition
4.0
Nancy Drew stories don't exactly age well but they're a nostalgic part of my childhood. They're a light entertainment for reading slumps and are also great for moments when there is a willingness to read but the brain can't handle too complex storylines.