Reviews - THE SECRET OF THE OLD CLOCK. Nancy Drew Mystery Stories No. 1.

1.44k reviews for:

THE SECRET OF THE OLD CLOCK. Nancy Drew Mystery Stories No. 1.

I was first introduced to Nancy Drew in the 2007 movie adaptation, starring my childhood crush, Emma Roberts. While it was cute, fun, and rather intriguing, the movie wasn’t enough to lure me, then a pre-teen, into picking up the classic series, for I was more interested in “The Clique”, “Mates, Dates, and…”, and other more ‘dramatic’ and ‘scandalous’ portrayal of teenage girls. Almost a decade later, when these books caught my eye purely by luck, I decided to give the infamous girl detective a chance… and was rather disappointed.

I supposed I had expected too much from an icon. While Nancy was an admirable and loveable protagonist in her own right, the plot was too monotone to capture me completely. Still, it made a decent comfort read.

Fingers crossed that I will have more luck with the second book.

katierourke's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted 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

naru11's review against another edition

4.0

Probably a 3.75, not quite a 4 star. I've read some of the Nancy Drew books when I was much younger, but never the first one and they are surprisingly hard to get hold of in the libraries near me. I finally found it via the Internet Archive and flew through it. It's fun and a touch exciting, light and sweet, but definitely old fashioned. Might to go for the other books in actual order eventually.

molseyanna's review against another edition

3.0

Although it's certainly fun to get a hold of the "original" Nancy Drew books (before they were rewritten/revised, beginning in 1959), reading the original version of The Secret Of The Old Clock has made me realize that sometimes, changes ARE for the best. Read both versions for yourself if you're inclined to disagree.

The differences in the plot itself are minor. Nancy still bosses the police around, and has a narrow escape from some evil miscreants, and solves the mystery, making the nice people happy and the mean ones unhappy. (None of these things should be considered spoilers since they happen in nearly every book.) Where you really will notice the differences is in the writing style. The 1930s version is just longer -- heavily padded with unnecessary things, such as "driving" and "hiking." See also: Abject racism.

The revised version actually tightened the plot a little. No offense to "Carolyn Keene," but the original story isn't perfect, and whoever did the revision actually made it better. GASP. Sacrilege. But having read both versions now, I have to say, the revised version is, on the whole, the "Secret Of The Old Clock" you should give to your kids.

_luckycats_'s review against another edition

3.0

I LOVED Nancy Drew as a kid, voraciously making my way through the many available to me at the public library. I was a little hesitant to re-read one - what if it was too dated? or didn't have the same sense of spunky independence in the main character that I so treasured as a young girl? Luckily for me, I felt it held up to the test of time. Sure, this book is filled with late-60's -isms, but it doesn't detract from the meat of the story - the well-paced mystery that keeps the pages turning.

It could be recommended for readers already exploring the genre, but definitely not as a gateway.