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A review by geraldine
Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero
Did not finish book.
1.0
DNF at 31%
Literally I could not finish this because I hated it so much. The premise on its own seems like it could be interesting in the right hands, but I'm telling you right now that Edgar Cantero's hands are not the right ones.
At first the writing style threw me some, this is going to be hit or miss for some people! He likes to change up the style for dramatic effect, so it'll be normal prose and then will become like a TV script etc. I was not really a fan of this and I don't think I would have gotten used to it if I did finish the book, but to each their own.
My real issue was for a book published in 2017 the jokes SURE read like edgy 2004 internet humor. Like? Now??? This was published in the last 5 years?! A lot of really off color jokes thrown in as asides. Like not all of the jokes are, some are just really annoying lazy references to media, but here's three that I highlighted as I was reading that I hated. Spoiler tagged so you only have to see them if you choose to but they're not actual serious story spoilers or anything. These are just offhand lines.
"On the fourth evening, the front brake cylinder broke in the middle of the interstate, almost causing them to sodomize a VW Camper, and Andy had to persuade a gang of road racers to take the Chevy into their garage for new hydraulics twenty miles north of Raccoon City." - this use of the word "sodomize" makes me WILDLY uncomfortable. unnecessary and off color.
"Nate grabbed a menu, checked that it was the same old Michael Jackson - new face-lift - and dropped it." - also an unfunny joke straight out of 2005. have we not outgrown this?!
Honestly from these alone I don't understand why people like him or the book OR why my book club which is an LGBT group suggested this at all!! I told them in our meeting that I could not finish because I was honestly disgusted by the way he wrote.
These are my takes from reading the first third of the book only. I've heard even worse things about the rest (racism, nasty stuff about the way the lesbians are treated, might be actually genuinely transphobic, makes a really flippant rape joke...??????) but I haven't read the rest due to how much I hated the beginning so take that as you will. Feel like I dodged a bullet by quitting, honestly.
Literally I could not finish this because I hated it so much. The premise on its own seems like it could be interesting in the right hands, but I'm telling you right now that Edgar Cantero's hands are not the right ones.
At first the writing style threw me some, this is going to be hit or miss for some people! He likes to change up the style for dramatic effect, so it'll be normal prose and then will become like a TV script etc. I was not really a fan of this and I don't think I would have gotten used to it if I did finish the book, but to each their own.
My real issue was for a book published in 2017 the jokes SURE read like edgy 2004 internet humor. Like? Now??? This was published in the last 5 years?! A lot of really off color jokes thrown in as asides. Like not all of the jokes are, some are just really annoying lazy references to media, but here's three that I highlighted as I was reading that I hated. Spoiler tagged so you only have to see them if you choose to but they're not actual serious story spoilers or anything. These are just offhand lines.
Spoiler
""Meeeee!" cheered the schizophrenic hermaphrodite lying on the sofa." - do i have to explain this one to you??? I swear I've read this exact line IN 2004 on someone's edgy "humor" blog. for an author who pays lip service to supporting the LGBT community and puts lesbians in your books, you really want to flippantly use an outdated and offensive term like "hermaphrodite" and pair it with "schizophrenic"? love this (HATE THIS)"On the fourth evening, the front brake cylinder broke in the middle of the interstate, almost causing them to sodomize a VW Camper, and Andy had to persuade a gang of road racers to take the Chevy into their garage for new hydraulics twenty miles north of Raccoon City." - this use of the word "sodomize" makes me WILDLY uncomfortable. unnecessary and off color.
"Nate grabbed a menu, checked that it was the same old Michael Jackson - new face-lift - and dropped it." - also an unfunny joke straight out of 2005. have we not outgrown this?!
Honestly from these alone I don't understand why people like him or the book OR why my book club which is an LGBT group suggested this at all!! I told them in our meeting that I could not finish because I was honestly disgusted by the way he wrote.
These are my takes from reading the first third of the book only. I've heard even worse things about the rest (racism, nasty stuff about the way the lesbians are treated, might be actually genuinely transphobic, makes a really flippant rape joke...??????) but I haven't read the rest due to how much I hated the beginning so take that as you will. Feel like I dodged a bullet by quitting, honestly.