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A review by melbsreads
The Nancys by R.W.R. McDonald
3.0
Trigger warnings: death of a parent (in the past), grief, murder, blood, serious injury to a friend, slut shaming, alcohol abuse.
For the most part, I enjoyed this story about an 11 year old Nancy Drew obsessed kid in small town New Zealand investigating the murder of her teacher with assistance from her chaotic uncle and his fashion-designer boyfriend. There's plenty of humour in the story and I loved having Tippy as a narrator because so much of the adult conversation goes over her head (but not the reader's).
However. Part way through the book, I noticed that McDonald writes in a very clipped way and that the characters all speak in 1-2 sentence blocks which made the book feel...choppy? And once I noticed it, I couldn't unsee it and then it turned into all I could see and anyway I wanted to love this because the start was so much fun buuuuuuut the writing wasn't my favourite and I'm bummed about that.
For the most part, I enjoyed this story about an 11 year old Nancy Drew obsessed kid in small town New Zealand investigating the murder of her teacher with assistance from her chaotic uncle and his fashion-designer boyfriend. There's plenty of humour in the story and I loved having Tippy as a narrator because so much of the adult conversation goes over her head (but not the reader's).
However. Part way through the book, I noticed that McDonald writes in a very clipped way and that the characters all speak in 1-2 sentence blocks which made the book feel...choppy? And once I noticed it, I couldn't unsee it and then it turned into all I could see and anyway I wanted to love this because the start was so much fun buuuuuuut the writing wasn't my favourite and I'm bummed about that.