A review by octavia_cade
Mystery Ranch by Gertrude Chandler Warner

1.0

Good grief. How did these books ever get published? Things have taken a severe downturn since the first book in the series. I mean, I read enough of the Trixie Belden books as a kid to know that children's mystery stories aren't too hot on the plausibility side, but these children are playing in a uranium mine!!! Not to mention the chimney of the house in the ranch their great aunt has given them (for no good reason, because these kids aren't rich enough) is made of uranium ore. Granted, these books were written decades ago and perhaps Warner didn't have access to the same level of scientific information that we have today, but they have not aged well. Moreover, this one's got a particularly patronising tone. Great aunt Jane is referred to as "little lady" so often I lost count... even by little Benny, upon meeting her, which now I come to think of it... no wonder she sent him to play in a uranium mine. And the implication that she's at fault for the estrangement with her brother because she didn't want to sell her own home... you can fuck right off, Grandfather Alden, for letting your sister fall into loneliness and poverty and not even trying to help her because she didn't do what you wanted as a young woman.

Safe to say this is the lowlight of the series thus far. How did these things get to be classics again?