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dancingterracephantom 's review for:
Radio Static
by Nicky James
3.5 stars
The premise of this book is so interesting. Two dads, with their teenager each, spending the month of August in their respective cabins on a small lake in BFE. They get sucked into a murder mystery and go all Nancy Drew. Love the concept.
For the most part, the story worked. The characters were written to be "realistic" in a very stereotypical way. Petulant teens who were too cool to want to spend time with their dad's; Cooper was belligerent and Rae was whiny. Rae's dad, Mercedes, is super over protective and pretty much smothers her since he made a vow when she was born to focus all of his love on her alone. Nova, Cooper's dad, is the weekend dad due to a divorce who just wants to reconnect to his son who hides away with his electronics. While I get that the author was probably making the characters imperfect and flawed to make them seem more real, they were SO predictable sometimes.
The romance between Mercedes and Nova was very slow burn and we only had a couple small scenes with any amount of spice. They danced around each other a lot. First, because Cooper didn't know Nova was bi. And second, because Mercedes is so obsessed with his vow to smother, I mean, focus on Rae. I liked them together, and felt their connection at first. But Mercedes was kind of a dick whenever his feelings ran high, and neither Nova nor Cooper deserved the BS that he put them through.
The mystery itself was pretty interesting. I really didn't guess who the bad guy was until just before the "big reveal" so that was appreciated. I absolutely got Nancy Drew slash Scooby Doo vibes from their amateur sleuthing, but since I actually loved both of those universes as a kid, I didn't mind.
Overall, the story was a good one, though sometimes very frustrating. I wanted to punch Mercedes a few times. I wanted to hide when their amateur sleuthing got too intense. But I'm glad I gave it a shot.
The premise of this book is so interesting. Two dads, with their teenager each, spending the month of August in their respective cabins on a small lake in BFE. They get sucked into a murder mystery and go all Nancy Drew. Love the concept.
For the most part, the story worked. The characters were written to be "realistic" in a very stereotypical way. Petulant teens who were too cool to want to spend time with their dad's; Cooper was belligerent and Rae was whiny. Rae's dad, Mercedes, is super over protective and pretty much smothers her since he made a vow when she was born to focus all of his love on her alone. Nova, Cooper's dad, is the weekend dad due to a divorce who just wants to reconnect to his son who hides away with his electronics. While I get that the author was probably making the characters imperfect and flawed to make them seem more real, they were SO predictable sometimes.
The romance between Mercedes and Nova was very slow burn and we only had a couple small scenes with any amount of spice. They danced around each other a lot. First, because Cooper didn't know Nova was bi. And second, because Mercedes is so obsessed with his vow to smother, I mean, focus on Rae. I liked them together, and felt their connection at first. But Mercedes was kind of a dick whenever his feelings ran high, and neither Nova nor Cooper deserved the BS that he put them through.
The mystery itself was pretty interesting. I really didn't guess who the bad guy was until just before the "big reveal" so that was appreciated. I absolutely got Nancy Drew slash Scooby Doo vibes from their amateur sleuthing, but since I actually loved both of those universes as a kid, I didn't mind.
Overall, the story was a good one, though sometimes very frustrating. I wanted to punch Mercedes a few times. I wanted to hide when their amateur sleuthing got too intense. But I'm glad I gave it a shot.