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A review by alexblackreads
Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak
5.0
I adored this. I was a Nancy Drew fan as a kid, but truthfully the Hardy Boys were always my first love.
I think this book is kind of mis-marketed. I picked it up initially based on the description describing the "vivid energy" and telling you to "grab your flashlights and join the gang" on the adventure. That's not really the vibe of this book, and I expected (as I assume a lot of people would) that it was going to be much more lighthearted and fun. It's a pretty dense, slow read with a lot of historical context about feminism of the early 20th century and behind the scenes of publishing legalities. I have zero issues with that as I obviously rated this book 5 stars, but it took a bit of adjustment once I realized I was reading something entirely different than I expected. I figure a lot of people didn't get what they wanted from this and that's why the low rating.
But once I got beyond all that, I loved the book. Just everything about it. I loved learning about the creation of the Syndicate (so ominous lol) and Edward Stratemeyer, who created Nancy Drew along with many other series books. I loved learning how the company was structured and how ghostwriters worked. I loved the backstories of Harriet Stratemeyer, daughter of Edward and eventual CEO of the company/writer of Nancy, and Mildred Wirt Benson, writer of many of the early Nancy books. I loved the historical context of how Nancy came to be specifically relating to the early 20th century and how series books became such a big deal, and then how feminism transformed that into books for girls as well. It was all fascinating information.
Rehak spends a lot of time discussing how feminism changed throughout the years, from the very early 1900s when Harriet and Mildred were children up through the 70s and present day, especially as it relates directly to how Nancy was perceived and how she achieved such longevity when many series books were quickly forgotten. She also discusses in depth the various edits that went into Nancy, both at the time when the Syndicate disagreed with their writers and changed Nancy into a more ladylike character and in the 50s when all the books were rewritten to be less racist and easier reads.
Everything about this was so interesting and well researched. I loved every minute. I'd highly recommend this, just keep in mind it's a denser book that focuses a lot on the behind the scenes of the publishing industry. This was honestly so much better than I was expecting and it's definitely one of my favorites this year.
I think this book is kind of mis-marketed. I picked it up initially based on the description describing the "vivid energy" and telling you to "grab your flashlights and join the gang" on the adventure. That's not really the vibe of this book, and I expected (as I assume a lot of people would) that it was going to be much more lighthearted and fun. It's a pretty dense, slow read with a lot of historical context about feminism of the early 20th century and behind the scenes of publishing legalities. I have zero issues with that as I obviously rated this book 5 stars, but it took a bit of adjustment once I realized I was reading something entirely different than I expected. I figure a lot of people didn't get what they wanted from this and that's why the low rating.
But once I got beyond all that, I loved the book. Just everything about it. I loved learning about the creation of the Syndicate (so ominous lol) and Edward Stratemeyer, who created Nancy Drew along with many other series books. I loved learning how the company was structured and how ghostwriters worked. I loved the backstories of Harriet Stratemeyer, daughter of Edward and eventual CEO of the company/writer of Nancy, and Mildred Wirt Benson, writer of many of the early Nancy books. I loved the historical context of how Nancy came to be specifically relating to the early 20th century and how series books became such a big deal, and then how feminism transformed that into books for girls as well. It was all fascinating information.
Rehak spends a lot of time discussing how feminism changed throughout the years, from the very early 1900s when Harriet and Mildred were children up through the 70s and present day, especially as it relates directly to how Nancy was perceived and how she achieved such longevity when many series books were quickly forgotten. She also discusses in depth the various edits that went into Nancy, both at the time when the Syndicate disagreed with their writers and changed Nancy into a more ladylike character and in the 50s when all the books were rewritten to be less racist and easier reads.
Everything about this was so interesting and well researched. I loved every minute. I'd highly recommend this, just keep in mind it's a denser book that focuses a lot on the behind the scenes of the publishing industry. This was honestly so much better than I was expecting and it's definitely one of my favorites this year.