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A review by panda_incognito
Enola Holmes and the Elegant Escapade by Nancy Springer
2.0
This new installment in the Enola Holmes series is very weak, with an implausible central storyline and very little for Enola to investigate. The author brought back Cecily, a character from earlier in the series, and built a third mystery about her. We've already tread this ground, so it was dull, and the whole thing about Cecily having a split personality because she's lefthanded makes no sense.
It wasn't realistic in other books, either, but I was willing to overlook it. Here, it drives the story so completely that I couldn't suspend any disbelief, and the book is mainly just about Enola and Sherlock trying to find her, without any significant mystery element added in. They discover unsavory things about Cecily's father that they leverage to her benefit, but this isn't a traditional mystery in any sense. It's just an adventure story without much adventure.
The heavy emphasis on Cecily's imaginary mental health situation bothered me, both because it's implausible and because it could confuse young readers about real mental health issues. The many references to Cecily's father's size in order to convey how disgusting he was were truly unnecessary, since his short stature and large girth have nothing to do with him being dishonest, abusive, and hateful. Also, I found it odd that the author continued using the slur for the Roma people throughout this book, even though she retitled a previous installment to remove this word. I don't have a problem with an author using it for historical accuracy, especially since the vast majority of people didn't use it with negative intent, but she should have included a note to explain.
It wasn't realistic in other books, either, but I was willing to overlook it. Here, it drives the story so completely that I couldn't suspend any disbelief, and the book is mainly just about Enola and Sherlock trying to find her, without any significant mystery element added in. They discover unsavory things about Cecily's father that they leverage to her benefit, but this isn't a traditional mystery in any sense. It's just an adventure story without much adventure.
The heavy emphasis on Cecily's imaginary mental health situation bothered me, both because it's implausible and because it could confuse young readers about real mental health issues. The many references to Cecily's father's size in order to convey how disgusting he was were truly unnecessary, since his short stature and large girth have nothing to do with him being dishonest, abusive, and hateful. Also, I found it odd that the author continued using the slur for the Roma people throughout this book, even though she retitled a previous installment to remove this word. I don't have a problem with an author using it for historical accuracy, especially since the vast majority of people didn't use it with negative intent, but she should have included a note to explain.