Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero-- Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost Take 2

Meddling Kids

The Blyton Summer Detectives Club once solved the biggest mystery to ever hit Blyton Hills-- or so they thought....

It's 13 years later, and they've all gone their separate ways, but Andy is getting the gang back together.  She knows they finally need to put to rest the case that has haunted them all for the last decade: The Mystery of the Sleepy Lake Monster.  They thought they got the guy (another dude in a mask, of course), but something about what happened that night has lingered with them through their adult lives.

Now, Andy, Kerri, Nate (w/ Peter haunting him), and Tim are going back to the place of their childhood to see what's really going on in this sleepy town.











Scooby-Doo!!!  Where are you??  In this book, he's in Blyton Hills and his name is Tim.  The book is loosely based on the Scooby-Doo TV shows that we all know and love, and it is a riot.

So, the characters in this book are not named Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby-- much to my disappointment.  I'm not actually sure how the author came to name the original Scooby, Sean and the descendant of Scooby, Tim-- seems kind of random to me, but okay.  Names aside, the characters all had vibes of the characters they were based on, except maybe Nate-- he was not the pot-head   They're all grown up and ready to face things they were afraid to face when they were kids-- if only because they've been living with demons for the past 13 years.

The events of their last mystery has all haunted them into adulthood-- Andy (Velma) had major anger issues and is actually escaped from prison when the adventure starts, Kerri (Daphne) has alcoholic tendencies, Nate (Shaggy) is in a mental hospital for delusions/hallucinations-- mainly that he sees and talks to Peter (Fred), who committed suicide a few years ago.  I was kind of bummed that one of the major players wouldn't be involved in the mystery, but I didn't need to worry since Peter's (Fred) character was actually very well represented.

It took almost halfway for me to get INTO the book. It starts out kind of slow and the writing style is odd. It's like a screenplay, but it's not?? I'm not sure I 100% get why some scenes had random switches between script format dialogue and novel format. But I did sort of start to love that the movie scene descriptions were always underlying & how everything was personified (especially Kerri's hair-- it was basically alive).

The last 1/4 of this book is TOTALLY Scooby-Doo, which is pretty much what I came for. It was like Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost (minus The Hex Girls, unfortunately).  It was action, action, action and I was HERE for it.  I loved that the book played with the idea that "it's always a guy in a mask", but maybe this time it isn't... maybe this time it's really something paranormal and not of this world.

I recommend, you just have to push past the beginning slow/weirdness to get to the good stuff.

OVERALL: I'm a HUGE Scooby-Doo fan, so I was pumped to read a retelling related to the series.  It wasn't exactly what I was expecting-- it's a lot more serious and some of the characters didn't live up to their counterparts-- but the mystery was there and it was totally SCOOBY-DOO.  The writing style takes some getting used to, as does the beginning slowness, but if you push through, I promise this book gets GOOD.  I recommend to all my Scooby fans out there.  It's worth reading if you can settle in.

Date Published: 7/11/2017
How I got this book: Library
Publisher: Doubleday Books


Add it to your To-Read List!!



My Rating: 3/5












Character: Nate Rogers
Book: The Diviners (#1) by Libba Bray

  • Nate likes to read obscure occult/horror books, and I think maybe he needs to chill and just read this YA Mystery that will still appeal to his interests.






6 comments:

  1. I didn't realize this was kind of based on Scooby Doo. Sorry you wanted more, but it does seem like a book I'd enjoy, so I'll have to try and read it someday!

    -Lauren
    www.shootingstarsmag.net

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    1. I really liked it once I got used to it. I mean, there were things I would've done differently, like made the Shaggy character more pothead and less anxiety-filled-- but that's okay. It was still a fun read, and I need to read a bit more Adult anyhow.

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  2. I started this one, and put it aside, because it was a lot darker than I expected. I am happy to see the last part was all Scooby, because that's what I was looking for.

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    1. I almost put it aside in the beginning part too. It did not start out wowing me whatsoever, but it did get better and A LOT more Scooby!!

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  3. I've been so curious about this but hardly have seen any reviews for it. It sounds interesting but I'm not sure if it would satisfy by Scooby cravings haha.

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