Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - Meddling Kids

I don't know what I was expecting going into this book but it was not what I got. Every page shocked me. A bit wordy and heavy on metaphors. Unexpected queer rep.

Content Warnings

hauntedboi's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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ash_ton's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Okay so. Originally I had given this book 4 stars but after thinking about it, I lowered it to 3. I couldn't get past a lot of things no matter how much I liked the actual story.

First, though, no matter how much I complain, I did like the book. I like the concept of the

talismans

even though I know that isn't a novel (haha) idea. I was still shocked and wasn't expecting

the kids to be part of the ritual.

I also wasn't expecting

Dunia Deboen to be involved, nor was I expecting her to be Damian Deboen.

Maybe in hindsight it should have been obvious but *shrugs*. So, despite the things I'm about to complain about, I did like the book because the story itself was good, in my opinion.

These are things I know others have talked about, so I'm just going to be another voice agreeing with them. The random insertion of the script format throughout the book wa sso jarring and unecessary. It did nothing for the storyline. If all the dialogue would have been in script format, sure. But that would've sucked and I would have hated it lol. In the same vein, I hated the amount of ridiculous "big" words added that seemingly were only there to beef up the sentences. Also, the made up words as well. Myriaphonic, as far as I can tell from googling, is not a real word. After some clicks, I found out a miraphone is a type of tuba, so maybe that's what he was going for? But like, bud. Pick something else.
The one random 4th wall break 75% into the book was also super jarring and unnecessary to me. If you're going to break the 4th wall, only doing it once isn't gonna cut it. Is the book self-aware or not?
My one last small gripe is how

Dunia/Damian spoke at the end. Like he was trying to be old but hip at the same time. No one, not even a 200 year old dude, is gonna talk that cringy and weird.

One last thing. I'm confused about the ending. I get that Tim is Sean's great-grandson. Fine. Makes sense. But

the spirit inhabiting Tim says he's been possessing all the dogs and that it got easier when Kerri was at college? And then the spirit makes Tim smile "bittersweetly" and says "It's all been done before." Bro wtf does that mean.

Idk if I'm just stupid, but I don't understand. I don't see anyone else mentioning that part.

Bottom line: I liked the book/story, I just mostly hated some of the writing style. Usually, I can get over that and in this case I did. I'd still recommend it, especially if you like Scooby Doo and/or retellings.

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amweber's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Overall, I wanted to like this book much more than I did. The writing was jarring at times, but the more I read the more problematic it became. First off, if you’re looking for an edgy Scooby Doo that is way better than Velma, this isn’t it. Some research revealed that the author actually wanted to parallel the Famous Five by Enid Blyton, but his publishers didn’t know who that was. So he pivoted to Scooby Doo and I feel like it shows in his writing. The end result is a book that feels badly forced into a box for the sake of marketing.

There’s a ton of problematic stuff in this book that I detail in the spoiler tag.

Speaking of, Kerri and Andy’s relationship seems painfully one-sided. It kind of reminded me of that movie, Kissing Jessica Stein. Kerrie doesn’t seem to be attracted to Andy and it makes Andy seem almost predatory at times. I hate this because if this book had been written as Daphne and Velma actually falling in love I would have been SO into it. The predatory lesbian is also such a harmful stereotype.

And some trigger warnings: Kerri seems to be an alcoholic and Nate has hallucinations and has been in and out of treatment for his mental health. Both of these things seem to disappear by the end of the book after the Mystery that Haunts them is resolved. The character development throughout is very surface-level so I never really felt like I was in their heads to begin with, but that kind of fast resolution is not how this works.

The character of Dunia feels incredibly transphobic. She’s the villain we spend the most time with, as the giant Lovecraftian god doesn’t exactly speak. She is immortal and changes her gender to better disguise herself in the town, perpetuating the stereotype that trans people are tricky and deceptive. When the Blyton Summer Detective Club were kids, the villain was always a guy in a mask, so equating that with a trans identity is deeply troubling. She also claims that changing her gender was a simple and easy thing to accomplish…in the 90s. At one point she looks at Andy and says she should talk to her doctor and look into it. Transitioning is obviously much more complicated than that and can put trans people in real danger.

There’s also a racial slur in the book that is typically directed at Mexican people who enter the US. It comes out of nowhere. Now—Edgar Cantero is Spanish and there are a lot of complicated dynamics between Spanish people and Mexican people, such as colonialism, colorism, and anti-Mexican sentiment. The casual inclusion of the slur, even if its inclusion is Nate noting that their bully used to call Andy that, feel so jarring and unearned.

Additionally, the team essentially figures out who the Lovecraftian god is through a recitation of a legend from the area. It feels like an Indigenous legend is just being used as a plot point here to move the story along and this, combined with all the other problematic stuff I mentioned, really hurt my enjoyment of the book.

I wanted my first review here to be a more positive experience, but I ultimately cannot recommend this one.

Content Warnings

bri_fabiano's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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seawarrior's review against another edition

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3.0

I read this book on vacation, which I think made it easier to finish than the first time I tried. The story is engaging and fast-paced, though the mystery wasn't as unique as I'd anticipated, and the characters didn't have the amount of depth to them that I prefer. There's plenty of fight scenes, but I don't particularly like reading those. This is definitely a book for people who are interested in H.P. Lovecraft's work, but I only recognize some of his themes and symbols from movie adaptions. So altogether, it wasn't a horrible read, but there were several elements to it that I didn't enjoy. The worst of all these is Andy's obsessive, one-sided romance with Kerri that is resolved by Andy treating Kerri like her girlfriend while Kerri still maintains that she is straight. I don't know why Cantero wouldn't just allow Andy to move on, or have Kerri discover that she is sapphic. I guess I would still recommend this book to people who are interested by the premise. Like I said, it isn't horrible, but it didn't appeal to me as much as I'd hoped.

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ocean_the_reader's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I loved this book so much! The Scooby-Doo aspect was very nostalgic to me and was done so amazingly well. The different mediums used was different but made the story that much more engaging. The twists and turns!! I never saw anything coming at all! It was amazing.

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laurajones's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny fast-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

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