A review by kjboldon
Confessions of a Teen Sleuth by Chelsea Cain
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
For hardcore girl detective fans only. I think the window on this book has passed given the racism, fat shaming and closeted gays, so even die hard fans with an open sense of humor and willingness to let things of a time be in their context should be wary.
It starts so promisingly! It's an homage and parody of Nancy Drew, imagining Nancy as a real person whose detections were recorded by her college roommate Carolyn Keene. It goes through all the years of the phases of the books, and has some super fun elements like Nancy's ongoing flirtation with Frank Hardy, and speculation on background characters like Nancy's mom. And the illustrations by Lia Miternique are delightful additions in the spirit of the originals.
Depending on what other series you enjoyed, it's delightful to find other series referenced. For me, it was Trixie Belden, but there's also Cherry Ames, Tom Swift, and others. Stories that featured series I didn't know (e.g. Time Swift) left me cold, so as the years advanced and the these accumulated the charm of the book palled.
But where this book failed most spectacularly was in walking that admittedly tricky thin line between poking fun at something by critiquing it, and then embodying that which you purport to criticize. It was great and funny to have Cain point out that Nancy as a character was vain and there was a great deal of fat shaming and racism in the books. But even in a parody, when Cain makes all the villains fat, and has a lot of racist stuff go unquestioned then she's just deploying those bad tropes herself.
I haven't read Cain's mysteries. I have read her graphic novels, Mockingbird which I loved, and Man-eaters which I felt fell into exactly these issues--trapped in second wave white feminism that hasn't made the leap to intersectionality. I think I love many of the same things Cain does, and I loved her poking fun at Nancy Drew. But when, for example, she continues to make Bess fat and George a lesbian and have these be things that are being laughed at, not celebrated, then she hasn't transcended the material she's working with, which is the aim of a good homage and parody.
It starts so promisingly! It's an homage and parody of Nancy Drew, imagining Nancy as a real person whose detections were recorded by her college roommate Carolyn Keene. It goes through all the years of the phases of the books, and has some super fun elements like Nancy's ongoing flirtation with Frank Hardy, and speculation on background characters like Nancy's mom. And the illustrations by Lia Miternique are delightful additions in the spirit of the originals.
Depending on what other series you enjoyed, it's delightful to find other series referenced. For me, it was Trixie Belden, but there's also Cherry Ames, Tom Swift, and others. Stories that featured series I didn't know (e.g. Time Swift) left me cold, so as the years advanced and the these accumulated the charm of the book palled.
But where this book failed most spectacularly was in walking that admittedly tricky thin line between poking fun at something by critiquing it, and then embodying that which you purport to criticize. It was great and funny to have Cain point out that Nancy as a character was vain and there was a great deal of fat shaming and racism in the books. But even in a parody, when Cain makes all the villains fat, and has a lot of racist stuff go unquestioned then she's just deploying those bad tropes herself.
I haven't read Cain's mysteries. I have read her graphic novels, Mockingbird which I loved, and Man-eaters which I felt fell into exactly these issues--trapped in second wave white feminism that hasn't made the leap to intersectionality. I think I love many of the same things Cain does, and I loved her poking fun at Nancy Drew. But when, for example, she continues to make Bess fat and George a lesbian and have these be things that are being laughed at, not celebrated, then she hasn't transcended the material she's working with, which is the aim of a good homage and parody.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Lesbophobia, Cultural appropriation, and Racism
This is a parody, as it says in the subtitle, but it ends up embodying some of the things it tries to critique.