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A review by heathengray
Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
About 3/4 into this book, I was prepared to give it 4.5/5 or higher. I was thoroughly enjoying its pace, characters, and (lazy attempts to use present tense movie script style dialogue to convey immediacy aside) the writing style. Here you have a legitimate attempt to bring Scooby-Do into the modern era, almost blending it with the plot of Stephen King's It, and then it just stopped being as fun any more.
While being a little silly in homage to its Hanna Barbera roots, the book does attempt some realism, grounding the crew of the Mystery Machine in the real world. For example, one character cannot fly in a plane because they escaped jail, and airports use federal databases, but later the cops take the not-so-teenage detectives at their word with little evidence whenevacuating two towns and a city may be required . The realism definitely takes a nose dive towards the end, and it does not help with the tension. Also, while written in a modern, quippy way, I felt the book took too many liberties with it's nods to the fourth wall, assuming I knew all the references it threw at me. I knew enough of them to know that some could be quite anachronistic for a person in 1990 to reference, thereby dating the book even more, and anchoring it to references of the 2000s.
Otherwise I found the main characters a delight to be around, if a bit too Mary Sue, none of them excelling in life after their days of teenage adventure, but all of them well equipped to handle obstacles thrown at them. The antagonist disappointingly lacked any real motivation.
You may see other reviewers tag this book withtransphobia, but without spoiling it, it isn't done with malice, nor does the author dead name or anything - that person is that person as they are in the current narrative of the book, and they have a compelling reason for being trans, though they probably wouldn't agree with the nomenclature .
While being a little silly in homage to its Hanna Barbera roots, the book does attempt some realism, grounding the crew of the Mystery Machine in the real world. For example, one character cannot fly in a plane because they escaped jail, and airports use federal databases, but later the cops take the not-so-teenage detectives at their word with little evidence when
Otherwise I found the main characters a delight to be around, if a bit too Mary Sue, none of them excelling in life after their days of teenage adventure, but all of them well equipped to handle obstacles thrown at them. The antagonist disappointingly lacked any real motivation.
You may see other reviewers tag this book with
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness and Suicide
One of the characters spends his time at mental institutions, another kills themselves