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.