Title: Meddling Kids
Author: Edgar Cantero
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Pages: 366 (Hardcover)
Publisher: Doubleday Books
Publication date: July 11th, 2017
Publication date: July 11th, 2017
Synopsis from Meddling Kids' Goodreads page
For fans of John Dies at the End and Welcome to Night Vale comes a tour de force of horror, humor, and H.P. Lovecraft. The surviving members of a forgotten teenage detective club (and their dog) must reunite as broken adults to finally solve the terrifying case that ruined them all and sent the wrong man to prison. Scooby Doo and the gang never had to do this!
1990. The teen detectives once known as the Blyton Summer Detective Club (of Blyton Hills, a small mining town in the Zoinx River Valley in Oregon) are all grown up and haven't seen each other since their fateful, final case in 1977. Andy, the tomboy, is twenty-five and on the run, wanted in at least two states. Kerri, one-time kid genius and budding biologist, is bartending in New York, working on a serious drinking problem. At least she's got Tim, an excitable Weimaraner descended from the original canine member of the team. Nate, the horror nerd, has spent the last thirteen years in and out of mental health institutions, and currently resides in an asylum in Arhkam, Massachusetts. The only friend he still sees is Peter, the handsome jock turned movie star. The problem is, Peter's been dead for years.
The time has come to uncover the source of their nightmares and return to where it all began in 1977. This time, it better not be a man in a mask. The real monsters are waiting.
With raucous humor and brilliantly orchestrated mayhem, Edgar Cantero's Meddling Kids taps into our shared nostalgia for the books and cartoons we grew up with, and delivers an exuberant, eclectic, and highly entertaining celebration of horror, life, friendship, and many-tentacled, interdimensional demon spawn.
1990. The teen detectives once known as the Blyton Summer Detective Club (of Blyton Hills, a small mining town in the Zoinx River Valley in Oregon) are all grown up and haven't seen each other since their fateful, final case in 1977. Andy, the tomboy, is twenty-five and on the run, wanted in at least two states. Kerri, one-time kid genius and budding biologist, is bartending in New York, working on a serious drinking problem. At least she's got Tim, an excitable Weimaraner descended from the original canine member of the team. Nate, the horror nerd, has spent the last thirteen years in and out of mental health institutions, and currently resides in an asylum in Arhkam, Massachusetts. The only friend he still sees is Peter, the handsome jock turned movie star. The problem is, Peter's been dead for years.
The time has come to uncover the source of their nightmares and return to where it all began in 1977. This time, it better not be a man in a mask. The real monsters are waiting.
With raucous humor and brilliantly orchestrated mayhem, Edgar Cantero's Meddling Kids taps into our shared nostalgia for the books and cartoons we grew up with, and delivers an exuberant, eclectic, and highly entertaining celebration of horror, life, friendship, and many-tentacled, interdimensional demon spawn.
THOUGHTS
I picked up Meddling Kids on a whim. I saw the cover and absolutely loved the colour scheme and it so vividly reminded me of Scooby-Doo and watching those cartoons when I was a kid. Needless to say, for a random book I found on the shelf, I had pretty high expectations for it.
The beginning was strange, but in a good way. It was a bit confusing and mysterious, and that's how a good mystery should start.
Meddling Kids centers around a group of adults that, when they were kids, solved mysteries just like the Scooby-Doo gang. However, in this book, the kids are all grown up and they have to confront their past and one of the mysteries that they believed they had solved, but really hadn't.
This book was dark. It had monsters and death and gore and blood. But it was also good in that it involved growing up, and what that entailed. It showed that kids and adults alike can have issues, but those issues don't define who they are, or who they become.
Parts of this book were very good, and other parts were okay. I found some parts to lag, and other parts to be too short for what was happening, and I wish there had been more. The writing style was also a little different, as it would tell like a story, and then suddenly parts would turn into almost a play script.
The characters were something that I absolutely loved about this book. The characters were all likeable, even the bad guys, and they all had a human element (except for, well, the nonhuman creatures). They all had their own faults, issues, and difficulties, but I enjoy reading about characters that have a difficult time with some things, because it makes them easier to connect to and with. These characters definitely had no light and easy issues, but they were all wonderful in their own ways and were great to read about.
Overall - ★★★☆☆.5
