The Cephalopod Coffeehouse - Meddling Kids

Welcome

Today I'm going to tell you about my favorite book of the month, Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero.

But first I want to mention the other books I read this past month...

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden - This was my second favorite. If you like fairy Tales, I recommend it.
The Last One by Alexandra Oliva - I think I would've liked this more if I liked reality television. But alas, I don't.
Seed by Ania Ahlborn - Horror written well, but not like Stephen King. I didn't love any of the characters.

This book, however,

was totally awesome.

Meddling kids re-imagines the Scooby Doo Gang as the Blyton Summer Detective Club, of Blyton Hills, a small mining town in Oregon's Zoinx River Valley. In their last case in 1977, the gang exposed the Sleepy Lake Monster. Thirteen years years later the gang is all grown up but not doing so well. Peter is dead, Nate is in an institution (where he sometimes talks to Peter), Kerri is a biologist without a job who drinks too much (owner of Tim, the weimaraner, a direct descendant of the original canine member of the club), and Andy the tomboy, wanted in two states, decides to get the gang back together. Because only by revisiting the past - and their last case - will any of them have a future.

One of the things I loved about this book was the way Edgar Cantero describes things. It's different and beautiful. For example, one character is a little obsessed with Kerri's hair, which is described in one of the opening chapters thus:

"..Kerri turning to serve the beers, her curls swinging around and cheering gleefully like kids on a carousel.It was a minor entry in the list of Kerri's innumerable talents. Her hair had this joyful quality about it, the way it trailed after her as she rode her bike downhill or dove off a rope swing...it breathed and moved like it had a life of its own, or many."

I won't go on, except to say this book deserves all the nice things that have been said about it, like this from Rob Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Year Zero.


"Meddling Kids is an utterly charming paean to a squad of animated teen detectives who fought down the crime wave of early-70's America. Amidst the homages and playfulness, it then transforms into a rip-roaring page turner. Throughout, Cantero plays with form and language in ways that are both mischievous and delightful. This would be impressive enough coming from a native of the country, decade, and language that the book operates in. As Cantero is none of the above, it's flat-out masterful.”

 In other bookish news I recently bought A Man Called Ove, which I had been hearing too many good things about to resist, and the first volume of The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman.

What are you reading and who's on your TBR list?