So we had a fantastic nor’easter this weekend and by fantastic I mean HORRIBLE…sooo I was able to get a lot of reading done. Seriously, we were without power for several hours and roads were incredibly dangerous so we could not leave the house. What better thing to do than read and escape the boredom?
This gave me the chance to start and finish is book and really assess what I thought about it. So let’s get to it!
Star Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Clearly this was a reimagining of the cartoon Scooby Doo but it was written for a much older audience. All of the characters in the book have the feel of the original characters, but of course they are a lot more edgy. You had Peter (aka Fred) the leader, Kerri (aka Velma) the brains, Andrea “Andy” (aka Daphne), Nate (Shaggy), and Tim (the great grandson of Sean aka Scooby).
The book starts off with the newspaper clipping if the Scooby gang (yeah, no matter what that is how I am going to refer to them) and a crime they solved in 1977. Then we are taken 13 years into the future where the masked villain is at his parole hearing. The way this transition was done was pretty brilliant. They allow the bad guy parole and he goes to a bar where he is confronted by Andy (Daphne) and she kicks his butt and then makes him admit that there was more out there that night 13 years ago.
For me that was really where the story began. Showing Andy (Daphne) as a strong and bad ass woman really set the stage for what we were going to be getting in this book. We were not going to be getting a kid friendly story with me in costumes, we were going to get something a lot more gritty.
The evil and monsters in this were very real. The Scooby gang has suffered in different ways since that fateful night in 1977 and they all seemed to deal with it in a different fashion. This night was so traumatizing for them that years later one of the Scooby Gang took their own lives….yeah told you this was a more adult version. I did only give it a 3.5 but this book was a really fun read, it just had a few things that were a bit distracting for me, but I will get into that below.
Pros:
- All of the Scooby Gang were written in a way that made them each feel like they were there own person. Trust me, I have read books where the author failed terribly at this.
- I really did feel like it was another long episode/movie from Scooby Doo. I really captured the was they would solve the mysteries.
- Tim (aka Scooby) was seriously the most adorably written dog. He really was just so fun.
- I was surprised by who the villain was! There was a twist and it was executed extremely well!
- The entire sequence of them rescuing Nate (Shaggy) from Arkham was pure magic. I will not spoil this part, but I did laugh out loud. Loved it!
Cons:
- Parts of the story were written in a way that it almost seemed like a script vs a story. Such as “cast walks in the door” and while I understood why they did it, it was still weird.
- There was a part between Andy (Daphne) and Kerri (Velma) that just bothered me. Andy admits how she felt for Kerri all these years and Kerri just kindly shut her down but did not want her to get out of the bed with her because she needed her. It just bothered me, but it all works out.
Overall:
The book was definitely a fun read for me. There were a couple parts that I felt dragged on more than they needed to but the story itself was good. Each of the characters dealt with their PTSD in a different way and I felt that it was done well. You got to see that somethings that happen in life do have long lasting effects and you don’t have to be ashamed about it. Plus, it really just felt like you were connecting with old friends when you read this. If you want a quick read that has some magic, a mystery, and a group of friends who solve it, then look no more because this is the book for you!
~Book 7 completed! Climbing La Plata Peak 1 more book to go~
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The Owl's Book Nest 