Post by alula on Dec 14, 2006 21:39:13 GMT -5
Sigh. . .I wanted to like this one, I really did. Stacey and the Haunted Masquerade was the last mystery I bought "live," and I thought the preview of this looked really cool. But oh, I am persnickety and thus I am irked. (Spoilers below, if you haven't read it).
Okay, first of all, it seems like the actual mystery of the secret society gets pushed aside and becomes an afterthought. I mean, the girls do track down David Follman's clues and then it's like, "oh, yea! Here's a notebook full of evidence of extortion and blackmail, and oh yeah, off-screen, the bad guy confesses to tampering with the brakes on his car!" I understand the small town extortion over stuff like what construction company to hire does not make for fascinating fiction, but then maybe it shouldn't have been a plot point, hmm? But we never find out who else is in the secret society besides Mr. Stanton, and it doesn't really seem all that connected with the club except that I guess they were all members, and maybe they met there. The end seemed to kind of fizzle out.
I just feel like there's TONS of misdirection in this book, and it's very unsatisfying. Most of the time, when the BSC follows up blind leads, it has a funny punchline or something, but this stuff just goes nowhere. Like Stoneybrook being run by women during WWII (except for Mayor Armstrong, of course)? So there were NO other men who were 4-F classified or too old or otherwise not draftable? I guess it's possible--although it makes me wonder who exactly he was supposed to be playing in that golf tournament! And there's something kind of nasty about the way his non-military status is brought up--like, I feel the authorial voice wants me to think he's unmanly or a coward or evil or something for not having fought in WWII, and really, whatever. Cheap, unnecessary shot.
And okay. The discriminatory country club stuff. This just bugged me so much. First of all, while the dates in the book are screwy, if the club has been closed 20 years, the latest it was open would be in the 1970s. I'm sorry, it's just NOT that shocking that a country club during the 1950s-70s in a WASPy town like Stoneybrook practiced active or passive discrimination in its membership. I'm not saying it's a GOOD thing, but it's not shocking--and I would not have been in the least bit shocked to have learned such a thing at thirteen. In fact, I'm sure the country club in my town DID discriminate like that--although I can't claim to know much about it, since my only knowledge of the place is having driven past it. (And of course, there are still golf clubs that don't admit women). But the angst they wring out of this is ridiculous--and it's not only the melodramatic BSCers themselves, it's the adults! This is another misdirection, because it's not entirely clear who is referring to what, but the book certainly makes it sound like Richard and Sharon, at least, made a big deal about the club being "incredibly exclusive" and "just not a nice place" and I refuse to believe that these two, who must have at a minimum been children and were most likely teenagers during the 60s would be both so clueless and so shocked about that. (I'm pretty sure the dates in the book don't add up logically anyway--for a brief shining moment I had it all figured out and then the phone rang and I lost it!).
And CLAUDIA knows about the cold war? I find that really hard to believe. And then Kristy manages a moment of random indignation about how the Dark Woods people would probably be elitist about letting people into their bomb shelter? Aside from the doubtful utility of such shelters anyway, why would a private organization be held responsible for planning for the whole town? Shouldn't, like, the town do that? I never heard that it was illegal to build bomb shelters.
Oh, and Sergeant Johnson really screws up in this book, since it's basically his clumsy timing that leads to Armstrong grabbing Stephen. And then he has to handcuff Armstrong to a tree. This is why you're supposed to have a partner, pal--and no, a thirteen year old baby-sitter does not count.
Okay, first of all, it seems like the actual mystery of the secret society gets pushed aside and becomes an afterthought. I mean, the girls do track down David Follman's clues and then it's like, "oh, yea! Here's a notebook full of evidence of extortion and blackmail, and oh yeah, off-screen, the bad guy confesses to tampering with the brakes on his car!" I understand the small town extortion over stuff like what construction company to hire does not make for fascinating fiction, but then maybe it shouldn't have been a plot point, hmm? But we never find out who else is in the secret society besides Mr. Stanton, and it doesn't really seem all that connected with the club except that I guess they were all members, and maybe they met there. The end seemed to kind of fizzle out.
I just feel like there's TONS of misdirection in this book, and it's very unsatisfying. Most of the time, when the BSC follows up blind leads, it has a funny punchline or something, but this stuff just goes nowhere. Like Stoneybrook being run by women during WWII (except for Mayor Armstrong, of course)? So there were NO other men who were 4-F classified or too old or otherwise not draftable? I guess it's possible--although it makes me wonder who exactly he was supposed to be playing in that golf tournament! And there's something kind of nasty about the way his non-military status is brought up--like, I feel the authorial voice wants me to think he's unmanly or a coward or evil or something for not having fought in WWII, and really, whatever. Cheap, unnecessary shot.
And okay. The discriminatory country club stuff. This just bugged me so much. First of all, while the dates in the book are screwy, if the club has been closed 20 years, the latest it was open would be in the 1970s. I'm sorry, it's just NOT that shocking that a country club during the 1950s-70s in a WASPy town like Stoneybrook practiced active or passive discrimination in its membership. I'm not saying it's a GOOD thing, but it's not shocking--and I would not have been in the least bit shocked to have learned such a thing at thirteen. In fact, I'm sure the country club in my town DID discriminate like that--although I can't claim to know much about it, since my only knowledge of the place is having driven past it. (And of course, there are still golf clubs that don't admit women). But the angst they wring out of this is ridiculous--and it's not only the melodramatic BSCers themselves, it's the adults! This is another misdirection, because it's not entirely clear who is referring to what, but the book certainly makes it sound like Richard and Sharon, at least, made a big deal about the club being "incredibly exclusive" and "just not a nice place" and I refuse to believe that these two, who must have at a minimum been children and were most likely teenagers during the 60s would be both so clueless and so shocked about that. (I'm pretty sure the dates in the book don't add up logically anyway--for a brief shining moment I had it all figured out and then the phone rang and I lost it!).
And CLAUDIA knows about the cold war? I find that really hard to believe. And then Kristy manages a moment of random indignation about how the Dark Woods people would probably be elitist about letting people into their bomb shelter? Aside from the doubtful utility of such shelters anyway, why would a private organization be held responsible for planning for the whole town? Shouldn't, like, the town do that? I never heard that it was illegal to build bomb shelters.
Oh, and Sergeant Johnson really screws up in this book, since it's basically his clumsy timing that leads to Armstrong grabbing Stephen. And then he has to handcuff Armstrong to a tree. This is why you're supposed to have a partner, pal--and no, a thirteen year old baby-sitter does not count.