Abby and the Secret Society

[booboobrewer]

Yeah, that is unsettling. And the brakes thing has been used before. In Kristy and the Vampires, the psycho girl cuts the brakes of Derek Masters' car. I think she also says she only wanted to scare him, not seriously hurt him, but could be wrong.

[otempora541]

I like "chase clues to solve the mystery" type of books so I liked this mystery, but I got the feeling that Miles tried to cram too much into this one book. I like this mystery overall. Probably top 5 mysteries.

[oldhickory]

just the title alone sounds really good. but i haven't been able to find this one anywhere :[

[oldhickory]

yay! i finally ordered this one today!

[anzuhana]

When Nikki told the girls the story of how she brought her Jewish friend, Rachel, to the club once, I totally thought it was going to turn out to be Mrs. Stevenson. Probably just since this was Abby's book and because when she first meets Nikki she's like "She looked just a little younger than my mom."

It would've been interesting if Mrs. Stevenson was the same Rachel that Nikki brought to the club. I wonder what her reaction would've been and what she would've said to Abby if Abby asked her about it if she was that friend that was invited to the club.

So basically what we have learned from this book is that it is okay to kill someone if you didn't mean to and you are now too old to cause any more trouble. Too bad David never got the chance to get to be too old to cause trouble, if you know what I mean. I dunno, the ending of this book just didn't sit right with me. Congratulations, you solved the murder. The criminal will now not go to jail.

That part of the book also bothers me.

[greer]

Dec 10, 2010 21:30:18 GMT -5 anzuhana said:

When Nikki told the girls the story of how she brought her Jewish friend, Rachel, to the club once, I totally thought it was going to turn out to be Mrs. Stevenson. Probably just since this was Abby's book and because when she first meets Nikki she's like "She looked just a little younger than my mom."

It would've been interesting if Mrs. Stevenson was the same Rachel that Nikki brought to the club. I wonder what her reaction would've been and what she would've said to Abby if Abby asked her about it if she was that friend that was invited to the club.

Mrs. Stevenson didn't live in Stoneybrook before she moved there with Anna and Abby, though.

[wiggir13]

I enjoy the bsc mystery books where they are solving mysteries in a place like this and the plant place. It's interesting to see them branch out to a new area and hear about the place.

I do agree that their seemed to be a lot of information crammed in and the ending left a lot to be desired. Murderer goes free and all the work the reporter did really didn't mean squat except some old papers his buddy found.

I also like reading trying to figure out clue type mysteries that lead you to placed. I figured when the blueprints showed some sort of square in the middle of the maze that would be the place they would end up (maybe if I were 9 though I wouldn't have figured it out).

[zoar3]

^This may sounds "dumb" but my first time reading this, I held onto the tiniest bit of hope that David would (magically) re-appear. (Alive and well that is). The oddest part of this is the timeframe. If Dark Woods was really in the early-mid 40's and David Follman a new-ish reporter, (we can say he was 25 or so) if he was friends with Sgt. Johnson, that means not only was Jim J also alive but he must have been in his early 20's too. IIRC, wasn't Sgt. J a year or two younger than David? So when this book was written in 1996, both men should/would have been at least in their late 70's! I always got the impression Sgt. Johnson was at most in his early 40's if not younger.

The kids' clubs were cute but since they never were heard from again, sort of a waste of paper? IDK, maybe I'm just bitter at being this far along in my Series re-read, while wishing for happier, more enjoyable tales from the BSC's beginning.

[wiggir13]

Well there you go again zoar trying to make sense of the BSC time warp

I have learned to just say forget to the time warp (and also a good BSC story for the late books as I am this far in my reread too and would like to start over!)

[zoar3]

^An endeavor to which there is no real point, huh? This one, along with the trains in "Welcome to the BSC, Abby" was one of the most glaring "mistakes."

The only "problem" with starting over is (in BSC-land) it ultimately brings you to the same point. :/ I admit that right now these books are not enjoyable and I'm trying to hurry them along. I have the majority pre-Abby books in double rows on one bookshelf. It's always "sad" when the first (behind) row with the earliest books fills up. When the second one does, I know it's only a matter of time until I want to take them all off and go back!

[oldhickory]

i guess it's because i'm also half asian, half white, but stephen was so annoying to me in this one. my ethnicity was the farthest thing from my mind when i was his age. i've known my whole life that i'm biracial, but it meant absolutely nothing until i was older. i just don't buy that he fretted over that as much as he did.

[greer]

Perhaps he fretted over it because his mother marrying an Asian man caused such a huge issue with the extended family. He probably internalized that attitude.

[oldhickory]

oh, that makes a lot of sense. that isn't a big deal at all in my family so i didn't have to worry about that.

[booboobrewer]

Speaking of Stephen and his ethnicity, in my experience, kids do bring up that stuff at his age...I remember when I was Stephen's age and a friend told me in school one day that I couldn't be full Hispanic because I was so fair-skinned (and she was actually half white, half Hispanic, so I was like, huh?)

I actually liked this book a little more the second time around. Fixing up the country club sounded fun. I liked reading about all the old stuff, the photographs, the wine cellar, the outfits Claudia and Stacey found, etc. The Cokie/Kristy interaction seemed a bit off, though. And I forgot that Sgt. Johnson's name was Jim?? He doesn't seem like a Jim to me, I don't know why

[virgoscorpio]

Something bothered me right off the bat. On page 2, Abby (through Ellen Miles) says, "it's always gloomy and grey in February, and it's too cold for some things (such as running or tennis) and often too warm for others (such as skiing)".

WTF? February is the coldest month of the year -- in the dead of winter -- so how is it too hot for skiing? If it's too hot in February, WHEN can you ski then?

Answer that, Ellen.