Awesome throwback, in-and-out,frontward and backward fantasy with mystery and nostalgia.The characters are a bit different than you might remember from cartoons, but it's a worthwhile read.

I don't want my image of Scooby Doo ruined and stopped reading after the first chapter. Just not for me.

Writing was really good, and I loved the concept, but for some reason, I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. Maybe my expectations were too high. I just didn't get into characters as much as I wanted to.

The Blyton Summer Detective Club aka teen detectives haven't seen each other in years since their last traumatizing case.  

Now 3 out of the four members, with their massive baggage, come together to figure out what really happened on that case and maybe finally they can actually close it.  

This book had a good foundation but wasn't executed right. Between what seemed like a force relationship, slow plot and lack of in depth world building, this Scobby Doo knock off (sorry couldn't think of a better phrase) was a hard read.

1 Pickle

Review: MEDDLING KIDS by Edgar Cantero

Deep. That's the best word for this novel, the author's next, subsequent to THE SUPERNATURAL ENHANCEMENTS, his exceptional contemporary Gothic. MEDDLING KIDS also is off-and-on set in a long-abandoned ancient house, with a lineage of Necromancy and dark occultism, and with a cast of protagonists who are Innocents Abroad. Instead of two protagonists, here there are five, teens comprising the "Blyton Hills Summer Detective Club," solving local mysteries while simultaneously coming of age and hammering out their own individual identities. Thirteen years later, broken in both heart and spirit, four will recombine, to face both an implacable enemy, and a cosmic nightmare straight out of Lovecraft and Native American lore of the Pacific Northwest.

Not my favorite read as the character development felt a little weak and I would have liked more of their back story. But the mystery is interesting, and I finished it. So that's saying something.

This story takes place in 1990. The meddling kids (think scooby-doo) have grown up and are all dealing with some sort of emotional or mental issues from there last case in 1977 at Blyton HIlls a small mining town.

Blyton Summer Detective Club consists of:
Andy the tomboy, is on the run from the law.
Kerrie was the genius and is now bartending and drinking way too much.
Tim is a Weimaraner who is the grandchild of the original dog they had as kids.
Nate has spent the last few years in and out of mental institutions and talks to Pete the good looking one who went to Hollywood and then committed suicide.

They go back to reopen the case they last did to really solve it and perhaps help themselves deal with the fallout from then.

This was a fun read but it definitely is an adult version of scooby-doo with real life issues. It was snarky and funny too. If you are a fan of the original scooby doo you will enjoy this as an adult.

An interesting and dark look at what it might look like if the Scooby Gang was irreparably damaged by trauma.

This book is like Scooby and the gang got in a bar fight with some of Lovecraft's Ancient Ones, with a teeny bit of 20-something angst thrown in for good measure. I laughed out loud multiple times, and was extremely worried for Tim the Weimaraner on multiple occasions.

I really enjoyed this book. Scooby fan-fic, basically. I’m here for it!

These kids are not the Scooby Doo gang all grown up, and the monsters they hunt are way, way scarier.

I do love strange books! This one isn't as crazy as John Dies At The End but it's up there. I liked being able to imagine the Scooby Doo characters in this book yet understand they weren't actually the same characters.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher and author for allowing me to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

In this paranormal mystery/horror story, a group of 3 young adults revisits the town where as teens, they solved mysteries. Peter, one of their original group, committed suicide a few years back, but Nick , who has been in and out of mental institutions over the years, is accompanied by Peter's ghost. Andy, who has been in and out of trouble herself, gathers the old gang together including Kerri, a lovely redhead, who Andy has been in love with since they were 12 years old, and Tim, Kerri's dog, a descendant of the original dog who went on their adventures with them. None of them has been the same since their original sleuthing. Although they caught the bad guy, a man who dressed up as a monster, they still have nightmares and Andy thinks they need to find out what really happened that night so many years ago. The book is fun to read with it's overly descriptive language. I stayed up way too late just to finish this book because I couldn't put it down.

I received a free advance copy of this book from the publisher via netgalley.

Wonderful mash up of Scooby Doo and Lovecraft.

honestly, a so blatant comparison to Scooby Doo that I'm curious if the author is being charged with copyright violation.

as someone who has played several rounds of the RPG Call of Cthulu and actually given the GM's daughter a plush, round Cthulu stuffed animal, I felt like this story was squarely in my wheelhouse. it would honestly be SO easy to turn it into a game that I'm considering trying it and getting my group to play.

along with those main obvious references, it was chock full of other nerd speak as well. Goonies, a little, I caught a Neverending story line, etc.

very fun story with lots of great detail and description.

Meh. Not as good as I'd hoped. Expected more of a book that was like grown-up Scooby-Doo.

I actually really liked this book. I admit I thought the references were a bit much and that some of the nouns-becoming-verbs got on my nerves a bit, but it wasn't enough to ruin the book for me. I grew up loving Scooby Doo and all of the kid detective series as well as loving the horror genre in general for a while. This is a pretty good mix of the two. There were quite a few times I chuckled while reading but there we're also just as many that I wondered why I was reading it in the dark. Because of the things I mentioned above, as well as the novel dragging a little bit at times, I'm deducting one star. I don't think it's for everyone but if it sounds interesting to you, I think it's definitely worth a read.

A fun read. that doesn't take itself too seriously. A little too many long descriptions, but all in all lots of fun.

I received an ARC via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. If you were raised (correctly, I might add) on Scooby Doo cartoons, this book is likely for you. It tells the story that comes after those cartoons are over. The kids are grown (except the one who committed suicide), they're all troubled (again, except the dead one), and they have realized that one of the 'innocent' crimes they thought they solved as kids is not only unsolved, but has left them damaged.

Once they make the decision to go back and solve the case for real, the story is a clever update on the same beats the cartoons hit: helpful adults, unhelpful adults, secret villains, mines and tunnels, scientific explanations for unusual phenomena, etc. There are parts straight out of Lovecraft, and this book could have been a horror novel if the author had wished it so. Instead, the horror is always tempered by a steady stream of sarcasm and laughs.

My only knock on the book is the writing itself. I found myself distracted by the constant switching from prose to stage dialogue, and by the very self-aware writing in places, such as "ending its overall contribution to the story in one paragraph," and "[t]wo blank lines later, they were still sitting there." Still, overall this is a highly entertaining story and a very enjoyable read. Recommended.

Title: Meddling Kids
Author: Edgar Cantero
Release Date: June 11, 2017
Publisher: Doubleday Books
Review Spoilers:  Low
Rating: 3.5 Stars

Let's have a show of hands: who didn't want to be a part of the Scooby Gang growing up? Like a lot of you, I'm sure, I watched Scooby-Doo all the time as a kid and I loved the idea of talking dogs, crazy ghouls, and solving mysteries. In Meddling Kids, Edgar Cantero imagines what what it would really be like for a group of kids to live the Scooby-Do life for real... and then what would happen to them when they grew up.

The titular Meddling Kids are a group that were once known as The Blyton Summer Detectives Club. Every summer they came together and solved all kinds of mysteries through quick thinking and MacGuyver-style ingenuity. But while all of these kids showed a lot of early promise, their adult lives are effectively train wrecks. They've amounted to pretty much nothing. One of them is dead, one of them a wanted criminal, one of them has been institutionalized most of his adult life, one is a genius burnout, and... well, there's one of them that is still just a dog. (Not the same dog. Don't be silly.)  Also, the dead one is still hanging around in the form of another's unwanted hallucinations.

How's that for a screwed up, grown-up Scooby Gang?

The basic premise behind the story is that their very last case was never really solved. They sent an innocent man to jail and he happily went because the truth was far worse and far weirder than anyone could have expected. And so, years later, these kids come together again to figure out what's really going on back in Blyton - a town that hasn't really faired much better than they have. In doing so, they embark on a dangerous adventure filled with dark secrets and Lovecraftian nightmares.

I don't want to give too much away but it's one heck of an entertaining read and I thought the ending was incredibly satisfying. 

That said, Meddling Kids is definitely a book with a unique tone and you'll want to be aware of that going in. There were times that as much as I enjoyed the story I still struggled to read through it. The writing style isn't for everyone and even those who like it may still be a little turned off by the random, frequent switches from prose to scripted dialogue. If you can get through it, though, it really is a great story.

Meddling Kids is not a book that takes itself particularly seriously and I liked that. Humor and horror can be great together and while at times the execution in the writing felt flat for me, the story was still awesome. The book is full of humor and homages to every aspect of the horror genre you could imagine. Obviously, there are heavy Lovecraftian overtones. But all throughout the book they reference any number of iconic films, series, and more. For example, numerous iconic, horror-related locations are portrayed as real places - like Arkham, Massachusetts and Raccoon City.

If you can get past the easy-going, sometimes eccentric prose you'll find a really entertaining story that blends horror and humor with the cartoon-inspired concept of teenage detectives. I loved the characters and the way Cantero turns their stereotypical origins on their heads. And I really liked how the story unfolded with it's throwback to the classic Saturday morning cartoons that inspired it. Meddling Kids is a great take on it's varied genres and as long as you're a horror fan who doesn't take the genre too seriously you should enjoy it!

We all go into this book expecting the Mystery Machine and its cohorts. Scooby Doo and Shaggy too, right? Well, more or less. Personally I didn't feel that I connected with this book's version of the characters. They had me bored and disconnected.

What I did enjoy was the elaborate details in the writing style. Sometimes the word choices were extremely complex (myriaphonic, as just one example?), but hey, if you're studying to take your ACT's this will be a great vocabulary guide! Hopefully other readers will enjoy this book far more than I did. I will not deny that it had its fun, female ass-kicking moments. It also had its moments as an okay mystery novel. However, don't get your hopes up as a Scooby Doo knock off, in MY opinion. Just go watch the reruns.