Nancy Drew Review

I think LA Confidential was a bit of a bust ultimately it terms of my time wastage. Seeing as it's meant to be the quintessential Noir, some elements of the story seemed a little lacking. For those of you who don't the core Noir themes, let me be condescending - it's usually a big conspiracy, which government and/or police getting their hands dirty, and it usually stretches back years.

However, with the conspiracy here, some guy was just plopped into it late game figuring into past events and it felt a little too twisty and un-earned for me to get on board with it. It's weird, because with so many tertiary characters who he wanted to be involved, the author seemed to take effort for their involvement to logically make sense when the reveal happened. But then you're kind of broadsided by him plopping this extremely important guy that you would have never anticipated out of nowhere, and yeah it's cheap (like page 430/480).

Of the three main cop protagonists, all of which I think were well developed early-mid story and two of which where developed well late story and one medium-well, well - I would put spoiler tags but the punchline is here - the latter just dies. Completely unceremoniously, it's like the author couldn't think of a way to handle him in terms of the story and so they just have a thug pop him in the head - which is literally what happens. I guess you could call it gritty, but I call it lazy. Mixed feelings, because the development of the other two characters is superb which is an often overlooked aspect of novels, but the axing of the third - again - felt lazy.

In terms of non-contextual cool stuff that happens, for those of you on the fence:

Spoiler

Referencing bestiality and incest, children getting hacked up and stitched to form a prettier child, someone's hand getting fed into a food processor, russian roulette - twice, a shit tonne of racism - it is the 1950s after all.

Suffice to say, it's pretty fucking dark. However, I think it's a 7/10, and goddam for a good read I want 8/10 - I have some standards and I'm a very lazy man! I mean I could be playing on Arcanum, but instead I was reading like a fucking chump. I think the film, with its cast, is likely better - but I'll have to watch it find out.

PS I secretly hope this becomes our, "Who needs a good book," thread - just so that everyone thinks we're Nancy Drew fanatics.

 

Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase.

I'm starting to see her appeal. She runs toward danger, laughing gaily. It's possible to read her as having brain damage.

Spoiler

She is casually concussed once or twice in this adventure by random objects. She should really be wearing a helmet.

Bad guys try to scare her away and that's how she finds them, and she runs at them until they confess the stupidest scheme you can imagine on the last page. The tension comes from thinking she may actually meet a real villain someday. Or just hit her head on something.

The rest of the plot is domestic chores and failing a search for hidden doors skill-check for twenty chapters in a row. Turns out the villain was the guy from page one and her kidnapped father was unconscious in the secret staircase she couldn't find the whole time.

This was slightly more rational detective work than her previous adventure, and slightly more structured writing.

One Star.

 

Sounds realistic honestly.

 

I don't really read books anymore, but I occasionally read free things online if they catch my interest. One of the best things I've read recently is The Metropolitan Man - a "rationalist" take on Superman. It's 80,000 words - about the length of a short to medium novel, and I can recommend it if you like logical thinking and get frustrated at normal superhero/fantasy treatments because people don't behave sensibly and the author doesn't think through the physical implications and societal ramifications of the powers or magic that they introduce into the world. This story is mostly about that exact thing. Five out of five stars.

If you like The Metropolitan Man, then I can also recommend the much longer Harry Potter And The Methods Of Rationality. It's in the same rationalist vein as the above, and apparently it's as long as the first five Harry Potter books combined, but I'd say it's worth it - there's no drop in quality as it goes along. The author can get a bit preachy and self-indulgent sometimes, and there are occasions when he goes off on a blatant "I think JK Rowling did this wrong" tirade, but I don't think those flaws overshadow the substance of the story, which is very well planned and executed. However, I'd say you'd need to have either read the Harry Potter books or seen the films first, because it's written assuming you already know who all the characters are and how the locations and world are set up. Overall, four out of five stars.

 

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality is better than I expected.

Ending pending, I may possibly agree with your review and will definitely move on to Metropolitan Man.

Thanks for the tips.

P.S., I thoroughly enjoyed the ending, after all. Five stars.

P.P.S., and The Metropolitan Man was also excellent.

 

First post in over a year here, but at least it was a high quality one.