A comic and cosmic horror detective story in the style of Scooby Doo.

• Cosmic horror factor: ★★★★☆
• Originality factor: ★★★★★
• Comical factor: ★★★★★
• Entertainment factor: ★★★★★

Meddling Kids is a comical rollercoaster of a cosmic adventure. With a cartoonish and over the top absurdist style this book is a hell of a ride and will bring you lots of fun, horrors, mystery and a great ending.

It consist of 322 pages.

Plot

In 1977 Kerri Hollis and Nate Rogers spent their summer, like they did for years, at their aunt’s and uncle’s house in Blyton. They stayed there with their friends Andy Rodriguez and Peter Manner and of course dog Sean the Weimaraner. The five of them are called the Blyton Summer Detective Club because they solved a lot of mystery crimes. Mostly thugs who dress up as monsters only to be discovered and revealed by the young detectives. They even made the paper for their last catch Thomas X. Wickley. They caught him at the Deboën Mansion situated on an island in the middle of a lake. But something else was there. Something other than Wickley dressed like a monster. They encountered real monsters. Did they?

Now 13 years later the kids are in their twenties. Kerri is studying biology and working in a bar. Andy does a lot of “odd jobs” and Nate has checked himself into an asylum. Peter’s fate was even more tragic. He died of an overdose. Nobody is doing well exactly, and Andy thinks she knows why. She thinks they saw something real in the Deboën Mansion, real monsters that is. She goes to see Kerri and to pick her up to go back to Blyton and find out what really did happen 13 years ago. Kerri brings Tim along with them a descendent of Sean. But their first stop is the asylum where they have to break out Nate. 

Then they must unravel the only mystery they didn’t solve. A mystery that contains real magic, monsters, a sorcerer and dark things lurking in the deep lake.

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Short Review

It’s a blast of a story. Andy is quite a character. She’s bold and fearless, strong and a fighter. While Kerri is soft and sweet and very smart. And Nate is just Nate. Finally Tim is just a very very good boy, who is a fully-fledged member of the group. They really do resemble the Scooby Doo gang. Where Kerri is obviously Velma, Nate is Shaggy and Andy is a combo of Fred and Daphne. The characters and story also reminds of The Five book series by Enid Blyton, and the town in the book is probably named after her. 

The writing style is very cartoonish at times, although the characters are very real and not cliche stereotypes or even caricatures. But the situations they find themselves in are sometimes very cartoonish and hilarious. Sometimes even too improbable or too far fetched for some. But for those who have a absurd sense of humor, this book is a lot of fun. The way they bust Nate out of the asylum is both absurdly hilarious as exciting and that is just the start of the story.

The characters are very likable, the story is easy going and the mystery keeps getting curiouser and more dangerous the closer they get. The characters are fleshed-out and taken seriously with their problems they have to deal with now that they are adults. Mainly not getting their adult lives on a clear and steady path. And it all leads back to that moment 13 years ago when they experienced something occult. Even Peter’s death has something to do with it. 

The further the story goes, the more occult it gets and the last part the story turns into cosmic horror of apocalyptic proportions. But the humor always stays close by. Although scary, dangerous and thrilling, the humor seeps through and that makes it exciting and fun.

Meddling Kids might not be for everyone, because you must like this kind of humor to enjoy the story. But if you like absurd humor, than you will have so much fun with laughing out loud scenes that seem too bizarre to be true. But that’s what they thought, and now they are in the most dangerous mystery of their lives.