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A review by thekarpuk
Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

1.0

I picked this book up because I'm almost always down for creepy adult versions of kid stories. There's something fun about seeing how that would play out into adulthood. What I really had no desire for was edgelord Scooby Doo.

With a lot of these sorts of published fan fiction (just because you change the nouns doesn't make it an inaccurate description) part of the joy comes from taking the characters and putting them in a new context that's meaningful. But Cantero seems to dislike the characters who's recognition he's coasting on, and they all seem revised in ways that seem sort of cynical and tiresome.

A lot of that I could forgive, because the prose, at least initially, had a brisk pace. But there's a scene where a character describes how she's going to beat up a bunch of losers at a bar that destroyed most of my good will towards the novel. I dislike tough guy talk. Picture every action movie that has a scene where some government agent describes just how bad ass the protagonist's background is, and you'll get a sense for what I'm talking about.

A lot of the prose, especially in the action scenes, has a real try-hard flavor to it. It's like the author felt insecure about writing Scooby Doo fan fiction so he overworked the narrative to the point of it being eye-rolling. It's one of those times that reminds me that a lot of bad fiction isn't incompetence, it's overwriting. It's using elaborate metaphors for circumstances for situations that don't require it, throwing in social commentary where none is particularly desired, or just simply throwing in needless flourishes that draw attention to the writing rather than the subject at hand.

This book is more exhausting than a book with this premise has any right to be.