Lucas Blogs About Meddling Kids

Book (mostly) delivers exactly what this cover promises! (see review)

So, what's this book's deal?

Like, zoinks, Hypothetical Reader! This is a pulpy, post-modern, Scooby-Doo-meets-H.P. Lovecraft pastiche! Back in 1977, a quartet of preteens and their Weimaraner found out that a squatter was using legends of a lake creature to get control of an abandoned gold mine. Or so they thought. Anyway by 1990, jock Peter's committed suicide after a brief career in Hollywood, tomboy Andy's been kicked out of the Air Force and has an unrequited crush on science nerd Kerri, who's tending bar instead of going to grad school, and fantasy nerd Nate's been in and out of mental institutions because of his hallucinations(?) of Peter's g-g-g-ghost (Sean the Weimaraner is dead, don't worry, he's got a great-grandson, Tim). As for the squatter, well, Wickley's finally out of prison, but tracking him down only confirms Andy's suspicions that there's more to unravel in the Sleepy Lake Monster case, it's time to get the Blyton Summer Detective Club back together!

Jinkies! Where does the Lovecraft stuff come in? Are you spoiling this book?

No, but I think the tentacles on the cover are a dead giveaway. Early on, it's revealed that during their last case, Nate came across the Necronomicon. And, like any Lovecraftian horror, their experience has left them all traumatized.

So, it's like what if the kids from Scooby-Doo grew up and confronted their inner-demons?

Yes.

But wasn't that the premise of those godawful live-action Scooby-Doo movies?

Ruh-roh! I guess you're right, but this is actually pretty good. Well, almost.

Is this the part of the review where you make some pretentious complaint?

Kinda. The story elements are fine. The characters are consistently written (and fleshed out just enough to clear the low bar of pulp character development), they have good chemistry with each other, the homages to the source material are on point, and Edgar Cantero does a credible job of working with the 1990s Pacific Northwest setting. It even has fun little twists like the reveal that: (SPOILER ALERT) Wickley was actually the meddling kid who stopped the awakening of the sleeping old god Thtaggoa the first time around, but was so horrified by what he saw that he took the rap on the kidnapping charges. However . . .

Just spit it out.

He does some weird stuff with the narration and formatting that's just distracting and off-putting.

Like what?

Well, it's an intentional style choice, and clearly meant to be funny, but fourth wall breaks like these: "The radio played 'Groove Is in the Heart,' which is a radio's way of saying it couldn't care less about the mood of a scene."* or: "'FUCK THIS,' Andy spat at the intended end of the chapter, pulling out the flare gun from her pocket and shooting into the dark."** just don't land. I get the joke, it's just not that funny and it breaks my willing suspension of disbelief. The other thing is that sometimes Cantero formats dialogue in kind of a script format.

What do you mean?

Well, it might be easier to show you. But I don't want to look like I'm making fun of an author just for trying something a little offbeat.

Would you do it for a Scooby-snack?

Oh, fine.

LUCAS:  (gestures to the screen) I mean like this.
HYPOTHETICAL READER: Okay this is weird. (looking around) Oh my god! (hyperventilates) This is weird. (stares intensely at their own hands) Is this what it's like to be embodied? I don't like it, make it stop! (runs off)
LUCAS: Umm. I'm not sure if I can, let me just (fumbles around keyboard) Uh. . . I think I fixed it, you can come back now, Hypothetical Reader.

Well, I guess I scared off Hypothetical Reader, but that's okay, we're mostly done here. Meddling Kids is a fun book. It's a good summer beach read (though my posting schedule means that summer will be half over by the time this runs). The action is tense, the pastiche elements are spot-on, and the character dynamics are believable. Unfortunately, the book is marred by a couple of gimmicky tics that Cantero's editor should have nixed. Seriously, they're annoying enough that it took me about twice as long to read this as it should have. It would make a pretty kick-ass horror comedy movie, though. Is Sam Raimi busy?

HYPOTHETICAL READER: (sneaks up behind Lucas in an unconvincing monster costume) BOO!
LUCAS: (nonchalantly removing the monster head to reveal Hypothetical Reader's disturbingly nondescript face) You know even when I'm writing the review in this weird format I know everything you're going to say and do, right? So it doesn't make sense for you to try and sneak up on me.
HYPOTHETICAL READER: Well, I'd have gotten away with it, if it weren't for you med-
LUCAS: That's it, I'm callin' it. I (almost) recommend Meddling Kids.

*Cantero, Edgar. Meddling Kids. Blumhouse. 2018. p. 85.
**Ibid. p. 241.

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero, Blumhouse Books Trade Paperback edition, 2018, 322 pages, pairs well with Scooby-Snacks and eldritch abominations

Links:

Edgar Cantero's website, if you're into that kind of thing.

So, you may have noticed I didn't talk that much about Lovecraft, because I hate his writing. But here's a really good critical video from YouTuber H. Bomberguy about how to adapt Lovecraft's work in the 21st century.