 | |
| Author | Edgar Cantero |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Michael Windsor |
| Genre | Horror Mystery Comedy |
| Published | July 12, 2017 (Doubleday) |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardcover, paperback) |
| Pages | 336 |
| ISBN | 978-0-385-54199-2 |
| Preceded by | The Supernatural Enhancements |
| Followed by | This Body's Not Big Enough for Both of Us |
Meddling Kids is a 2017horror-comedy novel byCatalan authorEdgar Cantero, published byDoubleday andBlumhouse Books. It deals with a former gang of children detectives, in the vein ofEnid Blyton'sFamous Five orScooby-Doo, who reunite in their mid-twenties to reopen a case that traumatized them as kids and expose a plot ofLovecraftian horror.
The novel opens with a newspaper clip from 1977 featuring the "Blyton Summer Detective Club", a bunch of young investigators aged 11–13, who solved the mystery of an alleged monster haunting the area of Sleepy Lake inOregon. Thirteen years after solving that last case, the former detectives have drifted apart and lead broken lives, haunted by the memories of the night they spent in the mansion on the lake: budding genius Kerri is an alcoholic tormented bynightmares and has been unable to finish her schooling; nerd Nate is regularly checking himself into mental institutions;tomboy Andy is a vagrant wanted in several states and dealing withaggressive behavior; andgolden boy Peter went on to become a successful Hollywood actor whose career was cut short by suicide. Andy has traced all of their problems back to that last case, believing that there was more to it than just a guy in a costume. When the man they exposed as the Sleepy Lake monster makes parole, she assaults him only to confirm that there was something more to the case. Andy then sets off to reunite the surviving members of the gang (including Tim, aWeimaraner descended from the original canine member of the team and Peter as ahallucination that only Nate can see and hear), and together they return to the town of Blyton Hills to solve the case for good.
Cantero first pitched the idea to his editors at Doubleday in 2014 as "Enid Blyton meetsLovecraft". When they did not recognize Blyton's name, he changed that reference to theScooby Gang.[1][2][3] Although the members of the Blyton Summer Detective Club are based in stereotypes present in many children detective series (the team composition of two boys, two girls, and a dog fits both Blyton'sThe Famous Five series andScooby-Doo, Where Are You?), theprotagonist, Andy Rodriguez, abutch Latina lesbian, was still modeled after George, the tomboy from the Famous Five.[1]Nancy Drew,Trixie Belden, andthe Hardy Boys are also referenced in different ways.[4]
The novel also borrows heavily from theCthulhu Mythos, the fictional universe established by authors publishing their stories in the magazineWeird Tales, and in particular fromH. P. Lovecraft's novellaThe Case of Charles Dexter Ward.[5] The fictional city of Arkham, Miskatonic University, and theNecronomicon are featured.[6]
The title references a catchphrase from theScooby-Doo series. At the climax, when the heroes have caught the villain and exposed his plot, the villain would often say "And I'd have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for those meddling kids!"
A scene set in a psychiatric hospital features a brief appearance by A. Z. Kimrean, the lead in Cantero's following novel,This Body's Not Big Enough for Both of Us. The latter novel was already written, but unpublished, in Spanish while Cantero was writingMeddling Kids.[3][7] A bonus scene at the end of the paperback edition shows Kimrean arriving in San Francisco, whereThis Body's Not Big Enough for Both of Us takes place.[8]
Meddling Kids received mostly positive reviews, with critics drawing comparisons withBuffy the Vampire Slayer[9] and "1980s-centric projects" likeStranger Things orStephen King'sIt.[10][11][12]
Jason Sheehan fromNPR qualified it as "a brilliant idea wedded to beautiful and perfectly-pitched execution."[13] Brian Truitt ofUSA Today gave it 3.5 out of 4 stars and called it "as cleverly witty as its title...filled with high jinks both terrorizing and hilarious."[6] Sam Reader in their review forBarnes & Noble's Sci-fi and Fantasy Blog praised the depth of the story, saying that the novel "isn't really about the mystery (though it's a good one), but the characters investigating it...These characters may be running through a plot that sounds like a parody, but they are anything but caricatures. When they finally do get closure, it means almost as much (if not more) than solving the mystery."[14]
Some stylistic choices divided critics: WhilePublishers Weekly praised the prose as "fast and funny"[15] and NPR said that the language tricks "would be maddening if they weren't so much fun",[13] Christian Bone ofStarburst thought that "Cantero's chosen prose style may prove contentious" and that "some might think it suits the playful tone of the story, but it can also be distracting and take you out of the narrative."[16] James Floyd Kelly ofGeek Dad warned that the novel was "not for kids: definitely rated R for language, sexual situations, and horror/violence."[17]
The book appeared onThe New York TimesBest Seller list on its third week after release.[18] It was nominated for aGoodreads Choice Award for Best Horror, and it was listed byBook riot as one of the bestqueer books of 2017 for itslesbian romance subplot.[19]
Aspin-off short story titled "The Meddler" was published on the Penguin Random House website on Halloween. It is part of theSpooky Short Stories collection and downloadable for free. Set in the aftermath of the main events in the novel, it follows an aspiring reporter questioning the official version of the incidents that took place in Blyton Hills. Several supporting characters fromMeddling Kids appear, but none of the leads.[20][21]