Meddling Kids

 

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero     Horror Fiction/Humorous

(from Amazon) With raucous humor and brilliantly orchestrated mayhem, Meddling Kids subverts teen detective archetypes like the Hardy Boys, the Famous Five, and Scooby-Doo and delivers an exuberant and wickedly entertaining celebration of horror, love, friendship, and many-tentacled, interdimensional demon spawn.  Summer 1977. The Blyton Summer Detective Club (of Blyton Hills, a small mining town in Oregon's Zoinx River Valley) solved their final mystery and unmasked the elusive Sleepy Lake monster - another low-life fortune hunter trying to get his dirty hands on the legendary riches hidden in Deboën Mansion. And he would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for those meddling kids.  In 1990, the former detectives have grown up and apart, each haunted by disturbing memories of their final night in the old haunted house. There are too many strange, half-remembered encounters and events that cannot be dismissed or explained away by a guy in a mask. And Andy, the once intrepid tomboy now wanted in two states, is tired of running from her demons. She needs answers. To find them she will need Kerri, the onetime kid genius and budding biologist, now drinking her ghosts away in New York with Tim, an excitable Weimaraner descended from the original canine member of the club. They will also have to get Nate, the horror nerd currently residing in an asylum in Arkham, Massachusetts. Luckily Nate has not lost contact with Peter, the handsome jock turned movie star who was once their team leader...which is remarkable, considering Peter has been dead for years.  The time has come to get the team back together, face their fears, and find out what actually happened all those years ago at Sleepy Lake. It's their only chance to end the nightmares and, perhaps, save the world.

(My Review)  

This was a fun read.  A group of adults get together to investigate an incident they experience when they were kids.  This story gives vibes of Stranger Things, Stephen King's It, Scooby Doo, I mean it was a really fun, fast-paced story.  

Spy x Family series 1-7

 Spy x Family series (Books 1-7) by Tatsuya Endo   Book 8 comes out Sept. 20!      Manga  

(from Amazon) Not one to depend on others, Twilight has his work cut out for him procuring both a wife and a child for his mission to infiltrate an elite private school. What he doesn't know is that the wife he's chosen is an assassin and the child he's adopted is a telepath!

(My Review)

This was my first experience with manga, and it did not disappoint.  It is such an engaging series about a spy who has to create a family in order to infiltrate a school, and in doing so he just so happens to choose a wife who is an assassin and adopts a child who is a telepath, but he has no idea (nor do they know what he is - well...telepath knows).  This created family becomes a real family, and they are so cute, but underneath that, there is a real mystery that they are dealing with which is very interesting.  The story also touches on bullying of different kinds.  I highly recommend this series, and definitely plan on reading more manga.

Heartstopper series 1-4

Heartstopper series (Books 1-4) by Alice Oseman  Teen & YA/LGBTQ+/Graphic Novel

(from Amazon) Shy and softhearted Charlie Spring sits next to rugby player Nick Nelson in class one morning. A warm and intimate friendship follows, and that soon develops into something more for Charlie, who doesn't think he has a chance.  But Nick is struggling with feelings of his own, and as the two grow closer and take on the ups and downs of high school, they come to understand the surprising and delightful ways in which love works.

(My Review)

I cannot say enough great things about this series.  I laughed, I cried - and I am an adult.  This is such a wholesome story of two sweet young men.  It covers some tough topics, but its done in a respectful way.  The graphics are magical and just help to make you feel the story so much more.  And to add even more magic, Netflix has made this into a series, which has somehow captured some of the magic of the graphic novel.  How many times can I say magic???  Please read this series!