Edgar Cantero’s Meddling Kids was one of my favorite books in 2018. In fact, it might be one of my favorite books ever.

In a Scooby Gang meets Lovecraft adventure of horror and comedy, four former child detectives and a descendant of their faithful weimaraner – an equally faithful weimaraner – take another look at their last case which, due to the bizarre nature of the case, one of them still cannot believe was simply a guy in a mask.

Andy, who convinces the others to reinvestigate, pinpoints that case as the trigger that destroyed their lives, haunted by the memories of their nights out in the forest. Andy is a tomboy, now butch lesbian, with a criminal record wanted in several states. Kerry, child genius and would be biologist – is plagued by nightmares, unable to finish college, and descending into alcoholism. Nate (the nerd) checks himself into and out of mental institutions, and Peter (the Golden Boy) becomes a successful Hollywood actor until he takes his own life not long after Kerry starts college. Peter now manifests as a hallucination that only Nate can see and hear.

As a devoted Scooby Doo fan, there was no chance that I wasn’t going to read this book. As a less devoted Lovecraft fan, there was no chance that I wasn’t going to read this book. And as a not devoted but totally remembers reading the stories Nancy Drew fan, there was no chance that I wasn’t going to read this book.

If you’re looking for a logical detective story, you’re not going to find it here. What you will find is a tale of broken people who reunite to unbreak themselves, just a little bit. In spite of the fact that you’re basically dealing with three broken people, a telepathic dog, and broken hallucinated person, this book is fun and funny. I laughed out loud quite a few times.

I don’t think this book is for everyone. This book draws heavily on those child detective stories we all read as kids, as well as Scooby Doo, and it draws a lot from the Cthulhu mythos. If you don’t like any of those things, it’s probably not a book for you, as those things don’t seem to be for everyone. Cthulhu especially doesn’t seem to appeal to a lot of people, and a lot of younger people don’t seem to be all that familiar with it. It just feels like a lot of people aren’t going to get the book because they’re not going to be familiar with its brilliant campiness and nostalgia.

Put another way: if you only like watching Scooby Doo, you probably won’t like this book. People never fail to amaze me in that they went into a book expecting to read a novel length version of Scooby Doo, this isn’t what it was, and they hated it. DUH, you idiots, it was never supposed to be a novelized version of Scooby Doo.

One of the biggest complaints I’ve seen leveled at the book is that the writing was all over the place. It was, but I took at least some of that to be part of the point. And anybody who has read The Supernatural Enhancements knows Edgar Cantero does weird stuff like that. I didn’t love The Supernatural Enhancements because the story was meh and I expected more. I felt like I got exactly what I expected here.

I saw one or two people complaining the story was transphobic but I missed that. I’m always a bit hesitant to label people “phobes” anyway and overall I’m usually an insensitive cow, but I feel like transphobic here was a leap. I don’t assume trans people are evil because of this book. I never did anyway, but here we are.

Anyway, I recommend this book highly, even though I know a lot of people aren’t going to like it, and honestly…I don’t care. It was good, nostalgic, campy fun and totally in line with what I expected from Cantero and from a book inspired by a cartoon, a horror author, and some detective books. It’s not a novelization of Scooby Doo.

Oh, and it is most definitely not a kids book.

Tagged: authors: edgar cantero, authors: h.p. lovecraft, books: meddling kids, genre: horror/terror, genre: mystery, genre: supernatural, tv: scooby doo