This book was…strange. I’ve always loved Scooby-Doo, so when I saw this book awhile back and clearly drew the Scooby-Doo parellels, I was over the moon excited. An adult version of Scooby-Doo where the gang has to confront their real life nightmares after the death of one of their friends? Cute references like the Zoinx river? Yes okay sign me up. Actually…no take me off the list because this was not for me. It was my first encounter with this writer and I have to admit, it was not very encouraging in terms of picking up any other of his works. First off, let me say it’s set in 1990 so obviously some things are going to be outdated, like the take on mental health, sexuality, and even POC characters. That’s not necessarily an issue. The issue is the fact that this book was written in 2017 and it was extremely hard to tell considering the way that the author wrote the female characters. I’m already weary of male authors writing female characters and the way Andy is written in this book confirmed that for me. I’m not sure if she was written the way she was on purpose, but her POV was just off for me. From the way that she presented herself, talked about herself and described Kerri, it just all seemed like a male interpretation and fantasy wrapped into one and I was not a fan.

As far as the book’s plot itself…things took a very strange turn about 40% into the book. From that point on, it felt like what I imagine it would be like to take some acid and read the adult version of Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island. The further into the book I got, the less sense everything seemed to make. This critique isn’t about whether or not the monsters were real, it’s more of how it the monsters and circumstances were written. Everything started to spiral writing wise and just got very confusing very quickly. I kept reading, hoping that things would start to make sense, but it never happened. In fact all sense and logic went out the damn window during the last 15% of the book and by then I was too far in to quit.

I don’t necessarily want to discourage anyone for reading this book because that’s not my style, but I was just very disappointed in the story that I read. In fact, half of this you have to read to believe because I can’t even fully describe what the hell was wrong with the book without completely spoiling it. Let’s just say you have to suspend your sense of belief and reality a whole hell of a lot to make it through this book.

If you’ve read this, please let me know your thoughts. If you haven’t and you still want to, remember me when you finish because I have to discuss this in detail with someone!!