I do know that all of these reviews have greatly increased overall traffic to this blog. Furthermore, they have given me a nice record of which books I like and which ones I don't. They have been beneficial to me.
As I prepare to publish my first Nancy Drew Girl Detective review, I have already written all of them. I feel some of my reviews are quite good, such as for #11 and #12, and would be of interest to people who have never read the Girl Detective books. However, I have that persistent nagging feeling that few people will bother to read the reviews, or at least, far fewer people than ones who read the reviews for #57-175.
This is because most all comments about the Girl Detective series have been bad when coming from collectors. I actually thought that my experience in reading the series was going to be very tedious and unpleasant based on what I had heard. Instead, I actually liked and enjoyed nearly all books in the series. People have said that the later books are not good. They are weaker than the earlier books, but they aren't bad at all. I enjoyed most of them.
My reviews should make you very happy if you like the Girl Detective series and feel alone. I know that I felt alone 10 years ago when I read the first Girl Detective book when it was first published and loved it, while everyone else trashed it. If you dislike the Girl Detective series, perhaps you'll still find my reviews interesting in that they represent an opposing viewpoint.
I wouldn't be surprised if some people had been anticipating these reviews thinking that they were about to enjoy seeing the Nancy Drew Girl Detective series get trashed. That's not what will happen. These reviews won't be very much different from the Nancy Drew Digest reviews.
So, I hope you'll humor me a bit longer as I review the Nancy Drew Girl Detective series. Even if you don't like the Girl Detective series or have never read it, I hope you'll come along for the journey.
6 comments:
I read your reviews just don't comment.
I didn't like the GD series as I found they were immature, yes, more for the kids that read. The best one was #21 (as of the reading of it) as it finally had Nancy NOT criticise herself and put herself down. That was what bugged me most about these books, making Nancy so insecure about herself.
After that they were okay, interesting topics like the California and Identity series.
Your reviews are always interesting, and you have made me think more positively about the other ND series. I am closed-minded about the newer stuff, and I really shouldn't be, not having given it a chance. I also appreciated your help with the Dana Girls question.
I know what you mean. In the 1990s, I scorned the paperback Nancy Drew books and had no desire to collect them. The Nancy Drew of my childhood was published in hardcover books, and it just wasn't right to have a softcover Nancy Drew book.
Collector Lea Fox made a comment about it being a big mistake for people to ignore the softcover Nancy Drew books, and her comment hit home. I realized that my only reason for ignoring the books was the format of the books. I still wasn't quite ready to embrace the softcover books, so I started collecting the Wanderer hardcover books with jackets and the library rebound hardcover editions of the softcover books. It quickly led to me building complete sets of the paperback books.
The softcover books are not for everyone, but I enjoy most of them.
Finding your blog was partially what led me to collecting the entire paperback 57-175 series! I had half-heartedly searched for them, but didn't seriously look for and buy them until I read your posts about them.
I also generally enjoyed the Girl Detective books, and I always love to hear other people's opinions on things I've read. I haven't read them in a while, so it'll be interesting to revisit what they all were like and what you thought of them
I'm a regular reader of your blog but don't always comment, and enjoyed your reviews of the digests.
I read the first 25 Girl Detective books and need to get back to them. I really liked the fact that there seemed to be an effort at River Heights continuity, and found some of the books to be very good. I admit that I did struggle a bit with how they changed some of the characters.
I also read and enjoy your reviews, Jennifer, but I rarely comment (because I rarely have anything to add). Thank you for publishing these reviews, as well as your other blog posts.
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