When George wins an exciting contest from her favorite van life influencers to transport their camper van from Chicago to Los Angeles, she naturally invites Nancy and Bess along to live out her van life fantasies for seven days.
But things quickly go sideways for the girls, from bad weather to mechanical problems, leading to personality clashes in a small, closed space. Worse yet, Nancy feels like someone is following them. Could someone be trying to sabotage the trip? Or is Nancy so used to solving mysteries that she's starting to see villains where there are none?
Nancy had better figure it out quickly if their road trip—and their friendship—is going to survive the chaos.
First off, #vanlife is mentioned enough times in this book that it should have been used as part of the title. I used AI to alter the title to Van Life Gone Wrong. Much more appropriate.
This book has very few characters, which makes for a better story. It has a simple plot and is easy to follow. I found it to be light, enjoyable reading.
I do have a minor quibble with George's behavior. She doubted in Nancy's belief that something was off. I get tired of Nancy's friends doubting her. Instead, the girls should have had a united front. They could have called the sponsors with their concerns, and the sponsors could have doubted Nancy's assessment of the situation.
I have only read the Nancy Drew Diaries series once per year as each new title has been released. This means that I can't compare the current story that well to previous stories, due to the time lapse. I went through all of my blog reviews and made quick notes, as I was curious about a few things.
That was in January. At this point, I actually don't remember what I was curious about, since the previous paragraph was written over four months ago. Still, I can present the brief notes that I made.
My takeaway is that the Nancy Drew Diaries series was all over the place. It could never settle on what it was, and it floundered from start to finish. What a disappointment.
You'll notice that I'm using past tense. I've heard that the Nancy Drew Diaries series has ended. Another incarnation is likely in the works. I have no additional information, but I can tell you what I think needs to be fixed.
1. Get better writers or manage the franchise better.
Simon & Schuster publishes some really good books for children. Most of the books that are great were written by authors whose names are on the books. That isn't going to happen with Nancy Drew, since ghostwriters are always used.
It's critical that the ghostwriters are more skilled than the group used for the Nancy Drew Diaries series. I don't know how to solve that problem, since ghostwriters aren't paid much.
The bigger problem is Simon & Schuster's loose handling of the franchise. The Nancy Drew Girl Detective series, although flawed, was pretty consistent. The Nancy Drew Diaries series was wildly inconsistent, and that is because someone dropped the ball.
The ghostwriters must be given clear guidelines that they must follow. The characterization must be consistent across all books.
2. Quit treating Nancy Drew like a helpless female.
Nearly 10 years ago, I wrote Gender Inequality in the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys Books. Here is the beginning of that post.
While reading the Hardy Boys Digest series, I realized that the modern Nancy Drew is constrained by her gender. The Hardy Boys are allowed much more interesting adventures, since they are boys. The Hardy Boys get to be truck drivers, volunteer firefighters, and tightrope walkers. In one book, they even get to use machine guns and drive a tank.
Nancy Drew gets to investigate museum sabotage, fundraiser sabotage, zucchini smashing, any other lame sabotage that Simon and Schuster can create, and the occasional disappearance. The Hardy Boys get lots of sabotage as well, but they also get all the more interesting types of sabotage stories.
This means that the modern Hardy Boys books have more varied adventures than the modern Nancy Drew books. This is baffling, considering the trend in society towards gender equality. For some inexplicable reason, Simon and Schuster is taking Nancy Drew in the opposite direction, choosing to keep Nancy Drew in a strict gender-defined role that limits her ability to sleuth while allowing the Hardy Boys to have exciting adventures.
Simon & Schuster must correct this problem.
3. Go back to third-person point of view.
We don't need Nancy Drew to be relatable. There's nothing wrong with third-person point of view. Honestly, it's less confusing for the type of story expected of the Nancy Drew franchise. Nancy Drew stories aren't supposed to be about romance or deep feelings. The stories should focus on interesting mysteries, and third-person point of view is sufficient.
Third-person omniscient would be the best approach, especially for the Hardy Boys franchise. I could never tell the difference between Frank and Joe and kept having to flip back to the beginning of each chapter to figure out which brother was featured.
4. Quit relying solely on sabotage and give Nancy Drew more interesting plots.
We are sick of sabotage. A quote from my post, Comparing the Nancy Drew Diaries to the Hardy Boys Adventures is apropos.
I noticed that all of the Hardy Boys Adventures books would work as Nancy Drew Diaries stories. Most of them have very little action. Almost every Nancy Drew Diaries book is sabotage, and several stories feature very boring sabotage plots. Not as many Hardy Boys Adventures books are sabotage, and most of the sabotage books are creative sabotage that is engaging and interesting. As a result, most of the Hardy Boys Adventures stories are better quality than the Nancy Drew Diaries stories. Several Hardy Boys stories are extremely creative and suspenseful. The better story ideas are being used for the Hardy Boys Adventures series.
Several of the Hardy Boys Adventures books read in a similar fashion to young adult dystopian fiction. Perhaps the publisher thought that the content is too dark for Nancy Drew and more suitable for boys. If true, that's a shame, since dystopian novels are quite popular today and are read by both boys and girls. Those kinds of stories should not be limited to the Hardy Boys, when lots of girls read dystopian novels.
Taking a dystopian approach would improve the Nancy Drew franchise considerably. I'm not talking about anything supernatural or having to do with aliens. I'm thinking more in terms of organizations that are doing unethical research. We could have AI running amok (which isn't a stretch, since AI is already out of control). Cyberbullying would make for a compelling topic. One of the highpoints of the Nancy Drew Girl Detective series was The Identity Mystery Trilogy, in which Nancy investigates cyberbullying.
The Hardy Boys Adventures series featured a network of tunnels under Bayport. I'd love to have something like that in the modern Nancy Drew books.
The stories need to lean into modern intrigue and amp up the danger.
If Simon & Schuster would fix just these problems, then the Nancy Drew series output would improve considerably. I could even forgive Nancy continuing to take excessive bathroom breaks so long as the stories improve.
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