The Girls of Hillcrest Farm by Amy Bell Marlowe

In The Girls of Hillcrest Farm, Lydia and Phemie Bray live in a miserable city apartment along with their sickly father.  Mr. Bray gets worse and is hospitalized.  Even worse, a fire upstairs causes the Brays' apartment to be damaged by water.  Aunt Jane suggests that the family move out to her vacant farm, which she does not like or use.

Lydia and Phemie get settled on the property and struggle to make ends meet.  They suffer from the taunts of the town girls, who do not like the newcomers.  The girls ignore the taunts as best they can and hope that they will be able to stay on the farm.

On page 12, a fire is on the upstairs floor of their tenement.  Lydia believes that they are not in danger, since the fire is above them.  She thinks that the fire will stay above them and will not harm them.  This is odd reasoning.  If not put out, the fire will burn through the ceiling.

Lots of dialect is used, and this slowed down my reading.

The book is quite slow-paced.  There is the slightest hint of a mystery, but it stays in the background for most of the book.

I overall enjoyed the book, but it is a bit too slow for my taste.

The Nancy Drew Game Fan Meltdown

I mentioned in a recent post about Midnight in Salem that the Big Nancy Drew Fan Meltdown of 2019 was not the only Nancy Drew fan meltdown of the year.  The Nancy Drew game fans have been been upset and annoyed for most of the last five years, and have had multiple meltdowns as the game was delayed or as Her Interactive made various missteps during the process of getting the game finished and released.

Two major game fan meltdowns occurred this fall. The first one occurred on October 1.  Her Interactive had announced October 1 as the date that the game would be available for pre-order on its site.  Just a couple of hours before the pre-orders were to begin, Her Interactive pushed the date back two weeks.  Fans were livid.

The second major meltdown began on November 30.  Her Interactive released the trailer for the game.  The dialogue did not match up well with the movement of the characters' mouths, and the trailer also revealed some problems with the graphics.  Fans did not react well.  The meltdown that began on November 30 became worse, if that's even possible, when the game was released on December 3.

The meltdown is still underway.  The Nancy Drew game fans take the Nancy Drew game franchise rather seriously.  While the Nancy Drew book fans are obsessive and judgmental about adaptations of Nancy Drew, the game fans are 100 times more obsessive and judgmental about absolutely everything that Her Interactive does.

The comments about the Midnight in Salem game are similar to the ones made by book fans during the meltdown about CW Nancy Drew.  One person stated that this game has ruined all of the previous Nancy Drew games.  Others want Her Interactive to go out of business and have actually told them so.  They would rather have no more Nancy Drew games ever than to have any additional Nancy Drew games in the new format.

Some fans canceled their pre-orders of the physical game.  Other fans returned their digital game on Steam right after they began playing it.  So long as players play the digital game for under two hours, they can return it.

Some people have refused to purchase the new game.  They would rather go without than experience a Nancy Drew game that is at all different from previous games.

Some fans use strong language, like calling the game "garbage" and calling the graphics “trash.”  One person is "emotionally scarred."

Those who have played the game are complaining about how Ned is being treated in the games.  They don’t like that Nancy, Ned, and Frank might be in a love triangle. Some fans have sent Her Interactive hate messages about this.  It should be noted that Her Interactive hasn't done anything that Simon and Schuster hasn’t done with the franchise, and Her Interactive hasn’t even done as much as the publisher.  Yet somehow, Her Interactive is evil and has ruined Nancy Drew.

Fans don’t like the new voice for Nancy Drew.  I just hope that they haven’t contacted the voice actress, because she’s just fine.  The change was jarring at first, but I adjusted to the voice rather quickly.

Someone said that they were going to complain to Simon and Schuster if they didn't get their money back from Her Interactive.  It's like they see Simon and Schuster as the parent who will get Her Interactive back in line.  It doesn't work that way.  The companies are separate from each other.

Other fans have expressed concern about the tone of the complaints.  These fans are worried that the complainers will force Her Interactive to quit.  I fall into this group.  If I worked for Her Interactive, I'd want to quit.  I don't see how they put up with the behavior of their fan base.

The company has made some major missteps, but we are so lucky that we were ever able to enjoy any Nancy Drew games at all.  We are very fortunate to have 33 Nancy Drew games.

Take some time to read the following article, which will explain what happened to Her Interactive.

The Case of the Disappearing Nancy Drew Video Games

From the article:

The bulk of Her Interactive’s funding had always come from a venture capitalist who helped found some immensely profitable biotech companies.  The venture capitalist supported Her Interactive not because he thought the company would net him another billion, according to [Stuart] Moulder, but because he thought that making logic puzzle games for girls was the right thing to do.

If that person had not invested in Her Interactive, we never would have had any of the games.  The company allegedly has been in trouble for more than five years.  Will Midnight in Salem keep Her Interactive afloat?  I hope so, because I'd like to see more Nancy Drew games.

Nancy Drew Midnight in Salem Review (No Spoilers)

I finished the Nancy Drew game, Midnight in Salem, on Tuesday, one week after I started playing it.  The game is not awful like what has been reported by many angry Nancy Drew game fans.  The game might not be to the liking of all fans, but it is still a good game.

I played the game via a digital copy purchased on Steam, even though I also purchased a physical copy that still has not arrived.  Steam tracked how long I played the game, and it says that I played for 22 hours.  My actual time played was probably less by at least an hour or so, since I sometimes did other things while the game was open.  I did that because it would have taken 15 minutes to get the game started up again.

The game is different.  It has fewer puzzles and is very dialogue-heavy.  I had to play the game with the settings on low graphics, so the graphics are not as good as in all previous games.

The player movement is difficult to master.  I was never able to master the town square and kept going in circles.  It's like the town square has an invisible path with obstacles placed in such a way that the player cannot figure out how to proceed.  It is difficult.

Despite the problems, it still felt just like a Nancy Drew game to me.

I used Her Interactive's strategy guide to get me through several difficult parts of the game.  I have no patience for puzzles that require me to study obscure pieces of information and then use the information to figure out how to do something.  On the other hand, I love the puzzles where I have to turn and slide puzzle pieces into place.  This game has a difficult three-dimensional puzzle that involves turning and moving pieces around.  I never use spoilers for those puzzles since I'm pretty good at figuring them out.

I mentioned in my tips post on getting the game to run better that I clicked on each line of conversation to force the dialogue to flow better.  That works everywhere in the game except for during the cutscenes.

A cutscene is a place where the game play stops, and the player watches as an event occurs.  The player cannot pause the cutscene or interact with it in any fashion.

The end of the game contains two cutscenes, one immediately after the other.  The second cutscene consists of a lengthy conversation that lasts for 10 minutes, as reported by other fans.  For me, the second cutscene lasted for around 20 to 25 minutes due to extreme lagging in each line of conversation.  Since I could not interact with the cutscene, I could not force the conversation along.  I was so frustrated.

In hindsight, I probably should have restarted my computer and then the game right before the two endgame cutscenes.  My advice is to restart your computer when you reach the life-or-death climax part of the game.  You'll know because you'll probably be given a second chance when it doesn't end well.  When you get a second chance, make sure the game is saved at that moment, and restart your computer.  That might help with the two cutscenes.  It is worth trying since the second cutscene was torture for me due to the lagging.

Aside from the torturous endgame cutscenes, I enjoyed Midnight in Salem.  The game is not perfect. The graphics are a problem, and it's clear that the text of books and documents was not proofread as it should have been.  All that aside, the game is good, and I hope that Her Interactive can stay in business and continue making Nancy Drew games.

Amy Bell Marlowe's Books for Girls Series

Amy Bell Marlowe's Books for Girls series was published by Grosset and Dunlap.  This is a Stratemeyer Syndicate series that was written by W. Bert Foster.

  1.  The Oldest of Four, 1914

  2.  The Girls of Hillcrest Farm, 1914

  3.  A Little Miss Nobody, 1914

  4.  The Girl from Sunset Ranch, 1914

  5.  Wyn's Camping Days, 1914

  6.  Frances of the Ranges, 1915

  7.  The Girls of Rivercliff School, 1916

  8.  When Oriole Came to Harbor Light, 1920

  9.  When Oriole Traveled Westward, 1921

10.  When Oriole Went to Boarding School, 1927

This set is similar to the May Hollis Barton set, which was also a Stratemeyer Syndicate series.  In my opinion, the Barton books are overall much more interesting reading than these books.

I will only have reviews of the books that I actually liked.  Here are some brief comments on the books I didn't like or couldn't manage to read.

When Oriole Came to Harbor Light is too juvenile and cute for me.  I abandoned the book in the first chapter, so I didn't try to read the other Oriole books.

Wyn's Camping Days has a plot that jumps around.  I partially skimmed the book, and then I quit.

The Oldest of Four has lengthy passages that I found quite boring.  The story of the shipwreck is told over and over by different people, each time with a small piece of new information.  I felt like I was wasting my time.  I skimmed the book and didn't read that much of it.

Frances of the Ranges is not compelling.  A few parts are interesting.  The story had great potential, but the execution was lacking.  I skimmed the book and skipped a lot of it to read the ending.  I didn't care.

Tom Swift Inventors' Academy #3 Restricted Access

In Tom Swift Inventors' Academy #3, Restricted Access, Tom's class gets to spend the night locked in at Swift Enterprises.  The field trip is expected to be great fun, until Tom learns that he is to be shadowed by Rowan, the son of a reporter who wants to write a story about Tom and his school.  Rowan has a body camera, so everything Tom says and does will be recorded.  Soon, Rowan is the least of Tom's concerns when Swift Enterprises goes into an unexpected quarantine.

I don't want to spoil any plot specifics, but Tom does some exploring in this book that is a lot of fun.

Tom Swift is in the 7th grade, so these books are aimed at a younger audience than the Nancy Drew Diaries and Hardy Boys Adventures books.  The book is quick and easy to read.  It is a bit simplistic.  However, I consider it to be a stronger, more engaging story than most of the Nancy Drew Diaries books.  This book is also stronger than some of the Hardy Boys Adventures books.

As compared to the most recent entries in the Nancy Drew Diaries and Hardy Boys Adventures series, I enjoyed this Tom Swift book the best.  The only Tom Swift books that I have ever read are the three books in this set.  Since I have no preconceived ideas about Tom Swift, then I can enjoy the books for what they are.  With the Nancy Drew Diaries books, I cannot help comparing the books to what I think Nancy Drew should be, which results in me not liking many of them.

Nancy Drew Midnight in Salem Tips (No Spoilers)

This post contains no spoilers.

Before I get to the main point of the this blog, I want to assure those who are awaiting their physical copy of the new Nancy Drew game, Midnight in Salem, that the game is nowhere near as bad as people claim.  In fact, the game isn't bad at all.  The game does have problems with functionality, some of which will be mentioned presently.  Even so, the game is enjoyable.

I wrote a post about the Nancy Drew fan meltdown of 2019, which was a negative reaction to CW Nancy Drew, but in truth, that was not the only meltdown this year.  The Nancy Drew game fans have had at least two meltdowns in 2019.  The most recent one was a week ago when Her Interactive published the game trailer on YouTube.  The Nancy Drew game fans immediately were in an uproar since they felt that the graphics were inferior.

Fans were so upset about the trailer that I decided that I had to check out the game on the day it was released.  Even though I had a physical copy on order from Her Interactive, I purchased a digital copy of the game on Steam.  I also was curious about Steam, since I had heard a lot about the site.

On Tuesday, I registered on Steam and purchased the digital copy.  My initial reaction to the game was disappointment.  The game took forever to load, and the first room seen in the game is so ugly, in my opinion.  The conversation lagged horribly, and I found the game impossible to enjoy.

I read many comments about the game and tried various suggestions to see if I could fix the issues.  I was able to improve my playing experience, but some problems simply cannot be fixed unless one purchases a brand-new gaming computer.  For most people, the game will have functionality issues, since most computers cannot handle the graphics.

The game does take forever to load on most systems.  On my computer, the game takes 10 to 15 minutes to load.  I am referring to the game after it has already been installed and played on the computer.  It does actually take a solid 10 to 15 minutes to start up every single time.

To keep this issue from being annoying, initiate the startup, then go prepare your snacks.  You are going to snack while you play the game, right?  Once you are ready, then the game will probably have loaded up.  As long as I find myself something to do while the game loads, it doesn't annoy me.

Once the game has loaded, it will be on the menu page.  Before you play the game for the first time, go to the settings and make some changes.  I want to emphasize this:  Save yourself some grief and change the settings first.  Unless you have a new gaming computer, you will need to change the settings.  I wish I could go back in time and do that first.  I hated the game on my first attempt to play.  It was that bad.

Not all suggestions that I read about the settings helped my situation.  The following settings are the ones that I used.  I doubt that they are the best ones, but the game does play decently for me.  Making these changes does cause the game not to look as nice.  I personally prefer a less attractive game that can be played over a pretty game that crashes immediately.

My audio settings did not help.  Some of the conversations are too low with the music too high, but I don't know that the settings can fix that problem.

The best piece of advice that I found online is to use the mouse to force the conversations along.  The conversations are awful unless the player intervenes.  The captions on the screen hang and don't match the sound.  After a character finishes a statement, the screen hangs for 10 or more seconds.  This was what really upset me.  After I learned how and when to click on the captions, I was able to begin enjoying the game.

As a character speaks to Nancy, watch for when the character reaches near the end of the caption that is on display. As the character reaches the last one to three words of the statement, click on it with the left button of the mouse.  Actually, I think you can click anywhere on the lower part of the screen, but I aim for the caption.  If you time it right, then the sentences and captions will match up perfectly and flow quickly from one statement to the next.  I mastered the timing pretty well once I figured out how this worked.  I began enjoying the game once I solved the problem of the lagging conversations.

The characters do flail their arms around randomly in slow motion as the player forces the conversations along.  The characters look pretty demented, but I ignored that.  The dialogue is still fun, as always.

The navigation is very different in this game.  I am about halfway through the game, and I am beginning to be able to navigate without much trouble.  The navigation is counterintuitive to how I think, so I have really struggled with it.

Even though I have not finished the game, the story is good, and the player gets to do activities that are similar to the previous Nancy Drew games.  The spirit of the Nancy Drew games franchise does live on in this game. 

The beginning of the game is quite jarring and different.  I liken it to reading a modern Nancy Drew book set in first person after having always read Nancy Drew books in third person.  I felt the same way as I began playing this game.  Once I adjusted and had played around 20% of the game, I truly felt like I was playing a Nancy Drew game for the first time in years.  And it has been years.

I hope that Her Interactive will be able to publish more Nancy Drew games in the future.  I always enjoy them.

Hardy Boys Adventures #18 The Disappearance and #19 Dungeons and Detectives

In Hardy Boys Adventures #18, The Disappearance, Frank and Joe attend a comic book convention with Jones and her friend, Harper.  After the convention, the young people enjoy pizza in Harper's apartment.  After the Hardys and Jones leave, Jones realizes that she has Harper's phone instead of her own.  When the boys return to Harper's apartment, they find it ransacked and Harper missing.

I kept confusing the characters as I read this story.  The characters might have been introduced too quickly, which often causes confusion.  Additionally, online chat names are given, which is more information than I needed.

I forgot to write a review of this book early this year, so I cannot remember exactly what I thought of it.  I do recall that I enjoyed it but not as much as other Hardy Boys Adventures books.

In Hardy Boys Adventures #19, Dungeons and Detectives, Sir Robert's Comic Kingdom has become a popular hangout for RPG fans, who especially love playing Sabers and Serpents, which is similar to Dungeons and Dragons.  Sir Robert plans to have a massive Halloween party to unveil the contents of a rare comic book that he owns, but the comic book is stolen!  The boys must find the culprit and locate the comic book.

On page 105, Charm from the Story Thieves series is mentioned.  It's rather odd for an actual name to be mentioned from another series, since names are usually changed or just not mentioned.  In this case, mentioning the name promoted another Simon and Schuster series, so of course they would be okay with it.

Nancy Drew is mentioned on pages 106 and 107.  This is a cross-promotion tied to A Nancy Drew Christmas.

A "missing map" is mentioned several times.

The book is a bit slow for the first 40 to 45 pages, then it gets pretty interesting once the boys arrive at the old castle.  After that point, I feel that the book continues to drag at times.  I was partially not interested and wished that the plot would speed up.  My problem might have been that the focus of this story is on activities that are not of interest to me, like role-playing games. 

Too much of the last part of the story is taken up with a lengthy explanatory session about what happened with the comic book.  The lengthy explanatory session is much like the lengthy sessions from the later titles of the original Grosset and Dunlap Hardy Boys series.  The rest of the story also contains great detail, and quite frankly, it was too much for me.

Interestingly, a review on Amazon highly praises the book for being like the old Hardy Boys books.  That was exactly my problem.  I actually do not particularly care for a large number of the original 58 Hardy Boys books.  After reading that review, I decided that this book is much like those which is part of what turned me off.

If you are a big fan of the original Hardy Boys books and have never read a Hardy Boys Adventures book, then this is probably the one to try.  I found it partially boring, but the people who have reviewed it on Amazon really enjoyed it.  My opinion of Hardy Boys books tends to be the opposite of many Hardy Boys fans, so there you go.  I am not in the target audience, which makes it not surprising that my opinion differs.

While I was not thrilled with this book, I suspect that is a very good book for Hardy Boys fans.

Nancy Drew Diaries #18 The Stolen Show

In Nancy Drew Diaries #18, The Stolen Show, Carson Drew's old friend, Louise Alain, has broken her ankle.  She requests that Nancy come to Quebec City to take her place in the dog show.  Just before the competition, a dog is drugged, presumably so that gum could be stuck in its coat.  Nancy must find the saboteur before any other dogs are targeted.

Like Nancy Drew Diaries #17 Famous Mistakes, this story appears to be about sabotage but isn't.  The publisher's summary and most of the story lead the reader to believe that the story is about sabotage.  The same approach was taken with Famous Mistakes.  It's like the people at Simon and Schuster are turning the sabotage into a running gag.

The two words "chuckled" and "smirked" are used a bit much in this story.  Use of "chuckled" doesn't mean anything, but I thought of Harriet Adams each time since I recently read through her Dana Girls books.  Harriet used "chuckled" excessively in her writing.

Use of "smirked" in these stories annoys me.  "Smirk" means "to smile in an irritatingly smug, conceited, or silly way."  I noted use of "smirked" on pages 3, 6, 29, and 67.  Nancy is guilty of three of the smirks, and George commits one of them.  In my opinion, Nancy smirking is out of character.  It bothers me.

From page 67:

I smirked.  "You just don't like that she calls you Chuck."  

I paused when I read that sentence and considered that "I smiled" or "I laughed" would have sounded so much more like Nancy Drew and would have retained the same overall meaning.  I cannot stand the use of "smirk" in these books.

Up until page 92, this book bears some similarity to The Haunting on Heliotrope Lane.  Really, it does, and that's very bad.

Nancy is portrayed in a negative fashion, like she was in Heliotrope Lane, on at least 13 pages.

Page 5:  Nancy is nervous.  She admits that she doesn't like being "in front of huge crowds of people."

Page 34:  Nancy feels "like a clumsy oaf."

Page 52:  Nancy panics and tries "to breathe through the nausea rising in [her] throat."  Admittedly, Nancy does have good reason to feel this way at this moment, but the original Nancy Drew would have been concerned and then would have taken action.  She would have solved the problem and single-handedly kicked someone's butt.  She would not have been nauseated.

Page 59:  Nancy's heart leaps into her throat.

Page 61:  Nancy is called "la petite inspecteur" which makes her cringe.

Page 67:  Nancy is called "little girl detective."

Page 79:  Nancy experiences "self-doubt."

Page 85:  Nancy admits that she is nervous.

Page 87:  Nancy says that she is "clumsy" and a "nervous wreck."

Page 89:  Nancy's stomach does a "few uncomfortable somersaults."  Also, Nancy hates being in front of an audience.

Page 90:  Nancy wills her "stomach to stop its gymnastics."

Page 91:  Nancy's heart hammers in her ears.

Page 92:  Nancy breathes "a sigh of relief."

Some of these examples of Nancy's fear are extremely like the examples from Heliotrope Lane.  The same person might have written both books.  Could we please keep this person away from Nancy Drew?  Surely some other writer could be found.

The main reason I am so offended by Nancy being portrayed as scared is that the Hardy Boys and Tom Swift are not portrayed in this fashion.  They do experience nervousness, but the way the emotion is conveyed to the reader is very different.  The way nervousness is conveyed in the Nancy Drew Diaries series comes across as an attempt to take Nancy down a notch.  The approach is different in the other two series.  I feel like Nancy is being treated differently for some reason.  It's very strange.

George also once again likes to eat and shows up in Nancy's room with a large amount of food.  I don't get it.

On page 94, the girls give the excuse that they are going to the bathroom to cover their exit from the show.  They don't go to the bathroom, but at least this book did get in the obligatory bathroom mention that is a staple of this series.  I would have been disappointed if it hadn't.

The first 50 pages of this book are quite boring.  I had to fight the urge to begin skimming during that part of the story due to my extreme boredom.  There is no reason why the reader should have had to endure so much information about how dog shows work.  Furthermore, the conversations are boring.  Absolutely nothing interesting happens during the first 50 pages.  This part of the story should have lasted no more than around 20 pages, and even that might have been too much.

The culprit is revealed during the first chapter—not so that the average child would know.  Perhaps some adult readers new to the Nancy Drew Diaries series might miss spotting the culprit.  On the other hand, anyone who has read through all the Nancy Drew Diaries books will spot the culprit immediately during the moment of the first encounter.  The Nancy Drew Diaries books do not have diverse plots.  Simon and Schuster must have one plot outline with empty spots where different names and places can be filled in, just like Mad Libs.  One story outline is copied over and over.

While the book becomes interesting beginning on page 51, it is still below average and weak for the Nancy Drew Diaries series.  On page 95, Nancy declares that she is done being "obedient" and that she will "bite back."  From that point on, Nancy is on fire.  Notice that my list of negative statements about Nancy Drew occur no later than page 92 in the book.  It's like this book was written by two different people.  Pages 1 through 50 are boring with negative statements about Nancy.  Pages 51 through 94 are better but still have negative statements about Nancy.  Page 95 through to the end of the book have no negative statements.  The last part of the book is very good.

It's quite odd.  Nancy is in no danger during the first 92 pages of the book, yet she is nervous quite often.  She is nervous about being a dog handler.  While I can understand the average person being nervous, this is Nancy Drew (said with a lilt, of course).  Nancy Drew wouldn't be nervous about being a dog handler.

Nancy seems to have a split personality in this book.  She's nervous about a dog show, yet from page 95 through to the end of the story, Nancy does a bunch of dangerous stuff that does not make her nervous at all.  That makes no sense!

The book was written overall in the style of the The Haunting on Heliotrope Lane up through page 94, and then the book was written more like a Hardy Boys Adventures book for the rest of the story.

I don't know how good I can even say that this book is overall.  I probably would go with overall good, but I strongly dislike a good part of the book.

This book is a disappointment, since the the previous two books are quite good and this one falls down again.  The Nancy Drew Diaries books continue to be uneven in quality.  Some books are good, and other books are bad.

Several fans state that the Nancy Drew Diaries series is an improvement over the Nancy Drew Girl Detective series.  I concede that some Nancy Drew Diaries books are an improvement over some Nancy Drew Girl Detective books.  I disagree with the blanket statement that the Diaries series is more true to the character.  The way that Nancy Drew is picked at in the Diaries series comes across as a bunch of cheap shots taken for no reason.

I have questioned Simon and Schuster's intent and practices for some years.  I have even wondered whether they were trying to destroy Nancy Drew by giving the inferior stories to the Nancy Drew Diaries series and using bad authors.  While unlikely that Simon and Schuster would try to destroy a franchise that it owns, the company is at the very least guilty of neglect.

I feel that Simon and Schuster (S&S) is taking Nancy Drew for granted just like Grosset and Dunlap did during the 1970s.  Grosset and Dunlap's neglect caused the Stratemeyer Syndicate to sell its series to S&S.  The Nancy Drew books created by S&S were, in my opinion, an improvement over the final Nancy Drew books produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate.

Nancy Drew is once again suffering at the hands of a company taking the franchise for granted.  This time, however, the franchise will not be sold to another company.