Preview
  • Meddling Kids

  • A Novel
  • By: Edgar Cantero
  • Narrated by: Kyla Garcia
  • Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (1,534 ratings)

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Meddling Kids

By: Edgar Cantero
Narrated by: Kyla Garcia
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Publisher's summary

With raucous humor and brilliantly orchestrated mayhem, Meddling Kids subverts teen detective archetypes like the Hardy Boys, the Famous Five, and Scooby-Doo and delivers an exuberant and wickedly entertaining celebration of horror, love, friendship, and many-tentacled, interdimensional demon spawn.

Summer 1977. The Blyton Summer Detective Club (of Blyton Hills, a small mining town in Oregon's Zoinx River Valley) solved their final mystery and unmasked the elusive Sleepy Lake monster - another low-life fortune hunter trying to get his dirty hands on the legendary riches hidden in Deboën Mansion. And he would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for those meddling kids.

In 1990, the former detectives have grown up and apart, each haunted by disturbing memories of their final night in the old haunted house. There are too many strange, half-remembered encounters and events that cannot be dismissed or explained away by a guy in a mask. And Andy, the once intrepid tomboy now wanted in two states, is tired of running from her demons. She needs answers. To find them she will need Kerri, the onetime kid genius and budding biologist, now drinking her ghosts away in New York with Tim, an excitable Weimaraner descended from the original canine member of the club. They will also have to get Nate, the horror nerd currently residing in an asylum in Arkham, Massachusetts. Luckily Nate has not lost contact with Peter, the handsome jock turned movie star who was once their team leader...which is remarkable, considering Peter has been dead for years.

The time has come to get the team back together, face their fears, and find out what actually happened all those years ago at Sleepy Lake. It's their only chance to end the nightmares and, perhaps, save the world.

A nostalgic and subversive trip rife with sly nods to H. P. Lovecraft and pop culture, Edgar Cantero's Meddling Kids is a strikingly original and dazzling reminder of the fun and adventure we can discover at the heart of our favorite stories, no matter how old we get.

©2017 Edgar Cantero (P)2017 Random House Audio
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Critic reviews

"Cantero ( The Supernatural Enhancements) will win readers' hearts with this goofy, smart love letter to childhood adventure and enduring friendship.... The prose is fast and funny, and the quirky, lovable characters are absolutely irresistible." ( Publishers Weekly)
"Cantero's imagination is vivid, and the story, once it gains speed, continues at a breakneck, roller-coaster pace. He plays with form and style, which makes for an enjoyable romp. Fans of modern takes on Lovecraft and those that are nostalgic for the cartoons of their childhood will like this novel, which is also a sure bet for your Stranger Things-themed display." ( Booklist)
"Deliriously wild, funny and imaginative. Cantero is an original voice." (Charles Yu, author of How to Live in a Science Fictional Universe)

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What listeners say about Meddling Kids

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    4 out of 5 stars

Good but coulda been better

I will be honest I usually only write a review if I really loved it and rarely to dump on it. If they went to the trouble to write it I am not gonna dump on them for putting in the effort or warn away others from subjecting themselves to suffering. That said I love Scooby Doo but I did not really love this book. Most recently I have enjoyed the recent series Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated which has been on Netflix off and on. If you haven't seen it I strongly recommend you watch it. Go ahead. I will wait while you watch all two seasons. Ok. Done? Good, yeah I know right, it was awesome! This book tries to be an homage as well as taking the genre into a more mature horror direction and I appreciate it. But often it felt like an undeveloped screenplay that needed more work shopping to iron out some wrinkles. If you get I think you will enjoy parts of it but yeah you won't feel entirely fulfilled. I will go back to those two seasons because they did a better job of incorporating cosmic horror and genre adventure.

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Fantastic pop culture love letter!

Meddling Kids is an amazing listen that leaves you yearning for the yesteryear of watching Saturday morning cartoons yet recognizes that you are an adult. Not for the kiddies but full of angst and fun.

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awesome

this is the kind of book I've wanted to write and read my whole life.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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It’s Scooby Doo !

Oh my god this book is Scooby Doo! You meddling kids! It started out a little slow and I wasn’t sure I liked it ....but I let it get past the first chapter and then it really got going and it was great. A good tip off that you’ve got some interesting stuff going on is when one of the main characters is locked away at “Arkham Asylum”! Definitely know somethings going on there! It was very clever very cute, very visual, very entertaining !

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A wild ride of a book

Super fun story. Cantero has a great literary voice. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I look forward to checking out his other books.

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Engaging story but maybe better read

There were several places that seemed designed to be read rather than heard. Still good though!

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Great story!

Loved the narrator and the wild story! It was such a good listen, I was sad when it was over.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Bad sample, great book

Don't be put off by the poor choice of audio sample that Audible picked for this book. The story is a fantastic mash-up of kids' detective novels and Saturday morning cartoons! The reader is excellent.

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love love love

this was already a good read. the narrator brought those characters to life. I loved every minute of it

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a grown up scooby like group

other than the continued announcements of who is speaking, I enjoyed it. without spilling too much, it's the tale of teen mystery sleuths (and their dog) whose final case traumatizes them. thirteen years later they come back together. each has their own daemons and past to deal with as they finally solve the real mystery.

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