August 4, 2010
BSC Mystery #3, Mallory and the Ghost Cat: Enough With the Ghosts Already
Katie, we need to talk about your hair. You look like you've seen a...oh, I get it
Summary: Mallory starts sitting for a family with three little girls and a ghost cat. Except the cat isn’t really a ghost. But the little girls are! Just kidding. That would have actually been interesting. It’s basically a rip-off of Mallory and the Mystery Diary, except there’s no painting, and instead the cat’s real owner comes and gets it. The “mystery” part is so half-hearted, I don’t plan on expending any more energy thinking about it, since the ghostwriter (har har) didn’t put any effort into it either.
The B plot involves Mallory’s great-uncle Joe coming to stay with the family. He acts strangely, and it turns out he has Alzheimer’s. I find the B plot ten times scarier than the A plot.
Thoughts: Mallory’s favorite vegetable is artichokes, in case anyone was wondering.
If Mallory’s allowed to watch all of her brothers and sisters by herself, why do the Pikes always hire two sitters?
Katie, who’s two-and-a-half, talks and acts exactly like the supposedly delayed Emily Michelle (also two-and-a-half). Ann and ghostwriters, you have officially been discredited.
Margo can spell “uncle” but not “welcome” or “Joe.” Claudia, however, can spell “Joe” but not “uncle.” Both of these sound equally unlikely. And why would Margo spell Joe as “Jow” instead of “Jo”? See, no effort put into this book at all.
Does Dawn really believe a) there’s such a thing as an ectoplasm meter and b) a magazine would sell her a real one for six bucks? I find that scarier than any ghost.
Rasputin is an awesome name for a cat, what with the nine lives and all. And I do kind of love that the ghostwriter names the cat Rasputin and doesn’t explain to the readers, who wouldn’t get the reference, where the name comes from. Or maybe that’s just yet another sign of her lack of effort toward this book.
