Nancy Drew Challenge March Recap

The Nancy Drew Challenge is a reading challenge for 2010 for readers to attempt to read all 56 original yellow hardbacks that were in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories. Click here for more information or to sign up for the challenge. At the end of each month, I will put up a post where participants of the challenge can recap how they did during that month.


Whoops! I totally forget to post this until tonight! It's been a loooong month heh.

Anywho, this month I was able to catch up on my reading and read 9 books this month. I've noticed that the writing is starting to get a lot better. The mysteries are getting more complex and actually starting to be real mysteries. Also the books are getting more violent. Obviously they are not in the same league as harder mysteries but they are definitely not the innocent books that started the series. In those, the worst that happened to Nancy is that she would be locked in closet. Now she's getting hit on the head on purpose with the intent to purposely harm or even being thrown off the side of a boat by masked men. Not everyone seems to love Nancy Drew eh?

The romance factor seems to have slightly kicked up a notch. Things are still squeaky-clean with Ned but Nancy seems to be flirting a bit (ok barely) with other guys OR she's avoiding them all together. Ned still wants to get it on, it seems (Oh Nancy, do we have to solve a mystery EVERY time we get together?). My favorite book involving relationships was THE HAUNTED BRIDGE, where Nancy and the girls have to deal with the irksome Martin Bartescue. It is the first time in the series where you see Nancy get visibly frustrated with anyone. And I loved it how she even asks rather snarky to him at times. Way to go, ghostwriter!!

Random things I noticed while reading
-In The Whispering Statue, Bess suggests that Nancy use the name Carrie Fisher as a disguise. I wonder if that's where Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher got their famous daughter's name from...
-Also in the Whispering Statue, it's mentioned several times that the statue looks like Nancy. It looks so much like her that even though it's a statue from way back when in Italy, it has the exact same 1970s hair flip style that Nancy does!
- Has anyone noticed that George constantly gets hurt in the books? From sprained ankles to getting her hand caught in a mouse trap, poor George is always sacrificed.
- I found The Mystery of the Ivory Charm to be incredibly stereotyped towards Asian Indians to point where it becomes insulting. From the way they speak to the showing of culture, it was borderline offensive. Also what are the odds that there was only ONE Indian man living in River Heights and he happened to be part of the mystery? Now that I think about it, as it stands he seems to be the only non white resident of River Heights.

How was Nancy Drew for you in March?