This post is part of Long and Short Reviews’ Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win an ePub copy of Death in Transit and New Names, Old Crimes.
Winter Nostalgia
Every year growing up, my siblings and I would get a big gift package from my Grandma Sue. There were candies, cookies, books, and candy storybooks. I confirmed candy storybooks existed and still exist today. The part I remember the most were the books.
The passing of the holiday meant it was time to break open the books. They were a mix of Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and classic novels from Twain, the Brontë sisters, Louisa May Alcott, Robert Louis Stevenson, and many others. Many of those were adventure stories of in a way. Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew were mysteries that felt like an extension of Scooby Doo. Both series predated Scooby Do. Just like the Mystery Inc. folks, the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew had a degree of autonomy and were out to solve mysteries generally caused by adults. They were on adventures. Tom Sawyer got up to adventures that were largely precipitated by his own pranks and schemes.
I wonder how those stories would read to me today, in my 40s. I’ve revisited a lot of movies and TV shows in the last year that I was fond of as a child. Looking back at those, I still feel a sense of identification with the kid characters but I also see the adult perspective.
I haven’t gone back to re-read the adventure stories of my youth. Some are likely timeless. Others would have issues that would be hard for me to ignore in 2025. Researching this piece, I found that the versions of the Nancy Drew novels I read had likely already been updated for a more modern audience by the time I read them.
Not every story needs to be revisited. Maybe it’s the accidental tradition that needs to be revisited.
As the holidays wind up, why not sit down with a new adventure story?
Five strangers searching for new lives experience an adventure beset by mechanical issues, space pirates, a poorly trained police force, and a business opportunity!
I write science fiction, fantasy, bizarro, and other genres. I’m a cat person. By which I mean “I like cats.” But I could be a person who is also a cat. Who knows?
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