Oh I just love it when there is more than one cover! Mine is the one to the left but the one to the right looks so much more MYSTERIOUS!
I honestly don't know how much I have in my to talk about this one. I have no respect for a mystery where I figure out who the "baddie" is pretty much the moment they show up. And there is some pretty solid unintentional racism as well as just bad advice for girls.
But first the story...
The Draytons have moved into their new house and when it is being refurbished, Christy finds a wee box with some stuff in it: a baby shoe, pages torn from a book and a picture of trees that - you're not going to believe this - is actually a treasure map! No big deal, right? But she gets her picture in the paper with the tree picture and next thing you know there is a creepy guy trespassing at night in the yard!
With her parents conveniently out of town and with her brother thinking she has a screw loose, our Christy leans in and tries to find the treasure. I am sure no one will be surprised that she does in the most boring possible way. There were some money troubles, and an injury for Mr. Drayton (probably the least well-drawn dad of any of the Lambert books so far) but it's all taken care of by the treasure.
So here are the things that stood out.
On page 91 one of the girls who, to be clear, is a likable character says, "I feel like the Ku Klux Klan" when they are out by a fire in the night time. Seriously Kitty? That is your go-to? Yikes. Then a mere two pages later Johnathan, who is the sensible big brother "war whoops" and says "Heap big chief scalp 'em good". I know, it was a different time.
Also, when the bad guy (you can't miss him) is physically forceful to Christy - apparently about to choke her before he is apprehended - she argues that he be forgiven because he "didn't mean to". Well, actually, yes he did. I'm all for arguing for the rehabilitation of criminals, but maybe give them more than 5 minutes to repent and be changed.
So I don't know. This is the first Lambert book that I didn't genuinely enjoy reading. It could be that the mystery was so basic and boring, or the casual racism or the undercurrent that says, sure, some men will hurt you but they don't MEAN it. It could just be me getting back into the swing of reading JL again. But I adored HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS and looked forward to more Christy Drayton. But alas, it is not to be.
Good news, though - next up is LITTLE MISS ATLAS which is all Tippy all the time! Oh how that little scamp has grown on me.
No comments:
Post a Comment