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I couldn't love it more if I tried...
“Any book that you like, you like for particular reasons, obviously. You admire how well it is written, you cried a little reading it, you loved the pictures, etc. Then you might find a book that you read and you feel that it was written just for you. The Boy Detective Fails is one of those books to me, and I think for a lot of people. It could be for you too. When I was a kid I think the theory was that if you were smart and worked hard that you would succeed, and the world of course doesn't work that way. The cleverest person can be sidetracked, if not knocked completely off course. Not only does Joe Meno recognize that and put in on the page, but it's done in the sweetest way. The book (in my opinion anyway) talks to you as if you are a very intelligent child, and when it heads into areas of absurdity it feels absolutely natural, because there is no absurd world for a kid. Anything you can imagine can be real, at least for a moment, and by the time I was finished I was back to that time when I wanted capers and mysteries and super-villains to exist. After reading Boy Detective, I picked up a couple other Meno books, and within 2 weeks he has become one of my literary heroes. Each story seems to have the power to put you right outside the room, looking and listening on on these characters instead of just reading about them. The guy's a great writer, and from what I can tell, a pretty awesome person in general. Check him out. And no offense Amazon, but go to bookstores, readers, at least once in a while. You'll miss them when they're gone. ”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-05-17. -
2 of 2 members found this review helpful.
What if Encyclopedia Brown grew up?
“Ah, the greats of childhood literature: the Hardy Boys, the Great Brain, Danny Dunn and others. For quick puzzles, the go to was Encyclopedia Brown, the kid who'd read the whole encyclopedia and used logic and observation to solve minor mysteries. As much as any character, I believe he serves as the template for Billy Argo, the title character in Joe Meno's The Boy Detective Fails.
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-02-22.
Unlike Encyclopedia Brown, however, Billy solves some big mysteries, including ones involving murder, arson and kidnapping. More importantly, unlike Encyclopedia Brown, Billy grows up into an adulthood that is less than pleasant. Tormented by the suicide of his admiring sister, Billy spends a decade institutionalized and is later released into a halfway house of sorts. He will earn a living as a telemarketer for a wig company and spend many hours in a drug induced haze.
Mysteries and villains still abound, however, but the biggest one is the hardest to solve: why his sister died. Old adversaries unleash dastardly plans against Billy and his city, but often they are more inept than dangerous (there are exceptions, however). And into Billy's life will come a pretty shoplifter who offers Billy a chance for happiness.
The Boy Detective Fails is a strange story, often amusing and often absurd. Almost every character in the book is eccentric in some way, making the whole novel surreal. Fortunately, the oddness is never too distracting: even at its most weird, the book still grabs your attention. For those who grew up reading the types of books I mentioned above, this will be a fun, nostalgic read.” -
2 of 2 members found this review helpful.
If David Lynch wrote a Hardy boy novel...
“it would probably be close to this book. This book is very bizarre, but still tragic and moving. This book is basically about a former acclaimed boy detective,Billy Argo who solved serveral mysteries as a child alongside his best friend Fenton & younger sister Caroline. After Billy goes to college Caroline kills herself. Billy can't understand why this happened and tries to kill himself, unsuccessful, his parents have him institutionalized. Billy is released 10 years later and tries to adjust to the world. Billy gets a job and befriends 2 young outcasts and gets caught up in several bizarre mysteries along the way falling in love for the first time. The book is sweet, odd, and sad sometimes all at the same time. The book is unlike anything I've ever read, I can't wait to read other books by Joe Meno.”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-01-12. -
1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
Quickly became one of my favourite books
“It took me a little bit to get this book. I wasn't sure if what was happening was real or if was all in the realm of a child's fantasies; solving various mysteries and appearing on the front of local newspapers. Despite my uncertainties on how to interpret some of the actions, I could not put the book down, and once I completed the book, I reread parts of it, being sure to use the decoder ring that comes with it to decipher the mesasges at the bottom of many pages.
An amazon user wrote this on 2008-12-14.
That's right. I said "decoder ring". Each copy of the book has one, you can cut it out from the back flap. I copied mine, not wanting to mar the actual book.
This book is experimental, but familiar. I loved serial books like "The Boxcar Children" and "The Hardy Boys" when I was a young kid, and here's that architype again... but surrealistic and adult. Billy Argo is forever a youth, precocious and niave. The cases he solves sound like they were pulled from any of those cheesy serial books you read as a kid (or Scooby Do episodes you may have watched). Despite that, there is a seriously dark sinister floating above the whole thing. Some of the characters are truly unsettling.
This book is important. It is charming, mysterious, and otherworldly. It deserves the highest praise and study. I love this book and have bought copies for a couple of my own "Fenton" and "Caroline".
The angel food cake turned out pretty good too. ” -
0 of 11 members found this review helpful.
God, how I hate this book
“Is there anyone who will sit Joe down and teach him to write? I read this after trying to get through Hairstyles of the Damned. Yes, it's better and I was able to complete it, but it's still awful. Joe, you really need to learn that writing a paragraph doesn't mean a thing if that paragraph leads you to nowhere.”
An amazon user wrote this on 2008-12-04.
