Reviews for Fiendish Deeds (The Joy of Spooking Series #1)

The average rating for Fiendish Deeds (The Joy of Spooking Series #1) based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-10-05 00:00:00 Alejandro Garcia Torres The history of juvenile literature is replete with books about kids standing up to city hall or corporate overlords, but P.J. Bracegirdle adds a spooky twist in his 2008 debut, Fiendish Deeds. Two towns could hardly be more different than Darlington, a modern suburb with a booming population, and Spooking, a dark, sinister town contained within Darlington. Eleven-year-old Joy Wells likes the atmosphere of Spooking; few families ever move there, preferring Darlington's social climate, but Joy's mother couldn't pass up the great price she received on the mansion they now live in. Spooking is becoming a ghost town, and the kids at Winsome Elementary regard Joy and her eight-year-old brother Byron as oddballs for living there. The boys call her a "Spooky" and play mean jokes, but Joy takes solace in the writings of long-dead horror author Ethan Alvin Peugeot. She's convinced he lived in and wrote about Spooking, including the bog he claimed a monster inhabited. Joy's parents and schoolteacher don't take her theory seriously, but what if the "Bog Fiend" truly lurks in Spooking? E.A. Peugeot and the Bog Fiend are mere curiosities for Joy until Darlington's Mayor MacBrayne visits Winsome Elementary for an assembly. Accompanied by his assistant, the furtive Mr. Phipps, Mayor MacBrayne announces a major public works project: the new Misty Mermaid Water Park. To be built where the bog currently sits, the park will jumpstart the local economy. Most of the kids approve, especially eight-year-old genius Morris M. Mealey, but Joy is horrified. Destroy the bog? What about Madame Portia, the old widow who lives there? What about the Bog Fiend? Against her parents' wishes, Joy walks down to the bog to warn Madame Portia, but the widow isn't concerned. She's refused to sell her house in the past, and is confident she can stymie Darlington's attempts at eminent domain once more. Too bad someone out there has a personal interest in defeating Madame Portia, by any means necessary. This enemy will use deceit and even violence to evict her, but Joy may be able to stop him. Prior to his untimely death, Madame Portia's husband, Ludwig Zweig, was on the cusp of discovering a rare species in the bog, which would place the area under the authority of the Federal Imperiled Species Protection Agency. If Joy proves the species exists, Mayor MacBrayne won't be allowed to bulldoze the bog. But will she be in time to save Madame Portia from her hidden foe? "No one ever stays the same their whole life. No one stays innocent forever." 'Octavio Phipps, Fiendish Deeds, P. 214 Fiendish Deeds had potential, but fulfills little of it. The narrative is unexciting, cliché, and convoluted: whose idea was the water park, Morris's or the mayor's? Why is so much attention paid to Mr. Phipps's backstory? Explanations may come in books two and three, but Fiendish Deeds doesn't whet the reader's appetite for more. Joy is a peculiar girl, though, one that other offbeat kids might gravitate toward. "(A)s Joy grew older, she often found that what seemed 'reasonable' to everyone else seemed completely insane to her." This is the rallying cry of nonconformists, those of us who observe the world through our own lens. Nicoletta Ceccoli's cover art is probably the book's best feature; its noirish look adds some class, perhaps more than the story merits. Fiendish Deeds could be a lot better'I'd rate it one and a half stars'and I have hopes the next book, Unearthly Asylum, will be more cohesive and compelling.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-11-01 00:00:00 Wayne Arthur Joy Wells lives in the crumbling town of Spooking with her parents and her younger brother, Byron. Spooking lies high on a hill overlooking the city of Darlington. The town has seen better days, most of the homes are uninhabited or need major repair. The shops on Main Street are all closed. The few kids that live in Spooking are bussed down to Darlington to go to school. Darlington, down the hill from Spooking, is a perfect and unimaginative place. The houses are all alike and the people are all strangely cheerful. At school, the kids from Spooking are picked on and called "Spookys". They, in turn, despise the stuck up Darlington kids and call them "Darlings". Joy is a smart and imaginative young girl with a pet frog who thinks he's a dog (he barks!). She loves to read the spine-tingling tales of her favorite author, E.A. Peugeot. Peugeot mysteriously disappeared years ago and was never heard from again but there is speculation that his stories might leave clues to what happened to him. In Joy's favorite story, "The Bawl of the Bog Fiend," the hero of the story is attacked by the monster in a bog that sounds very like Spooking's own bog which lies at the bottom of the hill. Joy is convinced the author actually wrote the story about Spooking. Unfortunately, Darlington has plans for that bog. The greedy Mayor MacBrayne and his right hand man, the evil Mr. Phipps, have decided that the bog is the perfect place to build a water park. Joy is determined to do whatever is necessary to stop the destruction of one of her favorite places. She and her brother have some hair-raising experiences in her quest and a big adventure on Halloween night. P.J. Bracegirdle (his real name!) has written an imaginative and exciting tale and filled it with characters both endearing and dastardly. It is a perfect story for everyone from eight to eighty and beyond! I'm looking forward to the further adventures of Joy, Byron and the town of Spooking. Book Two will be published in the summer of 2009.