31 Days of Nancy Drew Topic #12 Nancy Drew Modern Mysteries - Nancy Drew Girl Detective & Nancy Drew Diaries

31 Days of Nancy Drew Topic #12

Nancy Drew Modern Mysteries - Nancy Drew Girl Detective & Nancy Drew Diaries

Modern Nancy Drew for the 8 to 12 set. A tale of how a too flawed Nancy Drew Girl Detective series led to a new beginning and fresh start with Nancy Drew Diaries. Read on...

NANCY DREW GIRL DETECTIVE:

The decision was made by 2003 to discontinue the long running 175 volume series, Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, and relaunch the series in 2004 as Nancy Drew Girl Detective. Prior to Girl Detective, even classic Nancy Drew books went through modernizing and revising over time to fit with fashion styles and update language because those books were published over a period of many years. The Girl Detective series ran from 2004 to 2012 and 47 books. With this series came major changes to some areas of the Nancy Drew world. Not only were they updating technology but they were messing a little with classic Nancy Drew - a formula that had been popular since 1930. There are boxed sets, promo items and merchandise based on this series--something for a future 31 days blog. Plus audio books, library bound versions, and foreign editions. And there was a Ghost Stories book plus some Super Mystery books that were special editions and even a few Super Mystery editions that teamed Nancy up with the Hardy Boys.

I was a supporter of the Girl Detective series in the beginning, finding some fans to be ridiculously fickle at times, but then over time, the quality of these books waned and the mysteries were not so interesting and the trilogy format got a little boring in how it was executed. The covers were not appealing. There was a lot of sabotage as Jennifer White has blogged about in her reviews of this and the Diaries series - and the first person voice got tiring. Classic Nancy for 175 volumes was always in third person voice and I prefer it that way. Bess had mechanical skills, George became a hacker. OK, fine. Other changes came as they were not sticking totally to cannon and that's fine. But when it comes to the big heroine of the series - Nancy Drew - that's where changes got trickier.

Most tiring was Nancy's character. In an effort to make her more real, she became too flawed in areas that were not becoming of who Nancy Drew, as a character, had always been. There would have been better ways to give her more realism -- for example, how she handled perilous situations or dealt  with modern mysteries and criminals. Instead, most of the shtick was her being forgetful and bumbling around which is very unflattering realism and frankly not so inspiring. She would forget her keys or where they were. Forget to put gas in her car because she was so into her mystery she wasn't focusing on those little things. She even once wore her slippers out and about instead of changing her shoes, forgot to shower, questioned whether she washed her hair/etc. Silly things like that - things that you and I probably do in our daily lives that we could relate to or commiserate with, but I don't read these books to commiserate about my own similar silly flaws and forgetfulness. As a kid, I read Nancy Drew books for entertainment and fun and because classic Nancy was inspiring. You see those slogans everywhere - like Girl Boss, etc.. Let's get real - Nancy Drew Girl Detective is no girl boss compared to classic Nancy Drew. And that's because her character is too flawed and in ways that really weren't necessary to the stories or the mystery solving. These flaws might have led to foibles, but other plot devices that were actually interesting could have accomplished the same goals without sacrificing Nancy's overall character.

Some claim classic Nancy Drew wasn't very real. However, that was kind of the point. These are fiction books, not non fiction. She was a super sleuth and pure entertainment. Inspiring and motivating. Girl Detective Nancy? Sometimes, but overall not so much. I don't think the lady justices of the Supreme Court in the future will point to Girl Detective as the inspiration like our current justices do today with classic Nancy Drew. Just sayin'.

 

 

The bottom line of Girl Detective is there were some good books and stories and nods to classic characters - like the return of Helen Corning and some effort in the first 10+ books to throw in Easter Eggs to classic fans. However, as a whole, it is not one of my favorite spinoff series for the reasons I've stated.

There is a lesson that was learned by the publishers. Which is that, yes, we need modern Nancy Drew to keep the series relevant for new generations, but if you want to keep calling her Nancy Drew and build on the basic formula that makes up Nancy Drew and her world, you kind of have to modernize around that and not mess with deeply ingrained character traits that have made Nancy Drew popular for generations. Traits such as her being smart, capable, daring and focused and someone we could aspire to be. Some realism is OK, but not character-flawed realism, that's just uninspiring. If you're going to make Nancy Drew uninspiring, what's the point anymore? And the publisher took stock of that lesson to a degree. Which leads me to Nancy Drew Diaries.....

NANCY DREW DIARIES:

No matter what you think of Girl Detective, that series is done and over. It was relaunched as Nancy Drew Diaries - the current in print series which debuted in 2013. So far there are 17 volumes in print and a special Nancy Drew Christmas edition. 2 books being published a year currently. The books are available in both paperbacks and hardcovers with dust jackets though the Christmas one hasn't been released in paperback yet, but it's coming. There are boxed sets and a triple edition. Plus audio books, library bound books and foreign editions.

Between sales and fan commentary and reviews, the Diaries series was an attempt to relaunch Nancy Drew and fix the flaws of Girl Detective - though it was done very quietly without a lot of publicity unlike Girl Detective's debut which had massive publicity, contests, promo items, parties, press kits and the like - a topic for a future 31 days blog on these collectibles. From criticisms of the earlier Girl Detective covers which were clip art montages to later photo covers of a model repeatedly wearing the same brown shirt and shorts or holding things that some fans said looked like underwear (Hypers!) to criticisms about her being so realistic she was too flawed to criticisms about the stories and titles being too much of a departure from classic Nancy Drew mysteries  - and on and on - we got the new Diaries series.

This was the blurb about Diaries that was released by Simon & Schuster;

"Striking illustrative covers featuring Nancy in action and suspense-filled stories will attract old and new fans alike, and make for an exciting, page-turning mystery series. Nancy continues to be a positive role model for readers: intelligent and perceptive, loyal and persevering. Nancy and company return to their mystery-solving roots: resourceful, perceptive, deductive, they rely on their wits first and then use technology to assist them. Readers will enjoy solving the hands-on mysteries with Nancy, Bess and George. Nancy Drew is a brand that's been on readers' shelves for more than 80 years, popular with both young and older fans. Nancy Drew first started in 1930 and is still in print today."

 

This blurb shows that they were trying to listen to fans and make an effort and I applaud Simon and Schuster for that. Diaries isn't perfect, but then it's hard to beat classic Nancy Drew - as many knock-of Nancy Drew-wannabee mystery series not to mention actual Nancy Drew spinoff series can attest to - many of which have come and gone over the years. As a stand alone series, Diaries had a lot of potential. Diaries is written in first person, but now we have lovely cover art illustrations again and titles that are more evocative of a mystery using classic title words like "mystery" and "phantom." Diaries Nancy is not as flawed as Girl Detective Nancy, though it would appear that the first 2 books in the series were probably leftover Girl Detective plots and possible outlines or even manuscripts turned into books for the Diaries series. Some books in the series are well done, some are not as good according to fans. The plots involve a little too much sabotage.

But Diaries is an improvement on Girl Detective. Classic Nancy Drew always came across as more sophisticated even though she was only a teenager due in part to the quality of the writing with the earlier books having a more sophisticated writing style. The art was a factor too. Ways they could easily improve the Diaries series would be more intriguing mysteries that rely less on the sabotage formula and lengthier books to aid in character development and more sophisticated mystery plots and suspense. They could easily fix the first part of that with better overall plotting and writing but the second part involves economics as it's more expensive to produce longer books and the publisher may not want to put as much effort into this series for whatever reason. There are a lot of other competing books and series for kids in today's market. I think Diaries could stand out and compete better with improved writing and plots plus lengthier books. If they don't make those kinds of changes with Diaries in the future, then those are things to consider if this series ends up getting relaunched again sometime down the road.

In the comments, let me know if you collected Girl Detective and have you read any of them? Your overall impression? Do you currently read and collect the Diaries series? What are your favorite mysteries in these series?