Preparing to survive a typical day of being Digby's friend wasn't that different from preparing to survive the apocalypse.

I don't remember exactly what I was reading, but I came across a reference to this book filling the Veronica Mars dialogue hole for the writer (or something like that -- I stupidly closed the tab and moved on so I can't get the quotation right, or credit the source...). That sounded good enough to try, and boy, oh boy, am I glad I did. I doubted it'd come close to Veronica Mars, because none of the things I've read compared to it have ever come close (not that I haven't enjoyed many of those things, even in their non-Mars-ness), but that was wrong of me -- there's a strong Mars-like vibe here.

Actually, that'll work for a very reductionistic and not very accurate summary of this book: It's Veronica Mars, gender-flipped, narrated by the Wallace figure.

I should've paid more attention to the piece I skimmed, I didn't realize until I'd started that this was a YA mystery, but it works okay for older readers. There's a soupçon of romance -- and only that. I just want to throw that out before some of you decide to bow out of this one from the start.

So, post-bitter divorce, Zoe and her mother move to a small town from NYC. Mom's an English professor at a community college and Zoe's trying to fit in -- temporarily. Her plan is to blow this popsicle-stand and move on to a Private School, make her mark there and step on to Princeton. She just needs to nail this semester.

Enter Digby. This odd boy who always wears a suit and refuses to fit in. First, ropes her into working on an insane independent study project (which he shows no signs of ever working on), showing up in the least convenient places, and leading her into all sorts of trouble -- despite her best intentions.

Digby has a dark past, the events of which shape his every move (that's obvious, I know -- but he's self-conscious about it) and the way that everyone in town sees his every move. It'd be very easy for this past to turn Digby into some sort of Bruce Wayne-y do-gooder crusader; or angry, rebellious young man -- neither ends up being the case. He's a brilliant kid with little regard for societal norms (not that he's not very aware of them and how to use them for his own benefit). I'm doing a horrible job describing him -- while there's all that going on, Digby is observant, quick-witted, a creative thinker, resourceful, with a sharp-tongue, an odd-sense of humor and the teenaged-boyest teenage-boy appetite.

Zoe is strong-willed (except when it comes to Digby or her father), smart, careful, cautious, determined and focused. But she wants to be more -- she wants to be adventurous, popular. I just don't think she can admit that to herself. She's a great character with a voice that makes you just like her.

Speaking of voice, I've gotta give kudos to Kathleen McInerney. She narrates this tale with life, verve, and humor. This is good material and she makes it live.

In addition to Zoe and Digby, we've got Henry -- an old friend of Digby's, the clean-cut quarterback -- and many other mainstays of high school fiction (the meangirl, the computer geek, the bully athletes). Zoe's mother is a better-than-average adult character for YA fiction, she's not perfect, but she's a committed and caring mother. Her father, on the other hand, is a little more typical -- over-bearing and focused on his goals for his daughter (that's typical for a character, not a father, I want to stress). The characters and the relationships between them feel grounded and believable -- which makes it easy to want to see them succeed and to buy into the outlandish situations that Digby introduces Zoe and Henry to.

I've gone on a lot without talking about the plot -- what kind of situations are there for Digby to involve his friends in? Let's start with the cult with a headquarters across the street from Zoe's house, and the very creepy guys who live there. There's drug dealing, a missing high schooler, some dumpster arson, a gynecologist who definitely needs to review the Hippocratic oath, a case the police have given up on, and high school drama. It's actually very difficult to say the plot is about X, because Digby has an agenda that he really doesn't fill people in on until the last minute. And he seemingly hops around from caper to caper in an ADHD-manner. Minor spoiler: it's not the case, he as some kind of a plan.

I've done a lousy job selling you on this book, some of that is because it's such a quirky, oddball of a story -- and the rest is due to a sloppy job on part, so let me sum up before I make things worse. The book moves swiftly and smoothly, making you smile frequently -- impressed with Digby's dogged determination and enjoying (even while rolling your eyes at his antics). The dialogue is snappy, the characters are likeable, you'll find yourself invested in this crazy story -- even if you're a couple of decades past the target audience. Trombly has given us a great gift in Zoe and Digby, give this a shot, you'll have a great time.

***This review has also been posted on Xpresso Reads

If you like your Sherlock re-tellings full of lots of wit, humor and fun; Trouble is a Friend of Mine is for you. This book was SO MUCH fun to read. I was giggling most of the time, I liked the characters, I liked the plot, I liked the relationships. This was a great brain candy book but my problem with the book was how ignorant and privileged the characters were.

We are constantly reminded that the characters live in a very white neighborhood with no diversity and I would assume that that would at least mean that the MCs weren’t completely ignorant and flippant about certain issues but that’s sadly not true. Even though Zoe moved from NYC, a very diverse city, to a white suburban neighborhood. It isn’t just a case of slut shaming (although that is definitely present) though. There are some very privileged attitudes in this book about class, prison (and the entire system) and just diveristy as a whole. Philip Digby even mocks what it means to be a transgender teen and reduces that experience to stereotypes in movies. That actually hurt because Philip Digby is a great character, I expected more from both of these characters.

So, given all those issues, WHY did I like the book? Well for starters, it’s one of the few (if not the only) Sherlock retelling I’ve read that actually addresses mental health. I wish mental health had been explored a little more in the book than merely being stated, but I love that Digby’s habits aren’t just attributed to ‘quirks.’

Also Zoe’s relationship with her mother was kind of awesome. Zoe constantly berates her for not being a good parent but I love the ways in which the author makes the reader aware of the fact that Zoe’s perception might not necessarily be true.

My favorite thing was that even though Digby and Zoe were solving the mystery by themselves, they actually had help from adults. WHO WEREN’T THE ENEMIES. I know. I KNOW. And when I saw adults, I mean police adults. I was really excited about that. Especially since the two characters we met were hilarious and great. This made it a lot easier to believe in the plot and the mystery. Everything mixed together very well and the author connected the various threads together beautifully.

The characters, when they weren’t being ignorant, were also pretty great. I loved seeing Zoe find her place in a community where she felt left out of and I liked that over the course of the book her attitude changed from “Not like the other girls” to “they aren’t so bad.” Baby steps? Philip is also adorable and I’d really like to find out more about him in a sequel.

I definitely had issues with this book but I still think it’s a great read if you’re looking for something light to get you through the day or if you need a palette cleanser. It’s so cute and quick!

Note that I received a finished copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

I finished 8 books in June, less than usual, partly because I've started a summer re-reading project. For my mid-June birthday I received TWO different annotated copies of Pride and Prejudice, this one and this one. I'm reading both now, which takes much longer than just reading Austen's text but the commentary is so interesting, and sometime after I finish P&P I plan to re-read War and Peace because I also received  a very beautiful illustrated edition of my favorite translation published by The Folio Society (found here)  as birthday present. 

Reading an annotated book turns out to be trickier than I expected. At first I kept getting distracted by all the information in the sidebars and was missing the joy and flow of just reading Austen. Now I'm reading a chapter or two of P&P on my Kindle, then going back to read the annotations in my books, which is working out much better. 

I didn't review but greatly enjoyed The Bellbottom Incident, the final book in Neve Maslakovic's trilogy of time traveling academics. Normally I enjoy time travel books because they bend my mind with temporal and causal paradoxes while taking me to eras I haven't experienced, but in this adventure Julia & company end up on a university campus in the 1970s, which was a blast from my own past since that's when I was going to college.

Also unreviewed by me but equally wonderful is August Folly, one of Angela Thirkell's highly entertaining Barsetshire books set in Britain during the 1930s. This one involves a collection of country families, at least 2 Jane Austen references, a summer holiday production of the Greek play Hippolytus by Euripides, and the misunderstandings of several young couples as they fall in love. 

Here are links for my reviews of Little Pretty Things, Trouble is a Friend of Mine, Run You Down, and Out on the Wire.

With snappy dialog, off-beat teen characters, and a whip-smart high-speed plot, this book took me on a wild ride that I didn’t want to end, so the only thing that disappointed me was reading the last page which made me long for a sequel. I’m not sure if one is planned, but some questions are left hanging and the story could definitely continue.

Zoe Webster’s parents have just split up, forcing her to move to a small town with her mother, though she’s always been closer to her type-A father, and leaving her feeling displaced, resentful, and bored. Trying to make inroads into her new high school’s insular social scene has been a disaster, and then neurotic, intrusive, super-smart, utterly idiosyncratic Philip Digby shows up with his crazy ideas and rash schemes and things get even worse.

It’s not that trouble follows Digby, he chases it and for some reason includes Zoe in all his plans. She could refuse--and sometimes she does or tries to--but Zoe’s got nothing else to do, she’s tired of obsessively trying to strategize her future, and besides she’s intrigued. The book opens in the middle of their story with Zoe desperately and inexplicably trying to get inside a house wired with enough explosives to level the block, then jumps to the first day of school and Zoe’s initial aggravating, unsettling encounter with tell-it-like-it-is-to-the-point-of-rudeness Digby.  

It turns out there’s some reason in Digby’s mad schemes, but we don’t find out what that is for a while. Digby has a difficult family situation and an unresolved tragedy in his past that drive his actions, which makes it sound like the book might be heavy but it’s almost absurdly funny.

A religious cult, a skeevy gynecologist, high stakes crime, and the jungle politics of high school all figure in the plot. There’s some romance, but it’s far from typical, and a crime is solved, but a mystery is left hanging. Front and center is Zoe’s maddening, enlightening relationship with Digby and their harebrained, rapidly evolving adventures. This is a debut novel--can’t wait for the next book.