I've always been a Veronica Mars fan. The TV channels I had access to didn't air the show so I followed it on DVD boxed sets, caught up in the performances and the alien world of Neptune High and a female lead that I believed in. Later, watched the movie and was relieved that they'd let Veronica grow up and that they hadn't made a mess of it. When I heard that the series reboots this year, I decided to give the novels a try.

 

I've never read of novel-of-the-show before. I was surprised at how well it worked. Of course, that might be because I'm filling in all the blanks in the text with memories of the show but mostly I think it's because the writing is smooth and fast and carried me along.

 

The most surprising thing was the impact of Veronica being all grown up. In this story, she's investigating the disappearance of a young girl spending Spring Break at Neptune. The start of the story is high-grade neo-noir. Then it gets personal.

 

Veronica goes to the party house the girl's disappeared at and it's very clear she's a generation older than them and sees the party differently. I didn't understand this kind of partying even when I was the right age for it and it's a mystery to me now. Veronica understands it, makes no judgement on it, but stands outside of it the way she stands outside most things.

 

The main difference with grown-up Veronica (and perhaps with the novel format) is how clearly Veronica sees the girl who has gone missing and the effect of her disappearance on others. It snapped me out of slick, witty, neo-noir and into something much more human. at this rate, I'll be moving on to the second book in the series.

 

 

Fun Veronica Mars mystery that will appeal to fans of the show and the movie.  This book picks up three months after the action covered in the film (which I promptly checked out from the library and watched upon realizing the book was making references to it, and I still hadn't seen it).  The book, like the film, is set in 2014, ten years after Veronica graduated from high school.  In the interim, she has completed undergrad and a law degree from Stanford.  Although she's had a lucrative job offer with a Manhattan law firm, she's found herself drawn to her father's PI business, Mars Investigations.  And now there is a juicy case to investigate:  two girls have disappeared from a mysteriously bankrolled spring-break "party" house, and the Neptune Chamber of Commerce is eager to stop a "Nancy Grace"-style cable-TV commentator from continuing to warn parents away from allowing their college-aged children from spring-breaking in Neptune, CA.  And of course, the incompetent but politically expedient Sheriff Lamb can't be relied upon to solve the case.  So enter Veronica.

 

As a fan of the show, I of course pictured the actors who played Veronica, her father Keith, hacker friend/colleague Mac, love interest Logan Eccles, and others.  The mystery is just twisty enough to keep things interesting, and Veronica's wit and humor makes the story fun.  I suspect that even readers who didn't follow the show can enjoy this, but they might decide they want to catch up on DVD or Netflix.  It's just three seasons (sob), so go for it!  (Watch the movie, too.)

 

I am using this book to fulfill the week-five theme of my library's summer-reading program:  Genre fiction (mystery, of course).  There is a book two to this series, but the library doesn't own it (hint, hint).

The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line was an enjoyable but not spectacular continuation of Veronica Mars. I really liked that Kristen Bell was the narrator. It made listening to the audio book kind of feel like watching the TV show. This was set after the TV movie which took place 9 years after the TV show ended. I honestly miss the teenage Veronica and am not crazy about reading about her as an adult. I would like to know what would have happened next if the TV show had continued. Some fill in books for that time period would be great. I just wish that after 9 years there had been more character growth for Veronica and her friends. Why is Wallace working as a teacher/coach? What happened to Wallace's dreams of becoming an engineer? He gave up basketball for it after all. With the exception of Weevil they are 28 years old and none of them are married or even engaged. Dick Casablancas is still acting like a teenage idiot at 28. Weevil went back to the motorcycle gang for some reason that isn't explained. Keith is still not remarried. And I know I am definitely in the minority here, and will probably have people coming after me with pitchforks for saying this, but I wish that Veronica had moved on from Logan and not gone back to him. I was never a huge fan of that relationship. Multiple viewpoints like the TV show would have been nice too, especially since the book is written in third person. Overall it wasn't a bad read, just a little lack luster.

**Gonna ramble on a bit here so if you're reading, maybe watch out for SPOILERS

 

I saw Rob Thomas at the Melbourne Writer's Festival last Thurs, which was great. I loved the various tidbits and facts Rob fed us on his life, V.Mars and his other shows, Party Down and iZombie (LOVE that his wife's Kindle is full of YA books). But I also came away from it feeling so sad that Veronica Mars only got 3 seasons when it should've had 10. That this fabulous, wonderful show that I loved so much ended like that while others dragged on for far too long is a goddamn travesty (I'm looking at you, One Tree Hill).

 

So it was the lingering I-Wish-We-Could-Have-V.Mars-Back feels that prompted me to pick up Mr Kiss And Tell from the depths of my TBR pile on the Saturday and start it, completely disregarding the stack of library books I have out at the mo and others I'd vowed to read in the next couple of weeks.

 

I really enjoyed this book. I liked it a lot more than the first one, to tell you the truth. It was a lot darker and grittier due to the nature of the crime Veronica was trying to solve (brutal rape and assault of a sex worker). And even tho the mystery of whodunit was knocked out the way fairly quickly, and it became more about finding a way to nail the dude, I didn't mind. I think what I liked so much about it, (and I know I'm being awfully predictable here) was the Logan/Veronica-ness. While I ship them together and always have (always will), I can't say I fully felt it when they got back together in the movie. It felt a bit like RT was trying to please fans and didn't really think about if it made sense for it to happen.

 

Guess I got over that tho, because I didn't feel that way reading MKaT (or Thousand Dollar Tan Line, but Logan's barely in that). In fact, I really loved Logan and Veronica being together. Maybe it's because they're adults now. I was really down for them doing coupley things, like getting a dog and being all domestic and shit. I suppose when you finally get two characters that you want to be together so badly actually, you know, properly together, it really makes you happy to see them happy.

 

Rob Thomas said more books won't happen unless iZombie is cancelled because he found it too hard to work on both at the same time. Some plot lines from TDTL and the movie were wrapped up nicely, but there's also space to continue (and if there wasn't, they can go ahead and write more anyway, thank you very much).

 

Anyway. I think I'm going to start a V.Mars rewatch soon. I MISS YOU, V.MARS. SO SO SO MUCH.