About book A Ghost In The Closet: A Nancy Clue And Hardly Boys Mystery (2005)
This book is exactly what it claims to be, a parody of a certain titian detective (here called Nancy Clue) and another contemporary detective duo (here the Hardly boys). It contains ridiculous amounts of stupid adjectives, excessive alliteration and whole chapters dwelling on outfits, food and how these are great detectives BECAUSE of the way they accessorise. It's also a queer book, meaning if any couple in it is straight be VERY SUSPICIOUS because some sort of a twist is coming.The book is ridiculous, excessive and well paced for what it is with short chapters and sex scenes that are of the nudge, nudge, wink, wink variety rather than descriptive or lingering. Nancy is shallow, vain and at times inexplicably vulnerable. The Hardly boys are heroic and manly and good at arranging flowers and swooning when a handsome, muscly scientist comes past. I loved the ridiculousness (never explained) of Midge (a butch lesbian who doesn't care what she wears) being the exact double of Frank (a dapper gay man who would never leave the house with a hair out of place or anything mis-coordinated).Another pointlessly stupid (and therefore hilarious) episode was when the two girls are in the cool room for too long and their friends knock on the door. Midge answers incoherently (implying she is in the middle of going down on Velma and therefore has her mouth full). Yes it's silly and illogical. It's like written slapstick only with rainbows.If you want anything serious, don't read this. But if you want the good guys to be good, the bad guys to be bad and the heroes to insist that smoking is good for your health and LSD is a harmless additive to drinking water then read it.
Given to me by a friend as a joke. Because apparently lesbian Nancy Drew was a thing? I don't remember the original stories much. The constant descriptions of everyone's outfits are worth a laugh (until it gets annoying) and so is the hackneyed exposition. Maney doesn't quite commit to being ridiculous though - it's a queer mix of parody and sincerity. Interesting and historic in its own way (I think Maney wrote for one of the first little LGBT publishing companies), but I would probably enjoy one of those Soviet-era lesbian pulp novels more!
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