Bonfire Masquerade- #5 NDGD/HBUB Supermystery book

[MacGyver]

Well, that's encouraging to hear. Maybe the ghostwriters are trying to beef up the action in response to fan complaints...

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

Well, that's encouraging to hear. Maybe the ghostwriters are trying to beef up the action in response to fan complaints...

It's about time they did!

[tomswift2002]

Well I didn't give it an 8.5 or 9 or even a 10, because I found that while the story was good, and felt like an old Hardy Boys book, the book was too short, and I thought that the author could've easily added more detail into it.  It wasn't so rushed that it hurt the story, but still it was rushed and you know when I think back to the SuperMystery'88 series, those books were about 80 pages or more longer than any of the books in the Hardy Boys Casefiles/Nancy Drew Files series  (the average Casefiles book had an average page length of 160 pages, whereas the average SuperMystery'88 book had between 220 and 240).  Plus, I found the author just left a very big thread dangling loose and did absolutely nothing to tie it up.  When Andrew got choked unconcious, the author hurriedly sent him and the boys to the hospital where there was an attorney from Andrew's family to say that the boys and Nancy had a restraining order and then just had them leave, with no mention later of what became of Andrew.

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

Do they swear in this one?

[Bigfootman]

Do they swear in this one?

No, but according to an amazon review, on page 13 Bess actually says "OMG". However, I'm not sure wither this is true or not. I do have the book, but I haven't read it yet.

One thing about the book I already have a problem with is it's length. Why is it so short? If they are going to make them shorter, then they at least should publish two of them per year. Because I waited a whole year for this book, and it turns out to be only 160 pages. The first two books were long, then the number of pages start to decrease! If the supermysteries are going to be the same length as the UBs and GDs, then there's no excuse for making us wait a whole year for them.

[MacGyver]

No, but according to an amazon review, on page 13 Bess actually says "OMG". However, I'm not sure wither this is true or not. I do have the book, but I haven't read it yet.

I've got the book at home- I can check this later... but I really wish they wouldn't have the characters even using phrases like that- whether spelled out or not, it's still taking God's name in vain.  [Unless she was supposed to be saying "Oh my goodness"- which, granted, is still a euphemism, but I'd at least feel better about that...]

[SDLagent]

Yeah, you'd think they'd make the books a bit longer since they only come out once a year. I believe that this is actually the first Hardy Boys series to only come out once a year since the Original series (not counting short-lived series like the Undercover Brothers Super Mystery..

[Bigfootman]

I've got the book at home- I can check this later... but I really wish they wouldn't have the characters even using phrases like that- whether spelled out or not, it's still taking God's name in vain.  [Unless she was supposed to be saying "Oh my goodness"- which, granted, is still a euphemism, but I'd at least feel better about that...]

I checked page 13, and its not there, maybe its on another page. I hope not, because if Bess is using net speak then the series has seriously jumped the shark.

[MacGyver]

I checked page 13, and its not there, maybe its on another page. I hope not, because if Bess is using net speak then the series has seriously jumped the shark.

Yeah- that's the other reason I'm upset about that... The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew have always been portrayed as intelligent and I would hope their speech would continue to reflect that...

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

Yeah- that's the other reason I'm upset about that... The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew have always been portrayed as intelligent and I would hope their speech would continue to reflect that...

I hope they don't say "what the h***." again. It was rather embarrassing when my mom saw that they said that.

[Olivia]

I've read the first half of this book so far, and I have to say I'm kind of impressed. It's actually interesting, has decent action, and it made me LOL a couple of times at the situations that Frank and Joe got in. The style of writing flows.

[MacGyver]

Maybe that particular series is improving then... it would be kinda weird if that one continued while both its parent series died out though...

[SDLagent]

Maybe that particular series is improving then... it would be kinda weird if that one continued while both its parent series died out though...

Maybe. In the UB continuity there has been the odd good book but it's almost never been followed by another good one.

[JoeHardyRocks]

Sadly, still haven't read this one

[tomswift2002]

I still haven't finished #4"Gold Medal Murder" or UB #18 "Pushed" because they were so boring that they were disgusting.  But "the Bonfire Masquerade" was a better story.