2023 Reread: Still really good, still entertaining. It contains a lot of important life lessons and human insights as well. A colourful, clever, funny, quick and enjoyable holiday read.
Everything in my original review below applies and supplies; nothing has changed.
Final Score: 4/5
Original Review:
I don't know why I had only recently become suddenly, inexplicably quite obsessed with this femme pairing. Maybe it was from seeing toys belonging to my adorable little nephew and niece, and it brought on nostalgia feels. I mean, 'Scooby-Doo' is an absolutely massive franchise, and must be a part of everybody's childhood to some degree, but it was never a big thing for me (not like 'The Simpsons', which was my obsession). I just remember it as being one in the long line of Hanna-Barbera cartoons that were always on on Saturday mornings when I was very young, and not much more. A toon megacorporation from when I was growing up, that I'm surprised to see is still very popular after several decades.
But there's something about the two leading lady detectives - Daphne Blake and Velma Dinkley, two complete opposites in personality who have undergone various incarnations since the sixties. To me, a feminist pop culture and girl power fanatic, they are enticing; delightful; enchanting.
Before reading 'The Vanishing Girl' (Daphne and Velma, #1)', for context I bought and watched several 'Scooby-Doo' animated films (my favourites are 'Zombie Island' and 'The Witch's Ghost'. Yeah, the mysteries that are the very antithesis of 'Scooby-Doo''s original premise of the supernatural being fake and that the real monsters you'll encounter in life are merely people. I don't care, they're very good films, and good animated films are my jam). I watched the 2018 live action 'Daphne & Velma' film, and I actually enjoyed it; shocking news concerning any live action adaptation of a cartoon, I know. I've also now finished reading this book's sequel, 'The Dark Deception', and in my opinion, it isn't anywhere near as good as the first. The mystery element is rubbish, obvious and incomplete, plot threads and characters are dropped and go nowhere, it's rather boring, and I swear there is queerbaiting - in a 2020 publication! YA authors, make the main leads queer - don't limit yourselves to the very, very minor characters. Why are Daphne and Velma so hung up on boys? Why ram home how straight they apparently are? Ugh, why!?
Anyway, on to the charm and modern female power of 'The Vanishing Girl':
Daphne and Velma, so different in high school social hierarchies and cliques, nonetheless compliment each other emphatically in anything they appear in. At least in this YA novel, they represent two sides of the same coin in terms of female strengths: Daphne, the slender redhead in purple and green, is the queen bee, the fashionista, the "pretty" and popular girl, who is smarter and more observant, cunning and savvy than she lets on; and Velma, the frumpy, freckled brunette in orange, is the straight-up "smart" girl, with the glasses and social awkwardness, and just wearing whatever she wants, not caring what people think of her, but still endowed with insecurities. Both of them are. They are teenagers, after all. And both are intelligent in their own way; Daphne is street-and-people-and-trends-smart, and Velma is a science geek and bookworm, for instance.
Daphne - Extrovert. Velma - Introvert.
To be frank, they complete each other. They would work as a couple, in every sense of the word.
I have to say this for Velma, too: Her entire concept says that a girl who is super smart is a good thing. Smart girls are cool. It doesn't matter what she looks like - she is to be respected, as a detective and a character in her own right. How progressive for the sixties.
In the first in a planned trilogy of YA books about the dynamic, dynamite diva duo, it is established that this is a prequel of sorts to how the Mystery Inc became official. Daphne - rich, cool and confident - and Velma - nerdy and mystery-loving child of impoverished immigrants - live in Crystal Cove, famous for its history of unsolved mysteries, hauntings and legends. The girls were best friends as children, but a heart-breaking fallout, where all sorts of complicated life busts happened for both of them, had left them bitter and mean enemies up to high school. When Daphne's fellow popular mean girl friend Marcy starts acting strange and aloof, and then disappears the day she'd meant to confess all, Daphne and Velma reunite, after many years, to try and find her. And other missing girls. More and more people are claiming to have seen a ghost haunting Crystal Cove's tourist attraction theme park, the Haunted Village.
Daphne and Velma are each going through family issues (Velma had lost her home a long time ago and is living in poverty, and her father is suffering from depression; Daphne is still processing her parents' divorce, and is refusing to emotionally let in her estranged video game designer mother, and her stepfather and younger half-sisters, etc.). But together, they are going to crack the case! Solve one mystery out of a multifold in Crystal Cove.
Shaggy, who is funny and awesome here, tags along to help out occasionally, too, along with Scooby (who, in a contemporary and "realistic" incarnation, is a relatively normal and friendly Great Dane who doesn't talk). Fred barely appears. An extra special highlight is the presence of the Hex Girls, who it turns out are valuable to the plot and not merely fanservice cameos (Thorn even has a crush on Velma!).
Major props for Velma being half-Mexican from her mother's side; it carries such significant, meaningful and relevant diversity rep in this American novel.
I won't reveal much detail about 'The Vanishing Girl', a mystery story, in my review. I don't wish to spoil anything! However, a single minutiae I will mention is the inclusion of a universal fact that men tend to avoid tampon boxes like the plague, and so this makes them perfect places for women and girls to hide anything they need to. Just one life lesson out of loads to take away from a book prominently starring Daphne and Velma from 'Scooby-Doo'!
And Velma's cat is named Jinkies. This is noteworthy to me because I love cats. No other reason.
'The Vanishing Girl (Daphne and Velma, #1)' - recommended, and not solely for nostalgic reasons. It's brilliant to see two girls, unalike yet alike in their loneliness and insecurities, in a complicated relationship, who grow and form a bond, and care deeply for one another. They work in a relationship that will help to make their community and overall society better and safer for everyone. They're a pair who exude innovation and warmth and charm. They deserve credit for their mystery solving skills.
Seriously though, I totally ship Daphne and Velma. Someone make it canon, in something, anything.
Final Score: 4/5
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