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Time Thief

Ski School Sneak

I’ve been having a great time reading the ND paperbacks from the original series, but it’s kind of unfortunate that a lot of queer couple headcanons for the games wouldn’t work at all in the books. Like for example, Abby is Rose’s niece, Josiah and Richard are cousins, and Jenna tried to kill Katie.

So here are a few of my queer headcanons for the books.

89 The Case of the Disappearing Deejay – Lenny Gribble had a crush on Dan, but Lenny didn’t realize until a year or so later that it was a crush.

101 The Mystery of the Missing Millionairess – Claudia Dixon and Veronica Armand are roommates girlfriends.

108 The Secret of the Tibetan Treasure – Su-Lin Tung has a crush on Nancy.

137 In Search of the Black Rose – Tony D’Souza had a crush on Simon Coningsby.

Some people might not know these exist, so here's a link to the Storm Chaser Pete blog, for Trail of the Twister. The original intern, Pete, writes about his month with the storm chasing team before getting injured and leaving. And here's a link to Yumi's blog, which also lasts for a month, before Shadow at the Water's Edge.

I wanted to follow up with something I said in this post. I mentioned that George is more likely to get sidelined than Bess. George is actually absent almost twice as many times as Bess.

Bess is in it; George is absent

94 The Picture-Perfect Mystery 97 The Mystery at Magnolia Mansion 102 The Secret in the Dark 103 The Stranger in the Shadows 106 The Case of the Artful Crime 109 The Mystery of the Masked Rider 116 The Case of the Twin Teddy Bears (Ned replaces George) 119 The Mystery of the Missing Mascot 125 The Teen Model Mystery 144 The Email Mystery 145 The Missing Horse Mystery (Ned replaces George) 154 The Legend of the Emerald Lady (Ned replaces George) 166 The Case of the Creative Crime

George is in it; Bess is absent

I don't know how much of an unpopular opinion this is but I personally feel that in the original series of paperbacks, Bess isn't written very well at all.  And a lot of that has to do with a concerning pattern I noticed about Bess's love interests.  What often happens is:

1. Bess meets a guy and becomes enamoured with him. 2. Nancy brings up the possibility that the guy could be the culprit. 3. Bess thinks there's no way the guy could be guilty, since he's so cute. 4. The guy is indeed the culprit!

This has happened a surprising number of times, and to see her crushing on the culprits so often is just really not enjoyable to read at all, in my opinion.  It is seriously disappointing to see Bess portrayed this way, with her continuous misplaced trust in these random guys.

It makes Bess come across as a bad friend and a bad detective helper compared to George.  And I hate that she’s depicted as this superficial, oblivious, and biased character, who never learns from her mistakes, and doesn’t take Nancy’s suspicions and advice seriously.

Super Mysteries

-A Crime for Christmas -The Last Resort -New Year’s Evil -At All Costs (Thanksgiving)

Case Files

Before Christmas

-110 The Nutcracker Ballet Mystery -116 The Case of the Twin Teddy Bears -122 The Message in the Haunted Mansion -169 The Mistletoe Mystery

Winter

-103 The Stranger in the Shadows -105 The Clue in the Antique Trunk -117 Mystery on the Menu -128 The Treasure in the Royal Tower -133 The Mystery at the Crystal Palace -135 The Riddle of the Ruby Gazelle -158 The Curse of the Black Cat -163 The Clues Challenge -164 The Mystery of the Mother Wolf -175 Werewolf in a Winter Wonderland

I think modern depictions of George have really solidified her place in the queer community.  There’s a graphic novel called The Palace of Wisdom where George is canonically sapphic and has a girlfriend.  Also, in The Vanishing Statue of the Diaries, it’s apparently implied that George is sapphic.

But apart from that, I think it’s cool that it’s actually Bess who’s lesbian in that CW show.  I’d love to see more ND media where the queerness of other main characters aside from just George is explored.  Because, when I think about all the main ND characters, it’s not JUST George that I could see as being queer.

P.S. Also I checked it seems the post mention AI Generation for the upcoming Nancy Drew book is gone.