Ghosts and Ghouls beware!
The Smallest, shabbiest, most talented
phychic detection agency is back.
There are strange things happening at one of London's biggest cemeteries. A sinister coffin has been opened and a terrible phantom set free.
When Lockwood & Co. investigate, they discover a dangerous relic has been stolen - and it's a race against time before its full power is unleashed...
This is the second book in the Lockwood & Co series and takes place seven months after the first, which I was surprised by considering they is a limited time where they will be able to fight ghosts.
Okay, Lucy becomes real unlikable right at the start of the book with the amount of girl hate she has, this was in the first book, but it's worst in this one: on page 20 she says this about a "She was Blonde, slim and pouty, which would have given me three reasons to dislike her even if she'd been a sweet lass who spent her free time tending poorly hedgehogs." So Lucy doesn't like stereotypical good looking girls, though "She was good-looking, though her jaw was a bit too sharp. If she’d repeatedly fallen over while crossing soft ground, you could have sewn a crop of beans in the chin-holes she left behind." Now this isn't the only description that Lucy gives about someone of her gender: "I also noted a posse of teenage girls, whose shapeless floaty dresses, black eyeliner, outsize bangles and lank armpit-length hair marked them out as Sensitives, Sensitives do psychic work, but refuse to ever actually fight ghosts for pacifist principle. They generally as dippy as summer cold and as irritating as nettle rash. We don't normally get on."
I have issues with the idea of the Sensitives as well, but this tops it off for me: "You miss'- he turned to the Senstive - 'you've clearly had a terrible experience. Are you able to tell me about it?'
This was classic Lockwood. Friendly, considerate, empathetic. My personal impulse would have been to slap the girl soundly around the face and boot her moaning backside out into the night. Which is why he's the leader, and I'm not. Also why I have no female friends". So you're saying all girls are like this. Is Lucy not a girl? I'm mean she could be Trans Boy and not realised, but I don't think that where this series is going. Still hella sexist either way.
You can be a tom-boy without hating on other girls. The thing is Stroud is not a woman, therefore it's not him accidentality giving a character the same trait he has, I guess he could hate stereotypical pretty feminine girls, which if so he should work on that. This is him choosing for Lucy to be against her own gender. This is kinda Society is bullshit where girls are encouraged abandoned feminine quality to fit in with boys, instead of just liking what you like. Everyone is socialised to dislike stereotypical feminine qualities, it's bullshit but it's also hella damaging because it's leads to people denying who they are. So not great for children to be reading.
Also this book is aimed at children, where they not at a stage necessary to question Society's bullshit and I think Lucy is meant to be relatable with this trait, instead of it being a major character flaw. This is the second book and it's only reinforced instead of questioned. Also they no other girl character to really go against this trait. There is no Buffy or Phryne Fisher. You can be a girly girl, nice and a bad arse. There are other female characters introduced, one is her own issue and the other is an adult that's being set up for future books. The main thing is it's not fun to read about a character who hates her own gender. Sexism isn't fun.
While on the Sexist aspect of the book, The Senstives are only presented as girls, and never mentioned again in the book that introduces the idea of them. Literally, just there for Lucy to hate on. The idea that makes them bad as idea is that they don't fight ghost but still help with the destroying of the sources and if they were pacifist they probably see this as helping to kill ghosts. Maybe they see it as them just warning living people of danger, for money. But they presented as girls that don't want to fight. If there was boy Senstives that were introduced with them, then this wouldn't be as much of a problem or even if at any time was spent with them besides this one conversation then we could have something. I guess they could appear in future books but introductions are everything. The idea of Senstives could be interesting, because the lack of information on ghosts and pre-problem ideas would suggest that not all ghosts are bad. Just some ghost want to attack you because they are dicks. Though, all ghosts can kill you in this world so it still seems kinda dumb. We're see.
I really don't like Lucy now. I know she's in her early teens so a dick as a rule, but she especially one with her girl hate and general attitude. The other characters are the same as the first book, there's more of an effect to explore how they work as term now that they've been together for a year. It works well for the plot. Except even I still don't like Cubbins, even with my dislike for Lucy and Lockwood feels like a plot point more than a person. I guess I wouldn't recommend this series for the characters.
This book is more quicker to start going somewhere than the first, which is good, a mystery with a deadline and a race aspect, though didn't have a lot of tension for me. Perhaps if I was more invested in Lockwood & Co. except they are the underdog.I figure out the mystery aspect half way through, but it not stupidly obvious. Still more complicated than some of the adult thrillers I've read. It also has dark magic and cults, digging up bodies in a graveyard so it's good.
I still like this world and want to know what's going on, outweighing the characters. The ghosts are interesting, with horrifying descriptions without just being gore galore with no rhythm or reason. This book felt more now, with alternative tech due to what went down. I'm waiting to know what happened to founding members of the agency because it's only been 50 years and they lived to have children so.. but I guess they're dead.
Overall, I give this book 3/5 stars for Smart Skulls. I like the world and the story, the characters are lacking. The thing is this is a kids books and I would hesitate to give this to a child, I would have to give them a lecture about how feminine quality are not bad and that girls that say they have no girl friends tend to be the issue and not the other girls. Girls are cool. These books are clearly aimed at boys, going off the covers, so I was down for tricking them into reading a book with bad arse female protagonist as the narrator, except she not a bad arse, she's a sexist loser. Thanks, Stroud. It's just really disappointing. I will be reading the sequel, hopefully, we'll get some character growth so Lucy stops being such a loser.
Quotes
Page 20, "Kat Godwin, Kippe's right-hand operative, was a listener like me, but that was about all we had in common. She was Blonde, slim and pouty, which would have given me three reasons to dislike her even if she'd been a sweet lass who spent her free time tending poorly hedgehogs."
Page 21, "She was good-looking, though her jaw was a bit too sharp. If she’d repeatedly fallen over while crossing soft ground, you could have sewn a crop of beans in the chin-holes she left behind."
Page 79, "I also noted a posse of teenage girls, whose shapeless floaty dresses, black eyeliner, outsize bangles and lank armpit-length hair marked them out as Sensitives, Sensitives do psychic work, but refuse to ever actually fight ghosts for pacifist principle. They generally as dippy as summer cold and as irritating as nettle rash. We don't normally get on."
Page 80, "With a clatter of bangles, the floatiest and wettest-looking of the Sensitives stepped forward. 'Mr Sanders! Miranda, Tricia and I refuse to work in any sector near that grave until it's been made safe! I wish to make that clear.'"
"'You miss'- he turned to the Sensitive - 'you've clearly had a terrible experience. Are you able to tell me about it?
This was classic Lockwood. Friendly, considerate, empathetic. My personal impulse would have been to slap the girl soundly around the face and boot her moaning backside out into the night. Which is why he's the leader, and I'm not. Also why I have no female friends."-Sexist to presume all girls are like that, are you like that Lucy.
Page 111, "Problem is: you're stupid, Lucy."
Page 198, "There was a curiously feminine quality to his eyes and mouth that sat oddly with his hirsute frame."
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