Bayou Bytes Blog

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero Cantero's  Meddling Kids  is an obvious but decidedly off brand take on Scooby-Doo. He uses the familiar dynamic of four kids and a dog who fight crime as a foundation for a whole new story. The group spent their childhood summers in Blyton Hills, a sleepy mining town, catching elaborate and incompetent criminals. It was always a man in a ridiculous monster mask. Until it wasn't. Here the similarities to Scooby-Doo end. In the summer of 1977, the kids got in over their heads. They managed to pull a mask off another criminal and send him to jail, but they've suffered severe psychological repercussions from that last fateful case. Now it’s 1990 and the kids are all grown up. Kerri (Velma), got a degree in biology before her anxieties got to her. Now she bartends and is plagued by constant nightmares of that night. Andy is our Daphne, who joined the air force before ending up in and subsequent...

Your Fathers, Where are They?  And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever?  by Dave Eggers Stop me if you've heard this before: a man wakes up in a room he can't leave. How'd he get there? Why is he there? And who put him there? This man is a Kev, a NASA engineer, and he wakes up to find himself chained to a post. Thomas is his captor, but Thomas never wanted to be his captor. Thomas just wants to talk. They share some history, and although Kev doesn't really recall Thomas, Thomas needs Kev to remember. You and I read the same books and hear the same sermons and we come away with different messages. That has to be evidence of some serious problem, right? Dave Eggers's little-known novel (somehow at 225 pages) strips away everything but dialogue: this is a story about communication, and the desperate lengths one man will go in order to understand his place in the world. It's about a breakdown, and it's about breaking down barriers... -so c...

Legendary by Stephanie Garber Legendary is the second installment in the Caraval series. If you plan on reading this book I highly recommend you read the first one (my review on it here). The first book was a delightful glass of something sweet but not quite thirst quenching. This one however, isn’t as enjoyable as the last one was. It takes off where the last book ended, and its time for another game of Caraval. This time it's being hosted in the city of Valenda as a celebration of Elantine's day. This holiday is a celebration of Empress Elantine's birthday, so people from all over are sure to attend the festivities and enjoy the game of Caraval. Scarlett decides once again to join the fray, but this book follows the adventures of Tella instead. I can appreciate the author wanting to focus on another character, but this is one of the reasons I am not such a fan of this book. I relate to Scarlett a lot so maybe I am biased when I say that following he...