"In the twilight of a childhood full of wonder, Billy Argo, boy detective, is brokenhearted to find that his younger sister and crime-solving partn...
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Dec 26, 2010
oriana
rated it: 
I...I...I have to admit that I don't exactly know what to say here. This book was so good. So...so haunting and lush and aching and gorgeous and atmospheric and devastating and suddenly, at times, shockingly sweet and wonderful and redemptive and pure. It was.
I don't want to tell you about the plot, except to say that it provided the perfect shadowy structure on which to hang these beautiful, amazing outsider characters. And I don't want to tell you about the characters, because the More...
I don't want to tell you about the plot, except to say that it provided the perfect shadowy structure on which to hang these beautiful, amazing outsider characters. And I don't want to tell you about the characters, because the More...
15 comments
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Mar 27, 2008
Jason
rated it:
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)
So for today's review to make sense, I need to explain something to those who are reading it from outside of Chicago; that although our literary community here is a large and thriving one, with hundreds of published writers and hundreds of others who perform live on stages each week, there More...
So for today's review to make sense, I need to explain something to those who are reading it from outside of Chicago; that although our literary community here is a large and thriving one, with hundreds of published writers and hundreds of others who perform live on stages each week, there More...
6 comments
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(8 people liked it)
Jun 08, 2008
Matt
rated it: 
I gave up on this one after encountering this on page 30: 'Chapter 32.' I suppose I envisioned a story about Enyclopedia Brown in adulthood, but instead was beaten back by the prospect of 300-odd pages of arch, hollow quirkiness, one-sentence chapters, affected post-modern formatting for the sake of being cool, etc.
I should have known: on the acknowledgments page, under 'What I Listened to While Writing This Book' is listed Belle and Sebastian. Back to the library with thee!
I should have known: on the acknowledgments page, under 'What I Listened to While Writing This Book' is listed Belle and Sebastian. Back to the library with thee!
8 comments
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(5 people liked it)
Aug 23, 2007
Sam
rated it: 
I've given The Boy Detective Fails three stars. All three of them are for the characters and incidental events. None of them are for the book's main plot line.
I completely identified with Billy Argo, especially when he explained his fear of not knowing the right answer when it counts. I developed little fiction-crushes on Caroline and Penny. But for brevity, I'll focus mostly on the Mumford children. Their personalities and foibles are excellent, excellent writing. Effie's scie More...
I completely identified with Billy Argo, especially when he explained his fear of not knowing the right answer when it counts. I developed little fiction-crushes on Caroline and Penny. But for brevity, I'll focus mostly on the Mumford children. Their personalities and foibles are excellent, excellent writing. Effie's scie More...
2 comments
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(5 people liked it)
Jan 12, 2009
Imogen
rated it:
I can't believe I never wrote a review of this! This book haunts me, I swear to god. Before I read this one, Joe Meno was just this guy who wrote some sweet short stories and a popcorn book about being a teenage punker. The Boy Detective Fails, though, is some next level. Y'know? It shouldn't work- it should be precious and cloying and teenage writing excercisey, instead of maybe the best book since 2000. Which I guess probably it is.
It's a cultural moment, for starters: do kids in More...
It's a cultural moment, for starters: do kids in More...
2 comments
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(8 people liked it)
Nov 21, 2007
Brian
rated it:
I loved everything about this book. From the characters, to the surreal plot, to the very manner of writing.
The characters are absurd portrayals of mystery clichés, but rundown from the weight of the real world. Unable to cope with their surroundings, they're constantly trying to reclaim their former glory. Their attempts are short lived, feeble, and ultimately tragic.
Depending on your point of view, the plot is either beautifully integrated or maddeningly splintered. More...
The characters are absurd portrayals of mystery clichés, but rundown from the weight of the real world. Unable to cope with their surroundings, they're constantly trying to reclaim their former glory. Their attempts are short lived, feeble, and ultimately tragic.
Depending on your point of view, the plot is either beautifully integrated or maddeningly splintered. More...
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(4 people liked it)
Nov 05, 2007
Kevin
rated it:
I loved this book. It was very different from any book with which I'd ever spent time. (Making reviews intimidate me.)It had the tone of The Royal Tenenbaums, quirky Belle and Sebastian songs, and a bit of Scooby Doo mysteries. I couldn't help but have Alec Baldwin narrate the story to me in my mind. I loved how I had to abandon any norms of "standard" mystery books. The characters were endearing and lovable head cases. When the book was taking me around corners that I wasn't sure I'd
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Jan 16, 2009
Julia
rated it: 
This book has caused such a range of reviews--but I read it in one day and loved all the little elements that other reviewers found "gimmicky"--like the decoder ring that you assemble to figure out "clues" for the protagonist, the "boy detective".
Meno's concept is that Billy Argo, now 30, is the grown-up Encyclopedia Brown. He's been in a mental institution for 10 years after his beloved sister takes her own life. Released into a halfway house, he meets More...
Meno's concept is that Billy Argo, now 30, is the grown-up Encyclopedia Brown. He's been in a mental institution for 10 years after his beloved sister takes her own life. Released into a halfway house, he meets More...
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Feb 08, 2009
Trin
rated it:
Ten years after entering a mental institution in the wake of his beloved sister’s suicide, the Boy Detective attempts, reluctantly, to reenter the world. While not the magical landscape of his childhood—which played out like the Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys mysteries Meno is winking at—it’s still an odd place he finds himself in, full of child geniuses and past-their-prime criminal masterminds and buildings that simply vanish.
It’s a universe that may take the reader some getting used to, More...
It’s a universe that may take the reader some getting used to, More...
2 comments
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(2 people liked it)
Apr 22, 2008
Patrick
rated it:
Wow, this was great. It is kind of like a darker companion to "Confessions of a Teen Sleuth" by Chelsea Cain, which was a humorous account of Nancy Drew's life story, as told by her. This one is a thirty-year-old Encyclopedia Brown type named Billy Argo, just released from a decade stint in a psychiatric hospital following a breakdown after his younger sister's suicide. The tone is melancholy and surreal, almost like the comic and violent Edward Gorey, and uses subtly outdated 1950'
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(2 people liked it)
Jan 29, 2009
Jessica
rated it:
I heard this book inspired the show "The Venture Brothers" so I picked it up because of that. Yes, I know..."Nerd!" I ended up loving it from the first word. It's darker and more bittersweet than VB, but also funny and a fantastic parody of the old tv shows and mystery books we used to love as kids.
Jun 24, 2007
Jae
rated it:
I loved this! Whimsical and surreal, but never less than real, this book was still tender and heartbreaking. The Boy Detective, an Encyclopedia-Brown-like character, returns to society after a decade in a mental institution, where he went as a young man after the suicide of his assistant detective/sister. Living in a halfway house also occupied by his greatest nemesis, who's now aging and inept in his attempts to kill the Boy Detective, and working as a wig salesman by telephone, the Boy Detecti
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(1 person liked it)
Oct 29, 2007
Lesley
rated it:
I just couldn't deal with this book and I only made it about half way through. It's just too self-conscious, too cute, too gimmicky. It's got, you know, chapters containing only one sentence, and pages with all the text squeezed into the bottom righthand corner. Yeah, it comes with a decoder ring, but the content of the decoded messages, well, sucks. Boring.
This is the kind of book you might expect to end mid-sentence. I looked and it doesn't, but the final chapter is followed by an More...
This is the kind of book you might expect to end mid-sentence. I looked and it doesn't, but the final chapter is followed by an More...
Dec 17, 2009
Chris
rated it:
An excellent riff on the "boy detective" genre (Encyclopedia Brown, The Hardy Boys, Danny Dunn, etc) with an indie/emo flavor.
In a way, I wish I could give The Boy Detective Fails 3 and a half stars... it's a fun book for fans of those old YA novels, and there's a level of wistfulness that Meno invests in his characters that's a joy to read.
I don't know if this sounds ridiculous or not, but despite enjoying the novel, I didn't feel like it was very respectful to More...
In a way, I wish I could give The Boy Detective Fails 3 and a half stars... it's a fun book for fans of those old YA novels, and there's a level of wistfulness that Meno invests in his characters that's a joy to read.
I don't know if this sounds ridiculous or not, but despite enjoying the novel, I didn't feel like it was very respectful to More...
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(1 person liked it)
Jul 10, 2007
Katie
rated it:
- Oh my gosh, WONDERFUL. Simultaneously really dark and twisted (really dark and twisted) AND innocent and lighthearted... wonderful. Also simultaneously feels like something pulled out of the 1950s and the present and the far future. Also takes place in NEW JERSEY. Love it. I couldn't put it down. The author's style is playful and interesting, the characters are gorgeous, there's mystery, love, loss, mental illness... *sigh* Things all of us can relate to, right?
- There were like a doze More...
- There were like a doze More...
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Oct 24, 2011
Melee
rated it:
I really hoped this book would be wonderful. The cover and a quote I had read promised much, but I try not to raise my hopes to high. Turns out, I could have let the vague expectations I squelched roam free!
I don't know what to say about this book; my thoughts are all in a tumult. All I know is that I enjoyed it a lot. Here are some things I noted while reading:
The boy detective, Billy Argo, reminded me of Adrian Monk in parts, since things like untied shoes bothered him More...
I don't know what to say about this book; my thoughts are all in a tumult. All I know is that I enjoyed it a lot. Here are some things I noted while reading:
The boy detective, Billy Argo, reminded me of Adrian Monk in parts, since things like untied shoes bothered him More...
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(2 people liked it)
Dec 16, 2009
Bren
rated it:
Encyclopedia Brown. The Hardy Boys. Nancy Drew. The Bobbsey Twins. And... Billy Argo?
You probably don't remember Billy from your pre-teen reading days. That's because he makes his literary debut in The Boy Detective Fails, at the age of 30. Ordinarily, one would think that being 30 years of age would make it unlikely for Billy Argo to be a "boy detective," but this isn't an ordinary book about some ordinary boy. This one is "special," if you catch my drift. The a More...
You probably don't remember Billy from your pre-teen reading days. That's because he makes his literary debut in The Boy Detective Fails, at the age of 30. Ordinarily, one would think that being 30 years of age would make it unlikely for Billy Argo to be a "boy detective," but this isn't an ordinary book about some ordinary boy. This one is "special," if you catch my drift. The a More...
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(1 person liked it)
Jun 10, 2009
Danny
rated it:
I've checked out another of Meno's books, Hairstyles of the Damned, but never got around to reading it. This one was on another librarian's GoodReads list so I decided to check it out. It takes a stereotypical boy detective, though I'm not sure where the stereotype is taken from. Maybe it's just presented in an overly proper style with a brilliantly clever boy detective, accompanied by his sister and one of his friends as assistants, and it seems stereotypical. I guess it's a mix between the Har
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Dec 16, 2009
Joshua
rated it:
Best Meno yet, no doubt in my mind. Meno's got a great knack for combining the subtle and the outrageous. I can definitely relate to the Tenenbaums comparisons--it has that same feel, only creepier. I also kept thinking of Kelly Link's story The Girl Detective (also excellent), an obvious connection maybe, but one that I'd say goes far beyond the titles.
Pssst! There's also a decoder ring you can cut out and assemble... AND a secret adventure hidden within the book!
Pssst! There's also a decoder ring you can cut out and assemble... AND a secret adventure hidden within the book!
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(1 person liked it)
Jun 13, 2009
Lloyd
rated it:
This was recommended to me because I'm a fan of "The Venture Bros." TV show, and I can see why. However, while the novel's world is one where stand-ins for Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and Scooby Doo style villains exist, it doesn't exhibit the same kind of humor. It is, at turns, a dark and introspective book, while also exhibiting a less graphic absurdism found in a Chuck Palahniuk story. Not being familiar with Joe Meno I don't know if his fairly simplistic use of language is just
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Nov 27, 2008
Brandy
rated it:
When Encyclopedia Brown grows up, what kind of damage is he going to have? Particularly if he was able to solve every case he came across, except the mystery of why his sister killed herself? Boy Detective Billy is in that exact position: while he was in college, his partner-in-crime-solving sister Caroline committed suicide, his parents won't talk about it, and Billy has no idea what to do. Ten years later, he's fresh out of the psychiatric hospital and his life is still awash in mysteries--b
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Dec 26, 2011
Anika
rated it:
What a sweet, sad, peculiar little book. I was going to give it only three stars, because it's so melancholy and dreamlike it doesn't quite endear you right away, but I'm pretty sure that I will still be thinking about it in the weeks to come, so I gave it another star. It packs a wallop, this one, and I'm not really sure how to even begin to describe it. The ostensible plot, about an ex-boy detective who comes back to his town as an adult after spending years in a mental institution following
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Sep 26, 2008
Nick
rated it:
This book is beautifully heartbreaking. Conjurs nostalgia that may not exist. The reader is faced with the realities of growing up; be it gracefully, or wistful for those moments that we wish we could carefully place in a shoebox, hiding it in our bedroom closets, only taking it out secretly when alone. This, by far, is Meno's best work. Inventive and original, will make any adult pine for long summer days and the vanishing shadows of childhood.
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Jul 20, 2007
laura
rated it:
What I loved about the book was the actual book....the size, heft, and look of it was wonderful. Anyone else ever fall in love with an actual book and not the writing?
The story, all about a boy detective who grows to be an adult, was so so....It did deal convincingly with the uncertainty and fear that engulfs us as we age. I certainly don't have the derring do of childhood anymore. But the story was a bit too weird at times for me....
The story, all about a boy detective who grows to be an adult, was so so....It did deal convincingly with the uncertainty and fear that engulfs us as we age. I certainly don't have the derring do of childhood anymore. But the story was a bit too weird at times for me....
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Dec 26, 2010
Kyle
rated it:
It is introduced like a simply Hardy boys or Encyclopedia Brown novel with simple characters, but quickly takes a turn for the dark, quirky and somehow humorous novel. We follow around a 30 year old, used-to-be boy detective in a world where all the evil doers have grown up. He is struggling with the past, trying to make sense of the present. It’s a cruel world and the boy detective is alone.
What do people think of the boy detective?
The mailman: very polite.
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What do people think of the boy detective?
The mailman: very polite.
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Nov 23, 2009
ayrdaomei
rated it: 
In my childhood, I was a great fan of the Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and Encyclopedia Brown books. As such, the premise of this book grabbed my attention right away - a young man who solved mysteries with his sister as a child spends 10 years in a mental hospital after she commits suicide while he's away at college. Upon his release, he returns to his hometown and tries to establish a new life for himself, but he is haunted by his sister's unexplained actions.
The Boy Detective is a st More...
The Boy Detective is a st More...
Jan 06, 2011
Jasmine
rated it:
It is embarrassing to admit, but chapters one through thirty have been stolen. We truly apologize for this.
There is something really special about joe meno. The first time I read him I read his short story book, you know the one with the really great cover.
And I liked it, but it felt light. I brushed this off as being because they were short stories, I figure, yeah they were likable but you can't really do anything special with a short story (now More...
There is something really special about joe meno. The first time I read him I read his short story book, you know the one with the really great cover.
And I liked it, but it felt light. I brushed this off as being because they were short stories, I figure, yeah they were likable but you can't really do anything special with a short story (now More...
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Mar 27, 2010
Christy
rated it:
One day I may write a survey of the use of comic book and mystery novel conventions in contemporary fiction. It is kind of amazing to me how many writers are doing this today.
Meno imagines what might happen when a boy detective grows up. The crimes Billy solves in his youth belong in an episode of Scooby Doo. In his adulthood, the villains are of the uber-nefarious, comic-book stripe, but the ultimate mysteries for Billy are how to comprehend his sister's death and how to relinquis More...
Meno imagines what might happen when a boy detective grows up. The crimes Billy solves in his youth belong in an episode of Scooby Doo. In his adulthood, the villains are of the uber-nefarious, comic-book stripe, but the ultimate mysteries for Billy are how to comprehend his sister's death and how to relinquis More...
Jan 16, 2009
LadyM
rated it:
It's been so long since I've read a book that I seriously couldn’t put down! Meno borrows from several literary traditions to create an unconventional detective story set in a fantastical world, where buildings randomly disappear and the new kid in school is bald and has pink skin. Though the characterisation and narrative structure are sparse, the minimal descriptions and charming dialogue make you fall in love with Billy (the boy detective) and his eccentric group of friends (who include two s
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Nov 23, 2008
Elizabeth
rated it:
Really, this is more like a three and a half. Meno tells a great melancholy tale with a clever twist on the detective story. However, the style falters occasionally and there are some details that feel as though they should tie in and never do. One of my favorite things is to follow artists and watch them grow and improve. I believe Joe Meno has the potential to author some really interesting books so I look forward to tighter stories in the future. I also enjoyed The Boy Detective Fails as
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