Drawing a Blank: Or How I Tried to Solve a Mystery, End a Feud, and Land the Girl of My Dreams

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Drawing a Blank: Or How I Tried to Solve a Mystery, End a Feud, and Land the Girl of My Dreams

by Daniel Ehrenhaft

3.67 · rating details · 95 ratings · 27 reviews

I don't know how this happened

One day I'm snug in my loner existence at Carnegie Mansion School, and the next I'm tramping through the Scottish wilderness looking for my dad. Who's been kidnapped. Because of a feud that started in medieval times. Or something. Suffice it to say, I never paid too much attention because I thought the whole thing was some twisted figment o

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Hardcover, 327 pages

Published May 1st 2006 by HarperCollins Publishers (first published 2006)

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May 04, 2008

Jennifer Wardrip rated it

Shelves: trt-posted-reviews

Reviewed by Carrie Spellman for TeensReadToo.com

How does one describe Carlton Dunne IV? Here's how I think he would describe himself:

*Comic book geek
*Trust fund kid
*Loner
*Incapable of being attentive or focused
*Afraid of people
*VERY afraid of female people
*Non-adventurous
*Offspring of a nutcase

Unfortunately, his dad might not be crazy. Carlton's grown up hearing about some ridiculous, centuries-old feud ...more

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Nov 16, 2011

Shelley Borysiewicz rated it

Shelves: art-of-the-book, ya, hybrid

How can this book’s beginning not suck you in? “Just so you know, this book is about how my life went completely berserk. One day I’m snug in my comic-book drawing, loner existence, and the next I’m tramping through the wilderness looking for my dad. Who’s been kidnapped. Because of an ancient family feud I always thought was a twisted figment of his imagination…Now my only company is a wannabe cop who just might be my superhero dream girl. And if I don’t deliver some kind of mysterious “proof” ...more

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Mar 10, 2010

Brandon rated it

Drawing A Blank, or How I Tried to Solve a Mystery And Land The Girl Of My Dreams is a fantastic novel. Many factors in this book such as the humour, the likeable characters, the suspense and action and the realism are very appealing to teenagers looking for a fun and enjoyable read.
The main thing I look for in a book is a humourous and action-packed storyline with an easy-to-follow story. This book has it all, and a lot of it. Throughout the book there are many humourous footnotes at...moreDrawing A Blank, or How I Tried to Solve a Mystery And Land The Girl Of My Dreams is a fantastic novel. Many factors in this book such as the humour, the likeable characters, the suspense and action and the realism are very appealing to teenagers looking for a fun and enjoyable read.
The main thing I look for in a book is a humourous and action-packed storyline with an easy-to-follow story. This book has it all, and a lot of it. Throughout the book there are many humourous footnotes at the end of pages giving descriptions of terms or time periods or situations that are supposed to help you understand certain parts of the book. For example, “I’m not sure why the robots in the Magnus, Robot Fighter, 4000 A.D. comics speak without using ‘the’ or ‘a’ or ‘an’- or why other rules of grammar managed to fall by the wayside. Then again, it was created by a bunch of weirdos in the early 1960s that seemed to take great pleasure in truncating not only the human language but also the human body. Every single human being in that series is drawn top-heavy with massive torsos and stumpy legs, like a gorilla. Even women” (Ehrenhaft 107). To be able to learn about something and enjoy it is really engaging.
This book features many drawings, drawn by the main character, Carlton Dunne IV that are supposed to give you an accurate summarization of the events that have just taken place. This helps you in the comprehension of the more complex parts of the novel and makes it interesting because it is something unique that you haven’t seen before.
The only thing in this novel that I found to be annoying was the really short chapters. Most chapters only last for a few pages and these quick chapters are really redundant and annoying, especially after the hundredth time of ending on a cliff hanger.
The most satisfying part of this novel was the character development. We start off with Carlton the misanthropist, the loser and geek. As he embarks on his journey to Scotland to save his father his character undergoes extraordinarily noticeable development, which I appreciated. It’s good to see a character develop from loser to champion, especially the underdogs. “I knew that for once, my Enemy Within and I had an understanding. We weren’t at odds. We’d made peace, the way all real comic book heroes do with themselves. I’d lost Annabel forever, but I’d lived. She’d given me something. She’d finally given me that key to the mental prison. She was the only one who could” (Ehrenhaft 312).
I recommend Drawing a Blank to people that aren’t serious readers, but are just looking for a book to pick up, read and have a laugh about. Also, comic book fans will no doubt be thankful for this novel by Daniel Ehrenhaft. It is an excellent book.
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Mar 09, 2010

Matthew rated it

Recommends it for: teens, anyone looking for a light and humorous book

Drawing a Blank is written in such a way that it can appeal to a wide range of readers. The book has plenty of humour that has kept me more attracted to the novel than any other (I mean, one chapter starts with “B-U-U-U-R-P!”). It doesn’t just stop at that though; much of the parts where someone speaks in a heavy Scottish accent have the language warped into a form of “as it sounds” (for example, “Bring the pr-r-rue-ef to Edinbur-r-gh. Aweet instrookshin. You ‘ave fourty-eight hours. Oor ya dad ...more

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Nov 02, 2009

Daniel c rated it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The book “Drawing a Blank Or How I Tried To Solve A Mystery, End A Feud, and Land The Girl Of My Dreams”, is about the main character a teenager Carlton Dunne how he had to over come difficulties to achieve his final goals. While reading this novel before sleep, I find it really hard to control my laughter to a degree that doesn’t wake up my parents. Funny is good and always hard to find in the young adults section of the library. In this book paragraphs are filed with hilarious quotes and sente...moreThe book “Drawing a Blank Or How I Tried To Solve A Mystery, End A Feud, and Land The Girl Of My Dreams”, is about the main character a teenager Carlton Dunne how he had to over come difficulties to achieve his final goals. While reading this novel before sleep, I find it really hard to control my laughter to a degree that doesn’t wake up my parents. Funny is good and always hard to find in the young adults section of the library. In this book paragraphs are filed with hilarious quotes and sentences like the telephone conversation between Carlton Dune and his soon-to-be-editor Roger Lovejoy, the talk ends with Roger saying: “Pitch? Who says “pitch”? Or “weekends”? A teenage dork?” And Carlton faking: “ No, a forty-eight year old architect and graphic novelist.” The reader can just imagine an over weight, bald editor chewing on a kid that had to fake his identity to be a comic artist. Another huge chunk of laughter I received from this book was the comic strips at the beginning of most chapters; it serves the purpose of summarizing the paragraph from before. The characters from the comic strips are funky, funny, and some times even adorable especially “Signey the superbad”. The dialog between the characters is charming, breath taking, and entertaining. However this book does have its faults, readers will like become tiresome after reading the book’s extremely short chapters, like chapter 77, which only has a total of 4 lines. From this the reader can see that perhaps Daniel Ehrenhaft was running out of material to write about, which forced him to take up more space through out the book. This leads to my next complaint about this book, some of the storyline are merely add-ons from an after thought, which leave the reader hanging; to demonstrate my point, when the heroine comes to visit Carlton at the finale of the story, she reveals that she had found the dagger, because she was the only person in Scotland that knew how to scuba dive. Which is obviously false, it sounded like Ehrenhaft had difficulties giving an ending where like all story the hero and heroine become a couple. In conclusion to this review, I think that this book is a borrow, not a buy. Because of its charming characters and interesting dialogues, however what kept it from me rating it a buy is that the material in this book was fairly unorganized.(less)

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Apr 21, 2009

073777658 rated it

Drawing a Blank is a great book for many people especially teenagers. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a fun and casual read. This book also fits nicely on any shelf that is looking for a fun read. This story is a very touching and heartwarming, but it also has a twist of mystery. There is also a love story behind all the chaos.
Many things happen in the story that appeals to me in different ways. Carlton Dunne IV is the protagonist. He also is very comical in different wa...more

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Oct 28, 2010

Jacob De rated it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Jacob De Rose
Drawing a Blank or How I Tried to Solve a Mystery, End a Feud, and Land the Girl of My Dreams was surprisingly captivating, despite the cheesy comic book drawings on the cover page. I began to read the book, and I was hooked by the end of the first chapter. The narrators tone was humorous, and it seemed so natural, as if I was being told this story from a real kid talking. The development of the protagonist, Carlton Dunne IV, built up so nicely and this journey he went on ch...moreJacob De Rose
Drawing a Blank or How I Tried to Solve a Mystery, End a Feud, and Land the Girl of My Dreams was surprisingly captivating, despite the cheesy comic book drawings on the cover page. I began to read the book, and I was hooked by the end of the first chapter. The narrators tone was humorous, and it seemed so natural, as if I was being told this story from a real kid talking. The development of the protagonist, Carlton Dunne IV, built up so nicely and this journey he went on changed his life situation so drastically, which made me want to keep reading constantly. Carlton is an odd fellow, but it makes sense given the fact that his dad has been rambling about a feud that occurred hundreds of years ago, he was sent to live in a preppy boarding school, and draws comics about his strange fantasies of a curvaceous Viking warrior girl, which he submits to the local newspaper under his fathers name.
I finished it in 3 days and I haven’t read a book before this one since last year! The short chapters, that averaged around 3 to 4 pages each created an almost constant feeling of suspense and wonder. It felt like something new was happening every few pages and this tactic used by author Daniel Ehrenhaft seems so original and doesn’t allow any of the chapters to drag along, which makes me very uninterested when reading a book. The occasional comic strips were also very intriguing, and helped get a better view of Carlton’s creative side and they also vaguely relate to the story line.
One of the themes I found that was very powerful in this story was Carlton’s evolution into manhood, and the extermination of his misanthropic lifestyle. Because I am around his age, and I feel as if I am currently on a journey to finding out who I am and making my way up to manhood, just as Carlton has done. The only difference is I’m not flying over to Scotland, rescuing my father and hooking up with the daughter of the man who has my dad locked in a cage, waiting to kill him and myself.
The detail in the text was quite elaborate and allowed me to visualize the characters and various settings such as the prep-school Carlton attends and the rolling hills and green fields of Scotland. I would recommend this book mostly for comic book loving teenage boys, because of the comic strips in the middle, and the fact that this whole story could probably be drawn out and summed up in a giant comic strip. Although this is the case, I believe Drawing a Blank has the potential for anyone to really enjoy reading it.
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Jan 11, 2011

Lana. rated it

Recommends it for: Young Adult readers looking for a fun read

Shelves: fiction, funny-ha-ha, young-adult

Carlton Dunne (the fourth) is not cocky. He is, however, hilariously awkward. Seventeen years old and banished to a boarding school, Carlton's goal is to coast through the rest of the school year without making too many waves (despite being bullied and an overly wandering attention span). The only place he feels comfortable are the pages of his sketchbook.

His life "goes bezerk" when his family's (until then, only considered an product of his father's imagination) clan ...more

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May 24, 2011

Angie rated it

it looked interesting on the cover (and, of course, the title), so i wondered why it hadn't checked out of the library in over a year. after reading it, i can kinda see why. its an interesting concept, interspersing a fantasy world comic strip with a real world life, but it just didn't fly. and i really dont think the comic strip artist is all that good--at all. remember, that's my personal opinion, but the pics look so half-assed and rather juvenile. i think that's actually a style of CS drawin...more

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Jan 02, 2010

Brad Busching rated it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 04, 2009

Emma rated it

Drawing a Blank or How I Tried to Solve a Mystery, End a Feud, and Land the Girl of My Dreams has a lot going for it. In addition to having a very straightforward, no holds barred, title Drawing a Blank also includes illustrations by Trevor Ristow.

More surprising (to me) was that I was already familiar with the book's author, Daniel Ehrenhaft. In 2002 Ehrenhaft, writing under the pseudonym Daniel Parker, published the Wessex Papers trilogy. The three books (Trust Falls, Fallout, Outs...moreDrawing a Blank or How I Tried to Solve a Mystery, End a Feud, and Land the Girl of My Dreams has a lot going for it. In addition to having a very straightforward, no holds barred, title Drawing a Blank also includes illustrations by Trevor Ristow.

More surprising (to me) was that I was already familiar with the book's author, Daniel Ehrenhaft. In 2002 Ehrenhaft, writing under the pseudonym Daniel Parker, published the Wessex Papers trilogy. The three books (Trust Falls, Fallout, Outsmart) won the Edgar Award in 2003 for Best Young Adult Mystery. I didn't know any of that while reading the Wessex Papers (or this book), but am inclined to agree with the hype. Like the Wessex Papers the writing here is smart both in the sense that it is clever and that it leaves readers thinking.

The story (as the full title explains) follows Carlton Dunne IV as he tries to rescue his father who is embroiled in an age-old family feud with another Scottish clan. In the process, Carlton runs away from his boarding school, visits the comic con from hell, meets a crazy girl who wants to be on "Cops" and continues working on his comic strip that runs in a local paper (thus the illustrations and the comic con debacle). As you might have guessed, Carlton wears many hats.

Carlton is also a really fun character, likably neurotic he brings to mind the protagonist of the Wessex Papers. A fact that makes sense when you realize the novels were written by the same person.

Although the book is a significant length, the chapters are short--averaging about three pages at a run. This is good because you can read them quickly. On the other hand, Ehrenhaft's preference to end chapters on a cliff hanger becomes redundant after the eightieth time.

The story takes a while to get to the action, a fact Carlton himself acknowledges early on in a note at the front of the book. The time, however, is well-spent introducing memorable characters and explaining Carlton's personal history. Most of the book understandably takes place in Scotland, but the scenes at Carnegie Mansion--Carlton's boarding school--are a lot of fun even if they do more to set up the plot than actively set it in motion.

I'd recommend Drawing a Blank for reluctant readers who don't read for lack of interest (even though the chapters are short with a fairly large font, the presence of footnotes and an involved plot might be daunting for readers who might read below level). Although this book is a bit more zany than any of the Wessex Papers, I'd also recommend it for fans of that series.
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Oct 13, 2010

Stevecrandell rated it

Shelves: humor, mystery, grades-7-and-up

This is not quite a graphic novel, and far from a serious mystery. But as long as you can accept the silliness, this is a very well-crafted story. The dozen-or-so graphic sections are some of the best parts of the book: quick, exaggerated, and drowning in ridiculous melodrama. Because the adventure is so outlandish, I didn't really mind the fact that the final stages get especially hard to believe. It makes sense that this is Ehrenhaft's twisted vision of fate.

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Jul 25, 2011

Tori added it

2009- After just reading a great book about a boy who loves to draw (...True Diary of a Part-Time Indian) this one was just okay. I felt it could have been much shorter, and some of the plot twists were really obvious. However, I still think middle and high school boys might like it.

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Oct 16, 2008

TheSaint rated it

Shelves: ya

Carlton Dunne IV is a closet cartoonist, er, graphic novelist. And as such is a geek-bashing magnet. His father is no particular help, being an eccentric architect fixated on: 1) Bentham's Panopticon and 2) a centuries-long blood-feud between the Dunnes and the Forbas. So, when Carlton III is actually kidnapped and spirited off to Scotland, Carlton IV has no choice but to effect a rescue. Along the way, Carlton IV gets some "help" from a lovely Scottish lass, named Aileen, or is it Ann...more

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Jun 15, 2011

Rhiannon rated it

Shelves: great

It's about a guy who runs away from boarding school, to go to Scotland. His dad is obsessed with this non-existent feud. Then he learns it's real. His dad gets kidnapped (to Scotland). He goes and rescues his dad

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Aug 30, 2011

Raina rated it

Shelves: funny, not-amerika, ya

Totally goofy, boy book. Yeah, there's some sexism here, but this was one of my first forays into YA humor after getting into youth librarianship, and I remember this as a fun ride.

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May 21, 2009

Elle rated it

I liked this book, but I only gave it three stars because I thought that the scottish stuff was a little hard to understand, and I didn't like the ending.

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May 01, 2008

Misti rated it

Shelves: fantasy, mystery, romance

This book was an interesting foray into trying something new. I don't even remember which section of the store I found it in. Maybe the children's section. It was definitely written with a younger audience in mind. While the plot could have been more interesting, and was certainly predictable, the writing style was well-executed and full of fun and flair. Unfortunately, I didn't much care for the main character who ended up coming off as misogynistic rather than shy, and the main female characte...more

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Mar 25, 2011

Albert rated it

Amazing book, I love how the girls British. Very conspiratorial.

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Oct 08, 2009

Jessy rated it

pointless.

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Aug 15, 2008

Brandy marked it as abandoned

Shelves: for-work

One I was skimming for potential inclusion on my mysteries booklist. I got halfway through and decided not to bother with the second half. The writing is juvenile, the comic is terrible, and the main character reminds me of the kid who followed you around school because he thought you were friends but really you just wanted to punch him.

This may find an audience, but it hasn't at my library, and now I know why.

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Jan 24, 2009

Mike rated it

I am not rating this because I can't quite figure out how to remove it from my book list.
I'm the wrong age group for this book and it just seemed immature. I've read better books in the "Young Adult" and even "Kids" categories, this seemed to be talking down a bit to the reader. I just didn't care for it basically.

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Sep 24, 2008

Terrell rated it

i liked the book and i thought that it was very entertaining and kept me wanting to read more. it became a drag at some points but evrything made sense and the story wasnt rushed at all and not that im like carlton [the main character] but i can relate to him and the high school life.

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Aug 01, 2008

Stephanie G. rated it

This guy's a lot of fun. I was put on to this book by my 13-year-old niece. I hadn't read any of Ehrenhaft's books before. A kind of zany combo of narrative and comic with some Scottish history thrown in.

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Jul 18, 2007

Becky marked it as to-read

Recommended by Mandie -- a YA mystery with a kidnapped father, Scottish clans, and comics. I'm in!

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Jan 07, 2008

Jenn rated it

Charming and funny. Great narrative voice.

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Jan 04, 2008

TaNaZ rated it

HILARIOUS!

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Feb 10, 2012

Sahar Siddiqi rated it

Feb 03, 2012

Hobn rated it

Jan 12, 2012

Isis rated it

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About Daniel Ehrenhaft

Daniel Ehrenhaft is the author of several dozen books for children and young adults—so many books, in fact, that he has lost count. He has often written under the pseudonym Daniel Parker (his middle name, which is easier to spell and pronounce than his last), and occasionally Erin Haft. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Jessica, as well as a scruffy dog named Gibby and a psychotic cat named Boots...more

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