Dear Walter "Ramses" Peabody Emerson
Dear Walter "Ramses" Peabody Emerson,
why, WHY are you so obnoxious? I tried to read your series, I really did. I fell in love with your parents's bickering in The Crocodile On The Sandbank. I recently reread it and I still love it: your mother, Amelia Peabody, is such a delightfully unreliable narrator, and I love how she is most of the time unaware of how the matters really stand, while the reader (and most of the other characters!) has already figured it out.
But then you showed up. I didn't mind in the second book, The Curse of the Pharaohs as you remained in England while your parents went back to Egypt for another adventure. But then in the third book, The Mummy Case, you accompanied your parents on their archaeological dig. And that's when I started to get really annoyed. I don't mind small children in books, but I do mind when they are overly preccoccious and when they have an annoying lisp that purportedly makes them sounds cute but only makes them sound stupid. It made me want to send Susan Sto-Helit to be your nanny. Not just for your lisp but also for your entirely obnoxious stubborn and know-it-all attitude. I read the books for your parents (they ARE called the Amelia Peabody series!), not for some stupid four-year old to steal the adults's thunder. Worse, you made your mother seem stupid by constantly outsmarting her. She certainly had her oblivous moments in the previous books, but her heart and her zeal made up for it.
Thankfully, by the fourth book, The Lion In The Valley, you had managed to lose the lisp. Not so much the know-it-all-ness, however. You STILL outsmarted your mother and still went off on your own despite repeatedly having been told not to.
What makes things worse is that your mother, who narrates the book, doesn't appear to be overly fond of you either. When even the person through whose eyes the reader 'sees' this world is often completely exasperated with another character, it doesn't help to endear me to that character. I see no reason at all to like you. In my eyes, you appear to be very very close to being a Marty Stu, and I detest those characters. You steal the spotlight from the character who made me want to read the books in the first place and you make her appear stupid.
So far I've only read the first four books. I want to read on as I love the world Elizabeth Peters build and I do want to read more about your parents. But I don't want to have to wrestle though more scenes of a totally obnoxious little kid who likes to show up everybody and then talks back when he is reprimanded about it.
Eugh.
Not much love,
Linda.
why, WHY are you so obnoxious? I tried to read your series, I really did. I fell in love with your parents's bickering in The Crocodile On The Sandbank. I recently reread it and I still love it: your mother, Amelia Peabody, is such a delightfully unreliable narrator, and I love how she is most of the time unaware of how the matters really stand, while the reader (and most of the other characters!) has already figured it out.
But then you showed up. I didn't mind in the second book, The Curse of the Pharaohs as you remained in England while your parents went back to Egypt for another adventure. But then in the third book, The Mummy Case, you accompanied your parents on their archaeological dig. And that's when I started to get really annoyed. I don't mind small children in books, but I do mind when they are overly preccoccious and when they have an annoying lisp that purportedly makes them sounds cute but only makes them sound stupid. It made me want to send Susan Sto-Helit to be your nanny. Not just for your lisp but also for your entirely obnoxious stubborn and know-it-all attitude. I read the books for your parents (they ARE called the Amelia Peabody series!), not for some stupid four-year old to steal the adults's thunder. Worse, you made your mother seem stupid by constantly outsmarting her. She certainly had her oblivous moments in the previous books, but her heart and her zeal made up for it.
Thankfully, by the fourth book, The Lion In The Valley, you had managed to lose the lisp. Not so much the know-it-all-ness, however. You STILL outsmarted your mother and still went off on your own despite repeatedly having been told not to.
What makes things worse is that your mother, who narrates the book, doesn't appear to be overly fond of you either. When even the person through whose eyes the reader 'sees' this world is often completely exasperated with another character, it doesn't help to endear me to that character. I see no reason at all to like you. In my eyes, you appear to be very very close to being a Marty Stu, and I detest those characters. You steal the spotlight from the character who made me want to read the books in the first place and you make her appear stupid.
So far I've only read the first four books. I want to read on as I love the world Elizabeth Peters build and I do want to read more about your parents. But I don't want to have to wrestle though more scenes of a totally obnoxious little kid who likes to show up everybody and then talks back when he is reprimanded about it.
Eugh.
Not much love,
Linda.