by Stephanie (link)
Genre drama, supernatural, thriller/mystery
Pairings none
Length 7 chapters
Status Completed
I skimmed Conundrum years ago and came away with the impression that it was a dark, freaky ghost story of sorts. In reading it for real, I’ve found that it’s a lot more than that, but also, somehow, a lot less.
Conundrum begins simply enough, with the typical Middle of Nowhere era laments about how tiring the business is and their love/hate relationship with it. All of that feels a bit naive now, compared to the reality, but luckily Stephanie doesn’t dwell too long on any of that before the real story begins.
The real story centers around a treasure map of sorts that a mysterious “fan” has given to Taylor. It leads the brothers on a proto-Angels and Demons trip around the sights of London, which I would have loved to have seen described in even more detail. What little there is makes me think the author knows her stuff, but it’s not enough to really immerse me in the setting as I’d like.
What does this treasure hunt lead to? A fairly amusing kidnapping, at least as far as kidnappings can be amusing. It turns out, when one long suffering sidekick and one hyperactive Hanson are involved, pretty amusing. Stephanie keeps the drama from getting too out of hand while the elder two brothers work to rescue Zac… and learn that mysterious girl’s secret. Like I said, Conundrum is a bit of a ghost story. It all ends rather abruptly, though, and in spite of its strong points, I think the darker version I imagined would have been even better.
Review by Bethany (website)