The Famous Five buy a house… kinda

This is my 6th parody book from Bruno Vincent about the Famous Five. I am determined I will collect them all!! I just keep picking them up as and when I find them in charity shops! The wacky topic for this book is that the Five are having to move out of the residence that they were in because Aunt Fanny and Uncle Quentin need to sell it for money. So they’re looking for somewhere else to move to.

Of course this leads to madness and weird houses and just an absolute mess! It’s very fun and of course still has the typical happy ending, these books aren’t amazing but I keep coming back so there must be something about them! If you have nostalgia for the Five, definitely give one a go!

Famous Five clash with the Secret Seven

Slowly, I’m collecting all of the books in this parody series of the Famous Five originally by Enid Blyton. In this book, the Five all work in the same company and are sent on one of those annoying bonding days. At the same time, the Secret Seven all also work together and have been sent on one of these days from their own company. So of course they compete and try to best each other!

In these books the Five always argue and don’t get along for the majority of the book, but by the end they have made up as a family. This book is no different and they all have differing opinions on how best to get through this stupid exercise quickly.

These are simply fun little books, nothing more, but I still really enjoy reading them all and I’ll get them all eventually!!

Five Give Up The Booze, a review

Another parody famous five book about excessive drinking this time. This one was, well… let me explain.

The majority of it was just like the other books in this parody series that I’ve read so far, the five are in the modern day and are struggling with an issue. This time the issue happens to be excessive drinking, and they decide to attempt dry January as a group. Now, of course, the ending is all wrapped up nice and neat, everything turns out alright in the end, Bruno Vincent keeps these classic hallmarks of the original stories. However, there was a bit that made me feel uncomfortable within this one (which hasn’t happened previously). There was an LGBT aspect which seemed to be thrown in there simply for humour, but it doesn’t come off well. It took me a second to figure out that it wasn’t meant to be serious and then once I realised this I was uncomfortable with the scene. It’s just not done well at all and really lowers my opinion of this book.

Other than that, this is another enjoyable and silly rendition of the five and if you can get past the hiccough above (and like me are wanting to collect and read them all) then go for it. It’s still fun in the main.

Five Go Gluten Free, a parody

How many of you have seen these little parody books of the Famous Five stories of old? I used to adore those books as a child, having read and re-read all 21 of the stories and wishing so hard that I could be in their world. Well this parody series brings them not only into the modern day, but back down to Earth with a bump. This time the five are all grown up and dealing with bigger problems than Timmy eating the picnic they packed (okay that’s a pretty big problem, but still).

In this parody, Anne is given some presents for her birthday that the other three should have looked over more carefully. She reads the book she was given, as well as doing further research online, and decides that they all need to give up gluten (and pretty much everything else) to not kill themselves with their diet. This is an accurate and funny look at how modern fad diets are silly and strange, although there are obviously steps to take to be more healthy, unless you have a medical condition you don’t need to be this drastic with what you cut out of your diet!

The five struggle to keep eating in this way, becoming weaker as they don’t get enough nutrients and attempting to sneak food behind the others backs! It’s a fun little piece, only 104 pages long, and is great for any childhood fans of the five!