The latest review of Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom is from Book Nut:

I needed something, after finishing The Woman in White, that was as far away from Victorian serialized novels as I could get. And, sorting through my piles of stuff, I came across this one. Which screams “not stuffy”. (Also “campy” and “not deep”, among other things.)

First off: how awesome is that title? Just saying it makes me grin… though I have to admit that I tend to say it in that movie-announcer voice: “DOC WILDE and the FROGS of DOOOOOOM!” Honestly: how much better can you get than frogs of doom? Not much.

That said, it totally and completely lived up to my campy expectations…It’s smart, enjoyable, campy fun. Perfect for a hot summer day (or a kid whose tastes tend toward the mutant…).

The full review is here. It’s pretty much a rave, she clearly enjoyed the book and is quite enthusiastic about it. She does use the term “campy” a lot, which hurts my soul a bit because as regular blog readers will know, I tend to not like campy things, and don’t consider Doc Wilde campy.

In my eyes, camp makes fun of its subjects, and I’m very serious (though also very playful) about the Wildes. As Alex Bledsoe at Guys Lit Wire wrote in his review, the book “while light-hearted, never turns to self-referential mockery.” But that’s a semantics issue (and actually a debate I had with my editor, so Melissa’s not alone in her definition of camp), and a minor one since she’s using the term in an enthusiastic way.

She also falls into the same “golden=blonde” trap that Tim Gabor, the cover artist, fell into:

You have a god of a Dad in Doc: a tall, muscular, blonde, intelligent, rich inventor who happens to Love his family and adventures…

Upon seeing the cover art, my son (the inspiration for Doc Wilde’s son, Brian) asked “When did we become blonde?” That’s because I described the Wildes thus:

They were all long-limbed and golden: golden brown hair, golden tans, and large eyes with glittering irises that seemed composed of layered gold leaf…

They have golden brown hair. Gary Chaloner got it right in his depictions of the Wildes, and in the real world, Jessica Alba’s hair and skin are about right for them:

But lots of folks are going to see gold and think yellow, so I figure I’m going to have to get used to that. ;)

I woke up (well, mostly…I’m still working at it) this morning to a new Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom review. It’s notable because it looks like it could well have been my first negative review, but wound up very positive anyway.

It’s by Sondra Eklund at Sonderbooks, and she began like this:

Okay, I admit it. When I read the first chapter of this book, it reminded me way too much of the Spy Kids movie that my children watched until it nauseated me.  I wasn’t at all sure I could finish the book.

She also notes:

The book is described as a tribute to the old pulp adventure novels.  That is perhaps my problem — I never was a fan of those books.

A clear case of “not every thing is for every one,” right? But then:

However…I began to be intrigued to learn in what over-the-top way Doc Wilde and his children Brian and Wren would get the better of the sinister amazonian frogs of doom.  The less I took it seriously, the more fun I had reading it…once I got in the habit, I did find myself coming back for more each night…

I am looking forward to having this book on the library shelves.  I think it will be a natural choice for young comic book fans ready for a little more text and a lot of rollicking adventure. The story is indeed over-the-top.  Brian and Wren take after their father — tanned, golden-haired, strong, agile, good-looking, and incredibly smart.  Throw in being magnificently wealthy with all kinds of high-tech gadgets invented by Doc Wilde himself, and you won’t be surprised when they get out of every life-threatening situation thrown at them.  The fun comes in at how they get out of it this time.

And the adventure continues.

And, another review of my novel Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom, this time from Sandy Amazeen at Monsters and Critics:

Rock’em, sock’em cliffhanging adventure…Action adventure is just the tip of the iceberg because this book is actually crammed full of interesting and dare we say it, educational tidbits…Parents, don’t be surprised if you find yourselves enjoying this fun pulp fiction just as much as your kids.

And that, of course, is the idea.

A few days ago, I blogged about the latest review of Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom, from Bruce Grossman at Bookgasm.

I left a comment for him at their site, thanking him for the great review, and received a message back:

You can thank the people of National Grid for such a super fast review. Since last Wednesday night, right as LOST was about to start, power in my neighborhood went out. So I started reading your book by flashlight since it seemed it would pass the time till the power came back on. Throughly loved it as you can see from the review.

Author Quentin Dodd, whose blurb made the cover of the book, wrote that it’s “a book to be read under the covers, with a flashlight, way past bedtime.”

Bruce Grossman may be the reader who has thus far gotten closest to the pure Doc Wilde experience.