Wednesday: A Novelisation of Season One by Tehlor Kay Mejia, The Wednesday TV Show Writers

Morticia and Gomez are flummoxed by Wednesday’s multiple infractions leading to explusion from several high schools in a row. In desperation they enrol her at their old Alma Mater, Nevermore.  Wednesday and Morticia’s strained relationship are typical of many families. Of course Wednesday abhors any mould – even a Gothic one and especially her mother’s. She is already planning her escape, or is she?  In the past she has attempted to solve the age old problem of the school bully singlehandedly and with such gusto! Perhaps she identifies finally with Nevermore’s outcasts and misfits who welcome the loner - or is she simply focused on solving crimes given her vigilante and social justice leanings?

Appealing to Addams Family fans of the past 60 yrs, this novelisation of the script of the “Wednesday” TV series, Season One, directed by Tim Burton, doesn’t disappoint. It is well written for YA and adults!  For one thing, you don’t miss Wednesday’s razor-sharp quips - both deadpan and macabre. Thing and Lurch make appearances with main action figures in Principal Weems, Xavier, Bianca and Enid her roommate.  One drawback is that the novel is Wednesday’s memoir of events, so readers are deficit perspectives from the rest of the cast, unfiltered by the novel's narrator.

Lucky for us Tehlor Mejia, the author, makes us privy to Wednesday's hit and miss criminology musings in order to solve a decades old murder mystery dating from her parents' time at Nevermore.  No longer quite so immune to peer pressure, the epilogue seems to segue to Book 2 when Xavier gifts her a smart phone, already loading a mysterious message.

Whilst fans of both the Addams Family and the serialized Wednesday, spin-off programs will be engaged by the most intimate version of  Wednesday Addams yet, the rest will be charmed by the comedic fish-out-of-water setting.

Themes: Dark humour, Horror, Mystery, School, Supernatural, Family.

Deborah Robins